Environment | WPN World People News

In response to new legislation introduced by Representatives Donald McEachin (VA), Deb Haaland (NM), Debbie Dingell (MI), Earl Blumenauer (OR), Paul Tonko (NY), and Chellie Pingree (ME), World Wildlife Fund (WWF) issued the following statement from James Mazzarella, WWF senior vice president of policy and government affairs.

Carlos Zorrinho (S&D, PT) Co-President of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly said: “We are all convinced that the only way to manage migration within a legal framework is to ensure job creation, growth, peace and stability. We must also invest in education and in small businesses”.

Over 80 experts from five Central Asian countries gathered in Almaty to discuss how to improve and modernize irrigation practices in Central Asia, on November 19. The two-day workshop, entitled Towards Regional Initiatives for Modernizing Irrigation in the 21st Century brought together regional and international irrigation practitioners, experts, policymakers, representatives of research institutions and civil society.

An estimated 640,000 tonnes of abandoned or lost fishing equipment, or ‘ghost gear’, enter the ocean every year, equivalent in weight to more than 50 thousand double-decker buses. In total, they make up around 10% of the plastic waste in our oceans, entangling and killing marine life, warns a new Greenpeace Germany report, Ghost gear: the abandoned fishing nets haunting our oceans, launched on November 6.

An estimated 640,000 tonnes of abandoned or lost fishing equipment, or ‘ghost gear’, enter the ocean every year, equivalent in weight to more than 50 thousand double-decker buses. In total, they make up around 10% of the plastic waste in our oceans, entangling and killing marine life, warns a new Greenpeace Germany report, Ghost gear: the abandoned fishing nets haunting our oceans, launched, on November 6.

Greenpeace Nordic and Nature and Youth in Norway are again taking the Norwegian government to Oslo’s Court of Appeal for opening up new oil drilling in the Arctic, on November 5.

Consumer goods companies Unilever, Mondelez, Nestle, and Procter & Gamble (P&G), and top palm oil traders including Wilmar are buying palm oil from producers linked to thousands of fire hotspots in Indonesia this year, according to new analysis by Greenpeace International. The companies are even buying from individual palm oil concessions under public investigation for illegal fires.

The Administration today announced its decision to officially withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement. This starts a one-year withdrawal period ending on November 4, 2020 at which point the United States will no longer be a signatory to the first global commitment to fight the climate crisis. In response, WWF-US President and CEO Carter Roberts issued the following statement.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking steps to address the dangers of lead paint in Vermont, and throughout 2019, EPA has undertaken several efforts to reduce the public health risks associated with exposure to lead paint and dust that contains lead in communities across Vermont.

AFCO C&S, LLC, a chemical manufacturer in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, will pay a $1,489,000 penalty to settle alleged violations of federal pesticide regulations involving 12 products used in the cleaning and sanitizing of food and beverage processing facilities, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced, on October 31.