BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Inner Mongolia reported a fresh, confirmed case of bubonic plague on Sunday, despite an earlier declaration by the country’s health officials that the risk of an outbreak was minimal. The health commission of the autonomous region s... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Accumulated waste from China’s e-commerce and express delivery sectors stands to more than quadruple by 2025 unless action is taken to rein it in, green groups said on Monday, as an online shopping spree known as Singles’ Day broke new sal... More »
DHAKA (Reuters) – Thousands of Bangladeshis, mostly women and children, huddled in shelters in southwestern coastal areas on Saturday as the country prepared for the expected arrival of cyclone Bulbul, a senior government official said. Several coastal distric... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fossils unearthed in southern Germany of a remarkable ape that lived about 11.6 million years ago may dramatically alter the understanding of the evolutionary origins of a fundamental human trait – walking upright on two legs. Scientists... More »
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – A satellite mission to measure global methane emissions from oil and gas facilities will be based in New Zealand, the government said on Wednesday, in a collaboration with a U.S. environmental group. The MethaneSAT, due to be launched in... More »
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand said on Monday it has concluded a deal to upgrade its free trade agreement with China which has been under negotiations for years. The upgraded agreement will make exporting to China easier and reduce compliance costs for New... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany should have one million charging stations for electric cars by 2030, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a video message on Sunday, ahead of meetings on Monday with the car industry on how to speed the move to low-emission battery-po... More »
BANDUNG, Indonesia (Reuters) – A watchmaker in Indonesia’s Bandung city thinks the next step in sustainability is a wristwatch with a strap made out of the complex root structure of a mushroom. Mycelium leather, as the material is known, is fibrous and tough y... More »
PRAGUE (Reuters) – Czech scientists have opened a lab to experiment growing food for environments with extreme conditions and lack of water, such as Mars. The “Marsonaut” experiment by scientist Jan Lukacevic, 29, and his team at the Prague University of Life ... More »
CHENGDU, China (Reuters) – Would you like your dog transformed into a panda? It takes just 1,500 yuan ($212.28) at a pet café in southwest China that dyes pups in black and white streaks to resemble the animal that is considered a national treasure. The cafe, ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A large ancient wetlands region spanning northern Botswana – once teeming with life but now dominated by desert and salt flats – may represent the ancestral homeland of all of the 7.7 billion people on Earth today, researchers said on Mo... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Air pollution in some parts of the Indian capital deteriorated early on Monday to the worst recorded level, officials said, a day after revelers set off fireworks to mark Diwali in celebrations that were more subdued than in previous year... More »
PIXLEY, Calif. (Reuters) – Joey Airoso has always been proud of his cows, whose milk goes into the butter sold by national dairy company Land O’Lakes. Now he has something new to brag about: the vast amounts of gas produced by his 2,900-head herd is powering t... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Many privately held firms in Shandong, China’s third-biggest province by economic output, are struggling to repay short-term debt due to declining industry fundamentals, entangled cross guarantees and ill-managed investments, S&P Global Rat... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Andrea Gandini, a 22-year-old Roman sculptor, is making a growing name for himself by turning the Eternal City’s dead tree stumps into much-admired pieces of art. Gandini, who began his tree carvings around five years ago, chipped away at his ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British police have ordered a halt to Extinction Rebellion protests in London after a week of civil disobedience by climate change activists who have targeted government building and major financial institutions. “Any assembly linked to the ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Climate change activists, including one of the founders of Extinction Rebellion, targeted Britain’s transport ministry in central London on Tuesday to protest against a proposed high-speed rail project known as HS2. Gail Bradbrook, one of th... More »
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia warned its citizens of more choking smoke from forest fires on Tuesday as several provinces closed schools due to worsening air quality. An El Nino weather pattern this year has intensified annual dry-season fires, often caused by... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) still sees abundant opportunity to make money from oil and gas in coming decades even as investors and governments increase pressure on energy companies over climate change, its chief executive said. But in an inte... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian politicians and academics cheered the Nobel economics prize awarded on Monday to Indian-born American Abhijit Banerjee, whose proud mother told visitors crowding into her apartment that he came from “a family of economists”. Nirmal... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. regulators on Friday gave the green light for genetically modified cotton to be used for human consumption, paving the way for a protein-packed new food source – edible cottonseed that tastes a bit like chickpeas – that its develope... More »
((This story corrects to remove temperature conversions in fifth paragraph)) By Barbara Goldberg NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two-thirds of bird species in North America, already disappearing at an alarming rate, face extinction unless immediate action is taken to slo... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Police in London said they had arrested 21 climate activists by 8 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Monday as the Extinction Rebellion protest group launched two weeks of peaceful civil disobedience to call for urgent government action to curb carbon emiss... More »
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) – India’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered a halt to the cutting of trees in financial capital Mumbai for an ambitious subway project that has sparked protests from activists opposed to the felling to build a train parking shed. “We d... More »
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – A highly poisonous fungus, with toxins that can be absorbed through the skin, has been identified for the first time in the rain forest near the Great Barrier Reef, Australian scientists said on Thursday. The Fire Coral fungus, which is b... More »
KEY WEST, Fla. (Reuters) – Emily Hower, a research assistant at Nova Southeastern University doing field work on coral off Key West in Florida, bobs up out of the water and removes her diving mask. The news is not good. Most of the pillar coral that her team h... More »
ST THOMAS, Virgin Islands/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Off the coast of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a group of scientists is tearing a reef apart in a feverish attempt to save some of its coral. They are battling a fast-moving, lethal disease that researche... More »
MIKHMORET, Israel (Reuters) – On a Mediterranean beach in Israel, a newly-hatched baby turtle fumbles along the sand, making its way to the sea for the very first time. The hatchling, one of 60 to be released into the wild this week, is part of a unique conser... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Scientists behind a landmark study of the links between oceans, glaciers, ice caps and the climate delivered a stark warning to the world on Wednesday: slash emissions or watch cities vanish under rising seas, rivers run dry and marine lif... More »
WIRKSWORTH, England (Reuters) – On a two-acre field in England’s Midlands, Gavin and Alice Munro are taking sustainability to the next level: they harvest trees which they train to grow into chairs. The couple have a furniture farm in Derbyshire where they are... More »
WEISSSEESPITZE, Austria (Reuters) – Scientists are racing to read a rapidly melting archive of climate data going back thousands of years – the inside of Austria’s Alpine glaciers. Mountain glaciers are receding the world over as average global temperatures ri... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Victoria Beckham chose a light and fluid silhouette for the female wardrobe next spring, presenting a line for “women in motion” at her London Fashion Week show on Sunday. With her husband David and their children watching from the front row... More »
NAIROBI (Reuters) – This Sunday in South Africa, an accountant, an entrepreneur and a boxing executive are among 20 friends running the Cape Town marathon – with saplings strapped to their backs. The group are promoting the planting of native trees amid a nati... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Friday asked a government watchdog to look into the Trump administration’s decision to launch an antitrust probe into four automakers cooperating with California on tigh... More »
HELSINKI (Reuters) – France and Germany said on Friday that Facebook Inc’s (FB.O) Libra currency posed risks to the financial sector that could block its authorization in Europe, and backed the development of an alternative public cryptocurrency. The criticism... More »
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Facebook Inc (FB.O) revealed lofty plans to establish a cryptocurrency called Libra in June, but the project quickly ran into trouble with skeptical regulators around the world. Opposition deepened on Friday, when both France... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Global money managers and companies are rushing to meet a deadline to report on their carbon footprint, but the lack of a standard metric raises concerns their efforts could just be a box-ticking exercise in the transition from brown to gree... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Record heatwaves in Europe and Asia this summer are leading fund managers to buy shares of air conditioning manufacturers, betting that the public health risks of rising temperatures will compel businesses and apartment building owners to ... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – The German economy will slide into a recession in the current quarter, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) said on Wednesday as it slashed its growth forecasts for Europe’s biggest economy due to trade disputes and Brexit uncertai... More »
