Environment | WPN World People News

A year-long Greenpeace East Asia investigation into Taiwan’s distant water tuna fisheries has exposed Illegal shark finning, labour and human rights abuses, as well as Taiwan’s failure to adequately address issues such as murder and drug smuggling at sea.

Activists from Greenpeace Germany gathered at the global headquarters of technology giant Siemens AG in Munich, Germany today to shine a spotlight on the company’s potential involvement in a new hydropower dam in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest.

Juvenile desert locust hoppers.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that Gateway Parks LLC on April 11, a ski and snowboard park owner and developer based in Boise, Idaho, will pay a $10,000 penalty to settle a claim of a violation of federal asbestos regulations designed to protect public health. EPA alleged that the company violated asbestos rules when it failed to notify the EPA before asbestos-containing buildings were demolished at the former Lazy J Tavern complex in Eagle, Idaho, northwest of Boise. Notification is required to give EPA inspectors an opportunity to check on buildings before demolition to make sure asbestos has been removed and to protect the public from exposure to harmful asbestos dust.

A Massachusetts resins manufacturer has agreed to pay a $38,860 penalty to settle claims by the US Environmental Protection Agency that it violated federal clean water laws.

The World Bank Group Thursday announced plans to help developing countries add 30 gigawatts of renewable energy – enough to power 150 million homes – to the world’s energy capacity, bring early warning systems to 100 million people and develop climate-smart agriculture investment plans for at least 40 countries – all by 2020.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved the State of Nevada’s list of waterways in need of protection, and proposed adding portions of two rivers in northeastern Nevada.

The Bureau of Land Management announced this week that it is moving toward allowing dirty oil shale development that could be a double whammy for the environment, unleashing nearly a half a billion tons of greenhouse gases and consuming vast amounts Colorado River basin water. It would be the first commercial oil shale production facility in the United States.

The Fairbanks North Star Borough has some of the worst and most dangerous air quality in the nation. Today, Alaska community groups joined together—for the second time in as many years—to demand that responsible officials stop dragging their feet and finally address the problems that Borough residents and their families face when simply breathing in Fairbanks.

After the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) assessment of trichloroethylene or TCE showed risk, the sole manufacturer of a fixative product using TCE voluntarily withdrew it from the marketplace. The EPA is now taking action to ensure no other manufacturers including importers enter the marketplace before EPA has the opportunity to prohibit or limit these uses.