Forget The Tar Sands: How Canadian Hydropower Can Help America

Forget The Tar Sands: How Canadian Hydropower Can Help America: By Mari Hernandez Our neighbor to the north has an energy source that our nation has yet to fully utilize — and it’s not tar sands. Canadian hydropower has contributed to America’s clean energy economy, and has the potential to provide our nation with more clean energy. The question is: how can Canada and the [...]/p

Five More States Consider ‘Ag Gag’ Laws To Silence Factory Farm Whistleblowers

Five More States Consider ‘Ag Gag’ Laws To Silence Factory Farm Whistleblowers: As state legislatures begin their 2013 sessions, a flurry of new “ag gag” bills to protect factory farms from potential undercover whistleblowers have been introduced in 5 states. This week, the Indiana Senate is debating a proposal to criminalize taking photographs or videos inside an agricultural or industrial operation without permission. Senate Bill 373 is [...]/p

Permamelt: 500,000-Year History of Permafrost Reveals Further Warming of 1.5°C Would ‘Thaw Significant Regions’

Permamelt: 500,000-Year History of Permafrost Reveals Further Warming of 1.5°C Would ‘Thaw Significant Regions’: Last fall, a major study found that the carbon feedback from thawing permafrost will likely add 0.4°F – 1.5°F to total global warming by 2100. That was based on climate modeling. A new study looks at the paleo-climate record and comes to an equally worrisome conclusion — JR. Caves point to thawing of Siberia Oxford [...]/p

BP Trial Shows 'Culture of Greed' Led to Deepwater's 'Well from Hell' | Common Dreams

BP Trial Shows 'Culture of Greed' Led to Deepwater's 'Well from Hell' | Common Dreams
"BP failed to implement a safety plan on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig despite obvious risks of a blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, the first witness in BP's civil trial for the 2010 disaster testified on Tuesday."

McKibben Must-Read: The Case For Fossil-Fuel Divestment

McKibben Must-Read: The Case For Fossil-Fuel Divestment: How Long Will Colleges Keep Investing in Companies Whose Stock Price Is Based on the Destruction of a Livable Climate? CO2 emissions by fossil fuels [1 ppm CO2 ~ 2.12 GtC, where ppm is parts per million of CO2 in air and GtC is gigatons of carbon (via Hansen). Significantly exceeding 450 ppm risks several severe [...]/p

Oxfam: World's Largest Food Companies Creating Legacy of Destruction | Common Dreams

Oxfam: World's Largest Food Companies Creating Legacy of Destruction | Common Dreams
"The world's largest food and beverage companies may be profitable, but according to Oxfam International their practices are helping to destroy not only the natural resources that support a global food system but the lives of the people they depend on most: their employees and their customers."

Study: Climate Change May Dry Up Important U.S. Reservoirs Like Lake Powell And Lake Mead

Study: Climate Change May Dry Up Important U.S. Reservoirs Like Lake Powell And Lake Mead: As climate change makes the regions of the West, Southwest, and Great Plains warmer and drier, water demand will continue to increase, and the combined effect will place an ever greater burden on the country’s fresh water supplies — possibly completely draining important reservoirs in those areas, under some scenarios. That’s according to a new [...]/p

Victory for Climate, Public Health: US Coal Giant to Shut Down Three Plants | Common Dreams

Victory for Climate, Public Health: US Coal Giant to Shut Down Three Plants | Common Dreams
"In a victory for advocates of clean air and water, energy giant American Electric Power willnow be shutting down three coal-fired power plants and significantly reducing air pollution at 13 others across the Midwest and Southern United States."

The 'Land of 10,000 Lakes' Is Running Dry | Common Dreams

The 'Land of 10,000 Lakes' Is Running Dry | Common Dreams
"The entire state has been covered drought for months, and its water supplies are being sucked away."

In Nebraska, I Stand with the Many Who Stand Against Keystone XL | Common Dreams

In Nebraska, I Stand with the Many Who Stand Against Keystone XL | Common Dreams
"My heart goes out to each and every one of these people and I will continue to be their voice and stand with them until the bitter end, the people will prevail, the power is in the people, we will win and we will defend the future of Nebraska, the Ogallala Aquifer!"

