Climate change, pollution and fishing are causing irreversible damage to New Zealand’s marine environment and putting many birds and mammals at risk of extinction, according to a new report from the nation’s Ministry for the Environment. The report said New Zealand’s coastline, which stretches for about 15,000 kilometers, is also under increasing pressure from development and shipping. Agriculture, forestry and urbanization are …

Kenyan authorities have begun a mass vaccination of girls against the human papilloma virus, HPV, which causes cervical cancer. According to the World Health Organization, the East Africa region has the highest rate of cervical cancer in the world.Kenya officially launched its HPV vaccination program Friday in the coastal town …

 The world’s first female spacewalking team made history high above Earth on Friday, floating out of the International Space Station to fix a broken part of the power network.   As NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir emerged one by one, it marked the first time in a half-century …

Men have floated out the hatch on all 420 spacewalks conducted over the past half-century.That changes Friday with spacewalk No. 421.NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will make “HERstory,” as NASA is calling it, with the first all-female spacewalk. All four men aboard the International Space Station will remain …

Water and climate experts from across Asia are stressing the need to work with nature, rather than against it, to save the continent’s “disappearing deltas,” home to some 400 million people.Mounting research blames a confluence of rising sea levels driven by global warming and the damming and dredging of key …

Scientists worry about feeding 2 billion more people in the future as climate change hampers farmers and fishing fleet catches disappoint. To produce more protein more efficiently, startup companies are creating new kinds of farms that use artificial intelligence, robotics and advanced industrial techniques to raise tens of thousands of tons …

Scientists worry about feeding 2 billion more people in the future as climate change hampers farmers and fishing fleet catches disappoint. To produce more protein more efficiently, startup companies are creating new kinds of farms that use artificial intelligence, robotics and advanced industrial techniques to raise tens of thousands of tons …

Efforts to settle thousands of lawsuits related to the nation’s opioid epidemic intensified Wednesday ahead of the scheduled start of arguments in the first federal trial over the crisis.A person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press that three major drug distributors plus two manufacturers were working on …

Scientists have discovered a mash-up of two feared disasters – hurricanes and earthquakes.   They’re calling them “stormquakes.”   It’s a shaking of the sea floor during a hurricane or nor’easter that rumbles like a magnitude 3.5 earthquake. The quakes are fairly common, but they weren’t noticed before because they …

In Cameroon’s port city of Douala, most used cooking oil from hotels and restaurants was once dumped down the drain, where it fouled up plumbing systems and caused pollution.  A Cameroonian chemist decided to use his knowledge to change that practice. Cameroonian chemist Martial Gervais Oden-Bella makes soap and detergents by …

From sea cucumbers to cancer research, Vietnam and Australia will start collaborating on science initiatives that are meant to show how innovation can be used to spread out the benefits of economic growth evenly to more of the population.The Australian government has given more than 1.6 million Australian dollars to …

The German government recently unveiled a plan to tax carbon emissions from cars and buildings. It’s a big move in a country known for its fast cars, but whose young people are demanding climate friendly transportation. One way Germany hopes to reduce its carbon footprint – and appease the young …

Scientists are warning that honey bees are dying off – a threat to human survival. Bees’ legs and wings carry the pollen that allow crops to flourish. While pesticides protect those plants, they also kill the pollinators, a lesson being learned in Rwanda. We get more from VOA’s Arash Arabasadi. …

Two Pacific Northwest tribes on Monday demanded the removal of three major hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River to save migrating salmon and starving orcas and restore fishing sites that were guaranteed to the tribes in a treaty more than 150 years ago.The Yakama and Lummi nations made the demand …

Barely a wisp of water vapor streams from the smokestack into the clear morning sky at the Dry Fork Station power plant outside Gillette, Wyoming.Built in 2011, Dry Fork is “a great example of what a new, modern coal plant can do,” said Jason Begger, executive director of the Wyoming …

Scientists say the window is closing to save the planet from a climate catastrophe. While clean energy from the sun and wind are growing by leaps and bounds, fossil fuels still make up the vast majority of the world’s energy. And experts say coal, oil and natural gas will likely …

California has become the first state to require public universities to offer abortion pills at campus health centers.California’s Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday signed the bill into law, which requires the states’ 34 universities to offer abortion medication beginning in 2023.   The medication is a first-trimester procedure that involves …

Sixteen-year old Faithwins Iwuh — who is sometimes referred to as Nigeria’s Greta Thunberg — wants Nigeria to contribute to the global fight against climate change.To achieve this, she started planting trees around her school and neighborhood, and recycles used plastic bags into shower caps.Iwuh says she has been concerned …

Evolutionary biologists know that humans have traces of DNA that go back millions of years, well before humans were human. But thanks to some amazing new high-resolution imagery, scientists can now see how that ancient DNA shows up, then disappears in early human embryos. VOA’s Igor Tsikhanenka reports. …

The Trump administration Thursday proposed a rewrite of rules for dealing with lead pipes contaminating drinking water, but critics say the changes appear to give water systems decades more time to replace pipes leaching dangerous amounts of toxic lead.Contrary to regulatory rollbacks in many other environmental areas, the administration has …

The World Health Organization reports proper care could have prevented vision impairment or blindness in about half of the more than 2.2 billion people globally who suffer from these conditions. The findings were part of the WHO’s first World Report on Vision that was launched in Geneva in advance of …

To mark World Mental Health Day, the International Committee of the Red Cross is calling for greater psycho-social support for millions of people caught in violence and armed conflict.A survey finds more than one in five people in conflict-affected areas live with a mental health condition ranging from depression and …

 The World Health Organization reports progress in containing the Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, but says many challenges to its elimination remain.  WHO reports the number of cases in the outbreak now stands at 3,207, including 2,144 deaths. The executive Director of WHO Health Emergencies, Michael Ryan, …

Except for the occasional sunburn, a day at the beach is never a bad day. But lately visitors to Clifton Beach in Karachi, Pakistan are finding their day at the beach is being spoiled by some very unwelcome visitors. VOA’s Sidra Dar has more in this report narrated by Bezhan …

More than 4,000 people have died in Congo this year in the world’s largest measles outbreak, the United Nations children’s agency said Wednesday.   The Central African nation is also battling an Ebola outbreak that has killed about half that number since August 2018.   Since January, more than 200,000 …