Ancient crops to be deposited in Norway’s Arctic seed vault for future generations (UN)

UN,  27 August 2015 – As a significant step towards preserving the world’s most important ancient crops for future generations, the head of the United Nations agriculture agency, together with scientists and delegations from Peru, Costa Rica and Norway, today witnessed a ceremony during which potato seeds were deposited to the “safety box” in Arctic seed vault.

UN readies historic plan for well-being of people, planet

Negotiators from 193 UN member states agreed Sunday on a draft blueprint for sustainable development that will last through 2030, and the agreement will redefine how the global community works together to tackle poverty and improve living standards while protecting the environment.

Augusta Luna Azul Eco -R News (August 2015)

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...Cette planète est située en orbite autour d'une étoile lointaine. Elle est à la même distance de son étoile que la Terre du Soleil : il pourrait donc être possible d'y trouver de l'eau à l'état liquide qui permettrait l'existence de la vie............Découverte d’une nouvelle exoplanète, la plus similaire à la terre jamais observée

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GEO News (July 2015)

NASA's Kepler telescope spots Earth's close cousin

Scientists using planet- hunting Kepler space telescope have discovered a new catalog of exoplanet candidates and confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the "habitable zone" around a sun-like star, NASA announced during a press conference Thursday.

Liberia is Ebola Free (WHO)

The World Health Organization has declared Liberia free of the Ebola virus.

WHO made the declaration after Liberia reported no new Ebola cases for 42 days, twice the maximum incubation period for the deadly disease.

Ebola outbreak still a global emergency despite significant drop in cases (UN health agency)

UN, 10 April 2015 – A meeting convened by the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa still poses a threat to international peace and security, despite a major fall-off in in case incidence and geographic distribution in the most-affected countries Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

SOS for Earth? Planet is Halfway From Being Hospitable to Humans

A Swedish scientist says that Earth is halfway to becoming inhospitable to humans, as we have violated four of the nine so-called planetary boundaries within which we can continue to thrive.

Missing spacecraft discovered on Mars 11 years later

Britain's "Beagle 2" spacecraft, once dubbed "a heroic failure" by the nation's Astronomer Royal, was re-branded "a great success" on Friday for being found on Mars 11 years after it was originally launched in 2003.

Russia to take advantage of global warming (chief of Russian weather service)

The phenomenon of global warming will have its effect on Russia 2.5 times sooner than in the rest of the planet, Alexander Frolov, Chief of the Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Rosgydromet) told a TASS-hosted briefing on Monday. 

More Than Half of World’s Wildlife Population Lost: World Wide Fund for Nature

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) released a statement Saturday following the 12th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity, highlighting that the world has lost more than half of the planet's wildlife population.

"At a time when the world has seen the loss of more than half of the planet's wildlife populations, countries are neither moving fast enough nor doing enough to prevent further decline," the statement reads.

Ebola cases could reach between 550,000- 1.4 million by January - (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Between 550,000 and 1.4 million people in West Africa could be infected with the Ebola virus by January 20, 2015, according to a report issued on Tuesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The top range of the estimate, 1.4 million, assumes that the number of cases officially cited so far, 5,864 according to the count kept by the World Health Organization, is significantly underreported, and that it is likely that 2.5 times as many cases, or nearly 20,000, have in fact occurred.

From Paris to New York, people rally against climate change

World leaders including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon were on Sunday set to join farmers, fishermen, children and others in demonstrations across the globe to demand action on climate change.

In New York, organisers were expecting some 100,000 to join the People’s Climate March ahead of Tuesday's UN summit, which will bring together 120 world leaders to discuss reducing carbon emissions that threaten the environment.

Climate Change: The World, ‘It Turned Out Right’

Stefanie Spear (founder and CEO of EcoWatch):
Portugal student Gonçalo Tocha, as part of the Action4Climate video competition, produced the inspiring short film The Trail of a Tale, which is a monologue of a letter from the future written to our recent past, telling us that the world, “It turned out right.”

The nearly four-minute video is captivating as the narrator tells us, the stranger, how things went right. Society gathered with a fundamental belief that the “purpose of the economic system is to improve the world being for all within the limits of what the planet can sustain … We had to deal with overconsumption first. The prices we paid for things had to reflect the social and environmental costs…”

US obesity epidemic worsens as rates reach historic highs

Rates of adult obesity increased in six US states and fell in none last year, and in more states than ever - 20 - at least 30 percent of adults are obese, according to an analysis released this week.
The conclusions were reported by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and were based on federal government data. They suggest the problem may be worsening despite widespread publicity about the nation's obesity epidemic, from First Lady Michelle Obama and many others, plus countless programs to address it.
From 2011 to 2012, by comparison, the rate of obesity increased in only one state.

Ban Ki-Moon advirtió sobre consumo de los recursos y su impacto ambiental

Esta semana, se ha reunido en Nairobi (capital de Kenia) la primera Asamblea de las Naciones Unidas para el Medioambiente (UNEA), para constituir el máximo organismo medioambiental creado por la ONU en su historia.

En la clausura del encuentro, el secretario general de la ONU, Ban Ki-moon, lanzó un llamamiento en cuanto a la insostenibilidad en el consumo actual de los recursos, señalando que "el aire que respiramos, el agua que bebemos y la tierra en la que crecen nuestros alimentos son parte de un ecosistema sujeto cada vez a una mayor presión por el crecimiento poblacional”.

World Oceans Day 2014 (U.S. State Department)

John Kerry, Secretary of State, June 8, 2014:

"World Oceans Day is a time to pause and focus on protecting our ocean: our planet’s most extraordinary ecosystem.
Life as we know it wouldn't be possible were it not for our ocean. We depend on the ocean for life’s essentials: the food we eat and the air that we breathe. It provides jobs for millions of people around the world, and a home for countless unique species.

"One planet, one ocean – together, we must protect them", urges UN on World Oceans Day

UN,  8 June 2014 – To commemorate World Oceans Day, the United Nations family is encouraging the international community to reflect on the multiple benefits of oceans and commit to keeping them healthy and productive for current and future generations.

“We have to ensure that oceans continue to meet our needs without compromising those of future generations,” stressed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a message marking the Day, adding “their depths hold current and future solutions to humanity's energy needs.”

Une planète soeur de la Terre découverte par la Nasa

Une équipe internationale d'astronomes a découvert la première planète hors du système solaire d'une taille comparable à la Terre et sur laquelle les températures permettent à l'eau d'exister à l'état liquide et d'être ainsi propice à la vie.

Cette découverte, réalisée grâce au télescope spatial américain Kepler, conforte la probabilité de trouver des planètes soeurs de la Terre dans notre galaxie, la Voie Lactée, estiment ces scientifiques dirigés par une astronome de la Nasa et dont les travaux sont publiés dans la revue américaine Science jeudi."C'est la première exoplanète de la taille de la Terre trouvée dans la zone habitable d'une autre étoile", souligne Elisa Quintana, une astronome du SETI Institute au centre de recherche Ames de la Nasa, qui a mené cette recherche.

Russia, US Plan to Jointly Fight Space Threats

MOSCOW, January 27 (RIA Novosti) – Russian and US experts are planning to join efforts in protecting our planet against thousands of potentially hazardous near-Earth space bodies, Russia’s emergencies minister said.

“The collision with the Chelyabinsk meteorite last year showed that space threats could be real and as destructive as huge fires or natural disasters on Earth,” Vladimir Puchkov said in an interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta to be published on Tuesday.
The minister said a joint working group would be set up in the near future to develop solutions to counter space threats.

The battle for Tasmania's wilderness

Could the government have the 2013 addition to the Tasmanian World Heritage Area revoked, asks John Pickrell.  
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AUSTRALIA’S WORLD HERITAGE areas are having a tough time. In 2013 it was revealed that the Great Barrier Reef had lost half its coral cover since the 1980s. Now, due to a series of port developments for coal and gas exports, it is hanging under the threat of ending up on the “List of World Heritage in Danger”, the precursor to World Heritage status being removed.

It would be embarrassing for this to happen in one of the world’s wealthiest nations, one that holds under its guardianship perhaps the most famous natural World Heritage Area (WHA) on the planet.