Environmental News Today

There were several important environmental bulletins today that readers might find interesting.

1. The EU, led by Slovenian PM Janez Jansa, announced that by 2009 it expects to have approved the mandates for 20% carbon dioxide emission cuts by 2020. More here from Reuters. UPDATE: Romania has announced that it will fight the policy.
   
2. An anonymously submitted Slashdot article shows that sunlight can be combined with CO2 to create energy. Read about it here.
   
3. An environmental study suggests that CO2 kills hundreds each year. Doubtful? Read it yourself.
   
4. Heavy flooding in Mozambique has killed at least six. More here. Also, East Australia has had record rainfall. Thousands are stranded, according to the BBC.
   
5. Russia has announced interest in landing a probe on Europa, a moon of Jupiter, by 2015-2025. Maybe Bush can join them.
6. Romania's problem with swine fever has caused the EU to ban imports of pork from that country. For special Christmas and Easter celebrations, the throats of the pigs are slit in ritual manner. EU code requires stunning beforehand to eliminate unneeded suffering on the part of the animal, but today have agreed to compromise, and allow this practice for these two holidays only. Environmentalists have a lot to be angry at Romania for today.

In case you noticed, most of these links are from Reuters: Environment. They have a great RSS feed.