Solar Panel Prices Continue ‘Seemingly Inexorable Decline’

Solar Panel Prices Continue ‘Seemingly Inexorable Decline’: The cost of crystalline silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic (PV) panels in the US continues to fall despite the imposition of anti-dumping and illegal subsidy tariffs on imports from China. By Andrew Burger, via Cleantechnica US imports of crystalline silicon solar cells and channels from China fell to their lowest level in at least two years even amid [...]/p

Governor Inslee Calls Coal Exports ‘The Largest Decision We Will Be Making As A State From A Carbon Pollution Standpoint’

Governor Inslee Calls Coal Exports ‘The Largest Decision We Will Be Making As A State From A Carbon Pollution Standpoint’: By Jessica Goad Newly-minted Washington Governor Jay Inslee has been lauded for his impassioned views on environmental issues from climate change to renewable energy.  Indeed, his first official act as governor was to write a letter to a clean energy company inviting it to relocate to the state. In his first press conference as governor [...]/p

Wind Beats Out Natural Gas To Become Top Source Of New Electricity Capacity For 2012

Wind Beats Out Natural Gas To Become Top Source Of New Electricity Capacity For 2012: Through June of 2012, renewable energy was right behind natural gas in terms of the most new energy generating capacity being installed in the United States, with wind making up most of the renewables push. And now Business Insider has flagged the numbers for the remainder of the year. Last week, they reported that wind [...]/p

Obama Goes Hawkish: Failure To Respond To Threat Of Climate Change, ‘Would Betray Our Children And Future Generations’

Obama Goes Hawkish: Failure To Respond To Threat Of Climate Change, ‘Would Betray Our Children And Future Generations’: Obama went all climate hawk on America in his second inaugural address (full text here). These are, I believe, his longest and strongest remarks on the subject in any major national speech, let alone one of this import: We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to [...]/p

Despite Conservative Attacks, States Continue to Realize the Benefits of Renewable Energy Standards

Despite Conservative Attacks, States Continue to Realize the Benefits of Renewable Energy Standards: by Matt Kasper and Tom Kenworthy, Center for American Progress States’ adoption of renewable energy standards—which require electric utility companies to produce a portion of their electricity from wind, solar, and other renewable sources—has considerably driven clean energy advances in recent years. Though Congress has failed to enact a nationwide standard, policymakers at the state [...]/p

Water Grabbing to Follow Food Speculation? | Common Dreams

Water Grabbing to Follow Food Speculation? | Common Dreams
"That same month, the online publication Market Oracle reported that “ [t]he new ‘water barons’—the Wall Street banks and elitist multibillionaires—are buying up water all over the world at unprecedented pace.”The report reveals two phenomena that have been gathering speed, and that could potentially lead to profit accumulation at the cost of communities and commons —the expansion of market instruments beyond the water supply and sanitation to other areas of water governance, and the increasingly prominent role of financial institutions."

House Science Chair’s First Action Is To Hold A Climate Change Denier Hearing

House Science Chair’s First Action Is To Hold A Climate Change Denier Hearing: Coming off of the hottest year in U.S. history and 333 months of higher-than-average global temperatures, Rep. Lamar Smith’s (R-TX) first move as the new chair of the House Science and Technology Committee includes a hearing on climate science, according to Dallas News. For Smith, who criticized “the idea of human-made global warming,” the hearing [...]/p

Whole Foods CEO: ‘Climate Change Is Not Necessarily Bad’

Whole Foods CEO: ‘Climate Change Is Not Necessarily Bad’: It has been a week of controversial statements from Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. First, the self-described libertarian quickly walked back his statement that Obamacare is “like fascism,” admitting it was a “bad choice of language.” And on Friday Mackey — a longtime denier of manmade climate change — told Mother Jones that warming temperatures [...]/p

Study: Planet's Lungs Under Assault From Climate Change | Common Dreams

Study: Planet's Lungs Under Assault From Climate Change | Common Dreams
"A recent NASA-led study shows how areas of the Amazon rainforest, often referred to as the lungs of the planet, are victims of climate change, suffering persistent effects of droughts, which may change "the structure and function" of these important ecosystems."

