This site contains information from a variety of sources about threats to the supply of our natural resources by virtue of our consumption practices and about efforts to deal with such threats. A feature issue is that of global warming, its causes and effects.

HEADLINES:

3/19/10

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: SOME OF AMERICA'S LEADING CONSERVATIONIST GROUPS PLAY BALL WITH SOME OF THE WORLD'S LEADING POLLUTERS. Johann Hari notes how groups like Conservation International and the Sierra Club, whose very reason for existence is the preservation of natural resources, have cooperated with fossil fuel industries in promoting policies that will produce the very global warming that will devastate those resources.

INTERNATIONAL

Websites

Global Warming:  http://42explore.com/globewrm.htm

World Resources Institute:  http://www.wri.org/  

Analysis & views:

3/14/10

Challenge is mounted to UN climate panel's conclusion that Amazon rain-forest is severely impacted by climate change.

2/9/10

GOODBYE GALAPAGOS, YOU'RE TOO WARM FOR US. A colony of 30 sea lions, native to the Galapagos off the coast of Ecuador, have re-located to an island 900 miles to the southeast just off the coast of Peru. This unprecedented migration of the species is attributed to the effects of climate change accompanying global warming.

1/25/10

CLIMATE CHANGE CONTROL EFFORTS MAY BE GETTING BACK TO BASICS.High expectations prevail as ministers of Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC) gather in New Delhi to promote a world-wide legally binding agreement to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. They hope to have seen signficant progress in this direction by the time the next world summit meets in Mexico in November.

1/17/10

University of Bonn is studying possibility of reducing gas emissions by changes in diet that could reduce number of animals that provide methane emissions in the belches of cattle.

12/28/09

IN THE "GAME" OF CLIMATE CHANGE CONTROL, NATURE DOESN'T GIVE POINTS FOR TRYING. Unfortunately, a commitment to try to do a better job of combatting climate change, is about the only thing to emerge from this month's summit in Copenhagen. Any chance of a more substantive result was sabotaged by the reluctance of the world's two leading polluter nations, China and the United States, to commit to carbon emissions efforts, as leaders of both countries responded to internal economic demands in their respective countries, "development" in China, "jobs" in the United States. Meantime global warming proceeds apace.

12/22/09

THE NEW YORK TIMES MISSED THE "REAL STORY" OF THE COPENHAGEN CLIMATE CONFERENCE. This "story," as environmentalist Bill McKibben reports from the scene, was the manner in which the poor nations of the world stood up to the bullying tactics of the richer ones. Columnist John Broder speaks of developing country tactics the way earlier commentators might have spoken of "uppity" Indian tribes who dared to negotiate with the U.S. government as if they were equals rather than the recipients of the generous charity of the government. These upstarts, like the Indians, are accused of using "florid language" to complain about their victimization.

12/19/09

An island in Bangladesh is "disappearing" because of global warming.

12/16/09

Chinese find themselves under a barrage of criticism at world climate summit for their alleged indifference to plight of developing countries, which bear major brunt of effects of climate change.

12/15/09

Roadblocks, molotov cocktails and arrests of 200 activists near Christiana at Copenhagen climate summit.

12/14/09

CLIMATE SUMMIT PROTESTERS: KITTLED IN COPENHAGEN. As world summit grinds through its first week with no progress toward binding agreement among nations for climate change abatement, an estimated 100,000 march peacefully in downtown Copenhagen. Without, according to witnesses, any provocation from the marchers, Danish riot police move in with a tactic of "kittling," using brutal methods to isolate and arrest small pockets of the demonstrators.

12/14/09

Sri Lanka struggles to find ways to "adapt" to global warming (by, for example, developing new plant strains with shorter growing seasons) as they feel themselves poweless actually to reduce warming by "mitigation" projects.

12/14/09

Eastern provinces of Canada say they are unwilling to "bear the burden" of drastic carbon emissions restrictions to offset the expansion of oil sands production in the western provinces

12/11/09

Environmentalist Bill McKibben is in Copenhagen to try to insert some "realism" into the climate summit deliberations there.

12/9/09

"HOPENHAGEN" CONVENES: ITS MORE LIKE A LAME DRESS REHEARSAL THAN A POLISHED SHOW. So says environmental activist Bill McKibbens of the world climate change summit, now underway in Copenhagen. The obstructionism of the big nations, especially the U.S., and the unrealistic demands of the developing countries are combining to make the spectacle in Denmark really more like a "first read-through with a lame script."

12/6/09

WORLD CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT BEGINS TOMORROW IN COPENHAGEN.Given the severity of the problem of climate change, the world's nations display a surprising lack of urgency and willingness to commit resources to the solution of the problem.

11/27/09

WONDERFUL COPENHAGEN: NEW TUNE BEING PREPARED FOR CLIMATE SUMMIT: "YOU BROKE IT, YOU BOUGHT IT." Naomi Klein, interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!, describes the world wide movement to force developing countries to acknowledge their primary responsibility for climate changes which are affecting primarily people in Third World countries, bearing the brunt of remediation costs and even paying "reparations" to underdeveloped countries. Led by a charismatic Bolivian climate negotiator, the upcoming Copehagen conference will play out the drama of struggle Seattle- or Pittsburgh- style both at the negotiating table and in the streets.

11/27/09

China, like the U.S., is being urged by green activists to "do more" in its commitment to reduction of carbon emissions.

11/22/09

"I AM THE SCIENTIFIC DATA." As much of the world dithers over the question whether there is sufficient scientific data to indicate that glacial melting is a serious problem, retired Indian civil engineer Chewang Norphel sees for himself the disppearance of the glacier in his northern India home in the Himalayas. He takes it on himself to use his engineering skills to create makeshift dams that result in what amounts to artificial glaciers, a project that promises to save this region from severe water shortage.

11/15/09

FOURTH AND TWENTY ON THEIR OWN 10 YARD LINE, WORLD LEADERS WILL PUNT CLIMATE CHANGE AGREEMENT INTO THE FUTURE. Three weeks ahead of the world climate summit in Copenhagen, leaders assembled at Asian economic conference agree that they will be able to accomplish no more than a "politically binding agreement" to work toward a comprehensive plan that so far has eluded them.

11/13/09

Delegates to African conference on carbon markets are told that cap-and-trade may be a scheme to allow manufacturers in developed countries to continue their polluition practices.

11/7/09

Rift between wealthier and developing countries on carbon emission controls increases as climate change conference in Copenhagen impends

11/1/09

QAT: A GREAT WORD IN SCRABBLE, A DEVASTATING REALITY IN YEMEN. The tenuous water supply in Yemen is greatly complicated by the heavy cultivation of qat trees, whose leaves are a mild narcotic chewed almost universally by Yemeni men and some women. Qat is a "thirsty" plant the watering of which requires drilling by which the water table sinks to over more dangerously low levels.

10/25/09

FROM BRISTOL ENGLAND TO COPENHAGEN DENMARK WITH ANGER, AND WITH ARTS COUNCIL SUPPORT. Effort is underway to assemble castaway bicycles to take to Copenhagen in December to construct a street barricade for a popular demonstration in support of action against global warming. The project is being supported by the Arts Council, the British agency that provides financial assistance to art performers and to audiences for same.

10/24/09

Climate change effects in the future are happening now in Bangladesh as residents struggle to adapt to a largely "under-water world" created by recent floods.

10/23/09

"YOU FEELING GUILTY PICKING RED MEAT." This statement by a Swedish restaurant diner seems to epitomize the intention of a program pioneered in Sweden by means of which restaurants list on their menus the amount of carbon dioxide emission associated with different food items, adding environmental responsibility to personal health and safety to the range of considerations of diners. "Eat more chicken" is not just the slogan of a U.S. Chick-fil-A commercial, but an implicit injunction in Sweden for those who dine out.

10/9/09

International conference on climate change and food crisis sees return to traditional farming as a strategy to counter reduced food supplies from catastrophic climatic events.

10/4/09

GLOBAL FOREST WATCH IS WATCHING GAS EMISSIONS FROM CANADA'S OIL SANDS; AND IT DOESN'T LIKE WHAT IT IS SEEING. Report from an alliance of environmentalist groups including Greenpeace concludes that scientists have under-estimated by one quarter the quantity of such emissions, by failing to take into account the effects of forest and peat depletion associated with oil sands production in Alberta.

9/3/09

WORLD'S LARGEST LIVING ORGANISM IS SICK AND MAY BE DYING. This is the conclusion of a report of the Australian government, concerning the fate of the Great Barrier Reef that runs for 1200 miles off Australian's northeast coast. Global warming, over-development, over-fishing and pollution, the usual suspects of marine life destruction, are contributing to the decline and near-extinction of plant and animal species that live on the reef.

8/21/09

International water conference meeting in Stockholm looks toward likelihood of looming water wars

8/19/09

Plans for world summit conference on climate change in New York in September are endangered by complaints of developing country participants that they are being left out of key summit activities.

8/15/09

Police in Copenhagen getting ready to deal with likely protests associated with December climate summit there.

8/9/09

WHERE HAVE ALL THE WILD SALMON GONE? GONE TO FISH FARMS EVERYONE. British Columbia wild salmon stocks are severely depleted and Kim Peterson focusses on salmon farming and its effects of contaminating wild salmon as a major culprit in this decline. The corporate domination of Canadian politics is seen as responsible for this situation.

7/30/09

THE WORLD'S FIRST CITY OF THE FUTURE: WOULD THAT BE VANCOUVER, B.C.? Despite some bad press for its gentrification efforts ahead of hosting the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, the city proceeds apace in its goal of overtaking other world cities in its "greenest" and most progressive dimensions. Already 90% of its fuel consumption is from renewals, and mass transit and bicycle paths are the infrastructure feature of its development. An enlightened treatment of the homeless is another feature of the aspiration of the city to become "another Copenhagen," if not more so.

7/25/09

Natives of some Amazon tribes are resorting to the eating of ants and monkeys as climate change has produced a drastic reduction in fish, a main staple of their diet; but even ants and monkeys are being depleted as "you have to eat 30 monkeys to fill your stomach."

7/21/09

Denmark"s "green renovation funds" to subsidize home energy conservation measures are not generous enough to encourage many Danes to undertake costs of those renovations

5/18/09

Chile's govenment does little to stem the "march of the dams" across Patagonia as concerns are raised about environmental impact of dam development

http://www.latinamericapress.org/articles.asp?art=5856

4/22/09

Agenda for Earth Day: And the people shall lead them....  Leaders of Earth Day are focussing this year on Asia in hopes of promoting there a "green generation" of individual and small group efforts at ecologically responsible efforts that will hopefully be the model of the actions of their governments.  To celebrate this philosophy, numerous "festitivities" for the day are scheduled across the continent

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/04/21/earthday.asia/

4/22/09

Science on forests, gas emissions and global warming: The relations are not exactly as you might think:: .  New report challenges a simplistic equation of forest preservation as countering global warming by forests' capacity to operate as "sinks" to absorb gas emissions.  Without denying the relationship between deforestation and global warming, scientists point out that forests, under conditions of advanced carbon pollution, may become net suppliers of carbon rather than absorbers of same.  Another counter-point in the conventional wisdom about the relationship is the observation that global warming may actually be beneficial to forest development, as trees come to be environmentally possible in previously frigid environments.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090417084128.htm

4/22/09

Environment Minister of Canada announces tough new emissions standards for auto manufacturers.

http://www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=714D9AAE-1&news=29FDD9F6-489A-4C5C-9115-193686D1C2B5

3/10/09

Indonesia and South Korea agree to work jointly on project of "green" energy involving seaweed-based bio-fuel development.

http://old.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20090310.C01&irec=0

3/4/09

British study suggests Amazon rainforests may be under less danger from climate change than from "human activity" assaults on its resources.

http://www.latinamericapress.org/articles.asp?art=5803

2/20/09

Recent report in Nature magazine shows that none of the 53 nations which provide nearly all the world's fishing industry have fully complied with the UN "code of conduct" for responsible fisheries to which they have agreed.  This non-compliance leads over-fishing, pollution and climate change to produce a drastic reduction in the world's fishing stocks.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45669

2/19/09

"Nobody is preparing an agenda that would sour the atmosphere."   A former  U.S. Ambassador to Canada, commenting on President Obama's first foreign visit, which Canadian environmentalist and nativist groups have been pushing to include an "agenda" of U.S. opposition to expansion of Alberta'ss oil sands  mining. Apparently the trip is to be about harmony and cooperation between the two countries with many rhetorical flourishes about the identities of interest of the U.S. and Canada.

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/589091

2/6/09

New report says Antarctic ice melt may have drastic effects, tilting earth's rotation and pushing water toward northern hemisphere.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Technology/Antarctic+melt+could+shift+Earth+rotation+Study/1257390/story.html

2/2/09

Is Australia about to become the first country to collapse under the influence of climate change?  This question is debated as temperatures in Melbourne hit 109o and the country suffers its worst drought in decades.  Is this a "normal" fluctuation in a country noted for frequent weather changes, or chickens coming home to roost in a country with the highest per capita carbon emissions in the world?

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/01-3

1/16/09

Global cooling? Scientists at British universty say careful selection of cultivated crops may do the tric:   Bristol University researchers are experimenting with crops that they say will, without disrupting world food supplies by bio-fuel production, allow major reduction in global warming by their neutralizing the climatic effects of gas emissions

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-01/uob-ctp011209.php

1/4/09

Eco-clubs for youngsters: Could the U.S. and Western Europe learn from Argentina?: Begun in 1992 in Firmat Argentina and since spread to many Third World countries, eco-clubs provide an opportunity for teenagers and young adults to be engaged actively in the socio-political concerns of their local communities, especially environmentally-focussed ones.  No country in North America or in Europe is listed among the thirty something nations in which eco-clubs have been developed. (Do "we" keep our kids too absorbed in the celebrity and electronics consumer worlds to be concerned with any community actions beyond the point at which the free beer and chicken wings run out in periodic political campaigns that "mobilize" the young?)

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45282

1/3/09

A dam on the Mekong River: Cambodian government opts to go for the big one:: The long-planned damming of the river for hyrdopower production involved alternatives, one of which would be less environmentally intrusive and less disruption of human habitation in the area.  Phnom Penh appears to be deciding to proceeding to a larger scale one which would completely "barrage" (cross) the river at one point and would result in re-location of 5,000 people.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45278  

12/8/08

Acting locally while thinking globally is the operative description of the "personal crusades" of environmental activism in Latin American countries.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45014

11/24/08

Tijuana estuary near San Diego, a contested areas between U.S. and Mexico and a center for drug smuggling, is about to see its border wall completed, to the consternation of enviromentalists.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44774  

11/23/08

Guess what country may be leading the way in a greener way of its finance industy doing business?:  Believe it or not, the answer iS China.  An Earth First report details the efforts of Chinese lending agencies to make bailouts and other loans contingent on the willingness of borrowers to address the pollution and the energy-intensity features of their operations. This is course reverses the way Chinese industry is sometimes seen in the West as especially careless about environmental concerns.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44811

11/23/08

Forum on Climate Change, meeting in Mexico City, says Latin American countries will need billions of dollars to help them cope with the effects of such changes.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44818

11/21/08

Chilean activist cheer decision by hydro-electric plant to extend the period of environmental impact before proceeding with dam construction in wilderness area of Patagonia.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44791

9/22/08

"Not on our borders" say many wealthy South Africans whose attitudes of self-preservation are threatening a pioneering conservation effort with "green space" developments.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43938

8/17/08

The environmental story in China is not just about pollution.  While the Beijing Olympics have focussed world attention on that aspect of over-development in the country, the story being missed by much of the press is the burgeoning "green" movement in China, especially in the provinces, where local governments are moving against large polluting factories and people are adopting energy-saving innovations like solar-power water heaters.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/267/story/48608.html  

8/16/08

Protesters, claiming that new coal plant in Kent will set back UK's efforts to decrease carbon emissions, clash with police after conclusion of a "coal camp."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/10/kingsnorthclimatecamp.activists

7/30/08

Large chunk of Canadian polar ice cap is broken off.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7532435.stm  

7/11/08

For "security" reasons, delegates to 2009 climate conference in Copenhagen will be taken around the city in limousines rather than their walking or biking.

http://www.cphpost.dk/get/108221.html

7/9/08

Heads of world's "richest" nations, the G8 summit, respond to the urgency of global warming by pledging to cut world carbon emissions in half....by 2050. By that time none of them will be alive to be "accountable" for the promise, and many of the world's endangered species will no longer to endangered: they'll be extinct.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/science/earth/09climate.html?th&emc=t

