Environment | WPN World People News

The Commission published the second Environmental Implementation Review (EIR), part of its initiative launched in 2016 to improve the implementation of European environmental policy and commonly agreed rules in all EU Member States. Implementing EU environmental policy and law is not only essential for a healthy environment, but also opens up new opportunities for sustainable economic growth, innovation and jobs. Full implementation of EU environmental legislation could save the EU economy around €55 billion every year in health costs and direct costs to the environment.

On behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice filed a notice of intent to sue the Trump administration for failing to protect oceanic whitetip sharks and giant manta rays from being killed by longlines and huge nets used by U.S. fishermen in Atlantic fisheries.

On April 1, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a settlement with Tesla Motors Inc. over federal hazardous waste violations at their automobile manufacturing plant in Fremont, Calif. Under the agreement, Tesla will take specific steps to properly manage hazardous wastes at its factory. Tesla will also purchase $55,000 in emergency response equipment for the City of Fremont Fire Department and pay a $31,000 penalty.

On March 29, a judge struck down President Trump’s order to undo a ban on oil and gas drilling in the vast majority of the Arctic Ocean and important areas of the Atlantic, ruling Trump exceeded his constitutional authority and violated federal law. The decision immediately restores permanent protections from drilling to those areas and prevents the Trump administration from holding the offshore lease sales it proposed to schedule there starting this year.

A day after President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency once again argued for delaying its own ban of chlorpyrifos in court, Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) introduced the Protect Children, Families and Farmworkers from Nerve Agent Pesticides Act, legislation that would ban the dangerous chemical.

Officials in cyclone-stricken Mozambique say the number of cases of cholera has skyrocketed from five on Wednesday to 139 by late Thursday.

Greenpeace Korea activists interrupted the opening ceremony of the 2019 Seoul Motor Show demanding that Korean car makers end the age of oil.

This NASA Blue Marble image shows Arctic sea ice on March 13, 2019, when sea ice reached its maximum extent for the year. Sea ice extent for March 13 averaged 14.78 million square kilometers (5.71 million square miles), the seventh-lowest in the satellite record, tied with 2007.

As the Arctic warms faster than the rest of the globe, permafrost, land ice and sea ice are disappearing at unprecedented rates. And these changes not only affect the infrastructure, economies and cultures of the Arctic, they have significant impacts elsewhere as well ­­­— according to a commentary in Earth’s Future, led by research scientist Twila Moon of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder.

“It is truly inspiring to see young people all over the world peacefully taking to the streets to confront the climate emergency; most of these courageous students may not be able to vote but they are demanding to be heard.