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Marine turtles traverse the seas for thousands of kilometers, returning after decades to nest in the same area where they entered the world as tiny hatchlings. They are threatened by degradation of critical habitats on land, interaction with fishing gear at sea, and excessive harvesting of eggs and for meat.
An innovative mobile laboratory developed by the Netherlands to support international response to environmental emergencies was officially inaugurated by the Ministers of Environment and Development Cooperation in The Hague today.
Toyota Motor Europe has become the first car manufacturer to join the Climate Neutral Network (CN Net), the bold initiative by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Beijing's air quality significantly improved over the last two days, with the sky clearly visible today after rains on 10 and 11 August washed away the pollution across the city.
Top Olympic athlete Yao Ming is the UN Environment Programme's first-ever Environmental Champion, UNEP announced today.
A new project worth $26.45 million has been launched by the Global Environment Facility to better protect bees, bats and birds that are essential to the world’s crop production.
More than two hundred scientists from six continents converge in Nairobi today to discuss ways to apply economics to social and environmental sustainability.
Real and hopefully long lasting achievements have been made by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, the city as a whole; the government and the six provinces concerned.
As seven million spectators count down to the opening of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, solar energy, wind farms and recycled water are among the green features that will help power their Olympic experience
The report of the joint UN/EU expert team deployed to assess the situation of the 'Princess of the Stars' ferry that capsized on 21 June â causing nearly 800 deaths, and which contained highly toxic chemicals â was presented today to Philippines authorities. The report confirms the presence of large quantities of five pesticides and other toxic substances, and recommends improvements to water, sediment and air monitoring, and the establishment of a bio-monitoring programme.The report also stresses the need for a comprehensive disposal plan to be in place before the start of any salvage operation.
Achim Steiner, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP),will attend the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony on 8 August as part of UNEP's continuing support for the Greening of the Games.
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In a rare piece of good news for Indonesia's forest, a regional governor has announced an interim ban on deforestation in Riau, one of the areas currently worst affected by rapid deforestation. The ban, especially if made permanent, is also good news for the climate.
The fishing industry seems determined to catch every last fish in the North Sea. The governments of the region and the EU have done little to stop them, but they may soon hit a few snags: a team from Greenpeace Germany and Greenpeace Netherlands has sailed into the German North Sea and begun placing 150 granite rocks on the seabed. They are hoping that the rocks, each weighing 2-3 tonnes and measuring one square cubic metre, will prevent fishing boats from bottom trawling on the Sylt Outer Reef. This highly destructive fishing method involves a net being dragged across the seabed indiscriminately catching everything in its path.
The latest place where we have discovered high tech toxic trash causing horrendous pollution is in Ghana. Our analysis of samples taken from two electronic waste (e-waste) scrap yards in Ghana has revealed severe contamination with hazardous chemicals.
The US Congress has sent President Bush legislation that will make toys safer for little tots and infants. The bill bans the use of six toxic chemicals, called phthalates, that are added to vinyl plastic to make it flexible.
Over the last month there have been a catalogue of accidents at the French nuclear site Tricastin-Pierrelatte. Weâve followed all the breaking stories on our new weblog âNuclear Reactionâ. Now Greenpeace France has launched two court cases in an effort to find out whatâs really been going on at the site.
Just as the need to save the worldâs forests for climate protection is becoming widely recognised, we have discovered that major logging companies - operating in the Congo basin - are increasingly destroying one of the most ecologically important forest areas on the planet while dodging taxes and robbing impoverished Congolese people of revenue.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists painted coal ships waiting in a queue at Hay Point port in Queensland with messages saying "Stop coal expansion", "Barrier Reef Gone", "Ice caps gone" and "Rudd exporting CO2".
After successful campaigns in New Zealand and the Philippines, the Rainbow Warrior spent 21 days in Thailand as part of the "Quit Coal, Lead the Energy [R]evolution Tour" promoting solutions to climate change. The tour included human banners, port blockades and a visit to the Ministry of Energy.
Austria has banned the import of the highly dangerous genetically engineered maize MON 863. The maize (corn) is produced by US agro-chemical giant Monsanto.
A world renowned coral reef scientist Dr. Charlie Veron joined Greenpeace activists underwater to make a bold statement against the shale oil industry and for the protection of the Great Barrier Reef from climate change.
Why would we believe the whaling industry when it says it is innocent? The institutions behind the Japanese whaling operation have apparently now investigated themselves and cleared themselves of any wrongdoing over the whale meat embezzlement scandal exposed by Greenpeace in May.
Over the weekend, four activists from Greenpeace Australia occupied the top of a 140-metre high smokestack for 33 hours enduring near freezing temperatures overnight. They began the two-hour descent yesterday, at Swanbank B coal fired power plant near Brisbane, leaving a message for Australia's leaders - "Go Solar!"- painted on the side of the smoke stack.
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Bali/Bangkok, 20 August 2008 - An innovative regional agreement is beginning to turn the tide for the 'ancient mariners' of the world's oceans. Marine turtles traverse the seas for thousands of kilometers, returning after decades to nest in the same area where they entered the world as tiny hatchlings.
Researchers here have found a way to convert ethanol and other biofuels into hydrogen very efficiently. A new catalyst makes hydrogen from ethanol with 90 percent yield, at a workable temperature, and using inexpensive ingredients.
