Fukushima clean-up falters six years after tsunami – Scale and difficulty of decommissioning “almost beyond comprehension”

By Justin McCurry8 March 2017 (The Guardian) – Barely a fifth of the way into their mission, the engineers monitoring the Scorpion’s progress conceded defeat. With a remote-controlled snip of its cable, the latest robot sent into the bowels of one of Fukushima Daiichi’s damaged reactors was cut loose, its progress stalled by lumps of […]

Shrinking Sagar Island struggles to stay afloat as sea level rises – “We have made nature very angry”

By Soumya Sarkar8 March 2017 (The Third Pole) – “The water rushed in at night,” recalls Madan Mohan Pal of Hendalketki in Sagar Island. “By the morning, the entire village was under water. When the flood receded, the land was so saline that we could grow nothing for the next two years.” Although Pal has […]

Water scarcity needs “urgent and massive response” in North Africa and Near East – Accessible fresh water in has fallen by two-thirds in the past 40 years

CAIRO, 9 March 2017 (FAO) – Access to water is a fundamental need for food security, human health and agriculture, and its looming scarcity in the North Africa and Middle East region is a huge challenge requiring an “urgent and massive response,” FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva said in Cairo. Accessible fresh water in […]

EPA chief Scott Pruitt says carbon dioxide is not a primary contributor to global warming

By Tom DiChristopher9 March 2017 (CNBC) – Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said Thursday he does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming. “I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so […]

E.P.A. head stacks agency with global warming denialists – “For the first time, I see someone who has no commitment to the mission of the agency”

By Coral Davenport7 March 2017 WASHINGTON (The New York Times) – Days after the Senate confirmed him as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference and was asked about addressing a group that probably wanted to eliminate his agency. “I think it’s justified,” he responded, to cheers. […]

“Parched” China city plans to pump water from Russian lake via 1,000 km pipeline

By Tom Phillips; additional reporting by Wang Zhen7 March 2017 Beijing (The Guardian) – China is reportedly considering plans to build a 1,000km (620 mile) pipeline to pump water all the way from Siberia to its drought-stricken northwest. According to reports in the Chinese media, urban planners in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, have […]

White House issues corporate press release on behalf of ExxonMobil

By Josh Voorhees6 March 2017 (Slate) – […] The two statements had plenty more in common than simply the topic. A snippet from the Exxon release: ExxonMobil is strategically investing in new refining and chemical-manufacturing projects in the U.S. Gulf Coast region to expand its manufacturing and export capacity. The company’s Growing the Gulf expansion […]

Satao II, one of the last “giant tusker” elephants, killed in Kenya by poachers

By Caroline Mortimer 7 March 2017 (Independent) – One of Kenya’s last tusker elephants has been killed by poachers, conservationists have said.  Satao II’s body was found during a routine aerial reconnaissance by the Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) near the Voi river in Tsavo East National Park, according to the Tsavo Trust, a non profit […]

Rhino shot dead at Paris zoo by poachers who cut horn off with chainsaw

By Sunita Patel-Carstairs, News Reporter7 March 2017 (Sky News) – A rhino has been shot dead by poachers who broke into a zoo and sliced its horn off with a chainsaw. Four-year-old Vince was found dead by one of his keepers at Thoiry zoo, near Paris, on Tuesday morning. One or more attackers are believed […]

The scientific community is facing an existential crisis

By Emily Atkin27 February 2017 (New Republic) – Earlier this month, thousands of scientists from around the world came together for their favorite nerd fest: The annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest scientific organization and publisher of the renowned Science journals. There were panels on everything […]

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