Sky-High Radiation Found in Fukushima Fish | Common Dreams

Sky-High Radiation Found in Fukushima Fish | Common Dreams
"n the latest discovery revealing the ongoing and devastating effects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011, a fish contaminated with over 2,500 times the legal amount of radiation has been caught off the coast of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, officials announced Friday."

Monsanto's Earnings Nearly Double as They Create a Farming Monopoly | Alternet

Monsanto's Earnings Nearly Double as They Create a Farming Monopoly | Alternet
"Exploiting their patent on transgenic corn, soybean and cotton, Monsanto asserts an insidious control of those agricultural industries in the US, effectively squeezing out conventional farmers (those using non-transgenic seeds) and eliminating their capacity to viably participate and compete on the market. (Until the end of 2012, Monsanto was under investigation by the Department of Justice for violating anti-trust laws by practicing anticompetitive activities towards other biotech companies, but that investigation was quietly closed before the year's end.) "

Study Links Oil And Gas Extraction To Ozone Chemicals

Study Links Oil And Gas Extraction To Ozone Chemicals: By Tom Kenworthy Oil and gas development in an area of Colorado that is in the midst of a huge drilling boom is contributing more than half of the chemical pollution that contributes to the formation of ozone, a new study by University of Colorado scientists has found. The research by scientists at the Cooperative [...]/p

Could we save humanity by ending factory farming?

Beltway Heat: Sweltering Summers To Become The Norm For Nation’s Capital, According To New Climate Report

Beltway Heat: Sweltering Summers To Become The Norm For Nation’s Capital, According To New Climate Report: The draft of the Federal Advisory Committee’s National Climate Assessment was released several days ago, with dire warnings of significantly higher temperatures across the nation bringing more heat waves, deluges, droughts, and other forms of extreme weather. It also concluded that much of the climate change seen over the last 50 years was primarily driven [...]/p

How to Stop the Next Pandemic: End Factory Farming

How to Stop the Next Pandemic: End Factory Farming
"But what if a strand of influenza swept across the nation that was twenty-five times deadlier than the 1918 strand? What if we were dealing with a flu pandemic that had a 60% mortality rate?

Here's the frightening news: We already are."

Will World Act to Protect Bees from Pesticidal 'Nerve Agent'? | Common Dreams

Will World Act to Protect Bees from Pesticidal 'Nerve Agent'? | Common Dreams
"In what environmental campaigners say could be the hopeful "death knell" for a certain family of pesticides long believed to be harming the health of the world's bee colonies, anew report released Wednesday says that use of such chemicals should be deeply curtailed and urgency given to identify potential risks the chemicals pose to other plant pollinators."

Monsanto vs. The People | Common Dreams

Monsanto vs. The People | Common Dreams
"Exploiting their patent on transgenic corn, soybean and cotton, Monsanto asserts an insidious control of those agricultural industries in the US, effectively squeezing out conventional farmers (those using non-transgenic seeds) and eliminating their capacity to viably participate and compete on the market. (Until the end of 2012, Monsanto was under investigation by the Department of Justice for violating anti-trust laws by practicing anticompetitive activities towards other biotech companies, but that investigation was quietly closed before the year's end.)"

Virginia Waters Down Report On Impacts Of Climate Change After Tea Party Complaints

Virginia Waters Down Report On Impacts Of Climate Change After Tea Party Complaints: Earlier this year, Virginia’s legislature commissioned a study to determine the impacts of climate change on the state’s shores. After Tea Party complaints, lawmakers approved the report on condition it strike the words “climate change” and “sea level rise” from the title. This week, Virginia released its analysis, under the title “Recurrent Flooding Study for [...]/p

The Heat is on as the NYT Closes Its Environment Desk | Common Dreams

The Heat is on as the NYT Closes Its Environment Desk | Common Dreams
"Late last week, the New York Times made news – when it broke that the paper has shuttered its environment desk. The change isn't supposed to result in any layoffs, and the managing editor for news operations, Dean Baquet, told the news site Inside Climate that it"is purely a structural matter" – they haven't lost interest in covering environmental issues. The reporters will just be doing it from other formal desks."

