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Secret Trade Agreements Threaten to Undo Our Last Shreds of Food Safety

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Katherine Paul, Ronnie Cummins - Jun. 15 (Special Report) - Under two new trade agreements, currently in negotiation, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could be powerless to shut down imports of unsafe food or food ingredients. And if it tries, multinational corporations will be able to sue the U.S. government for the loss of anticipated future profits. More frightening? Negotiations for both agreements are taking place behind closed doors

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The E.P.A. Backs Off on Factory Farms

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By By THE EDITORIAL BOARD - Jun. 15 (Editorial) - The Environmental Protection Agency is obliged under the Clean Water Act to monitor America’s waterways and shield them from the toxic runoff from factory farms. But the growth of that industry, and its courtroom tenacity, has far outstripped the E.P.A.’

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As Obama moves forward on climate, he faces a tough political task

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Juliet Eilperin - Jun. 15 (Opinion) - A pair of fundraisers just 90 minutes apart in the San Francisco Bay Area last week laid bare the competing forces of politics and policy that President Obama is grappling with as he prepares to unveil a slate of major initiatives on global warming in late June or in July. ...

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TV Weathermen and Climate Scientists Kiss and Make Up

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Chris Mooney - Jun. 12 (Opinion) - Weather forecasters and climate scientists aren't exactly known for being the best of buds. Several surveys have shown that among members of the American Meteorological Society — and especially among professional TV forecasters — there"s a substantial degree of global warming skepticism. Indeed, more than half of AMS members perceive conflict within the organization over the issue of climate change. Meanwhile, members of the climate science community are sometimes accused of speaking down to their weather geek brethren. Given this tense history, what happened at the most recent Climate Desk Live event , featuring Rutgers University climate scientist Jennifer Francis and Stu Ostro , senior meteorologist at the Weather Channel, might be considered fairly remarkable. "Jennifer's coming at it from a different direction than I am," said Ostro after he and Francis delivered complementary analyses of how global warming is upending our weather. "But what"s interesting is ...

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Out of India's Trash Heaps, More Than a Shred of Dignity

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Sarika Bansal - Jun. 12 (Opinion) - Opinionator | Fixes: Out of India's Trash Heaps, More Than a Shred of Dignity

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Climate change threatens California's stock of native fish

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 21:50:57 -0700

Public Radio International - By Living on Earth - Jun. 12 - As summer begins along many U.S. rivers, you'll find anglers patiently contemplating their rods in the flowing water. But researchers say when it comes to California, in the future they may be out of luck if they are looking to hook an indigenous fish. A new study from the University of California at Davis finds that many of California’s unique fish species could go extinct if global warming continues at current rates. Peter Moyle, one of the lead authors on the study, says freshwater fish are especially vulnerable because they have nowhere to escape fluctuations in climate. "When you’re in a stream, you can only go upstream so far before you run into a waterfall or something, so if the conditions in that stream change, you’re pretty much stuck," he said. Moyle says throughout California and the west, streams are predicted to warm by four to six degrees in the summer, with stream volumes becoming more variable. That adds up to very difficult conditions for fish over the next 50 to 100 years. Moyle, who has done periodic surveys of California's fish dating back to the 1970s, used his experience to assess native fish on 20 different measures of their long-term vulnerability to climate change. "When we scored 121 native fishes and 43 non-native fishes, 82 percent of the native fishes are going to suffer heavily from climate change and many of them to the point where they’ll go extinct," he said. For many of these species, the decline has already started for other reasons — development, pollution, etc. — and climate change will just accelerate the decline. The fish that are most vulnerable, Moyle said, require cold water to survive and thrive, many of which are household names: Chinook salmon, Coho salmon and Steelhead trout, as well as species like Delta Smelt and Eulachon. "Many of these rivers are simply going to get too warm for them," Moyle said. Ironically, climate change won't mean the end of fish in California streams — it'll actually be a boon to non-native species introduced to California's rivers over time. "We’ve been essentially changing things in California ever since the Gold Rush and generally creating warmer water habitats anyway," he said. "So you’re bring in your catfish, your bass, your carp — species that thrive in warm water environments." Ironically, as they thrive more and more, they will put even more strain on native species, hastening their demise. And while this is undoubtedly bad for the fish, it's also economically harmful. In the case of certain species of salmon and trout, they're popular on dinner tables — and raised by farmers. If the fish go away, the streams will suddenly become less nutrient-rich as fish are no longer living and dying in the streams' headwaters. " I did a study once relating what salmon nutrients do to a steam surrounded by vineyards," Moyle said. "And we found that not only did local wildlife benefit from salmon, we even got photographs of deer coming to munch on salmon carcasses, what we found was that the vineyards alongside the stream actually incorporated marine nutrients into the leaves of the grapes." But all is not lost. Moyle said the biggest thing to be done is to upgrade the dams in the state, to allow them to release the cold water that is stored in the lower levels of reservoirs behind the dams. "When they do that, you’re releasing the cold water that native fishes like salmon really like. So you have to conserve that cold water and use it specifically for fish as long as you can during the summer months," he said.