6/23/08

Plastic waste abatement program expands in Canada as more schools ban sale of bottles of water.

http://www.nationalpost.com/most_popular/story.html?id=606616

6/23/08

Governments of UK and Norway are undertaking projects to attempt to reverse the deforestion of the Congo tropical rain forest.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42919

5/23/08

De-foresting of Colombia forests is averted by court ruling against a new law that would have allowed logging without consultation with indigenous people.

http://www.latinamericapress.org/article.asp?IssCode=&lanCode=1&artCode=5612  

5/22/08

Bad news from the South for the environment:.  South America, that is.  Venezuela, Bolivia and Brazil, hailed by Chomsky and others for having broken the "yoke" of neo-liberal globalization by their populist agendas, are busily fulfilling the neo-liberal one by their systematic exploitation and exportation of their natural resources, including drastic deforestation of the Amazon.

http://www.countercurrents.org/salzman210508.htm

5/15/08

Mayor of Athens Greece joins in movement to convert balconies and rooftops into oases of green in the desert of city concrete.

http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=&t=01&m=A03&aa=2  

4/8/08

Other automakers are trying to cash in on the "green" halo of the Toyota Prius by building more energy-efficient cars.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/autos_hybrids_dc  

3/27/08

"UNPRECEDENTED."  British climatologists' description of the melting of the Antarctic ice shelf, as a season of summer melt comes to a close and a wary eye on accelerated global warming must be kept on the Southern Ocean when southern hemisphere summer resumes next January.

http://www.countercurrents.org/briggs260308.htm

3/20/08

Melting of mountain glaciers in Peru and other tropical countries is threatening the livelihoods of people who live along the rivers fed by glacial melt.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0320/p17s03-wogi.html

3/16/08

Brazilian government waging a fight, sometimes a seemingly losing one, against the deforestation of the Amazon Basin:   Enforcement agents with job of stopping illegal loggers are unable to stem the tide of an increasing number of hectares of forest that are logged.  The corruption of some of the enforcement agents is a factor, but even the honest ones are likely to face an overwhelming work load.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0313/p01s05-wogn.html

3/15/08

UN's Human Development Report says that developed nations must give attention to the particular vulnerability of climate change damage to people in less developed countries.

http://www.latinamericapress.org/Article.asp?lanCode=1&artCode=5519  

2/14/08

Corporate "greenwashing" has spawned a cottage industry of critique among the environmentalist-minded:.  One can, for example, visit a website which contains YouTube depictions of the commercials of companies that claim that their products or operations are environmentally friendly and give each such representation a "greenwashing" score for honesty or unacceptable hype.

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/76793/  

2/13/08

At the UN, small nations demand that large ones be sanctioned for violating regulations against carbon emissions, which create pollution that damages them.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41172

2/7/08

"Most of the biofuel that people are using or planning to use would probably increase greenhouse gases substantially":  Statement of a lead author of study published in Science  Magazine of a panel of scientific experts.  They cite the loss of carbon absorption of plants cleared for bio-mass use or for production of crops used in biofuels; also the substantial carbon emissions associated with the refining and transportation of biofuels.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/science/earth/08wbiofuels.html?th&emc=th

1/21/08

Severe oil shortage for Israel is forcing the country to promote fuel efficient and emissions-free electric cars

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/world/middleeast/21israel.html?ref=world  

1/15/08

Europe is eating the world's oceans and seas...often illegallyY.  Depletion of world seafood supplies is encouraged by the voracious appetites of Europeans and the flourishing of illegal operations by global fishing firms which skirt international trade regulations and destroy local fishing industries.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/world/europe/15fish.html?th&emc=th  

1/14/08

New scientific report says Antarctic ice is melting faster than expected from earlier studies.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/01/14/report_antarctica_melting_accelerated/3907/  

1/8/07

Glaciologists "a little shell-shocked" as they contemplate the melting of the Greenland ice cap:  Indications of much more rapid melting of the cap than had been suggested in earlier global warming studies lead scientists to scramble for more realistic if ominous understanding of the actual rate of that warming and its effects on world oceanic levels.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/science/earth/08gree.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin 

12/17/07

Asia Times predicts "bumpy" road map for climate change which was charted in 15-day meeting in Bali.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IL18Ae01.html  

12/14/07

UN plans to set up African global climate study center with assistance from an energy resources institute in New Delhi, India.

http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/africa/article05  

12/13/07

The last seven years of Santa Claus:.  Al Gore's Nobel acceptance speech highlights the reality of global climate change, with the total disappearance of the polar ice cap projected now as happening in perhaps seven years.  Unemployment of toy shop elves and extinction of sleigh-pull reindeers may loom on the near horizon.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20071211_from_oil_wars_to_water_wars/   

12/3/07

Climate change occurrs on an international scale; So who pays the bill for controlling it?  Latin American leaders assert that the world's more developed countries, the world's leading polluters, have failed to honor their agreement to pay a major part of the cost of emissions-abatement projects in the underdeveloped world.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40312

12/3/07

Fulfilling a campaign promise, new Australian PM Kevin Rudd signs on Australia to Kyoto Protocol.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7124236.stm  

11/19/07

Creating new plants to fit the altered climate.  As climate change proceeds with major changes in temperature and rainfall, especially in more southern areas of the world, agricultural scientists are racing to protect the world's food supplies by developing new varieties of food plants that are adaptable to changed climactic conditions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800501.html?wpisrc=newsletter

11/19/07

World timber barons have traditionally raped world forests without interference. This may be changing, as anti-deforestation activists get better organized in Third World countries whose forests are destroyed; and as U.S. Congress is considering legislation that would make lumber importers like Home Depot responsible for observing regulations against the importation of wood harvested under environmentally-unfriendly conditions.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071203/north  

11/17/07

UK budget cuts lead to reduction in funding for maintenance of national parks and for recycling programs.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/17/climatechange.carbonemissions1  

11/16/07

UN development report documents lack of access of the poor to water resources in Latin America.

http://www.latinamericapress.org/article.asp?IssCode=&lanCode=1&artCode=5364

11/8/07

Greenpeace decries the practice in Indonesia of clearing forests and draining wetlands in order to help fulfill world demand for palm oil.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7084306.stm

11/5/07

BBC poll shows that 80% of people in 21 countries are willing to make personal sacrifices to help curb the growth of global climate changes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7075759.stm

10/23/07

British environmental group rates 60 UK towns on their "green" credentials, and Winchester is at the bottom of the list.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7057346.stm

10/20/07

British oceanographers say oceans are soaking up less CO-2 from the atmosphere than formerly, possibly contributing to global warming.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7053903.stm

10/17/07

Denmark's authority controlling local governments is preparing regulations on energy conservation that would bring local facilities to the level of national ones in their opposition to energy waste.

http://www.cphpost.dk/get/103895.html  

10/8/07

Greenpeace protesters chain themselves to generators at the first new coal-fired power plant to open in UK in the last 20 years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/7033164.stm

10/7/07

Can global warming be stopped by "geo-engineering"? - Some "visionary" engineers envision schemes that will permit humans to continue their high levels of carbon gas emissions by "clean up" devices that allow pollution to be collected or dispersed after it is emitted.  One such scheme involves attracting carbon to the oceans where marine life will "eat" it, even pumping water from ocean floors to bring new carbon eaters to the surface. Another would duplicate the action of a volcano in creating a cooling layer of sulphuric material above the earth.  These and other schemes should be considered dangerous since they may have unintended consequences as they fail to deal with the delicate balance of the earth's ecosystem.  They also may  complicate global warming by joining denial of global warming with an attitude of "we can go ahead and make a mess because we can clean it up."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/334444_hari07.html

10/4/07

Appearance of dragonflys and open water near the north end of Hudson Bay in Canada indicate global warming effects of "unimaginable" speed.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071003.wwarm1004/BNStory/ClimateChange/home  

10/2/07

In a city already dominated by the presence of wind turbines and bike riders, some in Copenhagen hope to further reduce the city's gas emissions "footprint" ahead of the city's hosting of the UN Climate Summit in 2009.

http://www.cphpost.dk/get/103700.html  

10/1/07

More fish and potatoes, fewer seals and dog sleds; The different faces of global warming in Greenland: With more open water and a longer growing season, many return pre-Ice Age agrarian and fishing economy, while ice-dependent Inuit suffer threats to their life styles.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1001/p01s02-wogn.html  

9/27/07

British and other governments are critical of President Bush plan to convene his own climate change conference, seeing it as an effort to derail a UN summit expected to call for stringent standards on gas emissions

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/sep/27/climatechange1  

9/25/07

BBC poll shows that 79% of people in the world believe that climate change results from human activity.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7010522.stm  

9/18/07

European Union climate expert, in BBC interview, warns that EU failure to meet goal of less than 2 degrees C of global warming will have major envirornmental impact in some regions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7000449.stm  

9/13/07

"When the climate message is strong, attack the messenger."  According to a fellow of the Rockridge Institute, this is exactly what John Tierney did in a column in the science section of the New York Times in which he is alleged to have "framed" the global warming issue in a way that makes environmentalists look like people obsessed with dangers that don't really exist.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/12/3781/

9/8/07

Asia-Pacific leaders conclude conference in Sydney by announcing agreement on "aspirations" to curb global warming but with "no commitments."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6984723.stm

8/31/07

A writer on earth sustainability fears we are "overdosing" the earth as some parents fear that they have given an overdose of a medicine to a child, with the same combination of fear, guilt and panic. The antidote to these emotions is that, through our love of the earth, we take care of it as assiduously as our love of our children leads us to do for them.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/30/3500/

8/27/07

 "Not BBC's job to save the planet" say two BBC executives criticizing plans for day-long broadcast of a "Planet Relief" show.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2156758,00.html

8/21/07

The Heathrow protests: Do they make sense?  Writer for Independent/UK says they symbolize how most people will ignore a looming disaster (like a fire) until it has finally overtaken them.  These protests tell the population that global warming is having devastating consequences and that air travel is a major source of carbon emission. Common Dreams, in reprinting this article, contains a string of comments from readers that illustrate the range of public reactions to the reality of global warming and ideas on what should be done about it.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/20/3284/

8/16/07

Twice as many police as protestors are at Heathrow Airport as police claim the climate change protests have been infiltrated by "anarchists."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/aug/16/climatechange.uknews

8/13/07

Climate change impact not on the radar screen for World Bank in making development project decisions. Climate change is a "politically sensitive" consideration that leads the Bank to ignore a determination of how proposed projects will affect the climate.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/12/3130/  

8/13/07

Climate change protesters are pitching tents near Heathrow to oppose  planned expansion of the British airport.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6943549.stm  

8/6/07

British Airways gets injunction against an environmentalist group, Plane Stupid, which had planned to demonstrate on global climate change at Heathrow airport.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/airlines/story/0,,2142666,00.html  

8/3/07

Global warming with a vengeance hits southeastern Europe as heat waves and wild fires sweep the area.

http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=13245&t=01&m=A02&aa=1  

7/5/07

China is making strides in reversing the trend toward desertification, as its desert lands have finally begun to shrink.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-05/30/content_4618229.htm

7/3/07

Disappearance of Arctic ponds is described as "tipping point" for world global warming.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/07/02/onds-arctic.html  

6/28/07

UN report says 50 million people in next 10 years may be displaced by encroachments of expanding deserts because of global warming.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6247802.stm

6/15/07

How long will world's oil supply last?  Depends on whom you ask.  British Petroleum releases a study estimating 40 years in which oil supplies will equal the demand for them.  A panel of more impartial scientists says otherwise.  Some are proponents of the "peak theory" that projects a point at which supply begins to fall short of demand, resulting in crises of availability and price.  The U.S. reached this peak as long ago as 1970, and it now appears that the world supply will peak in the next 4-5 years. While alternatives to oil as an energy source may help lessen the supply/demand gap, each of these has its own limitations as a solution.

http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article2656034.ece  

6/11/07

Kifossis River in Greece, a heavily-polluted waterway, is being eyed for regeneration as an "urban wonderland."

http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=13237&t=01&m=A06&aa=1  

6/8/07

European Union environmental report says world's oceans are in a "serious state of decline."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6730045.stm  

6/7/07

Some Greenlanders are actually benefitting by global warming as the climate change allows them extra time to raise hay and leave their sheep out to graze.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/06/AR2007060602783.html?referrer=email  

6/6/07

Ecuador wants international community to compensate it for revenue lost from its refraining from oil drilling in its eco-fragile rain forest

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0605/p06s01-woam.html  

6/1/07

Premier of British Columbia and state of California sign "memorandum of understanding" committing their respective governments to cooperation in the promotion of green technology.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=271dd478-75e3-405c-aa40-fb42fa15ccdd  

5/29/07

Canadian government totters on the brink of deciding whether to support German or U.S. plan for carbon emissions controls.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070529.wg829/BNStory/National/home  

5/29/07

Organic vegetables market in UK being threatened by government emphasis on air mile associated with transport of foods, as many of these vegetables are flown in from other continents.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=YGMJT/news/2007/05/29/norganic29.xml

5/15/07

Scientists say preservation of Canada's vast forest lands may be key to containing global warming and to preserving world wild life.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/05/14/tech-scienceborealforest-20070514.html  

5/13/07

"Greening" of Nova Scotia begins with approval of several conservationist projects by Otttawa.  Environmentalist says it isn't nearly enough.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070512.wnovascotiatrust0512/BNStory/National/home  

5/6/07

The global fight against global warming: The world can afford it.  So says a UN panel in analyzing the likely cost in slowing development resulting from aggressive actions to curb greenhouse emissions.  The economic cost is estimated to be a reduction in world economic output of just over a tenth of one percent per year.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0504/p25s02-wogi.html  

5/2/07

Canadian provincial leaders are looking for and failing to find a unified national policy on climate change.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070502.wpremiers02/BNStory/National/home  

4/24/07

Greenpeace and McDonald's are unlikely partners in efforts to prevent Brazilian farmers from clearing rainforests to grow soy for a market that has included McDonalds

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/23/AR2007042301903.html?referrer=email  

4/22/07

Praying for rain in Australia :  Prime Minister John Howard finally wakes up to acknowledge the disastrous effects of global climate change, as an "epic drought" threatens the country and the PM says irrigation of agricultural production will have to be curbed unless rain occurs very shortly; and he urges citizens to "pray" for that rain.

http://www.countercurrents.org/marks210407.htm

4/22/07

African climate experts do an "assessment report" of the impact of global climate changes on southern Africa and urges that serious measures be taken to lessen the impact of those changes.

