Environment | WPN World People News

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on October 18, announced that North Pacific Seafoods of Seattle will reduce diesel emissions and the potential for harmful interruption of its refrigeration process as part of a settlement for the company’s failure to comply with the hazardous chemicals risk management requirements of the Clean Air Act at its Red Salmon Cannery in Naknek.

Over a quarter of the 1,675 companies that owned or developed coal-fired power capacity since 2010 have entirely left the coal power business, according to new research from CoalSwarm and Greenpeace. This represents nearly 370 large coal-fired power plants - enough to power around six United Kingdoms - and equivalent to nearly half a trillion US dollars in assets retired or not developed.

Contributions from the EU and its member states to support developing countries in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and coping with the impacts of climate change showed a significant increase in 2016.

Fairphone and Apple are ahead of brands such as Samsung, Huawei and Amazon, which are failing to take responsibility for their environmental footprint, according to Greenpeace USA's latest Guide to Greener Electronics.

On October 16, environmental groups are appealing the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio’s (PUCO) approval of a financial bailout for FirstEnergy Corp. and its shareholders to the Ohio Supreme Court. Sierra Club, represented by Earthjustice, vowed to appeal the Commission’s August decision granting $204 million annual payments from FirstEnergy customers over the next three to five years as both contrary to Ohio law and not in the best interest of FirstEnergy’s customers.

Greenpeace Nordic activists have blocked the entrances to a major Swedish pulp mill that supplies Essity, the world’s second-largest tissue producer. Forty activists from seven countries placed a shipping container at the entrance road to the mill, where trucks deliver timber.

Evacuees from a number of counties in California have been allowed to return home as fire fighters say they've turned a corner in containing blazes that have devastated the state.

Fukushima survivor Mitsuko Sonoda will testify on the ongoing human rights abuses of Fukushima victims on October 12, and the ever-present risk nuclear power plants pose to the communities that live near them, at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

On October 11, a federal judge ruled that the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) can continue operating pending an environmental review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sued the Corps in July 2016, arguing that the pipeline destroyed sacred sites and threatens the water quality of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation that sits downstream of the site where the pipeline crosses the Missouri River in North Dakota.

A child plays near the Cheswick coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania. Burning coal is a major cause of climate change and releases toxic pollution that threatens our air and water.