LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman. Winner 2013 Webby Awards for Best Political Website
May 23, 2013

 Choose a size
Text Size

Trending:     chris hedges     economy     elizabeth warren     politics     robert scheer
Most Read

A Call to Action

Bizarre, Apparently Jihadist Slaying in London (Video)

Oklahoma Needs Help, Not Ideology

Hell on Earth for Greeks

Another Memorial Day in This Endless War

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports
 * NEW! * Fish Migration Reveals Ocean Warming

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture
 * NEW! * A Call to Action
Act of Congress
Daily Rituals

Digs

Truthdig Bazaar
The Best American Essays 2007

The Best American Essays 2007

By David Foster Wallace (Editor), Robert Atwan (Series Editor)
$11.20

more items

 
Tags

Tag: Environment


Photo by Deanne Stillman

The Battle of the Little Bighorn and Our War Against the Wild

Native Americans join the armed forces in the highest per capita figures of all ethnic groups in this country, defending to the end the place where they were once wild and free.

Posted on Jun 27, 2012 READ MORE


Carbon Emissions

Share
Posted on Jun 26, 2012 READ MORE



Karen Eliot (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Failure in Rio—Now What?

The Rio+20 Earth Summit produced nothing in the way of international reforms to counteract the destruction of the planet, confirming that governments cannot be relied upon to solve the environmental crisis collectively. Some people will give up. Others will breathe a sigh of relief and get to work restoring their natural surroundings themselves.

Posted on Jun 26, 2012 READ MORE


Don’t Fall for Corporate Blackmail

They may balk at regulation, but unlike textile or electronics firms, fossil fuel companies are extracting a resource that is relatively rare, altogether finite and—most important—tied to specific geographies.

Posted on Jun 21, 2012 READ MORE



Photo by (CC-BY-ND)

Northern Light

Those of us who care about a civil society, and who abhor violence, should begin to replicate what is happening in Quebec. Their fight is our fight.

Posted on Jun 3, 2012 READ MORE



Photo by (CC-BY)

The Plastic Bag Is So Passé

The Los Angeles City Council voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to ban plastic bags. If approved, the measure, pending environmental review and a subsequent vote, would make L.A. the biggest American city to do away with this major source of pollution.

Posted on May 23, 2012 READ MORE


Coal, Foreclosures and Bank of America’s ‘Extraordinary Event’

Shareholder meetings can be routine, unless you are Bank of America, in which case it may be declared an “extraordinary event.”

Posted on May 10, 2012 READ MORE  |  5 COMMENTS



AP/Stephanie Keith

The People’s Bishop

Retired Episcopal Bishop George Packard was arrested for the second time as part of the Occupy protests. His moral and intellectual courage stands in stark contrast with the timidity of nearly all clergy and congregants in all of our major religious institutions.

Posted on May 7, 2012 READ MORE  |  90 COMMENTS



AP/Mahesh Kumar A.

Welcome to the Asylum

The World Health Organization calculates that one in four people in the United States suffers from chronic anxiety, a mood disorder or depression—which seems to me to be a normal reaction to our march toward collective suicide.

Posted on Apr 30, 2012 READ MORE  |  308 COMMENTS



futureatlas.com (CC BY 2.0)

It’s Industry Over Environment in New ‘Bioeconomy Blueprint’

Critics say a new White House-sponsored program aimed at encouraging the development of “green solutions” to energy and manufacturing problems is a green light for corporate giants like Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, Monsanto and Dow to develop the “bioscience” industry without government oversight.

Posted on Apr 27, 2012 READ MORE  |  4 COMMENTS


The Politics of Sight

Would Americans eat less meat, and would animals be treated more humanely, if slaughterhouses were made with glass walls and we all could see the monstrous killing apparatus at work?

Posted on Apr 26, 2012 READ MORE  |  11 COMMENTS


Denial

Share
Posted on Apr 24, 2012 READ MORE  |  1 COMMENT



AP/Francois Mori

The Globalization of Hollow Politics

I went to Lille in northern France to attend a rally held by the socialist candidate Francois Hollande. I could, with a few alterations, have been at a football rally in Amarillo, Texas.

Posted on Apr 23, 2012 READ MORE  |  106 COMMENTS


Unsinkable—in a Bad Way

Share
Posted on Apr 12, 2012 READ MORE


The Long, Hot March of Climate Change

The Pentagon knows it. The world’s largest insurers know it. Now, governments may be overthrown because of it. It is climate change, and it is real.

Posted on Apr 12, 2012 READ MORE  |  29 COMMENTS


Titanic Tribute Cruise

Share
Posted on Apr 10, 2012 READ MORE


Fool Efficiency

Share
Posted on Apr 10, 2012 READ MORE  |  1 COMMENT


Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need New Roads

Instead of beefing up public transit, cities build neighborhood-destroying highways, cars fill up those highways, cities then build more highways to alleviate traffic, and then yet more cars flood the roads, creating even more traffic.

