Giant piles of debris from Japan’s earthquake and tsunami scar the country’s once picturesque northeast coast — and the clear-up is hamstrung by fears the rubbish may be contaminated by radiation.
Decades-worth of waste was left behind when the waters receded in March last year after claiming more than 19,000 lives.
The survivors are desperate to rebuild, [...]
The Inuit are split on the wisdom of large-scale uranium mining in their territory, with some saying their communities desperately need the economic development, while others are concerned about the environmental fallout from the industry. With a population of just 30,000 mostly Inuit people living in a territory the size of Western Europe, Nunavut — [...]
The NY Times reports:
SAN FRANCISCO — On the Chinese calendar, this week ushers in the year of the dragon. But here, it feels a lot more like the year of the wolf.
Richard Cockle/The Oregonian, via Associated Press
John Stephenson, a biologist, measured the stride of the gray wolf known as OR7 in Crater Lake [...]
When you think of proponents of green energy, the Saudi oil minister may not be the first person who comes to mind. But in a speech on Monday in London, Ali al-Naimi, the minister from OPEC’s leading member nation, had a lot to say about renewable energy and global warming.Ali al-NaimiAssociated PressAli al-Naimi, the Saudi [...]
Tom Laskawy writes for Grist:
When I wrote recently about the next generation of genetically engineered seeds, I was in truth referring to the next next generation. The fact is that the next actual generation of seeds is already out of the lab and poised for approval by the USDA.
And I’m not talking about Monsanto’s recently approved [...]
The East Bay Express figures out the jobs picture:
During a Republican presidential primary debate last June, Michele Bachmann lit into the Environmental Protection Agency, recommending it be renamed the “job-killing organization of America.” Her fellow contenders nodded in agreement, each explaining how shutting down the EPA, or at least instituting a moratorium on regulations, would [...]
The Yasuni National Park, known as "the lungs of the world" and one of the most bio-diverse places on earth, is under threat from oil drilling. The race is on to find the funds required to develop new sustainable energy programmes that would leave the oil – and the forest – untouched.
In the early light [...]
JASON DEAREN reports for the Associated Press
Auto dealers say California’s proposed rules to require carmakers to build more electric and other less-polluting hybrid cars and trucks by 2025 will cost consumers more money and will stifle the industry’s growth.
Consumer groups say customers might pay more for the vehicles but will save in lower fuel and [...]
GENE JOHNSON reports for the Associated Press
SEATTLE January 26, 2012 (AP)
Conservationists and Native American tribes are suing over the Navy’s expanded use of sonar in training exercises off the Washington, Oregon and California coasts, saying the noise can harass and kill whales and other marine life.
The environmental law firm Earthjustice, the Natural Resources Defense Council [...]
On November 6, 2011, Bill McKibben arrived at Washington, D.C.’s, Lafayette Park to protest the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, designed to carry oil 1,700 miles from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. McKibben, a Vermont writer and environmentalist, had been one of 1,252 people arrested in front of the White House in [...]
Sharon Wilson in Texas reports:
Huge thanks go to Brett Shipp for staying on this story. To recap:
A chemical plant blew up and I knew right away that fracking was involved.
Chemical fire spawns fish kill, criminal investigation
Waxahachie chemical firm cited for environmental violations
Chemical plant relocation upsetting Ellis County residents
Ellis County Commissioners catch heat from chemical plant [...]
India’s Environmental Support Group on Monsanto:
If you missed watching Al Jazeera’s The Stream special on Monsanto’s biopiracy in India while advancing Bt Brinjal, and its implications, you can catch it on You Tube. Its about 45 mins. long). The programme covers many diverse issues, in addition to biopiracy.
The programme was hosted by Derrick Ashong, musician [...]
The San Jose Mercury News editorial:
President — finally — stands up to GOP, Big Oil
President Barack Obama finally seems to be standing his ground in the philosophical fight with Republicans over the direction of the country.
The decision to not approve the Keystone oil pipeline was the right one. Obama clearly signaled to Republicans, Big Oil [...]
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
Federal regulators designated nearly 42,000 square miles of ocean along the West Coast as critical habitat for the Pacific leatherback turtle Friday, far less than originally proposed but still the largest protected area ever established in American waters.
The protected area is the first permanent safe haven in the waters of the [...]
Grist reports:
Anyone who’s been stung by a bee knows they can inflict an outsized pain for such tiny insects. It makes a strange kind of sense, then, that their demise would create an outsized problem for the food system by placing the more than 70 cropsthey pollinate — from almonds to apples to blueberries — [...]
Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) – Monsanto Co. corn that is genetically engineered to kill insects may be losing effectiveness against rootworms in four states, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.
Rootworms in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Nebraska are suspected of developing tolerance of the plants’ insecticide, based on documented cases of severe crop damage and reports from [...]
Lauren Simenauer writes in Science Progress:
Delegates from 194 parties are meeting in Durban, South Africa, for the annual U.N. Conference of Parties, or COP, climate change conference. Among topics being addressed is the reduction of carbon emissions worldwide, clean energy funding in lower-income nations, and the future of the Kyoto Protocol. One lesser-discussed issue that [...]
Willie Nelson appeals to everyone who eats to support small farmers and save the food system:
Thanks to the Occupy Wall Street movement, there’s a deeper understanding about the power that corporations wield over the great majority of us. It’s not just in the financial sector, but in all facets of our lives. The disparity between [...]
Joel Achenbach proposes thinking about Spaceship Earth in other ways:
Spaceship Earth enters 2012 belching smoke, overheating and burning through fuel at a frightening rate. It’s feeling pretty crowded, and the crew is mutinous. No one’s at the helm.Sure, it’s an antiquated metaphor. It’s also an increasingly apt way to discuss a planet with 7 billion people, [...]
The JournalStar published this statement from a civil engineer who served as an inspector for TransCanada:
There has been a lot of talk about the safety of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
I am not an environmentalist, but as a civil engineer and an inspector for TransCanada during the construction of the first Keystone pipeline, I’ve had [...]
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