TVA raises coal ash spill cost to $1.2B, reports 3Q loss

By DUNCAN MANSFIELD (AP) KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Valley Authority raised its estimates for cleaning up a massive coal ash spill to $1.2 billion on Friday, and partly blamed its third-quarter loss of $167 million on that cleanup. Officials also suggested a rate increase could be looming. The nation’s largest public utility said in […]

Unabated use of groundwater threatens Arizona's future

By Shaun McKinnon, The Arizona Republic Thirty years after Arizona tried to stop cities and towns from using up their groundwater, the state still can’t shake its thirst for one of its most finite resources. The steady drain on underground reserves grows out of two realities: Canals and pipelines don’t reach far enough to deliver […]

Carbon emissions from Amazon deforestation increase as older forest razed

  By now I’m sure you know that deforestation is a major source of carbon emissions — in fact more than all the fuel burned for transportation — which would be enough to worry about, except that when it comes to emissions from chopping down trees in the Amazon, those emissions are actually increasing as […]

King salmon vanishing in Alaska, smokehouses empty

By MARY PEMBERTON (AP) ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Yukon River smokehouses should be filled this summer with oil-rich strips of king salmon — long used by Alaska Natives as a high-energy food to get through the long Alaska winters. But they’re mostly empty. The kings failed to show up, and not just in the Yukon. One […]

New El Niño increases global drought threat

A new El Niño has started, bringing a change in weather patterns and the increased threat of drought in many parts of the world. The phenomenon, which happens every two to seven years, occurs when the surface ocean waters of the Eastern Pacific are unusually warm. Officially known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, it […]

Warning: Oil supplies are running out fast

Catastrophic shortfalls threaten economic recovery, says world’s top energy economist By Steve Connor, Science Editor The world is heading for a catastrophic energy crunch that could cripple a global economic recovery because most of the major oil fields in the world have passed their peak production, a leading energy economist has warned. Higher oil prices […]

Weeks after bloodshed, American oil moves into Peruvian Amazon

Commentary by Hambone Littletail Barely six weeks after dozens of Amazon natives were gunned down in cold blood by the Peruvian Army in the oil town of Bagua for protesting the cozy relationship between Big Oil and the government of President Alan Garcia, I find myself on the banks of the Mother of God River […]

Bolivia’s glaciers ‘are doomed’

By James Painter, BBC News, Khapi, Bolivia Marcos Choque is a 67-year-old Aymara Indian with holes in his trousers and battered sandals. He appears remarkably cheerful. Sitting among his fellow villagers from Khapi, perched high up in the Bolivian Andes, he seems to delight in cracking jokes. But ask him about Illimani – the 6,400m […]

Arctic tundra heating rapidly, releasing greenhouse gases

By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) – Regions of Arctic tundra around the world are heating up very rapidly, releasing more greenhouse gases than predicted and boosting the process of global warming, a leading expert said on Wednesday. Professor Greg Henry of the University of British Columbia also said higher temperatures meant larger plants were starting […]

British insurers prepare for 'worst case' climate impacts

By EVAN LEHMANN of ClimateWire British insurers are raising rates on homeowners to insulate themselves from increasing claims blamed on climate change, a justification that U.S. companies are hesitant — or unable — to embrace. The price of policies covering buildings in the United Kingdom rose 10 percent over the last year as insurers struggle […]

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