History, Evolution, and the Darwin Debate
Published on Monday, July 27, 2009 by The New York Times
Uranium Contamination Haunts Navajo Country
by Dan Frosch
TEEC NOS POS, Ariz. – It was one year ago that the environmental scientist showed up at Fred Slowman’s door, deep in the heart of Navajo country, and warned that it was unsafe for him to stay there.
Published on Monday, July 13, 2009 by The San Francisco Chronicle
Crops, Ponds Destroyed in Quest for Food Safety
by Carolyn Lochhead
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/13
WASHINGTON – Dick Peixoto planted hedges of fennel and flowering cilantro around his organic vegetable fields in the Pajaro Valley near Watsonville to harbor beneficial insects, an alternative to pesticides.
Farmworkers harvest romaine lettuce to be shipped directly to market at Lakeside Organic Gardens Farm in Watsonville. (Paul Chinn / The Chronicle)He has since ripped out such plants in the name of food safety, because his big customers demand sterile buffers around his crops. No vegetation. No water. No wildlife of any kind.
Declining Aral Sea: Satellite Images Highlight Dramatic Retreat
ScienceDaily (July 12, 2009) — New Envisat images highlight the dramatic retreat of the Aral Sea’s shoreline from 2006 to 2009. The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth-largest inland body of water, but it has been steadily shrinking over the past 50 years since the rivers that fed it were diverted for irrigation projects.
‘Hotspots’ Of Human Impact On Coastal Areas Ranked
ScienceDaily (July 9, 2009) — Coastal marine ecosystems are at risk worldwide as a result of human activities, according to scientists at UC Santa Barbara who have recently published a study in the Journal of Conservation Letters. The authors have performed the first integrated analysis of all coastal areas of the world.
Progressive Demolition
In Amazonia
By SAUL LANDAU
From May 2000 to August 2005, Brazil lost more Amazon land to “development” than all of Greece. Since 1971, corporate ranchers and agribusiness cleared tens of thousands of acres for grazing, lumber and mining interests. During that period, Brazilian policies and World Bank projects to promote “progress” also helped decimate some 232,000 square miles of Amazon rainforest.
Grassoline: Biofuels beyond Corn
Scientists are turning agricultural leftovers, wood and fast-growing grasses into a huge variety of biofuels—even jet fuel. But before these next-generation biofuels go mainstream, they have to compete with oil at $60 a barrel
The Desert Is Dying
ScienceDaily (Feb. 14, 2007) — Researchers from University of Bergen have found that trees, which are a main resource for desert people and their flocks, are in significant decline in the hyper-arid Eastern Desert of Egypt.
Published on Sunday, July 5, 2009 by the Observer/UK
Costa Rica is World’s Greenest, Happiest Country
Latin American nation tops index ranking countries by ecological footprint and happiness of their citizens
Published on Friday, July 3, 2009 by Reuters
Loss of World’s Seagrass Beds Seen Accelerating
by Jim Loney
MIAMI – The world’s seagrass meadows, a critical habitat for marine life and profit-maker for the fishing industry, are in decline due to coastal development and the losses are accelerating, according to a new study.
Published on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 by The Seattle Times
Smooth Sailing for ‘Oil-Free’ Food
Follow organic produce as it travels from Sequim to Seattle by sailboat with no use of petroleum.
by Diane Urbani de la Paz
SEQUIM, Wash. – Let us follow a strawberry, flush from the field as it travels on wind and water – but without petroleum – from Sequim to the big, hungry city.
Wildlife Faces Cancer Threat
ScienceDaily (June 24, 2009) — While cancer touches the lives of many humans, it is also a major threat to wild animal populations as well, according to a recent study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Hunters Are Depleting Lion And Cougar Populations, Study Finds
ScienceDaily (June 18, 2009) — Sport hunters are depleting lion and cougar populations
Published on Thursday, June 18, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Daring Dragline Protest Launches 7 Days That Will Shake Mountaintop Removal Operations
Published on Monday, June 15, 2009 by Reuters
Pennsylvania Town Fights Big Coal on Mining Rights
British ‘Searaser’ invention promises green power revolution on the wavesThe ‘Searaser’ uses the power of the ocean to pump water inland for electricity generation. Mark Anslow reports on the simple invention that could soon be making waves in renewables. From the Ecologist, part of the Guardian Environment Network
Published on Saturday, June 13, 2009 by The San Francisco Chronicle
Superfund Money to Clean ‘Mouth of the Beast’
by Peter Fimrite
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/06/13-2
Redding, California – Rick Sugarek knows not to splash through the puddles inside “the mouth of the beast.”
