Environment News

NEW ORLEANS - Ships began crawling up the Mississippi River at New Orleans in a tightly controlled procession Friday, two days after a massive oil spill shut down a stretch of one of the nation's most critical commercial arteries.

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN special envoy for Somalia on Friday sounded the alarm about rampant illegal fishing and the dumping of toxic waste off the coast of the lawless African nation.

NEW YORK, Jul 25 (OneWorld) - Teams of environmental activists are planning to take to the streets over the coming weeks to put the spotlight on policy makers who they say are prioritizing corporate interests in the coal and oil industries over the impending threat of global warming.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Californian environmental regulators have approved stringent guidelines aimed at forcing ocean-going vessels visiting the state's ports to use cleaner fuel, a statement said Friday.

BEIJING (AFP) - Beijing was swathed in smog on Friday just two weeks ahead of the Olympics as its notorious pollution defied aggressive steps aimed at clearing the air for next month's Games.

BELLE CHASSE, Louisiana (Reuters) - The largest petroleum spill to hit the Mississippi River since 2005's Hurricane Katrina snarled ship traffic on Thursday from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico and brought flows of grain and other key exports to a standstill.

BERLIN— In a highly unusual move for an American presidential candidate, Barack Obama staged a foreign policy speech Thursday before a huge overseas audience, implicitly criticizing President Bush and calling for renewed transatlantic cooperation to rein in Iran, fight religious extremism and terrorism, and address global warming and poverty.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California air regulators on Thursday approved the nation's toughest rules to reduce harmful emissions from ocean-going ships headed into the state's ports.

BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama urged Europe to stand by the United States in stabilizing Afghanistan in a speech to over 200,000 in Berlin that stressed the need for unity in the face of new threats.

SALEM, Ore. - Seven Western states are joining four Canadian provinces to propose a plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions through use of a "cap and trade" system.

SPOKANE, Wash. - Times are good for wheat farmers, but they should resist the urge to harvest their crop residue and sell it for ethanol production, a federal researcher says.

SAN FRANCISCO - The Hong Kong-based operator of a container ship that struck a bridge support in the San Francisco Bay last year has been indicted for allegedly doctoring paperwork in an attempt to thwart the investigation.

SAN FRANCISCO - An appeals court Wednesday upheld a ruling ordering the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the water discharged from ships as a way to protect local ecosystems from invasive species.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A chemical tanker split a fuel barge in half on the Mississippi River on Wednesday, spilling thousands of gallons of fuel oil and forcing the closure of a 58-mile (93-km) stretch from New Orleans southward that could last for days, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said.

With food and fuel costs soaring and the financial costs of global warming becoming reality, a new cure-all prescription has emerged: The average American should eat less.

Editor's Note: Each Wednesday LiveScience examines the viability of emerging energy technologies - the power of the future.

LYON, France (AFP) - A French wine could soon change its name before next year's grape harvest to avoid being associated with a uranium leak at an eponymous nuclear power facility.

MANILA (AFP) - Global warming may have contributed to a 43 percent rise in the number of dengue cases in the Philippines for the first half of the year, the health secretary said Wednesday.

KUZUMAKI, Japan (AFP) - In the mountains of northern Japan, wind, sun and even cow dung are being turned into electricity as part of efforts to turn a whole town into an experiment in renewable energy use.

SEOUL (AFP) - Two officers from a Hong Kong supertanker have been banned from leaving South Korea despite being cleared of blame for the country's worst oil spill, world shipping organisations complained Wednesday.

LONDON (AFP) - A climate change protester unsuccessfully tried to superglue himself to Prime Minister Gordon Brown at an event in the leader's residence, a government spokesman said Tuesday.

LUBBOCK, Texas - The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday put off a decision on Texas' request to temporarily lower ethanol requirements for gasoline, a change Gov. Rick Perry says is needed to rein in corn prices.

WASHINGTON - Strikingly large numbers of Chinese are happy with their nation's direction and booming economy yet are deeply worried about rising prices, pollution and the gap between the rich and poor, according to a poll released Tuesday.

LONDON - After traveling around the Arctic Circle alone, walking across South America, venturing through African war zones and hiking deep into the Amazon, Borneo and Sumatra jungles, Mike Horn is ready to embark on his most ambitious project yet.

BEIJING - Traffic flowed a little smoother. Busy avenues had fewer cars. By nightfall, even the hazy sky had mostly cleared.

SAO PAULO (AFP) - Moves around the world to drain marshes and other wetlands to make space for farming could be hastening climate change, scientists gathering in Brazil from Monday will be hearing.

BEIJING (AFP) - Beijing residents enjoyed the novelty of congestion-free streets Sunday as the city launched strict driving curbs to rein its notorious air pollution and traffic for the Olympics.

BEIJING - Beijing's Olympic shutdown begins Sunday, a drastic plan to lift the Chinese capital's gray shroud of pollution just three weeks ahead of the games.

BILLINGS, Mont. - A federal judge has restored endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies, derailing plans by three states to hold public wolf hunts this fall.