Japan indicts 3 former executives over Fukushima nuclear disaster

By Jonathan Soble, with additional reporting by Makiko Inoue29 February 2016 TOKYO (The New York Times) – Japanese prosecutors indicted three former executives of the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the owner of the ruined Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, on Monday, charging them with criminal negligence for their role in reactor meltdowns after an earthquake […]

Plankton faeces could move plastic pollution to the ocean depths – ‘The magnitude of change observed here is concerning’

1 March 2016 (University of Exeter) – Plastic waste could find its way deep into the ocean through the faeces of plankton, new research from the University of Exeter and Plymouth Marine Laboratory shows. The study is further evidence of the widespread impact plastic pollution could have on the marine environment. Researchers have found tiny […]

Gunmen kill Honduran indigenous, environmentalist leader – ‘For years, she had been the victim of a sustained campaign of harassment and threats’

By Freddy Cuevas3 March 2016 TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (Associated Press) – Honduran indigenous leader Berta Caceres, who won the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize for her role in fighting a dam project, was shot dead Thursday by multiple gunmen who broke into her home, authorities said. Caceres, a 40-year-old Lenca Indian activist, had previously complained of receiving […]

Marking World Wildlife Day, UN calls for global actions to end poaching, save planet’s most iconic species

3 March 2016 (UN) – “Time is running out” to end wildlife poaching that threatens some of the world’s most iconic species, such as elephants, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today as the United Nations marked its World Wildlife Day. Urging global efforts to protect this essential natural heritage for the current and future generations, much […]

Citigroup: Prospect of a global ‘recession’ is getting stronger

By Sara Sjolin25 February 2016 (MarketWatch) – The risk of a global recession has risen, Citigroup says, as advanced economies such as the U.S. and eurozone show signs of sputtering. The bank’s analysts have cut their global growth forecast for 2016 to 2.5%, where just in January they pegged it at 2.7%. In the middle […]

Drugs found in Puget Sound salmon from tainted wastewater – ‘You have to wonder what it is doing to the fish’

By Lynda V. Mapes23 February 2016 (Seattle Times) – Puget Sound salmon are on drugs: Prozac, Advil, Benadryl, Lipitor, even cocaine. Those drugs and dozens of others are showing up in the tissues of juvenile chinook, researchers have found, thanks to tainted wastewater discharge. The estuary waters near the outfalls of sewage-treatment plants, and effluent […]

Leonardo DiCaprio’s Oscars speech was about climate change, which could be worse than we thought

By Chris Mooney 29 February 2016 (Washington Post) – On Sunday night while accepting a long-anticipated Oscar for best actor, for his role in “The Revenant,” Leonardo DiCaprio seized the moment to highlight the plight of the planet. “Making “The Revenant” was about man’s relationship to the natural world,” DiCaprio said. “A world that we […]

As the Arctic roasts, Alaska bakes in one of its warmest winters ever

By Jason Samenow 23 February 2016 (Washington Post) – This winter’s shocking warmth in the Arctic, some seven degrees above average, has oozed into the Alaska which is experiencing one of its mildest recorded winters. So far this winter, Alaska’s temperature has averaged about 10 degrees above normal, ranking third warmest in records that date […]

For normally stoic farmers, the stress of climate change can be too much to bear

By Tyler Hamilton 28 February 2016 (The Star) – The wind was unusually strong, and it swept across Saskatchewan farmland without warning or mercy to canola farmers who had just cut and laid out their crops to dry. Kim Keller, 31, remembers the mid-September day clearly. It was 2012, her first year working back on […]

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