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=vn20070422085921965C370186

4/3/07

Truth and consequences:.  The truth is that people in rich nations have created the conditions that encourage catastrophic climate change.  The consequences of their behavior are reflected in the vulnerability of people in poor nations to floods, droughts, tsuamis and other disasters.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/02/260/

4/3/07

Mayor of Sydney Australia is taking the country's Earth Hour message of environmental conservation to an international Large Cities Leadership Council which is attempting to develop "green" inititiatives for cities.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/mayor-to-take-earth-hour-to-the-world/2007/04/02/1175366158740.html  

3/31/07

Hope for relief from water shortages in Greece may lie in massive underground springs that are found in the vicinity of many coastal areas.

http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=&t=01&m=A02&aa=1  

3/29/07

Global warming and world eco-systems: It's not just about polar bears and penguins.  Massive new report on  "climate modelling," issued March 26, predicts the ecological effects of climate change that shows anticipated plant and animal habitat changes from pole to pole, but especially in the tropics.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0329/p12s01-wogi.html  

3/29/07

Australian PM John Howard cites the "devastating effects" on country's economy were a climatologist's recommendations for 30% reduction in greenhouse emissions to be implemented.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/pm-scorns-stern-call-as-jobs-threat/2007/03/28/1174761571378.html  

3/25/07

European Union is holding Greece to tougher standards on gas emissions than the country's Environment Minister is willing to accept.

http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=13226&t=01&m=A04&aa=1  

3/24/07

Canadian government involving financial incentives for those buying ethanol-burning automobiles even though there are no service stations which sell that fuel.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070324.wxethanol24/BNStory/National/home  

3/15/07

Some good news on global warming: Danish scientists say melting of Arctic permafrost is increasing the growing season, promoting new vegetation that may retard CO-2 emissions.

http://www.cphpost.dk/get/100846.html  

3/13/07

UK government unveils plans for a "legally binding" system to cut carbon emissions by 60% by 2050.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6444145.stm  

3/11/07

'We may survive the climate crisis only if we destroy the church of busines'.  So argues Bill Henderson in noting the power of the American business establishment to control the agenda of  remedies for global warming, not even allowing for consideration of solutions that would challenge the only thing sacred in their religion, the strength of "the economy" and their own profits within it.

http://www.countercurrents.org/cc-henderson110307.htm 

3/10/07

Extreme management: Coca Cola, British Petroleum and other corporations are showing their "environmentalist" colors by taking middle level executives on "life-changing" training courses in Antarctica.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2030829,00.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2030829,00.html

3/8/07

Prime Ministers of Denmark and Sweden push for European Union to pursue global warming initiatives more aggressively.

http://www.cphpost.dk/get/100737.html

2/16/07

China announces a national plan to combat climate change.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-02/16/content_810675.htm  

2/15/07

British billionaire announces a competition to find a technology for "scrubbing" the earth of carbon dioxide; Al Gore will be one of judges.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0215/p12s01-sten.html

2/7/07

In one issue of the UK Independent, the newspaper featured the doomsday predictions on global warming of a group of international climate experts; vigorously promoted the latest in new gas-guzzling vehicles;  and, in its travel section, paid homage to eco-tourism by urging people to travel to see the polar bears while polar bears are still there.  In other words, finish fiddling that tune before your audience is annihilated.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=56&ItemID=12055

2/5/07

Alberta Canada expects to replace its voluntary green house emissions with compulsory standards.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=469642f8-f189-4384-9a8f-6216c70fcb15

2/5/07

Recycling in Athens Greece: much of re-cycled waste actually winds up in a landfill.

http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=13219&t=01&m=A05&aa=1

2/2/07

In strongest wording ever, international conference of climatologists in Paris says that human activity is "very likely" the origin of global warming.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070201/ap_on_sc/france_climate_change

1/31/07

Study published by Royal Society in Scotland recommends re-introduction of predator wolves in Highlands to help control the problem of deer over-population.

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,2002471,00.html  

1/24/07

British panel of experts will release next week a report with a very gloomy assessment on the progress of global warming.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1995348,00.html

1/22/07

Ruling Conservative government in Canada will offer up to $5,000 to homeowners for energy conservative practices designed to stem carbon emissions.

http://www.cp.org/english/online/OnlineFullStory.aspx?filename=n012204a&newsitemid=75660031&languageid=1

1/16/07

Michael Klare: as oil supplies dwindle, as Russia and China rise to prominence in world geo-politics, and as the center of oil production shifts to the global South, look for a rise of Energo-fascism in which there will be a  massively increased intrusion of the state on the international stage in the search for market dominance in oil-producing areas, and domestically in increased surveillance of citizens suspected of over-consumption or disloyalty to U.S. hegemony in the global oil market.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011507H.shtml

1/14/07

Brazilian government planning to sell off large portions of Amazon rain forest for logging operations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/world/americas/14amazon.html?th&emc=th  

1/4/07

Report of Union of Concerned Scientists says Exxon/Mobile has spent over $16 million for groups and individuals to try to disprove the "science" of global warming.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070103/ap_on_bi_ge/exxonmobil_global_warming  

12/29/06

Canadian Arctic climate expert reports that a huge piece of the Arctic ice shelf has broken away as a floating island, attributes this to global warming.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/cp_n122847A.xml.html

12/25/06

20 by 2020 in Europe:  Ministers of European Union working on a sweeping plan to increase the use of renewal energy from today's 6% to 20% by 2020.

http://www.cphpost.dk/get/99669.html

12/25/06

Gift-giving in UK goes green and also public health conscious this year as thousands are giving plantable trees as gifts and London-based organization has a program of Good Gifts, including HIV-AIDS packages for people in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand.

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/77389.html  

12/23/06

Toyota expects to be world's largest automaker next year, based on consumer demand for more fuel-efficient cars.  American leaders say U.S. auto industry must emulate Toyota if they want to regain market dominance.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/22/AR2006122200020.html  

12/21/06

Are we ever gonna get some sleep?  Bears in northern Spain have stop hibernating, apparently because of the unnatural warmth of the season as a possible indication of global warming.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1221-01.htm  

12/21/06

Global warming is apparently pushing several species of sea creatures further north along British coasts.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1220-03.htm  

12/20/06

Green urban living in Germany. In the environmentally friendly town on Vaubon, there are 150 cars per 1000 households (compared to 640 per in the U.S.) and people use a variety of alternative transportation practices to reduce their car dependence.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1220/p01s03-woeu.html  

12/17/06

Alpine ski industry on thin ice: as global warming happens in the Alps twice as fast as the world average, some predict a catastrophe for ski resorts as early as 2020.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/16/world/europe/16austria.html?_r=2&ref=world&oref=slogin&oref=slogin  

12/17/06

These feet are not happy: Antarctica's Adelie penguins (smaller variety---think the Hispanic quartet in Happy Feet) are feeling the effects of global warming as polar ice melts are pushing their habitat further and further south.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1216-04.htm

12/12/06

NASA-funded climatologists issue report saying that global warming may turn the North Pole into open seas by 2040.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2499663,00.html 

11/27/06

Conservative government of Canada plans a number of reductions in climate-change projects.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061125.wxclimate25/BNStory/National/home  

11/25/06

In both China and the U.S., energy companies are committing to the most carbon dioxide emission  intensive technology, burning of pulverized coal, as the major source of production expansion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/25/opinion/25sat1.html?th&emc=th  

11/25/06

UN fails to recommend ban on bottom trawling of oceans, and Canada is described as an "accomplice" in the decision.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061124.wxtrawler24/BNStory/International/home

11/15/06

It ain't easy peeing green: American environmentalist couple encounter the travails of elimination as they experience the "squat and no tissue" practice in Thailand and the "half flush" toilets in Australia and learn all about natural composting.

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/44202/  

11/14/06

United States is 53rd among 56 nations rated for climate change control efforts.

http://www.tbo.com/news/nationworld/MGB7VO0SHUE.html  

10/27/06

No country is an island: At speech in Ottawa, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill scolds Canadians for a prevailing attitude of "what can we do about global warming?" when Canada accounts for only about 2% of world carbon gas emissions.

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=e055da46-fcc6-434d-be36-92902b419001&k=50892

10/26/06

British economist says global warming a mortal danger that requires global response and this response will require strong governmental action, not simply private conservation behaviors nor the working of the free market; the European Union is showing encouraging signs of leadership in this direction.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1025-30.htm  

10/25/06

World Wildlife Federation reports says Britons are living "a 3-planet life style" as their consumption habits are leaving an increasingly large ecological "footprint."

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1577662006

10/14/06

Where and grizzly and Dena native roam: Canada plans to preserve both wild life and indigenous tribe in a vast area in Northwest Territories near Great Slave Lake.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101301704.html?referrer=email   

10/4/06

World drying out?  British climate experts predict that global warming will cause a third of world's earth surface to be desert by 2100.

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1786829.ece

9/15/06

Climate expert, commenting on recent studies of huge and unexpected increase in the rate of melt of Arctic ice cap, says that: "An abyss is opening up between the speed at which the climate is changing and the speed at which governments are responding."

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1603667.ece

7/14/06

Mucking in the Canadian tar pits. Northern Alberta's vast tar-sands provide a major strip-mined source of oil. A Calgary energy think tank, Pembina, documents the disastrous environment consequences but, like other environmentalist groups, offers only "meek" opposition to the practice. Why? Follow the money trail of their support from industry-connected foundations.   http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2006/07/07/557/9

6/17/06

A new global warming threat emerges: A report indicates that the thawing of hundreds of thousands of miles of Siberian permafrost could unleash billions of tons of carbon dioxide into Earth's atmosphere:

http://science.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1173357.php/Report_Melt_threatens_global_warming

6/17/06

Is this the future of mankind? Polar Bears, already on the brink of extinction, resort to cannibalism as global warming ravages thier Arctic habitat:

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/8mED0jsBnrSq8q/Cannibalism.xhtml

5/31/06

High cost in environmental degradation, especially to native Americans in the area, is being exacted by "oil sands" mining by U.S. companies in Alberta, Canada. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/30/AR2006053001429.html?referrer=email  

5/27/06

Gold mining company to which President George Bush Sr. is a principal adviser plans to mine for gold in the Andes glacier Pascua-Lama, Chile, despite the vehement protests of residents that the project will deprive them of desperately-needed ground water.  http://counterpunch.org/dickinson05262006.html  

5/17/06

The world's coral reefs are being decimated by global warming:

http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_1934077,00.html

5/15/06

Charity group Christian Aid says West's failure to deal with global warming will result in the deaths of 182 million Africans by end of this century: 

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/14582490.htm

5/8/06

Chinese scientists warn of looming "ecological catastrophe" in Asia as glaciers in Tibetan plateau melt and the ice cap becomes a desert:   

http://www.terradaily.com/2006/060502045541.5eumq2oj.html

5/6/06

Global Warming is blamed for the rapid spread of infectious diseases:

http://freeinternetpress.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6801

5/5/06

Pacific Ocean trade winds are dramatically weakening, with dire effects possible, due to global warming.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1767125,00.html

5/5/06

Global Warming is seen as a greater worldwide threat than terrorism, as climate changes drastically all over the globe:

http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php?1&urldate=2006-05-06

4/24/06

Dead Sea is dying rapidly, and Israeli is being urged to apply to its preservation the same "green" policies for which it is noted in dealing with land resources: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0423-02.htm

4/15/06

Melting ice caps resulting from global warming are threatening the survival of walrus pups: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/14/AR2006041401368.html?referrer=email

4/2/06

Greenpeace, citing WTO and other globalization influences, denounces the results of the world bio-diversity conference:

http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0331-01.htm

3/27/06

Atmospheric research experts see possible inundation from global warming by 2100 in London, New York, Tampa, Miami and many other places: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2100776,00.html

3/22/06

Humans and wildlife in the Arctic are feeling the effects of global warming: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/21/AR2006032101722.html?referrer=email

3/21/06

World Water Forum highlights the privatization of world water suppliers to the huge profit of soft drink and drinking water bottlers:

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/33803/

3/17/06

Protests break out at World Water Forum in Mexico: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0317-06.htm

3/15/06

Three new books on global warming may signal increased public awareness of the issue: http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/33481/

3/13/06

Monitors at Mount Zeppelin Station (North Pole) suggest carbon dioxide levels hurtling toward "disaster" tip-point for global warming:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0312-03.htm

3/13/06

Depletion and pollution in world's rivers is documents in new UN report: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0312-04.htm  

3/8/06

World Water Forum to be held in Mexico....and Coca-Cola is a major sponsor???  http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0307-30.htm

3/6/06

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says global warning is a more urgent threat than had been estimated by an earlier Panel: 

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0306-01.htm

3/3/06

New report in Science says Antarctic ice cap is melting rapidly:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/02/AR2006030201712.html?referrer=email 

3/1/06

Britain Defence Secretary warns that climate changes from global warming may trigger wars over access to dwindling supplies of water: 

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0228-05.htm

2/26/06

Mother Jones report: The Last Days of the Ocean

http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2006/03/oceans_index.html

2/23/06

Menhaden, an ecologically-vital fish species, being relentlessly "mined" to produce various consumer products:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/03/net_losses.html

2/23/06

Self-reinforcing feedback loops between temperature rises and methane gas production are speeding global warming: 

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0222-27.htm

2/20/06

Draft "open skies" treaty of United States and European Union would limit nations' ability to maintain environmental rules regarding aviation:  http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0220-02.htm

2/18/06

Phillipines landslide: Logging made the village a disaster waiting to happen

http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=66626

2/17/06

Greenland's glaciers melting twice as fast as expected, creating new flooding concerns:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/16/AR2006021601292.html?referrer=email

2/17/06

Study cites 30-fold increase in greenhouse gas emissions:  http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article345928.ece  

2/16/06

Big push for fuel conservation in Japan: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/15/AR2006021502762.html?referrer=email

2/16/06

Ice hockey fans face off against global warming and its threat to winter sports: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0216-09.htm

2/15/06

Arctic climate experts meeting in Winnipeg say global warming now an irreversible trend:  http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0215-07.htm

2/9/06

Current Warming Period Is Longest in 1,200 Years, Study Says

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/0209_060209_warming.html

2/8/06

Indian water rights activists hit privatization and depletion of their water supplies:  http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0207-02.htm

2/6/06

Organizers of Turin Winter Olympic games work for most "environmentally friendly" event ever; environmentalists are "cautiously optimstic": http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0206-03.htm

Books:

Getting Through the Wilderness,  fuel crisis and global warming: http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=35002

Video/Film:

Other Media:

NATIONAL

Websites

Ocean Champions: Politics and Ocean Conservation

http://www.oceanchampions.org/

Sierra Club:

http://www.sierraclub.org/

Analysis & views:

3/19/10

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: SOME OF AMERICA'S LEADING CONSERVATIONIST GROUPS PLAY BALL WITH SOME OF THE WORLD'S LEADING POLLUTERS. Johann Hari notes how groups like Conservation International and the Sierra Club, whose very reason for existence is the preservation of natural resources, have cooperated with fossil fuel industries in promoting policies that will produce the very global warming that will devastate those resources.

3/3/10

MASSEY ENERGY AND LOCAL POLICE ESCALATE THEIR RHETORIC AND ACTION AGAINST THE "ENVIRONMENTAL TERRORISTS" PROTESTING MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL. Earth First! protesters sit in at their office, and a press release of the West Virginia coal company styles them as "terrorists," as "criminals" whose crimes are being ignored by local law enforcement. Actually, there has been a significant upswing in arrests and extended incarceration of these "terrorists" who have in fact engaged in no actions of violence or threatened violence.

1/31/10

IN THE AMERICAN WEST TODAY, THE RANCHER AND THE FEDERAL ENFORCCEMENT AGENT CAN BE FRIENDS (BUT NOT VERY GOOD ONES). Jeffrey St. Clair describes an episode in central Oregon that symbolizes the region-wide conflict between land owners and agents of the Fish and Wild Life agency responsible for maintaining federal refuges from the incursions of ranchers, farmers and miners. A rancher takes it on himself to remove a fence which deprived his cattle of access to water on land which is part the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and is arrested by agents. The incident draws the attention and actions of the growing property rights movement, and agents and their sympathizers are given severe threats from ranches if the agents persist in their alleged violations of these property rights.

1/30/10

Before he is sworn in as Senator, environmentalists are targeting Scott Brown in internet ads questioning his record on climate change.

1/10/09

AMERICAN "CAN-DO OPTIMISM" SEEMS TO BE MELTING ALONG WITH THE GLACIERS IN GLOBAL WARMING. World traveller Orville Schell observes first hand the effects of glacier disappearance in the Himalyas and observes as well that people in much of the rest of the world operate without the defeatist "what can you do?" attitude prevalent in America on global warming and many other issues of public policy.

1/1/10

EVERY CLOUD HAS A GREEN LINING. That could be said of the situation in today's depressed market for real estate, as U.S. conservationists from the Everglades to Oregon are finding their way easier to acquire private lands for public conservation, as they are able to purchase land for open conservation at a fraction of what they would have had to pay pre-depression

11/23/09

CALL A PLUMBER: THE NATION'S TOILET IS STOPPED UP. Recently, run-off from hard rains in New York City and elsewhere have led to closing of sewage treatment plants and the forcing of raw sewage into residential streets. Actually, the nation's "plumber" was to have been the Clean Water Act, a major purpose of which was to expand the country's sewage treatment infrastructure. A New York Times environmental survey describes the inadequacy of the resulting effort.

11/19/09

ATTLE AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING BECOMES A FOOD FIGHT AMONG LOBBYISTS FOR ALTERNATIVE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT. A writer for Mother Jones identifies 2810 K-street lobbyists, 5 for each Washington legislator, working the halls of Congress and White House offices on behalf of the particular industry that supports them. The largest of these, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, is made of "a collection of power companies and mining, rail, and manufacturing interests."

11/9/09

ARE WE SURE WE WANT TO PUT MORE DRILLING RIGS IN THE GULF OF MEXICO? As hurricane Ida slams its way through El Salvador and heads toward central Gulf, it is noted that many drilling operations are located in the area, as the Gulf of Mexico furnishes a fourth of the oil consumed in the United States. What's worse? Being dependent for oil supplies to other countries? Or being dependent on the vagaries of nature?

