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Victories Bring Hope As 2012 Begins
As 2012 begins and election year politics accelerate, you are probably hearing some gloomy predictions about how our environment will fare this year. There is good reason for the concern: many in Congress are dedicated to eliminating long-standing environmental protections. Fossil fuel industry supporters are pulling out all the financial and rhetorical stops in their…
Read MoreThe Florida Everglades–A Jewel Preserved By Litigation
Twenty years after we settled our first lawsuit in Florida, one thing is crystal clear: Without litigation, the Everglades would be left with whatever protection the agencies and the Florida Legislature would be willing to provide under pressure from Big Sugar and other powerful polluters. In other words: not much. Litigation has empowered the community…
Read MoreHappy New Year, Grand Canyon!
About a century ago, a Republican president said: In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I hope you will not have a building of any…
Read MoreFriday Finds: Congress Brakes on Transit Breaks
Transit riders run over by reduced tax breaks Thanks to a lack of action by Congress before the holidays, mass transit commuters will have to pay an additional $550 in taxes this year, reports the New York Times, while those who commute by car will benefit from an increase in pre-tax benefit for monthly parking.…
Read MoreTr-Ash Talk: TVA Disaster Spurs More Toxic Dumping?
Last month we marked three years since the Tennessee Valley Authority Kingston coal ash spill, underscoring the fact that the EPA has yet to regulate toxic coal ash waste. Now we have even more reason to be concerned. According to analysis by the Environmental Integrity Project, the most recent U.S. Toxic Release Inventory indicates that…
Read MoreMonday Reads: The Hybridizing Shark Edition
Climate change has been accused of being many things, from Imposter to Glacier National Park Name-killer. And now to the list we can add…Interspecies Dating Matchmaker? A study published last month in Conservation Genetics documented no fewer than 57 instances of hybrid common black-tip (Carcharhinus limbatus) and Australian black-tip (Carcharhinus tilstoni) sharks off the eastern…
Read MoreFriday Finds: The FDA’s Drug Addiction
FDA gives “okay” to continue drugging livestock Farmers can continue giving healthy cows, pigs and other livestock routine doses of penicillin and tetracyclines—two commonly used antibiotics—even though the practice threatens public health, reports Forbes. The Food and Drug Administration’s decision to no longer consider withdrawing approval of the common practice comes after years of meat and produce…
Read MoreSix Environmental Imperatives for Obama in 2012
President Obama won the White House on a platform of hope and change – promising an end to dirty corporate influence over our political system and a beginning to an era in which our energy choices lead us to a clean, sustainable future, or at least don’t kill us or make us sick. So far,…
Read MoreFor Insurers, Climate Change is Very Real
Insurance claim data shows climate disasters on the increase
Read MorePikas Can Run But Not Hide From Climate Change
You’re adorable but you will die if the temperature rises much above 80°F. So climate change is a big deal in your world, which just happens to be high mountain peaks. Who are you? You are the American pika, a small member of the rabbit family that the California Dept. of Fish and Game has…
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