'Huge Win': California Committee Votes to Halt Fracking | Common Dreams

'Huge Win': California Committee Votes to Halt Fracking | Common Dreams
"Californians gained a key victory in the fight to protect the state's water and air Monday when three bills that halt the practice of fracking won votes in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee."

Facebook Rejects Ad Highlighting Zuckerberg Group’s Support For Keystone XL

Facebook Rejects Ad Highlighting Zuckerberg Group’s Support For Keystone XL: When a subsidiary of Mark Zuckerberg’s new political group started airing ads for expanded oil drilling and the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, CREDO Action decided to post an ad of their own calling Zuckerberg out — on Facebook. This morning, Facebook rejected CREDO’s Facebook ad (pictured right). According to CREDO Action, Facebook initially [...]/p

BP Posts $4.2 Billion In Q1 Profits As Its Chemical Dispersants Continue To Harm The Gulf

BP Posts $4.2 Billion In Q1 Profits As Its Chemical Dispersants Continue To Harm The Gulf: BP announced its 2013 first-quarter profits this morning, reporting earnings of $4.2 billion — down 10 percent from this time last year but higher than analysts’ forecasts. Here are some key facts about BP’s profits: The company is sitting on nearly $28 billion in cash reserves. In the first three months of 2013, BP spent [...]/p

Climate Change Is An Existential Threat To Humanity, Just Don’t Mention Protecting ‘The Environment’

Climate Change Is An Existential Threat To Humanity, Just Don’t Mention Protecting ‘The Environment’: A recent study found that some conservatives would not choose an efficient lightbulb with an environmental message, even when they would choose the same bulb without the message. The Atlantic Cities details this cognitive dissonance: The study then presented participants with a real-world choice: With a fixed amount of money in their wallet, respondents had [...]/p

Republican Tries to Bend Science to Anti-Science Agenda

Study Reveals 30 Toxic Chemicals at High Levels at Exxon Arkansas Tar Sands Pipeline Spill Site | Common Dreams

Study Reveals 30 Toxic Chemicals at High Levels at Exxon Arkansas Tar Sands Pipeline Spill Site | Common Dreams
"An independent study co-published by the Faulkner County Citizens Advisory Groupand Global Community Monitor reveals that, in the aftermath of ExxonMobil's Pegasus tar sands pipeline spill of over 500,000 gallons of diluted bitumen (dilbit) into Mayflower, AR, air quality in the area surrounding the spill has been affected by high levels of cancer-causing chemicals."

'Flood of Highly Radioactive Wastewater' Overwhelms Fukushima Crews | Common Dreams

'Flood of Highly Radioactive Wastewater' Overwhelms Fukushima Crews | Common Dreams
"Japan's battle against the ongoing disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant has intensified as "a flood of highly radioactive wastewater" overwhelms emergency crews and highlights just how intractable the cleanup effort is proving."

Northeast US Ocean Temperatures Highest on Record: Report | Common Dreams

Northeast US Ocean Temperatures Highest on Record: Report | Common Dreams
"Ocean surface temperatures off the Northeast U.S. coast last year were the highest in 150 years, according to a new report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration."

Weeding Corporate Power Out of Agricultural Policies: Communities Mobilize for Food and Farm Justice | Common Dreams

Weeding Corporate Power Out of Agricultural Policies: Communities Mobilize for Food and Farm Justice | Common Dreams
"From the school cafeteria to rural tomato farms, and all the way to pickets at the White House, people are challenging the ways in which government programs benefit big agribusiness to the detriment of small- and mid-sized farmers. Urban gardeners, PTA parents, ranchers, food coops, and a host of others are organizing to make the policies that govern our food and agricultural systems more just, accountable, and transparent."

A Win for the Bees: EU Votes to Ban Bee-Harming Pesticides | Common Dreams

A Win for the Bees: EU Votes to Ban Bee-Harming Pesticides | Common Dreams
"In a historic vote on Monday the European Union banned the use of bee-harming pesticides across the continent for a minimum of two years, garnering praise from environmental groups who have said that the population of the vital pollinators, along with the global food supply are in grave danger, due to the widespread use of the chemicals."

Climate Collision Course: CO2 Levels About to Hit 400 PPM | Common Dreams

Climate Collision Course: CO2 Levels About to Hit 400 PPM | Common Dreams
"The world is likely days away from a "sobering milestone" in our planetary history.
Concentrations of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide will likely reach 400 parts per million (ppm) for first time in human history, say scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and unless drastic action is taken, we're on track to hit 450 ppm in the near future."

