Environmental News Network

The Power of Positive Thinking: Truth or Myth?
You might call Maarten van der Weijden the anti-Lance Armstrong. Last week, the Dutch Olympic long-distance swimming champion and cancer survivor told the British newspaper The Telegraph that he didn't want to be compared to the American cycling star. >> Read the Full Article
Drinking Water of 41 Million Americans Contaminated with Pharmaceuticals
An investigation by the Associated Press (AP) has revealed that the drinking water of at least 41 million people in the United States is contaminated with pharmaceutical drugs. It has long been known that drugs are not wholly absorbed or broken down by the human body. Significant amounts of any medication taken eventually pass out of the body, primarily through the urine. >> Read the Full Article
Environmentalists Target Snack Food Makers Over Palm Oil Use
(Fortune) -- What do Oreo cookies made by Nabisco (KFT, Fortune 500), Cheez-It crackers from Kellogg's (K, Fortune 500) or General Mills' (GIS, Fortune 500) Fiber One Chewy Bars have to do with global warming and the destruction of tropical rainforests? A lot, say environmental activists. >> Read the Full Article
Food riots as floods swamp South Asia
Flood victims demanding food and shelter beat up government officials in India on Friday as monsoon rains spread misery among millions of people across South Asia and forced thousands from their homes. >> Read the Full Article
What Governments Must Do To Protect Elderly From Global Warming
The first casualties of global warming, when its effects really set in, will be the elderly. What are governments doing to prevent the worst impact? Little is known about any strategies or contingency plans in place. That is because the plans are only in the research stage. >> Read the Full Article
Bisphenol A exposure can increase risk of Diabetes and Heart Attacks.
In human fat tissues, bisphenol A (BPA) suppresses levels of a key hormone, adiponectin, that protects people from heart attacks and Type II diabetes. These results implicate BPA as a potential cause of metabolic syndrome, one of the most serious and costly public health problems in the US. Most Americans have levels of BPA within their serum within the range of concentrations sufficient to suppress adiponectin in these experiments. The BPA effect on adiponectin disappears at higher levels. >> Read the Full Article
UK citizens using 58 baths of water a day
While each person in the UK drinks, hoses, flushes and washes their way through around 150 litres of mains water a day, they consume about 30 times as much in â€œvirtualâ€ water embedded in food, clothes and other items â€“ the equivalent of about 58 bathtubs full of water every day. >> Read the Full Article
Making Waves â€“ World Water Week 2008
We are in the midst of World Water Week. The 2008 theme is â€œProgress and Prospects on Water: For a Clean and Healthy World with Special Focus on Sanitation.â€ World Water Week is a international conference focused on collaboration and the promotion of work that advances environmental and humanitarian development. >> Read the Full Article
Humanitarian Aid Looms as Georgia's Next Crisis
Diana Khidasheli and her four children spent the night before the August 8 outbreak of war with Russia in their house basement, hoping for an end to the intensive shelling of their village, Kemerti, in the Georgian-controlled South Ossetia conflict zone. Now Khidasheli thinks the decision to hide was a mistake. The next day, she had no time to pack. >> Read the Full Article
World needs global water agreement now
WWF Director-General James Leape today called on governments to support the entry into force of the 1997 UN Watercourses Conventionâ€”an international agreement which could play a key role in water security for about 40% of the world's population. >> Read the Full Article