NewsTrust - Environment - Most Recent Stories: News (Mainstream)

Mountain of Petroleum Coke From Oil Sands Rises in Detroit

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By By IAN AUSTEN - May. 18 (Special Report) - WINDSOR, Ontario — Assumption Park gives residents of this city lovely views of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit skyline. Lately they’ve been treated to another sight: a three-story pile of petroleum coke covering an entire city block on the other s

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Population growth and climate change explained by Hans Rosling

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Claire Provost, Claudine Spera - May. 17 (News Report) - Han Rosling demonstrates the dynamics of population growth, child mortality and carbon dioxide emissionsClaire ProvostClaudine Spera

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

World's tallest dam approved by Chinese environmental officials

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Jonathan Kaiman - May. 17 (News Report) - Authorities push forward plans for 314 metre-high dam on Dadu river which would affect rare plants and fish Chinese environmental authorities have approved construction plans for what could become the world's tallest dam, while acknowledging that the project would affect endangered plants and rare fish species. The 314 metre-high dam (1,030ft) will serve the Shuangjiangkou hydropower project along the Dadu river in south-western Sichuan province, according to China's state news agency, Xinhua. A subsidiary of Guodian Group, one of China's five major state-owned power companies, will complete the project over a decade at an estimated cost of £2.9bn. The dam will be far taller than the 185 metre-high Three Gorges dam along the Yangtze river – the world's most powerful hydroelectric project – and slightly edge out the current record holder, the 300 metre-high Nurek dam in Tajikistan . The world's second-tallest dam, the 292 metre-high Xiaowan dam on the Lancang (Mekong) river, is also ...

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Obama administration issues draft fracking regulations

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Steven Mufson - May. 17 (News Report) - The Obama administration drew criticism from both environmental and oil industry groups on Thursday after issuing a new draft of regulations for fracking on federal and Indian lands. In its first update of hydraulic fracturing regulations in three decades, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management would require wider disclosure of chemicals used in drilling, techniques to assure wellbore integrity so fluids don’t leak into groundwater and ways to make sure companies have a water management plan for fluids that flow back to the surface. ...

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Survey finds 97% climate science papers agree warming is man-made

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - May. 16 (News) - Overwhelming majority of peer-reviewed papers taking a position on global warming say humans are causing it Our team of citizen science volunteers at Skeptical Science has published a new survey in the journal Environmental Research Letters of over 12,000 peer-reviewed climate science papers, as the Guardian reports today . This is the most comprehensive survey of its kind, and the inspiration of this blog's name: Climate Consensus – the 97%. The survey In 2004, Naomi Oreskes performed a survey of 928 peer-reviewed climate papers published between 1993 and 2003, finding none that rejected the human cause of global warming. We decided that it was time to expand upon Oreskes' work by performing a keyword search of peer-reviewed scientific journal publications for the terms 'global warming' and 'global climate change' between the years 1991 and 2011. Our team agreed upon definitions of categories to put the papers in: explicit or implicit endorsement of human-caused global warming, no ...

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Investigators sharpen focus on Boston bombing suspect’s widow

Sat, 04 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Sari Horwitz - May. 04 (News Report) - Federal law enforcement officials are sharpening their focus on the widow of the dead suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings after finding al-Qaeda’s Inspire magazine and other radical Islamist material on her computer, according to law enforcement officials. ...

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

How much does EPA’s objection to Keystone XL matter? A lot.

