Environment | WPN World People News

Ali Ahmad, the sole breadwinner of an extended family in Kabul, has to decide whether to buy firewood to keep his children warm in winter or food to save them from hunger.

Heavy rains which poured into Belgium at the weekend have caused heavy flooding and mudslides, leaving people dead.

Indonesian farmers, who account for 57 percent of the country's poor, are increasingly struggling to deal with the impacts of climate change, as the longer rainy season leads to poorer yields and a shorter harvest.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most significant of the greenhouse gases, accounting for over 80 percent of climate change pollution. Atmospheric levels of CO2 are now higher than at any time in the past 420,000 years. And the changes we are witnessing - and those that are predicted - are largely due to human behavior.

In what is being hailed as a breakthrough for a "collective effort" by developed and developing countries, the Adaptation Fund set up by the UN to help poor countries cope with the unfolding impact of climate change has finally become operational.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced last Friday the availability of a new toll-free helpline to provide information, support, and counseling for families and children affected by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Part of the Obama Administration's long-term oil spill recovery plan, the Oil Spill Distress Helpline (1-800-985-5990) links callers to behavioral health care services and will serve as an important resource for the localized oil spill outreach efforts in the Gulf Coast states.

A wind-driven Colorado wildfire has spread across the rugged Colorado foothills, causing the evacuation of 1,000 people while destroying many homes.

Highlighting the centrality of the marine environment to human well-being,Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today stressed the collective global responsibility to protect the world’s oceans.

Fears of a global food supply crisis are now entrenched as Russia announced a 12-month extension of its grain export ban, bringing the world ever-closer to the food insecurity of 2007 and 2008.

The last ferry left for the mainland and coastal residents hunkered down at home as Hurricane Earl closed in with 110 mph winds Thursday on North Carolina's dangerously exposed Outer Banks, the first and potentially most destructive stop on the storm's projected journey up the Eastern Seaboard.