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Thousands of Indonesians prayed for rain in haze-hit towns on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo on Wednesday, as forest fires raged at the height of the dry season, the state Antara news agency reported. Fires have burnt through parts of Su... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Scotland’s fabled Loch Ness monster could possibly be a giant eel, scientists said on Thursday after an intensive analysis of traces of DNA in the Loch’s icy waters. The results ruled out the presence of large animals such as dinosaurs, they... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Big insurance losses from hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters over the past two years are set to push reinsurance renewal rates higher in January, ratings agencies said. After falling for several years due to competition and fe... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) will not be excluded from public sector contracts in the United States but will instead install a second U.S. monitor at its German headquarters, business daily Handelsblatt reported on Monday. The German carmaker h... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lawyers for owners of 98,000 Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) U.S. vehicles that had fuel economy labels that overstated efficiency will ask a U.S. judge for $26 million in attorney’s fees and costs, court documents show. On Friday, the Environ... More »
KOMODO, Indonesia (Reuters) – Almost every day 20-year-old Rizaldian Syahputra puts on his blue uniform, laces up his high boots and leaves his wooden house on stilts for a job many nature-lovers would envy. But by next year, he may no longer be employed. Syah... More »
BIARRITZ, France (Reuters) – The leaders of the group of seven nations are close to agreeing a deal to provide $20 million in emergency help to stop the Amazon forest fires, a French presidential source said. “The reality is that for the emergency aid they esp... More »
BIARRITZ, France (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump, responding to a question about climate change after skipping a G7 session on the issue, said on Monday that American wealth is based on energy and he will not jeopardize that for dreams and windmills. T... More »
BIARRITZ, France (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron paved the way at a G7 summit for a diplomatic solution to the standoff between Washington and Tehran over a 2015 nuclear deal, but there was little else to show from a meeting at which allies were s... More »
BIARRITZ, Belgium (Reuters) – France on Monday issued a short statement at the end of a meeting of G7 leaders on several issues, but it was not a communique along the lines of those usually drawn up at the annual summit, reflecting divisions. The issues were t... More »
BIARRITZ, France (Reuters) – Iran has an opportunity to come back into compliance with the nuclear deal and resume dialogue about its nuclear activities, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday. U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier he would mee... More »
(Reuters) – New Jersey unveiled a $120 million plan on Monday to speed up the replacement of old lead pipes in Newark in response to mounting alarm about the toxic metal leaching into the drinking water in the state’s largest city. Newark officials began handi... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – A crisis over burning forest in the Amazon is “incredibly tragic”, actor Leonardo DiCaprio said on Monday, urging governments to do more, amid growing international outrage over the damage to the world’s largest tropical rain forest. A record... More »
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Seven eggs from the world’s last two remaining northern white rhinos have been successfully fertilized artificially, reviving hopes of saving the endangered animals, scientists said on Monday. The world’s last male northern white rhinoceros... More »
APOLLO BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) – Scientists in Florida have artificially induced reproductive spawning of an endangered Atlantic coral species for the first time in an aquarium setting, a breakthrough they say holds great promise in efforts to restore depleted r... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese financial institutions provided at least $1 billion in “green” financing to coal-related projects in the first half of this year, a review of financial data showed, with fossil fuels still playing a major role in Beijing’s energy s... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Iowa’s Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency has “screwed” the U.S. ethanol industry and farmers by granting waivers to 31 small petroleum refineries, effectively exempting them... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Genetic research that reconstructed the past population dynamics of the cave bear, a prominent prehistoric denizen of Europe, implicates Homo sapiens rather than climate cooling in the Ice Age extinction of these brawny plant-loving beas... More »
NEW YORK/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Bayer AG has not offered to pay billions of dollars to settle claims in the United States related to the Roundup herbicide, mediator Ken Feinberg said, dismissing a report to that effect which drove its shares as much as 11% high... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration on Friday unveiled a proposal that would curb state powers to block pipelines and other energy projects, part of the Trump administration’s effort to boost domestic oil, gas and coal development. The U.S. Environ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s seaside towns are at war with their seagulls, urging visitors not to feed the birds in an effort to stop them snatching titbits like potato chips from tourists’ hands. Warning signs deck promenade railings from Scarborough to Broad... More »
SRAGEN, Indonesia (Reuters) – An Indonesia man is walking backwards from his home in eastern Java to the capital Jakarta to raise awareness of deforestation in a country with one of the highest rates in the world. The more than 700 km (435 miles) would be ardu... More »
(Reuters) – An Indian man who was bitten by a snake got his revenge on the reptile by biting it back and killing it, the man’s father said on Monday. The man, Raj Kumar, was relaxing at home, enjoying a drink on Sunday, when a snake slithered into his house in... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is teaming up with British TV adventurer Bear Grylls to venture into India’s wilderness to raise awareness about protecting nature, the show’s host said. India is struggling to protect its environment a... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. cable networks CNN and MSNBC have invited Democratic presidential candidates to participate in televised town hall events in September focused on climate change after activists and some candidates pressured party officials for month... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Environmental activists sought to sow chaos in five British cities on Monday in a bid to force the government to act to help avert what they cast as a climate cataclysm. The Extinction Rebellion group disrupted London with 11 days of protest... More »
ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan’s polio eradication campaign has hit serious problems with an alarming spike in reported cases that has raised doubts over the quality of vaccination reporting and prompted officials to review their approach to... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – An alligator has taken up residence in a Chicago lagoon, surprising locals after a winter of polar temperatures in the third-largest U.S. city. Police confirmed the reptile had been spotted on Tuesday in Humboldt Park Lagoon, on Chicago’s w... More »
(Reuters) – An Oregon state senator who was among Republican lawmakers who fled the Capitol last month to scuttle a vote on a bill to fight climate change faces a conduct hearing over remarks tinged with threats of violence about any efforts to force the senat... More »
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India proposed tax waivers on Friday on the purchase of electric vehicles and removed import taxes on some auto components to help boost sales and reduce its dependence on fossil fuels. India, the world’s third-biggest emitter of g... More »
GLASTONBURY, England (Reuters) – The world renowned naturalist David Attenborough appeared on the stage at Glastonbury on Sunday to praise its ban on single-use plastic bottles, delighting festival goers who have instead queued for tap water. The broadcaster’s... More »
MINAMIBOSO, Japan (Reuters) – When Yachiyo Ichihara was a child in Wada, one of Japan’s oldest whaling villages, she’d go down to the harbor with a bucket and carry it home full of freshly butchered whale meat. “It’s really delicious- that’s what I grew up eat... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan has for decades been steadfastly defiant about hunting whales despite widespread anger, including from key allies like the United States. After roughly 30 years of what it has called scientific research whaling, which saw several hundre... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s federal think-tank has asked scooter and motorbike manufacturers to draw up a plan to switch to electric vehicles, days after they publicly opposed the government’s proposals saying they would disrupt the sector, two sources told ... More »
VIENNA (Reuters) – European and U.N. bodies on Thursday outlined a joint push for global action on space junk, saying that debris orbiting the earth must be cleaned up as satellites launched by private companies and other new entrants are adding to the crowdin... More »
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (Reuters) – Nineteen Democratic presidential candidates delivered rapid-fire sales pitches to Iowa party leaders on Sunday, touting their ability to energize voters, win the White House and deliver on longtime party goals such as universal h... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Joe Biden Express to the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination went a bit off track this week. Since Biden joined the race in April, his campaign has worked to craft an aura of inevitability around the former vice president’s bid. ... More »
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – U.S. government biologists have launched a special investigation into the deaths of at least 70 gray whales washed ashore in recent months along the U.S. West Coast, from California to Alaska, many of them emaciated, officials sai... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Developers of a multi-rotor hover craft billed as the first flying vehicle to be powered by hydrogen fuel cells unveiled a full-scale model on Wednesday in Southern California, in a show-and-tell that raised some eyebrows but never left... More »
WARSAW (Reuters) – A herd of about 180 free-roaming cows in Poland must be slaughtered, authorities have ruled, to the dismay of activists fighting to save them as a cause celebre for animal rights. Left to wander fields in the western municipality of Deszczno... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Renewable energy investment in the Asia-Pacific region will overtake spending on oil and gas exploration by 2020, consultancy Rystad Energy said on Monday. Total capital expenditure in renewables will rise above $30 billion in the region ... More »
The Trump administration must temporarily halt the use of some Defense Department funds for a border wall with Mexico, a judge ruled on Friday, because the money was not specifically authorized by Congress for construction of the barrier. The order blocks the ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic presidential hopeful Amy Klobuchar on Saturday called for revamping the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rules governing how small refineries are exempted from the nation’s biofuel laws, a proposal aimed at boosting her... More »
(Reuters) – A committee in Ohio’s House of Representatives voted along party lines to approve a bill to save the state’s two nuclear power reactors from retirement and provide some financial support for a couple of ailing coal plants. Republicans in the House ... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s conservative coalition secured an outright parliamentary majority on Monday following a shock election victory, allowing Prime Minister Scott Morrison to progress his legislative agenda without the support of independents. Morris... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Trump administration made it easier for oil refineries to get waivers from the nation’s biofuel law at least four months before a 2017 court decision it often cites to justify the move to the corn lobby, and the move was motivated by a... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – British livestock genetics firm Genus agreed on Thursday to license its know-how on virus-resistant pigs to Beijing Capital Agribusiness Co Ltd, which will seek regulatory approval for the pigs in the world’s biggest pork market. Genus has ... More »
CHYNOVSKA JESKYNE, Czech Republic (Reuters) – Czech speleologists have come up with a way to explore flooded cave systems without strapping on scuba gear, wet suits, helmets and water-proof lamps: 3D mapping. The new tool was developed by Geo-CZ, a company tha... More »
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) – Tanzania wants to boost tourist numbers by putting a cable car on Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest mountain, and is in talks about the project with a Chinese and a Western company. Around 50,000 tourists climb Kilimanjaro annually.... More »
(Reuters) – Italian-U.S. carmaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) has agreed to pay electric carmaker Tesla Inc hundreds of millions of euros to allow Tesla vehicles to be counted in its fleet to avoid fines for violating new European Union emission rules. ... More »
WASHINGTON/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – U.S. solar and wind power companies may have the most to gain from the Green New Deal, an ambitious proposal backed by several Democratic presidential candidates to end U.S. fossil fuel consumption within a decade. But do not... More »
MILAN (Reuters) – China is ready to strengthen its “global strategic partnership” with Italy, Chinese President Xi Jinping wrote in an Italian daily on the eve of his visit to the euro zone’s third-largest economy. “With my visit I wish to set out together wit... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday it had issued a final rule to prohibit the manufacture, import, processing and distribution of methylene chloride in all paint removers for consumer use. Exposure to methylene chlor... More »
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – A young lion captured after being on the run for almost a month spent the night in a South African police cell before being moved back to its national park home. The juvenile male apparently escaped from the Karoo National Park through a ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden topped a poll of Iowa voters on Saturday that also showed Senator Bernie Sanders gaining momentum against him in the No. 2 spot. Biden, who has not announced whether he is running in the 2020 election... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Two months after ending its massive stimulus scheme, the European Central Bank faces growing pressure to address how it will protect the euro zone economy from a protracted slowdown. Thursday’s policy meeting, news conference, and updated ec... More »
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (Reuters) – Egypt on Sunday completed a project to restore the catacombs of Kom el-Shuqafa in western Alexandria, which have been prone to groundwater leaks since they were discovered in the first decade of the 20th century. The restoration, ... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Top U.S. pension funds are asking electric utilities to accelerate efforts to cut carbon emissions but will not force the issue with proxy resolutions this spring, hoping market shifts and falling prices for renewable energy have already mad... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal should be put to a second referendum if it is passed by parliament, the Brexit spokesman for the opposition Labour Party Keir Starmer said on Tuesday. On Monday, Labour said it would back calls for a ... More »
(Reuters) – Democratic lawmakers on Monday asked the Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general to investigate whether two senior agency officials violated ethics rules by helping reverse an enforcement decision against their former client company. Th... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists are providing new evidence to answer the longstanding question about why zebras have stripes. It appears stripes make terrible landing strips, bamboozling the fierce blood-sucking flies that try to feast on zebras and carry de... More »
