Environment | WPN World People News

The Trump administration has announced the beginning of a planning process to allow for exploration and leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, barreling forward with plans for destructive oil and gas drilling and disregarding the serious biological, cultural and climate impacts fossil fuel extraction will have in the rapidly-warming Arctic. The scheduled notice in the Federal Register was began a 60-day public comment period, on April 20.

Earthjustice filed a legal challenge against JEA, Florida’s largest municipal electric utility, on April 19thbecause it is violating state law by short-changing customers who want to use rooftop solar energy.

Improving waste management will not only benefit the environment, climate, and human health. The four pieces of legislation are also part of a shift in EU policy towards a circular economy, i.e. a system where the value of products, materials and resources is maintained in the economy for as long as possible.

The 2018 edition of EPA’s comprehensive annual report on greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) highlights continued reductions in emissions – about two percent below 2015 levels and 11 percent below 2005 levels. Between 2005 and 2016, GHG emissions in the U.S. electric power sector have dropped by roughly 25 percent.

On April 18, Earthjustice’s Vice President of Policy and Legislation, Martin Hayden, released the following statement after the U.S. House Agriculture Committee marked up Representative Conaway’s controversial 2018 Farm Bill

A grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will help Girl Scouts in Texas learn about and protect the Gulf of Mexico, in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin. The award of $150,000 to UT-Austin will facilitate the environmental education project with the Girl Scouts of Central Texas and Greater South Texas.

A roadmap for businesses operating in some of the most biologically significant places on the planet has been issued by the Key Biodiversity Area Partnership involving 12 of the world’s leading conservation organisations – including IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, on April 18th.

Three components characterizing the Famenne-Ardenne Geopark are clearly visible in the landscape: Famenne, to the north, is a large depression with a schistose substratum. The Ardennes, to the South, form a vast plateau mainly composed of sandstone rocks.

The European Court of Justice of the European Union has issued a final judgement in which it confirms that it was illegal to increase logging in the Białowieża Forest in Poland. WWF welcomes the decision of the court, on April 17.

CO2 emitted by transport, farming, buildings and waste must be cut by 30% across the EU; CO2 emitted and absorbed by forestry and land use must balance out, by 2030.