Environment

A Punishment BP Can’t Pay Off

By Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica Apr 20, 2012 Two years after a series of gambles and ill-advised decisions on a BP drilling project led to the largest accidental oil spill in United States history and the death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, no one has been held accountable. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

Fracking-Induced Earthquakes? Not Quite

Staff / Truthdig Apr 18, 2012 The number of significant earthquakes in the Midwest has increased almost fivefold in the last four years. Researchers with the United States Geological Survey set out to discover why. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

The Long, Hot March of Climate Change

Amy Goodman / Truthdig Apr 12, 2012 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. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Truthdigger of the Week: Amy Goodman

Staff / Truthdig Apr 8, 2012 This week's Truthdigger choice may seem like a no-brainer, and in many ways it is, as journalist and "Democracy Now!" host Amy Goodman has made a career out of exemplifying just those qualities we look for when picking our winners. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Payola for the Most Profitable Corporations in History

By Bill McKibben, TomDispatch Apr 7, 2012 Along with “fivedollaragallongas,” the energy watchword for the next few months is: “subsidies" -- a word representing at least $10 billion in freebies and possibly as much as $40 billion annually in freebie cash for an energy industry already making historic profits. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Chemical Exposure Is Suspect in Early Female Puberty

Staff / Truthdig Apr 1, 2012 Marcia Herman-Giddens first observed the age of puberty dropping for American girls in the late 1980s. Today, she and other researchers agree that the average age of onset has fallen significantly since the 1970s, and some point toward chemicals like bisphenol A—a ubiquitous hormone-like substance that the FDA recently refused to ban—as a possible cause. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

FDA Says No to BPA Ban

Staff / Truthdig Mar 31, 2012 Public concern about the dangers of BPA, or bisphenol A, hasn't translated into regulatory measures on the part of the Food and Drug Administration, as the agency isn't yet cracking down on the chemical, which turns up in a few commonly used products and even in receipts. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Scientists Find Potential Clue to Bee Mystery

Staff / Truthdig Mar 31, 2012 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. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

‘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 )