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Sunrise Movement Says Wins by Corporate Democrats Like McGrath and Hickenlooper Must Be 'Moment of Reckoning' for Progressives

Posted by wally on Saturday, 04 July 2020 in General Environment

After a pair of U.S. Senate candidates backed by the Sunrise Movement was defeated by more corporate-friendly centrists in recent Democratic primary races, the youth-led climate group's political director expressed hope Wednesday that the losses would serve as "a moment of reckoning for the progress...

Everything you need to know about Davos

Posted by wally on Friday, 24 January 2020 in General Environment

The rich and powerful have made their annual descent on a small resort town in Switzerland. They're not going there to ski, but to attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF). The event is better known by the name of its host city, Davos. The exclusive four-day event is an opportuni...

Deforestation + climate change = dead end for wildlife

Posted by wally on Wednesday, 10 July 2019 in Animals

Paris (AFP) - Climate change combined with galloping tropical deforestation is cutting off wildlife from life-saving cooler climes, heightening the risk of extinction, researchers said Monday. Less than two-fifths of forests across Latin America, Asia and Africa currently allow for animals and plan...

Climate change: How do we know?

Posted by wally on Monday, 28 January 2019 in Climate Change

The Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization. M...

These 5 Countries Are Killing It in the Battle Against Climate Change

Posted by wally on Wednesday, 09 August 2017 in Climate Change

By Raya Bidshahri When it comes to climate change, government leaders and politicians must begin to think beyond their term limits and lifetimes. They must ask themselves not how they can serve their voters, but rather how they can contribute to our species’ progress. They must think beyond the sho...

Justin Trudeau v. Oil Tankers

Posted by wally on Wednesday, 23 November 2016 in Fossil Fuels

In early november, Justin Trudeau appeared at a Coast Guard base in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, announcing $1.5 billion to be invested in ocean protection, including the development of “world leading marine safety system” for Canada’s coasts. In making the announcement, Trudeau was setting the stage f...

Study Finds 15 'Bright Spots' Where Coral Reefs Aren't Dying As Fast As Expected

Posted by wally on Friday, 17 June 2016 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

This is what passes for good news about coral reefs these days: Around the world, some reefs aren't dying as quickly as scientists thought they would. A newly published study in Nature identifies 15 places in the Pacific and Indian Oceans where fish populations in coral reefs are doing better than ...

Volkswagen to Buy Back Cars

Posted by wally on Wednesday, 27 April 2016 in Transportation

With only days to go before the deadline, Volkswagen AG (VW) and the U.S. government reached a partial settlement over how to deal with the automaker’s “dieselgate” emissions scandal. Volkswagen agreed to fix or buy back some 500,000 vehicles caught up in the crisis. What wasn’t ...

Asian coal plants are causing acid rain in the U.S.

Posted by wally on Wednesday, 10 February 2016 in Air Quality

Catching a snowflake on your tongue just isn’t as fun when mercury-tainted precipitation enters the equation. In central areas of North America, mercury levels in rain appear to be rising, according to a recent study from The Science of the Total Environment, despite the fact that me...

Why We Need Science-Based Targets at COP21

Posted by wally on Monday, 12 October 2015 in Climate Change

Solving large-scale problems like climate change usually requires a combination of top-down (government-mandated) and bottom-up solutions (voluntary actions). Many sustainable business pros favor the bottom-up approach because it allows companies to decide for themselves the most effectiv...

Federal ruling opens rural areas to more renewable, recycled energy

Posted by wally on Friday, 10 July 2015 in Energy Efficiency

By Mark Jaffe The Denver Post A dispute between the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and one of its Colorado electric cooperatives has opened the way for more renewable energy in rural communities. At issue was whether the Delta-Montrose Electric Association could buy locally pro...

A new Faroe Islands law forces tourists to report whale sightings

Posted by wally on Tuesday, 30 June 2015 in Animals

The Faroe Islands, a North Atlantic archipelago, have put a new twist on the phrase “If you see something, say something.” But it has nothing to do with terrorism. In June, the parliament of the Faroes, an autonomous region owned by Denmark, approved a measure mandating that tourists report sightin...

Senate Dems Push $2 Trillion Carbon Tax Bill

Posted by wally on Thursday, 20 November 2014 in General Environment

Fresh off their legislative victory against the Keystone XL pipeline, Democratic senators are pushing a bill that would tax carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels that would rise every year. Democratic Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Brian Schatz of Hawaii first introduced the Amer...

California Plastic Bag Ban First Of Its Kind In The Nation

Posted by wally on Tuesday, 02 September 2014 in Sustainable Development

The California state legislature enacted a ban on plastic grocery bags on Friday near the end of its two-year session, a measure that if signed into law would become the first of its kind in America.A number of cities and counties in California and other U.S. states, including Hawaii's Maui County, ...

A New Perspective on Agricultural Plastic, Debris burning, and Air Quality

Posted by wally on Friday, 25 July 2014 in General Environment

To reduce fire hazard in the United States, wildland managers often utilize the silvicultural practice of mechanically cutting woody shrubs and suppressed trees (ladder fuels). These cuttings and other post-logging debris are then burned during periods of low fire danger in order to dispose of...

Oil company promises 'no drilling' in Virunga

Posted by wally on Monday, 16 June 2014 in General Environment

Oil company Soco International is suspending all operations in Virunga World Heritage Site - Africa's oldest national park. It has also committed to keep out of all other UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Virunga World Heritage Site is safe from oil drilling - for now. London based oil company SOCO Int...

Intact Amazon forests show possible signs of global warming impact

Posted by wally on Thursday, 05 June 2014 in Climate Change

Climate change may be taking a hidden toll on intact rainforests in the heart of the Amazon, finds a new study based on 35 years of observations. The research, published in the journal Ecology, focused on the ecological impacts of fragmentation but unexpectedly found changes in the control...

Researchers develop composting program with used coffee grounds

Posted by wally on Wednesday, 28 May 2014 in Sustainable Development

MANHATTAN — An interdisciplinary Kansas State University research group is turning garbage into gourmet food. The researchers are taking used coffee grounds from a campus coffee shop and using them as compost to cultivate gourmet mushrooms at the K-State Student Farm. By composting alone, 50 p...

Pioneering energy-generating sail is a step closer to reality

Posted by wally on Monday, 12 May 2014 in Clean Technology

Eco Marine Power (EMP) has announced that it has taken another major step forward towards bringing its pioneering wind and solar harnessing EnergySail to the market by forming a strategic alliance with Teramoto Iron Works Co. - a manufacturer of marine equipment located in Hiroshima, Japan.The strat...

Food Quality Will Suffer with Rising Carbon Dioxide

Posted by wally on Wednesday, 07 May 2014 in Food

For the first time, a field test has demonstrated that elevated levels of carbon dioxide inhibit plants' assimilation of nitrate into proteins, indicating that the nutritional quality of food crops is at risk as climate change intensifies. Findings from this wheat field-test study...