A shipment of forest timber traveled around the southern tip of Africa and across the Indian Ocean before it arrived at the Hong Kong dockyards two years ago. During a routine X-ray examination, customs officials discovered an even more lucrative cargo hidden behind a false wall: 605 elephant tusks.
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Hopes of saving a baby whale abandoned by its mother in a bay north of Sydney faded late on Wednesday as the calf continued to try to suckle from a moored yacht. International experts said it had just days to live. The humpback whale, nicknamed "Colin" by Australian media, was found at Pittwater after apparently being abandoned by its mother off Australia's east coast.
We are in the midst of World Water Week. The 2008 theme is “Progress and Prospects on Water: For a Clean and Healthy World with Special Focus on Sanitation.” World Water Week is a international conference focused on collaboration and the promotion of work that advances environmental and humanitarian development.
Search and advertising giant Google is investing $10 million in a relatively new approach to producing electricity from underground heat which could make geothermal power possible in many more areas of the world.
Most Americans think that the worst of the fuel price spike that pushed gasoline above $4 per gallon has passed, but they have little hope that the housing market will stage a swift recovery, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday. The economy has jumped to the top of voters' concerns this election year, eclipsing the Iraq War, and that has put the housing bust and rising inflation squarely in the spotlight.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is refusing to disclose records about a new class of pesticides that could be playing a role in the disappearance of millions of honeybees in the United States, a lawsuit filed Monday charges.
Diana Khidasheli and her four children spent the night before the August 8 outbreak of war with Russia in their house basement, hoping for an end to the intensive shelling of their village, Kemerti, in the Georgian-controlled South Ossetia conflict zone. Now Khidasheli thinks the decision to hide was a mistake. The next day, she had no time to pack.
Hawaii has announced the results of its beverage container recycling efforts for the fiscal year 2008, and the state increased recycling by four percent to reach 72 percent recovery, an all-time high.
The U.S. public, while aware of the deteriorating global environment, is concerned predominantly with local and national environmental issues, according to results from a recent survey.
A recent report from Carnegie Mellon University added numbers to our suspicions that a large portion of China's emissions are from producing goods for export. 1.7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, or 33% of China's emissions, are the result of activities related to the production of export goods.
In the world of alternative fuels, there may be nothing greener than pond scum. Algae are tiny biological factories that use photosynthesis to transform carbon dioxide and sunlight into energy so efficiently that they can double their weight several times a day.
Urgent action is needed to remove pollutants from urban wastewater, which is often used in cities to grow food, an international study has warned. Data collected by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) found that 85% of cities discharged the water without any appropriate treatment.
Cogeneration of electricity and heat is one of the most promising means of using existing technologies for sustainable ends, but it is also one of the most neglected and least understood. Cogeneration can dramatically increase energy efficiency, slash carbon emissions, and save money.
WWF Director-General James Leape today called on governments to support the entry into force of the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention—an international agreement which could play a key role in water security for about 40% of the world's population.
Burkina Faso student teacher Hema Cecile has a lot more time to crack the books thanks to a recent initiative from the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City's yellow taxi fleet now will go green at the rate of 300 new hybrid cars a month, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, citing an agreement with car-makers to supply the fuel-light cabs.
The Dead Sea has been a religious and cultural landmark of the Middle East for thousands of years. Saltier than the oceans, the lake is like none other in the world. But in the past 30 years, the Dead Sea has lost about a third of its surface area. As much as 95 percent of the flow of its main tributary, the Jordan River, has been diverted for agriculture and domestic use.
Heavy monsoon rains have triggered floods across South Asia in which 147 people have been killed in the past week as the downpours swamped villages and caused landslides, officials said on Monday.
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SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia scientists estimate that only one percent of the nation's untapped geothermal energy could produce 26,000 years worth of clean electricity.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wind turbines would top New York City skyscrapers and bridges and dot the city's shorelines, while the mighty tides that drive the Hudson and East Rivers would also generate power under a new plan Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented on Tuesday.
KENAI NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Here in a 13,700-year-old peat bog, ecologist Ed Berg reaches into the moss and pulls out more evidence of the drastic changes afoot due to the Earth's warming climate.
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Rescuers in Australia are trying to save a baby humpback whale which they say took a shine to a moored yacht, possibly mistaking the vessel for its lost mother.
BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing's buildings and at times even the mountains can be clearly seen during the day, while the sunset in the evening turns scattered clouds pink and orange.
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's government said on Tuesday it would take firm action against a nuclear plant after the watchdog pressed for charges over its handling of a radioactive leak for which 2,600 people had to be screened.
HANOI (Reuters) - Rising Mekong floods upstream may cause landslides and deep inundation in Cambodia and southern Vietnam but the seasonal floodwater would also bring farmers good crops of rice and fish, officials said on Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a move that benefits biotech crop companies and their farmer customers, the U.S. Agriculture Department has approved the expansion of a risk management program that effectively lowers crop insurance costs for producers planting certain biotech corn seeds.
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Toxic chemicals from thousands of idols of Hindu gods immersed in rivers and lakes across India are causing pollution which is killing fish and contaminating food crops, experts and environmentalists said on Monday.
GENEVA (Reuters) - Seasonal floods in West Africa, which have uprooted more than 200,000 people, are increasing the risk of deadly diseases including cholera which has already struck, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday.
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