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Silver linings in the IEA report on 2012 fossil fuel carbon emissions

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Dana Nuccitelli - Jun. 11 (Opinion) - Carbon emissions from fossil fuels reached record levels, but the 2012 rise was relatively small, and there are positive signs As Fiona Harvey reported for The Guardian, the International Energy Agency (IEA) 2012 World Energy Outlook Report found that annual carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels rose 1.4 percent in 2012 to 31.6 billion tonnes (gigatonnes [Gt]).

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Waiting on new climate deal 'will set world on a path to 5C warming'

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Fiona Harvey - Jun. 10 (News Analysis) - International Energy Agency chief economist says rising emissions make limiting increase to 2C 'extremely challenging' The world cannot afford to wait for a new global climate change agreement to come into force in 2020, because doing so will mean an end to hopes of limiting global warming to moderate levels, one of the world's foremost authorities on energy has warned. Carbon dioxide emissions from energy rose by 1.4% in 2012 to a record high of more than 31bn tonnes, according to a report from the International Energy Agency on Monday, driven in part by a striking 6% rise in emissions from Japan following its phase-out of nuclear power and continuing growth in emissions from China. Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA, and one of the world's most respected energy experts, told the Guardian that greenhouse gas emissions were continuing to rise so fast that pinning hopes on a replacement for the Kyoto protocol would set the world on a path to 5C of warming, which would be ...

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Carbon dioxide emissions rose 1.4 percent in 2012, IEA report says

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Steven Mufson - Jun. 10 (News) - Global emissions of carbon dioxide from energy use rose 1.4 percent to 31.6 gigatons in 2012, setting a record and putting the planet on course for temperature increases well above international climate goals, the International Energy Agency said in a report scheduled to be issued ...

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Climate change is happening but we can meet the challenge

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Sarah van Gelder - Jun. 08 (Comment) - As carbon emissions rise inexorably, it's easy to feel powerless as catastrophe looms. But activism is a chance to take control "The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere just hit 400ppm," I told Alex, my 23-year-old son, as we were catching up on news. "So that's it, huh?" he asked.

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In global climate change fight, what can we learn from Kyoto?

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - Jun. 08 (Opinion) - Nations across the world continue to grapple with how to address climate change, and there have been some tough lessons learned since the Kyoto Protocol, first adopted in 1997.

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Fracturing in California

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - Jun. 08 (Opinion) - Democrats revolt against a ban on oil and gas 'fracking.'

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Climate change: let's bury the CO2 problem

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Myles Allen - Jun. 06 (Opinion) - We can't stop fossil fuels being burned: but we can easily act now to capture and store carbon with CCS technology How often have you read that we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to solve the problem of climate change – shortly followed by frustration and disappointment? People might expect me, as a climate scientist, to be disappointed by the failure of the attempt by the MP Tim Yeo to set an ambitious decarbonisation target in Tuesday's debate on the energy bill. But I'm not. Not because I don't think it is possible, or even desirable: get climate policy right, and I believe we will have largely decarbonised the UK power sector by 2030. And the UK, having led the world into this era of venting fossil carbon into the atmosphere, clearly has a duty to lead the world out of it. But ambitious targets backed by micromanagement of energy supply and demand are leading nowhere. What other country is going to attend a seminar on the UK energy bill and think, "Great idea, let's do that"? ...

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Greens leader: Abbott climate stance jeopardises the future of children

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Lenore Taylor - Jun. 05 (News Analysis) - Christine Milne plans 'keep the bastards honest' campaign, casting party as Senate curb on Coalition excessesLenore Taylor

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In the Era of Climate Change, Poets Can't Write About the "Eternal Sea"

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Lewis Lapham - Jun. 04 (Comment) - This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website. In heavy fog on the night of October 7, 1936, the SS Ohioan ran aground three miles south and west of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, and by noon on October 8th, I was among a crowd of spectators come to pay its respects to the no small terror of the sea.

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Will Hanford ever be cleaned up?

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

seattletimes.com - By Shannon Dininny - Jun. 03 (Special Report) - Hanford’s legacy is less about what was made here than the environmental mess left behind — and the federal government’s inability, for nearly a quarter-century now, to rid Hanford once and for all of its worst hazard: 56 million gallons of toxic waste cached in aging underground tanks.

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Plastic bags—necessary convenience or global blight?

Thu, 30 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

latitudenews.com - May. 30 (Special Report) - Plastic bags are everywhere—at the supermarket, the pharmacist, the convenience store. Think about it. How many plastic bags were in your life today? And where do all those bags end up? Well, around 15 percent are recycled. Some go to landfills, while many others are used as makeshift trash bags in people’s homes, or to help pick up after their dogs. But the rest wind up blowing in the wind to . . . well . . . everywhere.

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Warning over UK use of cheap coal

Thu, 30 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - May. 30 (News) - Coal on the global market is so cheap that it threatens government attempts to tackle climate change, the chairman of the Environment Agency warns

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This Alaskan Gold Mine Makes Arctic Drilling Look Good

Wed, 29 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Kate Sheppard - May. 29 (Opinion) - What's the greatest threat to Alaska's pristine wilderness? Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is up there, as is climate change. But if you ask people who live in the state, many will tell you that Pebble Mine—a proposed open-pit copper and gold mine that would be as much as two miles long, a mile and a half wide, and 1,700 feet deep—is their biggest environmental concern. It's also one that the Obama administration Environmental Protection Agency could actually stop. If built, Pebble Mine would be the largest mine of its type in North America.

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EU Regulator Suspects BASF Insecticide of Harming Bees

Mon, 27 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - May. 27 (News) - The European Union's food safety regulator has added a BASF insecticide to the list of crop chemicals it suspects of playing a role in declining bee populations. FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Union's food safety regulator has added a BASF insecticid

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Geoengineering: Our Last Hope, or a False Promise?

Mon, 27 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By By CLIVE HAMILTON - May. 27 (Opinion) - Op-Ed Contributor: Geoengineering: Our Last Hope, or a False Promise?

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Turbine Plans Unnerve Fans of Condors in California

Sun, 26 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By By FELICITY BARRINGER - May. 26 (News Report) - Turbine Plans Unnerve Fans of Condors in California

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Paying for the great urbanization of China | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

thebulletin.org - By Hal Harvey - May. 24 (Opinion) - Second, the global climate is indifferent to the source of carbon dioxide emissions, so an efficient China will benefit the entire world. And, finally, China's legendary particulate air pollution actually travels across the Pacific, affecting the air in the West coast. A recent study found that more than three-fourths of "black carbon" -- basically, unburned hydrocarbons -- on the West coast comes in airborne plumes from China.

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Frog, toad and salamander populations plummeting, U.S. survey finds

Wed, 22 May 2013 23:46:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Darryl Fears - May. 22 (News Report) - Frogs, toads and salamanders continue to vanish from the American landscape at an alarming pace, with seven species — including Colorado’s boreal toad and Nevada’s yellow-legged frog — facing 50 percent drops in their numbers within seven years if the current rate of decline continues, according to new government research . ...

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You Need Phosphorous to Live—and We're Running Out

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Tom Philpott - May. 22 (Comment) - Western Sahara , a sparsely populated slice of desert on Africa's northwestern coast, doesn't get much ink as a potential crisis point in the global food system. You've probably never heard of the long-standing independence movement in the Morocco-controlled territory—or that the area harbors vast stores of an element critical to contemporary agriculture. Morocco, it is thought, holds up to 85 percent (PDF) of the globe's known phosphate rock reserve—and a lot of it lies in Western Sahara. Morocco's royal family thus controls what Jeremy Grantham, cofounder of the prominent Boston-based global investment firm Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co., called the " most important quasi-monopoly in economic history ." Who cares about phosphorus? For starters, every living thing on Earth—including humans—since all the crops we eat depend on it to produce healthy cells. Until the mid-20th century, farmers maintained phosphorus levels in soil by composting plant waste or ...

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