Environment

25 Of 35 Vital Signs For Earth Have Reached Record Extremes

October 10, 2024 Paige Bennett, EcoWatch. Educate! climate crisis, Environment, Extreme weather, Report

A new report from a team of international scientists has revealed harsh realities on Earth, with 25 of 35 planetary vital signs reaching record extremes. Without immediate action, scientists warn that these extremes could threaten life on Earth. In the new study, published in the journal BioScience, scientists presented a stark look at the state of the climate crisis. “We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. This is a global emergency beyond any doubt. Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled. We are stepping into a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis,” the scientists wrote.

The Future Is Named Helene

October 7, 2024 Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee. Educate! climate crisis, Environment, Florida, Hurricane Helene, North Carolina

The messages of Hurricane Helene lie inscribed in the muddy debris of Asheville, North Carolina, and other wrecked towns of Appalachia. Helene, powered by warming waters in the Gulf of Mexico, dumped 700 millimetres of rain in several states over three days. The surreal deluge drenched the ground and then it swelled creeks. The creeks supercharged rivers, and these muddy waters tore like a torrent through the hills, breaking all previous records of mayhem.

EPA Found No Threat Of Air Pollution During An Oil Spill In Louisiana

September 28, 2024 Julie Dermansky and Sharon Kelly, DeSmog. Educate! Activism, Air Pollution, Environment, EPA, Fossil Fuels, health, Louisiana, Oil Spill

The pungent smell of oil woke Gerald and Janet Crappel on the morning of Saturday, July 27. Stepping outside their home on the banks of Bayou Lafourche in Raceland, Louisiana, they spotted the fumes’ source: crude oil from Crescent Midstream’s Raceland pump station was gushing into the picturesque waterway, sparsely lined with homes and fishing boats, via a stormwater canal directly across from their home. The oil’s fumes were thick that morning. “It choked you,” Gerald told DeSmog correspondent Julie Dermansky, who documented the incident as it unfolded. Before cleanup crews contained the spill, reportedly 34,000 gallons of crude oil, a slick stretched for eight miles, just past the area’s drinking water system.

Earth Is Close To Passing Seven Of Nine Planetary Boundaries

September 26, 2024 Paige Bennett, EcoWatch. Educate! climate crisis, Environment, Planetary capacity, Report, Sustainability

Scientists have found that Earth may soon pass another planetary boundary, meaning it could be operating outside of the safe limits for seven of the nine defined planetary boundaries. The Planetary Health Check report, prepared by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), is a new assessment that determines the state of the planetary boundaries. For its first edition, the report found that Earth is near the boundary for ocean acidification. “Our updated diagnosis shows that vital organs of the Earth system are weakening, leading to a loss of resilience and rising risks of crossing tipping points,” said Levke Caesar, scientist at PIK and a lead author of the report.

London Saw A Surprising Benefit To Fining High-Polluting Cars

September 24, 2024 Syris Valentine, Next City. Create! Car-Free Community, Cars, Children, emissions, England, Environment, Europe, London, pollution, Transportation, United Kingdom (UK)

Restricting the volume of high-emitting vehicles roaming city streets carries many benefits, from clearing the air to quieting the urban din and beyond. Recognition of this simple fact has led to the proliferation of clean air zones, designated regions within a city where vehicles must meet strict pollution standards or pay a fee to operate within it. At last count, over 300 such areas had been established across Europe. In London, which boasts the largest ultra-low emissions zone in the world, a study has found a secondary benefit: Kids started walking and biking to school more. In 2018 — the year before London’s rule took effect in the center of the city, and five years before the zone encompassed its entirety — researchers at the University of Cambridge and Queen Mary University saw in the impending policy an opportunity to conduct a natural experiment.

Study: The Economic Case For A Public Rail System

September 24, 2024 Kira McDonald, Public Rail Now. Educate! Carbon emissions, climate crisis, Electrification, Environment, Health Care, Railroads, Report, Transportation, Worker Rights and Jobs

Public Rail Now is excited to announce their second research report in their campaign for public rail ownership. “From Margins to Growth: The Economic Case for a Public Rail System,” lays bare the economic facts for the current state of the US rail system is in a downward spiral, facts working railroaders have been espousing for decades. Public rail ownership has the potential to save up to $140 billion annually for US consumers, provide an estimated 180,000 new rail road jobs, avert $190 Billion in public health, environmental and fiscal cost, while helping to meet climate goals by avoiding 180 metric tonnes of carbon emissions.

Corporations Plunder US West’s Water Amid Worst Drought In 1,200 Years

September 23, 2024 Katie Rose Quandt, Truthout. Educate! Drought, Environment, Privatization, Wall Street, Water

Rural La Paz County, Arizona, positioned on the Colorado River across from California, is at the center of a growing fight over water in the American Southwest. At the heart of the battle is a question: Should water be treated as a human right, to be allocated by governments with the priority of sustaining life? Or is it a commodity to be bought, sold and invested in for the greatest profits? As the West suffers its worst megadrought in 1,200 years, investors have increasingly eyed water as a valuable asset and a resource to be exploited. For years, investment firms have bought up farmland throughout the Southwest, drilling to new depths for their water-hungry crops and causing nearby wells to run dry.

