Environment

• Tuesday, March 15th 2011 - 07:58 UTC

  Japanese officials admit radiation levels at nuclear plant are eight times higher

  

  Explosions at a Japanese quake-stricken nuclear plant have led to radiation levels that can affect human health, a senior Japanese official has said. Prime Minister Naoto Kan has urged those living within 30km of the plant to stay indoors.

• Monday, March 14th 2011 - 07:05 UTC

  Second explosion at nuclear plant damaged by Japan’s earthquake

  

  A second explosion has hit the nuclear plant in Japan that was damaged in Friday's earthquake, but officials said it had resisted the blast. TV footage showed smoke rising from Fukushima plant's reactor 3, a day after an explosion hit reactor 1.

• Monday, March 14th 2011 - 06:24 UTC

  Dangerous neurotoxin could be responsible for massive death of fish in California

  

  Dead fish found in the King’s Harbor Marina in Redondo Beach, California, this week have tested positive for a dangerous neurotoxin. The California Department of Fish and Game originally blamed the die-off on oxygen deprivation.

• Monday, March 14th 2011 - 02:09 UTC

  Chevron appeals 9.5 billion USD fine from an Ecuador court

  

  US oil giant Chevron has launched a legal appeal against a 9.5 billion US dollars fine by an Ecuador court for polluting much of the country's Amazon region.

• Sunday, March 13th 2011 - 00:33 UTC

  Explosion at quake-damaged Japanese nuclear power station; 170.000 evacuated

  

  An estimated 170,000 people have been evacuated from the area around a quake-damaged nuclear power station in north-east Japan that was hit by an explosion, the UN atomic watchdog says.

• Saturday, March 12th 2011 - 05:33 UTC

  Nuclear emergency and thousands of residents evacuated

  

  The Japanese government declared a state of emergency at five nuclear reactors as cooling systems failed. Authorities battled Saturday to contain rising pressure at the plants damaged by a massive earthquake and were moving tens of thousands of residents from the area.

• Saturday, March 12th 2011 - 05:21 UTC

  Japan begins huge relief effort: hundreds killed but more feared disappeared

  

  A mammoth relief mission is swinging into action in north-east Japan, a day after it was struck by a devastating tsunami, claiming hundreds of lives. Whole villages have been washed away and at least one town has been largely destroyed.

• Friday, March 11th 2011 - 00:53 UTC

  Decline of bees’ colonies threatens pollination, essential for growing more crops

  

  More than a dozen factors, ranging from declines in flowering plants and the use of memory-damaging insecticides to the world-wide spread of pests and air pollution, may be behind the emerging decline of bee colonies across many parts of the globe.

• Thursday, March 10th 2011 - 22:26 UTC

  New Zealand cuts basic interest rate to help with earthquake recovery

  

  New Zealand's central bank has cut the cost of borrowing to try to reduce the economic impact of the earthquake in Christchurch, the country's second largest city. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut the key interest rate 0.5 points to 2.5%.

• Wednesday, March 9th 2011 - 21:17 UTC

  Ice losses in both caskets and rising sea level faster than estimated

  

  Ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland has accelerated over the last 20 years, research shows, and will soon become the biggest driver of sea level rise. From satellite data and climate models, scientists calculate that the two polar ice sheets are losing enough ice to raise sea levels by 1.3mm each year.