After Attacking Kwanzaa, WI Senator Moves on to Attacking Renewable Energy -- with Help from ALEC

After Attacking Kwanzaa, WI Senator Moves on to Attacking Renewable Energy -- with Help from ALEC
"Wisconsin State Senator Glenn Grothman, who made headlines in December for an unprovoked attack on Kwanzaa, has set his sights on another imagined enemy: renewable energy standards. Although Sen. Grothman's latest move is just as ridiculous as his past efforts, this one is part of a national effort backed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Heartland Institute."

The Five Stages of Environmental Grief | Alternet

The Five Stages of Environmental Grief | Alternet
"The earth is extremely patient. It has absorbed our noxious chemicals and smoke belching power plants, our dams and our highways, our rapacious irrigation systems and our open pit mines. But by all accounts the patience of the planet is beginning to wear thin. Its ability to absorb our abuse won’t last much longer. Neither will it’s capacity to supply us with the petroleum, the food crops, the clean air and water that our modern lives depends on."

10 Stunning Things You Should Know About the Environmental Movement -- 'A Fierce Green Fire' Film Inspires | Alternet

10 Stunning Things You Should Know About the Environmental Movement -- 'A Fierce Green Fire' Film Inspires | Alternet
"With runaway global warming threatening to annihilate climate stability and perhaps life on Earth as we know it, there's no bigger issue on humanity's crowded docket and no better time to catch up on the history of the environmental movement."

Solar Energy To Get Boost From Cutting-Edge Clouds Forecasts

Solar Energy To Get Boost From Cutting-Edge Clouds Forecasts: A new research initiative is designed to lead to unprecedented 36-hour forecasts of incoming energy from the Sun, thereby helping utilities obtain energy more efficiently from solar energy power plants. Credit: NCAR. National Center for Atmospheric Research News Release BOULDER—Applying its atmospheric expertise to solar energy, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is spearheading [...]/p

Biofuels Policy Helping Destroy U.S. Grasslands At Fastest Rate Since 1930s, Boosting Threat of Dust-Bowlification

Biofuels Policy Helping Destroy U.S. Grasslands At Fastest Rate Since 1930s, Boosting Threat of Dust-Bowlification: The ramp up in biofuel production has thus far been a major misfire in the fight against climate change. By driving up the price of corn and other biofuel sources, standards passed in the United States and Europe requiring a certain level of biofuel use have encouraged producers to dedicate more corn to ethanol production [...]/p

The Potential Effects Of Global Warming. David Suzuki Foundation - The Tideline Project

A Better Plan Than 'Endless Growth': Enough Is Enough | Common Dreams

A Better Plan Than 'Endless Growth': Enough Is Enough | Common Dreams
"an economy founded on perpetual growth has no shot at being resilient.  Maybe we could classify such an economy as dynamic, since it will continue to displace people and communities and erode the life-support systems of the planet.  While the economic elites interpret "Resilient Dynamism" to fit their agenda, perhaps the rest of us should employ some plain language and let them know that enough is enough."

Wind, Solar, Biomass Provide All New U.S. Electrical Generating Capacity In January 2013

Wind, Solar, Biomass Provide All New U.S. Electrical Generating Capacity In January 2013: By Kenneth Bossong According to the latest “Energy Infrastructure Update” report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Energy Projects, 1,231 MW of new in-service electrical generating capacity came on line in the United States in January 2013 — all from wind, solar, and biomass sources. This represents a nearly three-fold increase in new [...]/p

This film should be seen by the entire world

Nanoparticles Are in Our Food, Clothing and Medicine -- And No One Knows for Sure How Dangerous They Might Be | Alternet

Nanoparticles Are in Our Food, Clothing and Medicine -- And No One Knows for Sure How Dangerous They Might Be | Alternet
"So far the questions about whether nanoparticles are an environmental risk outnumber the answers, which is why the Duke scientists take the precaution of wearing clean-suits while dosing the boxes—no one’s sure what exposure to a high concentration of nanoparticles might do. Among the few things we do know about them are that they sail past the blood-brain barrier and can harm the nervous systems of some animals."

