NewsTrust - Water - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Stop Keystone pipeline before it's too late

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

CNN - By Ted Turner - Feb. 22 (Opinion) - The purpose of Keystone XL is to bring tar sands crude oil through the United States to Gulf Coast refineries. The route through the United States is actually the oil industry's second choice: Transporting the oil west from Alberta to the Pacific Coast would be shorter and much cheaper, but Canadians concerned about environmental impacts and threats to native people's lands are challenging that route, and with good reason. The existing and potential environmental impacts along the 2,000-mile pipeline route are profound.

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Ocean acidification is most urgent threat to marine conservation

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Bill Dewey - Nov. 05 (Opinion) - Guest columnist Bill Dewey writes about a new and serious threat to marine conservation and resource management: ocean acidification. The tools and strategies to reverse this trend that is detrimental to marine life are available, proven and even profitable.

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In Somalia, a failure in 1992 has led to a famine today

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Nuruddin Farah - Aug. 03 (Opinion) - After the United States left Somalia, the rest of the world stood by, leaving the warlords to profit from their criminality. Al-Qaeda strengthened its presence in the country. Foreign vessels entered Somali waters and engaged in illegal fishing, which caused piracy to balloon into an ugly reality. Somalia lived on mortgaged time, leased out to criminals of one sort or another, an ideal world for terrorists to flourish.

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The Earth Is Full

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Thomas L. Friedman - Jun. 08 (Opinion) - We are in denial about the severity of the climate crisis and just how big of a response is going to be needed.

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Another Triumph for the Greens

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:40:34 -0800

Weekly Standard - By Jonathan V. Last - Jan. 26 (Opinion) - To go with toilets that don’t flush and light bulbs that don’t light, we now have dishwashers that don’t wash.

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Haiti, Nearly a Year Later

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Nicholas D. Kristof - Dec. 01 (Opinion) - Already, more than 1,700 people have died of cholera in less than a month, and the Pan American Health Organization estimates that 400,000 Haitians may get cholera over the next year.

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How to avert a global water crisis

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Nature - By Natasha Gilbert - Oct. 04 (Interview) - If current trends continue, global annual water usage is set to increase by more than 2 trillion cubic metres by 2030, rising to 6.9 trillion cubic metres: 40% more than can be provided by available water supplies. Without immediate action to improve the monitoring and management of existing water resources, and in particular to reform water use in agriculture, the world will face a water crisis.

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New HBO documentary exposes gas drilling hazards

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Michael Rubinkam - Jun. 17 (Review) - What do you do when a gas company offers nearly $100,000 for the right to drill on your land? If you're Josh Fox, you refuse the money – then make an award-winning documentary portraying the natural gas industry as an environmental menace that ruins water, air and lives.

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How did we become such suckers for bottled water?

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Tim Hayward - Apr. 09 (Opinion) - what we really need, like the orchestrated howls of outrage when petrol prices hit a new high, is a campaign that strikes at the root of the problem: the idiotic belief that we need a constant supply of water or something awful will happen (what, exactly? We won't slosh like camels when we walk? We won't maintain staggeringly high bladder pressure? We'll feel a bit thirsty?).

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California's deficit of common sense

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Rebecca Solnit - Nov. 01 (Opinion) - California is rich. Even in the midst of a drought, we have lots of water, and in the midst of a recession, we have lots of money. The problem is one of distribution, not of actual scarcity.

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FEMA should conduct preparedness drill in the Green River Valley

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Dave Reichert, Adam Smith - Oct. 05 (Opinion) - The Federal Emergency Management Agency should augment local efforts to respond to the risks associated with the storm damage to the Green River Valley and Howard Hanson Dam, write U.S. Reps. Dave Reichert and Adam Smith.

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Doing away with dams

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - Aug. 16 (Editorial) - Dams aren't the infrastructure darlings they once were. Since 1999, 430 dams have come down, according to the American Rivers environmental group. The reasons are largely economic: Maintenance is high as the concrete walls age. Also, power needs can be supplied by other sources. The decline of migrating salmon and steelhead are also a factor. These problems don't mean all dams are doomed or new ones will never be built. Dam defenders note that hydropower is produced without emissions. And flood control and growing water needs remain issues that are suited for the water-controlling structures.

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Swapping technologies fails to address the root causes of climate change

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Jul. 15 (Editorial) - The environmental and social crisis that threatens us requires deeper solutions than new technology alone can provide . But only part. Techno-fixes like some of those in the simply cannot deliver the carbon cuts science demands of us without being accompanied by . That means radical economic and social transformation. Merely swapping technologies fails to address the root causes of climate change. We need to choose the solutions that are the cheapest, the swiftest, the most effective and least likely to incur dire side effects. On all counts, there?s a simple answer – stop burning the stuff in the first place. Consume less. There is a certain level of resources we need to survive, and beyond that there is a level we need in order to ...

