Blogging the End of the World™
By DYLAN WALSH15 February 2013 (The New York Times) – For Elizabeth Farnsworth, the story began when she was walking her dog at a highway rest stop off Interstate 94 in North Dakota. “My husband and I met a trucker who was making $100,000 per year,” said Ms. Farnsworth, a freelance filmmaker and special correspondent […]
By Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent 14 February 2013 (guardian.co.uk) – Conservative billionaires used a secretive funding route to channel nearly $120m (£77m) to more than 100 groups casting doubt about the science behind climate change, the Guardian has learned. The funds, doled out between 2002 and 2010, helped build a vast network of thinktanks […]
By Lauren Morello14 February 2013 (Climate Central) – January was warmer and wetter than average in the contiguous U.S., despite the persistent drought in the nation’s heartland, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday. The average temperature in the lower 48 states reached 32.0°F last month. At 1.6°F above the 20th century average, January […]
By PAM BELLUCK14 February 2013 (The New York Times) – Traces of a common psychiatric medication that winds up in rivers and streams may affect fish behavior and feeding patterns, according to a study in the journal Science published Thursday. Researchers in Sweden exposed wild European perch to water with different concentrations of Oxazepam, an […]
13 February 2013 (KIRO TV) – An exclusive KIRO 7 Investigation uncovers stunning proof of animals being killed illegally to sell their parts for profit. South Sound reporter Richard Thompson shows how state Fish and Wildlife detectives caught criminals out to make a buck, even if it meant wiping out wildlife critical to the Northwest […]
By Ralph Vartabedian 13 February 2013 (Los Angeles Times) – The long-troubled project to clean up radioactive waste in Hanford, Washington, has come under attack from another senior manager, the third to assert that top executives are ignoring serious problems in the plant’s design. Donna Busche, the manager of environmental and nuclear safety for San […]
By Hannah Hickey 13 February 2013 (University of Washington) – The September 2012 record low in Arctic sea-ice extent was big news, but a missing piece of the puzzle was lurking below the ocean’s surface. What volume of ice floats on Arctic waters? And how does that compare to previous summers? These are difficult but […]
By Brendan DeMelle11 February 2013 (DeSmogBlog) – A new academic study confirms that front groups with longstanding ties to the tobacco industry and the billionaire Koch brothers planned the formation of the Tea Party movement more than a decade before it exploded onto the U.S. political scene. Far from a genuine grassroots uprising, this astroturf […]
By Michael Smith12 February 2013 (Bloomberg Markets Magazine) – People streamed into the central square in Celendin, a small city in the Peruvian Andes, the morning of July 3, 2012. They were protesting the government’s support for Newmont Mining Corp.’s plan to take control of four lakes to make way for a new gold and […]
TOKYO, 4 Feb 2013 (AFP) – The suffocating smog that blanketed swathes of China is now hitting parts of Japan, sparking warnings Monday of health risks for the young and the sick. The environment ministry’s website has been overloaded as worried users log on to try to find out what is coming their way. “Access […]
