World Environment News
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Latest News (280 stories)
Airbus Says Wingtip Change To Save Fuel
Photo: Borja Suarez
Date: 16-Nov-09
Country: UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Author: John Irish
DUBAI - European planemaker Airbus said Sunday its planned large wingtip devices on the A320 aircraft will reduce fuel burn by 3.5 percent and save about $220,000 a year per plane.
Moon Crash Works - There Is Water There
Photo: NASA/Handout
Date: 16-Nov-09
Country: US
Author: REUTERS
WASHINGTON - Scientists who crashed two spacecraft into a crater on the moon said on Friday they found water in the dust they kicked up, just as they had hoped.
Cow Dung To Power More Dutch Homes
Date: 16-Nov-09
Country: HOLLAND
Author: Catherine Hornby
AMSTERDAM - A plant that converts cow dung into energy for homes opened in the Netherlands Friday.
Obama, Hu Climate Talk Could Spur Copenhagen
Date: 16-Nov-09
Country: US/CHINA
Author: Russell Blinch and Christopher Buckley - Analysis
WASHINGTON/BEIJING - When President Barack Obama sits down with his Chinese counterpart next week to talk climate change, it is highly unlikely they will craft a definitive plan to tackle global warming.
Nissan CEO Says Their Electric Car Strategy is "Unique" in Industry
Date: 16-Nov-09
Country: US
Author: Nick Chambers
In Los Angeles on Friday, at the United States unveiling of the Nissan LEAF electric car-set to hit showrooms in late 2010-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn was enthusiastic and clearly proud of the position the Nissan-Renault Alliance has taken as a leader in the development of electric cars and charging infrastructure.
Used Shoes Transform Lives In Poor Countries
Date: 16-Nov-09
Country: US
Author: Karen Pierog
ALSIP, Illinois - Mona Purdy, a Chicago hairdresser, has seen what a pair of used shoes can do to change the lives of poor children.
Chavez Asking Cubans To 'Bomb Clouds' Amid Drought
Date: 16-Nov-09
Country: VENEZUELA
Author: Frank Jack Daniel
CARACAS - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez says he will join a team of Cuban scientists on flights to "bomb clouds" to create rain amid a severe drought that has aroused public anger due to water and electricity rationing.
Mississippi Sees 'Catastrophic' Crop Losses
Date: 16-Nov-09
Country: US
Author: Jane Sutton
MIAMI,- Rain from Tropical Storm Ida further slowed the cotton, soybean and sweet potato harvest in Mississippi, where crop losses were devastating even before the storm hit, a state agriculture official said on Thursday.
Farmers Scramble To Finish Harvest From hell
Photo: Julie Ingwerse
Date: 16-Nov-09
Country: US
Author: Julie Ingwersen
MARENGO, Illinois - Brothers Steve and Ron Pierce spent most of an hour in a chilly northern Illinois field last week clearing a clog of soybean chaff from the guts of their combine, using a mix of tools and their bare hands.
Ethiopia PM: World Not Serious On Climate Change
Photo: Irada Humbatova
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: ETHIOPIA
Author: Barry Malone
ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who will represent Africa at next month's Copenhagen climate change talks, said on Thursday it was unlikely the world was serious about tackling global warming.
Austria Lags As EU 15 Over-Achieves On Climate
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: BELGIUM
Author: Pete Harrison
BRUSSELS - Austria is performing worse than any other major European economy in cutting emissions of climate-warming gases, European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said on Thursday.
Boreal Forests Store Carbon, Need Help: Canada Study
Photo: Andy Clark/Files
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: CANADA
Author: David Ljunggren
OTTAWA - The world needs to do more to protect boreal forests and peatlands, which store more carbon than any other ecosystem and help mitigate the effects of climate change, a Canadian report issued Thursday said.
EU Offers Plan To Protect Falling Swordfish Stocks
Photo: Reuters
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: BELGIUM
Author: Luke Baker
BRUSSELS - The swordfish now ranks as one of the Mediterranean's most vulnerable species, the European Union said Thursday, proposing new measures to protect diminishing stocks.
"Super Greenhouse Gas" Deal Fails
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: EGYPT
Author: David Sassoon
At little noticed talks last week in Port Ghalib, Egypt, climate advocates were hoping to seal a global agreement for the phase down of super greenhouse gases and give next month's Copenhagen climate talks a can-do running start. But the annual meeting of the 198 nations of the Montreal Protocol began on a note of contention that five days of discussions could not overcome.
Asia Governors Endorse U.N. Forest Carbon Scheme
Photo: Beawiharta
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: SINGAPORE
Author: David Fogarty, Climate Change Correspondent, Asia
SINGAPORE - Six provincial governors from Indonesia, Laos and the Philippines on Thursday backed an expanded U.N. scheme aimed at protecting and conserving forests in return for carbon credits.