US Plans to Drop Protections for Gray Wolves in Lower 48 | Common Dreams

US Plans to Drop Protections for Gray Wolves in Lower 48 | Common Dreams
"Federal authorities are preparing legislation to remove endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Lower 48 states."

Fracking Debris Ten Times Too Radioactive for Hazardous Waste Landfill | Common Dreams

Fracking Debris Ten Times Too Radioactive for Hazardous Waste Landfill | Common Dreams
"A truck carrying cuttings from a Pennsylvania fracking site was quarantined at a hazardous-waste landfill and sent back after its contents triggered a radiation alarm showing the load was emitting 96 microrem of radiation per hour; the landfill rejects waste with levels above 10 microrems."

Do the Math - The Movie

Los Angeles to San Onofre: "Not So Fast!" | Common Dreams

Los Angeles to San Onofre: "Not So Fast!" | Common Dreams
"The move reflects a deep-rooted public opposition to resumed operations at reactors perched in a tsunami zone near earthquake faults that threaten all of southern California."

Mark Zuckerberg’s New Political Group Spending Big On Ads Supporting Keystone XL And Oil Drilling

Mark Zuckerberg’s New Political Group Spending Big On Ads Supporting Keystone XL And Oil Drilling: Mark Zuckerberg’s new political group, which bills itself as a bipartisan entity dedicated to passing immigration reform, has spent considerable resources on ads advocating a host of anti-environmental causes — including driling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and constructing the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. The umbrella group, co-founded by Facebook’s Zuckerberg, NationBuilder’s [...]/p

James Hansen: The One Thing We Should Be Doing to Prevent Catastrophic Climate Change | Alternet

James Hansen: The One Thing We Should Be Doing to Prevent Catastrophic Climate Change | Alternet
"The country's leading climatologist talks about what our future looks like if we continue along with business as usual -- and what we could do to prevent catastrophe."

Radiation Of The Pacific Ocean In The Next 10 Years - Japan Nuclear Disaster

Houston’s Most Polluted Neighborhood Draws the Line at Alberta Tar Sands | Common Dreams

Houston’s Most Polluted Neighborhood Draws the Line at Alberta Tar Sands | Common Dreams
"The refineries around Houston have been called the “keystone to Keystone” because they’re expected to process 90 percent of tar sands crude from Alberta if the controversial Keystone XL pipeline is completed.

It’s one of the most polluted neighborhoods in the U.S., one where smokestacks grace every backyard view. But it’s taking on a new significance as the terminus of Keystone because the pipeline is at the center of the highest-stakes environmental battle in recent years. As international pressure builds, residents are beginning to organize, educate themselves, and speak out for the health of their families."

New Report Details How National Parks Are Threatened By Oil And Gas Drilling

New Report Details How National Parks Are Threatened By Oil And Gas Drilling: Here’s another example of how “the score card shows that the industry is winning,” as the NY Times put it last year. The National Parks Conservation Association today released a new report warning of the risks that oil and gas drilling pose to national parks. In “National Parks and Hydraulic Fracturing:  Balancing Energy Needs, Nature, and [...]/p

Divestment Calls Grow: 'Take Our Planet, and We'll Take Your Money' | Common Dreams

Divestment Calls Grow: 'Take Our Planet, and We'll Take Your Money' | Common Dreams
"This is the warning 10 cities across the U.S. are issuing the fossil fuel industry as the campaign to divest from the industry wreaking havoc on the planet gains steam."

Lawmakers On Both Sides Of The Aisle Call On The FDA To Label Genetically Engineered Food

Lawmakers On Both Sides Of The Aisle Call On The FDA To Label Genetically Engineered Food: Health and environmental advocates have fought for years for a federal labeling program for genetically engineered food. Now, for the first time, their battle has bipartisan support in Congress. On Wednesday, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) introduced the Genetically Engineered Food Right-To-Know Act, a bill whose nine cosponsors in the Senate [...]/p

US Accused of Skirting Responsibilities for Egregious Philippine Reef Disaster | Common Dreams

US Accused of Skirting Responsibilities for Egregious Philippine Reef Disaster | Common Dreams
"The United States is trying to skirt its responsibility to pay for damages after a US Navy minesweeper rammed into a pristine coral reef in the Philippines, a Filipino advocacy group and lawmaker warned this week."

