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The Latest by Terry Winckler

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October 1, 2013

Govt. Shuts Down Fishing, Birding, Hunting

By Terry Winckler

(Editor’s note: What does the federal government shutdown, starting today, mean to you? Tell us in the comments, and check out this news release from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.) Because of the shutdown of the federal government caused by the lapse in appropriations, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will suspend most programs …

September 27, 2013

We Cause Climate Change, We Can Stop It

By Terry Winckler  /  Headquarters Office

The good news in today’s U.N. report on global warming is that I’ll be dead before the predicted ocean rise floods my island home in San Francisco Bay. But here’s what I—and you and every other human on Earth—won’t escape, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Responsibility. It is almost 100 percent certain that …

August 23, 2013

Let The River Flow – Judge Grants Salmon a Chance To Live

By Terry Winckler  /  California Office & Northwest Office

There are few victories sweeter and more dramatic than the one just wrested by Earthjustice attorney Jan Hasselman and his tribal allies in a Fresno, California courtroom this week. They prevented a corporate grab of water needed by an entire run of chinook salmon for their spawning run up the Klamath/Trinity rivers system. The drama—and …

August 2, 2013

Republicans Call For Climate Change Action

By Terry Winckler  /  Headquarters Office

The Republican Party has a number of outspoken climate change deniers; so, it was a relief to open today’s New York Times and read this headline: “A Republican Case for Climate Action.” I couldn’t read the accompanying op-ed fast enough. Written by four former EPA administrators under Republican presidents, the article immediately said this: We served …

June 11, 2013

Coal Sees the Solar Light in India

By Terry Winckler  /  Headquarters Office

You gotta love it when the world’s largest coal mining company turns to solar energy, as a way to cut costs and because it recognizes that fossil fuels are fast going away. According to a published report, Coal India plans to install solar in its various operations around the country. A company document explains why: India …

May 3, 2013

Raw Sewage and a Raw Deal in Rochelle, GA

By Terry Winckler  /  Florida Office

Forcing the ruling system to fix the sewage system

April 18, 2013

A Reason to Celebrate Earth Day: No Arctic Ocean Drilling

By Terry Winckler  /  Alaska Office

Perhaps you’ve already read the good news by our crackerjack Alaska attorney Holly Harris, who reported that ConocoPhillips is the latest Big Oil company to postpone drilling in the oft-treacherous waters of the Arctic Ocean. Shell previously announced it was abandoning plans to drill there this year. A combination of Arctic fury and years of …

November 1, 2012

Super-storm Sandy: Spawn of Climate Change?

By Terry Winckler

Today, in an editorial, the Los Angeles Times took on a question that many of us have been pondering – did climate change cause super-storm Sandy? The newspaper didn’t try to answer the question, but instead made a strong case for how global warming made Sandy more intense: In part, it’s because Sandy involved a …

September 18, 2012

Russel Train–Best Friend Of The Clean Water Act

By Terry Winckler

It’s not the passing of Russell Train – who died Monday at 92 – that we remember, but the life he led as a powerful, humble, principled warrior for the Earth. Mr. Train was chairman of the newly created White House Council on Environmental Quality before President Nixon picked him to be the second head …

April 17, 2012

Inupiat Leader Wins Goldman Award

By Terry Winckler

The world’s largest prize for environmental action has been awarded to Caroline Cannon, an Inupiat leader and former president of the Native Village of Point Hope in Alaska. Cannon is the North American recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize, a major prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental heroes from the six inhabited continents. Erik Grafe, an …