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The World Environment News is a daily environmental update bringing you all the latest environmental stories, pictures and video from across the globe, courtesy of the Reuters news service. if it’s happening in the world of environment, it’s happening in the World Environment News.
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Latest News (107 stories)
Many countries badly mismanage oil, mining resources: study
Photo: Soe Zeya Tun
Date: 16-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Valerie Volcovici
More than 80 percent of the world's major oil and gas-producing and mining countries fail to meet "satisfactory standards" for managing their natural resources, according to a report tracking global resource mismanagement and corruption.
Monsanto tests planting platform, eyes new microbial business
Date: 16-May-13
Country: FRANCE
Author: Carey Gillam
Monsanto Co, the world's largest seed company, is developing two new platforms that diverge from its core business and are seen as potential key long-term growth drivers, according to top Monsanto executives.
Scientists say united on global warming, at odds with public view
Photo: ??David Gray
Date: 16-May-13
Country: NORWAY
Author: Alister Doyle
Ninety-seven percent of scientists say global warming is mainly man-made but a wide public belief that experts are divided is making it harder to gain support for policies to curb climate change, an international study showed on Thursday.
DiCaprio's wildlife charity auction brings in $38.8 million
Photo: Andrew Kelly/Files
Date: 15-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Patricia Reaney
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Christie's auction house raised $38.8 million through a charity art auction and donations, Christie's said on Tuesday, with proceeds to benefit environmental and conservation causes.
U.S. tax dollars promote Monsanto's GMO crops overseas: report
Photo: Robert Pratta
Date: 15-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Carey Gillam
U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill for overseas lobbying that promotes controversial biotech crops developed by U.S.-based Monsanto Co and other seed makers, a report issued on Tuesday said.
Ice melt, sea level rise, to be less severe than feared: study
Date: 15-May-13
Country: NORWAY
Author: Alister Doyle
A melt of ice on Greenland and Antarctica is likely to be less severe than expected this century, limiting sea level rise to a maximum of 69 cm (27 inches), an international study said on Tuesday.
Rosatom offers emerging nations nuclear package: paper
Date: 14-May-13
Country: FRANCE
Author: Geert De Clercq
Russia's state-owned nuclear company Rosatom is offering a special package deal to build and operate nuclear power stations abroad in a bid to win business from developing countries, a company official was quoted on Monday as saying.
U.S. Supreme Court rules for Monsanto in patent fight
Date: 14-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Lawrence Hurley
In a ruling that drew sighs of relief from the biotechnology industry, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that an Indiana farmer violated agribusiness company Monsanto Co.'s patent for a type of soybean.
UN faces uphill battle to reduce global airline emissions
Photo: Petar Kujundzic
Date: 14-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Allison Martell and Valerie Volcovici
Little progress has been made in a United Nations' effort to craft an agreement to lower greenhouse gas emissions from international air travel, raising doubts that its civil aviation body can deliver a final resolution by a September target date, several government officials said on Monday.
Montana looks to expand hunting of wolves despite criticism
Photo: Doug Smith/National Park Service/Handout
Date: 13-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Laura Zuckerman
Conservationists are criticizing a plan by wildlife managers in Montana that would nearly double the number of wolves a person is allowed to kill each year, lengthen the hunting season and sanction shooting of wolves near baited traps.
Mexico raises alert level for Popocatepetl volcano
Date: 13-May-13
Country: MEXICO
Author: David Alire Garcia
Mexican authorities raised the alert level for the Popocatepetl volcano near Mexico City on Sunday morning after observing an increased level of explosive activity.
Climate change forecast to shrink habitat of common plants, animals
Date: 13-May-13
Country: NORWAY
Author: Alister Doyle
The habitats of many common plants and animals will shrink dramatically this century unless governments act quickly to cut rising greenhouse gas emissions, scientists said on Sunday after studying 50,000 species around the world.
China battery plant protest gives voice to rising anger over pollution
Photo: Aly Song
Date: 13-May-13
Country: CHINA
Author: Jane Lee and Gabriel Wildau
Hundreds of protesters gathered in the Chinese financial hub of Shanghai on Saturday to oppose plans for a lithium battery factory, highlighting growing social tension over pollution.
Eco-friendly green burials catching on in the U.S.
Photo: Steve Johnson
Date: 13-May-13
Country: USA
Author: David Adams
After a two-year battle with cancer, Joseph Fitzgerald was determined to leave his final resting place to Mother Nature.
EU pesticide ban to save bees may curb rapeseed production
Photo: Nigel Roddis
Date: 13-May-13
Country: LONDON
Author: Nigel Hunt
Rapeseed production is likely to fall in the European Union, top grower of the oilseed, from the 2015 harvest after the bloc voted to protect bees by banning three of the most widely used pesticides.
