Countries from around the world set their sights Monday on a pivotal deal to curb plastic waste, a source of long-term pollution and worsening contamination of the ocean's food chain.

Leaving the EU could cause "untold damage" to Britain's ecosystems and undermine its attempts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, green groups warned Friday, calling on the government to prioritise the environment after Brexit.

The United States overtook Europe to become the world's second largest market for electric cars last year, according to a report Wednesday that accused EU carmakers of holding back sales ahead of new emissions rules.

Seals and whales in the Arctic are shifting their feeding patterns as climate change alters their habitats, and the way they do so may determine whether they survive, a new study has found.

A tornado tore through the southern US state of Alabama on Sunday, killing 23 people, uprooting trees and causing "catastrophic" damage to buildings and roads, a local sheriff said. 

Declaring climate change the nation's most pressing issue, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee launched his 2020 Democratic presidential bid on Friday with a promise to refocus American government and society.

"It is time for our nation to set a new priority," Inslee told supporters gathered at a solar panel business in Seattle. "This is truly our moment. It is our moment to solve America's most daunting challenge and make it the first, foremost and paramount duty of the United States ... to defeat climate change."

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg who has sparked school strikes worldwide against global warming joined thousands of students in Hamburg Friday, urging them to stay angry and fight for change.

Italy's anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) made the environment one of its main campaign themes in 2018.

From a container wafts the sweetly pungent odor of coffee grounds which, far from being discarded as waste, are being lucratively recycled to produce oyster mushrooms.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 hit Ecuador Friday but there were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage.

The quake struck before dawn in Ecuador's eastern Amazon region 17 kilometers (10 miles) from the town of Montalvo near the border with Peru, the US Geological Survey said.