International

"Former President Barack Obama says cities, states and nonprofit groups have emerged as 'the new face of leadership' on climate change. He briefly spoke Tuesday to a summit of mayors from around the world gathered in Chicago to address concerns about climate change since President Donald Trump rejected the Paris climate accord. The mayors signed a charter that echoes portions of the 2015 Paris agreement."

"Generating three centimeters of top soil takes 1,000 years, and if current rates of degradation continue all of the world's top soil could be gone within 60 years, a senior UN official said".

"Some of the worst mining disasters do not happen in mines. They take place at dams."

"Since early 2016, I have traveled to six major cities around the world (Jakarta, Tokyo, Lagos, New York, Sao Paulo and Amsterdam) to investigate how they manage — or mismanage — their waste. There are some remarkable differences. And a question emerges: Is this just garbage, or is it a resource?"

"After decades of recovery, right whales are now under threat from industrial fishing".

"Countries fishing the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean agreed Tuesday to expand the annual quota for prized Bluefin tuna to reflect an improvement in their stocks. Environmentalists insisted the increase was excessive and premature."

"In order to save glyphosate, the Monsanto corporation has undertaken an effort to destroy the United Nations' cancer agency by any means possible."

"BONN, Germany — After wrangling through the night, the 23rd conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change wrapped up early Saturday with modest accomplishments, paving the way to complete by next year the rules that will set the Paris agreement in motion."

"A landmark pledge seven years ago by the world’s richest nations to spend billions to help developing countries tackle climate change seemed like a godsend for Kiribati, the Pacific island nation threatened by rising seas. ...  But Kiribati — like many of the poorest countries most vulnerable to climate change — has yet to see any project funding."

"The Trump administration announced Wednesday that the remains of elephants legally hunted in Zimbabwe and Zambia can now be imported to the United States as trophies, reversing a ban under former president Barack Obama."