Lester Brown, Author – Full Planet, Empty Plates

When gas prices were at or near record highs a few months ago in the US, that got people’s attention. What about food prices? Have you noticed them rising? Are you making different choices in the supermarket? If not, it might be because of two things. One, in America so much of our food is […]

Global Resource Depletion, Is Population the Problem?

Environmentalists and scientists often refer to the two different ends of the environmental problem as sources and sinks. Thus the environmental limits to economic growth manifest themselves as either: (1) shortages in the “sources” or “taps” of raw materials/natural resources, and thus a problem of depletion, or (2) as a lack of sufficient “sinks,” to […]

ExxonMobil Knew in 1984 MTBE Would Contaminate Ground Water

ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM) told a jury that a gasoline additive to reduce air pollution never caused illness to any resident of New Hampshire, which sued oil companies claiming the chemical polluted its groundwater. ExxonMobil and Citgo Petroleum Corp. made opening statements today in a jury trial of an $816 million lawsuit in which the state […]

The Population Institute Honors GrowthBusters as Best Film at 33rd Annual Global Media Awards

As Global Population Reaches Seven Billion, Groundbreaking Documentary Spotlights Overpopulation Taboo, and the Environmental Damage in Its Wake COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Jan. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — The Population Institute on January 15 will honor the film GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth in the 33rd Annual Global Media Awards. GrowthBusters not only dares to break […]

Beijing air pollution soars to hazard level

Air pollution in the Chinese capital Beijing has reached levels judged as hazardous to human health. Readings from both official and unofficial monitoring stations suggested that Saturday’s pollution has soared past danger levels outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO). The air tastes of coal dust and car fumes, two of the main sources of […]

Ohio family’s tap water catches on fire after natural gas drilling

Surprise, surprise. They’re fracking in the neighborhood and now the methane levels in a family’s well have more than doubled, and what’s happening next?  Their tap water catches on fire. This is a common problem near fracking sites. NBC TODAY: And near the Klines’ house, it just so happens a natural gas company was drilling. […]

Can we trust the reporting of environmental issues by the mainstream media?

Among the various lessons we learned in 2012 there is also whether or not the so-called “mainstream media” really can be trusted to tell the truth about environmental issues.  Or can it be trusted to do just the opposite,  and in various diverse and difficult to detect ways? This additional “lesson to be learned” is […]

The World Population Will Begin to Shrink by 2070

End of the world catastrophe scenes are as silly as they are fascinating. Acid rain was once a concern, but it proved mostly imaginary. The ranges of forests it was supposed to destroy in Germany were if anything fertilized by such rain. And so it seems all this sci-fi hoopla about the world overpopulating is […]

About That Overpopulation Problem

Research suggests we may actually face a declining world population in the coming years. The world’s seemingly relentless march toward overpopulation achieved a notable milestone in 2012: Somewhere on the planet, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the 7 billionth living person came into existence. Lucky No. 7,000,000,000 probably celebrated his or her birthday sometime […]

Oil Sands Industry in Canada Tied to Higher Carcinogen Level

The development of Alberta’s oil sands has increased levels of cancer-causing compounds in surrounding lakes well beyond natural levels, Canadian researchers reported in a study released on Monday. And they said the contamination covered a wider area than had previously been believed. For the study, financed by the Canadian government, the researchers set out to […]

Grounding shows Arctic drilling danger

Inspectors will descend upon a remote Kodiak Island bay to investigate whether a Royal Dutch Shell LLC drilling vessel will need repairs after spending nearly a week aground. The Kulluk, a circular barge with a diameter the length of three basketball courts, was pulled off the rocky bottom of waters near Alaska’s Sitkalidak Island on […]

Corruption At “Decontaminating” Radioactive Towns In Japan

On Friday, Katsutaka Idogawa, mayor of Futaba, a ghost town of once upon a time 7,000 people near Fukushima No. 1, told his staff that evacuees might not be able to return for 30 years. Or never, given the age of many of them. He spoke in Kazo, Saitama Prefecture, where the town’s government has […]

CROOKED CLEANUP (1): Radioactive waste dumped into rivers during decontamination work in Fukushima

Cleanup crews in Fukushima Prefecture have dumped soil and leaves contaminated with radioactive fallout into rivers. Water sprayed on contaminated buildings has been allowed to drain back into the environment. And supervisors have instructed workers to ignore rules on proper collection and disposal of the radioactive waste. Decontamination is considered a crucial process in enabling […]

Nuclear Waste Confidence

At a recent Nuclear Regulatory Commission webinar/hearing on “Waste Confidence,” or what to do about the growing mountain of radioactive used reactor cores, people on both sides actually agreed on SOMETHING.  I didn’t like the term “Waste Confidence” and the pro-nuker didn’t like it either. Other than that, there was little to agree on.  The […]

Let’s Go! Shell in the Arctic

A website that satirizes Shell’s offshore Alaska exploration efforts – and looks similar to Shell’s real homepage – is getting a lot of attention thanks to recent events involving the Kulluk drilling rig. The website – arcticready.com – satirizes Shell’s exploration efforts offshore Alaska, including the Kulluk drilling rig, one of two rigs Shell used […]

