Environment News

TORONTO (Reuters) - Greenpeace Canada blasted a lawsuit brought against it by Syncrude Canada Ltd, saying the move was designed to intimidate critics of the sprawling oil sands developments in northern Alberta.

GENEVA (AFP) - The World Meteorological Organisation said Friday it expects the ozone hole over Antarctica to be "normal" this year, two years after it reached record size.

INUVIK, Northwest Territories (Reuters) - Canada, criticized by environmentalists for not adequately protecting polar bears from the effects of climate change, said on Thursday it will take more time study its next step.

Changes that the Bush administration is proposing to make to Endangered Species Act regulations just aren't sound science, various scientists and conservation groups say. They're concerned that the loss of scientific oversight resulting from the changes will leave some species vulnerable to federal projects that could damage habitats. The Endangered Species Act (ESA), signed into law by President Nixon on Dec. 28, 1973, does more than just provide for the creation of the Endangered Species List. ...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Arctic ice cap keeps melting under the effects of global warming and in August saw its second largest summer shrinkage since satellite observations began 30 years ago, US scientists said.

WASHINGTON - More ominous signs Wednesday have scientists saying that a global warming "tipping point" in the Arctic seems to be happening before their eyes: Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is at its second lowest level in about 30 years.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - A long-delayed emergency siren system has been put into service for New York residents within 10 miles of the Indian Point nuclear power plant.

PARIS (AFP) - Scientists on Wednesday said they had discovered deep-sea viruses to be an unexpectedly potent driver of the so-called carbon cycle that sustains oceanic life and helps dampen global warming.

As global warming thaws the frozen soils of the Arctic, more stored-up carbon could potentially be released into the atmosphere than previously thought, a new study suggests. Much of the frigid Arctic's soil is permafrost, or permanently frozen ground. Seasonal freeze-thaw cycles can mix up the soil layers, a process called cryoturbation, forcing organic (carbon-based) material into the subsurface layers and storing it in the permafrost. With Arctic temperatures projected to rise up to 10. ...

TOKYO (AFP) - The world's first cargo ship partly propelled by solar power is set to take to the seas later this year in a joint project between two Japanese companies, an official said Wednesday.

ACCRA, Ghana - Talks on a new global warming agreement have begun to resolve some major sticking points, the U.N. climate chief said Wednesday, sounding a promising note after months of sluggish negotiations often marked by confrontation among industrial and developing countries.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil agreed to pay out 75 percent of a $507.5 million damages ruling to settle the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the Anchorage Daily News reported on Tuesday.

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said Wednesday it will spend 50 billion yen (458 million dollars) to boost solar power cell production four-fold by early 2012 amid growing interest in renewable energies.

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

LOS ANGELES - Officials from a Southern California county showed symbolic support Tuesday for offshore oil drilling along the same coast stained by a 1969 spill that spawned modern environmentalism.

DENVER, Aug 25 (OneWorld) - Author and environmental leader David Orr is upset about the corruption of language in the United States. He doesn't like how some groups have co-opted phrases like "pro-life" and "conservative" to promote their own political agendas, which often have little to do with saving lives or acting conservatively. But the greatest travesty, he says, is the way Americans throw around the term "global warming."

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Insuring against weather-related calamity in this era of global warming might seem the work of bean counters and actuaries.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Car makers are not doing enough to meet proposed EU targets for cutting carbon dioxide emissions, according to a report Tuesday, with some German and Japanese brands facing the biggest challenge to make the grade.

(Reuters) - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Entergy Corp will pay a total $432 million to the state power authority as part of a multi-year contract even if Entergy completes the spin-off of its nuclear power stations.

MONDAY, Aug. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Add increased suffering for people with ragweed allergies to the list of problems caused by climate change, a new study suggests.

MONDAY, Aug. 25 (HealthDay News) -- More than 30 percent of U.S. public schools are within a quarter mile of major highways, which puts them in the "air pollution danger zone," says a University of Cincinnati study.

LIMA, Peru - Peru's government says renewable energy company Iberoperuana Inversiones SAC is developing a $240 million, 240 megawatt wind farm on Peru's southern coast.

HELENA, Mont. - The cost of fighting large fires in California and elsewhere is forcing the U.S. Forest Service to divert hundreds of millions of dollars set aside for work including roads, trails, recreational improvements — even fire prevention.

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea on Monday announced plans for a discount scheme to encourage citizens to buy more energy-efficient products.

TOKYO - Toyota is raising its prices for the Prius and Harrier hybrids in Japan in response to the soaring cost of steel and other raw materials — the first hike here without a model makeover in three decades.

AFIASO, Ghana - Years ago, no one thought twice about felling the rainforest around this village in West Africa.

BEIJING (AFP) - Three giant pandas have been born in southwest China, bringing the total number of new arrivals of the endangered species this year to at least 19, state media reported.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hydrogen fuel cell cars from nine automakers completed a 13-day cross-country trip this weekend, in the first such mass U.S. crossing for vehicles powered by a zero-emission technology still in its infancy.

MADRID (AFP) - A Spanish nuclear power plant shut down after an electrical generator fire Sunday, safety officials said, the latest incident at a reactor that has already been hit with record fines for its safety record.