Bipartisan Vote Stops ALEC Plan to Kill NC's Renewable Energy

Bipartisan Vote Stops ALEC Plan to Kill NC's Renewable Energy
"Crossing ALEC and Americans for Prosperity might just be a way to draw a primary. But in a state with an unemployment rate of 9.2 percent, voting to kill the renewable energy sector isn't the way to win friends and influence voters. It would also kill jobs and jeopardize investments."

Bloomberg Study: 70 Percent Of New Global Power Capacity Added Through 2030 Will be Renewable

Bloomberg Study: 70 Percent Of New Global Power Capacity Added Through 2030 Will be Renewable: According to Bloomberg’s renewable energy research team, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), 70 percent of the power generation the world will add between now and 2030 will most likely be renewable. That would mean $630 billion in new renewable capacity investments in 2030 alone — over three times what was built in 2012, and 35 [...]/p

GMO Labeling Fight Heads to Maine | Common Dreams

GMO Labeling Fight Heads to Maine | Common Dreams
"Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturers Association also poured money into California's defeated Prop. 37, which sought to label GMOs."

Breaking: North Carolina ALEC-Modeled Bill To Repeal Clean Energy Standard Fails In Committee

Breaking: North Carolina ALEC-Modeled Bill To Repeal Clean Energy Standard Fails In Committee: North Carolina’s renewable energy industry is safe from legislative threats, for now. Republicans and Democrats in the sponsor’s own committee voted down his bill which mimicked “model legislation” from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). WRAL NC Capitol reports: [Bill sponsor] Rep. Mike Hager, R-Rutherford, had pulled House Bill 298 from the House Committee on [...]/p

New ALA Report: Clean Air Act Working, Yet 42% Of Americans Still Breathe Dangerous Air

New ALA Report: Clean Air Act Working, Yet 42% Of Americans Still Breathe Dangerous Air: The American Lung Association today released their annual State of the Air report. In general, it says that the air is cleaner than it was a decade ago, thanks to the Clean Air Act. Despite this progress, over 131 million Americans live in areas where the air can often be too dangerous to breathe. This [...]/p

Ohio Manufacturers Fight To Keep The Energy Efficiency Standards The GOP Is Trying To Weaken

Ohio Manufacturers Fight To Keep The Energy Efficiency Standards The GOP Is Trying To Weaken: Ohio is one of many states trying to scale back energy efficiency standards set for utility providers — even though these standards have lowered costs and reduced energy consumption by customers, according to the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association. OMA, the state’s largest manufacturing trade group, is fighting against Republican-led efforts to weaken the laws that require [...]/p

Report: Deadly Human-Made 'Cocktail' Threatening World’s Pollinators | Common Dreams

Report: Deadly Human-Made 'Cocktail' Threatening World’s Pollinators | Common Dreams
"A "cocktail" of human-made "pressures" are threatening insect pollinators across the world, whose decline will have "profound environmental, human health and economic consequences," according to a new report released Monday by the Insect Pollinators Initiative."

Report: Renewables Could Power Nearly All US Energy Usage by 2050 | Common Dreams

Report: Renewables Could Power Nearly All US Energy Usage by 2050 | Common Dreams
"If the US ceases to burn coal and ratchets down both nuclear and natural gas usage, the resulting reliance on wind, solar and other renewables "could meet or exceed demand in 99.4 percent of hours" by 2050, according to a recent report (pdf) by Synapse Energy Economics for the nonprofit think tank Civil Society Institute (CSI)."

The BP Spill Was Worse Than You Knew

The BP Spill Was Worse Than You Knew
"Now the media has moved on and public anger has cooled, but the full extent of the damage is finally coming out—and it’s clear that the spill was even worse than we thought."

