Kansas state bill would force teachers to question climate change in class – HB2306 calls climate change ‘scientific controversy’

[“Teach the controversy”: Taking a page from the Creationists’ playbook. –Des] 18 February 2013 By Celia Llopis-Jepsen (The Topeka Capital-Journal) – With the Kansas State Board of Education preparing to vote on new science standards this year, the House Education Committee has introduced a bill asking schools to include evidence against climate change in science […]

Transocean pleads guilty, is sentenced to pay $400 million in criminal penalties for criminal conduct leading to Deepwater Horizon disaster

Contact: Stacy Kika, kika.stacy@epa.gov, 202-564-0906, 202-564-435514 February 2013 WASHINGTON (EPA) – Transocean Deepwater Inc. pleaded guilty today to a violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA) for its illegal conduct leading to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, and was sentenced to pay $400 million in criminal fines and penalties, Attorney General Holder announced today. In […]

As the climate warms, forests encroach on meadowland – ‘Meadows’ biodiversity value is much larger than the area they occupy’

By Carrie Madren  12 February 2013 (Scientific American) – In perhaps the slowest invasion in history, mountain meadows in the Pacific Northwest—where hikers and backpackers revel in breath-taking scenery—are gradually giving way to hemlocks, Pacific silver firs and other conifers. In these high-elevation, subalpine meadows of Jefferson Park in the central Cascade Range in Oregon, […]

Forbes: Why Republicans should embrace the reality of climate change – ‘There’s no way of explaining what’s happened in the last 50 years through natural cycles’

By Matthew Herper, Forbes Staff18 February 2013 (Forbes) – We have reached the point where every rational person who believes in making decisions based on science and available data should, if not fully believe that human beings are warming the planet by releasing greenhouse gases, at least recognize that this is what the data seem […]

Report points to risk of serious gap in weather satellite data

By DYLAN WALSH18 February 2013 (The New York Times) – A new report from the Government Accountability Office elevates the problem of looming gaps in satellite weather data to a “high risk” concern for the federal government The G.A.O.’s high-risk report, updated every two years to coincide with each new Congress, focuses on federal programs […]

As New England fisheries struggle, debate heats up over how to help – ‘I really just don’t see a way at the moment’

By JESS BIDGOOD15 February 2013 GLOUCESTER, Massachusetts (The New York Times) – B. G. Brown, a second-generation fisherman who chases cod and haddock from this port city, spent a recent morning rigging up his 31-foot commercial vessel to be manned alone. He had just lost his only crew member to the more lucrative lobster fishery, […]

Four U.S. states introduce Keystone XL pipeline resolutions, lifting language directly from ALEC and TransCanada

16 February 2013By Brendan Fischer (PR Watch) – Legislators in four states have introduced bills in recent weeks supporting the controversial TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline, with language that appears to have been lifted directly from a “model” American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) bill and from TransCanada’s own public relations talking points. Some of the first […]

Images from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields boom – ‘This is changing the landscape so fast. I grieve now when I leave North Dakota.’

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 […]

Secret funding helped build vast network of climate denial thinktanks – Anonymous trusts funded media campaign against windfarms, solar projects, and planning for sea-level rise

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 […]

Eagle heads, bear penises, cougar meat part of Washington State wildlife black market – ‘For them, it’s not a living animal, it’s a way to make a buck’

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 […]

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