Blogging the End of the World™
By Tom Arup, Environment editor, The Age20 March 2013 (The Age) – Climate-driven disasters such as bushfires and floods have cost Victorian taxpayers more than $4 billion over the last decade, it has emerged, as the Napthine Government released its plan for Victoria to prepare for the future impacts of climate change [pdf]. The plan […]
By John Eligon and Matthew L. Wald16 March 2013 MACON, Missouri (The New York Times) – Five years ago, rural America was giddy for ethanol. Backed by government subsidies and mandates, hundreds of ethanol plants rose among the golden fields of the Corn Belt, bringing jobs and business to small towns, providing farmers with a […]
By Leone Lakhani14 March 2013 Lake Zakher, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – In a remote corner of the United Arab Emirates, a blue lake shimmers amid the sand dunes. It’s not a mirage, but a man-made oasis — an unintended byproduct of the UAE’s water management practices, which has sprung from the desert in recent […]
By Meena Menon17 March 2013 OSLO (The Hindu) – The rapid melting of the Arctic sea ice has rejuvenated interests in the region, ranging from oil and gas and mineral exploration to the possibility of shorter sea routes and increased tourism. But all this poses fresh challenges to the survival of the Inuit and other […]
(Kyodo) – Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday it detected a record 740,000 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium in a fish caught in waters near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, equivalent to 7,400 times the state-set limit deemed safe for human consumption. The greenling measuring 38 cm in length and weighing 564 […]
By Emma Farge; Editing by Alison Williams15 March 2013 GENEVA (Reuters) – U.N. agencies want to strengthen national drought policies after warnings that climate change would increase their frequency and severity. Droughts cause more deaths and displacement than floods or earthquakes, making them the world’s most destructive natural hazard, according to the Food and Agriculture […]
6 March 2013 (NRDC) – The bounty of America’s fisheries have fed a hungry nation, built homes, seduced tourists, fueled commercial enterprises, put kids through college, and provided a decent living to millions. But in the late 1980s and 1990s, many fish stocks off our shores, from haddock in New England to summer flounder in […]
By Bernhard Warner15 March 2013 (Businessweek) – Big Pharma on Friday won the first round of its fight to defeat a European proposal to ban a trio of commonly used pesticides suspected of killing honeybees. The closely watched measure, which calls for a European Union-wide moratorium on three types of neonicotinoid pesticides, failed to secure […]
[“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Democracy simply doesn’t work.” – Kent Brockman] By Natalie Wolchover, Life’s Little Mysteries Staff Writer28 February 2012 (LiveScience) – The democratic process relies on the assumption that citizens (the majority of them, at least) can recognize the best political candidate, or best policy idea, when they […]
By Marshall Connolly3/15/2013 LOS ANGELES, California (Catholic Online) – In the United States, the issue of anthropogenic global warming, defined as an unnatural and rapid rise in the Earth’s overall average temperature caused by human activities, is strongly associated with left-leaning political ideology. Publicly championed by liberal celebrities such as former Vice President Al Gore, […]
