Neurotoxic Pesticides Helping to Decimate Bees Populations, Studies Indicate | Common Dreams

Neurotoxic Pesticides Helping to Decimate Bees Populations, Studies Indicate | Common Dreams

Two studies show that a class of chemicals known as neonicotinoids created disorientation among bees and caused colonies to lose weight, which may have contributed to a mysterious die-off.

New Study Finds Skyrocketing Increase in Autism | Common Dreams

New Study Finds Skyrocketing Increase in Autism | Common Dreams
"Group says link to environmental factors shown, gov't should regulate toxic chemicals"

Senate Republicans Stand with Big Oil, Filibuster for Corporate America | AlterNet

Senate Republicans Stand with Big Oil, Filibuster for Corporate America | AlterNet
"The American taxpayer is subsidizing those billions Big Oil is raking in, while we pay more and more at the pump every week. At least we know now, definitively, which side the Republicans are on."

Study: More Conservatives Than Ever Distrust Science

Study: More Conservatives Than Ever Distrust Science: pJust 35 percent of self-identified conservatives said they had a “great deal of trust in science” in 2010, a new report published in the journal American Sociological Review reveals. The finding marks a 28 percent decline since the first survey taken in 1974, “when 48 percent of conservatives—about the same percentage as liberals—trusted science.” According [...]/p

A Message From A Republican Meteorologist On Climate Change

A Message From A Republican Meteorologist On Climate Change: Acknowledging Climate Change Doesn’t Make You A Liberal by Paul Douglas, via neorenaissance I’m going to tell you something that my Republican friends are loath to admit out loud: climate change is real. I am a moderate Republican, fiscally conservative; a fan of small government, accountability, self-empowerment, and sound science. I am not a climate [...]/p

Experts: Radiation at Fukushima Plant Now at Lethal Levels | Common Dreams

Experts: Radiation at Fukushima Plant Now at Lethal Levels | Common Dreams
"Radiation levels inside Fukushima's reactor 2 have reached fatally high levels, and levels of water are far lower than previously thought, experts say today."

Global Food Crisis Imminent, Drastic Changes Needed: Planet Under Pressure | Common Dreams

Global Food Crisis Imminent, Drastic Changes Needed: Planet Under Pressure | Common Dreams
"Scientists call for immediate shift to global sustainable agriculture, decrease in waste"

The Strange Conservative Brain: 3 Reasons Republicans Refuse to Accept Reality About Global Warming | | AlterNet

The Strange Conservative Brain: 3 Reasons Republicans Refuse to Accept Reality About Global Warming | | AlterNet
"Even many well-educated Republicans deny global warming. What's going on here?"

On the Brink: Planet Near Irreversible Point of Global Warming | Common Dreams

On the Brink: Planet Near Irreversible Point of Global Warming | Common Dreams
"Scientists issue dire call for action on climate change at conference; we must stop warming or "cross the threshold"

Lawrence Lessig on How the Kochs Buy Democracy

BP Spill Caused 'Graveyard of Corals' | Common Dreams

BP Spill Caused 'Graveyard of Corals' | Common Dreams
"New Evidence points to 'chemical fingerprint' of Deepwater Horizon"

James Cameron’s Record Dive Exposes Need For Global Protection Of The High Seas

James Cameron’s Record Dive Exposes Need For Global Protection Of The High Seas: pby Lisa Speer, via NRDC’s Switchboard Yesterday, filmmaker James Cameron became the first solo explorer to reach the ocean’s deepest point, traveling nearly seven miles down through some of the darkest, most mysterious waters on Earth. Cameron’s successful venture to the bottom of the Mariana Trench comes at a pivotal time for the deep ocean. As [...]/p

Four Hundred Chernobyls: Solar Flares, Electromagnetic Pulses and Nuclear Armageddon

Four Hundred Chernobyls: Solar Flares, Electromagnetic Pulses and Nuclear Armageddon
"There are nearly 450 nuclear reactors in the world, with hundreds more being planned or under construction. There are 104 of these reactors in the United States and 195 in Europe. Imagine what havoc it would wreak on our civilization and the planet's ecosystems if we were to suddenly witness not just one or two nuclear meltdowns, but 400 or more!"

Arctic Motion

Arctic Motion from Tor Even Mathisen on Vimeo.

