Blogging the End of the World™
By Doyle Rice 5 October 2017 (USA Today) – From walruses to turtles and woodpeckers to toads, the Trump administration Wednesday declined to list 25 species as endangered, noting that extra protection “is not warranted at this time.” Of particular concern to environmental groups is the Pacific walrus, which had been considered a candidate for […]
28 September 2017 (Université de Neuchâtel) – [Translation by Google.] Trees growing above 800 m are increasingly exposed to spring frost, the Neuchâtel University, the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL and SLF), and Agroscope Conthey reveal in a joint study a paradoxical consequence of global warming, which increases the vulnerability […]
By Joshua Gillin 3 October 2017 (Politifact) – Conservative news outlets have been spreading a false story online that wrongly says aid to Hurricane Maria victims isn’t being distributed in Puerto Rico because union truck drivers have gone on strike.The headline on a 30 September 2017, post on The Gateway Pundit read, “San Juan Teamsters […]
By Laurel Hamers 5 October 2017(Science News) – Neonicotinoid pesticides are turning up in honey on every continent with honeybees.The first global honey survey testing for these controversial nicotine-derived pesticides shows just how widely honeybees are exposed to the chemicals, which have been shown to affect the health of bees and other insects. Three out […]
By Rachel Roubein 4 October 2017 (The Hill) – Amid the humanitarian disaster in Puerto Rico, most people can’t drink the water. But even before a Category 4 hurricane slammed the U.S. territory, the island’s water supply was in serious trouble.Some 55 percent of Puerto Ricans still don’t have access to drinking water as of […]
2 October 2017 (United Nations) – The number of those needing humanitarian assistance is at its highest since the end of the Second World War – some 145 million people. Several protracted crises in Africa and the Middle East are deteriorating and climate-induced emergencies, sometimes combined with violent conflict, continue to wreak havoc on vulnerable […]
By Avery Anapol 3 October 2017 (The Hill) – Oxfam America is stepping in to help Puerto Rico, saying the Trump administration’s response has been “inadequate.”The global nonprofit’s president, Abby Maxman, said in a statement Tuesday that the group is “outraged” at the U.S. government’s slow response in Puerto Rico, where more than half of […]
5 September 2017 (Bloomberg News) – China will expand its agricultural use of environment-damaging plastic film to boost crop production even as authorities try to curb soil pollution, a government scientist said.Some 1.45 million metric tons of polyethylene are spread in razor-thin sheets across 20 million hectares (49 million acres) — an area about half […]
By Adam Voiland 28 September 2017 (NASA) – After Hurricane Maria tore across Puerto Rico, it quickly became clear that the destruction would pose daunting challenges for first responders. Most of the electric power grid and telecommunications network was knocked offline. Flooding, downed trees, and toppled power lines made many roads impassable.In circumstances like this, […]
By Madhura Chakraborty and Amol Lalzare 15 September 2017(Video Volunteers) – “They don’t touch us because our hands and feet are dirty. They say we stink. They yell at us, hit us, ask us to go away.” Nana Kale recounts how he is treated after working at his job: cleaning the sewers of Mumbai, before […]
