Japanese nuclear plant may have been leaking for two years – ‘We’ve seen for a fact that levels of radioactivity in the seawater remain high, and contamination continues’

By HIROKO TABUCHI10 July 2013 TOKYO (The New York Times) – The stricken nuclear power plant at Fukushima has probably been leaking contaminated water into the ocean for two years, ever since an earthquake and tsunami badly damaged the plant, Japan’s chief nuclear regulator said on Wednesday.  In unusually candid comments, Shunichi Tanaka, the head […]

Kimmel Kartoon: You’re Screwed

“So, you’re saying my generation faces the imminent prospect of a bleak and potentially apocalyptic future?” 12 July 2013 Jimmy Kimmel Live – Kimmel Kartoon – “You’re Screwed” Jimmy Kimmel Live’s YouTube channel features clips and recaps of every episode from the late night TV show on ABC. Subscribe for clips from the monologue, the […]

Sumatra haze fires concentrated in deforested peatlands, not forest areas, satellite analysis confirms – Palm oil and pulp and paper companies are responsible

10 July 2013 (mongabay.com) – A new mapping tool based on NASA satellite data confirms that the majority of fires that drove the recent haze over Sumatra and Malaysia were concentrated in deforested peatlands and scrub, rather than natural forest areas. The interactive fire risk tool, developed by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), […]

Image of the Day: Satellite view of Quebec oil train fire

By Andrew Freedman9 July 2013 (ClimateCentral) – The explosion and fires that followed a runaway oil train slamming into the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec were so powerful that they were visible from space. At least 13 people died and about three dozen are still reported missing after the accident on July 6. The train was […]

Great Barrier Reef condition declined from moderate to poor in 2011 – ‘Extreme weather events significantly impacted the overall condition of the marine environment’

By Oliver Laughland    10 July 2013 (The Guardian) – An alarming set of reports on the condition of the Great Barrier Reef published on Wednesday say its overall condition in 2011 declined from moderate to poor, and highlights that reef-wide coral cover has declined by 50% since 1985. The series of reports blame part of […]

Yangtze finless porpoise declared critically endangered – ‘Future generations will undoubtedly wonder if we were ignorant, incompetent or both’

By Jeremy Hance7 July 2013 (mongabay.com) – The newest update to the IUCN Red List has downgraded the status of the Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis) from Endangered to Critically Endangered, reflecting the deteriorating state of arguably the world’s most degraded river system. The downgrade follows a survey last year that counted only 1,000 […]

China’s reliance on coal reduces life expectancy by 5.5 years, says study – High levels of air pollution will cause 500 million people to lose an aggregate 2.5 billion years from their lives

By Jonathan Kaiman8 July 2013 BEIJING (The Guardian) – Air pollution causes people in northern China to live an average of 5.5 years shorter than their southern counterparts, according to a study released on Monday which claims to show in unprecedented detail the link between air pollution and life expectancy. High levels of air pollution […]

Canada bees dying by the millions – ‘I think it’s criminal what is happening’

By Jon Radojkovic 19 June 2013 ELMWOOD (The Post) – Local beekeepers are finding millions of their bees dead just after corn was planted here in the last few weeks. Dave Schuit, who has a honey operation in Elmwood, lost 600 hives, a total of 37 million bees. “Once the corn started to get planted […]

BP challenges settlements in Gulf Oil spill – ‘The litigation over this issue has not in any way changed our commitment to the Gulf’

25 June 2013 NEW ORLEANS (AP) – BP is placing full-page advertisements in three of the nation’s largest newspapers on Wednesday as the company mounts an aggressive campaign to challenge what could be billions of dollars in settlement payouts to businesses after its 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The ad, scheduled to […]

Transcript of President Obama’s climate change speech – ‘I refuse to condemn your generation and future generations to a planet that’s beyond fixing’

By Tom Randall 25 June 2013 (Bloomberg) – Transcript of President Barack Obama’s speech at Georgetown University announcing his new climate-change policy: On Christmas Eve, 1968, the astronauts of Apollo 8 did a live broadcast from lunar orbit. So Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, William Anders — the first humans to orbit the moon — described […]

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