NEWSWORTHY
Endangered crested ibis returned to South Korean wild 40 years after extinction
An endangered bird was reintroduced to the wild by South Korean authorities Wednesday, four decades after it went extinct on the peninsula. The crested ibis is listed as South Korea's National Monument number 198, but was last seen in the wild in 1979 in the ...
Industries in northeastern China have spewed large quantities of an ozone-depleting gas into the atmosphere in violation of an international treaty, scientists said Wednesday. Since 2013, annual emissions from northeastern China of the banned chemical CFC-11 have increased by about 7,000 tons, they reported in ...
Washington first U.S. state to legalize composting of human remains
Washington on Tuesday became the first U.S. state to legalize human composting after its eco-friendly governor signed a bill to that effect in a bid to cut carbon emissions from burials and cremations. Under the new law that will go into effect next May, people ...
Malaysia, flooded with plastic waste, to send scrap back to source
Malaysia, which has become the dumping ground for the world's plastic waste, will send back nonrecyclable plastic scrap to the developed countries that sent it there, its environment minister said on Tuesday. Malaysia last year became the leading alternative destination for plastic scrap after China ...
Municipalities that accept the request will pass on the costs for incineration to companies generating industrial plastic.
Stopping soil erosion is a matter of urgency, otherwise starvation will follow, scientists warn
The world's food production is in jeopardy because the fertile layer of soil that people depend on to plant crops is being eroded by human activities, scientists said Wednesday. Climate change is likely to make it worse even as demand from a growing population is ...
Trash found littering Mariana Trench floor in deepest-ever sub dive
On the deepest dive ever made by a human inside a submarine, a Texas investor found something he could have found in the gutter of nearly any street in the world: trash. Victor Vescovo, a retired naval officer, made the unsettling discovery as he descended ...
415.26 parts per million: CO2 levels in atmosphere hit historic high
Scientists in the United States have detected the highest levels of planet-warming carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere since records began, sounding new alarm over the relentless rise of man-made greenhouse gas emissions. The Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, which has tracked atmospheric CO2 levels since ...
Indigenous Australians to challenge government at U.N. over climate change as human rights violation
Indigenous residents of low-lying islands off northern Australia will submit a landmark complaint with the United Nations on Monday accusing the government of violating their human rights by failing to tackle climate change. The Torres Strait Islanders will tell the U.N. Human Rights Committee in ...
Roughly 180 countries agree on treaty to regulate trade in plastic waste
Nearly all countries agreed on Friday to a legally binding framework to curb plastic waste, which has become a major threat to the marine environment, the United Nations said. Under the amended Basel Convention, which regulates the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes, dirty plastic deemed ...
Most European Union countries reduced carbon dioxide emissions last year, estimates showed Wednesday, marking a turnaround in the battle against greenhouse gases as campaigners urged faster action to avoid the most damaging effects of climate change. Overall EU emissions from burning oil, coal and gas ...
Solutions to the biggest threats facing our planet lie underground, according to experts who insist climate change, overpopulation and food shortages can all be tackled by going subterranean. "We are coming to a point in our history in which we need to start looking for ...