Published on Friday, June 12, 2009 by The Baltimore Sun
Today’s Electronics, Tomorrow’s Garbage Heap
Officials, activists worry about discarded TVs piling up after digital switch
Published on Monday, June 8, 2009 by The Independent/UK
Public Support Creation of Marine Nature Reserve
by Emily Beament, Press Association
More than four fifths of people support the introduction of a nature reserve in our seas to protect stocks of fish, according to a survey published today on World Oceans Day.
The poll came ahead of the launch of a film, The End Of The Line, which reveals the impacts of overfishing on the world’s oceans.
The documentary, by journalist Charles Clover, claims that industrial fishing is emptying the seas of fish, destroying the livelihoods of poor fishermen in places such as Africa and killing wildlife accidentally caught in the process.
A place at the table?
Nicholas Dulvy & Edward Allison
An oft-forgotten source of food security and livelihoods, fisheries must be included in ongoing discussions of how the world’s most vulnerable can adapt to climate change.
How Humans Have Disrupted The Nitrogen Cycle
ScienceDaily (June 5, 2009) — More and more, scientists are getting a better grip on the nitrogen cycle. They are learning about sources of nitrogen and how this element changes as it loops from the nonliving, such as the atmosphere, soil or water, to the living, whether plants or animals. Scientists have determined that humans are disrupting the nitrogen cycle by altering the amount of nitrogen that is stored in the biosphere.
Published on Friday, June 5, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Gag Me with Clean Coal
by Karyn Strickler
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/05-6
Take a revitalizing breath of those clean coal emissions from the average coal plant, filled with carbon monoxide, mercury, arsenic and lead – all deadly toxic to humans in high amounts. Breathe deeply the pestilence that is clean coal.
If coal’s impact on climate change weren’t so serious, the public relations campaign that asks us to choke down “clean coal” would be farcical. “Clean coal” is a dirty joke that won’t wash.
Alcohol makes autos more climate-friendly
30 May 2009 by Phil McKenna
DRIVING and alcohol don’t usually mix, but giving a petrol engine an occasional slug of the hard stuff could make it as fuel-efficient as a petrol-electric hybrid.
The Last Empire: China’s Pollution Problem Goes Global
Can the world survive China’s headlong rush to emulate the American way of life?
Published on Tuesday, June 2, 2009 by the Chicago Tribune
Controversial Coal Mining Method Gets Obama’s OKby Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten
WASHINGTON – With the election of Barack Obama, environmentalists expected to see the end of the “Appalachian apocalypse” — their name for exposing coal deposits by blowing the tops off of whole mountains.
Cut emissions or acidity will kill coral reefs, scientists say
‘Underwater catastrophe’ is imminent without action
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Monday, 1 June 2009
Scientists say rising ocean acidity levels, resulting from carbon emissions, are putting the world’s coral reefs in jeopardy
Rising acidity in oceans is leading to a global catastrophe that would be unparalleled in tens of millions of years, according to the national science academies of 69 countries which want governments to take the issue more seriously in the run-up to the December climate change conference in Copenhagen.
Satellite Detects Red Glow To Map Global Ocean Plant Health
ScienceDaily (June 1, 2009) — Researchers from Oregon State University, NASA and other organizations said today that they have succeeded for the first time in measuring the physiology of marine phytoplankton through satellite measurements of its fluorescence – an accomplishment that had been elusive for years.
The 8 Green Steps to Solartopia
By HARVEY WASSERMAN
The noble vision of a Solartopian green-powered Earth is at last upon us.
Concentrated solar power could generate ‘quarter of world’s energy’Industry groups call for solar thermal technology to expand in ‘sun belt’ around world as Spain leads the field
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