Environment | WPN World People News

A coalition of tribal and conservation interests on August 30th, filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to restore critical protections to the Yellowstone region’s iconic grizzly bears before new threats, including hunting, push the population further into decline.

Save the Children staff member Coleen Vivori plays with Brianna*, 4, and Khloe*, 5, at Save the Children's Child-Friendly Space located at Kazen Middle School in San Antonio, Texas, where hundreds of displaced families, including many with infants and toddlers, are seeking refuge in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Save the Children’s emergency response team is on the ground in Texas, working to meet children and families’ immediate needs as Hurricane Harvey blasts inland from the Texas coastline. The international humanitarian organization is delivering emergency supplies, including blankets, portable cribs and strollers to families forced to evacuate. *Name changed for child protection.

A federal court upheld the U.S. government’s Seafood Import Monitoring Program, on August 28th, which will require some imported seafood at risk of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and seafood fraud to be fully documented and traced from the fishing vessel or farm to the U.S. border.

A fishing vessel company that operated in and around American Samoa was convicted and sentenced for maintaining false and incomplete records relating to the discharge of oil and garbage, on August 30th, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood of the Environment and Natural Resources Division and United States Attorney Channing D. Phillips.

Brazil's Environmental Agency (Ibama) on August 29th, rejected the application for a license to drill in the mouth of the Amazon Basin by the French company Total (operating in a joint venture with BP). This is an important step towards defending the Amazon Reef, a unique and largely unexplored ecosystem. Total's closest block is only 8km away from the Reef.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it is approving the Fairbanks North Star Borough fine particulate or PM2.5 air quality plan submitted by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation because it meets Clean Air Act requirements for a moderate nonattainment area. EPA’s approval of the moderate air quality plan means that the state, the Borough, and the community can fully focus on meeting more stringent area requirements that will be needed in the serious area plan and achieving clean, healthy air quality for Borough residents.

Peaceful activists from 12 European countries, brought together by Greenpeace Poland, have put themselves in the way of state-run logging machinery which is violating a July 27th EU Court of Justice interim ban on logging one of Europe’s oldest forests.

In particular, the Commission proposes to increase catches for Central Herring, Sprat and the Main Basin Salmon stocks, and to maintain the number of catches for the important stock of Western Baltic Cod. For the remaining stocks the Commission proposes reducing catches. This year's proposal also includes a ban on Baltic Eel fisheries, not traditionally a part of the annual allowable catch proposals but a necessary step due to alarming scientific evidence and historically low levels.

A Lynn, Mass. company that uses ammonia in its refrigeration system has come into compliance with federal environmental laws after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found the company was operating in violation of clean air and federal right-to-know laws and putting employees and the public in danger.