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The fight to build Earth’s most powerful telescope on sacred ground

Business Insider: The summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii is arguably the most perfect spot in the world for a telescope. But some native Hawaiians who believe the mountain top is a sacred site and are worried about the ecological impacts of building a huge telescope there, may disagree. The peak of the mountain is nearly 14,000 feet above sea level, looming high above any light pollution and most clouds. It's a crystal-clear window into the cosmos. Astronomers want to build a new telescope, called the Thirty-Meter Telescope...

Low Oil Prices Putting The Freeze On Fracking Projects Around The World

Business Insider: The collapse of oil prices may have a bigger impact on the shale boom than anyone realizes. The biggest threat may not be to the existing wells in the US, but the untapped resources around the world. According to Bloomberg, "Russia, China, Australia, Mexico and Argentina hold some of the [world's] richest shale reserves," but haven't yet invested in the fracking technology to drill them. Because the price of oil isn't high enough to cover the costs, there's just no economic incentive to start....

25 Devastating Effects Of Climate Change

Business Insider: The world is getting warmer and that's already causing disasters that will devastate lives and cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Those problems are only getting worse, as shown by recent reports from the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC) and the White House, among others. The greenhouse gas emissions that drive warming "now substantially exceed the highest concentrations recorded in ice cores during the past 800,000 years," the IPCC said. Atmospheric carbon dioxide...

Ten Ways We Can Help Keep NYC From Drowning Under Water

Business Insider: The best scientific evidence shows that global climate change is caused by burning fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas), which emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These greenhouse gases act like a bubble around the Earth, trapping heat in, and in turn, causing temperatures to rise on the planet's surface. This phenomenon can be observed through shrinking glaciers, thawing of permafrost, rising sea levels and, yes stronger storms. Superstorm Sandy brought unprecedented...

If You Want To See The Future Of Global Greens, Visit Brazil

Business Insider: Brazil is ground zero for global greens. Home of the largest and richest rainforest system in the world, Brazil is where the fight for biodiversity and the fight against deforestation will be either won or lost. At the Copenhagen Summit, Brazil played a key role in failed negotiations that killed the Green Dream of a universal treaty to stop global warming. And as I learned this week, Brazil is the country whose creativity and ingenuity is changing the terms of the global climate and food debates...