[posted by David Shephardson on Reuters, February 2, 2018] The U.S. Justice Department is seeking “substantial” civil fines from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV after the government filed suit accusing the company of illegally using software that led to excess emissions in 104,000 U.S. diesel vehicles sold since 2014, a person briefed on the matter said on Friday. Bloomberg News reported Friday that the Justice Department sent Fiat...

[posted by Melissa Twig on The Independent, January 30, 2018] When we turn on a tap, we in the developed world expect an endless stream of clean water to gush out. Like popping a pill when we have a headache or biting into a strawberry mid-winter, it’s a modern privilege most of us are barely even aware of. But South Africans are coming to the daunting realisation that the right to water and sanitation – one of the defining aspects of...

[Posted by Joan Martinez-Alier on The Ecologist, January 31, 2018] Protects against the extraction of fossil fuels and other natural resources – ecological distribution conflicts – cannot simply be resolved by payments of compensation. That is because for most people outside of the corporate boardroom, money is not the primary concern. The Environmental Justice Atlas or EJAtlas of the Autonomous University of Barcelona...

[posted by Valerie Volcovici on Reuters, January 19, 2018] President Donald Trump’s effort to put coal miners back to work stumbled in most coal producing states last year, even as overall employment in the downtrodden sector grew modestly, according to preliminary government data obtained by Reuters. Trump made reviving the coal industry, and the declining communities that depend upon its jobs, a central tenet in his presidential...

[posted by Shashank Bengali and Ramin Mostaghin on Los Angeles Times, January 17, 2018] In the mountains of western Iran, the province of Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari is known for mile-high lagoons, flowing rivers and wetlands that attract thousands of species of migratory birds. But years of diminishing rainfall have shriveled water sources. Conditions worsened, residents say, after Iranian authorities began funneling water 60 miles away to...

[posted by Benjamin Haas on The Guardian, January 16, 2018] The Iranian oil tanker Sanchi sank off the coast of Shanghai on Sunday, after a week of burning and sending plumes of smoke hundreds of metres into the air. Only three bodies of the 32 sailors were recovered. The ship was carrying 136,000 tons, or about 1 million barrels, of oil, that now threatens to pollute some of China’s most important fishing waters. What was Sanchi...