Europe Exhausting Herself Running From Energy Boogeymen

Europe’s high energy costs are driving increasing numbers of industries and large employers overseas. Most of Europe’s high energy costs are caused by Europe’s reflexive flight from inexpensive energy of the hydrocarbon and nuclear varieties. High energy costs are emerging as an issue in Europe that is prompting debate, including questioning of the Continent’s clean […]

Methane leaks erode green credentials of natural gas

Scientists are once again reporting alarmingly high methane emissions from an oil and gas field, underscoring questions about the environmental benefits of the boom in natural-gas production that is transforming the US energy system. The researchers, who hold joint appointments with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Colorado in Boulder, […]

Dieter Helm: Coal Critic, Atomic Agnostic, Natural Gas Enthusiast

Dieter Helm’s The Carbon Crunch: How We’re Getting Climate Change Wrong–and How to Fix It has the potential to be an influential energy policy book, not just for the UK but for the rest of Europe and the United States. Helm has been making the rounds to promote the book and recently gave a concise […]

Geoffrey West on From Alpha to Omega

An excellent summary of Prof. West’s research into complexity theory and the scaling laws that determine the lifetimes of both biological organisms and socioeconomic systems. I have referred to his work here to try to explain why large-scale, hierarchically organized socioeconomic systems (cities, economies, nation-states, etc.) exhibit superexponential growth, for a time, but then inevitably […]

Fukushima Debris to Keep Hitting the Pacific Coast This Winter

  Authorities expect more debris from the March 2011 Japanese Tsunami to wash up on the Pacific Coast this winter. Seasonal changes in ocean currents and North Pacific winds will push the 1.5 million tons of debris still out there towards our shores. Just last week, authorities in Washington State were nervously tracking the massive […]

US Regulators Are Not Prepared to Prevent Arctic Spill, Sue for Access to Info on Shell Oil Drilling Plan

Royal Dutch Shell plans to drill for oil this spring in the arctic Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off the northern coasts of Alaska, but watchdogs and environmentalists are not yet convinced that Shell and federal regulators have taken enough steps to prevent or contain a potential oil spill in the treacherous and icy waters. The […]

Done with Math

“The stark choice is between vasectomies and funerals. The sooner we get on with it, the better.” We complain about the slow progress of the climate talks, but what about the even slower progress on efforts to curb semen emissions? Consider this: each day the population of humans on the planet expands by more than […]

Tokyo Almost As Irradiated As Fukushima

We’ve documented the spread of radiation from Fukushima to Tokyo for a year and a half.  See this, this, this, this, this and this. Unfortunately, as the following recent headlines from Ene News show, things are only getting worse: Tokyo area turned out to be as contaminated as Fukushima -Kyoto Professor Tokyo Bay cesium even […]

EPA study seen as soft on fracking

The Environmental Protection Agency released a progress report Friday that reiterated its support for increasing natural gas development in the United States. “As the administration and EPA has made clear, natural gas has a central role to play in our energy future,” the agency said in a press release. “The administration continues to work to […]

Population boom leads World to Doomsday!

The current world population is estimated to be around 6,843,648,133. The projections made by experts indicate it will be nine billion by 2050. According to pessimists the end will be within the next two to three years. Optimists however continue to strengthen their argument with many evidences via popular media. Even with biased global media […]

Naughty Is Too Nice a Word for Big Oil This Holiday Season

December is traditionally a time to reflect on the past year’s events. Looking back I see wildfires sweeping across the west, droughts plaguing our breadbasket, a first time “derecho” storm taking out east coast electricity amidst soaring temperatures, and “super-storm” Sandy devastating everything in its path. So when we tally up the naughty and nice […]

Global warming, peak oil, economic chaos

David Gear reviews “Convivial Policies for the Inevitable” by Michael Bassey which warns we may be forced to start relating to each other in long-forgotten ways, because there is no alternative. More about the title’s “convivial” policies anon. Instead, let’s begin with a 21st Century Arab proverb: My father rode a camel, I drive a […]

Grabbing at solutions: Water for the hungry first

Drip irrigation, shown here in Niger, can help save water, eventually reducing the pressure that drives water grabs. Photo: Bernard Pollack, Worldwatch Institute This piece is part of Water Grabbers: A Global Rush on Freshwater, a special National Geographic News series on how grabbing land—and water—from poor people, desperate governments, and future generations threatens global […]

Saying Goodbye to Tomorrow

Today is the last day on Earth, according to some New Age interpretation of the Mayan calendar. This belief has caused endless suffering and useless expensive purchases by people trying to “beat the clock” and find somewhere safe to spend their last few hours.  Cheap places have suddenly become outrageously expensive, because someone said “Hang […]

How fast is the world’s population growing?

According to estimates, more than 7 billion people live on our planet. Each day, some 200,000 new babies add to this figure, which works out to roughly 140 additional people per minute. Over an entire year, about 80 million humans are born—a number comparable to the combined populations of California, Texas and New York. Not […]

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