Image of the Day: Athabasca Oil Sands from Orbit

By Holli Riebeek In the ranking of the world’s proven oil reserves, Canada stands behind only Saudi Arabia. Canada possesses an estimated 178.6 billion barrels of crude oil accessible using current technology. Of this reserve, 174 billion barrels are in Alberta’s oil sand fields, which cover 140,200 square kilometers (54,132 square miles) of the province. […]

Louisiana: Over six million pounds of pollution released between 2005 and 2008

By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-PicayuneDecember 07, 2009, 3:13AM Frequent accidents at 10 of the state’s biggest refineries resulted in the release of millions of pounds of toxic chemicals into the air and millions of gallons of polluted water into state water courses between 2005 and 2008, according to a report to be released this morning […]

Graph of the Day: Unemployed Over 26 Weeks, 1969-2009

From Calculated Risk:   Back in September, David Leonhardt wrote on the job churn rate in the NY Times: Try thinking of it this way: All of the unemployed people in the country are gathered in a huge gymnasium that’s been turned into a job search center. The fact that this recession is the worst […]

Oil sands pollution in Canada worse than industry and government claim

By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.comDecember 07, 2009 Canada’s tar sands have been internationally criticized as one of the world’s largest industrial sources of greenhouse gases, but the energy-intensive extraction of oil also has a less-noted impact on the local environment. A new study shows that the Alberta’s oil sands are likely releasing more PACs (polycyclic aromatic […]

Asian carp invasion: Prepare for the worst

BY ERIC SHARPFREE PRESS OUTDOORS WRITER Anglers in the Great Lakes watershed better fish as much as possible in the next decade. Chances are that yet-another monumental government screwup has let Asian carp into the world’s biggest freshwater reservoir, auguring a potential disaster for many of our sport fisheries. New tests let scientists detect the […]

One Asian carp found after six miles of river poisoned in Illinois

By Jeff Kart, Bay City, Michigan on 12. 5.09, Treehugger An emergency operation to stop invasive Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes used more than 2,000 gallons of rotenone to poison six miles of a canal near Chicago this week. Tens of thousands of fish were killed. Just one Asian carp, the target of […]

Sea level rise along U.S. Atlantic Coast fastest in 4,000 years

December 02, 2009 PHILADELPHIA –- An international team of environmental scientists led by the University of Pennsylvania has shown that sea-level rise along the Atlantic Coast of the United States was 2 millimeters faster in the 20th century than at any time in the past 4,000 years. Sea-level rise prior to the 20th century is […]

‘Game over’ for Great Lakes if Asian carp penetrate final barrier

Detroit News staff and wire reports Traverse City — Gov. Jennifer Granholm wants Michigan’s attorney general to take legal action to prevent Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes. Granholm and Lt. Gov. John Cherry sent Attorney General Mike Cox a letter today urging him to “pursue every legal tool” available. They say among possible […]

Chicago river poisoned to block feared Asian carp, mostly native species killed

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Authorities scooped up poisoned fish floating to the surface of a Chicago-area waterway on Thursday in an operation designed to keep invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes and prevent an ecological disaster. Illinois officials said a single Bighead carp, one of two prolific species of Asian carp viewed as a […]

Climate change threatens life in Shishmaref, Alaska

  By John D. Sutter, CNNDecember 3, 2009 3:39 a.m. EST Shishmaref, Alaska (CNN) — When the arctic winds howl and angry waves pummel the shore of this Inupiat Eskimo village, Shelton and Clara Kokeok fear that their house, already at the edge of the Earth, finally may plunge into the gray sea below. “The […]

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