Growing Gas Cloud Forces Evacuation of Oil Rig in North Sea | Common Dreams

Growing Gas Cloud Forces Evacuation of Oil Rig in North Sea | Common Dreams
"French-owned platform is abandoned with no answers yet on how to avert further calamity"

BREAKING: Obama Administration To Establish Strong Carbon Pollution Limits For New Power Plants

BREAKING: Obama Administration To Establish Strong Carbon Pollution Limits For New Power Plants: In one of the most significant reversals of Bush-era policy, the Obama administration plans tomorrow to issue greenhouse pollution limits for new power plants, a major step in the fight against global warming. The new rule — which will go into effect in 2013 — confirms the end of the era of dirty coal-fired power [...]/p

Exxon Mobil’s Tax Rate Drops To 13 Percent, After Making 35 Percent More Profits On Rising Gas Prices In 2011

Exxon Mobil’s Tax Rate Drops To 13 Percent, After Making 35 Percent More Profits On Rising Gas Prices In 2011: Exxon Mobil, the most profitable of the big five oil companies, made $41.1 billion in profits last year. Although Exxon made 35 percent more profits since 2010, its estimated effective tax rate actually dropped. Citizens for Tax Justice reported Exxon paid only 17.6 percent taxes in 2010, lower than the average American, and a Reuters [...]/p

‘You Can’t Take Away My Hope’: Thirty Years Of Climate Scientists Helplessly Describing Our Dangerously Changing World

‘You Can’t Take Away My Hope’: Thirty Years Of Climate Scientists Helplessly Describing Our Dangerously Changing World: In a new video by Peter Sinclair, prominent climate scientist Michael MacCracken discusses how the last thirty years have confirmed the predictions he and others made in 1982 and earlier. The scientific understanding of how burning fossil fuels transforms the atmosphere was well established then, and predictions of warming and systemic changes in the world [...]/p

Scientists Warn of Low-Dose Risks of Chemical Exposure | Common Dreams

Scientists Warn of Low-Dose Risks of Chemical Exposure | Common Dreams
"A new study finds that even low doses of hormone-disrupting chemicals — used in everything from plastics to pesticides – can have serious effects on human health. These findings, the researchers say, point to the need for basic changes in how chemical safety testing is conducted."

Earth Sends Climate Warning by Busting World Heat Records | Common Dreams

Earth Sends Climate Warning by Busting World Heat Records | Common Dreams

First decade of 21st Century warmest on record; US locations break 7,000 temperature records in March

400 Chernobyls: Solar Flares, Electromagnetic Pulses and Nuclear Armageddon

400 Chernobyls: Solar Flares, Electromagnetic Pulses and Nuclear Armageddon
"There are nearly 450 nuclear reactors in the world, with hundreds more being planned or under construction. There are 104 of these reactors in the United States and 195 in Europe. Imagine what havoc it would wreak on our civilization and the planet's ecosystems if we were to suddenly witness not just one or two nuclear meltdowns, but 400 or more! "

Thank You Obama For Historic Mercury Rule

The Sierra Club applauds President Obama and EPA Administrator Jackson for standing up to Big Coal and corporate polluters and strongly urges the Administration to continue fighting for clean air and water.

Warming-Fueled Texas Drought Cost Farmers $7.6 Billion: ‘No One Alive Has Seen Single-Year Drought Damage To This Extent’

Warming-Fueled Texas Drought Cost Farmers $7.6 Billion: ‘No One Alive Has Seen Single-Year Drought Damage To This Extent’: pTexas Agronomists have revised estimates for the cost of Texas’ devastating drought, finding that it cost the agricultural sector $2 billion more than originally thought. According to the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, the Texas drought has caused $7.62 billion in damages to crops and farming operations. That’s up from $5.3 billion reported last August. Texas [...]/p

Coal Rush (Trailer)

President Obama Speaks on Expanding Our Energy Portfolio

US Intelligence Report: Expect Water Wars Soon | Common Dreams

US Intelligence Report: Expect Water Wars Soon | Common Dreams

Report sees biotechnology, agricultural exports and virtual water trade as the way forward

Obama Picks Sides on Tar Sands: TransCanada Wins. Earth, Everyone Else Loses | Common Dreams

Obama Picks Sides on Tar Sands: TransCanada Wins. Earth, Everyone Else Loses | Common Dreams
"A lesson in how not to reduce gas prices: the White House is backing TransCanada’s bid to build the southern portion of the controversial pipeline Keystone XL pipeline. The section to be built will run from Cushing, Oklahoma to Texas and carry crude oil pumped in the Midwest to refineries in Texas and be completed by late 2013—so it will have virtually no impact on the current high gas prices."

CAP: Import Tariffs On China-Subsidized Panels Help Level The Solar Playing Field

CAP: Import Tariffs On China-Subsidized Panels Help Level The Solar Playing Field: pToday the U.S. Department of Commerce announced plans to impose import tariffs ranging from 2.9 percent to 4.73 percent on Chinese-manufactured solar panels. Melanie Hart, China Energy and Climate Policy Analyst at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement: Today’s Commerce Department decision to levy import tariffs on Chinese solar panels is a [...]/p

Germany to Make History With Alternative Energy

90 Degrees in Winter: This Is What Climate Change Looks Like | The Nation

90 Degrees in Winter: This Is What Climate Change Looks Like | The Nation
"The National Weather Service is kind of the anti–Mike Daisey, a just-the-facts operation that grinds on hour after hour, day after day. It’s collected billions of records (I’ve seen the vast vaults where early handwritten weather reports from observers across the country are stored in endless rows of ledgers and files) on countless rainstorms, blizzards and pleasant summer days. So the odds that you could shock the NWS are pretty slim."

Global Warming Will Worsen Respiratory Diseases

Global Warming Will Worsen Respiratory Diseases: p“Worldwide increases in the incidences of asthma, allergies, infectious and cardiovascular diseases will result from a variety of impacts of global climate change, including rising temperatures, worsening ozone levels in urban areas, the spread of desertification, and expansions of the ranges of communicable diseases as the planet heats up,” the American Thoracic Society — the [...]/p

Unprecedented, "Eye-Popping" Temperatures Soar, Highs Continue | Common Dreams

Unprecedented, "Eye-Popping" Temperatures Soar, Highs Continue | Common Dreams
"People from the Midwest and Northeast have been stepping out to record-setting temperatures this month.  Meteorologists are calling the temperatures unprecedented."

Thom Hartmann: Conversations With Great Minds Dr. Michael Mann-The Climate Wars

March 19 News: Germany’s $263 Billion Investment In Renewables Is Biggest Energy Shift Since World War II

March 19 News: Germany’s $263 Billion Investment In Renewables Is Biggest Energy Shift Since World War II: pOther stories below: As climate changes, Louisiana seeks to lift a highway; With gas prices rising, smog rules may stall Germany’s $263 Billion Renewables Shift Biggest Since War Not since the allies leveled Germany in World War II has Europe’s biggest economy undertaken a reconstruction of its energy market on this scale. Chancellor Angela Merkel [...]/p

New Toxic Sludge PR and Lobbying Effort Gets Underway | Common Dreams

New Toxic Sludge PR and Lobbying Effort Gets Underway | Common Dreams
"A trade association known for using the terms "compost," "organic," and "biosolids" to describe sewage sludge is investing in a new public relations campaign to influence policymakers and the public. The US Composting Council (USCC), which was founded by the disposable diaper industry, will be expanding its long-standing efforts to "rebrand" sewage sludge, which is increasingly disposed of on agriculture crops and through garden centers without telling the public that their food is being grown in medical, industrial, and human waste."

Fracking: Pennsylvania Gags Physicians | Truthout

Fracking: Pennsylvania Gags Physicians | Truthout
"A new Pennsylvania lawendangers public health by forbidding health care professionals from sharing information they learn about certain chemicals and procedures used in high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing. The procedure is commonly known as fracking."

Water Justice: 'We Are the Movement Whose Time Has Come' | Common Dreams

Water Justice: 'We Are the Movement Whose Time Has Come' | Common Dreams
"

Corporate World Water Forum "refuses to acknowledge" recognized right to water and sanitation

Santorum Denies Global Warming | The Progressive

Santorum Denies Global Warming | The Progressive
"Even for a party that wears its anti-science label almost with pride, the GOP has recently been outdoing itself on global warming."

We're Each Carrying Our Own Special Concoction of Internal Toxins | Common Dreams

We're Each Carrying Our Own Special Concoction of Internal Toxins | Common Dreams
"Humans: Large brains, small bodies. Not extinct. Not yet, anyway.

Our large brains, however, have created a world bathed in chemicals, engineered foods, plastic environments with poisons that surround us and invade all parts of the natural world -- and our own bodies.