10/25/09

IS JOE PIZARCHICK THE RIGHT MAN TO PUT IN CHARGE OF MOUNTAIN TOP MINING REGULATION? A variety of environmentalist groups say "no," off the dubious record of Pizarchick as a coal industry friendly regulator in Pennsylvania. However, it appeared he was headed for Senate confirmation to lead the Office of Surface Mining until a "mystery Senator" put a hold on the nomination. (Senators Sanders and Menendez, who voted against his nomination in committee, deny that they are the mystery Senator.)

10/21/09

President of Wilderness Society calls on President Obama, by a "stroke of the pen," to set up a National Forest Trust that would place the country's oldest forests in permanent conservation to act as a carbon-trapping facility.

10/11/09

MRS. MURPHY HANGS HER UNDIES OUT TO DRY; THERE GOES THE (TRAILER PARK) NEIGHBORHOOD. Dispute in Canton Ohio trailer park renews a national debate about energy-saving measures that may be deemed by neighbors as aesthetically displeasing. Some states have enacted laws allowing property owners to erect rain barrels or clotheslines, but in others neighborhood associations and even peer pressures against such practices are dampening these personalized efforts at resource conservation.

10/5/09

WHAT KEEPS DIRTY COAL PLANTS IN EXISTENCE? LARGELY, IT'S THE LOCAL SUPPORT FOR THEM. In a metaphor for the nation, Hopi Indian tribe has issued a directive to the Sierra Club to stay out of its efforts to keep coal plants in operation. The tribe claims that it stands to lose millions of dollars in vital tribal dollars if environmentalists succeed in closing or achieving demands for drastic alterations in coal operations.

8/21/09

88 DEGREES AT OCEAN CITY MARYLAND---AND THAT'S IN THE WATER. Ocean temperatures rise to record levels all along Gulf and Atlantic coasts of the U.S., endangering coral reefs and bringing global warming home to these areas.

8/19/09

Seattle voters reject proposal for 20 cent fee for use of disposable shopping bags

8/18/09

IF ARIANNA HUFFINGTON AND DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES DRINK FIJI, CAN IT BE THAT BAD? In a word, yes, according to a Mother Jones article by Anna Lenzer, who goes to Fiji where the new-fashioned "cool" bottled water industry was formed, and notes the "environmental nightmare" of the production practices of this self-confirmed "green" company. Outside reporters who provide such troubling information about the company tend to be intimidated (as was Lenzer) by a corrupt military junta. The company has relied on "product placement" like celebrity use to help it replace Evian as the "in" bottled drink.

8/16/09

Appalachian forestry restoration group seeks to plant 125 million trees to replace forests lost to regional mining operations.

8/12/09

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN BIODIVERSITY SITS ON TOP OF 28.5 BILLION TONS OF ANTHRACITE COAL? In West Virginia, to whose mountaintops were attracted numerous plant and animal species during the North American ice age, what happens is that the coal industry, abetted by government regulators and even such environmentalist agencies as Earthjustice and Sierra Club, engage in a dance of evasion of the Endangered Species Act by avoiding species impact reviews for mining operations. The result, with mountaintop removal, is that the "bio-diversity" is just scraped off the top of the soil along with the layer of soil that covers the coal deposits.

8/7/09

Tongass National Forest in Alaska will be spared application of rule against road building in pristine forests.

8/5/09

MAY WE PLEASE SEE YOUR GREEN CREDENTIALS, MR. OBAMA? To many opponents of mountain-top removal for strip coal mining, including notables ranging from Darryl Hannah to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., it seems that the President has left those credentials in his "other pants," as he fails to deliver on what they thought was his promise to stop the practice in the interest of "clean energy."

7/23/09

THIS IS THE WAY OLD GROWTH FORESTS ARE KEPT "HEALTHY": BY THINNING THEM FOR BIO-MASS PRODUCTION AND FOR PROTECTION AGAINST WILDFIRE? This is the perspective of Michael Donnally in describing the little-if-any difference in the policies for forest preservation of the Republican "logging-industry" administration of GW Bush and the supposedly "eco-friendly" administrations of Clinton and Obama. Through the apparent changes in political environment, the "Green Establishment" of major environmentalist groups has enabled the public in closing its eyes against a rapidly depleting forest stock of the country.

5/22/09

Conservationists are starting to get a little up in (small) arms about Obama's environmental policies.:  Obama having been elected with strong support from many of the nation's environmental organizations, some are starting to feel baited and switched as the details of the new administration emerge.  From failures to protect wolves and polar bears, to tepid industry-approved carbon emissions policies to joining in a Democratic version of "drill baby drill,"  many are starting to say "what gives?"  An opponent of Appalachian mountain-top removal, another area in which the administration has disappointed, suggests that unhappy people scrape the Obama stickers from their cars and send them to the White House in protest.

http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair05212009.html

4/22/09

Is environmentalism a "luxury of the rich?"  Newsweek explores this question through an interview with a Latina environmental activist in a pollution-ridden section of Los Angeles.  Her views feature a description of the issue of environmental justice, as minorities like Latinos in California face particular hazards; but movements like the one of which she is a part are starting to put to rest the idea that such minorities are powerless to deal with their situation

http://www.newsweek.com/id/194823

4/22/09

Masschusetts Governor Patrick gets more plus than minus grades for his policies in an Earth Day evaluation by the state's league of environmental voters.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/04/22/patrick_gets_good_grades_on_environment/

3/12/09

"Getting arrested isn't always as easy as it should be.."  An environmental activist reflects on the "ease" with which he and his companions got themselves "arrested" at the scene of a stop-work action at a mountain top removal coal operation of Massey Energy in West Virginia.  He contrasts this with the "timidity" of a March 5 "mobilization" of civil disobedience in Washington D.C. of Power Shift, in which Bill McKibbens and other activists did not "succeed" at any efforts to have well-publicized arrests of themselves

http://www.counterpunch.org/roselle03112009.html

2/28/09

American obsession for a softer toilet paper gives them the most pampered buttocks in the world.  It also helps promote global warming in that softer tissues are largely the product of carbon-trapping virgin forest trees compared to the recycled waste products that produce the harder variety of toilet paper.  Greenpeace says this is a consumer luxury we should forego in the interest of the world's future.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/26/toilet-roll-america 

2/14/09

Is clean coal the answer to U.S. energy needs?   The new administration's emphasis on coal-based petroleum production might help reduce the country's "dependence on foreign oil" but, says Joshua Frank, it will do nothing to lessen carbon emissions and will do a great deal to advance the environmental and human disaster of mountaintop removal of coal in Appalachia.

http://www.counterpunch.org/frank02132009.html

2/12/09

Are nuclear power building projects shovel ready (or straw ready)? An essayist for Alter Net questions the inclusion in the "stimulus package" of $50 billion for nuclear power development.  The guiding criterion for "infrastructure" projects to be supported by federal grants is that they are "shovel ready" projects, which can immediately generate jobs, the supposed rationale of the stimulus policy.  With most nuclear power projects years away from beginning actual construction and the likelihood that they would tie up funds that deprive more "shovel ready" projects, the author questions their inclusionin the "stimulus package."

http://www.alternet.org/environment/126464/?page=1

2/12/09

U.S. Geological Survey trying to find out how much oil there is in western North Dakota.

http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2009/02/12/news/state/176387.txt

2/8/09

Is the development of nuclear energy a solution to global warming?  Maybe, but warnings are being sounded by scientists that the climatological effects of warming may serve to increase the risks associated with nuclear power developments as their destruction in tsunamis and other meterological events can add to catastrophic effects of these events.  With a President and Secretary of Energy committed to nuclear development and $50 billion being offered to such development in the current "stimulus" package, can these warnings be ignored?

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/nuclear-power-can%e2%80%99t-be-a-solution-to-global-warming-precisely-because-of-global-warming/

1/27/09

President Obama orders EPA to review an earlier decision to forbid states like California from enacting their own standards of carbon emissions for automobiles that exceed the restrictions of federal policy. (Yet to be determined is how EPA will stand up to the expected furor of auto industry lobbyists.)

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/257/story/60783.html

1/24/09

Cape Cod environmentalists concerned that Georges Bay may be opened to off-shore drilling, as new Secretary of Interior says all regulations are under "review."

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090124/NEWS/901240302

12/16/08

Colorado Senator Ken Salazar is said to be in line for appointment as Secretary of the Interior. He has, at best, a mixed record on environmental issues, having for example opposed oil drilling in Colorado but supported it in other people's (off-shore) back yards. Environmentalists lobbied Obama for Rep. Grijalva for the post and some express disappointment though "hope" for a "sympathetic soul" in the office.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-interior16-2008dec16,0,1792560.story  

12/8/08

"John (nuke bailout) Bryson must bot be new secretary of energy"  Harvey Wasserman joins the parade of un-solicited advisers to Barack Obama on the make-up of his cabinet, hoping to shoot down one trial balloon which would make the former head of the California Public Utilities Commission the energy secretary.  Wasserman notes how, before he "greenwashed" his views by promoting wind energy, Bryson played a key role both in the de-regulation of electric rates that lead to Enron's boom and bust, and in a bailout of the ailing nuclear power industry.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/07-2

12/8/08

Neighbors and environmentalists oppose the dredging of a canal that would provide boat access between two streams in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/annearundel/bal-ar.foxcreek07dec07,0,4078480.story  

12/6/08

A litmus test for progressivism in Obama's cabinet? Look for his appointment of secretary of Interior:   With the Bush administration's wilderness policy going out in a flame of ignonimy, Robert Lovata says Obama needs a true progressive in this position to balance the otherwise-centrist cabinet. Lovata finds such a person in Congressman Raul Grijalva from Arizona, now being "considered" for the post; he has a sterling record of opposition to the environmental atrocities of the Bush years. It's time for progressive to "hope" again; it still may be that Obama will appoint a "blue dog Democrat" like Mike Thompson of California.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/110530/?page=1

FOR ANOTHER VIEW ON THOMPSON, SEE:

http://www.willitsnews.com/ci_11049849?source=most_viewed

11/25/08

Clean energy plans in U.S. may have been set back by failing economic conditions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/world/25climate.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

11/3/08

Van Jones advocates for a "green growth alliance" that would combine elements of labor, environmental activism, social justice, students, faith activists and green-friendly business into a political alliance that could duplicate the unlikely combination that ushered in the New Deal.  It won't be easy, of course, and Jones notes as case in point California's adoption of the Governor's green environmental initiative, only to be reversed by the scare tactics of the state's oil and gas lobby that resulted in the repeal of this action by Proposition 7.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/02-5

10/25/08

U.S. coastal erosion scientists are working to develop various varieties of "living  coast lines" that they say will be more effective than earthen bulwarks in containing erosion.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2188/story/1268350.html  

9/5/08

"The most hydrologically altered landmass on the planet."  That would be California, according to Rachel Oliviera. The rampant over-development in the state has created great stress on the limited water supply of the state, as leaders struggle to find some scheme for water re-distribution which will somehow accomplish the impossible, the satisfaction of the water needs of the people of the state. (Florida might want to dispute this #1 rating for California.)

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/09/the-silence-of-collapse/

7/17/08

Care for a big helping of Kentucky fried earth?  That's what we will get, says an environmentalist, if the energy industry expands on a just-announced plan to construct a $4 billion plant in Kentucky that would convert coal into liquid petroleum.  While proponents babble on about elimination of "oil dependence" and an "environmentally friendly" production process, there is no present technology that would make liquified coal less productive of global warming, and no chance of such fuel being produced in quantities necessary to create an "independent" fuel supply.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/16/10395/

7/12/08

It's official: There will be no clean air enforcement for the duration of Bush's presidency:   An announcement by the EPA and a court ruling cement what has been generally understood: that President Bush will make no changes to environmental regulations during the balance of his presidency, leaving the problem to his successor in the White House.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/12/washington/12enviro.html?th&emc=th  

7/11/08

Will the EPA actually be "protecting" the environment anytime soon?  Apparently not so, as Bush has decided that, though the Agency is mandated to make determinations about the global warming effects of carbon emissions, any actual such determinations should be on the "agenda" of the next President, not Bush. So, as the lame duck flaps his way into the sunset, the EPA will limit itself to receiving "public comments" over the next six months.(Really, what's the hurry?  The world's G-8 powers gave themselves until 2050 to halve carbon emissions.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/10/AR2008071003087.html?wpisrc=newsletter

7/8/08

Rain barrel sales in North Carolina drop off sharply, despite the return of drought conditions to the area.  http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1126313.html  

6/19/08

Score one for the tree-sitters at Berkeley:.  After 19 months of protest at the University of California against plans to remove a grove of oak trees to make way for construction of a new athletic center, a judge rules that the project must be put on temporary hold while its environmental impact is being assessed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/us/19tree.html  

6/14/08

Drill for oil in Florida offshiore because "the Chinese" are doing it ; and urban legend exploded: Vice President Cheney, in support of promoting oil exploration in ANWR as well as the Gulf of Mexico, tells a Chamber of Commerce crowd that China is drilling in areas in which U.S. companies are forbidden to drill. Republican Senator Mel Martinez, among others, challenges the veracity of this claim, calling it an "urban legend"  and the Vice President's office admits the error.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/40994.html    

6/14/08

Police and climate warming protesters have pitched battle as protestors stop a train loaded with coal headed toward a power plant in Britain.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/green-protesters-hijack-train-carrying-1000-tonnes-of-coal-846940.html   

5/26/08

Acting locally on the environment: Oberlin leads the way again:.  Students in a "sustainability" dorm in the Ohio college compete with one another on who can take the shortest showers and share refrigerators between adjacent rooms, among the projects designed to model a reduced carbon emissions footprint on the planet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/education/26green.html?th&emc=th  

5/26/08

U.S. meterologist changes his mind, now says global warming is not a cause of increased hurricanes in Atlantic Ocean.

http://www.thecanadianpress.com/english/online/OnlineFullStory.aspx?filename=B051808AU&newsitemid=140870048&languageid=1

5/25/08

From where is the most effective environmentalist action coming today?  In Joshua Frank's view not from the likely actions (as opposed to the green-washing rhetoric) of presidential candidates the like of Obama or McCain, not from big environmentalist organizations like the Sierra Club that have effectively been co-opted by the corporate hegemony.  Rather the "action" today is coming from grassroots efforts in, for example, local initiatives that have stopped coal-burning power facilities "one plant at a time."

http://www.counterpunch.org/kojeve05242008.html

5/25/08

"Energy survivalists" plan to save themselves and their families by their personal consumption habits, not to save "the planet."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004437267_enviro25.html  

5/23/08

Western cattle ranchers fuming over proposed change in Clean Water Act that would re-define the word "navigable" to further limit the water that they can divert to use in their cattle operations.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2008-05-21-water-law_N.htm  

5/15/08

Polar bear the first victim in the war on global warming.  Secretary of the Interior announces a "threatened" status for the polar bear, based on observations that its Arctic ice cap habitat is rapidly melting away and that the bear faces possible extinction in 45 years.  The bear is the first species so designated as threatened because of global warming, can penguins be far behind?

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2008/05/15/polar_bears_get_protection/

5/15/08

Higher crop prices are encouraging Wisconsin farmers to maintain farm operations rather than participate in the state's green conservation program.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=749516

5/10/08

Environmentalists win victory in Minnesota as state judges rule against allowing state power lines to be extended to receive electric power from coal-burning generator plant in South Dakota.

http://www.twincities.com/ci_9211943  

4/28/08

You don't have to be Al Gore to be a climate hero:.  Orion Magazine publishes an article by a writer who cites the Bystander Effect, well demonstrated in psychological studies, of people witnessing an emergency in a crowd being enervated by the very number of non-responding people in the crowd.  It takes only one alert-sounder to break the cohesion of bystanding and mobilize response to the emergency.  The author describes her own personal efforts at advocating and practicing small scale responses to the climate change emergency.  Her type of "heroism" on the climate is available to any citizen activist and may be a vital part of the ultimate solution of the problem.

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/2957/  

4/11/08

To some Libertarians, global warming is a (way) inconvenient truth:.  The "free market" whose benevolent power the libertarian philosophy glorifies is described by this writer as the very cause of the worldwide climate crisis, as unregulated choices in fuel consumption have had the aggregate effect of humanitarian catastrophe.  With the libertarian hostility to action in the "public interest" (including regulation of economic activity), some are constrained to question the very "science" of global warming in order to protect their political philosophy. (And you're now a libertarian, Mike Gravel? Say what?).

