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Icelandic volcano eases but eruptions continue
An Icelandic volcano that is spewing ash into the air and wreaking havoc on flights across Europe appeared to be easing up on Saturday but could continue to erupt for days or even months to come, officials said. Iceland’s Meteorological Office said the cloud of ash above the volcano had shrunk to a height of…
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Volcanic ash disrupts northern Europe air traffic
Air traffic in much of northern Europe was halted Thursday by ash from a volcanic eruption in Iceland, aviation authorities said. “Due to ash, air traffic on the sea area between Scotland, Norway, northern Sweden, Britain, Norway and northern Finland is being limited,” Finland’s airport agency Finavia said. A volcanic eruption in Iceland spewed black…
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Australia arrests Chinese crew of grounded coal ship
Australian police arrested on Wednesday two senior crew members of a Chinese coal ship which ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef, charging them with damaging the reef by failing to sail a correct course. Chinese bulk carrier Shen Neng 1 was fully loaded and traveling at full speed on April 3 when it struck…
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Chinese ship leaking oil on Great Barrier Reef
A stranded Chinese bulk coal carrier leaking oil into the sea around Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is in danger of breaking up and damaging the reef, government officials said on Sunday. The 230-meter (754-ft) Shen Neng I was on its way to China when it ran aground on a shoal on Saturday. It had 950…
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Canada, US to collaborate on Greenhouse Gas Emissions Regulations
Canada will not unilaterally impose limits on greenhouse gas emissions from industry, saying on Thursday that it will work in tandem with the United States, as it is doing with vehicle standards. “We don’t anticipate doing this alone. Industrial regulations will require the same kind of collaboration that we’ve had with the United States on…
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Earth Hour 2010
Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge and Opera House temporarily went dark on Saturday as nations across the western Pacific turned out the lights for Earth Hour 2010 to call for action on climate change. The symbolic one-hour switch-off, first held in Sydney in 2007, has become an annual global event and organizers World Wide Fund for…
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Czech minister quits over controversial power plant
Czech Environment Minister Jan Dusik resigned Thursday from the caretaker cabinet, saying the prime minister had put pressure on him to decide hastily on plans to upgrade a controversial large coal-fired power plant. The ministry has yet to rule on the project, which has drawn objections from environmentalists and from Micronesia. The Pacific nation fears…
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House members seek to block EPA carbon limits
Two senior Democrats in the U.S. House filed a resolution to block the Obama administration from regulating greenhouse gases on its own if a climate change bill fails to pass Congress soon. The resolution of disapproval, filed on Thursday, is identical to a controversial resolution by Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. Both resolutions offer a fairly…
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Huge iceberg breaks off from Antarctic glacier
An iceberg the size of Luxembourg has broken off from a glacier in Antarctica after being rammed by another giant iceberg, scientists said on Friday, in an event that could affect ocean circulation patterns. The 2,500 sq km (965 sq mile) iceberg broke off earlier this month from the Mertz Glacier’s 160 km (100 miles)…
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New error in UN Climate report
The U.N. panel of climate experts overstated how much of the Netherlands is below sea level, according to a preliminary report on Saturday, admitting yet another flaw after a row last month over Himalayan glacier melt. A background note by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said a 2007 report wrongly stated that 55…