Canada

"A Vernon parent is wondering why school playing fields are still being sprayed with pesticides as communities across the country have discontinued using chemicals to control weeds."

"More than 20,000 old oil and gas wells across [Alberta] have been sitting abandoned or inactive for more than a decade without being cleaned up, worrying landowners and environmentalists who say the sites unnecessarily eat up and possibly contaminate valuable farm land."

"The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has quietly approved a new genetically engineered corn with eight different insect- and weed-fighting traits, but farmer and environmental groups in Canada say the approval was rushed and environmental risks ignored."

Winds are whipping up wildfires in a British Columbia community where housing subdivisions have encroached on surrounding forests in recent years. Thousands of people are being evacuated from their homes.

"Canadian nuclear safety regulators say they have underestimated the seriousness of a design feature at the country's electricity-producing reactors that would cause them to experience dangerous power pulses during a major accident."