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/climate-reality-bites-the-libertarians-in-the-arse/  

4/9/08

Rise in food prices is encouraging U.S. farmers to take land out of "conservation" and back into production of food products.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/business/09conserve.html?th&emc=th

4/2/08

"Criminal activity at the border does not stop for endless debate or protracted litigation": Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff so justifies federal government's decision to allow waivers on environmental impact reviews associated with building of border wall between U.S. and Mexico.  Wall construction can now proceed without those pesky "debates and litigation" about environmental concerns, which are trumped by "security" ones.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/01/AR2008040101026.html?wpisrc=newsletter

4/2/08

Water plentiful now in Rhode Island after recent rains, but anticipated drought in August leads officials to take pre-emptive actions to avert disappearance of water reserve.

http://www.projo.com/news/content/newwaterlaw_04-01-08_QH9HSAK_v27.38f7762.html  

3/28/08

U.S. labor unions are beginning to embrace the "green revolution " more fully . But, as a recent conference co-sponsored by United Steelworkers and Sierra Club illustrates, the devil is in the details of plans to convert to a more environmentally-friendly work economy without putting American workers at an undue disadvantage from implementation of the plans.

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/17006

3/22/08

Restaurants in Boston area are joining the national reaction against bottled water as "bad for the environment," with one restaurant near Harvard offering waiters with pitchers of water described as "Cambridge filtered" tap water.

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2008/03/22/tapping_into_greener_dining_eateries_table_bottled_water/  

3/17/08

Use of transit and car-pooling are becoming increasingly popular in Alaska as residents are reacting to the rising cost of gasoline.

http://www.adn.com/matsu/story/347435.html  

3/17/08

Plans for sand and gravel mining on Maryland's Eastern Shore are raising environments' concerns for protection of wetlands.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.gravel17mar17,0,4001251.story  

2/6/08

Georgia loses latest skirmish in water war with Florida and Alabama:   Federal court rules that Georgia cannot increase the retention of water in Lake Lanier without prior approval of Congress, a ruling that would guarantee a higher rate of run-off to locales in the other states.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/06/us/06water.html?th&emc=th

1/21/08

"The key to our staying in business is to keep the environment pristine" says an employee of a company that operates eco-tours to the Arctic and Antarctic.  There's a dialectic in here somewhere, as the very success of such a company is predicted on a "mass" of people going to see vanishing species or threatened historical sites.  However green their "footprint" aims to be, the arrival of tourists invariably compromises the "pristine" quality of the environment.  Some companies just brashly acknowledge this and move toward the fast-buck solution:  hurry, hurry and see the polar bear and the penguin before their polar habitats melt away

http://www.countercurrents.org/leahy180108.htm  

1/11/08

Private purchasers are out-competing cash-starved public agencies in bid to buy up conservation lands in the American west.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0111/p01s03-uspo.html  

1/8/07

Great Lake states are struggling to hold onto their relatively plentiful water supplies in the face of fears of diversion of water to parched west and midwest.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0107/p03s03-uspo.html

12/30/07

American wilderness West becoming playground and battleground as off-the-road vehicle riders invade areas where such use is prohibited.

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695240000,00.html

12/8/07

"Good to the last drop": Water mining the New Mexico desert.  Under a proposed implementation of the "Rio Grande" Compact," water miners would be allowed to mine billions of gallons of water from the NM aquifer, to be transported to the Rio Grande River for use in Texas industrial processes.  In a variety of "judicial activism" practiced by Republican courts in both New Mexico and Michigan, a citizen has no standing before a court to protest the action unless he/she has can demonstrate a "personal injury" from the protested project.  So much for the "injury" to the environment and the likely process by means of which New Mexico would be drained to the last drop by the miners as mere interested "citizens" have to stand by because they are not "personally" involved.

http://www.counterpunch.org/verluis12072007.html

11/16/07

Science and politics clash over global warming at the Smithsonian.  Some scientists allege, and the curator denies, that the museum ordered changes in a 2006 exhibit on global warming, fearing investigations by congressional committees. This is one of several controversies about the scientific integrity of the institute, including an on-going uncertainty over whether to accept a large grant from the American Petroleum Institute.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/15/AR2007111502550.html?wpisrc=newsletter  

11/11/07

Massive Walk Against Warming demonstrations, calling for significant reduction in greehouse gas emissions, are occurring in Melbourne, Sydney and across Australia.

http://www.latinamericapress.org/article.asp?IssCode=&lanCode=1&artCode=5359  

11/9/07

Congress accomplishes its first over-ride of a Bush veto, in a bill related to development of water resources.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/110807R.shtml  

10/25/07

University studies in New Mexico indicate likelihood of global climate changes producing diminishing water supplies in Rio Grande watershed.

http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2007/oct/24/study-climate-change-will-mean-less-water-rio-gran/  

10/22/07

Cost of removing coastal Alaskan villages imperilled by global warming over the next decade is said to be "staggering."

http://www.adn.com/front/story/9398619p-9311989c.html

10/21/07

What happnened to Al Gore's Nobel prize?  A cartoon.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/215/gallery/20290.html

10/10/07

Environmentalists return from trip to Arctic Greenland and give an alarming report on the progress of melting of the polar ice cap. As one indication, they observed fissures or "moulins" in glaciers that were pouring Niagara Falls level torrents of water into the ocean. How alarming? They raise the spectre of ocean level rises that could inundate New York City and other east coast areas in a previously unbelievable time.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/64735/

10/6/07

California Governor Schwarzenegger's plan to build 2 large dams and expand an existing reservoir to boost the state's water supplies is criticized as contrary to his image as a champion in the fight to reduce gas emissions.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/06/MN4KSJAM5.DTL&tsp=1  

9/17/07

Environmentalist Bill Fletcher eavesdrops on some conversations of his teenaged daughter and her friends and finds they are expressing a level of despair about the earth's future suvivival that makes them literally unwilling to bring more children into the world.  Even when this "elephant" is not being discussed, its has a uniquitous mental presence

http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2007-08/28fletcher.cfm

9/9/07

In america, smaller families are living in bigger houses.  In 1950, the average home had 290 square of feet of floor space per family member, in 2003 it was 900 square feet.  Despite the "housing bust," McMansions and other big houses continue to be built and, though developers typically describe them as being built to "green standards," the energy consumption of these "mansions" makes them anything but green.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/61523/?page=1

9/8/07

Saving a species (Coral) may be an opening to saving the planet (from global warming):  Recent settlement concerning implementation of the Endangered Species Act encourages environmentalists to hope they might use species protection as a wedge to legislate against carbon emissions practices that have species-endangering effects.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0907/p03s03-usgn.html?s=wklyenv

9/5/07

Hudson River in New York is being given a high-tech 24/7 monitoring system to warn of any threats arising from ecological changes along the river.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0905/p03s03-usgn.html?page=1  

8/25/07

A Vermont "right to dry" movement is part of a nationwide effort to promote energy conservation by state laws against neighborhood association bans on backyard clotheslines so that wind and sun can replace machine drying.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0824/p01s03-ussc.html?s=wklyenv

7/11/07

Will Laura Bush plant a Victory Garden"?  Eleanor Roosevelt did this during World War II, symbolizing the commitment of the U.S. government and people to an "austerity" level of consumption that would free resources for the war effort.  Maybe (just maybe) the country, with leaders of environmental vision (remember Jimmy Carter turning off lights in the White House?) could lead America from the orgy of luxury consumption that threatens to engulf the world.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/55925/?page=2  

7/9/07

Nantucket Island is a sand castle waiting to be washed to sea and the wealthy residents of the island are sinking millions of dollars into the sand buckets and scoops to try to hold back the inevitable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/us/08island.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin  

7/9/07

"There are people at this event who are not picking their trash"  As Live Earth comes and goes with live concerts around the world, their promoters like Al Gore tout them as the beginning of a great environmentalist movement, while critics say many participants were "there for the music" and the message fell on deaf ears.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0709/p12s01-wogi.html?page=2  

7/7/07

Allowing wildfires to burn to promote a natural forest ecology ignites a debate in Utah on firefighting strategies.

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6319909  

7/4/07

22 years after building a sewage treatment plant with required wetland replacements, the sewer district and environmentalists in St. Louis are still in dispute about the number of acres of wetland required by the agreement.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/4435DF3C46E6EC2D8625730D00815DDD?OpenDocument

6/22/07

Senate passes energy bill that raises fuel emission standards for automakers, but fails to impose excess taxes on oil company profits or provide incentives for conversion to alternative energy sources.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/22/us/22energy.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin  

6/22/07

Corporate America joining the "green" revolution by changing autos driven by their employees to more fuel-efficient ones.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0622/p01s01-usec.html  

6/20/07

Auto industry representatives are lobbying Congress against increase in fuel efficiency standards.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MI_FUEL_ECONOMY_MIOL-?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT  

6/12/07

Missouri city yields to environmentalists' objections and drops plan for annexation of a wild life preserve donated to the state by the Busch family.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stcharles/story/E3007D2892397E85862572F80018AEA0?OpenDocument

6/11/07

Alaska legislators considering a deal that would would exchange 62,000 new acres of wildlife refuge for an easement for a 7 mile road to a remote part of the state.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/rural/story/8967942p-8883675c.html

6/8/07

When Chevron and Wal-Mart become "eco-friendly" leaders, should activists celebrate or worry about a corporate "greenwash" of the environmental movement? Philip Mattera leans toward "worry," as he notes that this is the second round of such "greening" activity, the first having been launched in the early 1990s in the wake of Valdez and other disasters.  This time, there is much less skepticism about the motivations and sustainability of these new commitments, and it seems that corporate America has co-opted and controlled the enviromental movement far more that the movement has influenced corporations.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/06/06/the_greenwashing_of_america.php

6/4/07

Land preservation purchases begin to move in a Maryland county as the prices paid for these purchases from farmers are doubled.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/howard/bal-ho.preservation03jun03,0,7347281.story?coll=bal-local-howard  

6/1/07

Joshua Frank, a frequent contributor to CounterPunch.Org, weighs in on the controversy raised by CP editor Alexander Cockburn in recent articles critical of Al Gore and the whole concept of imminent damage from carbon emissions and global warming. Frank notes that the scientists cited by Cockburn to support his skepticism are individuals who are subsidized in various ways by the self-interested coal and gas industries.

http://www.countercurrents.org/frank010607.htm

5/27/07

U.S. rejects draft German proposal for upcoming G 8 summit which would establish mandatory gas emissions standards for the world's countries.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/25/AR2007052501952.html?referrer=email  

5/27/07

Alaskan native village of Newtok is rapidly becoming an island as a result of global warming and the melting of permafrost.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/us/27newtok.html?th&emc=th

5/15/07

Bill introduced in Congress would make Rocky Mountain National Park a designated wilderness after decades of efforts to accomplish this.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_5896255 

4/29/07

Evolution of a new mosquito breed in Maine woods in response to global warming illustrates how species with short life spans can adapt more quickly than those like mammals with long life spans.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/04/29/in_mosquito_a_small_tale_of_climate_change/  

4/22/07

Dane County Wisconsin getting high marks for its "green" program of energy conservation in its public buildings.

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/index.php?ntid=130509&ntpid=2

4/14/07

Next week's Chicago Green Festival will feature an A-list line-up of environmental speakers to highlight the country's most active "sustainability" conference.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/13/496/  

4/13/07

US automakers challenging the right of states to issue carbon emission standards:   As the battle against global warming moves from a tepid Environmental "Protection" Agency to aggressive actions in indivdual states, automakers file in court against Vermont's right to issue such regulations. Outcome could be critical for environmentalists' seeking to curb carbon emissions.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0412/p04s01-wogi.html

4/8/07

U.S. Forest Services' "National Forest Planning" is planning western wilderness into oblivion.  The last remaining U.S. wilderness, in Montana and Nevada, is the target of still further Forest Service actions that permit destructive corporate logging operations.

http://www.counterpunch.com/stclair04072007.html

4/7/07

"The pine was inexhaustable. Seventy saw mills in seventy years could not exhaust the white pine I have seen on the Rum River."  So said a "scout" who first saw the pine woods of Minnesota in 1847.  Within 25 years, every pine in the state had been cut, demonstrating the human tendency to under-estimate the powers of our own destructiveness.  It may be hard to imagine catastrophic global warming and put it down to "tree-huggers' propaganda," but we can learn a lesson from our history of these under-estimations.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/06/351/

4/4/07

Dam the weather! Drought conditions in American West push states to largest-ever water development projects.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/us/04drought.html?th&emc=th

4/4/07

Sportsmen and ranchers square off in Montana for battle over "stream access."  It appears that the ranchers are mostly winning.

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/04/04/legislative/top_copy/36_01.txt

4/3/07

Supreme Court renders a startling decision that the Bush administration must obey the law: in this case the law passed by Congress (Clean Air Act) that requires the Environmental Protection Agency to make assessments of the impact of greenhouse emissions on global warming.  The minority are the "usual suspects" of Roberts, Alito, Scalia and Thomas.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0403/p01s01-usju.html

4/1/07

Wilderness Society challenges U.S. Forest Service assumptions about the economic value of logging in Alaska's Tongass Forest.

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/4591

4/1/07

"Eco-Palms" arrive at US churches for Palm Sunday:   A burgeoning industry has developed in southern Mexico and northern Guatemala in which indigeneous workers scour the forests for palm fronds that are harvested in a non-destructive way and the proceeds are recently to the workers themselves.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/world/americas/01palm.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin  

3/28/07

Watch-dog agency charges widespread White House efforts to stifle scientific research on climate change.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032707R.shtml  

3/27/07

Pro-business Republican magnate in Alaska goes green and becomes chief funder of a movement in opposition to planned gold and copper open pit mine in the state's Bristol Bay region.

http://www.adn.com/front/story/8742677p-8644439c.html  

3/24/07

Where global warming consciousness dictates a local style.  Cross San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and you're in Marin County, where hikers, bikers and walkers rule and the driving of an automobile is treated as something of a sin.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0323/p20s01-lihc.html?page=1

3/22/07

A really inconvenient truth: "unabted global growth in coal-fired power ."  A Christian Science Monitor analysis shows an expected worldwide increase in carbon emissions despite China's efforts to curb them, as that country will remain the world's "worst" environmental offender.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0322/p01s04-wogi.html  

3/18/07

U.S. ski industry is recognizing its own self-interest in combatting global warming by promoting renewable energy and resource conservation in its ski lodges around the country.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/travel/2007-03-18-skiing-green_N.htm  

3/18/07

Neglect and lack of awareness of New York City residents of its existence make for a troubled existence for a "greenway" national park projects on the refurbished outer skirts of the city.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nydiar185134914mar18,0,3110205.story?coll=ny-nynews-print  

3/12/07

The Earth strikes back::  Upcoming Hollywood movies will feature a scenario of earth's environment as the victim of abuse and with Mother Nature striking back to avenge these wrongs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/movies/12vill.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

2/27/07

Recent sale of TXU energy company in Texas has "environmentalists' fingerprints" on it, as Wall Street investors looked to a new management which would enhance efforts against global warming by scaling back company's plans for new coal-fired plants in Texas.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0227/p01s02-usec.html

2/14/07

Wal-Mart and global warming: Talking the talk and walking the walk - The talk:  Wal-Mart and other major U.S. companies have made pronouncements about their corporate commitments to practices to discourage global warming.  The walk:  Wal-Mart and these corporations continue to provide campaign funding support for the environmentally unfriendly Bush administration as well as many members of Congress with dismal voting records with the League of Conservation Voters. Will they put their campaign financing practices where their corporate mouths are?

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0213-24.htm

2/7/07

Thers's Democratic science and there's Republican science: National Journal "Congressional Insider Poll" finds that 95% of Democrats and 13% of Republicans believe that there is conclusive evidence that global warming in caused by human activity.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/05/warming-13-percent/

2/6/07

Withholding funds to protect the future of the Earth; De-funding of Iraqi war?  No, the effort being made to prevent financial institutions like Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley from "arranging" the $10 billion of financing required by a Texas energy company for building a string of greenhouse-gas emitting coal-fired plants in that state.

