Environment

Climate Change Summit Hijacked by Biggest Polluters, Critics Claim

COPENHAGEN - A vital meeting in Copenhagen this weekend that will help shape the agenda for the most important climate change talks since the Kyoto protocol has been hijacked by some of the biggest polluters in the world, critics claimed today.

Among those attending the World Business Summit on Climate Change is Shell, which has just been named by environmentalists on the basis of new research as "the most carbon-intensive oil company in the world".

Posted in climate change, Environment, Politics

RadWaste and Texas' Future

How do you get people to vote for radioactive waste to be dumped in Texas in close proximity to the Ogallala and Dockum aquifers? And how do you also get the same community to agree to bankroll the project's $75 million buildout costs? You sell it as a prosperity issue.

Posted in Environment, nuclear waste, pollution

EPA Administrator Forecasts Potential Shift on Bush-Era Drilling Loophole

Signaling the potential for an important policy reversal, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a congressional hearing on Tuesday that the agency would consider revisiting its controversial position that a popular natural gas drilling technique doesn't harm groundwater.

Posted in Environment, gas, mining, water

Green Camo: Seeing Through the Military’s New Environmentalism

As the single largest consumer of energy in the world, the U.S. military is poised at the center of two of the most life-altering issues of our time: climate change and the height of oil production (“peak oil”). Surprisingly, the Pentagon began taking both matters seriously much sooner than the rest of government, which still has its fair share of skeptics.

Posted in Energy, Environment, Militarism, pentagon

To Obama and the EPA: The Threat Is Real, It's Time to Act

Over the next month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is asking you and me, we the public, whether or not it should do something about the biggest threat to the global economy, world security, and human health. Not bank failures. Not terrorism.

Posted in climate change, Environment, epa

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 21, 2009
1:46 PM

CONTACT: Center for Biological Diversity
Mollie Matteson, Center for Biological Diversity, (802) 434-2388 (office); (802) 318-1487 (cell)

More Clearcutting Slated for White Mountain National Forest Roadless Areas

Nationwide Call for Roadless Area Protection Ignored

RICHMOND, Vt. - May 21 - The Forest Service issued a decision this week approving its fifth timber sale within an Inventoried Roadless Area on the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire. The Stevens Brook timber sale would log 157 acres in the South Carr Mountain roadless area; 43 acres would be clearcut.

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At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature - to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law, and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters, and climate that species need to survive.

Center for Biological Diversity Links:

Posted in conservation, Environment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 2009
3:21 PM

CONTACT: Earthjustice
Abigail Dillen, Earthjustice, (212) 791-1881, ext. 221

Environmental Groups Defend Northeast's Global Warming Effort, File Court Papers to Support New York in Power Plant Lawsuit

Lone power company filed suit challenging nation's first enforceable effort to reduce climate pollution in January

ALBANY, N.Y. - May 20 - Environmental groups are going to court to help defend the nation's first enforceable effort to reduce the pollution responsible for global warming. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) will require cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from power plants in 10 northeastern states.

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Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. We bring about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations, coalitions and communities.

Earthjustice Links:

Posted in Environment, pollution

US Energy Use a National Security Threat: Study

WASHINGTON - US dependence on fossil fuels and a vulnerable electric grid pose a perilous threat to the country's national security, retired military officers warned Monday in a report.

The threat requires urgent action and the Defense Department should lead the way in transforming America's energy use by aggressively pursuing efficiency measures and renewable sources, said the report by CNA, a nonprofit research group.

Posted in climate change, Energy, Environment, oil, resource wars

Green-Jobs Evangelist Sells Obama's Ambitious Plans

$Jones has joked that the prospect of clean energy from coal is as likely as \"unicorns pulling our cars,\" while the president has taken a more flexible approach to ventures in clean-coal technology. (photo: Green for All)$

WASHINGTON - When Van Jones - Oakland activist, best-selling author and "green jobs" proselytizer - spoke to online political organizers last fall, he couldn't resist kidding them: "You've really messed up. You're about to win this election."

Their favorite candidate, Barack Obama, was going to inherit a mess, Jones predicted: "It will be like cleaning out the barn with a straw. I don't know why he even wants the job."

Now Jones has signed on to help clean out the barn.

Posted in Environment, green economy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 18, 2009
3:14 PM

CONTACT: Environment America

Jennifer Mueller, 202-683-1250

Citizens Call on EPA to Take Action on Clean Energy and Global Warming

ARLINGTON, Va. - May 18 - At the first public hearing today on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposed finding that carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants threaten public health and welfare, citizens, scientists, clean energy entrepreneurs, and many others urged EPA to act quickly on clean energy and global warming. The hearing was held in Arlington, Virginia - just outside of Washington, DC.

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Environment America is a federation of state-based, citizen-funded environmental advocacy organizations. Our professional staff in 27 states and Washington, D.C., combines independent research, practical ideas and tough-minded advocacy to overcome the opposition of powerful special interests and win real results for the environment.

Posted in climate change, Environment