Environment | WPN World People News

BP has announced its procedure to permanently plug the leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico to achieve the "desired outcome."

People in Pakistan's most populous province of Punjab, and in the southern province of Sindh, where serious flooding could be imminent, are extremely reluctant to abandon their homes and farms and move to higher ground, as the authorities are urging them.

Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, has declared a state of emergency in the regions of Mairi El, Mordovia, Vladimir, Voronezh, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Ryazan.

Wheat prices have doubled in the last two months, notching up the fastest food price rise an economist said he said seen in the last 20 years.

Orangutans are known as nimble navigators of the trees, but a new study shows the animals may also be among the most energy-efficient animals in the world.

Ecuador’s headway in combating threats posed by invasive species, unbridled tourism and over-fishing has allowed the Galapagos Islands to be removed from the list of World Heritage sites considered to be in danger by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Microscopic plants in the ocean, called phytoplankton, are among the most important creatures on Earth and produce half of the planet's oxygen. But they are in trouble. A new study finds that since 1950, the amount of phytoplankton in the ocean's surface waters — the basis of the ocean's food web — has declined by 40 percent.

Thousands of hectares of fragile mountainous forest in north-eastern Tanzania have been preserved through a recently completed seven-year biodiversity project managed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Achim Steiner, has congratulated the adventurer David de Rothschild and his crew for completing a voyage across the Pacific Ocean in a boat fashioned from recycled plastic bottles to raise awareness about pollution of the seas.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has finalized a $117 million loan guarantee for Kahuku Wind Power, LLC, the owner and operator of the Kahuku Wind Power project. The project includes the development of an innovative 30 megawatt (MW) wind power plant that will supply electricity to approximately 7,700 households per year. According to company estimates, the project—located in Kahuku, Hawaii—will create over 200 jobs on the island of Oahu.