Minnesota Republican on climate change: ‘It’s just a complete United Nations fraud’

By Aaron Rupar 16 May 2013 (City Pages) – Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe, is anti-gay and gets his “facts” from materials distributed at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Other than that, we’re sure he’s exactly the sort of elected leader Minnesota needs. During a recent rant on the House floor, Gruenhagen characterized climate change as […]

Michigan district fires all teachers, closes every school

By Suzi Parker13 May 2013 (Take Part) – Summer break has started very early for kids in one Michigan school district. Buena Vista schools have been closed for five days already, and on Monday, the district’s website stated that the school would be closed until further notice. For good reason, this decision has parents, and […]

For India’s drought-hit states, on-track monsoon may be too late – Charges of corruption fly

By Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Jo Winterbottom and Ed Davies24 April 2013 JAMWADI, India (Reuters) – India may be heading for another bumper grain harvest, if the first forecast for this year’s monsoon proves correct, but the rain may be too little – and too late – for southern and western states already parched by […]

Canada government increases advertising spend on tar sands from $9 million to $16.5 million

By Suzanne Goldenberg16 May 2013 (The Guardian) – The Canadian government has nearly doubled its advertising spending to promote the Alberta tar sands in an aggressive new lobbying push ahead of Thursday’s visit to New York by the prime minister, Stephen Harper. The Harper government has increased its advertising spending on the Alberta tar sands […]

Leaked papers show UK government will backtrack on tar sands extraction being classified as highly polluting

By Lorna Howarth17 May 2013 (The Ecologist) – The UK government has come under fire this week from both NGOs and scientists for rejecting an EU proposal to classify tar sands under the European Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) as ‘highly polluting’ – despite the fact research has shown that oil produced from the Canadian tar […]

Graph of the Day: Global pre-tax energy subsidies, 2007-2011

27 March 2013 (IMF) – Global pre-tax energy subsidies are significant. The subsidy estimates capture both those that are explicitly recorded in the budget and those that are implicit and off-budget. The evolution of energy subsidies closely mimics that of international energy prices (Figure 2). Although subsidies declined with the collapse of international energy prices, […]

When science goes silent: With the muzzling of scientists in Canada, Harper’s obsession with controlling the message verges on the Orwellian

By Jonathon Gatehouse3 May 2013 (Maclean’s) – As far as the government scientist was concerned, it was a bit of fluff: an early morning interview about great white sharks last summer with Canada AM, the kind of innocuous and totally apolitical media commentary the man used to deliver 30 times or more each year as […]

Dozens of elephants slaughtered for ivory in Central African Republic – ‘The elephants here face a sure death as criminals obtain ivory’

10 May 2013 (mongabay.com) – Dozens of elephants have been slaughtered in the Dzanga Bai World Heritage Site in the Central African Republic just days after conservationists warned about an impending threat from the movement of 17 heavily armed poachers. The massacre occurred at a site renowned as “village of elephants”, where tourists and scientists […]

Internecine fight over climate change looms for U.S. Republicans – ‘There is a divide within the party. The position that climate change is a hoax is untenable.’

By Coral Davenport9 May 2013 (National Journal) – Kerry Emanuel registered as a Republican as soon he turned 18, in 1973. The aspiring scientist was turned off by what he saw as the Left’s blind ideology. “I had friends who denied Pol Pot was killing people in Cambodia,” he says. “I reacted very badly to […]

Indigenous occupation of Belo Monte dam site enters sixth day – Government refuses to negotiate, ejects journalists from site on World Press Freedom Day

By Lucy Jordan 7 May 2013 BRASÍLIA, BRAZIL (The Rio Times) – The federal government said Monday it would not negotiate with indigenous groups which on Tuesday entered their sixth day of occupying the controversial Belo Monte dam construction site. In the inflammatory statement, the Secretariat General of the Presidency accused some indigenous leaders of […]

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