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The Worldwide Efforts Of The Global Energy Lobby To Kill Progress On Climate Change

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Katherine Goldstein Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/05/exposed-the-worldwide-eff_n_346110.html?grist&cp&cp - Nov. 05 (Special Report) - The Center For Public Integrity just released a blockbuster investigative report that details the intense corporate pressure to block an effective global treaty from being reached at the UN Climate Talks in Copenhagen in December, and to halt efforts in individual countries to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

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The Greenest Place in the U.S. May Not Be Where You Think

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Yale Environment 360 - By David Owen - Nov. 05 (Special Report) - Green rankings in the U.S. don’t tell the full story about the places where the human footprint is lightest. If you really want the best environmental model, you need to look at the nation’s biggest — and greenest — metropolis: New York City.

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The Biggest Roadblock to Change May Be in Our Minds

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Miller-McCune - By Tom Jacobs - Nov. 03 (News Analysis) - When you step back from the specifics of the health care debate — as well as the rancor surrounding it — an odd contradiction emerges. Fairly or not, insurance companies have traditionally been regarded with a combination of contempt and scorn. Yet the president's proposal to change the nation's system of health care coverage — which would put restrictions on some of the companies' more egregious practices and provide increased competition — has provoked fear and outrage in a sizable portion of the populace. Americans who under other circumstances might be grousing about rising premiums or denials of coverage are tenaciously clinging to a system they know and dislike.

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FCC Fine Print Could Undermine an Open Internet | Save the Internet

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

savetheinternet.com - By Tim Karr - Nov. 03 (News Report) - Buried in the fine print of the FCC’s proposed Net Neutrality rules is a potential loophole that if left open would undermine the future of Internet freedom.

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Naomi Starkman: Tests Find Wide Range of Bisphenol A in Canned Soups, Juice, and More

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Naomi Starkman - Nov. 02 (Investigative Report) - BPA, which has been used for years in clear plastic bottles and food-can liners, has been restricted in Canada and some U.S. states and municipalities because it has been linked to a wide array of health effects including reproductive abnormalities, heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, and heart disease.

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Scientists: Biofuel Laws May Harm Environment

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

wbur.org - By Richard Harris - Oct. 23 (News Report) - One key part of the climate bill has to do with fuels made from green plants. These can reduce the use of fossil fuels, and they also are a big draw for farm-state votes. But scientists writing in the current issue of Science magazine point out a huge error in existing biofuel laws that could actually make climate change worse. They say these rules inadvertently encourage deforestation, which in turn contributes to global warming.

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Records not as vulnerable as group claims

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Louis Jacobson - Oct. 22 (Special Report) - Could Big Brother -- or garden-variety snoopers -- soon get their hands on your medical data? The Senior Citizens League -- a group that boasts 1.2 million members and is affiliated with the Retired Enlisted Association -- recently sent out a mailing saying it was possible. According to a copy obtained by the Huffington Post, the group sent a four-page letter, along with a questionnaire and a cover letter signed by former Rep. David Funderburk, R-N.C., to seniors, expressing two related concerns about Democratic health care reform plans now being debated on Capitol Hill. One is that they could lead to the rationing of care. The other is that the government is assembling a "national government computer network" that will contain Americans' medical files.

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Trade Your Job

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Valerie Saturen - Oct. 22 (News) - high school students who aren't headed for college are learning to retrofit houses; they stand to make up to $50 an hour once they're experienced journeymen. In Lansing, Michigan, unemployed auto workers can get up to $10,000 to train for new careers in renewable energy. .read more

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Preparing for an IT Talent Squeeze

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

workforce.com - By Charlotte Huff - Oct. 21 (Special Report) - Information technology leaders shouldn’t be lulled by today’s sluggish hiring market into thinking IT employees won’t be on the move anytime soon. With the race to computerize the nation’s medical records poised to take off, that’s going to change, industry watchers say. The federal government’s tight time frame for computerization, along with a steep implementation curve, will require more bodies—soon, and in the thousands at least, they say. The federal stimulus bill, which earmarked $19 billion for incentives related to computerization at hospitals and physician practices, also included financial penalties beginning in 2015. Just 9 percent of hospitals use electronic records on even a limited basis, according to a recent study. Based in recent discussions with IT experts, the debate seems to be less about the likelihood of a hiring surge and more about how many jobs it will fuel and how soon that surge will happen.

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Lindsey Graham: Not a Nuclear Wussypants

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Kate Sheppard - Oct. 16 (News Report) - When Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called for legislation last week to cap carbon emissions, he revived hopes that a cap-and-trade measure could pass the Senate this year. (He also got branded a "wussypants" by tea party protesters for his trouble.) But

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Earth's Life Support Systems Failing

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Inter Press Service - By Stephen Leahy - Oct. 15 (Special Report) - The world has failed to slow the accelerating extinction crisis despite 17 years of national and international efforts since the great hopes raised at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. [A loggerhead turtle. Biodiversity is not just weird-looking animals and pretty birds. It is the diversity of life on Earth that comprises the ecosystems that provide vital services, including climate regulation, food, fibre, clean water and air. (Photo: Damien du Toit; Creative Commons License)]A loggerhead turtle. Biodiversity is not just weird-looking animals and pretty birds. It is the diversity of life on Earth that comprises the ecosystems that provide vital services, including climate regulation, food, fibre, clean water and air. (Photo: Damien du Toit; Creative Commons License) The last big promise to act was in 2003, when government ministers from 123 countries committed to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010.

