The 2019 Atlantic hurricane season is officially underway, yet many people haven’t recovered from some of last year’s storms. Meantime, tornados have torn up swaths of several U.S. states in the past few weeks, and floodwaters have wreaked even more damage. Across the U.S. and elsewhere, tornados, flooding and fires …

The 2019 Atlantic hurricane season is officially underway, yet people haven’t recovered from some of last year’s storms. Meantime, tornados have torn up swaths of several U.S. states in the past few weeks, while flood waters wreaked even more damage. All of this has a psychological toll, as VOA’s Carol …

Efforts to recycle discarded plastic have not reduced piles of single-use products from landfills, and China will no longer import plastic waste for recycling. The United Nations says more than 8 million tons of plastic enters the ocean every year. Plastics are increasingly killing marine life and birds, threatening ecosystems …

More than 1 million people across the world are diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections (STI) every day, the World Health Organization said. In a study released Thursday, the U.N. health agency said 1 in every 25 people globally has at least one of four infections: chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis and syphilis. …

The number of measles cases confirmed in the United States in 2019 has reached 1,001, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report said this week. As of last week, the total for 2019 had already reached the highest point in any year since 1992, when there were 2,237 cases of …

A dramatic scene from the twilight of the age of dinosaurs —a T. rex feasting upon a horned plant-eater named Triceratops — will greet visitors when an ambitious new fossil hall opens on Saturday at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. Construction of the hall at the federally …

A 16-year-old from Guatemala died of complications of the flu while in U.S. Border Patrol custody, according to preliminary autopsy findings, alarming doctors who questioned whether immigration authorities missed warning signs or chances to save his life. Carlos Hernandez Vasquez contracted bacterial infections in addition to the flu, as well …

Liz Hung supports a lot of the imaginative concepts being discussed to make Vietnam “greener” economically and in terms of urban planning.   Consider traffic lights. Hung described how government authorities could collect smartphone data to see which streets are crowded, and then calibrate the stoplights to optimize traffic flow. …

They’re called biocurtains, and for one small firm they lie somewhere between environmental engineering and art. These unique installations are filled with algae that suck up carbon and emit oxygen, and could be one small element involved with engineering our way out of catastrophic climate change. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

A deep-sea fish can hide its enormous, jutting teeth from prey because its chompers are virtually invisible – until it’s too late. What’s the dragonfish’s secret? The teeth are transparent, and now scientists have discovered how the fish accomplished that trick.  Findings were published Wednesday in the journal Matter. The …

Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka thought it must be a joke when he was told he could irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, cleanly and efficiently using a pump fueled by cotton waste. “Who could believe it’s possible to make a fuel better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn’t!” …

Ahead of World Environment Day, a group of Haitian young professionals put into practice a famous line uttered by former U.S. president John F. Kennedy in his 1961 inaugural address: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” With the help …

Senior U.S. and military officials are warning Congress about the potential threat to national security from melting ice in the Arctic.   Officials from the Office of National Intelligence and the Pentagon say climate change will open the Arctic to more ship traffic and commercial activities by Russia and China …

Activists marking World Environment day are calling for action to tackle air pollution, which researchers say kills millions of people every year and impoverishes societies struggling to reduce its harmful effects. “We are walking on” is a World Environment Day song inspired by childhood memories of a Japanese town fighting …

Nobody is safe from air pollution, the United Nations warned on World Environment Day, with nine out of 10 people on the planet now breathing polluted air. This has led to a growing, global health crisis, which already causes about 7 million deaths per year, according to the World Health …

In a courtroom packed with environmental activists, federal judges wrestled Tuesday with whether climate change violates the constitutional rights of young people who have sued the U.S. government over the use of fossil fuels. A Justice Department attorney warned three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that …

From late-night tumbles on the way to the bathroom to accidents outdoors, more and more elderly Americans are dying after a fall, with the risk doubling since 2000, according to a study published Tuesday. The figures confirm a trend that has also been observed in Europe.  In the United States, …

Argentina’s Supreme Court upheld the country’s glacier protection law Tuesday, rejecting an effort by mining giant Barrick Gold Corp. to have it declared unconstitutional. The decision was praised by environmentalists and marked a setback for one of the world’s biggest gold miners.    Barrick argued that the 2010 law could …

Cameroon’s forest tribes have long depended on insects to supplement their diets. The palm weevil grub, a fat worm found in palm trees, is such a popular source of protein that it has squirmed out of the forests and onto the plates at popular restaurants. In Cameroon’s capital, some unusual …

California officially gave its blessing to coffee Monday, declaring the beverage does not pose a “significant” cancer risk. The rule, proposed a year ago by regulators, means coffee won’t have to carry ominous warnings that the beverage may be bad for you. The state took the rare move after a …

Hundreds of tornadoes and widespread floods have ravaged the U.S. Midwest and Great Plains states over the past couple of weeks. The flooding is breaking some weather records, and at least 38 people have been killed by tornadoes in the United States so far this year. Blame climate change? Scientists …

A new form of drug drastically improves survival rates of pre-menopausal women with the most common type of breast cancer, researchers said on Saturday, citing the results of an international clinical trial.  The findings, presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago, showed that …

You know things are not going well for your industry when one of your best customer gives a keynote speech at your annual conference to talk up your competition. At the Virginia Coal and Energy Alliance’s 40th Annual Conference in May, electric utility Dominion Energy highlighted the company’s agreement with …

A California company says its experimental blood test was able to detect many types of cancer at an early stage and gave very few false alarms in a study that included people with and without the disease. Many companies are trying to develop early detection “liquid biopsy” tests that capture …

Chinese scientists have discovered that carbon dioxide is more efficient to use in fracking than water. Fracking is the controversial process in which water or other fluids are injected into underground rocks at high pressure to release oil and natural gas deposits.  U.S. environmentalists have denounced the process because of …