Dust Bowl Days: Historic U.S. Drought Projected To Persist For Months, Worsened By Thin Western Snowpack

Dust Bowl Days: Historic U.S. Drought Projected To Persist For Months, Worsened By Thin Western Snowpack: By Lauren Morello and Andrew Freedman via Climate Central. See also the NY Times piece, “Thin Snowpack in West Signals Summer of Drought” Time is running out to avert a third summer of drought in much of the High Plains, West and Southwest, federal officials warned Thursday. Without repeated, significant bouts of heavy snow and [...]/p

Now Six - Not One - Hanford Tanks Leaking Radioactive Waste | Common Dreams

Now Six - Not One - Hanford Tanks Leaking Radioactive Waste | Common Dreams
"The seeping waste adds to decades of soil contamination caused by leaking storage tanks at Hanford in the past and threatens to further taint groundwater below the Columbia River, officials said."

Shell Flouts Safety With Arctic Rigs

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Blockadia Rising: Voices of the Tar Sands Blockade

Forward on Climate Rally | Common Dreams

Forward on Climate Rally | Common Dreams
"Thank you to the nearly 50,000 who demonstrated on Presidents Day Weekend at the Washington Monument, the thousands at 20+ solidarity rallies across the country, and the more than one million online activists who stood up and spoke out to tell President Obama that right now its time to move Forward on Climate."

Forward on Climate Rally

10 Ways The Sequester Will Expose Americans To Greater Health Risks And Other Perils

10 Ways The Sequester Will Expose Americans To Greater Health Risks And Other Perils: Sequestration will have major—and negative—impacts on energy and environmental management agencies. Here’s how it will affect all Americans. By Daniel J. Weiss, Michael Conathan, and Jessica Goad. Endnotes are in PDF version. More families exposed to the cold and heat Children and seniors more vulnerable to air pollution Less investment in clean drinking water and [...]/p

In Ancient Caves, Evidence Shows Small Uptick in Temps Could Spell 'Massive' Permafrost Melt | Common Dreams

In Ancient Caves, Evidence Shows Small Uptick in Temps Could Spell 'Massive' Permafrost Melt | Common Dreams
"Scientists studying the geological history inside ancient Siberian caves say that evidence suggests a global temperature increase of just 1.5ºC could trigger massive melting of the northern hemisphere's permafrost, unleashing gigatonnes of carbon and methane into the already warming atmosphere."

Jet Fighter Wings into Wind Turbine Blades | Common Dreams

Jet Fighter Wings into Wind Turbine Blades | Common Dreams
"This report explains how the government could move the money it now spends on weapons systems at large companies like Boeing, to projects that help us get off of fossil fuels. Done right, no jobs would be lost and the industrial part of the military-industrial complex would become less dependent on military contracts; instead those companies would become part of the effort to prevent the worst effects of global climate change."

Latest Polling Finds Strong Support For Clean Energy And Stricter Carbon Pollution Standards

Latest Polling Finds Strong Support For Clean Energy And Stricter Carbon Pollution Standards: Evidence of a striking shift in public opinion has begun to crystalize over the last few months: Poll after poll is finding staunch majorities of Americans view global warming as a “serious problem” and that human activity is a major driving cause. In defiance of received Beltway wisdom, voters even told a recent Yale poll [...]/p

Choked To Death On Waste | Common Dreams

Choked To Death On Waste | Common Dreams
"The appalling evidence mounts. A new scientific study urges that our omnipresent plastic debris - 280 million tons produced last year, less than half recycled, 370 species suffering its effects and another possible 33 billion tons produced by 2050 - be declared "hazardous"."

How Your Household Products May Be Contributing To A Global Health Threat

How Your Household Products May Be Contributing To A Global Health Threat: More than 800 man-made chemicals found in everyday products — in your household cleaners, makeup, electronics, canned food, and clothing — are becoming “a global threat that needs to be resolved,” according to a new report from the World Health Organization and United Nations Environment Program. Research links these hormone-disrupting chemicals to a host of [...]/p

Worst Drought in 1,000 Years Could Begin in Eight Years

Worst Drought in 1,000 Years Could Begin in Eight Years
"Beginning in just eight years, we could see permanent climate conditions across the North American Southwest that are comparable to the worst megadrought in 1,000 years."

Honda And SolarCity Partner On Low-Cost Home Solar Power Leases

Honda And SolarCity Partner On Low-Cost Home Solar Power Leases: According to the New York Times, a new deal between automakers Honda and Acura and solar developer SolarCity may give a big boost to the already-rapidly burgeoning solar leasing market. Solar leases, or solar power purchase agreements, are one of the new innovative tools for encouraging solar deployment. Basically, instead of purchasing a solar array [...]/p

Pipe Dreams? Only 20 Permanent Jobs from KXL: State Department

Pipe Dreams? Only 20 Permanent Jobs from KXL: State Department
"As few as twenty jobs. Why would anyone risk our precious land, water and air for twenty jobs with a dirty oil company?"

Secretive Donors Trust Funds Vast Network of Global Warming Skeptics

Secretive Donors Trust Funds Vast Network of Global Warming Skeptics
"While the secretive Donors Trust has given millions to a variety of right-wing causes, denying climate change appears to be its top priority. An analysis by the environmentalist group Greenpeace reveals Donors Trust has funneled more than one-third of its donations -- at least $146 million -- to more than 100 climate change denial groups over the past decade. In 2010, 12 of these groups received between 30 to 70 percent of their funding from Donors Trust."

Keystone XL Exec: To Support Dirty Tar Sands Is To Support 'American Values' | Common Dreams

Keystone XL Exec: To Support Dirty Tar Sands Is To Support 'American Values' | Common Dreams
"Following comments made at an industry roundtable with reporters on Tuesday, Sierra Club president Michael Brune said that 'no fact or truth' would penetrate the wall of denial put up by the world's oil and pipeline company executives or their lobbyists."

How EPA Climate Protection Can Be America’s Greatest Jobs Producer | Common Dreams

How EPA Climate Protection Can Be America’s Greatest Jobs Producer | Common Dreams
"As our country is devastated by more and more severe droughts, floods, fires, and superstorms, the public is demanding regulation of the greenhouse gasses that cause climate change.  The corporations that profit from coal, oil, and gas fear such regulation will reduce their profits and the value of their investments.  They and their political mouthpieces have a solution, however: persuade the public that regulation of greenhouse gasses will destroy American jobs.  The truth?  Climate change is destroying American jobs right now — but climate protection will produce millions of new jobs.  Here’s why."

Lobbying Budgets of Keystone XL Opponents Exceeded That Of Supporters By More Than 35 To 1

Lobbying Budgets of Keystone XL Opponents Exceeded That Of Supporters By More Than 35 To 1: At least fifty oil companies, business trade associations, labor unions, and political groups with combined lobbying budgets of more than $178 million lobbied Washington in support of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in 2012. And the dozen groups lobbying against the environmentally risky project had 2012 lobbying budgets of less than $5 million total, [...]/p

Farmers Solving Real Climate Problems with Sustainable Solutions

Big Oil Mocks Climate Action With Help From Big Media

Big Oil Mocks Climate Action With Help From Big Media: So I go to read a Washington Post story online, “Climate change could burn a hole in the government’s finances, GAO says.” And there is this banner ad mocking humanity’s primary hope of avoiding climate catastrophe: “Energy Tomorrow is brought to you by the American Petroleum Institute (API),” in case you were wondering. We all [...]/p

Secretive Donors Trust Pumps Far More Money Into Climate Denial And Inaction Than Kochs And Exxon Mobil Combined

Secretive Donors Trust Pumps Far More Money Into Climate Denial And Inaction Than Kochs And Exxon Mobil Combined: A secretive funding organization called Donors Trust spent the last decade funneling vast sums of money to an array of think tanks and activist groups, all dedicated to undermining the science of climate change and heading off the progress of climate policy. That’s according to reporting last week by The Guardian’s Suzanne Goldenberg and a [...]/p

This is What Global Warming Looks Like

Who Can Own Life?: Farmer vs. Monsanto Before US High Court | Common Dreams

Who Can Own Life?: Farmer vs. Monsanto Before US High Court | Common Dreams
"Indiana soybean farmer, Hugh Bowman, is taking his one-man-war against agriculture giant Monsanto to the Supreme Court on Tuesday where both sides will present their arguments (.pdf) to the high court. The suit calls into question essential patent rights and, more importantly, challenges whether anyone can legally "control a product of life"."

Exxon Pressures Network Into Pulling Climate Change Ad

Exxon Pressures Network Into Pulling Climate Change Ad
"Exxon Mobil gave a cease-and-desist order to Comcast, forcing the cable provider to pull an ad about climate change from Fox News' coverage of the State of the Union address in some areas, according to a press release from one of the groups responsible for the ad."

Largest climate rally in U.S. history

UN, WHO Panel Calls Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals a 'Global Threat' | Common Dreams

UN, WHO Panel Calls Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals a 'Global Threat' | Common Dreams
"An international team of experts reported today that evidence linking hormone-mimicking chemicals to human health problems has grown stronger over the past decade, becoming a "global threat" that should be addressed."

Did Horsemeat Leave a Bad Taste in Your Mouth? | Common Dreams

Did Horsemeat Leave a Bad Taste in Your Mouth? | Common Dreams
"So while the horse meat issue has created a small earthquake for the food system, we need a seismic shift that will change the current broken food system into a functional one. This would be a system based on ecological farming and have you and I cutting dramatically down on our meat consumption. While the first will be a gradual process, the latter can be started today."

Bills to Label Genetically Engineered Foods Introduced in Illinois and Iowa

Bills to Label Genetically Engineered Foods Introduced in Illinois and Iowa
"Bills were introduced in the Iowa and Illinois state senates last week that would require genetically engineered (GE) foods to be labeled. Iowa's bill would require labeling if a food contains more than nine-tenths of a percent GE ingredients, whereas Illinois' bill has a one percent threshold."

Kansas Bill Would Require Teachers To Misinform Students About Climate Change

Kansas Bill Would Require Teachers To Misinform Students About Climate Change: Last week, the Kansas House Education Committee introduced a bill that mandates teachers question the scientific basis of global warming, becoming the latest state to take up one of American Legislative Exchange Council’s “model bills” aiming to misrepresent climate change in schools. Kansas would join Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Oklahoma as the fifth state to [...]/p

Climate Change Rally Largest in U.S. History

Climate Change Rally Largest in U.S. History
"An estimated 40,000 rallied on a cold day in Washington, DC yesterday to urge President Obama to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline and destructive energy extraction practices, such as fracking."

Industrial Farming Spurs Devastating 'Web' of Air and Water Pollution | Common Dreams

Industrial Farming Spurs Devastating 'Web' of Air and Water Pollution | Common Dreams
"Meat production—namely the crops used to feed livestock—accounts for 80% of the nitrogen and phosphorus used in farming, according to the report. On top of that, the intense run-off of nutrient-infused animal waste at large-scale meat manufacturing facilities contributes significantly to fertilizer pollution in bodies of water."

Sea Shepherd Continues High Seas Standoff After Whalers Attack | Common Dreams

Sea Shepherd Continues High Seas Standoff After Whalers Attack | Common Dreams
"The fight to protect endangered whales in the Antarctic reached a boiling point over the weekend when high-seas activists from the group Sea Shepherd were bombarded by Japanese whalers as they tried to thwart the fleet from hauling in a dead whale."

Thousands Converge: Demand Action from Obama to Avoid 'Climate Disaster' | Common Dreams

Thousands Converge: Demand Action from Obama to Avoid 'Climate Disaster' | Common Dreams
"Following a rally on the National Mall, the gathered crowd— estimated between 35,000 to more than 50,000 people—began a march towards the White House just before 2:00 PM ET."

Thousands Descend on Washington DC to Pressure Obama to Keep His Climate Change Promise | Alternet

Thousands Descend on Washington DC to Pressure Obama to Keep His Climate Change Promise | Alternet
"Thousands of protesters descended on  Washington DC on Sunday demanding Barack Obama shut down the  Keystone XL pipeline project to show he is serious about taking action on climate change.

Organisers said a crowd of 35,000, carrying placards in the shape of bright red stop signs, gathered at the Washington monument on a bright but bitterly cold day for the march on the White House."

PHOTOS: 35,000 Protesters Demand Immediate Climate Action At ‘Largest Climate Rally In U.S. History’

PHOTOS: 35,000 Protesters Demand Immediate Climate Action At ‘Largest Climate Rally In U.S. History’: On Sunday, an estimated crowd of 35,000 people joined the Forward On Climate rally in Washington, DC, where protesters delivered a clear message to President Obama: Take immediate action on climate change by rejecting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Organizers of the rally described as the “largest in U.S. history” also called on the [...]/p

Nuclear Dump in Washington Leaking Radioactive Waste | Common Dreams

Nuclear Dump in Washington Leaking Radioactive Waste | Common Dreams
"Reports that a storage tank for nuclear waste at the Hanford Nuclear facility in Washington state--one of the most contaminated nuclear waste sites in the country--is leaking radioactive waste were confirmed by that state's governor Friday."