Shell’s Alaska Offshore Drilling Plans Abandoned Until Next Year
Following a series of setbacks, Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced on September 17 that it will be abandoning plans to drill for oil this year off Alaska’s coast. Some environmental groups reacted with hesitant optimism, as Greenpeace declared in a press statement that “the Arctic is proving to be the company’s Waterloo,” but added, “the fight continues.” Greenpeace had previously launched a “Save The Arctic” campaign to create a global sanctuary around the North Pole and ban offshore oil drilling in the Arctic. The group added that this campaign “won’t stop until the region wins protection.”
Paris mayor bans vehicles to reduce traffic
Bertrand Delanoe replaces some motorways with bicycle routes to alleviate traffic and help pedestrians.
Miners in Australia back coastal protection plan
Queensland miners have tentatively backed a plan to compensate for the damage their dredging works cause to seagrass beds.
France Says No to Genetically Modified Crops, No to Fracking
France will maintain its ban on genetically modified crops [GMOs] and will ban fracking, politicians announced during an environmental conference held in Paris. “The government is keeping its moratorium on the cultivation of GMO seeds currently authorized in the European Union,” Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told the conference in Paris.