Global Ponzi Scheme: We’re Taking $7.3 Trillion A Year In Natural Capital From Our Children Without Paying For It

Global Ponzi Scheme: We’re Taking $7.3 Trillion A Year In Natural Capital From Our Children Without Paying For It: Last week, David Roberts over at Grist flagged a report carried out by the environmental consultant group Trucost, at the behest of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity over at the United Nations. The idea behind the report was simple. Tally up all the world’s natural capital — land, water, atmosphere, etc. — that doesn’t [...]/p

The Spilling Fields: How BP Made The Gulf Oil Disaster More Toxic While Covering It Up

The Spilling Fields: How BP Made The Gulf Oil Disaster More Toxic While Covering It Up: Mark Hertsgaard has a must-read piece in Newsweek on how “The 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill was even worse than BP wanted us to know.” His piece is about the dangers created by the 1.84 million gallons of Corexit used to “clean up” the 210 million gallons of Louisiana crude BP negligently spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. [...]/p

Tim DeChristopher: Champion of Climate Movement Released on Eve of Earth Day | Common Dreams

Tim DeChristopher: Champion of Climate Movement Released on Eve of Earth Day | Common Dreams
"On December 19, 2008, DeChristopher—in a last minute decision—took part in a Bureau of Land Management auction of leases to drill on public lands. Brandishing the Bidder 70 paddle, he amassed rights to a total of 22,500 acres at at the price of $1.8 million, effectively safeguarding parcels surrounding Utah's Arches and Canyonlands National Parks from drilling."

Second-Degree Murdoch: Pollutocrat Kochs Target U.S. Media For Takeover

Second-Degree Murdoch: Pollutocrat Kochs Target U.S. Media For Takeover: The NY Times reports today that the Koch brothers are hoping to become media moguls like Rupert Murdoch: Now, Koch Industries, the sprawling private company of which Charles G. Koch serves as chairman and chief executive, is exploring a bid to buy the Tribune Company’s eight regional newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago [...]/p

April 22 News: Happy Triage Day, Time For A Carbon Tax

April 22 News: Happy Triage Day, Time For A Carbon Tax: Happy Triage Day! How to Put America Back Together Again: “The best place to start is with a carbon tax” [Tom Friedman column] The effects of climate change mean that a carbon tax is a no-brainer. [Herald Business Journal editorial] Earth Day. Conceived by Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin and organized by Seattle’s Denis Hayes, [...]/p

Climate Hawk Tim DeChristopher, Imprisoned Since July 2011, Released Sunday

Climate Hawk Tim DeChristopher, Imprisoned Since July 2011, Released Sunday: Anti-fossil-fuel activist Tim DeChristopher was released from prison yesterday. On July 26, 2011 he was given a 2-year sentence for derailing a Bush Administration oil auction — JR. By Laural Whitney via DeSmogBlog Tim DeChristopher created quite a ripple in the activist community when he tried to buy millions of dollars of land in December [...]/p

Bayer and Syngenta Lobby Furiously Against EU Efforts to Limit Pesticides and Save Bees

Bayer and Syngenta Lobby Furiously Against EU Efforts to Limit Pesticides and Save Bees
"Bee populations have been declining rapidly worldwide in recent years -- in the U.S., they have declined by almost 50 percent just since October 2012"

Fukushima Clean-Up Will Last More Than Forty Years, says Nuclear Watchdog | Common Dreams

Fukushima Clean-Up Will Last More Than Forty Years, says Nuclear Watchdog | Common Dreams
"The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant must get its act together and stabilize the plant's "essential systems," the International Atomic Energy Agency urged on Monday, saying that it will likely take more time than the 40 years to properly decommission the site."

Study: Belief in Free-Market Economics Linked to Distrust of Science | Alternet

Study: Belief in Free-Market Economics Linked to Distrust of Science | Alternet
"Many have reported on climate skepticism’s connection to big industry and the American right. Bolstered by prominent conservative think tanks, the climate change denying faction reaches high-ranking lawmakers who support deregulation and block movement toward a sustainable future. Perhaps most notorious is Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who penned a book calling climate change science The Greatest Hoax. But Inhofe, the ranking member of the Senate Environment Committee, represents just the most extreme in a legislative body that doesn’t acknowledge the urgency of our warming planet."

Come To Texas, Where It's Better For Business!

Come To Texas, Where It's Better For Business!
"And why would they lie? They were storing 1,350 times the amount of ammonium nitrate that would normally trigger safety oversight by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). They didn’t want EPA or the DHS in their business. That might cost them time and money.We all know how Rick Perry feels about the EPA, don’t we? He thinks its sole goal is to kill jobs."

Resource Shock: How Resource Scarcity and Climate Change Could Produce a Global Explosion | Alternet

Resource Shock: How Resource Scarcity and Climate Change Could Produce a Global Explosion | Alternet
"Whether you know it or not, you’re on a new planet, a resource-shock world of a sort humanity has never before experienced."

War on Toxic Trespassers

Offer Ends Soon, Act Now: Keystone Pipeline Public Comment Period Closes On Monday

Offer Ends Soon, Act Now: Keystone Pipeline Public Comment Period Closes On Monday: Worried that the disaster-for-the-climate Keystone XL pipeline will get construction approval to pump 51 coal plants’ worth of carbon into the atmosphere? Feel free to speak your mind. The last day that the State Department will accept public comments on what should be done about the Keystone pipeline proposal is Monday, April 22nd. This will [...]/p

Fact vs. Fiction: How Renewables Outshine Fracking | Alternet

Fact vs. Fiction: How Renewables Outshine Fracking | Alternet
"Perhaps the real story in these numbers is that the amount of natural gas per well continues to decline. A sign of an industry past its peak, with declining reserves and lower productivity."

Koch Brothers Plan To Buy Up Eight Major Newspapers

Koch Brothers Plan To Buy Up Eight Major Newspapers: The millionaire oil moguls Charles and David Koch are pushing ahead with their plans to purchase several news outlets across the United States, according to a detailed report in the New York Times on Sunday. At a recent seminar in Aspen, one attendee reported that the brothers — infamous for bankrolling conservative candidates and causes [...]/p

This Earth Day Should We Be Weeping or Cheering? | Alternet

This Earth Day Should We Be Weeping or Cheering? | Alternet
"There are plenty of horrors to make you weep this Earth Day. But tears don't bring change."

How Monsanto Went From Selling Aspirin to Controlling Our Food Supply | Alternet

How Monsanto Went From Selling Aspirin to Controlling Our Food Supply | Alternet
"Monsanto controls our food, poisons our land, and influences all three branches of government."

Food Infections Rose In 2012, But Government Is Still Gutting Food Safety Programs

Food Infections Rose In 2012, But Government Is Still Gutting Food Safety Programs: Food-related infections rose in 2012, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control, as budget cuts targeted food inspection programs inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other government agencies. Despite the first major update to food safety laws in more than 30 years, budget cuts favored by both Republicans and the Obama [...]/p

Study: $6 Trillion "Carbon Bubble" Will Burn Investors and Planet Earth | Common Dreams

Study: $6 Trillion "Carbon Bubble" Will Burn Investors and Planet Earth | Common Dreams
"We are facing a $6 trillion carbon "bubble" over the next decade unless regulators, governments and investors re-evaluate our carbon-dependent energy business model and, finally, take seriously the great climate threat, says a new report published Friday."

How Your Pension is Being Used in a $6 Trillion Climate Gamble | Common Dreams

How Your Pension is Being Used in a $6 Trillion Climate Gamble | Common Dreams
"Suppose you weren’t worried that we humans are destroying our water supply and eroding our ability to feed ourselves by burning coal and gas and oil and hence changing climate. Suppose you thought that was all liberal hooey. What might worry you about fossil fuels instead? How about a six trillion dollar bet, including a big slug of your own money, on people not doing what they have said they are going to do, and that some have already sworn to do in law? 

Six trillion dollars is what oil, gas, and coal companies will invest over the next ten years on turning fossil fuel deposits into reserves, assuming last year’s level of investment stays the same."

Grade Inflation: GOP Still Pushing False Keystone Job Numbers

Grade Inflation: GOP Still Pushing False Keystone Job Numbers: The Keystone XL Pipeline has been catapulted back in the spotlight of the House of Representatives this week, with Republicans continuing to waste taxpayer dollars rehashing who has the power to approve the project. Meanwhile, the State Department will be hosting a public hearing in Nebraska today to give residents a chance to comment on [...]/p

Sandra Steingraber Issues Statement Before Being Led to Jail: "Act of Civil Disobedience Is a Last Resort for Me" | Alternet

Sandra Steingraber Issues Statement Before Being Led to Jail: "Act of Civil Disobedience Is a Last Resort for Me" | Alternet
"Steingraber and two others faced a judge yesterday after protesting the industrialization by oil and gas companies of the pristine Finger Lakes region."