The Hé Sapa Resolution Could Help ‘Indigenize’ Wilderness Conservation

September 22, 2024 Greg Harman, Resilience. Strategize! Conservation, Environment, Indigenous Knowledge, Wilderness

Internationally recognized conservation leader Vance Martin, recent recipient of the IUCN’s Fred Packard Awards for Outstanding Service to Protected Areas and former long-time Wild Foundation president, speaks with Deceleration about restoring wilderness through deepening relationships and practicing love. Last month, delegates attending the 12th World Wilderness Congress in the Black Hills adopted a string of resolutions expected to help ‘indigenize’ wilderness conservation and the conservation sciences in the months and years ahead. Resolutions ranged from reforming conservation efforts to recognize “Indigenous science, knowledge, thought, and wisdom” (Hé Sapa Resolution)...

Blue (MAGA) In Green

September 19, 2024 Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright, Black Agenda Report. Educate! 2024 US Presidential elections, Big Greens, climate crisis, Democratic Party, Elections, Environment

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to refute the sentiment that the mainstream environmental “movement” has lost its way, assuming that it ever had a clear one in the first place. This election cycle has illuminated the fact that this cadre of the larger non profit industrial apparatus has aligned itself more with a political party, the Democrats, than with the principles necessary to confront the quintessential climate crisis that’s edging the planet and requisite systems for survival to a junction of entropy. It must now be said that the abject intransigence of mainstream environmental groups poses a clear and present danger to climate and environmental justice that in some ways, it could be argued, rivals that of former President Trump.

Rail Crew, Environmental Justice Organizations Win Clean Air Rule

September 17, 2024 UE Union. Organize! Air, Environment, Green Jobs, Railroads, Victory, Worker Rights and Jobs

Rail crew drivers from UE Local 1077 joined environmental justice organizations in persuading the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) board to pass a life-saving regulation for rail yards in the Inland Empire, Los Angeles County, and Orange County. In response to overwhelming public support, including a letter signed by the UE local and its allies, the rule passed unanimously at the board’s meeting in August. Rule 2306 will limit toxic emissions from the 25 rail yards in operation and any new rail yards built in the region. According to SCAQMD, “The rule is expected to reduce Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emissions associated with freight rail yards by about 10.5 tons per day between 2027 to 2050.”

Two Years And $300 Billion Into Biden’s Climate Plan, Emissions Are Higher

August 26, 2024 Peter Gelderloos, In These Times. Educate! Carbon emissions, climate crisis, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Inflation, Inflation Reduction Act, Joe Biden

August 16 marked the two-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), legislation that has funneled hundreds of billions of dollars into green energy and electric vehicles. While the Act made unprecedented investments in renewable energy, it also faced criticism for being too little, too late and for compromising on fossil fuel extraction. In response, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan acknowledged the bill’s shortcomings but explained the administration’s approach: “We’re using every tool in our toolbox to drive down climate pollution as much as possible, as quickly as possible.”

Imperial Oil Tailings Spill Fine A ‘Toothless Slap On The Wrist’

August 25, 2024 Taylor Noakes, DeSmog. Resist! Canada, Energy, Environment, Indigenous Activism, Oil Spill, Social Justice

A major Canadian oil producer responsible for a toxic tailings pond leak that dumped 5.3 million litres of contaminated waste into the environment has been fined just $50,000 by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER). Environmental Defence, a prominent Canadian environmental advocacy organization, called the AER’s response “toothless.” The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), an Indigenous community in Northern Alberta whose territory has been impacted by the tailings pond spill at Imperial Oil’s Kearl tar sands mine since at least 2022, called the fine “laughable” and further condemned what they called the AER’s “weak response.”

Global Water-Related Conflicts Reached A Record High In 2023

August 24, 2024 Paige Bennett, EcoWatch. Educate! climate crisis, Environment, Report, Violence, Water, Water Scarcity

According to a new report from the nonprofit Pacific Institute, violent conflicts over water increased sharply in 2023. The report found there were nearly 350 water-related conflicts globally last year, a record high. The latest update to Pacific Institute’s Water Conflict Chronology has revealed a huge increase in the number of water-related conflicts in 2023 compared to just 2022, with around a 150% rise. In 2022, there were 231 recorded conflicts over water, compared to the 347 recorded for 2023. In comparing to recent decades, the contrast is even more stark. In 2000, there were just 22 water-related conflicts worldwide, Pacific Institute reported.

There’s Not Enough Daylight Between Democratic Party Policies And Project 2025 To Fuel A Solar Panel

August 22, 2024 Anthony Rogers-Wright, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Democrats, Elections, Environment, Kamala Harris

As the 2024 election season heats up the Democratic Party has found its new boogeyman Project 2025 - a set of policy prescriptions developed by the conservative think tank, Heritage Foundation, with aims to implement them on the very first day former president Trump assumes the presidency, should he defeat Vice President Kamala Harris in November. As evidenced by recent political advertisements by the Democrats and their legion of Political Action Committees, the intent is to institute a profound fear factor by directly associating Project 2025 with a potential second Trump presidency.

When Is ‘Recyclable’ Not Really Recyclable?

August 21, 2024 Lisa Song, ProPublica. Educate! Environment, False Solutions, Plastics, Recycling

Is there anything more pathetic than a used plastic bag? They rip and tear. They float away in the slightest breeze. Left in the wild, their mangled remains entangle birds and choke sea turtles that mistake them for edible jellyfish. It takes 1,000 years for the bags to disintegrate, shedding hormone-disrupting chemicals as they do. And that outcome is all but inevitable, because no system exists to routinely recycle them. It’s no wonder some states have banned them and stores give discounts to customers with reusable bags. But the plastics industry is working to make the public feel OK about using them again.

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