Environmental Protection

The global pandemic has proven the value of international research cooperation but are geopolitical tensions, notably between the U.S. and China, undermining that process? It’s argued that all sides need to strike a balance that safeguards the rewards of cooperation because other global issues such as climate change, environmental degradation and disease require it. [node:read-more:link]

In what is being described as a precedent-setting judgment, Royal Dutch Shell has been ordered by a court in The Netherlands to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions in that country by 45 per cent from 2019 levels by 2030. A spokesman for the petroleum giant said it expects to appeal the ruling in the case brought by Friends of the Earth along with six other organizations and thousands of Dutch citizens. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. territory of Guam in the Western Pacific has been cleared by the Supreme Court to pursue a $160-million lawsuit against Washington over the cost of cleaning up a landfill dating to the 1940s. The court was unanimous in its May 24 ruling, which overturned a lower court’s decision that Guam had waited too long to pursue the claim. [node:read-more:link]

Alberta’s auditor general plans to investigate how the province has been left to clean up 3,406 oil and gas wells left behind by bankrupt companies and why an arm’s-length government agency failed to address the situation. An additional 94,000 inactive wells in the province also could require remediation at public expense. [node:read-more:link]

Volkswagen Group has been fined $196.5 million in the Ontario Court of Justice after pleading guilty to having illegally imported 130,000 VW, Audi and Porsche automobiles that violated emissions standards. The company and the federal government had agreed to the penalty handed down 22 January by Judge Enzo Rondinelli. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. government has abandoned an investigation of California’s emissions standards deal with BMW, Ford, Honda and Volkswagen to apply the state’s strict caps to any of their vehicles sold nationwide. California’s attorney general says the federal government should be going after “real" anticompetitive activities. [node:read-more:link]

Two fiery derailments 06 February in Saskatchewan have prompted a Transport Canada directive that speed limits for trains with 20 or more cars carrying dangerous goods must be halved, to 32 kilometres an hour in metropolitan areas and to 40km/h elsewhere. [node:read-more:link]

Satellite imagery suggests that China’s emissions of nitrogen dioxide by industry and internal combustion engines have been declining, possibly related to a manufacturing slowdown as part of China’s stop the spread of Covid-19. As the epicentre of the viral outbreak, China itself has reported nearly 80,000 cases, but it has spread to more than 50 other countries. [node:read-more:link]

Within hours of being sworn in as the 46th U.S. President Jan. 20, Joe Biden signed a flurry of executive orders designed to undo many key policy decisions by his Republical predecessor, including some affecting Canada. Most notable was his reversal of Donald Trump’s renewal of a permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline. [node:read-more:link]

The history of the Trans Mountain pipeline will have to include a chapter entitled "The Hummingbird Factor.” Under the Migratory Birds Act, this tiny bird is successfully shutting down pipeline construction while they nest and rear their even teenier hatchlings. [node:read-more:link]

The Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has received a U.S. Navy contract worth more than $12 million to develop unmanned submarine vehicles and buoys as well as a communications and data sharing network. The stated goal is enhanced monitoring of environmental changes in the Arctic. [node:read-more:link]

The Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has received a U.S. Navy contract worth more than $12 million to develop unmanned submarine vehicles and buoys as well as a communications and data sharing network. The stated goal is enhanced monitoring of environmental changes in the Arctic. [node:read-more:link]

A South Korean naval vessel stationed off Somalia as a piracy deterrent has been ordered closer to the Strait of Hormuz as tensions rise between Seoul and Iran over the seizer of a South Korean tanker. Tehran says the ship was polluting the sea during a transit from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates, a claim the tanker captain has denied. Meanwhile, Seoul plans a delegation to Tehran “at the earliest possible date” to try to negotiation the tanker’s release. [node:read-more:link]