Environment | WPN World People News

On July 25, the Florida State Senate President and Florida House Speaker filed an appeal requesting the overturning of a ruling last month that they had diverted money that was supposed to be spent on new public land acquisition and restoration. The ruling was in response to litigation brought by conservation organizations.

The Court said that any organism obtained with new genetic engineering techniques falls within the scope of GMO law. It argued that the risks linked to the use of these techniques are comparable to those associated with conventional genetic engineering.

On July 24, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced settlements with two Goodyear, Ariz.-based companies to resolve Clean Water Act (CWA) violations. BioFlora, a fertilizer manufacturer, and Inventure Foods, a food manufacturer, will pay $39,000 and $79,957 in civil penalties, respectively. Each company has made improvements to their facilities’ wastewater pretreatment systems to achieve compliance with local and federal pretreatment standards.

On July 24, the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and State of West Virginia announced a settlement with CSX Transportation Inc. to resolve its liability for state and federal water pollution violations related to a 2015 oil spill caused by a train derailment in Mount Carbon, West Virginia. Under the terms of the settlement, CSX Transportation will pay penalties of $1.2 million to the United States and $1 million to West Virginia.

Fire officials in Greece said Tuesday at least 49 people have been killed and more than 140 injured in wildfires raging through resort towns near the country's capital.

Two Chinese flight attendants have been ordered to pay large fines and leave the United States for trying to smuggle protected box and spotted turtles out of the country.

Some 130 representatives from Kazakhstan’s Parliament, central and local government authorities, academia and civil society, as well as experts from both Kazakhstan and Russia, participated in an OSCE-supported international conference on transboundary co-operation in the Zhaiyk (Ural) river basin on 23 July 2018 in Uralsk, Western Kazakhstan.

A 5.9-magnitude quake rattled Kermanshah province, in western Iran near the border with Iraq, Sunday, injuring nearly 150 people, the head of the country's disaster response agency said.

Thousands of students in the Pacific Island of Tonga will be safer from natural disasters thanks to upgraded school buildings, supported by an additional US$14.95 million project approved by the World Bank’s Board of xecutive Directors, on July 18. The funding will extend the Pacific Resilience Program’s support to the government of Tonga in delivering early warning systems, resilient investments, and financial protection against natural disasters.