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/47615/    

2/5/07

New rules are proposed that would triple the number of snowmobiles allowed to be used in Yellowstone National Park.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/05/us/05snowmobile.html?th&emc=th

2/5/07

Christian Science Monitor advocates telecommuting as an energy saver.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0201/p08s02-comv.html  

2/4/07

American Enterprise Institute spends some of its $1.6 million received from Exxon/Mobil to offer stipends to scientists who will help rebut the claims about climate change in a report of a UN panel.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2004399,00.html  

2/1/07

Unseasonably warm weather in Alaska melts ice sculptures.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/kenai/story/8607108p-8499753c.html   

1/31/07

Rep. Henry Waxman opens congressional investigation to probe whether Bush administration has pressured scientists to question the "science of global warming."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070130/pl_nm/bush_warming_dc_3  

1/31/07

Minnesota legislators get an earful from environmentalists in a bicameral meeting at which they are warned that the state faces dire consequences if the problem of green house emissions is ignored.

http://www.startribune.com/587/story/970648.html  

1/30/07

"Cap and trade," a market-based approach to controlling carbon emissions that was pioneered in Europe, is incorporated in legislation now pending in Congress.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0130/p02s01-usec.html

1/28/07

How global warming is affecting people in one small part of the globe: northern New England.

http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2007/01/28/climate_change/

1/26/07

Forest conservation group says oil and gas drilling in Allegheny National Forest in northwest Pennsylvania is causing major environmental damage there.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07026/756972-50.stm

1/23/07

Global warming initiatives in new Congress are threatened by rivalry between speaker Pelosi and some other powerful committee heads.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/22/AR2007012201508.html?referrer=email  

1/23/07

Environmental groups fight to stop the expansion of "wilderness roads" in Death Valley National Park.

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/4157     

1/21/07

70 people take plunge into icy waters of Chesapeake Bay to dramatize the issue of global warming.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.warm21jan21,0,1502660.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

1/15/07

Conservationists complain that Sustainable Forestry Initiatives, which certifies logging operations as "green" friendly, is far too generous in their "green stamping" of these operations.

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/4091  

1/14/07

Opportunity lost:  Recent violent storms in Seattle, Denver and elsewhere provided a moment of opportunity for the public to become more aware of the impending consequences of global warming.  For the most part, our opinion leaders and our media dropped the ball on that moment.

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0113-25.htm  

1/14/07

Minnesota conservationists appalled at announced plan to sell 310,000 more acres in the state's northern woodlands for private development.

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2007/01/sprawl_of_the_w.asp

1/10/07

Reality of global warming indicated in data showing 2006 was the warmest year in U.S. history.

http://www.tbo.com/news/nationworld/MGBWQCX8RWE.html  

1/8/07

General Motors, which "killed the electric car" that it put out in 1990, introduces a new prototype car powered mostly by electrical batteries.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/07/AR2007010700904_pf.html

12/30/06

Forest ecologist at University of Wisconsin warns that the state's evergreen tree forest may become "never-greens" as a result of global warming.

http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/topstories/index.php?ntid=112973&ntpid=0

12/29/06

Opinion: The Bush administration has acknowledged the reality of global warming where diminishment of polar bear habitat is concerned; dare we hope that this new realization will lead to concern as well for the human population of the earth?

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=547002  

12/24/06

In the absence of federal response to global warming concerns, cities, suburbs and rural communities across America are exercising creative solutions to the problem of encouraging energy conservations among their residents.

http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-climate1224.artdec24,0,6430849.story?coll=hc-headlines-nationworld

12/24/06

Green building efforts in Seattle, focussing on environmental improvements in new construction, are finally getting around to focussing on re-modelling of existing structures as well.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/297072_greenbuilding23.html  

12/24/06

Asheville NC joins 65 other U.S. cities in enacting green building codes in which new structures must show 50% energy use reduction over previous structures.

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200661223044

12/24/06

Although their own tribal authorities have approved the project, elderly Navavjos and other Indian activitists have protested against plan to construct coal-fired power plants on their tribal lands.

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/4007  

12/23/06

Court reduces ExxonMobil's fine for 1989 oil spill at Valdex Alaska from $4.5 to $2.5 billion.  So far the fine is unpaid and judge calls for a speedy end to the case.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6204819.stm

12/21/06

Dreaming of a green Christmas in Buffalo as unseasonably warm temperatures have kept any possibility of a white one at bay.

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20061221/1031185.asp  

12/18/06

New U.S. Forest Service rules will reduce the accountability of federal land management plans for environmental impact.

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3989

12/10/06

Wetlands protection may become more difficult under new EPA policy that requires that local staff submit to headquarters any intent to warn Corps of Engineers that a permit by developers might threaten wetland preservation.

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3959  

12/6/06

Barbara Boxer, to become chair of Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in January, pledges a "sea change" in environmental policy as global warming dangers will be taken extremely seriously.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061205/ap_on_go_co/boxer_interview  

12/2/06

Natural resource conservation in the American West gets big boost from recent elections, as voters turned down efforts to expose "road-less" wilderness to commercial exploitation, and environmentally friendly candidates of both parties tended to prevail in both parties, with assistance from hunting and fishing lobbies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101532.html?referrer=email  

11/30/06

Senator Jeff Bingaman, to become chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee says that, with Democratic control of Congress, there is no danger of Arctic drilling; oil industries officials agree.

http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2006/nov/30/bingaman-arctic-safe-drilling/  

11/28/06

Baltimore joins in suit against EPA now being heard at Supreme Court, claiming that lack of U.S. efforts against global warming produces flood threat to over 800 buildings in its Inner Harbor.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.scotus28nov28,0,6150191.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

11/28/06

Tennesee to make major land conservation purchase of land in Cumberland Plateau.

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/state/article/0,1406,KNS_348_5174105,00.html  

11/26/06

Best school curriculum money can buy: National Science Teachers' Association turns down offer of producers of An Inconvenient Truth to donate 50,000 DVDs for showing in school classrooms.  NSTA didn't want to cater to "special interests" and besides this would compromise their capital campaign's efforts with "targeted" donors.  It turns out one of these was global warming-denying Exxon-Mobile, which has given them $6 million.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/24/AR2006112400789_pf.html 

11/24/06

Construction of big soccer facility in Michigan which paved over much wetlands raises the ire of conservationists.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061124/METRO/611240376/1003 

11/18/06

Coalition of environmental groups sues the Bush administration for failure to assess impact of global warming as required by a 1990 act of Congress.

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3905

11/16/06

Seattle officials and building industry leaders spar over state's proposed tightening of energy efficiency standards in homes.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/292568_energy16.html

11/15/06

Sea change of leadership of Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee as environmental advocate Barbara Boxer replaces global warming skeptic James Inhofe.

http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061114/UPDATE/61114022  

10/27/06

Efforts to designate a portion of Gallatin River in Montana as an Outstanding Resource Water is resisted by developers who fear the could not get necessary water permits for planned developments.

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2006/10/27/ap-state-mt/d8l0drq80.txt  

10/26/06

In Montana's Northern Cheyenne Reservation, Indians are debating whether to accept a contract for mining coal on their reservation that may be economically profitable but ecologically destructive.

http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096413879  

10/24/06

U.S. Department of Energy turns down proposals to significantly increase the energy efficient requirements of newly-manufactured electrical appliances.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/23/AR2006102301156.html?referrer=email

10/23/06

Survey study in Alaska shows that thousands of ponds have shrunk or disappeared across the state resulting from permafrost loss with global warming.

http://www.adn.com/news/environment/story/8334961p-8231059c.html

10/9/06

Massachusetts begins massive program to thin its public forest lands; little objection so far because it is done in the name of envirornmental "management" and because it has occurred with very little publicity as yet.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/10/09//?page=1

10/6/06

Environmental groups oppose plan of National Park Service to allow "bio-prospecting" in the parks: contracted right of businesses to remove plant and animal "organisms" which could be used in biological research.

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3734  

10/4/06

Animals without borders?  Environmentalist condemn the plan for a 700 mile fence on the U.S./Mexican border for its likely devastating effects on animal species which have habitats that cross this border.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1003-08.htm  

9/27/06

Article in the journal Nature says President Bush suppressed release of a report indicating a relationship between global warming and hurricane frequency and intensity.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060926/ap_on_sc/hurricane_report;_ylt-

9/21/06

Bush administration finally has a "policy" (4 years in the making)  to fight global warming. It is based on voluntary emissions controls and the application of advanced technology. Critics including Republicans say it is far too "long term" in its focus to have any immediate impact.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/20/AR2006092001697.html?referrer=email&referrer=email&referrer=email

9/21/06

Federal judge in California rejects Bush administration policy of allowing local jurisdictions to decide whether logging operations can be conducted in "roadless" areas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/washington/21roads.html?th&emc=th

9/7/06

Poll shows that people in Maine are more environmentally conscious and fearful of global warming than people in the U.S. generally.

http://www.bangornews.com/news/t/statewide.aspx?articleid=140044&zoneid=500

9/1/06

Terminator moves to terminate greenhouse gas emissions as Governor and Democratic legislators reach agreement that would make California the first state in the union to ban all emissions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083002784.html  

8/31/06

Texas Governor promotes sell-off to private developers of 400 acres of public parks in Tarrant County.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/15396731.htm  

8/18/06

In Baltimore, they are "saving" a creek by bulldozing a wooded park and cutting down 150 to complete  a stream re-location project.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.stream18aug18,0,6683636.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

8/11/06

U.S. cities and states aren't waiting for federal action on global warming. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/10/AR2006081001492.html?referrer=email&referrer=email&referrer=email

8/10/06

As business resists carbon emissions controls on the "bottom line" consideration of its costs, Sachs Goldman Group is warning that global warming may wipe out that line as businesses face catastrophic insurance rates reflecting the catastropic effects of global warming.

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_4160191

8/10/06

Mayor Richard Daley's project for the "greening of Chicago" continues with expansion of roof-top flower gardens and wind turbine generators.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/09/AR2006080901625.html?referrer=email    

8/9/06

Global Warming arrives in Alaska. Glaciers are disapperaing, and plants and animals are being forced from their usual habitats:

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-08-09-voa34.cfm

8/9/06

After Alaska oil pipe line is shut down, BP and other oil companies have no worry: the price of oil will go up and their robust profits as well. Who will pay the bill? Find out when you go to the gas pump.  http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3511

7/27/06

To the dismay of conservationists, Bureau of Land Management loosens the rules on grazing of cattle on federal lands.

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3458/continued/334#continued

7/14/06

How much fuel is consumed by those Air Force Thunderbird demonstration aircraft?  Local re-fueling operation at one of their stops, Grand Forks, North Dakota, loads 45,000 pounds of jet fuel in a mid-air operation.

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/15034850.htm

7/10/06

An inconvenient corporate policy: Ford and GM could have, like Toyota, used their investment in product development to introduce smaller and hybrid vehicles. Instead, they chose to give "unlimited gas" at $1.99 per gallon to purchasers of their gas-guzzling models. How environmentally unfriendly can you get?

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0709-26.htm

7/9/06

Reaching the skeptical "guy in the pickup" as well as "preaching to the choir": Gore's global warming film is playing to appreciative Red State (and Red Regions like Orange County California) audiences.  http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0708-04.htm      

6/16/06

Global warming may seem a hopeless inevitability; but hope is being generated locally as U.S. cities are taking their own actions to control gas emissions and to take other environmental initiatives that can have a great cumulative effect. 

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0616-26.htm

6/9/06

NASA's decision to shelve its program of satellite monitoring of climatic conditions is a blow to efforts to deal with global warming.   http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/06/09/nasa_shelves_climate_satellites/

5/31/06

Inconvenient truth?  Ozone Man (Al Gore)'s rhetoric about the environment is said to be mismatched with his record during his years as Vice President. http://www.counterpunch.org/frank05312006.html

5/31/06

The movement toward "better" (more fuel efficient and safer) SUVs is hailed by some environmentalists as a step in the right direction; condemned by others who see it as "de-stigmatizing" an inherently anti-social transportation choice.  http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3234/continued/297#continued  

5/29/06

Controversy over South Central Farm, the center of the "green space movement" in Los Angeles, pits elements of the Hispanic immigrant community against LA power holders.  http://www.laweekly.com/news/news/a-brown-day-in-la/13601/  

5/19/06

A group of Exxon-Mobil investors criticize the oil giant for ignoring global warming, and demand a meeting with EM's board of directors:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/3874037.html

5/19/06

TV ads by a right-wing anarchist group call global warming a lie, deride Al Gore as an "alarmist" for producing a global warming documentary, and argue that carbon dioxide shouldn't be regulated and is not "bad" because it is "life":

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12857723/

5/19/06

Hunters and anglers in Minnesota see clear evidense of the dire threat of global warming:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/05/15/poll/

5/16/06

ConocoPhillips Oil Co. rejects appeal from a group of its environmentally-conscious investors to consider the environmental impact of Alaska Wilderness drilling. http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3172/continued/169#continued

5/13/06

GM suspends Hummer production, but only for its most gas-guzzling model, the H 1.   http://www.helenair.com/articles/2006/05/13/national_top/a01051306_02.txt

5/5/06

Fox News "science reporter" who included research on global warming as among top "junk science" stories, was generously subsidized by ExxonMobile's contribution to his "non-profit" fund:

http://www.freepress.net/news/print.php?id=13581

5/4/06

Lakes and aquifers across America are being sucked dry, both to supply water needs of residential developments and for irrigation of thirsty crops of subsidized surplus corn:  http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0503-35.htm

5/3/06

Massachusetts Institute of Technology to undertake major research push on alternative energy sources:  http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/05/03/mit_hoping_to_short_circuit_energy_crunch/

5/3/06

NOAA report says greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050206G.shtml

4/28/06

Congress offers gas tax rebates of $100 to help build political support for ANWR drilling and minimize any tax consequences to oil industry:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5786440,00.html:    

4/25/06

Conservationist alliance, having forced Office Depot and Staples to agree not to be paper made from illegally cut trees, is going after the holdout of the big three in paper sales, Office Max:  http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3089/continued/333#continued  

4/25/06

People in Detroit (that's right, Detroit) are abandoning use of cars in favor of hiking, biking and bus riding:  http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060425/METRO05/604250372

4/24/06

Schwarzenegger says that "science is in" on global warming and that federal governmnent and states must do much more in the area of fuel efficiency: http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/Politics/story?id=1879785&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

4/24/06

Some major corporations and Republican leaders are abandoning the Bush administration in its stonewalling on the issue of global warming: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0424-07.htm

4/21/06

Global Warming gaining attention due to myriad recent dire studies about its effects and the many powerful Hurricanes that struck the U.S. last year:

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=127982

4/21/06

Environmentalists and hunters form an unusual but potentially powerful alliance in opposition to Administration's give-away of public lands:

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/35080/

4/21/06

Conservatives tout "breakthrough study" by Duke University that says global warming is essentially non-existent. They fail to discuss the fact that the study was commisoned for, funded by, and basically carried out by NOAA and the Department of Energy, government agencies with a history of political adjustment of scientific "reports":.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060420-115953-7360r.htm

4/21/06

Global Warming a serious threat to abundant North Dakota waterfowl:

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/14397447.htm

4/21/06

Thank you for sleeping through the global warming crisis: as Queen of England and rest of the world trembles, Washington manages, with the assistance of subsidized "science" experts, to label it as a "liberal hoax." 

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0420-31.htm  

4/20/06

Most Americans (especially Republicans) do not view global warming as a crisis;  they are more concerned about environmental issues like water pollution with more immediate impact:  http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0419-24.htm  

4/17/06

On income tax day in America, environmental think tank advocates policy which is practiced in other countries around the world: shift from income taxes to taxes on environmentally-destructive consumption practices:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0414-07.htm

4/16/06

NOAA climatologists allege that the Bush administration has limited and closely overseen their contact with the media and any mention of global warming from NOAA reports:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi&type=printable  

4/14/06

A coalition of environmental and public advocacy groups says the federal government is illegally leasing hundreds of acres of protected refuge lands in Delaware to private farms, some of which are producing genetically modified crops http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3042

4/12/06

Citing threats to nature trails, environmentalists in Dane County (Wisconsin) oppose building of electrical transmission lines: http://www.madison.com/tct/news/index.php?ntid=79745&ntpid=2

4/2/06

Conservation groups seeking to purchase forest lands being sold by timber companies find themselves limited in funding and facing competition from developers seeking the same land: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/us/02protect.html?th&emc=th

4/1/06

Global warning said to be enough of a threat to call for a national plan for emergency response to an "attack of nature." 

