A world in collapse

Take a look at any measure of the fundamental health of the planetary ecosystem on which we are dependent: topsoil loss, chemical contamination of soil and water, species extinction and reduction in biodiversity, the state of the world’s oceans, unmanageable toxic waste problems, and climate change. Take a look at the data, and the news […]

Guardian: Environmentalist’s Paradox

We hear lots of concerned chatter these days – not least, here on this site – about peak oil, peak water, deforestation, resource depletion and the like, but a popular riposte offered by those doubting such concerns is something commonly referred to as the “Environmentalist’s Paradox”. The argument goes thus: “Why, despite resource depletion and the degradation of […]

Feds: Don’t drink contaminated water in Wyo. town

People shouldn’t drink water from 40 wells in and around this central Wyoming farming and ranching community, federal officials said Tuesday. The announcement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services coincided with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency releasing its latest findings from testing water wells in the Pavillion area. Meanwhile, Encana Oil & […]

David Suzuki: Our obsession with private automobiles is unsustainable

Are we driving ourselves into oblivion? Or will new automobile technology save us from the environmental impact of the fossil-fuelled tanks we use to get around? On the extreme end of the consequences of our auto-centric societies, we need only to look at the recent massive traffic jam in China that stretched for 100 kilometres […]

Chron: EPA regulation of greenhouse gases: Survey says ‘yes’

Most voters want the U.S. to regulate greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. They also say the government needs to do more to crack down on companies that pollute, according to a new survey done for the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Action Fund. The poll revealed that 60 percent of voters surveyed over five days last […]

China to Globe: “No More Rare Earth”

China defended its controls on exports of rare earth after Japanese officials raised concerns about supplies of the raw materials used in the manufacture of products from cell phones to radar. Restrictions on the rare earth industry will help protect the environment, the state-run Xinhua News Agency cited Chen Deming, China’s commerce minister, as saying […]

TOD: How limited global oil supply may affect climate change policies

On Wednesday, August 25, I gave a presentation called How limited global oil supply may affect climate change policies at the MIT-NESCAUM Endicott House Symposium on climate change. The audience included leaders from governmental, industrial, academic, and non-governmental (NGO) sectors. They were very concerned about climate change, but not very aware of, or concerned about, […]

Salon: Why our agricultural empire will fall

An expert tells us how our food system is repeating the history of doomed civilizations BY RIDDHI SHAH In an age of super-sized meals and obesity epidemics, food-shortage doomsday scenarios always seem a little surreal. Backed by half a century of agricultural abundance, it’s easy to imagine that cheap food will permanently abound. But in a […]

It’s Not Environment vs. Economy: Green Is the Path to Prosperity

The day after the climate bill failed in the U.S. Senate, the New York Times’ conservative columnist Ross Douthat gave his take on the political-right and the climate in a piece that on the surface sounded reasonable. “Maybe it was best that the bill didn’t pass,” he says. While he displays some bravery in calling […]

Anti-environmentalists are stuck in the past

By David Suzuki with Faisal Moola Environmentalists won’t be happy until we’re living in caves and scrounging for roots and berries. At least, that’s what I hear over and over again. The people who say this would have you believe that those of us who care about the Earth and its future are neo-primitives who […]

AP: Survey shows ill health in Wyo. frack zone

By MEAD GRUVER Associated Press Writer (AP:CHEYENNE, Wyo.) Four out of five people who have returned health surveys report respiratory problems in a central Wyoming community where some residents say gas drilling has polluted their water wells, an environmental group said Wednesday. Respondents also reported headaches, nausea, itchy skin, dizziness and other ailments, according to […]

Edinburgh, Activists Protest Fossil Fuel Investment

ECO protestors stormed the grounds surrounding the Royal Bank of Scotland HQ in Edinburgh today. They also launched other climate change protests in the city centre as police made a small number of arrests. Around 150 activists – going under the name Climate Group – pitched 30 tents and a small marquee inside the grounds […]

Grist: What if there’s much less coal than we think?

How much coal is there in the world? It’s tough to think of a more important question for the next half-century. The answer will play a huge role in shaping public policy and directing capital investments. So we’ve got it pretty well nailed down, right? Turns out, maybe not. The prevailing conventional wisdom is that […]

AP: Interior halts deepwater environmental exemptions

By ERICA WERNER (AP) – 19 hours ago WASHINGTON — The Obama administration announced Monday it is requiring environmental reviews for all new deepwater oil drilling. That means an end, at least for now, to the kind of exemptions that allowed BP to drill its blown-out well in the Gulf with little scrutiny. The announcement came […]

Scientists Say as Much as 79% of Oil Remains in Gulf of Mexico

A group of scientists says as much as 79 percent of BP Plc’s leaked oil remains in the Gulf of Mexico, challenging an Obama administration assessment that the crude is largely gone or rapidly disappearing. Most of the oil that leaked from BP’s Macondo well from April 20 to July 15 is still beneath the […]

Climate Experts Agree: Global Warming Caused Russian Heat Wave

As Russia chokes from a heat wave of unprecedented ferocity, president Dmitry Medvedev has strengthened his call for the world’s leaders to take action to fight global warming pollution. The scientific community has warned for decades that burning coal and oil without limit would intensify heat waves, droughts, and floods. Now that the planet is […]

“Geo-Engineering” As Futurological Greenwashing

“Geo-engineering” is one of the latest thrilling contributions of futurology to the ongoing derangement of sensible deliberation about ongoing technoscientific change in the world. In a recent piece capturing this derangement rather nicely the usually more sensible Chris Mooney bemoans “the incredible gap between the importance of geoengineering as a possibility on the one hand, […]

ClimateWire: Senate presses World Bank to reduce coal plant loans

12 August 2010 The U.S. Senate ratchets up the pressure on the World Bank, including language in the 2011 foreign operations funding bill demanding a fossil fuel phase out and a commitment to renewable energy in the Bank’s new energy strategy. Source: E&E News by Lisa Friedman The U.S. Senate is leaning on the World […]

Blog: Dirty fuels ‘could follow’ peak oil

Friday, August 13, 2010 Rising oil prices could lead to an increase in the use of ‘dirty fuels’ unless policy measures are taken to intervene, a leading scientist has said. Writing in the forthcoming edition of Public Service Review: Science and Technology, Daniel Kammen, professor of energy at the University of California, warned that vast […]

Dot Earth:The Technology Imperative for Energy and Climate

If you care about fostering prosperity in poor places while limiting the buildup of greenhouse gases in the globe’s shared atmosphere, it’s time to recognize the technology imperative that lies behind the world’s entwined climate and energy challenges. Without greatly intensified work to advance and disseminate energy choices that don’t come with heat-trapping emissions, there’s […]

Rigzone: Water Treatment Key to Hydraulic Fracturing’s Future

The Marcellus shale gas exploration rush that has washed over Pennsylvania has created concerns over how hydraulic fracturing impacts local water supplies. A single well hydrofracture in the Marcellus may require two million to five million gallons of fracturing fluid, of which 25 percent to 100 percent may be returned to the surface as “flowback” […]

Record heat waves and floods could become the norm

The record heat wave in Russia and the deadly heat and flooding in Asia may become the norm rather than the exception according to climate scientists. Combined with glacier melting, water shortages, and rising sea levels, global warming could do more than change the environment, it could trigger global conflict. This is what the wildfire […]

Can Gas ‘Fracking’ Pollute Groundwater? Unlikely.

Can hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells pollute groundwater? The anti-drilling crowd wants you to think so, and has convinced the Environmental Protection Agency to launch an investigation into fracking. Don’t believe them. The fracking process basically consists of injecting millions of gallons of water mixed with a wee amount of chemicals and tiny […]

Oil spill to have long term impact

Marine conservationist Rick Steiner, a retired University of Alaska scientist said it is too early to conjecture the real impact of the spill. The success, according to experts, has come a bit too late though. Lot of harm, economic, environmental and ecological, has already been done by the oil. Large portions of Louisiana’s flimsy coastal […]

Guardian: Saudi Arabia to seek compensation for climate pact oil losses

Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing nations stake claim to projected $19bn losses if oil production declines due to global climate deal Saudi Arabia, which has the world’s largest oil reserves and earned nearly $300bn in fossil fuel exports last year, will seek financial compensation for any loss it incurs if and when production declines after […]

The Leak Appears to be Sealed

Today comes news that there is light at the end of the tunnel over the leak in the Gulf of Mexico: Allen: ‘High confidence’ no more oil will flow into Gulf Retired Coast Guard admiral Thad Allen said Wednesday he has “high confidence” no more oil will leak from BP’s Gulf of Mexico well. Hours […]

BP: Mud pumped into well is holding back the oil ‎

In a significant step toward stopping the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, BP said Wednesday mud that was forced down its blown-out well was holding back the flow of crude in the Gulf of Mexico and it was in a “static condition.” Workers stopped pumping mud in after about eight hours of their […]

Peak oil threatens BC’s food supply

B.C. farmers produce only 48 per cent of the meat, dairy, fruit and vegetables that we consume, according to a report prepared by the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture. The report, titled B.C.’s Food Self-Reliance, says that the area of farmland with access to irrigation in B.C. would have to increase by nearly 50 per cent […]

BP prepares to plug Gulf oil well for good

BP engineers were preparing to pump heavy drilling mud and cement into the well in a procedure known as a “static kill,” retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the U.S. official overseeing the federal spill response, said on Sunday. He said the two-pronged effort to finally kill the runaway well would start “as early as […]

Ocean Losing Its Green

The oceans are the lifeblood of our planet and plankton its red blood cells. Those vital “red blood cells” have declined more than 40 percent since 1950 and the rate of decline is increasing due to climate change, scientists reported this week. “Phytoplankton are a critical part of our planetary life support system. They produce […]

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