Fri, 03 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - May. 03 (News) -

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

China Is Plundering the Planet's Seas

Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Atlantic Monthly - By - Gwynn Guilford - May. 01 (Special Report) - The average it told the UN Food and Agriculture Organization over the last decade was 368,000 tons each year. A recent European Parliament report puts that number at 4.6 million tons -- some 12.5 times more than what China reported

NewsTrust Rating: 4.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

EU debates biopiracy law to protect indigenous people

Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - May. 01 (News Report) - Pharmaceutical firms would need to compensate indigenous people for using their knowhow in creating new medicines The European parliament is debating a draft biopiracy law requiring industry to compensate indigenous people if it makes commercial use of local knowledge such as plant-based medicines. Under the law – based on the international convention on access to biodiversity, the Nagoya protocol – the pharmaceuticals industry would need the written consent of local or indigenous people before exploring their region's genetic resources or making use of their traditional knowhow. Relevant authorities would have the power to sanction companies that fail to comply, protecting local interests from the predatory attitude of big European companies. German firm patents South African herb The draft report on access to genetic resources by Green MEP Sandrine Bélier cites as an example a German pharmaceutical company's dealings in South Africa. Pelargonium sidoides, a variety of ...

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Europe Restricts 3 Commonly Used Pesticides in Effort to Protect Honeybees

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - Apr. 29 (News) - No one is sure what is causing bee colonies to die off around the world, but pesticides called neonicotinoids may be part of the problem. Today, Europe’s health commissioner Tonio Borg said the European Commission would go ahead with a continent-wide pla

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Insecticide firms in secret bid to stop ban that could save bees

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Apr. 28 (News) - Last-ditch lobbying to sway vote in Brussels to halt use of killer nerve agents Europe is on the brink of a landmark ban on the world's most widely used insecticides, which have increasingly been linked to serious declines in bee numbers. Despite intense secret lobbying by British ministers and chemical companies against the ban, revealed in documents obtained by the Observer , a vote in Brussels on Monday is expected to lead to the suspension of the nerve agents. Bees and other insects are vital for global food production as they pollinate three-quarters of all crops. The plummeting numbers of pollinators in recent years has been blamed on disease, loss of habitat and, increasingly, the near ubiquitous use of neonicotinoid pesticides. The prospect of a ban has prompted a fierce behind-the-scenes campaign. In a letter released to the Observer under freedom of information rules, the environment secretary, Owen Paterson, told the chemicals company Syngenta last week that he was "extremely ...

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Roundup weed killer linked to cancer

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Chicago Tribune - Apr. 28 (News) -

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Clean energy progress too slow to limit global warming, warns IEA

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Apr. 17 (News Analysis) - With governments failing to promote green energy, top scientists say the drive to keep temperature rise below 2C has stalled The development of low-carbon energy is progressing too slowly to limit global warming, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday . With power generation still dominated by coal and governments failing to increase investment in clean energy, top climate scientists have said that the target of keeping the global temperature rise to less than 2C this century is slipping out of reach . "The drive to clean up the world's energy system has stalled," said Maria van der Hoeven, the IEA's executive director, at the launch of the agency's report on clean energy progress . "Despite much talk by world leaders, and a boom in renewable energy over the past decade, the average unit of energy produced today is basically as dirty as it was 20 years ago." Global clean energy investment in the first quarter fell to its lowest level in four years, driven by cuts in ...

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Why action on forests now is essential to all our futures

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Apr. 16 (News Analysis) - Saving forests offers a new route to alleviating hunger and malnutrition, promoting development and tackling climate change While forests once provided subsistence for local people, for generations clearing forested land has also been good for global business, providing immediate food security for the world. Put simply, forests have been worth more dead than alive. As populations grow, emerging and industrialised countries are looking to the three great world forest regions – the Three Basins of the Congo, the Amazon and south-east Asia – for their growing resource needs. The economic imperative to acquire and clear more land increases daily as demand for food and commodities grows. More than half of the global forest loss has occurred in the Three Basins. But world food production needs standing forests not felled trees. And forests are not about food: they .provide protection for local communities against catastrophic flooding and erosion during rainy seasons. The forests of the Three ...

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Chernobyl's ghost town - in pictures

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Apr. 14 (News Report) - Pripyat, founded for the 49,000-plus Chernobyl nuclear power plant workers and their families, now stands empty within the Chernobyl exclusion zone in northern Ukraine. It was evacuated in 1986 after the explosion at reactor #4

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

News Analysis: Think Those Chemicals Have Been Tested?

