Climate Change, Sustainability, Environment, Pollution, Big Energy, Politics, Ecology, Poaching, Bees, Animal Gallery

Climate Change

• Americans increasingly believe in global warming, Yale report says--The temperature trends are worrying.
• An Ancient Civilization, Upended by Climate Change
• An Illustrated Guide to the Science of Global Warming Impacts: How We Know Inaction Is the Gravest Threat Humanity Faces
• Worst grape harvest in half century: experts
• C&H: Global Warming Man

Sustainability

• France Invests 50 Million Euros in Electro-mobility
• Fear of Fracking: Germany Balks on Natural Gas Bonanza--"In summary, we conclude that a great deal of the fundamental information needed to make a valid assessment of these risks is still missing."
• xkcd: Undoing

Environment

• Scientists link deep wells to deadly Spainish quake
• Yale: Palm Oil Massive Source of Carbon Dioxide
• Greenwashing the Retina MacBook Pro

Pollution

• BP Will Plead Guilty and Pay Over $4 Billion NYT
• Fukushima disaster could have been avoided, nuclear plant operator admits
• World's biggest geoengineering experiment 'violates' UN rules

Big Energy

• IoS investigation: The great British energy rip-off
• Supreme Court denies Chevron $19bn Ecuador appeal
• Information About Cancer? Suppress It!--"If scientific research emerges that a common chemical in our homes is potentially dangerous, what should we do? Why, suppress the research, the chemical industry argues!" NYT

Poiltics

• Republican Congressman Falsely Claims That 'Almost All' Clean Energy Companies Go Bankrupt
• 46 Republicans Claim Wind Credits Are Too 'Costly' After Voting To Retain Billions In Big Oil Subsidies
• Murder, Environmental Devastation and Human Rights Abuses Are Bad, Even In Nigeria

Ecology

• Four tons of African ivory caught in Hong Kong--And four weeks later, they seize an additional $1.4m of illegal ivory.
• Australia to kill sharks in bid to protect people
• Rat kill in Galapagos Islands targets 180 million 1/4t

Poaching

• Four leopards poached each week in India, say experts
• Rhino poaching hits record numbers in South Africa
• Poachers shoot and dehorn 4th rare rhinoceros in India's northeast

Bees

• Pesticides put bee colonies at risk: study
• Are Zombie Bees Infiltrating Your Neighborhood?
• French bees make green and blue honey after M&M&'s feast

Animal Gallery

• The 50 Best Animal Photos Of 2011
• More Than Human: Striking, Glamorous Portraits of Animals
• Animals and their people

Food Insecurity, Big Energy, Climate Change, Arctic Melt, Environment, Fracking, Pollution, Ecology, Nature, Man. vs. Wild

Food Insecurity

• Widespread droughts send world food prices soaring
• Food prices jump will hit poor, World Bank warns
• Food shortages could force world into vegetarianism, warn scientists--"Water scarcity's effect on food production means radical steps will be needed to feed population expected to reach 9bn by 2050."

Big Energy

• Mitt Romney Energy Plan: More Oil & Natural Gas Production On Federal Lands
• A Libyan's Plea to the S.E.C.--"Oil-industry lobbyists are trying to undermine transparency measures in America and Europe that could help prevent future tyrants, like the Libyan dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi, from emerging." NYT
• How Did Coal-Rich India End Up With Power Blackouts?--"World Bank policies had a lot to do with it. [...] For decades, the World Bank provided inducements to the government of India to expand its exploitation of coal. The bank also pushed privatization of the power sector and expansion of strip mining.
• Venezuela: Chavez orders Amuay refinery blast probe--Sabotage?
• World's largest oil producer falls victim to 30K workstation attack--Definitely sabotage.

Climate Change

• Up to 13% of the Earth's Surface Has Recently Reached 'Extreme Heat'
• The Drought Is So Severe, You Can See Its Toll on the Mississippi From Space
• In a surprise, CO2 emissions fall to 20-year low in U.S.
• Why Did the Mayan Civilization Collapse? Deforestation and Climate Change
• Onion Weather Center: Arizona Heatwave Forces Temporary Suspension Of Racial Profiling

Arctic Melt

• Rate of Arctic summer sea ice loss is 50% higher than predicted
• Arctic sea ice set to hit record low--And that it has.
• The day the world went mad--"As record sea ice melt scarcely makes the news while the third runway grabs headlines, is there a form of reactive denial at work?"

Environment

• Interpol issues wanted notice for 'Whale Wars' star
• Canada: Feds drop environmental assessment of 492 projects--"Stephen Harper's Conservative government has washed its hands of environmental assessments of the nearly 500 projects in B.C. as a result of a revised Canadian Environmental Assessment Act."
• Papua New Guinea's seabed to be mined for gold and copper--"Government approves world's first commercial deep-sea mining project despite vehement objections over threat to marine life."
• Brazilian Court Halts Belo Monte Dam--" The court ruled that the Brazilian Constitution and International Labour Organization Convention 169, to which Brazil is a party, require that Congress can only authorize the use of water resources for hydroelectric projects after an independent assessment of environmental impacts and subsequent consultations with affected indigenous peoples. "
• Hawaii is officially the 1st state to ban plastic bags

Fracking

• Analysts Conclude Fracking Wastewater Poses Substantial Risk to Drinking Water
• 'Fracking' for Natural Gas Is Linked With Earthquakes
• The Facts Behind the Frack: Scientists weigh in on the hydraulic fracturing debate
• The impact of fracking: Great Barrier Grief
• Pic: Fracking bought a little of this road--Suuuuure it did.

Pollution

• Report: Pacific Ocean Has 100 Times More Plastic Particles In It Than '70s
• Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists--"Eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions are becoming common, with BP oil pollution believed to be the likely cause."
• Court throws out new air pollution rules--"The decision Tuesday is a blow for several states, the Obama administration and environmental groups, which had sought to prevent 'upwind states' from emitting possibly unhealthy levels of contaminants across state borders, a requirement known as the 'good neighbor' policy."
• Urban wind flows deposit pollutants in repetitive patterns
• Parting Shot: Fan Made 'Captain Planet' Trailer Will Make You Think Twice About Dropping That Can On The Floor

Ecology

• 'Like a bad Hollywood cop movie': Asia's biggest wildlife traffickers mostly untouchable
• Peru police seize thousands of dried seahorses--"Police in Peru have seized more than 16,000 dried seahorses which were to be exported illegally to Asian countries."
• Yao Ming support from friends in 'high' places
• Protected sea lions gorge on threatened salmon
• Ecology drones track endangered wildlife--"Unmanned aerial vehicles are being put to use to monitor wildlife, spot poachers, and chart forest loss."
• Assuming We Develop the Capability, Should We Bring Back Extinct Species?
• Jurassic Park experiment a success after 500 million-year bacteria bought back to life

Nature

• Scientists discover beautiful new insect species after stumbling upon photos on Flickr
• Elephants Took 24 Million Generations to Evolve From Mouse-Size
• Ancient seagrass: 'Oldest living thing on earth' discovered in Mediterranean Sea
• 'SpongeBob' Mushroom Discovered in the Forests of Borneo
• Microscopic marvels star in movies
• Female Sharks Can Reproduce Alone
• Scientists spin first artificial web--In other news, Peter Parker to file suit.

Man vs. Wild

• Nepalese snake bites man. Man bites snake to death
• National Geographic Live! : Revenge of the Meerkat
• Blast from the Past: Uncle wrestles shark to save boy's severed arm

Gas Prices, Heartland Institute, BP, Environment, Ecology, Food Security

Gas Prices

• Oil prices: Not Obama’s fault--"There's nothing the president can do about rising fuel costs -- and a new poll shows most Americans know that." Salon
• Obama Calls for an End to Subsidies for Oil and Gas Companies NYT
• Wall Street fights rule limiting oil speculation--"Wall Street is pushing to stop a new rule that would crack down on speculation in the energy markets, which many blame for contributing to the spike in gas prices."
• Bloomberg News: Keystone XL Will Raise Gas Price
• Reality Check: The Fiat Dollar is the Real Reason for High Gas Prices--Says it;s because the dollar is worth less.

Heartland Institute

• Leak exposes how Heartland Institute works to undermine climate science--"Libertarian thinktank keeps prominent sceptics on its payroll and relies on millions in funding from carbon industry, papers suggest."
• EXPOSED: The 19 Public Corporations Funding The Climate Denier Think Tank Heartland Institute
• Climate Whistle Blower Outed--" But instead of being lauded as a public hero for uncovering the coordinated plot to undermine scientific truth with ideology, he’s being publically shamed by colleagues and critics alike...."

BP

• BP expects to pay $7.8B in Gulf spill suit deal
• US government to continue BP Deepwater Horizon case
• BP Oil Still Tars the Gulf

Environment

• Obama: Conservation boosts the economy--"The argument that environmental conservation stands in the way of economic growth is 'a false choice.'"
• Amazon defenders face death or exile--"Brazilian activists who inform on illegal loggers laying waste to the rainforests can expect a visit from the gunmen."
• Activists Fight Green Projects, Seeing U.N. Plot NYT
• One Month in Beijing = Smoking 5 Cigarettes
• The next 'revolution' for Nicaragua: energy independence--"Oil dependent Nicaragua is battling high energy costs and trying to build a sustainable economy by focusing on wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal."

Ecology

• Nearly 450 Elephants Killed in Cameroon
• New taste for Thai elephant meat--"A new taste for eating elephant meat — everything from trunks to sex organs — has emerged in Thailand and could pose a new threat to the survival of the species."
• Indonesia's tiger habitat pulped for paper, investigation shows
  
• Carbon emissions could wipeout marine species
• Overfishing leaves swaths of Mediterranean barren
• Rhino dies in anti-poaching demo by conservationists--Poor Spencer.
• High demand for sea turtles in China sends poachers toward Philippines

Food Security

• Bill Gates pushes 'green revolution' for small farms in developing world
• Comic book superheroes take on world hunger
• IBM tracks pork chops from pig to plate

That's Oil Folks, War on Terror, Wikileaks, Unfriendly Skies, TSA

That's Oil Folks

• Obama mocks GOP on gas price issue
• Goldman Sachs Admits Record Speculation To Blame For Skyrocketing Gas Prices--But guys like Rove and Hannity don't care about that.
• U.S. Gas Exports Force Drivers Into Bidding War With Mexico At Pump
• Fear of Iran is inflating gas prices--And them stopping oil exports to England and France is conflating things.
• Fox Still Struggling With Basic Chart Concepts: Gas Price Edition

War on Terror

• Hypnotized into an endless dirty war Salon
• How the FBI Invents Terrorists Like the U.S. Capitol 'Suicide Bomber'
• Feingold: Voting against the PATRIOT Act 'one of the best things I’ve done'
• CIA Claims Release of its History of the Bay of Pigs Debacle Would "Confuse the Public"
• Marines Nazi-Flag Whistleblower Comes Forward

Wikileaks

• Wikileaks Banned From UN Conference on Wikileaks--UNESCO ironically justifies this as "an exercise of 'freedom of expression.'"
• WikiLeaks suspect charged with 'aiding enemy'
• WikiLeaks Diplomatic Cables FOIA Documents

Unfriendly Skies

• Court Revives Challenge to No-Fly List--"A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived a Malaysian woman's legal fight against the United States' no-fly list, ruling that she may challenge her two-hour airport detention on allegations she was wrongly singled out as a suspected terrorist."
• Tigard businessman blocked from returning to U.S. after humanitarian trip to Libya--"When FBI agents told him he needed to take a lie detector test before being allowed to return to the United States, Tarhuni agreed -- against the advice of a Tunisian attorney and his Portland lawyer, his daughter said. But he later refused after another FBI employee tried to get him to sign a paper without reading it, his daughter said. When he finally saw it, she said, it appeared to be a waiver of his constitutional rights, which angered him."
• Passengers face body scans before flights--"Passengers at airports across Australia will be forced to undergo full-body scans or be banned from flying under new laws to be introduced into Federal Parliament this week."

TSA

• Female Passengers Say They Were Targeted for TSA Body Scanners--They're, of course, denying it, which is pretty much their response to any criticism: deny, downplay, and deflect.
• Alaska Bill Would Criminalize TSA Screening Procedures
• TSA expands PreCheck expedited airport screening program
• Bill would give loose change left at airports to USO not TSA--"In 2010, the TSA's most recent count, it amounted to $409,085."
• C&H: Airport Insecurity