Environment
Environment
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Ecocide in the Pacific
Evaggelos Vallianatos: ... no one will ever know the mountains of wastes that have been buried or dumped into rivers, lakes, seas and oceans in violation of the law or with the consent of local and national authorities. ... One such water dumping of DDT wastes came to light in late 2020 ... 500,000 barrels of DDT littering the ocean floor ... near the Catalina Island. ... It could not have taken place without the tacit agreement of California and national governments. ... the largest violator of national and international environmental laws is the US military ... dumped its toxic stuff, including lead, dioxin, plutonium, and herbicides, into the Pacific ... US military tested 67 nuclear bombs alone on Marshall Islands,,,
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Apr 12, 2021, 4:30pm
Environment
The Environmental Impacts of “Green” Technology
Julia Barnes: Solar panels, wind turbines, and electric cars have long been touted as solutions to the climate crisis. ... The “green” image attached to these technologies masks a dark reality; they are adding to the problem of environmental destruction, failing to reduce CO2 emissions, and accelerating the mass extinction of life on the planet. ... The real solutions are obvious; stop the industries that are causing the harm and allow life to come back. ... Fossil fuels need our opposition. So do lithium mines, rare earths mines, copper mines, iron mines, and industrial wind and solar facilities...
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Apr 10, 2021, 4:02pm
Environment
We sampled tap water across the US – and found arsenic, lead and toxic chemicals
Ryan Felton and Lisa Gill of Consumer Reports and Lewis Kendall for the Guardian: CR and the Guardian selected 120 people from around the US, out of a pool of more than 6,000 volunteers, to test for arsenic, lead, PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), and other contaminants. The samples came from water systems that together service more than 19 million people. ... A total of 118 of the 120 samples had concerning levels of PFAS or arsenic above CR’s recommended maximum, or detectable amounts of lead. ... These chemicals are linked to learning delays in children, cancer, and other health problems...
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Apr 6, 2021, 3:59pm
Environment
'Plastic Pollution Is a Social Justice Issue,’ New Report Warns
Olivia Rosane: "Plastic pollution is a social justice issue," report coauthor and Azul founder and executive director Marce Gutiérrez-Graudiņš said in a press release. "Current efforts, limited to managing and decreasing plastic pollution, are inadequate to address the whole scope of problems plastic creates, especially the disparate impacts on communities affected by the harmful effects of plastic at every point from production to waste." ... Plastics come from oil, and oil extraction can be a highly damaging and polluting process. Indigenous communities are displaced for oil drilling, fracking pollutes drinking water and oil refineries pose a health risk to the African American communities along the U.S. Gulf Coast...
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Apr 5, 2021, 2:52pm
Environment
A Friday Night Massacre in Colorado
Philip Doe: Last Friday night I listened to the state of Colorado and the Suncor Corporation vote as one against independent monitoring and public health analysis of the Suncor refinery’s massive air pollution. ... Governor Polis’s representative, Heather Wuollet, thought it more important that money be directed to a state sponsored proposal to fix up old cars in the neighborhood since everybody knows they are such big polluters. ... Canadian owned Suncor refinery happen to be one of the two largest polluters in the state. ... In 2019 it released about 900,000 tons of pollution into the Denver metropolitan area. ..
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Apr 5, 2021, 2:35pm
Environment
How (and Why) to Welcome Insects Into Your Yard
Brian Lovett: Gardening isn't just about plants. It’s about the entire ecosystem those plants can support. ... Most gardeners know how beneficial insects can be for their plots. ... As a scientist whose research involves insects and as a gardener, I know that many beneficial insect species are declining and need help from humans. ... humans all too often see ourselves as separate from nature ... however, we are an important part of the natural world, and we need insects just as much as they need us...
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Mar 30, 2021, 3:32pm
Environment
Net-Zero Emissions for a Dollar a Day
Scott Gibson: Researchers charting a course for carbon neutrality by midcentury find that multiple paths are feasible... Berkeley Lab boiled down the report’s key recommendations to these eight steps that would be needed by 2030: ... Increase solar and wind generating capacity to 500 gigawatts (GW), 3.5 times what it is now. ... Eliminate coal from most electricity generation. ... Keep the current natural gas−generating capacity for reliability. ... Increase sales of zero-emission vehicles to 50% of the total. ... Increase the sales share of heat pumps for heating and cooling buildings to 50% of the total. ... Adopt strict efficiency goals for all new buildings and appliances...
