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Obama Has Spoken, Now He Must Lead
Last week, President Obama demanded that Congress take action on climate change, or else he would. But, after years of political gridlock on the climate issue, coupled with rising seas and worsening droughts, one thing is clear: the nation simply cannot afford to wait any longer to take action. Though Congress may eventually pull together…
Read MoreAnti-Slime Brigade Packs Florida EPA Meeting
In a fantastic show of grassroots support for clean water, Floridians packed a Environmental Protection Agency meeting in Tampa on Jan. 16, saying they are fed up with repeated slimy algae outbreaks on the state’s beaches, rivers, spring and streams More than 150 protested, and they wore fluorescent green T-shirts saying, “Ask me about slime.”…
Read MoreWhat War On Coal?
In his State of the Union address, President Obama said some stirring things about climate change. Most dramatically, he urged Congress to take action and then said: But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will. Well, if you want to act on climate change to protect future generations, Mr. President, I…
Read MoreOil Derricks Won't Be Spoiling The Parks' View
Thanks to a recent federal court decision, visitors to Utah’s public wild lands can continue to raft the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument without seeing oil derricks around the river’s bends. They can continue to enjoy the outlook from Canyonlands National Park’s Grand View Point without drill rigs littering the landscape. And they won’t…
Read MoreTr-Ash Talk: Toolkit to Fight Against Coal
Note from Lisa Evans: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) last week released the "Coal Blooded Action Toolkit," which is a companion to its report, Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People, published jointly by the NAACP and Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and the Indigenous Environmental Network last November. The 2012…
Read MoreSub Warfare Training Facility Threatens Whales, Sea Turtles
The Navy is pushing ahead with plans to build a massive submarine warfare training facility, consisting of 500 square miles of cables, nodes, buoys and other instruments, next to the only known nursery for the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale and on top of habitat for sea turtles and other endangered species.
Read MoreAttorney Persevered Like A Wolverine To Protect Them
Last Friday, the federal government proposed to protect wolverines as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Wolverines are the biggest member of the weasel, mink, marten and otter family, but they don’t act like good family members—they are loners who cover huge ranges usually high in mountain ranges above tree line up in…
Read MoreTime To Confront A Major Climate Pollutant: Soot
As the environmental ministers of the Arctic nations, including the United States, meet in Sweden next week, they have an opportunity to show leadership on an important though less well-known climate pollutant, black carbon (soot). While carbon dioxide remains the most important, long-lasting pollutant forcing climate change, recent studies have revealed that short-lived climate forcers…
Read MoreTr-Ash Talk: Not In Our Drinking Water
Utility giant FirstEnergy Corp unveiled plans last week to barge 3 million tons of coal ash annually nearly 100 miles on the Monongahela and Ohio rivers for disposal in an unlined pit in LaBelle, PA. The ash comes from its Bruce Mansfield Power Station—one of the largest coal burning power plants in the U.S. There’s…
Read MoreEPA Moves To Ban Dangerous Rat Poison
There’s a dangerous type of mouse and rat poison on the market that when eaten by the rodents, causes them to bleed to death internally. Problems arise when the poison sometimes finds its way into the hands of kids or pets or moves up the food chain from rats and mice to foxes, bobcats, owls…
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