The moratorium on commercial whaling, one of the environmental movement's greatest achievements, looks likely to be swept away this summer by a new international deal being negotiated behind closed doors.
The new arrangement would legitimise the whaling activities of the three countries which have continued to hunt whales in defiance of the ban – Japan, Norway and Iceland – and would allow commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary set up by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1994.
Conservationists regard it as catastrophic, but fear there is a very real chance of its being accepted at the next IWC meeting in Morocco in June, not least because it is being strongly supported by the US – previously one of whaling's most determined opponents.
Scurry County Judge Dan Hicks has declared a disaster and is requesting assistance from the state...
The Park Fire, already the largest wildfire in California this year has burned over 71,000 acres...
The largest wildfire to break out in the West this summer continued its explosive growth Friday...
World temperature records were shattered on Sunday on what may be the hottest day scientists have...
