Environment | WPN World People News

Phasing out ozone-depleting substances is also helping to reduce climate change

With the media spotlight on the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa, governments and aid organizations have come under fire for their lack of a developmental approach, but a new tool launched by the UN University Institute for Environment and Human Security in Bonn could help them better understand vulnerability in the longer term.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the President of Kiribati, Anote Tong, today stressed that climate change posed the most serious threat to the livelihoods, security and survival of the island nation's residents and the inhabitants of the wider Pacific region, saying the phenomenon was undermining efforts to achieve sustainable development.

Members of the technology executive committee created under the United Nations climate change convention to facilitate the use of technology to support mitigation and adaptation to climate change concluded their first meeting on Saturday, saying they had made important progress on issues discussed.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today urged heightened preparedness and surveillance amid signs that a mutant strain of the deadly bird flu virus is spreading in Asia and beyond.

Some parts of the community of Mini Mini were cut off due to the flooding. The flooding was caused by the heavy rain that followed Hurricane Irene.

Large waves pound a pier Sunday morning in Ocean City, Md

Some flooding is no match for a scooter ride in Kill Devil Hills, N.C., on Sunday

Waves crash onto a road as Irene arrives Sunday in Southampton, N.Y.

Water sits onteh streets of Brooklyn's Red Hook Neighborhood on Sunday.