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By By IAN URBINA - Apr. 14 (News) - The overwhelming majority of chemicals in use today have never been independently tested for safety.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

How Much Do Health Impacts From Fossil Fuel Electricity Cost The U.S. Economy?

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Forbes - By Justin Gerdes - Apr. 08 (News Analysis) - How much would electricity cost in the United States if the retail price reflected the health impacts of burning fossil fuels? A paper recently published by researchers at the Environmental Protection Agency finds that accounting for such costs would add an average of 14 to 35 cents per kilowatt-hour to the retail cost of electricity. Nationwide, these hidden health costs add up to as much as $886.5 billion annually, or 6% of GDP.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Soaring Bee Deaths in 2012 Sound Alarm on Malady

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By By MICHAEL WINES - Apr. 03 (News) - A mysterious ailment appears to have expanded drastically in the past year, wiping out as many as half of the hives needed to pollinate much of America’s produce.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average - 6 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Neighbouring towns worlds apart on 'fracking'

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - Apr. 03 (News Report) - The BBC visited neighbouring towns in New York and Pennsylvania - all rich in natural gas but divided over the wisdom of the extraction process known as 'fracking'.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Air Pollution Linked to 1.2 Million Premature Deaths in China

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Edward Wong - Apr. 02 (News Analysis) - Figured another way, the 2010 toll meant the loss of 25 million healthy years of life from the population, researchers said.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Obama administration moves ahead with sweeping rules requiring cleaner gasoline

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Juliet Eilperin - Mar. 29 (News) - The Environmental Protection Agency will move ahead Friday with rules requiring cleaner gasoline and cars nationwide, despite fierce protests from the oil industry and some conservative Democrats, according to several individuals briefed on the matter. Read full article >>

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Haiti to plant millions of trees to boost forests and help tackle poverty

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Mar. 29 (News Analysis) - Government-backed campaign aims to double Caribbean country's forest cover by 2016 Haiti aims to plant 50m trees a year in a pioneering reforestation campaign to address one of the primary causes of the country's poverty and ecological vulnerability. President Michel Martelly will launch the drive to double forest cover by 2016 from the perilous level of 2% – one of the lowest rates in the world. Despite scepticism engendered by past ill-fated campaigns, there are hopes that the high-level push will mark a turning point after hundreds of years of degradation. Haiti was once covered in verdant forests but land clearance for colonial plantations was followed by tree felling for cooking fuel. It is estimated that 30m to 40m trees a year are cut down. Until now, efforts to address this problem, which worsens with floods and mudslides, have been sporadic, small-scale projects, mostly run by foreign non-governmental organisations. But the government has said it will spearhead the new ...

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

German institute pulls out of Canadian tar sands project

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Mar. 20 (News Report) - Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres drops out of research into tar sands impact over fears of reputational impact

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Monarch Migration Plunges to Lowest Level in Decades

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Michael Wines - Mar. 14 (News Report) - The monarch population has declined with extreme weather and a lack of the milkweed that the butterflies feed on, experts say.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Ecuador: Amazon families split over lure of oil money

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Jonathan Watts - Mar. 06 (News Analysis) - In Sani Isla, one of the most biodiverse corners of the world, the arrival of Ecuador's biggest oil firm has pitted sister against sister While they were growing up in their remote community deep in the Ecuadorean Amazon, Blanca Tapuy and her sister Innes were inseparable. As children, they would play together while their parents hunted monkeys and tapir with blowpipes and spears. After they married, they regularly met to drink chicha and keep up with the latest gossip as western modernity crept ever closer to their indigenous Kichwa community. Today, however, the sisters are at loggerheads, divided by an offer from the country's biggest oil company, Petroamazonas, to start seismic surveys in their homeland of Sani Isla. Blanca declares she is willing to die to stop its advances. Innes passionately counters at community meetings that petrodollars are vital for the future prosperity of the community. "It makes me very sad," says Blanca. "We never fought before. We used to be so close. ...

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer