Environment | WPN World People News

As the details of destruction in the wake of Nepal’s biggest earthquake in decades become clearer by the day, the country’s education sector is uniting to deal with its own casualties and damaged schools.

A whale with several fishing ropes wrapped around its flipper. Over time, the whale's continued growth, combined with drag through the water and shifting, could cause these ropes to tighten, leading to bone damage, infection, and eventually death.

A whale with several fishing ropes wrapped around its flipper. Over time, the whale's continued growth, combined with drag through the water and shifting, could cause these ropes to tighten, leading to bone damage, infection, and eventually death.

Rescuers at work in Kathmandu after Nepal’s worst earthquake in 80 years.

On April 29, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Justice and the State of California announced a settlement requiring the Lehigh cement plant near Cupertino to reduce toxic discharges of selenium and other metals to Permanente Creek, a tributary of San Francisco Bay. The facility, owned by Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. and operated by Lehigh Southwest Cement Co., will spend more than $5 million to install wastewater treatment and make other facility improvements to prevent future violations. The company will also pay $2.55 million in civil penalties to settle the case.

Parliament will quiz the Commission Thursday morning on plans to tackle the outbreak of Xylella fastidiosa bacteria, which have infected several thousand hectares of olive plantations in Italy, and prevent it spreading to other EU regions.

Fisherman holding fish in his hands, Mafamede, Mozambique.

The new EU forest strategy must focus on managing forests sustainably, promoting efficient use of the raw materials that they produce, and boosting the competitiveness of forest-related industry so as to create jobs, says a non-legislative resolution voted by Parliament on Tuesday.

A multiannual plan for managing Baltic cod, sprat and herring stocks was approved by Parliament on Tuesday. This is the first such plan under the new Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), which took effect in 2014. Long-run management, rather than year-on-year planning, should make life more predictable for fishermen.

A draft law to cap crop-derived biofuel production and accelerate the shift to alternative sources was voted by Parliament on Tuesday. It aims to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by the growing use of farm land for biofuel crops.