Posted on Apr 5, 2012 READ MORE  |  31 COMMENTS



Wikimedia Commons / PiccoloNamek (CC-BY-SA)

Scientists Find Potential Clue to Bee Mystery

It might seem somewhat obvious, but scientists looking for reasons why bumblebees have been dying in waves in recent years are pointing to pesticides as a possible cause, as the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

Posted on Mar 30, 2012 READ MORE  |  7 COMMENTS


Paul Ryan’s Plan for American Decline

If the foreign adversaries and competitors of the United States imagined a future that would fulfill their most ambitious objectives, it might begin with a government crippled by the House Republican leadership’s “Ryan budget” released on Tuesday.

Posted on Mar 21, 2012 READ MORE  |  12 COMMENTS


Flower Snow

Share
Posted on Mar 20, 2012 READ MORE  |  2 COMMENTS


The Layer Ploy

Of all the political tactics used to protect business interests, none is as powerful as the one in which an ugly corporate giveaway is hidden one layer beneath something popular.

Posted on Mar 15, 2012 READ MORE  |  6 COMMENTS



Dave Morris, jenspie3 (CC-BY)

Dirty Air Set to Become Biggest Environmental Killer

A new report predicts urban air pollution will become the No. 1 cause of premature death in the coming decades, beating out poor sanitation and dirty drinking water to take more than 3.5 million lives per year.

Posted on Mar 15, 2012 READ MORE  |  1 COMMENT



Azzazello (CC-BY)

A Tough-Oil World

The world still harbors large reserves of petroleum, but they are of the hard-to-reach, hard-to-refine, “tough oil” variety that will be more costly to extract, refine and buy at the pump.

Posted on Mar 14, 2012 READ MORE  |  8 COMMENTS



Thierry Ehrmann (CC-BY)

The Bipartisan Nuclear Bailout

Democrats and Republicans agree on one thing: They’re going to force nuclear power on the public, despite the astronomically high risks, both financial and environmental.

Posted on Mar 7, 2012 READ MORE  |  15 COMMENTS



U.S. Navy / MC2 Justin E. Stumberg

Judge Puts Deepwater Horizon Trial on Hold

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, who will ultimately put a price tag on the worst oil spill in American history if the many lawsuits against BP go to trial, has given the oil giant and its many, many plaintiffs another week to reach a settlement.

Posted on Feb 26, 2012 READ MORE  |  5 COMMENTS



White House / Pete Souza

Santorum Staffer Links Obama, Islam Via ‘Slip’

Only she knows for sure, but Rick Santorum’s spokeswoman Alice Stewart claims she misspoke when she referred to President Obama’s “radical Islamic policies” on MSNBC when she really meant to say “radical environmental policies.”

Posted on Feb 20, 2012 READ MORE  |  24 COMMENTS


Will We Choose a Chinese Future?

For the last two decades, we’ve heard many myths purporting to explain the loss of American manufacturing jobs.

Posted on Feb 17, 2012 READ MORE  |  11 COMMENTS


Pay Close Attention to China

China, for better or worse, is a serious country. The United States had better start acting like one.

Posted on Feb 17, 2012 READ MORE  |  8 COMMENTS



INFZM.com via Engadget

Apple’s China Comes Home to Haunt Us

China’s labor practices are now to be admired rather than scorned, lest the American economy decline further in the new world order.

Posted on Feb 15, 2012 READ MORE  |  56 COMMENTS



EPA

‘Lorax’ Banks on Green Marketing

Animated movies make a bundle on commercial tie-ins, but “The Lorax” presented something of a challenge for Universal. After all, you can’t have plastic replicas of Dr. Seuss’ champion of the environment piling up in a landfill somewhere. The studio found a way to cash in by greenwashing its licensing with help from the EPA and Whole Foods.

Posted on Feb 8, 2012 READ MORE



Mr. Fish

The Cancer in Occupy

The Black Bloc anarchists, who have been active on the streets in Oakland and other cities, are a gift from heaven to the security and surveillance state.

Posted on Feb 6, 2012 READ MORE  |  1192 COMMENTS



Chevrolet

How the Stimulus Revived the Electric Car

Until the economic stimulus package was passed in 2009, the manufacture of electric cars and their batteries in the United States was nearly nonexistent.

Posted on Jan 31, 2012 READ MORE  |  10 COMMENTS



AP / Carolyn Kaster

Corporations Have No Use for Borders

It used to be the country we would flee to if life in the United States became unpalatable, but that was the old Canada.

Posted on Jan 30, 2012 READ MORE  |  123 COMMENTS



Roger Wollstadt (CC-BY-SA)

This Utopia Brought to You by the United Nations

In preparation for the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, the United Nations has released a report titled “Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing,” complete with 56 recommendations that sound great but will probably never be implemented. (more)

Posted on Jan 30, 2012 READ MORE



USFWS / Tom MacKenzie

Scientists Create Magnetic Soap to Cope With Oil Spills

Researchers have invented a kind of soap that can be magnetically corralled to help clean up toxic spills. The feat is accomplished by infusing more mundane suds with tiny iron particles that join together and react to magnets.

