In an effort to fight climate change, Germany announced plans to quit coal mining and burning by 2038.
All 84 of the country's coal-fired power plants will be shut down over the 19-year time frame, a government-appointed commission announced Saturday, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Marchers braved the cold and rain on Jan. 27 in Brussels to urge politicians to act on climate change. euronews / YouTube screeenshot
By Common Dreams staff
At least 80,000 people marched in a cold rain in Brussels Sunday in another massive protest demanding that the European Union take urgent and far-reaching action to address the world's climate crisis.
Sunday's march was the fourth climate march in the past three weeks—each one significantly bigger than the last—as students across Belgium and other European countries have skipped their high school and college classes in order to shame those in power who refuse to move urgently.
Demonstrators participate in a protest march over agricultural policy on Jan. 19 in Berlin, Germany. Carsten Koall / Getty Images Europe
By Andrea Germanos
Organizers said 35,000 people marched through the streets of the German capital on Saturday to say they're "fed up" with industrial agriculture and call for a transformation to a system that instead supports the welfare of the environment, animals and rural farmers.
Aerial view of Florence, Nichols, Conway and Waccamaw, South Carolina, impacted by floodwaters on Sept. 21. South Carolina Air National Guard
By Sharon Kelly
2018 is set to rank as the fourth warmest year on record—and the fourth year in a row reflecting a full degree Celsius (1.8° Fahrenheit) temperature rise from the late 1800s, climate scientists say.
This was the year that introduced us to fire tornadoes, bomb cyclones and in Death Valley, a five-day streak of 125°F temperatures, part of the hottest month ever documented at a U.S. weather station.
Over the last week, the German Police have deployed thousands of officers, backed up by water cannons and armored vehicles, to evict hundreds of climate activists trying to defend the last remnants of an ancient forest in Germany from being destroyed by RWE, which wants to expand the biggest open coal mine in Europe.
Air pollution in Paris in December, 2016 as seen from Montmartre. Tangopaso / Wikimedia Commons
The European Commission confirmed in a statement Thursday that it would pursue legal action against six European countries for exceeding air pollution limits set for 2005 and 2010, Air Quality News reported.
The commission is referring France, Germany, the UK, Italy, Hungary and Romania to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which could fine them millions of euros if they do not act quickly enough to solve the problem, The Guardian reported.
German Agriculture Minister Julia Kloeckner
announced Tuesday she is drafting regulation to stop use of glyphosate in the country's home gardens, parks and sports facilities, Reuters reported.
The minister also plans to set "massive restrictions" for its use in agriculture, with exemptions for areas that are prone to erosion and cannot be worked with heavy machinery.
Nearly six months after elections took place, three German parties finally signed an agreement to form a coalition government Monday, Reuters reported.
But while the agreement, between Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union, and the Social Democratic Party, might relieve Germany's political uncertainty, it is less reassuring for the environment, according to some critics.
Most people know Germany for things like its popular car manufactures Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, its annual Oktoberfest—fun fact: Germany has 1,300 breweries and 5,000 different brew brands—and all those brilliant composers (Bach, Beethoven and Schumann, anyone?). But did you know the country is also a clean-energy superpower?
The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Untertürkheim with the city of Stuttgart behind. Daimler
German cities can ban older diesel vehicles from its roads to combat air pollution, the country's highest federal administrative court ruled Tuesday.
The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig has allowed the cities of Stuttgart and Duesseldorf to legally ban the most polluting diesel cars from zones worst affected by pollution, paving the way for other cities to issue similar bans.
In car-obsessed Germany, the government is considering free public
transportation in some of its most polluted cities to reduce road traffic and emissions from private vehicles.
"We are considering public transport free of charge in order to reduce the number of private cars," three ministers wrote in a letter to EU environment commissioner Karmenu Vella in Brussels.