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One More Threat to Clean Water

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Jun. 25 (Editorial) - The latest indignity was a 6-to-3 decision on Monday that will allow an American gold mining company to discharge 210,000 gallons a day of potentially toxic mining waste into a 23-acre lake near Juneau, Alaska. A joyous Sarah Palin, Alaska’s governor, called the ruling a “great victory” for Alaska and, astonishingly, “a green light for responsible resource development.”

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Easement will protect the Chuitna River

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Anchorage Daily News - By Donita Hensley - May. 21 (Opinion) - For more than 40,000 years the Dene people have cultivated and been nurtured by the land and waters around Tyonek, a village 40 miles west of Anchorage on Upper Cook Inlet. At the very heart of this land is the Chuitna River, its source for abundant wildlife, diverse vegetation and natural beauty.

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The campaign - The quest for 62 per cent

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Globe and Mail - By Dennis Baker - Apr. 23 (Comment) - I am thinking about running as a candidate.dennis baker-- The responce was to be arrested and charged with possesion for the purpose of trafficking.For some alleged drugs in a vehicle that I was a passenger Human excrement + nuclear waste = hydrogen

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"Let clean waters flow" — a world on the verge of water bankruptcy

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Neal Peirce - Mar. 29 (Opinion) - "We are living in a water 'bubble' as unsustainable and fragile as that which precipitated the collapse in world financial markets," reports the forum. It sees the world "on the verge of bankruptcy" in water supply.

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Hope in the Mountains

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Mar. 24 (Opinion) - Yesterday was a great day for the people of Appalachia and for all of America. In a bold departure from Bush-era energy policy, the Obama administration suspended a coal company's permit to dump debris from its proposed mountaintop mining operation into a West Virginia valley and stream. In addition, the administration promised to carefully review upward of 200 such permits awaiting approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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President's trip to Canada defines critical carbon moment

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By James E. Hansen - Feb. 17 (Opinion) - The Canadian media are full of speculation that the Canadian government will push for special treatment and protections from global warming regulation of its fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions -- the tar sands oil development in Alberta, where much of Canada's oil is derived. Such protection would be disastrous for life on our planet. The tar sands of Canada constitute one of our planet's greatest threats. They are a double-barreled threat. First, producing oil from tar sands emits two to three times the global warming pollution of conventional oil. But the process also diminishes one of the best carbon reduction tools on the planet -- Canada's Boreal Forest.

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Does community service really change anything?

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Christian Science Monitor - By Raj Mundra - Dec. 29 (Opinion) - What are the crucial social issues? The answers to those questions are complex. And listening was crucial for participants. Dust swirled as we trudged through the littered, stifling streets of Dharavi, in Mumbai, India. Climbing a ladder to the windowless room that a family of six calls home, I thought: What does this impoverished community really get from our school's efforts at community service? What long-term benefit does any underserved community truly derive from Phillips Academy's – or any other organization's – outreach efforts? What differentiates well-intended programs to encourage global citizenship from those that seem more like "cultural tourism," and resume-building for high schoolers? Phillips Academy high school students and faculty were toiling for Niswarth, a program where students go to Mumbai ( Bombay) for three weeks to study urban development and serve in one of Asia's poorest areas. Niswarth is the Hindi translation of Philips' motto non sibi or "not for self." This year, Phillips' students, partnered with Indian high schoolers and two nongovernmental organizations, were challenged to create a one-day project for this specific community. They were invited into shanties to practice the complex skill of observing without judgment. Everyone looks poor – but what is poverty? What are the root causes for almost 10 million people in Mumbai living in these conditions? What are the crucial social issues?

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Economic Stimulus Doesn't Have to Mean Ecological Disaster

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Andy Lipkis - Dec. 22 (Opinion) - In his Nov. 24 Op-Ed article, " Depression-era projects, again," Bill Boyarsky outlines some good reasons for Los Angeles residents to support President-elect Barack Obama's plan to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure projects. We need the employment, and our city needs rebuilding. It's true that the "New New Deal" offers a fantastic opportunity to rebuild for the future, but this opportunity also contains real dangers. If we don't make careful choices about what kind of infrastructure we build, we will be hardening in concrete the ecological mistakes of our past. Listening closely to the conversation about the projects that are on the table, you soon realize that many have been waiting on the shelf for years. They are old. The problem with old projects is they often reflect a paradigm that is more than 100 years old. They inadvertently waste resources and pollute, leaving huge downstream costs in public health and national security.

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Plan a family, save the world

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Neal Peirce - Oct. 07 (Opinion) - So what will our next president do? Will he boost U.S. global family-planning funding to the $1 billion a year that advocates propose, working with other nations to make family planning and modern conception services globally available? The issue's not just moral: In an environmentally imperiled world, it's strategic and critical. John McCain's anti-abortion, anti-birth-control-assistance record is unequivocal. So is Barack Obama's diametrically opposed position: in favor of activist government support for family planning, domestically and internationally.

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