Posted on Jan 23, 2012 READ MORE


10 American ABCs We May Soon Forget

Here are 10 current words and phrases that my kid may never know because they might end up as relics of a lost vernacular, starting with “civil liberties.”

Posted on Jan 5, 2012 READ MORE  |  10 COMMENTS



http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciat/5641587584/ (CC-BY-SA)

How Brazil Is Saving the Amazon

Readers of Jared Diamond’s “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed” know that deforestation comes right before people eating each other to survive, so it is some relief that Brazil is sending armed officers into the Amazon to stop illegal logging. It’s a war, says the BBC, and the environmentalists are winning.

Posted on Jan 1, 2012 READ MORE  |  1 COMMENT



Matt Market (CC-BY)

Could Ron Paul Be the Next Ralph Nader?

Even as Barack Obama gradually climbs in national polls, more than a handful of the president’s once-ardent admirers suddenly seem more attracted to Ron Paul.

Posted on Jan 1, 2012 READ MORE  |  170 COMMENTS


What a Wonderful World

This commercial from the BBC, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, reminds us in this new year how special—and fragile—our planet is.

Posted on Jan 1, 2012 READ MORE  |  4 COMMENTS



AP / J. Scott Applewhite

Three Supreme Court Cases That Should Worry You

If the Roberts court is consistent, 2012 could be remembered as a very bad year for working people, minorities and the poor.

Posted on Dec 18, 2011 READ MORE  |  64 COMMENTS


Climate Apartheid

The “American way of life” can be measured in per capita emissions of carbon. In the United States, on average, about 20 metric tons of CO2 is released into the atmosphere annually, four times as much as in China.

Posted on Dec 13, 2011 READ MORE  |  11 COMMENTS



Tavis Ford (CC-BY)

Canada Becomes the First Country to Quit Kyoto

From its perch above one of the world’s biggest polluters, Canada’s conservative government decided it would be too expensive and pointless to meet its obligations to the Kyoto Protocol.

Posted on Dec 13, 2011 READ MORE  |  4 COMMENTS



NASA / Glenn Research Center

A Mild Victory in Durban

After the summit ended Sunday, initial reaction basically ranged from “Historic Breakthrough: The Planet Is Saved” to “Tragic Failure: The Planet Is Doomed.”

Posted on Dec 12, 2011 READ MORE  |  10 COMMENTS



AP / Schalk van Zuydam

Listen to the People, Not the Polluters

High above the pavement, overlooking Durban’s famous South Beach and the pounding surf of the Indian Ocean, and just blocks from the United Nations Climate Change Conference, where up to 20,000 people gathered, seven activists fought against the wind to unfurl a banner that read “Listen to the People, Not the Polluters.”

Posted on Dec 6, 2011 READ MORE  |  28 COMMENTS



U.S. Air Force / Staff Sgt. Jonathan Snyder

The Age of Thirst in the American West

Consider it a taste of the future: the fire, smoke, drought, dust, and heat that have made life unpleasant, if not dangerous, from Louisiana to Los Angeles.

Posted on Dec 5, 2011 READ MORE  |  11 COMMENTS



Nicolò Lazzati (CC-BY)

China’s Future Up in the Air

China has to find a way to continue its rapid growth without choking to death. Literally.

Posted on Dec 5, 2011 READ MORE  |  11 COMMENTS



Friends of the Earth International (CC-BY)

5 Questions for the Durban Climate Talks

How will nations finance the effort to slow and adapt to climate change? What role will the U.S. play? And will the countries that ratified the Kyoto Protocol vote to renew it? These are some of the questions journalists are looking to answer during the U.N. climate talks under way in Durban, South Africa, this week. (more)

Posted on Dec 3, 2011 READ MORE  |  1 COMMENT



AP / Schalk van Zuydam

Cry, the Beloved Climate

The United Nations’ annual climate summit descended on Durban, South Africa, this week, but not in time to prevent the tragic death of Qodeni Ximba.

Posted on Nov 29, 2011 READ MORE  |  16 COMMENTS



White House / Lawrence Jackson

Cabinet Officials Raise ‘Gray Area’ Cash for Obama

Skirting good ethics and the law of the land, White House Cabinet officials are touring the nation on behalf of President Obama’s campaign fundraising machine, which has already taken in more cash than all the Republican presidential candidates combined and nearly three times as much as the president’s richest competitor, Mitt Romney. (more)

Posted on Nov 16, 2011 READ MORE  |  2 COMMENTS


View older articles:  <  1 2 3 4 5 >  Last »

View the most popular tags overall?

Newsletter

sign up to get updates


 
 
 
 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
© 2013 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved.