Around 1,500 birds have died around Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran for unknown reasons, an official with Iran’s Department of Environment says. “The reason behind this accident is not clear yet and is under investigation,” said the director of wildlife protection organization of the province of West Azarbaijan on Tuesday. Omid Yousefi ruled out the possibility of a bird flu outbreak, and added... 

Hurricane Patricia, the strongest Category 5 and most dangerous storm that has ever been recorded, has made landfall on the Pacific coast of Mexico, spreading panic among thousands of people along its path as it barrels across the country. “The eye of the hurricane has already made landfall in Emiliano Zapata” in Jalisco state, near the major port of Manzanillo, said Roberto Ramirez, the National... 

An enormous sinkhole suddenly opened up on a road in Sicily, Italy, swallowing a parked car. The driver miraculously escaped harm, having left the vehicle seconds before it sank underground. The eight-meter-wide hole opened up on a road in the town of Valverde, Catania province on Wednesday. It was most probably caused by days of heavy rains drenching the island. Luckily the female driver had enough... 

A chilling new Ministry of Defense (MoD) report circulating in the Kremlin today warns that the potential for global chaos has grown “beyond all measure” due to the catastrophic effects being caused by the severe weakening of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) that not only has slammed Europe with the “winter that never left” this year, but is now threatening to unleash upon... 

Over a million liters of a cyanide solution leaked from Barrick Gold’s Veladero mine in Argentina’s western San Juan province – nearly five times more than previously reported. Meanwhile, a judge has lifted a ban on pumping toxic substances at the site. The Toronto-headquartered mining company initially said it had spilled just 224,000 liters of the toxic liquid into the Potrerillos River. By... 

Hydra is a genus of small, simple, fresh-water animals that possess radial symmetry. Hydra are predatory animals belonging to the phylum Cnidaria and the class Hydrozoa. They can be found in most unpolluted fresh-water ponds, lakes, and streams in the temperate and tropical regions and can be found by gently sweeping a collecting net through weedy areas. They are multicellular organisms which are... 

The EPA’s office of environmental health hazard assessment in California wants to label four chemicals, including the most popular herbicide and key ingredient of Monsanto’s Roundrup, glyphosate, as “known to cause cancer,” following the most recent WHO cancer research division’s report. The “notice of intent” envisions placing Glyphosate within 30 days to the list of chemicals that... 

The “lungs” of our planet consist of about 3 trillion trees, and 20% of them are in the territory of Russia. That is a record-breaking figure (640 billion), which is double the number of trees in Canada, that ranked second. Thomas Crowther, a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies analyzed with his colleagues satellite images of tree populations... 

Australia sought guidance from US environmental regulators about the impact of fracking on water supplies. The practice is currently banned in some Australian states, but the federal government wants a new set of guidelines regarding the process. The US’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provided the Australian Department of the Environment with details of a recent study it had carried out... 

Desperate to preserve its water supply amid a four-year drought, Los Angeles is turning a reservoir into a ball pit. It may not seem like the most scientific approach, but officials say the “shade balls” will protect valuable H2O in the City of Angels. Bringing new meaning to the term “throwing shade,” authorities claim the black, plastic balls will preserve the Van Normal reservoir’s water... 

Rescue workers save a child as Typhoon Soudelor strikes Taiwan on August 8, 2015. Powerful Typhoon Soudelor has ripped through central Taiwan with severe winds and torrential rain, killing at least six people and wounding nearly 200 others while leaving some 4 million households without power. Five more people were reported missing as of 10 pm local time Saturday after the strong storm made landfall... 

The Environmental Protection Agency is warning residents to keep away from a river in Colorado after accidentally spilling mine waste water into it. The EPA was investigating the abandoned Gold King Mine on Wednesday together with the state Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety, when they triggered the release of the waste into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River in San Juan County. Ironically,... 

Struggling with the pollution of the Spokane River, a town in the state of Washington is taking agrochemical giant Monsanto to court for selling chemicals that endanger human health and the environment, despite it allegedly having known of the hazard for decades. The lawsuit, filed in a US District Court in Spokane, Washington, holds Monsanto accountable for pollutants flowing into the 111 miles (179... 

The Obama administration has released its final Clean Power Plan which regulates carbon emissions from US power plants. The plan calls for a 32 percent reduction in emissions from 2005 levels by 2030. However, some worry higher energy bills are in the works. On Monday afternoon, President Barack Obama has formally announced the updated plan that was first issued in June 2014. The proposal is the headline... 

The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution that tackles smuggling of endangered wildlife. The resolution was approved unanimously by the 193-member world body on Thursday. Although the resolution is not legally binding, its universal support reflects growing global opposition to the escalating poaching and trafficking, especially in elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns. Gabon and...