Environment

• Saturday, June 20th 2015 - 08:47 UTC

  Earth in new period of extinction: vertebrates, including humans, among first casualties

  

  The Earth has entered a new period of extinction, a study by three US universities has concluded, and humans could be among the first casualties. The report, led by the universities of Stanford, Princeton and Berkeley, said vertebrates were disappearing at a rate 114 times faster than normal.

• Saturday, June 20th 2015 - 00:37 UTC

  Francis calls on swift global action to confront environmental degradation

  

  Argentine Pope Francis called on Thursday for a radical transformation of politics, economics and individual lifestyles to confront environmental degradation and climate change, blending a biting critique of consumerism and irresponsible development with a plea for swift and unified global action.

• Saturday, June 20th 2015 - 00:24 UTC

  Obama and Democrats support Pope's climate message, but Republicans dissented

  

  The Obama administration and congressional Democrats welcomed Pope Francis' call for sweeping action against climate change Thursday, but the pontiff's message was swiftly dismissed by GOP lawmakers.

• Tuesday, June 16th 2015 - 05:13 UTC

  Gas leak forces Petrobras to halt production at offshore platform: second incident in a month

  

  Brazil's Petrobras halted production on Sunday from its P-40 platform in the offshore Marlim Sul field after a gas leak on the vessel, an oil workers' union and the country's petroleum regulator said on Monday.

• Monday, June 15th 2015 - 06:02 UTC

  “Out of the Blue”, photo competition sponsored by Prince of Wales to celebrates oceans and seas

  

  The Prince of Wales marked World Oceans Day, last 8 June by launching a new photography competition for Commonwealth citizens to celebrate the beauty and importance of our oceans and seas: “Out of the Blue: The Prince of Wales's Commonwealth Environmental Photography Awards”.

• Saturday, June 13th 2015 - 07:27 UTC

  California orders the largest water cuts on record to help ease shortages

  

  The state of California has ordered some of the largest water cuts on record to help ease shortages during the current drought. The move affects more than 100 senior water rights holders in the state's Delta, San Joaquin and Sacramento regions, including water districts that serve thousands of farmers and others.

• Wednesday, June 10th 2015 - 06:16 UTC

  Patagonia Azul in Chubut becomes Biosphere reserve; holds 40% of world's Magellan penguins

  

  The International Coordinating Council of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program (MAB) added this week twenty 20 new sites (including two in Latina America) to the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, bringing their total number to 651 sites, including 15 trans-boundary sites, in 120 countries.

• Tuesday, June 9th 2015 - 06:33 UTC

  “Healthy oceans, healthy planet”, an essential component of the Earth's ecosystem

  

  Although the world’s oceans are vast, their capacity to withstand damage caused by human activity is limited, compromising their critical contribution to the future of sustainable development, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared on Monday as the United Nations kicked-off its celebrations for the 2015 edition of World Oceans Day.

• Saturday, June 6th 2015 - 09:39 UTC

  Environmental groups lobbying to derail Shell drilling for oil in the Arctic

  

  Environmental groups and organizations are lobbying to derail Royal Dutch Shell PLC's plan to drill in the Arctic Ocean as soon as July. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, gave conditional approval in May to Shell's resumption of fossil fuel exploration in the Arctic, which was paused after a mishap-filled 2012 season.

• Saturday, June 6th 2015 - 09:02 UTC

  UN invites world’s seven billion people to become agents of change on World Environment Day

  

  With many of the earth’s ecosystems nearing “critical tipping points,” the United Nations invited each of the seven billion people on the planet to mark this year’s World Environment Day by making one change towards a more responsible consumption of resources – “be it refusing to buy single-use plastic bags or riding a bike to work.”