We no longer have the luxury of tackling only one issue at a time. We urgently need to devise a management system that works across scales from local to global, and allows us to optimise our use of marine resources in a sustainable way…
Climate Change
It’s a painful reminder that sometimes we must be leaders ourselves, before we can expect our elected officials to do the same. In this case, it’s clearly up to us to connect the dots…
Rising Farm Animal Population Poses Environmental and Public Health Risks
World Resources Institute
03-23-2012
CAFOs produce high levels of waste, use huge amounts of water and land for feed production, contribute to the spread of human and animal diseases, and play a role in biodiversity loss. Farm animal production also contributes to climate change…
Nationwide, the date of “first leaf” has clearly shifted—arriving roughly 4 days earlier now on March 17 (1981-2010 average) from March 20 (1951-1980 average). This shift affects all sorts of biological processes that are triggered by warmer temperatures…
Rally to Protest Obama’s ‘All of the Above’ Energy Policy at Ohio State University
EcoWatch
03-22-2012
President Obama will be greeted by a rally opposed to his “all of the above” energy policy—a plan fostering the cultivation of alternative energy sources as well as oil and gas—when he visits the campus of The Ohio State University on March 22…
Groups Slam Obama’s Decision to Expedite Southern Segment of Keystone XL Pipeline
Friends of the Earth
03-22-2012
The president needs to prove that his initial rejection of Keystone XL wasn’t simply a ploy to placate the environmental voters who dared to hold him to his own rhetoric about the need for real leadership on climate and our fossil fuel dependence…
Our natural systems are the foundation of our economy. We can roughly estimate how much it will cost to reforest the earth, protect topsoil, restore rangelands and fisheries, stabilize water tables and protect biological diversity…
The longer we invest in the “golden age of gas” it prolongs the sunset of our fossil fuel addiction, preventing a full scale switch to a clean energy future. And as Michael Klare recently pointed out, the longer we continue our fossil…
My bet is he’ll talk about what’s he’s called his “all of the above” energy policy—about how America has drilled a record number of oil and gas wells during his administration, about how fracking technology has spread around the country…
With China’s coal consumption climbing at eight percent per year, annual global greenhouse gas emissions will skyrocket, setting off multiple strong self-reinforcing environmental feedbacks that will ensure the melting of all polar ice, the death of the oceans and the collapse of most agricultural production on the planet…
Myriad land uses threaten the Chiricahua leopard frog and its habitat include mining, livestock grazing, water diversion, groundwater pumping, development, and altered fire regimes. Drought, exacerbated by climate change, also…
Records continue to fall across much of the U.S., as the extraordinary March heat wave rolls onward. The warm weather, with daytime high temperatures close to 40°F above average in some places…
As 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben explains in the video, we’re gearing up for a major new fight to end the billions of dollars in subsidies the fossil fuel industry receives each year—the tax-breaks, handouts, and loopholes that are just…
Report Looks at Health Threats from Flooding in a Warming World
Union of Concerned Scientists
03-15-2012
The report calls attention to these impacts by listing the top five health risks of extreme precipitation and flooding—drowning while attempting to drive through rising water; drinking contaminated tap water; being exposed to fouled water bodies…
A new report released today, said that by 2030, many locations are likely to see storm surges combining with sea level rise to raise waters at least 4 feet above the local high-tide line. Nearly 5 million U.S. residents live in 2.6 million homes on land below this level…
But here we are, yet again facing the challenge of high summer gas prices, battling pollution from fossil fuel emissions and being forced to divert resources to address our energy security….
“Not only will increased reliance on domestic fossil fuels perpetuate our vulnerability to disorder in the Middle East (given the global nature of the oil market and resulting oil-price dynamics); it will also expose us to a host of other perils…
Cities designed for humans rather than cars are better places to live, with lower pollution levels, less traffic congestion, more parks and public spaces, improved opportunities for social interaction and healthier citizens…
The more than 100,000 I-Kiribati (Kiribati residents) face rising sea levels, reduced access to safe water, and changing weather patterns in part due to climate change. The village of Tebunginako, which is now all but abandoned, is a powerful symbol of this threat…
Not only would this amendment despoil our environment, but it also doesn’t make sense from a fiscal perspective since the leasing required by this amendment would not succeed in funding our nation’s transportation infrastructure needs…
The tight oil boom is looking typical of many resource booms that have come before—a rush to develop a natural resource as quickly as possible that will make some people a lot of money. But the impacts on communities, the…
Victory in the Senate—No Revival of the Rejected Keystone XL Pipeline
Natural Resources Defense Council
03-08-2012
In a victory for people across the U.S., the Senate defeated an attempt to approve the already rejected Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Backers of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline just do not seem to learn—the country does not want…
This is the first time that the pipeline has had an up or down vote in the Senate. If we can block Keystone on this vote, we will be in a much stronger position to keep it bottled up in the future…
For TransCanada it is a race against time. It needs to get the pipeline built by about 2015, to try and pre-empt the Northern Gateway pipeline from getting approved. By starting on the southern section it will shorten the…
One place to start is at skepticalscience.com. Click on the tab that says “Arguments” for scientific responses to all the main climate change denier talking points…
Four New Feedstocks Fail to Meet Renewable Fuel Standard for Biofuels
Friends of the Earth
03-06-2012
The original ruling allowed four biofuel feedstocks—camelina oil, energy cane, giant reed and napiergrass—to qualify toward mandates for biofuels consumption set by the Renewable Fuel Standard…
After a period of declining levels of belief in global warming, there appears to be a modest rebound in the percentage of Americans who believe temperatures on the planet are increasing…
We don’t know exactly when and how that mass sea change in understanding will take place. In the meantime, those of us who get it on how bad our situation is must continue to speak out and take action…
These cumulative emissions will remain in the atmosphere for extended periods due to the long lifetime of CO2, meaning that global mean surface temperatures will increase to a level greater than if we continued to use conventional…
“Turning up the heat and increasing our solar market twelve-fold in the next eight years, as envisioned by Governor Brown, will bring twelve times the economic and environmental benefits to Californians across the state…