New Report Outlines Our Future: Climate Change Set to Make America Hotter, Drier and More Disaster-prone | Alternet

New Report Outlines Our Future: Climate Change Set to Make America Hotter, Drier and More Disaster-prone | Alternet
"The National Climate Assessment was just released and provides the fullest picture of the real-time effects of climate change on US life, and the most likely consequences for the future."

Nature: Strict Limits On Carbon Pollution Could Reduce Some Climate Change Damage By Two-Thirds

Nature: Strict Limits On Carbon Pollution Could Reduce Some Climate Change Damage By Two-Thirds: Emissions would need to peak in 2016 and drop 5%/year through 2050 University of Reading news release Tough limits on global emissions of greenhouse gases could avoid 20% to 65% of the damaging effects of climate change by 2100, according to new research led by the University of Reading’s Walker Institute and published today in [...]/p

Corporate Lobby Threatens A Blizzard Of Litigation Attacking Wall Street Reform And Environmental Protection

Corporate Lobby Threatens A Blizzard Of Litigation Attacking Wall Street Reform And Environmental Protection: Yesterday, U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue delivered his “State of American Business” address, in which he laid out the wealthy corporate lobbying group’s agenda for the coming year. After using several questionable statistics to attack regulations intended to protect the environment or prevent Wall Street from triggering another economic crisis, Donohue’s speech includes [...]/p

Yes, Global Warming Makes the World Hot and Dry (But Also Cold and Wet) | Common Dreams

Yes, Global Warming Makes the World Hot and Dry (But Also Cold and Wet) | Common Dreams
"Scientists and climate activists who often criticize major media for the poverty of their reporting on what they perceive as the most vital issue of our time will be pleased to read the story in its entirety (here)."

'Frackademia': How Big Gas Bought Research on Hydraulic Fracturing | Common Dreams

'Frackademia': How Big Gas Bought Research on Hydraulic Fracturing | Common Dreams
"Last week, the oil company Chevrontook out a full-page ad in the Atlantic Monthly to say – seemingly innocuously – that hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, needs to be "good for everyone". It was a part of Chevron's ubiquitous "Human Energy Campaign", which uses "real people" to soften its corporate image and argue its case.

The multinational is currently ramping up the PR to coincide with the release (also last week) of Promised Land, a controversial new film directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Matt Damon, which highlights the tactics used by drillers to buy up farmland that sits atop the vast Marcellus shale gas fields."

Hurtling Towards Climate Chaos: US Oil Production Set to Explode | Common Dreams

Hurtling Towards Climate Chaos: US Oil Production Set to Explode | Common Dreams
"Projections released Tuesday that US oil production is set to surge to record levels shows the US continuing down the path of runaway climate change."

The Hottest Year Keeps Getting Hotter » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

The Hottest Year Keeps Getting Hotter » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s)National Climatic Data Center has announced that 2012 was the hottest year ever recorded in the contiguous United States."

2012 Hottest Year Since Record Keeping Began in 1895 | Alternet

2012 Hottest Year Since Record Keeping Began in 1895 | Alternet
"The U.S. Climate Extremes Index indicated that 2012 was the second most extreme year on record for the nation, marked by historic drought, wildfires, hurricanes and storms."

All of Earth Now a Mercury Hotspot | Common Dreams

All of Earth Now a Mercury Hotspot | Common Dreams
"The paradigm has shifted anew in a far more dramatic way. The institute and IPEN, the global anti-toxics network, released a first-of-its-kind report Wednesday that found mercury levels in fish and human hair samples from around the world exceed guidelines set by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The report is titled “Global Mercury Hotspots.” In reality, the whole world is a hotspot."

Family Farmers Mobilize in Ongoing Battle Against Monsanto | Common Dreams

Family Farmers Mobilize in Ongoing Battle Against Monsanto | Common Dreams
"A group of family farmers is headed to a federal appeals court on Thursday in their ongoing battle against genetically modified seed giant Monsanto."