We are bringing in those poisons through our mouths (food and contaminated liquids), our noses ("fragrances" and polluted air) and our skin (cosmetics, scented shampoos and moisturizers)."

Greenhouse Gas Will Soar by 50% if Policy Does Not Change Immediately: Report | Common Dreams

Greenhouse Gas Will Soar by 50% if Policy Does Not Change Immediately: Report | Common Dreams
"Global greenhouse gas emissions will rise 50 percent by 2050 unless current energy and climate policies change soon, according to a report released today by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). World energy demand in 2050 will be 80% higher and still 85% reliant on fossil fuel-based energy if current policy does not alter."

Gundersen: Fukushima Meltdown Could Result in One Million Cases of Cancer

Report: Global Warming Could Double US Flooding | Common Dreams

Report: Global Warming Could Double US Flooding | Common Dreams
"Rising seas dramatically increase the odds of damaging floods from storm surges. Global warming has raised global sea level about 8 inches since 1880, and the rate of rise is accelerating.  These are facts."

High Gas Prices Are Here to Stay: Why 21st Century Oil Will Break the Bank -- and the Planet | Environment | AlterNet

High Gas Prices Are Here to Stay: Why 21st Century Oil Will Break the Bank -- and the Planet | Environment | AlterNet
"In energy terms, we are now entering a world whose grim nature has yet to be fully grasped."

As Climate Changes, Tidal Basin Cherry Blossoms Could Peak At Their Earliest Yet

As Climate Changes, Tidal Basin Cherry Blossoms Could Peak At Their Earliest Yet: pAs the planet warms from greenhouse pollution, the Washington DC Cherry Blossom Festival is beginning earlier and earlier. This year, the single-flowered Yoshino cherries and double-flowered Kwanzan cherries may peak at their earliest yet. The Yoshinos may come to peak bloom even before the current record of 2000, when they peaked on March 17, the [...]/p

BP Buys Congressional Influence To Serve Its Own Interest

BP Buys Congressional Influence To Serve Its Own Interest: pBP lobbied Congress on the Deepwater Horizon disaster to torpedo bills that would hurt the company’s self interest, even as it faced penalties for causing the spill itself. The Huffington Post writes the story “underscores how even the most embattled company often sees Congress as a worthy investment. BP spent $8.43 million in 2011 on [...]/p

VIDEO: Rep. Cliff Stearns Wants To Sell Off Our National Parks

VIDEO: Rep. Cliff Stearns Wants To Sell Off Our National Parks: pby Jessica Goad and Scott Keyes, cross-posted from TP Green Rep. Cliff Steans (R-FL), a birther, one of the leaders of the Solyndra witch hunt and defender of subsidies to Big Oil companies. He told constituents at a town hall meeting Belleview, Florida, on February 25 that “we don’t need any more national parks in this [...]/p

North Dakota’s Bakken Shale Boom Is Visible From Space

North Dakota’s Bakken Shale Boom Is Visible From Space: pThe boom in shale oil and gas exploration in North Dakota during the Bush and Obama presidencies has transformed the state, satellite imagery shows. This composite image from the National Geophysical Data Center combines nighttime satellite imagery from 1992, 2000, and 2010. Places that had lots of light in all three years show up bright [...]/p

No Voices For Small Island Threatened By Climate Change

No Voices For Small Island Threatened By Climate Change
"On Friday the President of low-lying Pacific island nation Kiribati (pronounced KEER-ih-bhass) told The Associated Press about a plan to buy land from Fiji as an "insurance policy" against the effects of climate change. The land purchase would be large enough for the whole population of Kiribati to move should their country become uninhabitable. Not a single major newspaper or television news outlet has covered the story."

Wolves to the Slaughter

Wolves to the Slaughter
"The reintroduction of the gray wolf to the Northern Rockies was an ecological success story—until big money, old superstitions, and politics got in the way."

Farming communities facing crisis over nitrate pollution, study says

Farming communities facing crisis over nitrate pollution, study says
"Nitrate contamination in groundwater from fertilizer and animal manure is severe and getting worse for hundreds of thousands of residents in California’s Central Valley farming communities, according to a study released Tuesday by researchers at the University of California, Davis."

