Environment News

BEIJING (AFP) - Chinese superstar Yao Ming on Saturday became the UN Environment Program's (UNEP) first ever Environmental Champion, tasked with raising awareness of climate change and energy efficiency.

Amid a growing backlash to federal requirements that ethanol be blended into gasoline, the Environmental Protection Agency denied a request by Texas to waive the mandate.

ROME (AFP) - Global warming and limited access to land and other resources threaten many indigenous peoples, the UN food agency warned Friday.

BANGKOK, Thailand - Thailand on Friday released nine critically endangered deer from a species that vanished from the wild three decades ago, in a bid to bring ecological balance to one of the country's national parks.

RIO VISTA, Calif. - On one side of the gravel road are hundreds of acres of corn. On the other is a different crop that scientists hope will enable farmers to rebuild sinking islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, combat global warming and make a profit at the same time.

QUILLABAMBA, Peru (AFP) - Once bleak and lifeless places degraded by years of high-impact farming, Peruvian coffee farms are being transformed by a growing trend for certification schemes offering ethical and environmental guarantees to western consumers.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US and British researchers have confirmed the link between warmer climate and an increase in powerful rainstorms, according to a study released Thursday that underscores one of the challenges of global warming.

LUBBOCK, Texas - The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday denied a request from Texas Gov. Rick Perry to cut the federal ethanol mandate in half for a year.

BEIJING (AFP) - China declared Thursday it was ready to stage one of the greatest Olympics ever, but a new terrorist threat, pollution concerns and human rights controversies hung over final preparations.

Verdiem has just launched a new monitoring application for enabling eco-conscious consumers around the world to proactively control PC energy consumption as well as cut down on household emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2).

BEIJING (AFP) - International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Jacques Rogge on Thursday hailed Beijing's "extraordinary" effort to cut pollution, despite familiar smog pervading the city on the eve of the Games.

BEIJING (AFP) - Beijing's pollution could hinder athletes during the Olympics, but the long-term dangers to the population of the city are more serious, the head of the World Health Organisation in China told AFP.

Energy Policy: Barack Obama wants a million electric cars on the road by 2015. Where's he going to plug them in? John McCain has the answer -- a renewable energy source called nuclear power.

SEATTLE - Computers are far from being truly clean machines, but Dell Inc. and other PC makers are trying to make their own business operations greener.

JAKARTA (AFP) - Environmental group Greenpeace hung a banner reading "Stop Deforestation" on the Indonesian forestry ministry Wednesday and called for a moratorium on palm oil concessions on forested land.

THE HAGUE (AFP) - A road in the small Dutch town of Hengelo is to be paved with air-purifying concrete in a trial that could lead to a breakthrough in the fight against rising pollution, scientists said Wednesday.

LAGOS (AFP) - E-waste from European, US and Japanese manufacturers is contaminating the environment around the sites where it is dumped for recycling and disposal in Ghana, Greenpeace said in a statement received Wednesday.

When the Opening Ceremonies launch the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing on Friday, city officials will no doubt hope their efforts pay off to reduce the city's usual pall of smog and bring blue skies to the games. But their policies may matter little in the face of the region's weather - the main influence on Beijing's pollution levels, according to one scientist. ...

LONDON (AFP) - British researchers have drawn up the first detailed map of areas in the Arctic that could spark border disputes over extensive oil and gas deposits, they said Wednesday.

DES MOINES, Iowa - Republican presidential candidate John McCain opposes the $300 billion farm bill and subsidies for ethanol, positions that both supporters and opponents say might cost him votes he needs in the upper Midwest this November.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama Tuesday charged that oil giants were betting their record profits on John McCain and accused his Republican foes of "lying" about his own energy plan.

TORONTO - Geoff Ballard, a Canadian pioneer of the fuel cell industry and an entrepreneur Time Magazine once named one of its "Heroes for the Planet," has died. He was 76.

NEWPORT, Michigan (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain visited a nuclear power plant on Tuesday to tout his plan to battle rising energy costs by expanding exploration of traditional sources like nuclear power and offshore oil drilling.

THE HAGUE (AFP) - Environment lobby Greenpeace has released a racy video called "Forest Love," with fondling, moaning and gyrating trees to revitalise a campaign against illegal logging.

DAKAR, Senegal - Greenpeace called on the world's electronics companies Tuesday to eliminate hazardous chemicals from their products, saying toxic waste from wealthy nations' gadgets ends up being dumped in poor countries despite laws prohibiting it.

Sen. Barack Obama today softened his opposition to new offshore drilling, saying in a speech at Michigan State University that he is "willing to consider" allowing additional drilling in a limited number of offshore areas if it helps Congress pass energy legislation.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Some members of the U.S. cycling squad arrived for the Olympic Games on Tuesday wearing black respiratory masks, apparently concerned over reports of unhealthy levels of air pollution in Beijing.

BEIJING (AFP) - The Chinese capital Beijing was again blanketed by smog on Tuesday despite intense anti-pollution measures, three days before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The state of Alaska sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on Monday, seeking to reverse his decision to list polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

Scrambling to avoid losing ground on the energy issue, Barack Obama confirmed tepid support for new offshore drilling Monday.