U.N. Official Says Leaders Want Fast Climate Deal
Photo: Morteza Nikoubazl
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: US
Author: Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON - World leaders are setting their sights on completing an international deal on combating global warming by the middle of next year, a U.N. official said on Thursday, now that there is broad agreement next month's deadline will not be met in Copenhagen.
Canada Biofuels Sector Seeks Bigger Fuel Mandate
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: CANADA
Author: Rod Nickel
WINNIPEG - Canada's biofuels industry will ask the government early in 2010 to expand fuel blending mandates and production incentives, even as plants rapidly boost capacity to meet incoming targets, the president of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association said on Thursday.
Wet Brazil Soy Belt May Face More Asian Rust
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: BRAZIL
Author: Reese Ewing
SAO PAULO - Brazilian soybean producers may have a tougher battle against Asian rust this season as above-average rains are likely to yield a record crop but also provide an inviting home for the fungus, a plant pathologist said on Thursday.
Climate Finance Gap Will Be 32 Billion Euros In 2020
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: UK
Author: Nina Chestney
LONDON - The world will face a finance shortfall of 32 billion euros ($47.99 billion) in 2020 to combat climate change, analysts at Societe Generale/orbeo said on Thursday.
Taiwan Solar Firm Sees 2010 Shipments Up 30 Percent
Photo: Nicky Loh
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: HONG KONG
Author: Leonora Walet, Asia Green Investment Correspondent
HONG KONG - Sino-American Silicon Products Inc, Taiwan's top maker of wafers for solar cells, expects shipments to rise about 30 percent in 2010, as the global market for solar power improves.
European Renewables Bank On 2010 As Demand Looks Up
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: GERMANY/MADRID
Author: Christoph Steitz and Jonathan Gleave
FRANKFURT/MADRID - European renewable companies posted moderate to sharp declines in quarterly results but sounded more upbeat for 2010, as costs cuts and an expected pickup in demand help lift profits after a year of turmoil.
Dollar Trouble, Oil's Bubble Could Derail Recovery
Photo: John Javellana
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: US
Author: Wanfeng Zhou and Barani Krishnan - Analysis
NEW YORK - The weakness in the U.S. dollar risks inflating a bubble in the oil market, which could threaten consumer spending and potentially cause a double dip recession.
Record-High U.S. Temps Outpace Record Lows: Study
Photo: Gary Hershorn
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: US
Author: Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent
WASHINGTON - In another sign of a warming planet, there were twice as many record-high temperatures in the United States as record lows over the last decade, climate scientists reported on Thursday.
Greenland Ice Loss Accelerating: Study
Photo: Bob Strong
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: GREENLAND
Author: Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
OSLO - Greenland's ice losses are accelerating and nudging up sea levels, according to a study showing that icebergs breaking away and meltwater runoff are equally to blame for the shrinking ice sheet.
Food Summit To Make Little Headway In War On Hunger
Photo: Finbarr O'Reilly/Files
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: ITALY
Author: Silvia Aloisi
ROME - A U.N. world food summit next week is not likely to make more than token headway in the fight against hunger, with leaders merely pledging to boost aid to poor countries but setting no targets or deadlines for action.
Is Africa Selling Out Its Farmers?
Photo: Barry Malone
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: ETHIOPIA/SOUTH AFRICA
Author: Barry Malone and Ed Cropley
BAKO/JOHANNESBURG - For centuries, farmers like Berhanu Gudina have eked out a living in Ethiopia's central lowlands, tending tiny plots of maize, wheat or barley amid the vastness of the lush green plains.
India's Food Dilemma: High Prices Or Shortages
Photo: Jayanta Dey
Date: 13-Nov-09
Country: INDIA
Author: Himangshu Watts
NEW DELHI - For a man who will inherit vast tracts of fertile farmland in Punjab, India's grain bowl, Jaswinder Singh made what seemed to him a logical career move -- he took a job with a telecoms company in New Delhi.
Storm Could Follow Calm In EU Carbon Market
Date: 12-Nov-09
Country: UK
Author: Nina Chestney - Analysis
LONDON - The European carbon market is bracing itself for a storm as another wave of selling by industrial companies is anticipated at the end of December or early January.
China's Big Coal Province Disrupted By Snow
Photo: Reuters
Date: 12-Nov-09
Country: CHINA
Author: Huang Yan and Chris Buckley
BEIJING - Thousands of vehicles have been trapped on roads after two days of snow in China's biggest coal-mining province, disrupting the movement of people and coal, state media reported on Wednesday.
Japan Greenhouse Emissions Fell 6.2% Last Year
Photo: Issei Kato
Date: 12-Nov-09
Country: JAPAN
Author: Risa Maeda
TOKYO - Japan's greenhouse gas pollution fell 6.2 percent in the last financial year, the government said on Wednesday, confirming market views that the worst recession in decades largely contributed to emission cuts.