Ken Caldeira: Natural Gas Is ‘A Bridge To A World With High CO2 Levels’, Deployment Is To R&D As Elephant To Mouse

Ken Caldeira: Natural Gas Is ‘A Bridge To A World With High CO2 Levels’, Deployment Is To R&D As Elephant To Mouse: pEarlier, I wrote about a paper co-authored by climatologist Ken Caldeira.  A key point of the study is that to we can’t slow projected warming with natural gas, you need “rapid and massive deployment” of carbon-free power. I asked Caldeira about the implications of his work for the right mix of clean energy deployment vs. R&D [...]/p

Why the Global Warming Skeptics Are Wrong by William D. Nordhaus | The New York Review of Books

Why the Global Warming Skeptics Are Wrong by William D. Nordhaus | The New York Review of Books
"The threat of climate change is an increasingly important environmental issue for the globe. Because the economic questions involved have received relatively little attention, I have been writing a nontechnical book for people who would like to see how market-based approaches could be used to formulate policy on climate change."

Utah And Arizona Throw Out U.S. Constitution In Right-Wing Attack On Public Lands

Utah And Arizona Throw Out U.S. Constitution In Right-Wing Attack On Public Lands: pBy Tom Kenworthy, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress Action Fund. It’s an election year, so a hardy perennial is sprouting again in western legislatures: the idea that states can, and should, take over millions of acres of federally managed land. As always, these proposals are unconstitutional and doomed to failure, but not before state [...]/p

Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal and Koch-Fueled Cato Agree: “It’s Not Obama’s Fault That Crude Oil Prices Have Increased”

Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal and Koch-Fueled Cato Agree: “It’s Not Obama’s Fault That Crude Oil Prices Have Increased”: pWall Street Journal: “U.S. gasoline prices, like prices throughout the advanced economies, are determined by global market forces. It is hard to see how Mr. Obama’s policies can be blamed.” Cato Institute: “Is President Obama responsible for spiraling price of gasoline? Republicans say yes, but the facts say no.” How obvious is it that oil [...]/p

Bribery Accusations Dog Clean Energy Witch-Hunter Cliff Stearns

Bribery Accusations Dog Clean Energy Witch-Hunter Cliff Stearns: pRep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, has been accused by Republican political rival James Jett of using intermediaries to bribe him to stay out of a challenge. “This is a pure and simple political maneuver by Mr. Jett to illegally entrap former friends for [...]/p

Breaking Quaking News: Ohio Finds Fracking Waste Injection Well Caused 12 Earthquakes

Breaking Quaking News: Ohio Finds Fracking Waste Injection Well Caused 12 Earthquakes: p“A dozen earthquakes in northeastern Ohio were almost certainly induced by injection of gas-drilling wastewater into the earth,” Ohio oil and gas regulators said today. Citizens respond to speakers during a community forum in Youngstown, Ohio, to discuss seismic activity related to deep wastewater injection wells. Source: AP. These quakes weren’t caused by the original [...]/p

Fox News Science, Again

Fox News Science, Again
""Completely wrong." "Simply ignorant." "Scientifically incorrect." "Utter Nonsense." "Very odd." These are words scientists have used in the past to describe the nationally televised ramblings of weather forecaster Joe Bastardi, who Fox News hosts from time to time in an apparent effort to dismantle whatever its viewers might know about physics."

The Dangerous Myths of Fukushima » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

The Dangerous Myths of Fukushima » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
"The myth that Fukushima radiation levels were too low to harm humans persists, a year after the meltdown.  A March 2, 2012 New York Times article quoted Vanderbilt University professor John Boice: “there’s no opportunity for conducting epidemiological studies that have any chance for success – the doses are just too low.”  Wolfgang Weiss of the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation also recently said doses observed in screening of Japanese people “are very low.”

Physicians in Congress Committing Malpractice on Millions | Truthout

Physicians in Congress Committing Malpractice on Millions | Truthout
"18 Republican physicians currently serving in Congress. Some of the most well known are the father and son team of Rep. Ron Paul and Sen. Rand Paul, and Sen. Tom Coburn. Almost all of these physician/Congressmen have been key soldiers in the Republican war on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), calling it a "job killer," pronouncing relevant health science "unproven," claiming we "can't afford" their regulations."

Confirmed: Fracking Caused Ohio Earthquakes | Common Dreams

Confirmed: Fracking Caused Ohio Earthquakes | Common Dreams
"The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) has confirmed that a series of earthquakes in the state were caused by injecting leftover fracking fluids deep into wells."

