WASHINGTON, DC, June 30, 2009 (ENS) -Reversing a Bush-era decision, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today granted California's waiver request enabling the state to enforce its greenhouse gas emissions standards for new motor vehicles, called Clean Car Standards, beginning with the current model year. The EPA ruling immediately clears the way for California and 13 additional states to require reductions in tailpipe emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. >>more

MADEIRA, Portugal, June 24, 2009 (ENS) -A paper released today by the International Whaling Commission shows that Japan kills more whales than any other country, although Japan is a signatory to the international ban on commercial whaling, which took effect in 1986. Since then, Japan has killed about 12,000 whales for "scientific research" purposes. The commission's 85 member governments opened the 61st IWC annual meeting Monday, after a year of closed-door discussions that have failed to win agreement from whaling nations Japan, Iceland and Norway to respect the commission's scientific procedures and commercial whaling ban. >>more

GLAND, Switzerland, June 24, 2009 (ENS) - One-third of open ocean sharks are threatened with extinction yet are virtually unprotected, according to new research by the Shark Specialist Group of the IUCN's Species Survival Commission. The first study to determine the global conservation status of 64 species of open ocean sharks and rays reveals that 32 percent are threatened, primarily due to overfishing, and 52 percent of the shark species taken in high-seas fisheries are threatened.>>more

By Captain Paul Watson
MADEIRA, Portugal, June 23, 2009 (ENS) - The trip to the 61st annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission became an adventure as soon as the TAP airliner landed at Funchal airport and Deborah Bassett and I walked from the runway into the arrival lounge. I had no reason to be concerned as I walked up to Immigration Control and handed them my passport. The officer took the passport, ran the electronic strip through the machine and then I saw a serious look cross his face. "Excuse me sir, there appears to be a problem," he said. >>more

SUNDIAL, West Virginia, June 23, 2009 (ENS) - West Virginia State Police today arrested at least 29 demonstrators, including government climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, actress Daryl Hannah, and 94 year-old former West Virginia Congressman Ken Hechler, for tresspassing on the property of a mountaintop removal coal mining company to protest the destructive practice. The protesters deliberately entered the Goals Coal plant owned by coal giant Massey Energy to draw public attention to the destruction of mountains immediately above Marsh Fork Elementary School. >>more

BERLIN, Germany, June 22, 2009 (ENS) - Environmental and human rights groups are today celebrating the news that Germany, Austria and Switzerland will withdraw their export credit guarantees for the controversial Ilisu dam project in Turkey by July 6, as the German daily "Frankfurter Rundschau Online" reported Friday. The withdrawal is a major victory for environmentalists and human rights advocates who have campaigned for years to stop the 1,200 megawatt, two billion euro dam on the Tigris River in southeast Turkey. >>more