Burning 'Deep Purple': Australia So Hot New Color Added to Index | Common Dreams

Burning 'Deep Purple': Australia So Hot New Color Added to Index | Common Dreams
"Wild fires continue to rage across Australia Tuesday and temperatures have become so hot the country's Bureau of Meteorology was forced to add a new color—deep purple—to show areas that have exceeded all-time heat records."

Why We Can't Shop Our Way to a Better Economy: Stacy Mitchell

Stacy Mitchell is a researcher and writer at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), a national nonprofit organization that challenges corporate consolidation of the economy and champions policies to nurture community-scaled enterprise. Stacy directs two ILSR initiatives on independent business and community banking. Her analysis has helped inspire many grassroots campaigns and provided empirical support for changes to local and state policy. Stacy's articles have appeared in Business Week, The Nation, Grist, Utne Reader, Sojourners, and many daily newspapers. Her book, Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses, was named one of the top ten business books of 2007 by Booklist. In 2006, she helped launch the Portland Independent Business & Community Alliance, which has a membership today of over 400 local businesses and runs Portland's popular "buy local" campaign.

NOAA: 2012 Was Officially The Warmest Year On Record, Second Most Extreme

NOAA: 2012 Was Officially The Warmest Year On Record, Second Most Extreme: Last year was officially the hottest ever recorded for the lower-48 states. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric tallied weather and temperature data for 2012, and found that the year was both the warmest and the second-most extreme for weather ever recorded for the contiguous U.S. According to NOAA’s latest “State of the Climate” [...]/p

When Will Obama Act on Catastrophic Climate Change? | Alternet

When Will Obama Act on Catastrophic Climate Change? | Alternet
"Change usually happens very slowly, even once all the serious people have decided there’s a problem. That’s because, in a country as big as the United States, public opinion moves in slow currents.  Since change by definition requires going up against powerful established interests, it can take decades for those currents to erode the foundations of our special-interest fortresses."

Neoliberalizing Nature and Privatizing the Air

Patrick Bond: In 2013 bankers will increase their efforts to make money out of the climate crisis and put a dollar value on everything

Study: We’re Headed To 11°F Warming And Even 7°F Requires ‘Quadrupling The Current Rate Of Decarbonisation’

Study: We’re Headed To 11°F Warming And Even 7°F Requires ‘Quadrupling The Current Rate Of Decarbonisation’
"You know things are bad when a global warming report titled “too late for two degrees?” isn’t written by an environmental organization, but a global financial services firm."

CoalSwarm: A Clearinghouse for Shared Information on King Coal

CoalSwarm: A Clearinghouse for Shared Information on King Coal
"NASA climatologist James Hansen is sometimes called “the godfather of climate science” for his pioneering efforts to warn the world about the threat of global warming. Hansen could also be called the godfather of Earth Island Institute-sponsored project CoalSwarm."

What Happens When Fracking Hits the Suburbs | Alternet

What Happens When Fracking Hits the Suburbs | Alternet
"Fracking, the technology that opened up America's vast deposits of unconventional oil and gas, has moved beyond remote locations and landed at the front door, with oil operations now planned or under way in suburbs, mid-sized towns and large metropolitan areas."

Obama Versus Physics: Why Climate Change Won’t Wait for the President | Common Dreams

Obama Versus Physics: Why Climate Change Won’t Wait for the President | Common Dreams
"Change usually happens very slowly, even once all the serious people have decided there’s a problem. That’s because, in a country as big as the United States, public opinion moves in slow currents.  Since change by definition requires going up against powerful established interests, it can take decades for those currents to erode the foundations of our special-interest fortresses."

New FDA Rules Proposed To Prevent Food Contamination

New FDA Rules Proposed To Prevent Food Contamination
"Progress! This is the kind of nuts-and-bolts stuff that makes a huge difference in our everyday lives."

Grounded Rig Calls Into Question Shell Competence In Arctic Drilling

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Environmentalists in the Arctic, "I told you so."