Women Lead Charge for Another Keystone XL Victory | Common Dreams

Women Lead Charge for Another Keystone XL Victory | Common Dreams
"Today was... quite a day. The bell that people struck last August when they sat in at the White House to block the Keystone Pipeline was still resonating. Not loudly -- the oil money in Congress muffled the sound. But loudly enough that we squeaked through by a 4-Senator margin, defeating a Republican amendment mandating the pipeline's construction."

10,000 GM Customers Tell Auto Giant: Stop Funding Climate Deniers | Common Dreams

10,000 GM Customers Tell Auto Giant: Stop Funding Climate Deniers | Common Dreams
"The outrage stems from a leaked internal document from the rightwing Heartland Institute that was made public last month. A detailed strategy and funding memorandum, the document showed that GM had given the group $30,000 since 2010."

Flare-up: How the Sun Could Put an End to Nuclear Power | Common Dreams

Flare-up: How the Sun Could Put an End to Nuclear Power | Common Dreams
"Solar energy may soon eclipse nuclear power — only not in the way we hoped. According to NASA, the planet will soon face an outbreak of powerful solar flares capable of collapsing global power grids. Were this to happen, the world's reactors could be left to run wild, overheat, melt down, and explode. As this is being written, the strongest solar storm in six years is barreling toward the Earth at 4 million miles per hour."

Flare-up: How the Sun Could Put an End to Nuclear Power | Common Dreams

Flare-up: How the Sun Could Put an End to Nuclear Power | Common Dreams
"Solar energy may soon eclipse nuclear power — only not in the way we hoped. According to NASA, the planet will soon face an outbreak of powerful solar flares capable of collapsing global power grids. Were this to happen, the world's reactors could be left to run wild, overheat, melt down, and explode. As this is being written, the strongest solar storm in six years is barreling toward the Earth at 4 million miles per hour."

Activists Are Reclaiming Vacant Lots For Gardens -- But Will There Be Legal Challenges? | Food | AlterNet

Activists Are Reclaiming Vacant Lots For Gardens -- But Will There Be Legal Challenges? | Food | AlterNet
"Occupy Vacant Lots is being welcomed by many neighborhoods in Philly, but could legal challenges upend its work?"

James Hansen: Why I Must Speak Out About Climate Change

Debunking The Error-Riddled Wall Street Journal Editorial on Wind Energy

Debunking The Error-Riddled Wall Street Journal Editorial on Wind Energy: pby Richard Caperton and Stephen Lacey The Wall Street Journal released another error-riddled editorial against the wind industry today calling for an end to the production tax credit. The piece is so bad — and features such a broad range of spin and inaccuracies — it deserves a special, point-by-point debunk. The WSJ starts off [...]/p

Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline Won't Ease Gas Prices; Senate Must Reject It | Common Dreams

Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline Won't Ease Gas Prices; Senate Must Reject It | Common Dreams
"This week the Senate is likely to vote on an amendment that would force approval for the Keystone XL pipeline. President Obama already rejected the dirty tar sands pipeline because it needed a more thorough safety and environmental review."

Report: Fracking Could Cause a New Global Water Crisis | Common Dreams

Report: Fracking Could Cause a New Global Water Crisis | Common Dreams
"As the oil and gas industry heads more towards hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, to access resources, a new report out today from Food & Water Watch states that the process may become a global environmental and public health threat. Numerous communities in the U.S. where fracking has occurred have suffered long-term damage to their public water, as gas and oil companies leave a legacy of carcinogens and climate damage in their wake."

For Some Christians, Lent Means ‘Giving Up’ Carbon

For Some Christians, Lent Means ‘Giving Up’ Carbon: pby Catherine Woodiwiss For many Christians, the 40-day period of fasting and reflection before Easter known as Lent is a chance to get in mental and spiritual shape. People give up chocolate; quit drinking or smoking; avoid meat; start reading the Bible regularly; or even give up social media – “fasts” intended to discipline and [...]/p

Lessons Not Learned: New Map Shows 120 Million Americans at Nuclear Fallout Risk | Common Dreams

Lessons Not Learned: New Map Shows 120 Million Americans at Nuclear Fallout Risk | Common Dreams
"Red flags for heightened risk factors of a severe nuclear accident abound in the United States."

