Important Issues

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How Chemicals Change Us – NYTimes.com

 
Scientists are observing with increasing alarm that some very common hormone-mimicking chemicals can have grotesque effects.

A widely used herbicide acts as a female hormone and feminizes male animals in the wild. Thus male frogs can have female organs, and some male fish actually produce eggs. In a Florida lake contaminated by these chemicals, male alligators have [...]

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Recent Posts

Whistleblower says Keystone isn’t safe

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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Can air fresheners make you sick? | Grist

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Let’s get the New Year off to a fresh start by tackling this sickening situation. In public spaces across the country, including offices, stores, restaurants, airports, and schools, air "freshener" is being forced upon us. Daily we are subjected to known carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and other toxic substances. Sounds like a horror film, but it [...]

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Dubious practices get ‘eco’ label

McClatchy Newspapers reports:

WASHINGTON — Consumers who buy one company’s swordfish caught off eastern Florida will see a blue and white label at the store that assures them the fish was caught with utmost care for life in the Atlantic Ocean.
The company awarded the eco label, Day Boat Seafood of Lake Park, Fla., says it’s a [...]

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SoCal Edison blocks renewable energy projects

Julie Cart of the Los Angeles Times reports:
January 9, 2012
Millions of dollars in renewable energy projects intended to provide power to facilities in California’s national parks and forests are sitting idle because of a years-long squabble with Southern California Edison.
A new $800,000 solar project at Death Valley National Park, photovoltaic panels at the state-of-the art [...]

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Antibiotic restriction is a first step

Tom Philpott of Mother Jones looks at the numbers:
For a few months now, President Obama’s FDA has been showing zero appetite for standing up to the meat industry on factory-farm livestock use. In two key decisions (here and here), the agency declined to impose real restrictions on farm drug use, promoting a “voluntary” approach instead.
But [...]

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Local residents protect the environment from their elected officials

Catherine Ryan Hyde summarizes the struggle Cambria has had with its own governing body, the Community Services District, to protect the local environment. The area is legally protected by state and federal law, but the CSD board of directors has pursued invading it to build a desalination plant. The full text of her summary includes [...]

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Glaciers: Going, Going, Gone – by Trish Riley

glacier in drive

Did I mention that I visited Glacier National Park last summer? Here’s my story… (fyi – my editor added the word “may” on page 5 regarding the relationship between mining for fossil fuels and global warming.) Thanks for reading! -Trish Riley
Montana’s Big Sky was a broad, clear blue as I said my goodbyes and boarded [...]

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Ag Gag bill introduced in Florida

Earlier this year a bill was introduced in Florida by Senator Jim Norman that would have made it a felony to take photos or video of a farm or agriculture operation.
The “Ag Gag” bill was openly supported by Big Ag and directed at both whistle-blowers who go undercover to document the cruelty that animals on [...]

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Gorillas Pet Tourist In Uganda

It is way beyond time for us to form an all new relationship with the animal kingdom. Let us begin today! Love, love, love.
Gorillas Pet Tourist In Uganda VIDEO.

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Where the GMOs Grow

MONSANTO

March 2011 marked the beginning of a preemptive lawsuit, with 83 plaintiffs joining forces against corporate giant Monsanto. Florida Organic Growers, a nonprofit organic certification and sustainable farming outreach group based in Gainesville, joined the fight in July. The 83 plaintiffs, representing a coalition of more than 270,000 farmers, are filing this lawsuit against Monsanto out of fear.

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Why Americans still breathe known hazards decades after ‘clean air’ law

Recent legislation would leave many communities vulnerable to airborne chemicals, among them Chester, Pa. “They told me a long time ago that I should move,” said Elwood Patrick, pictured above, “and I wish I had.” Emma Schwartz/iWatch News

Recent legislation would leave many communities vulnerable to airborne chemicals, among them Chester, Pa. “They told me a long time ago that I should move,” said Elwood Patrick, pictured above, “and I wish I had.” Emma Schwartz/iWatch News
Politics, industry and ‘hopelessly irrational’ EPA stymie air toxics crackdown
The stumbling, two-decade-old war on hazardous air pollutants — [...]

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Scientists Report Climate Change To Cause More ‘Unprecedented Extreme Weather’

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WASHINGTON — Think of the Texas drought, floods in Thailand and Russia’s devastating heat waves as coming attractions in a warming world. That’s the warning from top international climate scientists and disaster experts after meeting in Africa.
The panel said the world needs to get ready for more dangerous and “unprecedented extreme weather” caused by global [...]

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When the Springs Run Dry

egret

In the face of budget cuts and apathetic politicians, independent researchers fight to save Florida’s springs.

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Thousands protest Keystone pipeline

Keystone XL pipeline controversy

AP)  WASHINGTON — Thousands of protesters gathered in Lafayette Square across from the White House on Sunday to oppose a plan for a transnational oil pipeline they fear could harm the environment.

At one point, the crowd linked hands to surround the White House, keeping up pressure on President Barack Obama as [...]

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Keystone XL Oil Pipeline: A Symbolic Struggle Steeped In Fuzzy Math

Protestors in San Francisco make their feelings on the Keystone XL pipeline known late last month.

Protestors in San Francisco make their feelings on the Keystone XL pipeline known late last month.
This is the second of two articles about the controversy surrounding the development of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The first installment can be found here.
At the end of September, the mayor of tiny Atkinson, Neb., sat calmly waiting for [...]

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Biggest jump ever seen in global warming gases

WASHINGTON (AP) — The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the biggest amount on record, the U.S. Department of Energy calculated, a sign of how feeble the world’s efforts are at slowing man-made global warming.
The new figures for 2010 mean that levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined [...]

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Breadfruit transplanted to Ghana

breadfruit ntbg

Samoan Observer – October 17, 2011

Samoan breadfruit in Ghana

PR – The Ghana Alliance against Hunger and Malnutrition (HAG) has announced that one thousand 300mm tall Samoan variety breadfruit trees arrived in Accra, Thursday evening from a mass propagation facility outside Frankfurt, Germany.

They are of the Ma`afala and Ulu Fiti [...]

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McKibben rouses for 350

Bill McKibben

International environmentalist Bill McKibben spoke to a cheering “room full of people who are ready to go to work,” a sold-out crowd at the Fremont in San Luis Obispo on Oct. 30. It was an extra stop on his tour, “Brave New Planet: The Fight for a Livable Climate.” The San Luis Obispo Tribune’s environment [...]

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Fukushima towns struggle to store radioactive waste

(Reuters) – Japanese officials in towns around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant reacted guardedly to plans announced on Saturday to build facilities to store radioactive waste from the clean-up around the plant within three years.
Saturday’s announcement, seven months after the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years, came as towns near the plant are still [...]

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