How A Federal Loophole Allows People To Torture Horses For Their Pleasure

How A Federal Loophole Allows People To Torture Horses For Their Pleasure: Tens of thousands of Tennessee Walking Horses are born in the United States each year, many of which are destined to perform a crazy-looking walk called “the Big Lick” in one of many famous shows. But trainers today beat, burn, whip, and electrify horses to make them act this way — and federal law will [...]/p

Keystone Pipeline Will Create Only 35 Permanent Jobs, Emit 51 Coal Plants’ Worth Of Carbon

Keystone Pipeline Will Create Only 35 Permanent Jobs, Emit 51 Coal Plants’ Worth Of Carbon: Today, Secretary of State John Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that he wasn’t touching the Keystone pipeline decision with a ten-foot pole: “I am staying as far away from that as I can now so that when the appropriate time comes to me, I am not getting information from any place I shouldn’t [...]/p

Pulitzer for Reporting on the Biggest Tar Sands Spill You've Never Heard Of | Common Dreams

Pulitzer for Reporting on the Biggest Tar Sands Spill You've Never Heard Of | Common Dreams
"The online, low-profile, non-profit InsideClimate News won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for "The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of," its seven-month investigation into the million-gallon spill of Canadian tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River in 2010 - triggering the most expensive, and still unfinished, cleanup in U.S. history"

Video Explains How Loss Of Arctic Ice Weakens Jet Stream, Amplifies Extreme Weather

Video Explains How Loss Of Arctic Ice Weakens Jet Stream, Amplifies Extreme Weather: We’ve written extensively about how how arctic ice loss is driving extreme weather. Jennifer A. Francis of Rutgers University’s Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences has been at the forefront of this research. She appears in many videos explaining the connection between climate change and extreme weather (see recent 40 minute video here). Here’s a short [...]/p

Corporate Control of Human Genes Before Supreme Court | Common Dreams

Corporate Control of Human Genes Before Supreme Court | Common Dreams
"The Supreme Court will take up the question on Monday as to whether human genes can be patented allowing corporations to extend their grasp and claim private property rights over the essential building block of human life."

'Off-Limits!': From North Pole, Greenpeace Youth Activists Demand Protection for Arctic | Common Dreams

'Off-Limits!': From North Pole, Greenpeace Youth Activists Demand Protection for Arctic | Common Dreams
"Fulfilling the goal of an ambitious polar adventure, a small Greenpeace team and a group of youth ambassadors have planted a flag on the seabed beneath the North Pole declaring the region "off limits" to exploitation by oil companies, governments, and commercial interests."

Unprecedented Warming in Antarctica Causes Worst Melting in 1,000 Years | Common Dreams

Unprecedented Warming in Antarctica Causes Worst Melting in 1,000 Years | Common Dreams
"Ice is melting at a faster rate in the Antarctic Peninsula than at any time in the past 1000 years, and ten times more than it was 600 years ago, according to a new study by the Australian National University and the British Antarctic Survey, published in Nature Geoscience."

Exposed: Monsanto's Chemical War Against Indigenous Hawaiians | Alternet

Exposed: Monsanto's Chemical War Against Indigenous Hawaiians | Alternet
"Hawaiians are fighting back against the GMO giant."

World is Unprepared as Climate Change Starvation 'Disaster' Lies Ahead: Report | Common Dreams

World is Unprepared as Climate Change Starvation 'Disaster' Lies Ahead: Report | Common Dreams
"Millions of people will die of starvation across the world, as agricultural yields are expected to tank and the price of food is expected to double by 2050, scientists urged in a new report released this week."

Shell’s Plot to Take Away Your First Amendment Rights | Common Dreams

Shell’s Plot to Take Away Your First Amendment Rights | Common Dreams
"Corporations want to work in secret. It’s what they do, and why they have lawyers. In secret, they can spill, clearcut, burn, and otherwise destroy the environment and local communities while telling the world they’re doing just the opposite. Shell Oil’s legal team is currently working overtime to keep the company’s Arctic work secret from advocacy groups like Greenpeace. It’s a battle that will have implications well beyond the Far North. If Shell ultimately wins the legal battle with us this month, corporate secrecy will have the blessing of a federal court — and America’s First Amendment rights will take a devastating hit."

OOPS, Inc.: Arkansas Hires Notorious Private Contractor To "Clean-Up" Tar Sands Spill | Common Dreams

OOPS, Inc.: Arkansas Hires Notorious Private Contractor To "Clean-Up" Tar Sands Spill | Common Dreams
"Witt O'Brien's describes itself as a "global leader in preparedness, crisis management and disaster response and recovery with the depth of experience and capability to provide services across the crisis and disaster life cycle."

But the firm's actual performance record isn't quite so glowing. O'Brien's has had its hands in the botched clean-up efforts of almost every high-profile oil spill disaster in recent U.S. history, including the Exxon Valdez spill, the BP Deepwater Horizon spill, the Enbridge tar sands pipeline spill into the Kalamazoo River, and Hurricane Sandy. 

Most troubling of all, Witt O'Brien's won a "$300k+ contract to develop a Canadian-US compliant Oil Spill Emergency Response Plan for TransCanada’s Keystone Oil Pipeline Project" in Aug. 2008.

Thus, if the Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline inevitably suffered a major spill, Witt O'Brien's would presumably handle the cleanup. That should worry everyone along the proposed KXL route."

San Onofre to the Public: DROP DEAD! | Common Dreams

San Onofre to the Public: DROP DEAD! | Common Dreams
"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ignored critical questions from two powerful members of Congress just as the Government Accountability Office has cast serious doubt on the emergency planning at the San Onofre nuclear plant.

At a cost of some $770 million, Southern California Edison and its partners installed faulty steam generators at San Onofre Units 2 and 3 that have failed and leaked.

Those reactors have been shut since January 2012 (similar defects doomed Unit 1 in 1992).

They've generated zero electricity, but SCE and its partners have billed ratepayers over a billion dollars for them."

Senator Bernie Sanders On Climate Change

Nike, Starbucks, Intel: “We Cannot Risk Our Kids’ Futures On The False Hope The Vast Majority Of Scientists Are Wrong”

Nike, Starbucks, Intel: “We Cannot Risk Our Kids’ Futures On The False Hope The Vast Majority Of Scientists Are Wrong”: The Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP) coalition released a Declaration with the above headline. The full declaration by nearly 3 dozen brand-name companies is: What made America great was taking a stand. Doing the things that are hard. And seizing opportunities. The very foundation of our country is based on fighting for our [...]/p

Arctic Sea Ice: The Death Spiral Continues

Arctic Sea Ice: The Death Spiral Continues: The story of the decade is the collapse of Arctic sea ice and its impact on our extreme weather (see “CryoSat-2 Confirms Sea Ice Volume Has Collapsed“). That merits the latest monthly update of sea ice volume by creative tech guru Andy Lee Robinson showing that “death spiral” is the right visual metaphor: Many experts now [...]/p

The State of Nuclear Power in US: Bad and Worse | Common Dreams

The State of Nuclear Power in US: Bad and Worse | Common Dreams
"As operators at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant announce yet another radiation leak, US officials turn to the state of domestic nuclear plants only to find dangerous and widespread safety issues and "antiquated" emergency planning, leaving the US population open to "potentially devastating human consequences"."

Building a Solar Economy: 4 Lessons from Hawaii

Building a Solar Economy: 4 Lessons from Hawaii
"The solar era has begun: the industry is booming, prices are dropping, and solar energy at last seems poised to help topple the climate-altering dominance of fossil fuels. But bringing it to the masses won’t be as simple as just soaking up the sun."

When It Comes to Tar Sands Pipelines, We're Not Risking a Disaster -- Disaster Is Certain | Alternet

When It Comes to Tar Sands Pipelines, We're Not Risking a Disaster -- Disaster Is Certain | Alternet
"It's now been almost two weeks since ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipeline spill put at least 500,000 gallons of tar sands crude and contaminated water into the Arkansas community of Mayflower. Many of the evacuated families still haven't been able to return to their homes."

22-Foot Gash in Pegasus Pipeline Puts Gaping Hole in Safety Claims | Common Dreams

22-Foot Gash in Pegasus Pipeline Puts Gaping Hole in Safety Claims | Common Dreams
"Dustin McDaniel, the Arkansas Attorney General announced on Wednesday evening that a "22 foot long and 2 inch wide" gash along the Pegasus pipeline allowed crude oil to flood the town of Mayflower with thousands of gallons of tar sands oil on March 29."

Undue Influence: Monsanto Protection Act Just the Tip of the Genetically Engineered Iceberg | Common Dreams

Undue Influence: Monsanto Protection Act Just the Tip of the Genetically Engineered Iceberg | Common Dreams
"It seems the latest Monsanto-coddling legislation is but a logical next step in a decades-long, well-funded network of government-embedded protections enjoyed by what was from its start a chemical company, says a scathing new report from Food & Water Watch."