[UPDATE: Objections have been raised about this study, e.g., here. I asked Prof. Gilens for his rebuttal, and he graciously replied. His response is appended at the end of this post. –Des] By Tom McKay16 April 2014 (PolicyMic) – A new scientific study, “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens” [pdf], […]
By Jeremy Hance16 April 2014 (mongabay.com) – In what is a major victory for environmentalists, campaigners with United for Yasuní have collected 727,947 signatures triggering a national referendum on whether or not oil drilling should proceed in three blocs of Yasuní National Park in Ecuador. The effort started last year after Ecuador’s President, Rafael Correa, […]
By Tom Jackman 17 April 2014 (Washington Post) – Unpublished research by university scientists is exempt from the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled Thursday, rejecting an attempt by skeptics of global warming to view the work of a prominent climate researcher during his years at the University of Virginia. The […]
1 April 2014 (Associated Press) – On the same day the world’s scientists issued their latest report on climate change and the risks it poses to society, America’s biggest oil and gas company said the world’s climate policies are “highly unlikely” to stop it from selling fossil fuels far into the future. Exxon Mobil issued […]
By Rhett A. Butler10 April 2014 (mongabay.com) – Forest clearing within areas zoned for timber, logging, oil palm, and mining accounted for nearly 45 percent of deforestation in Indonesia between 2000 and 2010, finds a new study that examined forest loss within industrial concessions. The research, published in the journal Conservation Letters, used a combination […]
By Chris Dolce23 January 2014 (Weather Channel) – California’s reservoirs are severely depleted due to the ongoing widespread drought conditions in the state. As of 21 January 2014, 67 percent of California was in extreme drought [69% on 8 April 2014], the second worst category possible on the U.S. Drought Monitor [now 23% in “Exceptional” […]
By Dave Burdick8 Apr 2014 (Grist) – The world as we knew it is gone. Even if nobody is talking explicitly about it, it’s clear that something terrible has happened and in its wake, humanity must once again reset its priorities. Can we, in this resource-scarce new world, fashion some kind of idyllic agrarian commune […]
By Captain Paul Watson 16 April 2014 (Facebook) – Being a wildlife conservationist or an environmentalist is now considered one of the planet’s most dangerous occupations. We face very dangerous and powerful vested interests each day. They outnumber us and they are financially and politically connected. They are ruthless and they will deal harshly with […]
Estimated annual offtake rates for Friday/Sunday bushmeat market days at the Daobly market in the Ivorian town of Taï along the Cavally River. The annual offtake was calculated by doubling the average of the observed Friday offtake, and doubling again to account for the similar volume of primates traded at Sunday markets. This value was […]
By Joe Romm15 April 2014 (Climate Progress) – Natural variability alone cannot explain the extreme weather pattern that has driven both the record-setting California drought and the cooler weather seen in the Midwest and East this winter, a major new study finds. We’ve reported before that climate scientists had predicted a decade ago that warming-driven […]