On Monday night, an oil rig being used by Royal Dutch Shell ran aground, threatening to dump 150,000 gallons of crude into the Gulf of Alaska. So far - Shell has spent 6 years and more than 4 billion dollars trying to extract oil from the Arctic region, despite warnings from environmentalists that drilling in the area is "high-risk", and that it could have a "catastrophic impact on one of the most pristine, unique and beautiful landscapes on Earth." Now that Shell is scrambling to control their crippled oil rig, the world can see that the environmentalists were right. Joining me now for the latest out of Alaska and what this means for the ecosystem there is...Shannyn Moore, Journalist and Radio Host of The Shannyn Moore Show nightly on KOAN 95.5FM & 1020AM Anchorage - and she's also the TV Host of "Moore Up North."

Are We Ignoring a Return to the Dust Bowl?

Don Carr, Environmental Working Group joins Thom Hartmann. As of this past Thursday - 61.8 percent of the contiguous United States was under moderate to severe levels of drought. Drought conditions are so bad that experts are warning that conditions similar to the great Dust Bowl of the 1930's could be returning to the Midwest. So - will the new year bring relief to the heart of America's agriculture industry - or is 2013 set to be another year of record-setting drought conditions?

Bill Moyers: Making People Care About Climate Change

Congress In Contempt, Part 2: How Can We Fix Our Broken Legislature?

Congress In Contempt, Part 2: How Can We Fix Our Broken Legislature?:  This is part 2 of a 2-part series on Congressional gridlock. You can read part 1 here. The 112th Congress is not the first that didn’t earn its pay.  President Truman criticized the 80th Congress as a do-nothing bunch in the 1940s.  In December 1881, the New York Times printed this familiar [...]/p

Congress In Contempt, Part 1: The Fiscal Cliff Is Only One Example Of Congressional Failure

Congress In Contempt, Part 1: The Fiscal Cliff Is Only One Example Of Congressional Failure:  There was a moment when the Founding Fathers considered putting a provision in the Constitution that would allow citizens to recall members of Congress. The proposal failed.  As a result, only members of Congress can remove other members of Congress from office. It’s a pity.  As the 112th Congress passes into an [...]/p

TIMELINE: Documenting Shell’s 2012 Arctic Drilling Debacle

TIMELINE: Documenting Shell’s 2012 Arctic Drilling Debacle: This week’s grounding of Shell’s enormous Kulluk drilling rig near Kodiak Island, Alaska has not inspired confidence in its preparedness to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean. The rig was being towed from Dutch Harbor, Alaska to Seattle when its tow vessel lost control of the massive platform [...]/p

Transocean Gets Off Easy With 'Wholly Inadequate' Gulf Settlement | Common Dreams

Transocean Gets Off Easy With 'Wholly Inadequate' Gulf Settlement | Common Dreams
"Transocean Deepwater Inc. was handed a free pass by the U.S. Department of Justice Thursday, pleading guilty to violations of the Clean Water Act in exchange for a relatively nominal fine and no further criminal penalties for the 2010 oil spill that polluted the Gulf of Mexico with 200 million gallons of oil over a three month period, causing untold damage."

Natural Gas Fables and Energy Independence Myths | Common Dreams

Natural Gas Fables and Energy Independence Myths | Common Dreams
"Unless you’ve been dead for the past couple of years, you’ve been hearing lots of enthusiastic forecasts like this, but not one of them is true. They are generally accompanied by sweeping predictions about geopolitics that are equally misleading, at least insofar as they depend on assumptions about cheap and plentiful supplies of shale gas and other forms of “unconventional” oil and gas.

For example, we are assured that the United States, no longer dependent on Arab oil, will break its habit of intervening militarily in the Middle East, since what happens there will no longer matter to Washington. But this new era of cheap and plentiful energy from fossil fuels will also result, alas, in sky-high greenhouse gas emissions and runaway global warming.

These statements are also untrue, at least in the formulation given above, since they are based on quite mistaken assumptions."

