By Aimee Picchi15 October 2015 (CBS News) – The likes of Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould — the robber barons of the late 19th century — might feel right at home in today’s economy. The coffers of the uber-rich have exploded since the Great Recession, reaching a level “possibly not seen for almost a century,” […]
By Tim Dickinson 24 September 2014 (Rolling Stone) – The enormity of the Koch fortune is no mystery. Brothers Charles and David are each worth more than $40 billion. The electoral influence of the Koch brothers is similarly well-chronicled. The Kochs are our homegrown oligarchs; they’ve cornered the market on Republican politics and are nakedly […]
By Samantha Page27 September 2015 (ClimateProgress) – Climate change costs an incredible amount of money. Whether it is deaths during heat waves, reconstruction after a superstorm, or even lost revenues at ski slopes, rising temperatures and increased extreme weather events are costing the economy. In fact, Citibank reported earlier this year that it will cost […]
By Warren Cornwall5 October 2015 (ScienceInsider) – A scientist who helped organize a call for a federal investigation of the fossil fuel industry—for allegedly orchestrating a cover-up of climate change dangers—has himself become the target of a congressional probe. Last week, Representative Lamar Smith (R–TX), the chairman of the science panel of the House of […]
By Sue Sturgis8 October 2015 (Facing South) – South Carolina continues to assess the damage from the historic rains that fell between Friday and Monday and dumped as much as 20 inches of rain in some parts of the state. At least 16 people were killed and more than a dozen dams breached in the […]
By Harry Davies17 September 2015 (The Guardian) – Environmentalists have criticised a decision to appoint a former consultant to major oil and gas companies as David Cameron’s key adviser on energy and environment policy. Stephen Heidari-Robinson, a little-known consultant from oilfield services company Schlumberger, arrives in Downing Street just months before the prime minister is […]
By Sophia Tesfaye18 September 2015 (Salon) – Arizona Republican Congressman Paul Gosar, describing himself as a “a proud Catholic” took to the conservative website Townhall to lecture Pope Francis and announce his planned boycott of his historic papal visit to Congress next week. Calling it his “moral obligation” to call out Catholic leaders who […]
By Adam Nagourney9 September 2015 LOS ANGELES (The New York Times) – In a major setback for environmental advocates in California, Gov. Jerry Brown and Senate Democrats abandoned a 50 percent cut in petroleum use by 2030 that was a centerpiece of emissions legislation, blaming an intense campaign against the mandate by the oil industry. […]
By Deirdre Fulton, staff writer2 September 2015 (Common Dreams) – Demanding reparations for industrial pollution and adequate compensation for use of native lands, Indigenous activists in Peru shut down 11 wells in an Amazonian oil block on Tuesday. According to the Spanish EFE news agency, native protesters led by the Federation of the Achuar and […]
By Guy Jackson6 September 2015 (AFP) – The French secret service frogman who attached the mines which sank the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand 30 years ago apologized for his actions in an interview Sunday with investigative website Mediapart. Jean-Luc Kister, whose face was not covered in the hour-long video interview, said he […]