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0401-25.htm

3/29/06

Pres. Bush Says Global Warming May Be “Natural”

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/03/29/global-warming-natural/

3/22/06

Exxon-funded watchdog group may have prompted IRS audit of Greenpeace: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0322-10.htm

3/19/06

A history of failures of U.S. Secretarys of Interior to protect the country's natural resources: from Teapot Dome to Gail Norton:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031906Y.shtml  

3/19/06

Kempthorne as Interior Secretary may signal further advance of "America the bulldozed": http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0318-24.htm

3/19/06

Expert panels blasts EPA on lack of concern for health effects of a toxic chemical in rocket fuels from military installations in California: http://www.envirolink.org/external.html?www=http%3A//www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-perchlorate16mar16%2C0%2C2915942.story&itemid=200603161921050.650926

3/18/06

Bush hails and environmentalists assail his choice for Interior Secretary:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/16/AR2006031601319.html

3/14/06

Faced with defections from his allies in the evangelical and corporate communities, Bush stands fast in refusing to take action against global warming: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0314-22.htm

3/8/06

Conservationists' petitions seek to re-instate roadless rules for national preserves:  http://www.zmag.org/content/newstandard.cfm?itemid=2901

3/2/06

Some environmentalist groups compromise their opposition to Bush administration efforts to gain exemptions to "Roadless" rule for national wildernesses by seeking to participate in the deliberations to consider such exemptions:  

http://counterpunch.org/boggs03022006.html  

2/27/06

Commercial logging in recently burned forests, advocated by lumber industry and Bush administration, is challenged on scientific grounds of restoration feasibility; Oregon university professors partly funded by lumber industry tried to suppress the publication of an article critical of fire-logging in Science 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/26/AR2006022601287.html?referrer=email

2/11/06

Climate expert claims scientific research on global warming being censored:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/10/AR2006021001766.html

2/10/06

EPA budget cuts trouble Environmental groups

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1605048

2/9/06

Bush administration moves to sell national forest land

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/13833476.htm

2/8/06

In many ways Montana is an environmental disaster area, victim of greedy corporations and politicians: http://counterpunch.org/corr02072006.html

Books:

Video/Film:

Al Gore's documentary on global warming debuts:

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/movies/14604260.htm

Other Media:

FLORIDA

STATEWIDE

Websites:

Florida Defenders of the Environment:

http://www.fladefenders.org/index2.html  

Analysis & views:

3/16/10

Progress Florida, which opposed off-shore oil drilling, prepares and TV station airs a map of Florida showing cities and civic groups around the state (mostly in Gulf Coastal areas) that have come out against such drilling operations.

3/3/10

New bill filed in Florida Senate to allow permits for off-shore oil drilling, a measure previously rejected in Senate but approved in House.

2/22/10

IS THE EVERGLADES AGRICULTURAL AREA TO BECOME THE EVERGLADES ROCK MINING AREA? Things are moving in this direction, despite protests by environmentalists, as Palm Beach County continues to issue mining permits in areas which were drained in order to permit agricultural use. With Everglades restoration moving to phase out sugar and other agricultural uses, mining projects are threatening both to pollute area water and interfere with restoration plans to "re-hydrate" the area

2/11/10

THIS WEEKEND'S "HANDS ACROSS THE SAND" IN FLORIDA WON'T BE A STROLL ACROSS THE BEACH WITH YOUR LOVER. On Saturday, thousands of Floridians will be joining hands to create a literal "line in the sand" across proposed oil drilling offshore of the state's beaches. This will be a graphic depiction of the public opposition to drill as a threat to the state's natural resources and the business interests which are dependent on an attractive environment.

2/10/10

NEW OCCUPATION IN EVERGLADES: WATER FARMER. Some cattle ranchers in the area are being paid in a "conservation easement" program to flood their pastures with water to displace their herds with wildlife-attracting land. While is it profitable to some Glades operators to become "water farmers," environmentalists are concerned about the lack of permanency of the arrangement as, in 10 years time, the same land could be back into use as a shopping mall

1/27/10

ELEVATION OF TAMIAMI BRIDGE IN MIAMI A GOOD START TOWARD EVERGLADES RESTORATION, BUT WHAT ABOUT THOSE LIMESTONE ROCK MINES? Projects like the bridge elevation are a part of a larger program to restore natural water flow in the Glades, but the U.S. Corps of Engineers continues to issue permits for limestone mining to help fill the insatiable Florida appetite for construction materials, and the operation of these mines is counter to the restoration project.

1/27/10

Governor Crist's budget proposes resurrection of Florida Forever, state's conservation land-buying program, but little else to the satisfaction of state environmentalists.

1/20/10

Report by Securing America's Energy Future disputes the claim that offshore oil drilling in Gulf of Mexico would threaten military exercises there.

12/14/09

St. John's River Management District has extended deadline for completing study on water withdrawals in northeast Florida.

11/27/09

Tallahassee Democrat says near-shore oil drilling bill will likely pass the Florida House, but fail in the Senate.

11/14/09

FLORIDIANS ON GLOBAL WARMING: WE'LL THINK ABOUT THAT LATER. Miami blogger comments on the tendency of Florida residents to participate in a "growth model" in which they demand beautiful homes by the ocean and gain the benefit of a permitting process dominated by developers and their allies in local government. The Scarlet O'Hara mentality says "fiddle dee-dee" to the likelihood of a sea level rise that would demolish their homes. Or as a French king said as the Revolution impended: "apres mois, le deluge" or "it will last my time."

11/13/09

Florida Senate President Atwater attempting to put brakes on rush to off-shore drilling to consider environmental and tourist industry consequences.

10/9/09

FLORIDA'S GULF COAST: DRILL! DRILL! (BUT NOT HERE AND NOT HERE). Florida oil industry lobbyist presents legislature with a plan that would lift the ban against oil drilling between 3 and 10 miles off the coast, but that would exclude "environmentally sensitive" areas off the coasts of several counties, including Pinellas, Dixie, Levy and Taylor.

10/5/09

"KNEE JERK REACTIONS AND GRANDSTANDING POLITICIANS" Oil industry official in Florida so characterizes the numerous indications of opposition to off-shore oil drilling expressed in resolutions passed by local governments and civic organizations. Drilling proponents cite "public opinion" on their side as polls indicate solid support for the "general concept" of such drilling, with drastic reductions of support for drilling under different specified conditions.

8/29/09

DRILLING FOR OIL OFF FLORIDA'S COAST IS BEING STYMIED BY A VAST LEFT WING CONSPIRACY. So says a leading Florida business leader in a Tallahassee in a debate with a local environmentalist who is a critic of the Florida oil industry. (While the business leader declined to name names in this "conspiracy," perhaps he had in mind Florida's Bill Nelson, who has opposed off-shore drilling because it would interfere with Gulf military operations.)

8/18/09

Florida environmental activist are frustrated by state regulations in mounting effective local protests against decisions on allocation of water from St. John's River.

8/13/09

CORAL REEF AND SHALLOW WATER WILDERNESS OFF FLORIDA KEYS IS NOT "ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE." IT HAS COLLAPSED. So says Alan Farago, describing the environmental devastation of the Keys over the last 30 years. He describes in particular the ambiguous role of the local Miccosuckee tribe in the process of this destruction. On the one hand, the tribe has sued governmental agencies over the water pollution of their lands; on the other they have opposed the program of removal of Everglades land from sugar production which is a major source of that pollution.

8/8/09

Criticism from fellow Republicans leads Florida Governor Crist to ease off his actions in support of combatting climate change.

7/30/09

WHO'S AFRAID OF OIL DRILLING OFF FLORIDA'S GULF COAST? Many people for many different reasons. Environmentalists are concerned with effects on marine life, Senator Bill Nelson its effects of "military training operations" in the Gulf, Governor Crist if the drilling is too close so that it threatens Florida's beaches and its tourist industry. When pressed to what is "too close," Crist will not be pinned down to any specific distance like 45 miles.

5/21/09

Florida legislature quietly slips into a state law an amendment that severely limits ability of local water managers to issue permits in attempts to conserve water.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/local_news/epaper/2009/05/18/0518waterbill.html

4/22/09

How smart is the "smart power" grid for south Floridians?  This is a question of the day for debate among environmentals as they assess the energy-saving effects of "metered" electrical charges being promoted by the local utility company, which will spread electrical usage more evenly between peak and non-peak usage hours, but is of still questionable advantage to the individual or the environment

http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/1011225.html

4/22/09

GOP members of Florida House have an Earth Day surprise: propose the lifting of the state ban on off-shore oil drilling.

http://floridacapitalnews.com/article/20090422/CAPITOLNEWS/904220321

3/6/09

So what do you want, central Florida, a reservoir or a river?  This decades-long controversy is ignited once again as developers begin to open marinas and other lake-type facilities along Rodman Reservoir, created in 1968 by damming the Ocklawaha River, creating a haven for sportsmen and a nightmare for river conservationists.  Although the state has long planned to destroy the dam and restore the flow of the river, the power of the sportsmen's lobby in Tallahassee has so far spared this reservoir-for-the-time-being.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20090306/ARTICLES/903061003/1002?Title=River-or-reservoir-Plans-for-a-marina-on-Rodman-Reservoir-reignites-debate

2/26/09

Florida environmentalists are speaking, legislators are listening:.  Dire warnings of inundation of parts of the state resulting from global warming seem to be catching legislators' attention, as plans for pollution controls move higher on the agenda of current legislative session.

http://www.theledger.com/article/20090224/NEWS/902240351/1003/NEWS00?Title=Lawmakers-to-Consider-Reducing-Fla-Pollution

2/20/09

Proposal for massive system of pipelines to share water for burgeoning population in central Florida is arousing much controversy.

http://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-02-19/story/water_grid_plan_carries_big_price_big_controversy

2/12/09

More oil drilling off the Florida coast is "on the table" for Obama:.  Interior Secretary Ken Salazar makes this statement, along with the indication that the government will place greater emphasis on the seas and oceans as alternative sources of power like wind and wave power.  Senator Nelson protests that oil drilling in the area can have minimal effects on nation's oil supply and possibly maximal effects on the state's environment and economy

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/national/article974946.ece

12/17/08

Newly-wed Florida Governor takes time out from his honeymoon to do some lobbying for completion of the "deal" with U.S. Sugar that keynotes the Everglades restoration project.  By 4-3 vote, Board approves the deal, but with a big "out": that the deal is off if the state finds it can't come up with the necessary financing. "Now, where we?" (with the deal that is.)

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/815979.html

12/14/08

Another stalling of Everglades restoration plans is threatened as decision nears on pursuing plan for state to buy U.S. Sugar properties.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/12/13/a1a_sugar_1214.html

11/27/08

"Solar power costlier for Florida than nuclear, report finds "  Alan Farago tears into this story from the Miami Herald, on a "report" to that effect by the Florida Public Service Commission as the state begins plans to build new nuclear power plants.  A former employee of Citigroup, Farago learned some things about "cost" calculations of financial institutions, more specifically their determination of "risk" involved in granting loans.  Just as an inability to calculate risk accurately created the bubble-and-bust in financial markets, the FPSC, enabled by "environmentalists" who essentially put their hands in the dikes of environmental catastrophes as they occur, is intimidated by the alleged "complexity" of risk calculation from the simple math involved in calculating the risks of nuclear power mishaps and the risk of world annihilation if there is NOT a transfer to renewable forms of energy.

http://www.counterpunch.org/farago11262008.html

11/27/08

Florida tourism group reverses position and now supports off-shore oil drilling operations.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/nov/27/bz-tourism-group-endorses-drilling/

11/21/08

The "deal" by means of which state of Florida would purchase U.S. Sugar to promote Everglades restoration may be jeopardized by Tennessee firm's bid to acquire the company in a "hostile takeover."

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/floridapolitics/entries/2008/11/20/hostile_bid_for_us_sugar_threa.html

10/25/08

Survey shows that slim majority of Floridians favor off-shore oil drilling, but only if done far away from the state's coasts.

http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/102508/met_348091753.shtml

9/25/08

''We're not going to be able to, practically speaking, ignore this issue."  Director of Florida Atlantic University's new study of the impact of global warming on Florida issues this warning.  This study and a companion study from Florida State University, even while using "low ball" estimates of sea level rises associated with warming, indicate the real possibility of "catastropic" inundations of Miami-Dade counties in just a few decades.

http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/700486.html

9/19/08

Following public concerns about the environmental effects applications for withdrawal of water from the St. Johns River, the permitting process is put on hold while a panel of experts examines those effects; early findings indicate that even small drops in river level can have very substantial such effects.

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Local/newWEST04ENV091908.htm

7/9/08

Lakeland Ledger environmental columnist is skeptical about the Everglades "sugar deal:" both its ultimate cost and what Everglades improvements are actually to be made under its terms.

http://www.theledger.com/article/20080708/COLUMNISTS/807080428/1109/NEWS00&title=_Glades_Deal_to_Cost_Way_Over__1_75_Bil_

7/1/08

"Are we lesser citizens because we chose to live in farming communities?"  A commissioner of Hendry County in Florida expresses a local sentiment as the South Florida Water Management District votes unanimously to begin the process of acquiring U.S. Sugar lands to complete a "deal" initiated by Governor Crist.  While enviromental organizations like Audobon and Sierra clubs hail the decision as the beginning of an "exciting and historic" project to re-connect Lake Okeechobee with the Everglades, local people worry about the anticipated loss of at least 3,000 jobs.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flbsugar0701sbjul01,0,4896009.story

7/1/08

Crist signs a bill for 10-year extension of Forever Florida land-buying program and vetoes another allowing developers to destroy sawgrass if they provided for sawgrass preservation elsewhere.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jul/01/me-crist-protects-land-trust-seagrass/  

6/30/08

Is it windy enough in Florida to support wind turbine farms?  Hurricanes and tornadoes excepted, Florida is noted as a state in which wind is not normally at a level in the American West where wind power projects are more feasible.  However, Florida Power and Light has already announced plans for one wind turbine project, and projected rise in cost of fossil fuel forms of energy production and the stablility of wind power costs suggest that even the marginal supply of wind in Florida may suffice to create a viable industry. (And do they count all our hot air politicians?)

http://www.miamiherald.com/103/story/587220.html

6/24/08

Florida unveiling new approach to Everglades restoration, as state is negotiating a "blockbuster" deal to take over large part of U.S. Sugar operations.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/580786.html

6/12/08

Florida offshore oil drilling in Gulf of Mexico is again being debated in light of concern for scarce energy supplies as feeding the escalation in gasoline prices.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2008/06/11/0611drilling.html  

6/7/08

John McCain gets an airboat ride, and does a flip-flop on Everglades restoration:.  Though he supported President Bush's veto of an appropriations bill that included funding for restoration, he says in a campaign swing through south Florida that he believes the federal government should provide such funding, which deserves a "stand-alone" bill, as opposed to inclusion in an omnibus appropriations bill stuffed with "pork" in the former of unnecessary expenditures. (He may do similar flips as he tours other localities whose favorite pork was burned in the veto.) 

http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/561525.html

5/26/08

Florida panhandle's "oyster culture" is a victim of the state's water war with Georgia.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/may/26/me-florida-oyster-culture-strained/

5/21/08

Restrictions of waste-water use to water lawns is likely to be restricted in northeast Florida as "clean" water is now restricted

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/052108/met_281108512.shtml

4/29/08

At the end of its April session, Florida legislature reverses itself and finds $50 million of Everglades restoration.

http://www.gainesvillesun.com/article/20080429/NEWS/804290332

4/6/08

Recent rains in south Florida have brought Lake Okeechobee's water level from 6 to 10 feet.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/story/484971.html

2/6/08

Environmentalist groups tour Florida to drum up support for state's land conservancy buying program, which they describe as being in "crisis."