In 2013, Our Fight Against GMO Food Continues | Common Dreams

In 2013, Our Fight Against GMO Food Continues | Common Dreams
"On November 6, in the wake of one of the most expensive and scurrilous smear campaigns in history, six million voters scared the hell out of Monsanto and Big Food Inc. by coming within a razor’s edge of passing the first statewide mandatory labeling law for genetically modified organisms (GMOs)"

Fiscal Cliff Deal Cuts Farm Programs Designed To Help Minorities, Small Farms, And The Environment

Fiscal Cliff Deal Cuts Farm Programs Designed To Help Minorities, Small Farms, And The Environment: Targeted programs for minorities, new farmers, and the environment have been removed from the U.S. Farm Bill as a consequence of significant, under-reported cuts in the deal to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff.” While the deal extended some key Farm Bill provisions, one of which will prevent milk prices from skyrocketing, Senate Minority Leader Mitch [...]/p

General Motors Tripled Sales Of Chevy Volt In 2012, Selling One Million Vehicles Over 30 MPG

General Motors Tripled Sales Of Chevy Volt In 2012, Selling One Million Vehicles Over 30 MPG: General Motors had a record-breaking year for fuel-efficient autos in 2012. The company became the first American auto manufacturer to sell more than one million vehicles with a 30-mpg fuel rating. And due to a surge in demand from Califorina, GM tripled sales of its electric model, the Chevy Volt. Motor Trend reported on the [...]/p

In Fight Against Privatized Water, Bottles Banned in Concord, Mass | Common Dreams

In Fight Against Privatized Water, Bottles Banned in Concord, Mass | Common Dreams
"Concord, Massachusetts became the first town in the nation to ban the sale of plastic water bottles as a new bylaw went into effect Tuesday, following years of campaigning by local activists."

Bridge To Nowhere? NOAA Confirms High Methane Leakage Rate Up To 9% From Gas Fields, Gutting Climate Benefit

Bridge To Nowhere? NOAA Confirms High Methane Leakage Rate Up To 9% From Gas Fields, Gutting Climate Benefit: Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have reconfirmed earlier findings of high rates of methane leakage from natural gas fields. If these findings are replicated elsewhere, they would utterly vitiate the climate benefit of natural gas, even when used to switch off coal. Indeed, if the previous findings — of 4% methane leakage [...]/p

“Energy In Depth” – A Reporters’ Guide to Its Founding, Funding, and Flacks

“Energy In Depth” – A Reporters’ Guide to Its Founding, Funding, and Flacks
"What is Energy In Depth, really? EID describes itself as "a research, education and public outreach campaign focused on getting the facts out" about hydraulic fracturing, widely known as "fracking." It's a website created by a trade group for the gas industry -- the "Independent Petroleum Association of America"(IPAA) -- and a public relations firm."

Food Poisoning on a Global Scale | Common Dreams

Food Poisoning on a Global Scale | Common Dreams
"Food is supposed to provide us nourishment and health but because of the toxins it contains, what we consume has become a major threat to our health. Some toxic substances are added to our food physically, through adulteration, while some enter our food system chemically, through pesticide residues. And some toxins enter the food chain genetically, through genetic engineering of seeds and crops. Even food packaging can be a source of toxins in food."

Warnings Ignored, Shell's Arctic Drilling Rig Runs Aground Off Alaskan Coast | Common Dreams

Warnings Ignored, Shell's Arctic Drilling Rig Runs Aground Off Alaskan Coast | Common Dreams
"Fulfilling dire predictions by environmentalists and conservationists that oil exploration and extraction in the Arctic was frought with peril, a Royal Dutch Shell offshore drilling rig carrying roughly 150,000 gallons of oil ran aground on an island in the Gulf of Alaska on Monday night threatening the pristine waters with a potential spill."

Why We Need a New Year's Revolution Against the Corporatocracy | Alternet

Why We Need a New Year's Revolution Against the Corporatocracy | Alternet
"Starting today, not next year, we all have to become climate hawks and democracy activists, breaking corporate control over the marketplace and over our elections, media, and public policy. Starting today we must move together to save our climate, our civilization, and Mother Earth."