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Archive for April 20th, 2015
Canada: Woman defeats mine, saves wildnerness, wins $175,000
Posted by Mongabay: Morgan Erickson-Davis on April 20th, 2015
Mongabay: Marilyn Baptiste, 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize winner for North America, led the Xeni Gwet'in community in defeating one of the largest proposed gold and copper mines in British Columbia that would have destroyed Fish Lake--a source of spiritual identity and livelihood for the Xeni Gwet’in. Photo courtesy of the Goldman Environmental Prize.
When a huge open-pit mine threatened a pristine lake and surrounding forest in British Columbia, Canada, Marilyn Baptiste jumped into action, spearheading...
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Should California produce farming move to Arkansas?
Posted by Grist: None Given on April 20th, 2015
Grist: California is by far the dominant U.S. produce-growing state -- source of 81 percent of U.S.-grown carrots, 95 percent of broccoli, 86 percent of cauliflower, 74 percent of raspberries, 91 percent of strawberries, etc.
But all three of its main veggie growing regions -- the Imperial Valley, the Central Valley, and the Salinas Valley -- face serious short- and long-term water challenges. As I recently argued in a New York Times debate, it`s time to "de-Californify" the nation`s supply of fruits...
There’s a Place That’s Nearly Perfect for Growing Food. It’s Not California
Posted by Mother Jones: Tom Philpott on April 20th, 2015
Mother Jones: California is by far the dominant US produce-growing state--source of (large PDF) 81 percent of US-grown carrots, 95 percent of broccoli, 86 percent of cauliflower, 74 percent of raspberries, 91 percent of strawberries, etc.
But all three of its main veggie growing regions--the Imperial Valley, the Central Valley, and the Salinas Valley--face serious short- and long-term water challenges. As I recently argued in a New York Times debate, it's time to "de-Californify" the nation's supply of fruits...
Michael Brune: BP Oil Disaster Was Not an Accident, It Was a Crime
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on April 20th, 2015
EcoWatch: April 20, 2010 should be, to borrow a phrase from Franklin Roosevelt, “a date that will live in infamy.” Today is the anniversary of the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history: the explosion of Deepwater Horizon and subsequent oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. I don’t like to call it a spill, because spills are accidents. What happened that day was not an accident; it was a crime.
Killings of environmental activists jumped by 20 percent last year
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 20th, 2015
Mongabay: The assassination, murder, and extrajudicial killing of environmental activists rose by 20 percent last year, according to a new grim report by Global Witness. The organization documented 116 killings in 2014 across 17 countries with the highest number in Brazil, which saw 29 environmental and land defenders killed. Still, the report is a major understatement of the problem as data across much of Africa, China, the Middle East, and Central Asia remains scarce to non-existent.
"Across the world...
Plants may not protect us against climate change
Posted by Science Now: None Given on April 20th, 2015
Science Now: Plants are one of the last bulwarks against climate change. They feed on carbon dioxide, growing faster and absorbing more of the greenhouse gas as humans produce it. But a new study finds that limited nutrients may keep plants from growing as fast as scientists thought, leading to more global warming than some climate models had predicted by 2100.
Plants need different nutrients to thrive, such as nitrogen for making the light-absorbing pigment chlorophyll and phosphorus for building proteins....
BP Oil Spill Happened 5 Years Ago Today. Still Paying the Price
Posted by Climate Desk: None Given on April 20th, 2015
Climate Desk: The Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico five years ago today, killing 11 men and sending nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the sea. After the well was finally plugged, the national media went home, but the story is still very much unfolding everywhere from federal courtrooms to Louisiana backyards.
Let`s have a look back at the nation`s worst-ever oil spill, by the numbers:
California drought water-use rules could force 36 percent reduction on Beverly Hills
Posted by Guardian: Joanna Walters on April 20th, 2015
Guardian: Billionaire-studded Beverly Hills will be ordered to cut water usage by 36% under a tough new mandate proposed by regulators on Saturday to try to help parched California cope with its extreme drought.
Los Angeles will have to reduce usage by 16%; the more environmentally conscious San Francisco will only have to reduce its water consumption by 8% after doing more in the last year to cut use voluntarily, according to the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB).
The framework...
California drought spurs protest over ‘unconscionable’ bottled water business
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 20th, 2015
Guardian: Californians facing the prospect of endless drought, mandated cuts in water use and the browning of their summer lawns are mounting a revolt against the bottled water industry, following revelations that Nestlé and other big companies are taking advantage of poor government oversight to deplete mountain streams and watersheds at vast profit.
An online petition urging an immediate end to Nestle’s water bottling operations in the state has gathered more than 150,000 signatures, in the wake of an...
Amazon dams keep lights on but hurt fish, forests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 20th, 2015
National Geographic: When Asháninka Indian leader Ruth Buendía realized that a hydroelectric dam on the Amazon's Ene River would displace thousands of her people, she vowed to fight it. The project, she argued, would bring more hardship to families-including her own-already uprooted by political violence.
Leaders in the Peruvian communities along the river were divided over the plan, with some looking forward to high-paying construction jobs. But Buendía stood her ground.
Plans for that dam were eventually suspended....