World Catastrophe Map: Reclaiming West Virginia’s mountains for KFC

29 May 2012 (CatMap) – This was once a useless old mountain, now reclaimed for positive economic impact by coal companies and their friends in the legislature. In order for coal mining companies to earn the right blow the tops of mountains, pollute the streams below and fuck up the natural landscape beyond imagination, they […]

Sickness spreads in Great Barrier Reef wildlife – Pollution and freshwater outflows from record 2011 floods blamed

GLADSTONE, Australia, 2 June 2012 (The Economist) – SOME locals in the port town of Gladstone recall swimming and catching mud crabs off Curtis Island in the city’s harbour. The harbour is now undergoing the biggest dredging operation ever approved in Australia. From 2014, huge ships are due to load liquefied natural gas (LNG) from […]

Graph of the Day: Most Endangered U.S. Rivers, 2012

1. Potomac RiverPollution and Clean Water Act rollbacks have national implications. 2. Green RiverWater withdrawals could threaten a water-strapped region. 3. Chattahoochee RiverNew dams and reservoirs threaten to dry up the river flow. 4. Missouri RiverOutdated flood management putting public safety at risk. 5. Hoback RiverNatural gas development putting clean water, world-class fishing and wildlife […]

Global CO2 emissions hit record in 2011 led by China: IEA

By Michel Rose, with additional reporting by Gus Trompiz and Muriel Boselli; editing by Jason Neely24 May 2012 PARIS (Reuters) – China spurred a jump in global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to their highest ever recorded level in 2011, offsetting falls in the United States and Europe, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday. […]

UN climate talks deadlocked in Bonn as divisions between rich and poor nations reopen – ‘Distrust and frustration in the atmosphere’

BONN, Germany, 24 May 2012 (AP) – U.N. climate talks ran into gridlock Thursday as a widening rift between rich and poor countries risked undoing some advances made last year in the decades-long effort to control carbon emissions that scientists say are overheating the planet. As so often in the slow-moving negotiations, the session in […]

Heartland Institute on life support, asks for donations from ‘rich uncle’

24 May 2012 (Watch the Deniers) – Some encouraging news with the Heartland Institute (HI) announcing that are going to discontinue their annual International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC). The ICCC was the big event for denial movement, an important venue to help co-ordinate efforts, generate talking points, and create the impression there is opposition […]

Door to 2 degree temperature limit is closing: IEA

By Nina Chestney and Oleg Vukmanovic; Editing by Keiron Henderson16 May 2012 (Reuters) – The chance of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius this century is getting slimmer and slimmer, the head of the International Energy Agency warned on Wednesday. “What I see now with existing investments for plants under construction […]

Heartland Institute’s annual conference against climate science much diminished this year

By Suzanne Goldenberg in Chicago, www.guardian.co.uk22 May 2012 It was an odd choice of icon for the ultra-conservative Heartland Institute. But there he was in round glasses, beard, and halo of curls staring out from T-shirts and coffee mugs at their gathering of climate change contrarians this week, the scientist whose internet sting set Heartland […]

Global warming boosts mercury levels in Arctic – ‘The mercury is going straight into the ocean’

By Bob Berwyn, Summit Voice22 May 2012 SUMMIT COUNTY – Widespread mercury pollution from wind-carried smokestack emissions has widely been recognized as a huge environmental problem, with concentrations of the toxic heavy metal building up in the food chain around the world. The pollutant has been especially prevalent in the Arctic, and now researchers think […]

Heartland Institute facing uncertain future as staff depart and cash dries up

[The Forecast the Facts petition against Heartland is here: Heartland’s 2012 Funding: Fading Quickly.] By Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent, www.guardian.co.uk 20 May 2012 The first Heartland Institute conference on climate change in 2008 had all the trappings of a major scientific conclave – minus large numbers of real scientists. Hundreds of climate change contrarians, […]

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