Firefighters put out two fires blaze after smoke alarm triggered the shut down of a French nuclear reactor. Officials said there were no injuries or consequences for the environment.

Firefighters battled two blazes at a nuclear reactor in northern France after smoke triggered the alarms and automatically shut down the reactor, operator EDF said.

The firefighters "went into the building housing the reactor of the number two production unit of the Penly nuclear power plant to extinguish two fires," EDF said in a statement.

"There were no injuries, and the incident has no consequences for the environment," it said, adding that an emergency team had checked the plant to ensure the fires were extinguished.

London's air is so toxic that it has been linked to nearly one in five deaths a year. Responsibility for the capital's air quality lies at the door of Boris Johnson, who has responded with shocking languor to this public health emergency. The mayor's flagship solution is to literally glue the pollution to the ground.

His specially adapted gritting lorries have been haunting our highways for the past few months, spraying adhesive up and down our worst pollution hotspots and sticking exhaust fumes to the asphalt. Rather than tackling the problem at its source, by tampering and gluing around air pollution monitors Johnson's aim is to avoid a £300m EU fine for failing to comply with air quality standards.

Chile's supreme court has green-lit a controversial dam project in the Patagonia that could generate up to 20% of the country's electricity demand in 2020, but is opposed by environmentalists and local groups for the damage it will cause the region.

The highest legal authority in Chile rejected seven appeals filed against Project HidroAysén, which plans to build five dams, flooding 6,000 hectares. The government had approved the project last year but the case was taken to the supreme court after objections were raised over the environmental impact study.

Companies making devices that generate renewable energy from the ebb and flow of tides and waves around the UK could win a share of a new £20m government prize announced on Thursday.

It is hoped the scheme, the Marine Energy Array Demonstrator (Mead), will encourage growth in the industry, which has been struggling to create a commercially viable projects. Ministers believe wave and tidal power could in the future generate up to 20% of Britain's energy needs and create 10,000 jobs in the sector.

California Governor Jerry Brown announced a $120 million settlement last week with utility company NRG. The funds will be used to develop a large scale infrastructure effort for electric vehicles. This statewide charging network will include at least 200 fast-charging stations and another 10,000 plug-in units at 1,000 locations across the state.

The U.S. Coast Guard says it has unleashed cannon fire at a Japanese vessel set adrift by last year's tsunami, stopping the ship's long, lonely voyage across the Pacific Ocean.

Spokesman Paul Webb says a Coast Guard cutter fired Thursday on the abandoned 164-foot Ryou-Un Maru in the waters of the Gulf of Alaska and more than 150 miles from land.

The Japanese ship was destined for scrapping when the Japan earthquake struck so there is no cargo on board.

A little over 30 years ago, a teenager named Jadav "Molai" Payeng began burying seeds along a barren sandbar near his birthplace in northern India's Assam region to grow a refuge for wildlife. Not long after, he decided to dedicate his life to this endeavor, so he moved to the site where he could work full-time creating a lush new forest ecosystem. Incredibly, the spot today hosts a sprawling 1,360 acre of jungle that Payeng planted single-handedly.

great story, h/t steve hynd @ agonist

"It's very hard to see what is kept invisible" Roseanne Barr

UPDATE: Today (2/22/12), the USDA extended the public comment period on this issue until April 27, 2012.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is currently deciding whether or not to approve an application by Dow Chemical for its controversial genetically engineered (GE) corn crop that is resistant to the highly toxic herbicide 2,4-D, one of the main ingredients in Agent Orange.

On February 22nd, just 5 days before the close of the comment period, the USDA extended the public comment period on this issue until the end of April 2012. The Center for Food Safety (CFS), the nation's leading organization in the fight against GE crops, was one of the groups that requested this extension from USDA, and we are pleased the agency responded accordingly. If approved, CFS has vowed to challenge USDA's decision in court, as this novel GE crop provides no public benefit and will only cause serious harm to human health, the environment, and threaten American farms.