Environment

‘Left, Right & Center’: Getting a Read on the Supremes

Staff / Truthdig Mar 31, 2012 The Supreme Court took on a doozy of a case this week in its deliberations over Obama's prized health care reform law. Do the top court's conservative justices have it in for the law? Guest panelist David Frum joins regulars Robert Scheer and Matt Miller to take on Obamacare, plus the Trayvon Martin case and Paul Ryan's budget plan. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

The Layer Ploy

David Sirota / Truthdig Mar 16, 2012 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. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Dirty Air Set to Become Biggest Environmental Killer

Staff / Truthdig Mar 16, 2012 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. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

A Tough-Oil World

By Michael T. Klare, TomDispatch Mar 14, 2012 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. Dig deeper ( 10 Min. Read )

The Bipartisan Nuclear Bailout

Amy Goodman / Truthdig Mar 8, 2012 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. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Pennsylvania: The ‘State of Independence’ Becomes the ‘Oil State’

Staff / Truthdig Feb 24, 2012 Susquehanna County has already been thoroughly fracked by gas mining operations. Dallas Township, one hour's drive south, appears to be next. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

The Lowdown on Fracking

By Lena Groeger, ProPublica Feb 18, 2012 Proposed new rules would require oil and gas companies to divulge the kinds and amounts of chemicals used in their underground hydraulic fracturing operations. But environmental and health advocates say drillers could exploit some loopholes. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Fracking and the Government: 1969-Present

Staff / Truthdig Feb 8, 2012 The U.S. government and energy companies have been fiddling with ways to get at gas trapped inside rock underground for decades. Now, using highly pressurized toxic liquid to extract the petro-bubbly is becoming standard practice, even as evidence mounts that it poisons drinking water. ProPublica charts government and industry's decades-long regulatory dance. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

The Great Carbon Bubble

By Bill McKibben, TomDispatch Feb 8, 2012 If we could see the world with a particularly illuminating set of spectacles, one of its most prominent features at the moment would be a giant carbon bubble, whose bursting someday will make the housing bubble of 2007 look like a lark.At the moment, one of the world's most prominent features is a giant carbon bubble, whose bursting someday will make the housing bubble of 2007 look like a lark. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

This Utopia Brought to You by the United Nations

Staff / Truthdig Jan 30, 2012 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) Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Why Climate Change Will Make You Love Big Government

By Christian Parenti, TomDispatch Jan 28, 2012 Don’t expect the present anti-government “consensus” to last. Global warming and the freaky, increasingly extreme weather that will accompany it is going to change all that. Dig deeper ( 11 Min. Read )

Freedom of the Press Roughed Up in U.S.

Staff / Truthdig Jan 26, 2012 Thanks to the deplorable treatment of journalists during OWS, the U.S. drops in the Press Freedom Index; turns out, it's more environmentally friendly to reuse an old building than to build a new one in its place; and a peaceful Occupy L.A. protester is charged with lynching. These discoveries and more after the jump. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )