Environment

Climate Deniers Ready Deceptive Report

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Oct 24, 2012 The Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based libertarian think tank, is set to publish a document that poses as an “addendum” to a report released in 2009 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program. The new “report,” which apes the design of the original, denies the threat of global warming. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

U.S. Tried to Downplay Toll on Wildlife in Gulf

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Oct 24, 2012 Photographs of a dead sperm whale and a cache of emails obtained by Greenpeace show how officials in the Obama administration attempted to suppress knowledge of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil blowout's impact on wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Gas From the Atmosphere?

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Oct 19, 2012 A small British company appears poised to solve the global warming and energy crises with a machine that makes gasoline out of water vapor and carbon dioxide snatched from the air. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Join the Blockade of the Keystone Pipeline

Chris Hedges / Truthdig Oct 15, 2012 The planned route of this six-state, 1,700-mile proposed pipeline is fast becoming a flashpoint in the war of attrition against the corporate state. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

Jesse Johnson: Would Be Governor for the Mountains

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Oct 9, 2012 The West Virginia Broadcasters Association has excluded West Virginia Mountain Party gubernatorial candidate Jesse Johnson -- the only candidate said to represent working people, women and the environment -- from its statewide-televised debate Tuesday. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

The New ‘Golden Age of Oil’ That Wasn’t

By Michael T. Klare, TomDispatch Oct 5, 2012 Last winter, fossil-fuel enthusiasts began trumpeting the dawn of a new “golden age of oil” that would kick-start the American economy, generate millions of new jobs, and free this country from its dependence on imported petroleum. But the future may prove far more recalcitrant than these prophets of an American energy cornucopia imagine. Dig deeper ( 10 Min. Read )

What Environmental Reporting Leaves Out

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Oct 5, 2012 Reports that scientists are “surprised" that their climate-related predictions are being surpassed suggest that chaos theory -- which says the particulars of the breakdown of the earth's ecosystems are unpredictable -- is going unread, disbelieved or ignored. Reports that scientists are “surprised" that their climate-related predictions are being surpassed suggest that chaos theory is going unread, disbelieved or ignored. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

All the Missing Horses

By Dave Philipps, ProPublica Sep 29, 2012 Animal welfare advocates fear wild horses sold by the government to a well-known advocate of horse slaughter are being sent to the killing floor. Dig deeper ( 13 Min. Read )

Lives and Money: ‘The Cold Calculus of a Hot Planet’

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Sep 27, 2012 A landmark report published this week by the Climate Vulnerable Forum links neglect of global warming to 5 million deaths and a loss of more than $1 trillion annually. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

The Trillion-Gallon Loophole: Lax Rules for Drillers That Inject Pollutants Into the Earth

By Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica Sep 24, 2012 Injection wells have proliferated over the past 60 years, in large part because they are the cheapest, most expedient way to manage hundreds of billions of gallons of industrial waste generated in the U.S. each year. Yet the dangers of injection are well known: In accidents dating to the 1960s, toxic materials have bubbled up to the surface or escaped, contaminating aquifers that store supplies of drinking water. Dig deeper ( 18 Min. Read )

Shale-Shocked Citizens Fight Back

Amy Goodman / Truthdig Sep 20, 2012 Western Pennsylvania is considered the birthplace of commercial oil drilling. On Aug. 27, 1859, Edwin Drake struck oil in Titusville, Pa., and changed the course of history. Now, people there are busy trying to stop wells, and the increasingly pervasive drilling practice known as fracking. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

Arctic Sea Ice Cover Shrinks to Record Low

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Sep 15, 2012 Warming temperatures have reduced the area of frozen sea on the planet to roughly 2.2 million square miles, less than half of what it was four decades ago, suggesting that irreversible and accelerated climate change will be upon us in the coming decades. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )