The truth about the U.S. poverty crisis

By Rana Foroohar 26 September 2011 It’s official: There are now more poor people in America than at any other time in the 52 years records have been kept. We knew that the 2010 poverty numbers, released by the Census Bureau on Sept. 13, weren’t going to be good. They turned out to be, in […]

Scientists test sick Alaska seals for Fukushima radiation

By Bill Rigby27 December 2011 SEATTLE – Scientists in Alaska are investigating whether local seals are being sickened by radiation from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Scores of ring seals have washed up on Alaska’s Arctic coastline since July, suffering or killed by a mysterious disease marked by bleeding lesions on the hind flippers, irritated […]

50 doomiest graphs of 2011

2011 saw a spike in climate disasters around the world, with a corresponding spike in global food prices. It’s no exaggeration to attribute the “Arab Spring” to widespread food insecurity caused by rapidly changing climate. The human perturbation to the carbon cycle increased to nearly 9 gigatons per year, in spite of the global financial […]

Portraits of the U.S. Southwest in the shadow of drought

By CORNELIA DEAN26 December 2011 The intense, deep blue skies of the American Southwest, skies that have drawn painters and photographers for a century or more, are a product of the region’s extremely dry air. Yet here’s another interesting fact: Though we think of the Southwest as dry — and it is dry — its […]

Peru water crisis 20 years early – ‘Already too late for most of the glaciers in the Andes’

By Stephen Leahy27 December 2011 UXBRIDGE, Canada (Tierramérica) – The water supplied by the glaciers of the Cordillera Blanca, vital to a huge region of northwest Peru, is decreasing 20 years sooner than expected, according to a new study. Water flows from the region’s melting glaciers have already peaked and are in decline, Michel Baraer, […]

Ocean dead zones shrinking habitat for blue marlins, other tropical billfish and tunas

Washington DC, December 20 (SPX) – The science behind counting fish in the ocean to measure their abundance has never been simple. A new scientific paper authored by NOAA Fisheries biologist Eric Prince, Ph.D., and eight other scientists shows that expanding ocean dead zones – driven by climate change – have added a new wrinkle […]

Mexico shuts down ‘world's biggest garbage dump’

Mexico City (AFP) Dec 19, 2011 – Authorities Monday shut down Mexico’s — and possibly the world’s — biggest garbage dump and said they would invite bids to exploit methane gas generated by the decomposing waste. Waste Management Commission chief Fernando Menendez called the closing “historic” as “it is the world’s largest (truck-filled open-air) dump.” […]

Researchers assess effects of a world awash in nitrogen

Contact Skip Derra, skip.derra@asu.edu, 480-965-4823, Media Relations15 December 2011 Humans are having an effect on Earth’s ecosystems but it’s not just the depletion of resources and the warming of the planet we are causing. Now you can add an over-abundance of nitrogen as another “footprint” humans are leaving behind. The only question is how large […]

India water supply at risk

New Delhi, December 20 (UPI) – India’s rising population and economic growth are straining the country’s supply of water, a report from India’s Infrastructure Development Finance Co. warns. Of India’s 20 major river basins, 14 are considered water-stressed, the report from IDFC, an independent group, report said. Nearly 25 percent of the country’s population live […]

American Psychosis: What happens to a society that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion?

By Chris HedgesPosted on 14 September 2010 by rockingjude The United States, locked in the kind of twilight disconnect that grips dying empires, is a country entranced by illusions. It spends its emotional and intellectual energy on the trivial and the absurd. It is captivated by the hollow stagecraft of celebrity culture as the walls […]

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