Across the country, activists with ties to the Tea Party are railing against all sorts of local and state efforts to control sprawl and conserve energy. They brand government action for things like expanding public transportation routes and preserving open space as part of a United Nations-led conspiracy to deny property rights and herd citizens toward cities.

Many are suspicious of environmental initiatives. Ed Elswick, a county supervisor, voiced criticism at last month's meeting.

India has the worst air quality in the world, beating even its neighbour China, according to an annual survey based at Yale and Columbia universities in the United States.

Of all the countries surveyed in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), which measures the effects of polluted air on human health, India ranked the lowest at 132.

The study used satellite data to measure air pollution concentrations.

MUMBAI: For a dynamic city like Mumbai, it is difficult to stop new constructions or renovations of old buildings. But it is these constructions combined with the chilly weather that are making Mumbaikars unhealthy. Certain pollution levels are more than 100% higher than the normal limits that a person should breathe on days when the temperature dips unusually low.

“As a developing country in the frontlines of climate vulnerability, India has a vital stake in the evolution of a successful, rule-based, equitable and multilateral response to climate change,” said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the inauguration of the 12th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS) 2012 organised by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) here on Thursday.

The Congress will formally express its opposition to a European law aimed at reducing pollution from jetliners, a thorny diplomatic issue that has threatened to escalate transatlantic trade tensions.

House and Senate negotiators have agreed to a provision in sweeping aviation legislation that would put Europe on notice over its mandate for airlines worldwide to pay for carbon emissions from their planes while flying in Europe.

The bill is expected to be passed by Congress in the coming weeks.

Some 8.5 tons of radioactive water leaked from a reactor at Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant but it had not flowed outside the reactor building, Kyodo News said on Wednesday, quoting the plant’s operator.

Tokyo Electric Power Company said the leak occurred in the No 4 reactor after a pipe connected to the reactor dropped off, the news agency reported.

The leak was discovered Tuesday night and was stopped shortly afterwards.

Sri Lanka's overall environmental performance is improving and the country has been ranked as a modest performer according to a study on global environment released during this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week.

Sri Lanka has been ranked at the 55th place, six places below the United States ranked at 49th, in the 2012 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) prepared by the Yale University in the United States.

India has the worst air pollution in the entire world, beating China, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, according to a study released during this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos.

Of 132 countries whose environments were surveyed, India ranks dead last in the ‘Air (effects on human health)’ ranking. The annual study, the Environmental Performance Index, is conducted and written by environmental research centers at Yale and Columbia universities with assistance from dozens of outside scientists. The study uses satellite data to measure air pollution concentrations.

California approved aggressive new rules on Friday to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by requiring automakers to put many more electric and hybrid vehicles on the Golden State's roads by 2025.

The regulations were approved unanimously by nine members of the state's powerful air-quality regulator, the California Air Resources Board, at a meeting in Los Angeles.

They are expected to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 34 percent and smog and soot pollutants by 75 percent by 2025, in part by putting 1.4 million electric, plug-in and hydrogen vehicles on the state's roads.

A total of 103 out of 245 brick kilns in six districts of Barisal division are operating illegally flouting several notices of Department of Environment.

The illegal brick field owners had ignored several notices to take no-objection and clearance certificates from the environment department by installing modernised systems, the DoE Barisal officials claimed.

The Barisal divisional DoE deputy director, Md Kafil Uddin, said a total of 142 out of 245 brick kilns had no-objection certificates while rest 103 kilns were operating illegally.