Chinese President Xi Jinping is breathing easier these days, as he has escaped smog-enveloped Beijing to attend this week’s climate change summit in France. Xi has left behind empty playgrounds, for instance, as residents young and old are urged to stay inside amid Beijing’s worst air pollution this year. … [Read more...]

Photos of the bright-orange colored Animas River in southwestern Colorado made international headlines in August after three million gallons of toxic mining sludge poured into it. Contractors working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accidentally released the waste while attempting to clean up the site, abandoned by its original owners decades ago. … [Read more...]

Former coal baron Don Blankenship was found guilty of conspiring to violate coal mine safety standards Thursday. Blankenship, who headed up now-defunct Massey Energy until 2010, was indicted last November on charges that he violated federal mine safety rules and health standards at the Upper Big Branch coal mine between 2008 and 2010. … [Read more...]

The day before the start of the U.N. climate talks in Paris, some 785,000 people joined climate marches in 175 countries across the globe in what organizers are calling the largest climate marches in history. … [Read more...]

Mexican officials said they were administering DNA tests on a pair of burned bodies found along with the remains of a van, the Guardian reported. The van is said to belong to one of two missing Australian surfers, who authorities fear may have been killed while driving through the territory of a notorious drug cartel. … [Read more...]

On Monday, a Kashmiri doctor named Sandeep Mawa surprised the residents of Srinagar by starting a hug campaign where he stood blindfolded in the heart of the Jammu and Kashmir capital, inviting passersby to hug him, irrespective of their religion. His inspiration was a similar initiative by a Muslim man in Paris in the wake of the city-wide terrorist attacks on 13 Nov. … [Read more...]

Schools in the Chinese capital kept students indoors and parents brought their kids to hospitals with breathing ailments Tuesday as Beijing grappled with extremely severe air pollution for the fifth straight day. … [Read more...]

President Obama kicked off the Paris climate talks on Monday with a focus on future generations, quoting Martin Luther King, Jr., and calling on world leaders to take strong action at the conference, which runs through December 11. … [Read more...]