Environment | WPN World People News

Gore Fabrics, the maker of GORE-TEX® products will transition to more environmentally friendly weatherproofing technologies, free of hazardous per- and perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), on February 6, the company announced at ISPO Munich, the biggest outdoor trade show in Europe. At the same event, Greenpeace Switzerland released PFC Revolution in the Outdoor Sector, an overview of the progress made towards eliminating hazardous PFCs in outdoor gear.

Leonid Ikan

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) officially handed over two high frequency (HF) radio packs to the Fiji Ministry of Rural and Maritime Development and National Disaster Management in Suva on 1 February 2017. The HF back packs will be used by the Fiji National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) for their operations. The handover is part of WFP’s ongoing efforts to strengthen emergency communication systems in Fiji, in its role as lead of the Pacific Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC).

Portland, Ore. — Along the West Coast and nationally, conservation groups, fishing business associations and others have tallied the public input to date that their members have submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers in response to a federal court order requiring a new plan for protecting Columbia and Snake River salmon from harmful dam operations, and the results are impressive.

EPA has settled with Wilson Oil, Inc., (doing business as Wilcox & Flegel Oil Co.) for alleged Clean Water Act spill prevention violations at its Longview Terminal facility in Longview, Washington.

On February 1, House of Representatives passed H.J.Res.38 which eviscerates the Stream Protection Rule, a modest clean-water safeguard crafted to protect the health of communities impacted by coal mining. The rule is being targeted under the Congressional Review Act, a seldom-used law that allows recently passed regulations to be rolled back virtually overnight with little debate and zero public input. The House bypassed committee review and regular order to bring this resolution to the floor and the Senate is expected to do the same.

Greenpeace Brazil has captured the first underwater images of the Amazon Reef, a 9500 km2 system of corals, sponges and rhodoliths located where the Amazon River meets the Atlantic Ocean – an area that the Brazilian government has opened for oil exploration.

The German government has officially recognised IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, as an intergovernmental organisation, reaffirming the Union’s important role on the global environmental and development stage.