Tag Archives: USA

Patricia Espinosa, who last year took the helm as executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), was in the United Kingdom last week to speak with businesses, NGOs and Nick Hurd, the UK climate change minister, on how to sustain and increase momentum on climate action. Previously a Mexican diplomat and minister, Espinosa is tasked with ...

The battle line appears drawn between U.S. President Donald Trump and environmental campaigners over the construction of an underground oil pipeline in the country, which Trump seems to be in support of, but opposed by some activists and Native Americans. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers notified Congress on Tuesday, February 7, 2017, that it would allow the multi-billion-dollar Dakota ...

In the wake of a contentious U.S. election and despite the election of a president who has publicly described global warming as a hoax, Americans are increasingly sure global warming is happening, according to  a national survey conducted by the George Mason University’s Centre for Climate Change Communication after the presidential election (Nov-Dec 2016). The proportion of Americans who think global warming is happening ...

A Native American village in Alaska has voted to relocate its entire population of some 600 people due to the threat of rising seas, officials have said. Shishmaref, located on a tiny island north of the Bering Strait that separates the United States and Russia, is losing up to 10 feet of shoreline each year, according to research by the ...

More than 82,000 residents near Los Angeles were ordered to evacuate overnight after wildfires swept through the area on Tuesday, just two weeks after firefighters struggled to put out the massive Sand Fire near the same area, plagued by drought and summer heat. San Bernardino County firefighters described the fire as spreading at breakneck speed, growing to 14 square miles ...

Drinking water supplies serving more than six million Americans contain unsafe levels of a widely used class of industrial chemicals linked to potentially serious health problems, according to a new study from Harvard University researchers. The chemicals – known as polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFASs – have been used for decades in a range of industrial and commercial products, including non-stick coatings on pans, food wrappers, ...

A community in Maryland in the US suffered “severe” damage from floods, including damaged buildings and cars swept away by rushing water, after around six inches of rain fell in the area on Saturday, officials said. Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman told WBALTV flooding caused damage to buildings and cars in Ellicott City, a town of around 65,000 in Howard ...

With the exception of Ted Cruz voters, most supporters of the Democratic and Republican candidates think global warming is happening, according to a recent national survey conducted by the George Mason University’s Centre for Climate Change Communication. The report, titled Global Warming and the U.S. Presidential Election, reveals the level of support thus: Sanders: 93%, Clinton: 92%, Kasich: 71%, Trump: ...

US designers Yitan Sun and Jianshi Wu have proposed transforming Manhattan‘s Central Park into a sunken landscape encircled by a below-grade megastructure with office, housing, retail and cultural space. Titled “New York Horizon,” the project won first place in the eVolo Skyscraper Competition, which invites architects and designers to conceive futuristic towers. The annual ideas contest began in 2006. Sun and Wu have proposed ...

Efforts are underway to prosecute and convict criminal gangs involved in piracy and maritime crime in Nigeria, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has said. The UN body made this submission just as it disclosed that, with financial supports from the United States’ Department of State, it trained more than 30 participants consisting of Federal High Court ...