Latest News
Australia plans to strip protections for five shark species. -
The Humane Society International calls the move “an unprecedented act of domestic and international environmental vandalism.” Prime Minister Tony Abbott's government has been criticized for numerous anti-environmental decisions, including scrapping the country’s carbon tax, skipping global climate talks, and developing the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The Independent
Renewable energy is a bargain. -
Clean energy is now as cheap as or cheaper than fossil fuels in many parts of the world, according to a new study. The report, from the International Renewable Energy Agency, found that biomass, hydropower, geothermal, and onshore wind power are all competitive with dirty energy sources despite current low oil prices, and that the cost of solar power is falling faster than any other technology. ThinkProgress
If we do not act forcefully, we’ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration, conflict, and hunger around the globe.
—President Barack Obama on climate change in his sixth State of the Union address
Higher temperatures are killing big trees. -
Conventional wisdom holds that logging and development are to blame for the disappearance of California's largest trees. A new study, however, identifies another major factor: climate change. The researchers found that the big-tree population has declined more than 50 percent since the 1930s, even in protected areas, and that extra heat is depriving trees of water. National Geographic
Up to 50,000 gallons of crude spilled into the Yellowstone River on Saturday. -
Today, Montana began trucking in bottled water to the town of Glendive after the Department of Environmental Quality reported elevated levels of benzene (which is known to cause cancer) in the drinking supply for 6,000 people. This is the second big pipeline spill for the river in less than four years. Idaho Statesman
If you cranked up the aquarium heater and dumped some acid in the water, your fish would not be very happy. In effect, that’s what we’re doing to the oceans.
—Malin L. Pinsky, a Rutgers marine biologist and coauthor of a new report concluding that human activity—including overfishing, seabed mining, and emitting carbon emissions—is on the verge of causing mass extinction of ocean life.