Indonesia to extend ban on forest clearing: government
Date: 13-May-13
Country: INDONESIA
Author: Fergus Jensen
The president of Indonesia, home to the world's third-largest tropical forests and a powerful palm oil industry, has agreed to extend a ban on forest clearing, a government official said on Friday.
The solar paradox: boom, bust or both?
Date: 13-May-13
Country: GERMANY
Author: Christoph Steitz
Planned European levies on Chinese solar panels will only go some way to halt a rout among equipment makers who face the paradox of a booming market but falling revenues - and could suffer even more if a trade war erupts.
Suspected rebels kill 26 elephants in Central African Republic: WWF
Date: 13-May-13
Country: AFRICA
Author: David Lewis
Gunmen believed to be part of the rebel force that seized power in Central African Republic in March have killed at least 26 elephants in a raid on an internationally-protected wildlife park, campaigners said on Friday.
USDA says more review needed for new Monsanto, Dow GMO crops
Photo: Gary Cameron
Date: 13-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Carey Gillam
The Department of Agriculture said Friday it will extend its scrutiny of controversial proposed biotech crops developed by Dow AgroSciences, a unit of Dow Chemical, and Monsanto Co. after receiving an onslaught of opposition to the companies' plans.
Carbon dioxide level crosses milestone at Hawaii site
Date: 13-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Deborah Zabarenko
The amount of climate-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere topped 400 parts per million at a key observing station in Hawaii for the first time since measurement began in 1958, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Friday.
Exclusive: Elon Musk quits Zuckerberg's immigration advocacy group
Photo: Fred Prouser
Date: 13-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Sarah McBride and Alina Selyukh
Billionaire environmentalist Elon Musk has quit a Silicon Valley advocacy group formed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg after the group funded ads for senators touting their support for an oil pipeline and oil drilling in Alaska.
Senate panel to vote on stalled EPA nomination Thursday
Date: 13-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Valerie Volcovici and Andrea Shalal-Esa
The head of the Senate Environment Committee on Friday rescheduled a vote on President Barack's Obama's nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Gina McCarthy, and urged Republicans to stop stalling the nomination.
Sentencing set for activists who broke into Tennessee nuclear site
Date: 10-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Preston Peeden
An elderly nun and two other peace activists will be sentenced in September on their convictions for damaging a Tennessee defense facility where enriched uranium for nuclear bombs is stored, a federal judge said on Thursday.
EU agrees on China solar panel duties; Beijing urges dialogue
Photo: Stringer
Date: 10-May-13
Country: BELGIUM
Author: Robin Emmott and Francesco Guarascio
The European Commission agreed to impose punitive import duties on solar panels from China in a move to guard against what it sees as dumping of cheap goods in Europe, prompting a cautious response from Beijing which called for further dialogue.
El Nino unlikely to disrupt Northern Hemisphere summer: NOAA
Date: 10-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Carole Vaporean
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Thursday the latest data confirmed its forecast that El Nino was unlikely to cause extreme weather in the Northern Hemisphere throughout the summer and into winter.
Fish piracy costs $10 billion to $23 billion a year -report
Photo: Dylan Martinez
Date: 09-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Deborah Zabarenko
Fish piracy - seafood caught illegally, not reported to authorities or outside environmental and catch regulations - represents as much as $10 billion to $23 billion in global losses each year, a non-profit conservation group estimated Wednesday.
Belgian catches piranha in local lake
Date: 09-May-13
Country: BELGIUM
Author: Robert-Jan Bartunek
A Belgian fisherman has caught a potentially lethal piranha in a lake near his home, prompting wildlife authorities to warn against the careless disposal of exotic pets.
Peru tries to close legal loophole for pollution fines
Date: 09-May-13
Country: LIMA
Author: Mitra Taj and Omar Mariluz
Peru is trying to quash the ability of companies to avoid paying environmental fines by lodging judicial appeals that linger for years, part of a push to crack down on polluters in a top exporter of minerals.
Activists convicted over Tennessee nuclear facility break-in
Date: 09-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Preston Peeden
A federal jury convicted an elderly nun and two other peace activists on Wednesday for damage they caused in breaking into a defense facility where enriched uranium for nuclear bombs is stored.
EU Parliament committee backs built-in speed limit for new vans
Date: 08-May-13
Country: BELGIUM
Author: Barbara Lewis
The top speed of vans in the European Union should be electronically limited to 120 km (75 miles) per hour, according to a proposal backed by the European Parliament's environment committee.