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Mar 27, 2021, 11:59am
Environment
The human right that benefits nature
Katarina Zimmer: The human right to a healthy environment – encompassing clean and balanced ecosystems, rich biodiversity and a stable climate – recognises that nature is a keystone of a dignified human existence, in line with a wealth of scientific evidence linking human welfare and the natural world. People depend on thriving ecosystems that clean water and air, yield seafood and pollinators, and soak up greenhouse gases. Recognising this link legally can greatly strengthen human rights...
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Mar 21, 2021, 10:06am
Environment
With Deb Haaland Leading the Interior Department, Perhaps the United States Has Begun to Grow up Ecologically
Robert C. Koehler: Deb Haaland ... has been given the reins of the department that has essentially been at war, not simply with her people but with the planet itself and, therefore, all of us, pretty much since its inception ... That is to say, the (Interior) department's values are those the European colonialists brought with them to the new continent: steal the land from those who live there, then proceed to exploit it. ... Haaland, like millions of Indigenous peoples, strongly believes in and practices the Seven Generation rule. The rule says that all significant decisions must be made with the next seven generations in mind...
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Mar 19, 2021, 3:23pm
Environment
The Active Forest Management Scam
George Wuerthner: There are daily news stories about the recent large wildfires in 2020. In nearly all of these media accounts, almost always attributed to a lack of active forest management. ... proponents of logging/thinning forests assert fuel reductions would diminish fire severity. ... This chainsaw prescription is all a scam to promote logging. ... There is a common denominator in all the large blazes — wind ... The wind blows embers miles ahead of the fire front, starting new spot fires and crossing any barriers erected to thwart fire spread. ... what finally leads to the “control” of the blazes is a change in weather..
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Mar 18, 2021, 3:02pm
Environment
Going Circular: 7 European Cities’ Quest to Become Fully Sustainable
Sebastian Skov Andersen: On the outskirts of Roskilde, about 30 kilometers from Denmark’s capital of Copenhagen, lies a small, but significant district called Musicon. Sit on a bench in Musicon, and you’ll likely be sitting on slabs of concrete salvaged and repurposed from a demolition site nearby. ... Musicon was founded in 2007 on the premise that the old concrete factory that occupied the site should not be demolished, but rather become the foundation for the new district’s development. ... This is one example of what is called a circular economy. To become fully circular means to avoid as much waste as possible, and to preserve as much value in what does go to waste....
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Mar 13, 2021, 2:46pm
Environment
Some Grocers Are Far From Green
Max Steiner: February report by the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). It found that more than half the grocery stores sampled in the greater Washington, DC, area leaked hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), greenhouse gases far more damaging than carbon dioxide. ... HFCs are widely used as cooling agents in air conditioning and refrigeration. .... Although HFCs leave the ozone layer intact, they trap more heat in the atmosphere ... If global HFC emissions continue at the current rate, they would heat the planet by up to an additional 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century...
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Mar 10, 2021, 3:35pm
Environment
Wilderness and Grazing: Time to Send the Cows Home
George Wuerthner: Cows in designated wilderness areas? Does that seem like an oxymoron? Wilderness Areas are supposed to be places where natural processes and native species are given priority. ... The problem of cows (and sheep) in the wilderness goes back to the original debate around enacting the Wilderness Act. ... There are both ecological and philosophical reasons why domestic livestock production is inappropriate in wilderness areas. ... our wilderness areas are the best scientific control we have to compare lands with minimum human impacts with manipulated landscapes...
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Mar 9, 2021, 3:00pm
Environment
Sky-High Levels of Fracking Chemicals Detected in Children's Bodies
Climate Nexus: The research fills a gap in the science between the health harms experienced by those living near fracking and the known harms caused by fracking chemicals: whether fracking chemicals were actually in people's bodies. They are. ... Of the southwestern Pennsylvania families who participated in the study, those who lived closer to fracking wells had higher levels of fracking chemicals or their biomarkers than those who lived far away. ... In Texas, researchers found that babies born near frequent flaring—the burning off of excess natural gas from fracking wells—are 50 percent more likely to be premature...
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Mar 5, 2021, 10:37am
Environment
Keeping trees in the ground where they are already growing is an effective low-tech way to slow climate change
Beverly Law & William Moomaw: Protecting forests is an essential strategy in the fight against climate change that has not received the attention it deserves. Trees capture and store massive amounts of carbon. And unlike some strategies for cooling the climate, they don’t require costly and complicated technology. ... Yet although tree-planting initiatives are popular, protecting and restoring existing forests rarely attracts the same level of support ... Forests pull about one-third of all human-caused carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere each year. ... Researchers have calculated that ending deforestation and allowing mature forests to keep growing could enable forests to take up twice as much carbon...
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Feb 26, 2021, 3:29pm
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