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A New Kind of Frackademia? New Environmental Inspectors Offered Free Industry-Funded Classes on Fracking
A New Kind of Frackademia? New Environmental Inspectors Offered Free Industry-Funded Classes on Fracking At an industry conference in Philadelphia last month, oil and gas executives gathered to hear about a little-known public relations effort with a very precise target: newly hired state and federal environmental inspectors. At a seminar titled “Staying Ahead of Federal and […]
Bushfires rage in Australia as ‘Godzilla El Nino’ takes affect
Bushfires rage in Australia as ‘Godzilla El Nino’ takes affect A charred car stands destroyed after a bushfire moved through the area near One Tree Hill in the Adelaide Hills on January 5, 2015. © AFP Over 100 bushfires are blazing in the state of Victoria, Australia, with over 200 homes at risk. Unusually high […]
An Unprecedented Future
An Unprecedented Future I can see The Age of Consequences from my home. We live on a former ranch near Santa Fe, New Mexico, that is now a subdivision with more than two thousand houses. Due to its proximity to a center of colonial Spanish, Mexican, and American administrations, as well as the Santa Fe Trail, the […]
Sociocultural Boundaries
Sociocultural Boundaries Some years ago now a team of Swedish scientists proposed an interesting framework for understanding planetary environmental problems. It generated a range of responses from the environmental community, mostly positive. I had what is undoubtedly a very unusual response to their framework, and while it is perhaps old news, it may still be […]
More Evidence We’ve Reached a “Peak Water” Tipping Point in California
More Evidence We’ve Reached a “Peak Water” Tipping Point in California March in Yosemite, four years running (source; click to enlarge) It may be a see-saw course, but it’s riding an uphill train. A bit ago I wrote, regarding climate and tipping points: The concept of “tipping point” — a change beyond which there’s no turning […]
Can a Tableful of Food be Produced Economically in an Urban Environment?
Can a Tableful of Food be Produced Economically in an Urban Environment? The reality has always been that it takes land to grow crops…no matter the type of crop. People need certain nutrients (protein, carbohydrate, roughage, and others) to thrive and all come from crops that are presently grown on arable land. The problem is […]
Two thirds of EU states reject GMO crops, file cultivation opt-out requests
Two thirds of EU states reject GMO crops, file cultivation opt-out requests Two thirds of EU states have requested to be allowed to ban the growing of genetically modified crops in their countries, choosing the “opt-out” clause of a European Commission rule that allows members to override EU-wide GMO approvals. Nineteen European Union member states […]
Corporation vs. Nation: The Ultimate Showdown
Corporation vs. Nation: The Ultimate Showdown A secluded private courthouse in Washington DC is currently the scene of a gargantuan legal battle that could have serious ramifications for all of us. Yet virtually nobody knows about it. On one side of the battle is the tiny, poverty-crippled Central American nation of El Salvador; on the […]
“Everyone Is Doing It”: How Carmakers Manipulate Emissions Test Results
“Everyone Is Doing It”: How Carmakers Manipulate Emissions Test Results With Germany’s largest company by revenue, Volkswagen, deep in damage recovery mode, and the market still unable to decide just how systemic and profound the fallout will be from the emissions scandal which has already cost the job of VW’s CEO and which according to some will impact […]
Fukushima police sends nuclear contamination case against TEPCO execs to prosecutors
Fukushima police sends nuclear contamination case against TEPCO execs to prosecutors Water tanks storing radiation contaminated water are seen at Tokyo Electric Power Co’s (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture. © Shizuo Kambayashi / Reuters Fukushima police have finally reacted to a criminal complaint filed against TEPCO and 32 of its […]
Pre-emption: How and Why Rail Companies Are Above The Law
Pre-emption: How and Why Rail Companies Are Above The Law CSX is one of the major rail companies that is profiting from the oil-by-rail boom led by North Dakota’s Bakken crude oil. On September 28th, a day that is apparently national “good neighbor day,” CSX broadcast the following message on Twitter. Which is a nice message. But CSX and the rest of the rail […]
Prepping for a Hurricane: Are You Ready for Joaquin?
Prepping for a Hurricane: Are You Ready for Joaquin? The East Coast is bracing for a hurricane that may rival the ferocity of Superstorm Sandy. Hurricane Joaquin is expected to reach Category 4 proportions today, as it gains strength in the Bahamas. Current projections have it heading due north, and it’s predicted to make landfall […]
Leaving Our Children Nothing
Leaving Our Children Nothing Our generation has a unique opportunity. If we set our minds to it, we could be the first in human history to leave our children nothing: no greenhouse-gas emissions, no poverty, and no biodiversity loss. That is the course that world leaders set when they met at the United Nations in […]
Growing Soil
Growing Soil Much of what I have learnt about soil comes from doing a two year apprenticeship at Stroud Community Agriculture and the influence of one of the farm team there who recently passed away, Ute. Digging couch out of the field with Ute was an exercise in plant observation, reading the landscape and soil craft; turning […]
A New Global Tinderbox: The World’s Northern Forests
A New Global Tinderbox: The World’s Northern Forests Rapidly rising temperatures, changes in precipitation, and increased lightning strikes are leading to ever-larger wildfires in the northern forests of Alaska, Canada, and Siberia, with potentially severe ecological consequences. Ted Schuur has spent the better part of his career making the connection between climate change and wildfires that […]