More Than 10,000 GM Owners Demand Company Pull Its Support From Heartland Institute

More Than 10,000 GM Owners Demand Company Pull Its Support From Heartland Institute: pMore than 10,000 current and former owners of General Motors vehicles are calling on the company to pull its financial support from the Heartland Institute, which is working on classroom curriculum to deny climate change. The GM Foundation gave $30,000 to Heartland since 2010. In a statement to the Guardian, Greg Martin, GM’s director of [...]/p

'Unprecedented Rapidity of CO2' Causing Worst Ocean Acidification in 300 Million Years | Common Dreams

'Unprecedented Rapidity of CO2' Causing Worst Ocean Acidification in 300 Million Years | Common Dreams
"We are entering an unknown territory of marine ecosystem change;” ocean acidification called "evil twin" of climate change."

On 'Wrecking Ball,' Bruce Springsteen takes aim at robber barons and bankers

On 'Wrecking Ball,' Bruce Springsteen takes aim at robber barons and bankers
"Bruce Springsteen has been, for more than 35 years, one of the great chroniclers of American working-class life. But until recent years, though, his songs only rarely connected the dots between the pains of that life and economic inequality and oppression."

Lovins: End of Fossil Fuel Era an 'Exciting Time' | Common Dreams

Lovins: End of Fossil Fuel Era an 'Exciting Time' | Common Dreams
"Author and scientist Amory B. Lovins and the Rocky Mountain Institute see a bright future beyond dirty fuels... and sooner than you think"

Americans Get It: Global Warming Is Poisoning Our Weather

Americans Get It: Global Warming Is Poisoning Our Weather: pKiller tornadoes are marking the transition from a freakishly warm winter into yet another freakishly dangerous spring. The multi-billion-dollar drought in Texas and Oklahoma is expected to continue into the indefinite future. Planting seasons, maple syrup seasons, and cherry blossom festivals are starting at weirder and weirder times. Torrential rains and record heat waves are [...]/p

Deutsche Bank: Big Energy Efficiency Push Could Save Americans $1 Trillion, Cut CO2 10%, Create 3 Million Jobs

Deutsche Bank: Big Energy Efficiency Push Could Save Americans $1 Trillion, Cut CO2 10%, Create 3 Million Jobs: pby Zachary Rybarczyk Scaling up energy efficiency retrofits around the U.S. could save an estimated $1 trillion over the next 10 years while creating 3.3 million job years for a wide range of skilled workers, according to study released this week from Deutsche Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation. The study, “United States Building Energy Efficiency [...]/p

Science/em: Ocean Acidifying So Fast It Threatens Humanity’s Ability to Feed Itself

emScience/em: Ocean Acidifying So Fast It Threatens Humanity’s Ability to Feed Itself: pThe world’s oceans may be turning acidic faster today from human carbon emissions than they did during four major extinctions in the last 300 million years, when natural pulses of carbon sent global temperatures soaring, says a new study in Science. The study is the first of its kind to survey the geologic record for [...]/p

Costs of Climate Change Touching Down All Around: Insurers | Common Dreams

Costs of Climate Change Touching Down All Around: Insurers | Common Dreams
"If you did wonder, you see, you would also have to wonder about whether this year’s record snowfalls and rainfalls across the Midwest — resulting in record flooding along the Mississippi — could somehow be related. And then you might find your thoughts wandering to, oh, global warming, and to the fact that climatologists have been predicting for years that as we flood the atmosphere with carbon we will also start both drying and flooding the planet, since warm air holds more water vapor than cold air."

How The Kochs Are Fracking America

How The Kochs Are Fracking America: pAt the Republic Report, Lee Fang details how the Koch Industries petrochemical empire is involved in the boom in natural gas hydrofracturing. The right-wing Koch brothers have developed a vertical empire designed to extract wealth from every point in the hydrocarbon lifecycle. A small fraction of their profits is funneled into corrupting our political system, [...]/p

Thom Hartmann: Fukushima-Did We Almost Lose Tokyo

Boehner: Don’t Cut Oil Subsidies

Boehner: Don’t Cut Oil Subsidies: pHouse Speaker John Boehner defended the $40 billion in subsidies for big oil after Obama’s speech yesterday, citing an outdated March 2011 Congressional Research Service report to claim gas prices would go up if big oil’s tax breaks go down. “The office of the House speaker, John A. Boehner, sent an e-mail to reporters citing [...]/p

Heartland Institute: A Manifestation of the Kochtopus Empire | Truthout

Heartland Institute: A Manifestation of the Kochtopus Empire | Truthout
"It is nearly impossible to discuss the vast climate change denial echo chamber and not mention the Koch Brothers, Koch Industries, and what some have called the Koch Empire."

Pandora's Box: Digging the Earth, Killing the Future | Common Dreams

Pandora's Box: Digging the Earth, Killing the Future | Common Dreams
"Landgrabbing and mineral extraction spell disaster for Earth"

Ocean acidification rate may be unprecedented, study says

Ocean acidification rate may be unprecedented, study says
"The world's oceans may be turning acidic faster today from human carbon emissions than they did during four major extinctions in the last 300 million years, when natural pulses of carbon sent global temperatures soaring, says a new study in Science. The study is the first of its kind to survey the geologic record for evidence of ocean acidification over this vast time period."

Bombshell: You Can’t Slow Projected Warming With Gas, You Need ‘Rapid and Massive Deployment’ of Zero-Carbon Power

Bombshell: You Can’t Slow Projected Warming With Gas, You Need ‘Rapid and Massive Deployment’ of Zero-Carbon Power: pAnother major study finds confirms natural gas is a bridge fuel to nowhere A must-read new study by climatologist Ken Caldeira and tech guru Nathan Myhrvold (!) makes clear the world’s only plausible hope to avert catastrophic temperature rise this century is aggressive deployment of zero-carbon technologies and conservation. The Institute of Physics news release explains: … technologies that [...]/p

Jim Hightower | Congress chooses to keep poisoning children

Jim Hightower | Congress chooses to keep poisoning children
"So, Congress has targeted unnecessary oil subsidies and frivolous tax giveaways to billionaires, right? Uh… no. Instead, our learned solons have chosen to whack the Lead Poisoning Prevention Program."

Daniel Pauly: The ocean's shifting baseline

Paul Gilding: The Earth is full

She's Alive... Beautiful... Finite... Hurting... Worth Dying for.

A Green Tree in Your Heart | Common Dreams

A Green Tree in Your Heart | Common Dreams
“Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come.”

Reverse Coal

The Big Fracking Bubble: The Scam Behind the Gas Boom | Common Dreams

The Big Fracking Bubble: The Scam Behind the Gas Boom | Common Dreams
"A report from Rolling Stone about the financial disaster that lingers beneath the environmental one"

From "Technocrats" to Autocrats: Who Elected the Central Bankers? | Truthout

From "Technocrats" to Autocrats: Who Elected the Central Bankers? | Truthout
"The G-20 Finance Ministers’ meeting in Mexico City ended on Sunday, February 26, unsurprisingly, with no apparent progress on resolving the global economic crisis."

Bloomberg News: Keystone XL Will Raise Gas Prices

Bloomberg News: Keystone XL Will Raise Gas Prices: pThe Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is designed to allow Canadian crude to escape the United States oil market, increasing profits for oil companies and driving up domestic gasoline prices, Bloomberg reports. Producers including Exxon Mobil could make $4 billion more every year if the pipeline increases prices as expected. “The higher crude prices also [...]/p

Pollutocrat Deniers Charles And David Koch File Suit To Take Over The Cato Institute

Pollutocrat Deniers Charles And David Koch File Suit To Take Over The Cato Institute: pThe top funders of anti-science disinformation in this country, the Koch brothers, are fighting in court to seize control of the Cato Institute. The Washington Post’s Allen McDuffee broke the amazing story this morning. Politico further reports: Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch, the deep-pocketed conservative activists, launched a court fight yesterday over control of the [...]/p

Pre-Emptive Strike: Shell Sues Environmental Groups | Common Dreams

Pre-Emptive Strike: Shell Sues Environmental Groups | Common Dreams
"Royal Dutch Shell has launched a pre-emptive strike against environmental groups by filing a lawsuit against groups likely to challenge the company's plan to drill in the Chuckchi Sea in the Arctic, the Los Angeles Times is reporting."

Naomi Klein: 'If You Take Climate Change Seriously, You Have to Throw Out the Free-Market Playbook' | Common Dreams

Naomi Klein: 'If You Take Climate Change Seriously, You Have to Throw Out the Free-Market Playbook' | Common Dreams
"Naomi Klein on ideological impediments to addressing climate change and how to move forward"