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Kenya: Waiting for El Nino

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Global Voices - By Samuel Maina - Oct. 09 (Special Report) - Kenyans are waiting for the El Nino rains anticipated between now and December 2009 with mixed feelings. Inasmuch as the El Nino is itself a natural disaster that in it's ‘moderate' form is expected to displace at least 100,000 people and leave 750,000 in need of humanitarian aid according to IRIN, most Kenyans actually want [...]

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Test results: Carbon capture works at Wisconsin coal plant

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Journal Sentinel - By Thomas Content - Oct. 09 (News Report) - Using chilled ammonia to capture carbon dioxide from the smokestack of a coal-fired power plant in southeastern Wisconsin was successful in grabbing 90% of the greenhouse gas, We Energies and two partners announced Thursday.

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College for $99 a Month

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Monthly - By Kevin Carey - Oct. 05 (Special Report) - Colleges are caught in the same kind of debt-fueled price spiral that just blew up the real estate market. They’re also in the information business in a time when technology is driving down the cost of selling information to record, destabilizing lows.

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NPR Gets $3 Million Grant For Hyper-Local News Coverage Initiative

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TechCrunch - By Leena Rao - Oct. 02 (News) - NPR Gets $3 Million Grant For Hyper-Local News Coverage Initiative

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The Coalfield Uprising

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Jeff Biggers - Oct. 01 (Special Report) - ...while officials are framing the issue as a manageable environmental problem, mountaintop removal has also caused....one of th largest displacements of US citizens since the nineteenth century... .

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Is Copenhagen Dead?

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By David Corn - Sep. 28 (News Report) - Is the Obama administration giving up on reaching a comprehensive international climate change agreement this year? A statement released on Friday by John Podesta, who headed Barack Obama's presidential transition, is a big hint that the White House is looking to dramatically downplay expectations.

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Video: 20,000 Detergent Bottles Under the Sea

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Sam Baldwin, Andy Kroll, Taylor Wiles - Sep. 27 (News Report) - After a month spent studying the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," a vortex of waste twice the size of Texas in the North Pacific Ocean where there's a 36-to-1 ratio of plastic to plankton, the scientists behind Project Kaisei offered tours of their vessel and talked with Mother Jones' Sam Baldwin, Andy Kroll, and Taylor Wiles about finding lawn chairs and laundry baskets floating a thousand miles at sea.

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Solar Power Helps Squeeze Last Drops from Old Oil Wells

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By John Perlin - Sep. 19 (Special Report) - Last month, the oil and solar industry joined hands in an oil field about a century off its prime that Chevron owns in Coalinga, Calif., where steam is required to sufficiently thin what oil remains so it can be extracted. The oil company signed a deal with Bright Source Energy to build a demonstration project: Thousands of flat mirrors will reflect concentrated sunlight on a boiler atop a tower, superheating the water to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit to produce high-pressure steam.

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Gaza water supplies in danger of ‘collapse,’ U.N. says

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - Sep. 15 (News) - “The underground water supplies, upon which 1.5 million Palestinians depend for agriculture and drinking water, are in danger of collapse,” the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) said in a statement accompanying a new report.

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Red Snow Warning

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Tomdispatch.com - By Chip Ward, - Sep. 14 (Special Report) - Pink snow is turning red in Colorado. Here on the Great American Desert -- specifically Utah's slickrock portion of it where I live -- hot 'n' dry means dust. When frequent high winds sweep across our increasingly arid landscape, redrock powder is lifted up and carried hundreds of miles eastward until it settles on the broad shoulders of Colorado's majestic mountains, giving the snowpack there a pink hue.

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NYT Investigation Exposes Severity of Nationwide Water Contamination; Corporations Violated Clean Water Act Over 500,000 Times in Last Five Years

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Charles Duhigg - Sep. 14 (Investigative Report) - chemical companies have violated the Clean Water Act more than 500,000 times in the last five years. Most of the violations have gone unpunished, with state regulators taking significant action in just three percent of all cases. An estimated one in ten Americans has been exposed to drinking water that has dangerous chemicals or falls short of federal standards.

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Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug dies at 95

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

apnews.excite.com - Sep. 13 (News Report) - Agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug, the father of the "green revolution" who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in combating world hunger and saving hundreds of millions of lives, died Saturday in Texas.....Many experts credit the green revolution with averting global famine during the second half of the 20th century and saving perhaps 1 billion lives..

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EPA turns the lights on mountaintop removal

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - Sep. 11 (News Report) - This post originally appeared at TheNation.com . The Environmental Protection Agency made good on its promise today to assert greater scrutiny and “use the best science and follow the letter of the law” with regard to controversial mountaintop removal mining permits in the Appalachian coalfields. In a highly anticipated announcement, the agency declared that all seventy-nine pending permits in four states would “likely cause water quality impacts” and sent them on for additional review under the Clean Water Act. Does today’s big announcement end the practice of mountaintop removal—which has clear-cut more than 1.2 million acres of deciduous forests, employed billions of pounds of ammonium nitrate/fuel oil ...

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Kobe Bryant or Anita Bryant? Who Is Big Ben’s Ideal Juror

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Balkinization - By Dan Kahan - Sep. 11 (Special Report) - Cultural cognition refers to the tendency of people to conform their view of facts to their identity-defining group commitments. We all belong to groups that share basic understandings about how the world does and should work. Forming beliefs that undercut those understandings creates emotional dissonance and also threatens our connections with others whose good opinion we covet.

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