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD02020608.htm  

11/17/07

Apalachicola shellfish to die so Atlanta's lawns mat be watered:   This is the viewpoint of Florida environmentalists in reaction to federal officials' decision to allow Georgia to keep more of its water, now released downstream into Florida to flow into the Gulf of Mexico.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-water1707nov17,0,5456895.story?coll=orl_tab01_layout

11/12/07

"Now that Congress has its pork,it's got no incentive to reform the butcher."  Alan Farago notes this quote from Michael Grunwald, referring to the recent action of Congress in overturning President Bush' veto of the Water Resources Act.  Farago writes specifically of the prospects of Everglades "restoration," which he sees as unlikely given the cozy relationship between the Audubon Society and would-be "developers" ( Big Sugar) of the Glades, and the fact that there is no effort whatever to address the need for reform of a U.S. Corps of Engineers which makes the relevant decisions about restoration projects and is an agency firmly in the control of the same Florida "growth machine."

http://www.counterpunch.org/farago11102007.html

11/7/07

Could Florida lead the way in combating global warming?  Panel of experts in Tallahassee notes this commitment of Governor Crist and outlines some possibilities in this direction.  However, to borrow a phrase, significant action may be "more aspirational than operational," as the options for gas emissions reduction actions are politically or economically difficult and as Florida's emissions represent only 1% of those in the world, and worldwide changes will have major impact on Florida.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_XGR_CLIMATE_CHANGE_FLOL-?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

11/7/07

Everglades restoration project among the numerous water resources projects likely to be re-instated after Congress overrides presidential veto.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flaoverride1107nbnov07,0,278627.story?

10/24/07

South Florida cities (Plantation and Sunrise) are looking for ways to recycle sewage water as drinking water, if they can get out the nitrates, phosphorous and "ick."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flbreclaim1024pnoct24,0,4065893.story?coll=sofla_tab01_layout

9/25/07

By "veto-proof" vote of 81-12, U.S. Senate passes bill that would provide $1.8 billion for Everglades restoration.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flaglades0925nbsep25,0,4885655.story?coll=sofla_tab01_layout  

8/29/07

Availability of affordable land leads Florida government to seek to buy up more land for environmental conservation.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/08/29/State/Low_land_prices_lure_.shtml  

8/18/07

Drought-resistant landscaping in Florida takes some "getting used to."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0817/p03s01-ussc.html  

8/15/07

As criticism of water bottling industry grows, Suwanee River Water Management District moves to revoke three bottling permits that have gone unused by the holders, who say they still plan to use them.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20070815/LOCAL/70815011  

6/30/07

Florida's two Senators see the possibility of a double-cross in the "deal" by which they supported offshore drilling in the Gulf in exchange for "protection" of Florida against further incursions, as plan is floated for a "seismic survey" in the Gulf to locate further oil reserves.

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBK52BJJ3F.html  

6/30/07

Everglades National Park fishing guide takes boss of the park fishing and may have won a reconsideration of some proposed regulations in the use of the park.

http://www.miamiherald.com/884/story/156254.html

6/29/07

Governor Crist signs bill giving 10-year extension to Florida's Everglades restoration project.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/tcoast/epaper/2007/06/29/m1a_MCCRIST_MAIN_0629.html  

6/6/07

Golf courses in south Florida are being fined for violations of rules for water use

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pgolfwater06jun06,0,2843783.story?coll=sfla-news-sfla

6/4/07

A citizen's action group, Our Santa Fe, is pushing Suwanee River Management agency to deny permits to withdraw water for bottling from the lower Santa Fe River.

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070604/LOCAL/70604001  

5/15/07

Gainesville Sun completes its series on the environmental problems of the Suwanee River, the last installment focussing on the Florida's history of much study but little practical action on the environmental protection of its springs, many of which are concentrated in the Suwanee basin.  In the absence of state action, some local governments have kicked it with actions regulating pollution and water use.

http://gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070515/SUNFRONT/705150350

5/14/07

How will Suwanee River water be used?  "Water wars" break out as competing interests want water used for different purposes: industry, agriculture, tourists who paddle the springs or as a swimming pool for Naked Ed Watts; a Gainesville Sun special report.

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/LOCAL/705140324

5/12/07

Land preservation in Florida: Demand greatly exceeds supply.  Faced with environmental threats from developments and escalating land prices, local governments are calling increasingly on state to subsidize their preservation acquisitions, while the state cupboard is running low.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-land12x07may12,0,2259400.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

5/10/07

Environmental conference in Tampa warns of catastrophic effects on Florida of global warming.

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB0R2NMI1F.html  

5/8/07

Three-day climate change conference in Tampa begins, as state officials, scientists and the public will air their views about a state strategy to deal with global warming.

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBV9K6RF1F.html

4/30/07

Everglades restoration projects are proceeding at a pace far slower than that anticipated at their start.

http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070430/NEWS/204300340/1002/NEWS

4/14/07

Florida water managers ask for release of more Everglades water to deal with drought conditions in south Florida.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pwater14apr14,0,848878.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

4/12/07

Have mainstream environmental groups failed Florida's environment?  For the most part, yes, says Coral Gables environmentalist, noting how these groups are totally overmatched with the juggernaut of the development industry in the state.

http://www.counterpunch.org/farago04112007.html

4/4/07

The greens on your Sotuh Florida golf course may soon be not quite so green.  "Most severe water cut-backs ever" are impending, but will they be enough to relieve the drought condition there?

http://www.miamiherald.com/884/story/62746.html

3/15/07

Despite drought in south Florida, Palm Beach County seeks permit to divert water from drinking water supplies to a golf course.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2007/03/15/s1a_GOLF_COURSE_0315.html  

3/15/07

Small fleet of electric cabs hits the streets in downtown Orlando.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-ocartz1507mar15,0,3492004.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

2/6/07

Bush budget contains funding for Everglades restoration and Okeechobee levee re-building, but critics say not enough.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-abudget06feb06,0,4405044.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines  

1/3/07

Alan Farago's "environmental wish list" for Florida for 2007.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-farago3106dec31,0,4395542.story?coll=orl-opinion-headlines

12/21/06

On Everglades restoration, time for feds to step to the plate: New Democratic congressmen from south Florida, Klein and Mahoney, call for the federal government to deliver on promised 50-50 sharing of costs of Everglades project; so far it's been more like 80-20 with state bearing most of the cost.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2006/12/21/w1b_Glades_1221.html  

10/24/06

State, Nature Conservancy and Marion County complete deal to preserve from development an area north of Silver Springs State Park.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/growth/orl-silversprings2406oct24,0,4269407.story?coll=orl-home-headlines  

9/26/06

Good news for environmentalists in Governor's race in Florida: while Sierra Club endorses Democrat Davis, the decision was difficult and Republican Crist is picking up green support.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/elections/orl-gov2606sep26,0,6705408.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

9/26/06

Good plan, poor execution: National Research Council's verdict on federal involvement in Everglades restoration project.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-ceverglades26sep26,0,6774781.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

9/13/06

People to Candidates: Florida's waters and coast lines are in trouble.  Coalition of environmental groups releases report to both Davis and Crist of the necessity of safeguarding our waters from over-fishing, over-development and a red tide of pollution.

http://www.flatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060913/NEWS01/609130365

8/14/06

Florida lags behind most other states in eco-friendly (conservation conscious) building.   http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/growth/orl-greenbuilding1406aug14,0,1357024.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

6/17/06

State's plan to allow developer to build a "new city" for 40,000 people from land carved out of proposed Babock Ranch acquisition is stymied by Sierra Club's legal action, citing sustainability issues. 

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/14839369.htm

6/10/06

Florida v. Georgia, and this time it isn't bulldogs vs. gators, but the issue is access to water from watershed area shared by the two states.  http://www.tdo.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060610/NEWS01/606100326/1010

4/29/06

Some environmental good news: House backs off from earlier plans to allow commercial utilization of Babcock Ranch preserve in Lee and Collier counties:   http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060429/CAPITOLNEWS/604290312  

4/22/06

Earth Day in Florida: State Senate getting ready to vote for billboards over tries, depriving local communities of right to prohibit tree-cleaning which interferes with sign visibility:  http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14402030.htm  

3/26/06

Plans for wetlands-stormwater protection in Florida Panhandle raise storm of protest among environmentalists: http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060328/CAPITOLNEWS/603280341

3/23/06

Florida legislature reduces environmental fines and ignores conservation and protection measures, but gives free reign to developers in environmental legislation:

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBCVBZ43LE.html

3/23/06

William Grunwald, author of The Swamp, on history of Everglades destruction and attempted restoration, interviewed 3/23/06 on PBS Fresh Air. Reviews of the book are here: http://www.booknoise.net/swamp/reviews.html

3/19/06

Ron Cunningham: What did Florida learn from its hurricane losses?  Not a blessed thing, we subsidize the re-development of hurricane-prone areas and facilitate the destruction of hurricane-protection wetlands:

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060319/  

2/17/06

973 acres of Ocala National Forest may be Up for Sale, much larger sales elsewhere in the country:  http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060217/LOCAL/202170329/1078  

Other information sources:

FLORIDA LOCALITIES

Websites:

Gainesville:  

Friends of Payne's Prairie  http://www.prairiefriends.org/   

Analysis & views:

Jacksonville:

3/19/10

Jacksonville city government looking toward building codes for new construction that would conserve water supplies and make the water cleaner.

Jacksonville:

3/16/10

Northeast Florida water managers are drafting plans to remove water from regions rivers for drinking water supplies.

Jacksonville:

10/14/09

Jan DeBlieu, green activist in Florida to support anti-drilling efforts, urges an audience in Jacksonsville to maintain "polite" relationship with pro-drilling forces.

Jacksonville;

9/3/09

Jacksonville looking to revise city building codes to promote water conservation in new home constructions

Palm Beach:

8/31/09

Efforts to extend the size of a reviving staghorn coral reef off the coast of Port Everglades FL runs into opposition from Palm Beach County officials who see this as interfering with their efforts to deal with beach erosion.

Jacksonville:

8/8/09

Environmental conditions along St. John's River at Jacksonville are given mixed reviews in a new report by local Universities.

Jacksonville:

4/24/09

Prospect of a third Florida de-salinization plant, this one in Jacksonville, raises issue of viability of this approach to water shortage problem.

http://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-04-24/story/desalination_in_our_future_but_no_silver_bullet_for_cure

Gainesville:

4/22/09

How green in Gainesville FL?  Local newspaper says it's a "stand out" city in a state with a poor environmental record.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20090422/ARTICLES/904221007/1002?Title=How-green-is-Gainesville-

Tampa Bay:

4/22/09

Audubon Society has fought a largely successful battle, through moral persuasion of the public and legislation, to protect shore birds at Tampa Bay through the preservation of a sanctuary.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/apr/22/na-audubon-protects-tampa-bays-shorebirds/news-metro/  

Tampa:

2/23/09

Tampa area homeowners being urged to allow leaves that fall in February to allow their lawns to recyle them as nutrients rather than trashing the leaves and fertilizing the lawn.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/feb/22/ba-bag-the-leaf-bags/entertainment/ 

Pasco Co.:

2/12/09

Proposed landfill in Pasco County FL meets little opposition from conservationist group in the area.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/feb/12/na-swiftmud-makes-few-waves-over-pasco-landfill/news-metro/

Jacksonville:

2/11/09

Report of St. Johns River Water Management District warns of severe depletion of northeast Florida aquifer unless water waste is reduced.

http://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-02-09/story/use_less_water_or_suffer_state_report_warns

Carol Browner, chosen by Obama to be his "climate czar," is a graduate of the University of Florida and is described by current Gainesville mayor as a "strong environmentalist."  http://www.gainesville.com/article/20081216/NEWS/812161006/1002?Title=Obama_selects_UF_grad  

Tampa:

12/17/08

Tampa electric company working with local jail in trying to cut down on energy consumption using every "safe way" possible to accomplish this.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/dec/15/after-order-cut-costs-jail-power-bills-fall/news-metro/  

Volusia Co.:

12/6/08

Volusia County gives developers new incentives for preserving natural  spaces

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/volusia/orl-smartgrowth0508dec05,0,80769.story

Gainesville:

11/2/08

Palm Beach Co.:

9/21/08

Environmentalists' protest against new power plant in western Palm Beach County is calmer than the one at the same site in February.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/west/epaper/2008/09/20/0920fplprotest.html

Lake Co.:

9/19/08

Sod growers in Lake County FL say St. Augustine grass getting bad rap as water hog, ask abatement on County control of its use.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-lsod1908sep19,0,34551.story

Nassau Co.:

8/11/08

Nassau County FL expects to put on November ballot a measure that would have the county spend $20 million for purchase of conservation land.

http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/081108/met_317095937.shtml

Oviedo:

8/11/08

City of Oviedo Florida (Seminole County) is giving $1,000 incentives payments to residents willing to install "Florida friendly" landscaping in favor of more water-guzzling types.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-justin10so_9508aug10,0,5994912.story  

Lake Co.:

8/6/08

Opinion: St. John's Water Management District makes an "idiotic" decision to allow more removal of Florida aquifer water for bottling at a Lake County site.

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/080508/opl_313410224.shtml

Gainesville:

7/27/08

Gainesville environmentalist group hopes to expand on University of Florida's "carbon emissions offsets"  associated with Gators football games by distributing energy efficient light bulbs to join UF's earlier forest planting initiative.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20080726/NEWS/233355055/1002/news01&title=Emissions_initiative_to_turn_Gator_games_green  

Tampa:

6/24/08

Severe water restrictions likely to continue in Tampa area despite recent soaking rains.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jun/24/me-extension-of-watering-limits-likely/

Tampa:

6/16/08

Tampa Bay area municipalities are trying to conserve fuel by measures ranging from more use of bio-diesels to regulations on amount of time that public employees to leave their cars idling.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jun/16/me-city-county-work-to-idle-growing-fuel-burden/  

Tampa:

6/10/08

With once-a-week watering restrictions in place for over a year, Tampa Bay area has toughest regulations in the state.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jun/06/bay-area-has-toughest-water-restrictions-florida/  

Ft. Lauderdale:

5/12/08

Ft. Lauderdale auto columnist says SUV's are no longer in high demand, as gas price spiral has fueled consumer preference for sub-compacts and cross-over vehicles.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/custom/consumer/sfl-flhlpvasquezx0509sbmay12,0,1397307.column  

Palatka:

2/16/08

Forum at Palatka discusses options of water supply for North Florida.

http://www.gainesvillesun.com/article/20080216/NEWS/802160330/1002/NEWS  

Tampa:

2/16/08

Cott Beverage Company unveils a new "eco-friendly" corporate headquarters in Tampa.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/feb/15/bz-pouring-values-into-business/

Ft. Lauderdale:

1/13/08

Environmentalists are raising many issues with impact on wild life and air quality of a proposed natural gas terminal off the Ft. Lauderdale coast.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbgas0112sbjan12,0,839607.story?coll=sofla_tab01_layout  

Gainesville:

1/20/08

Exchange of regular light bulbs for fluorescent ones is popular at an Alachua County event held in Gainesville

http://www.gainesvillesun.com/article/20080120/NEWS/801200324

Orlando:

12/10/07

Orlando area schools teach children about recycling their trash at home, but many fail to provide facilities to practice what they teach in waste disposal facilities at the schools.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/growth/orl-recycle1907dec10,0,1893903.story?coll=orl_tab01_layout  

St. Augustine:

12/3/07

Beach erosion in St. Augustine area has created a sheer cliff as the only mode of access to the beach.

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/120207/met_221854105.shtml

Pensacola:

11/6/07

Restoration of salt marshes and sturgeon in Pensacola Bay is being celebrated by Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071106/NEWS01/711060342/1006  

Ft. Lauderdale:

10/7/07

Florida connection to  oceanic geo-engineering: a trawler now docked in New River at Ft. Lauderdale is scheduled to set sail for Galapagos, where it will engage in a controversial program of "iron seeding" of the ocean floor.

http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/263171.html  

Deland:

9/12/07

A "green evangelist" speaks in Deland, describing the effort to breach the gap between environmentalism and fundamentalism.

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Local/newWEST05ENV091207.htm  

Tampa:

8/19/07

Text books become toilet paper as Hillsborough County sends most of its outdated textbooks to recylers.

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBRROLYI5F.html

Tampa:

8/15/07

Tampa developers seeking elimination by Hillsborough County of a Wetlands Division that they see as an unnecessary impediment to development.

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB5ES49D5F.html

Gainesville:

7/2/07

Gainesville water utility loses to leakage nearly 10% of the water it draws from the Florida Aquifer.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20070702/SUNFRONT/707020313

Lake Okeechobee:

6/18/07

What falls in the valley stays in the valley: ample June rainfall in Kissimmee Valley hasn't helped to replenish the water supply in parched Lake Okeechobee.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2007/06/18/m1a_HOWBAD_0618.html  

Orlando:

6/14/07

Central Florida utilities agree to pay for damages to aquifer from over-pumping of water for several years.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/growth/orl-wetlands1407jun14,0,2220503.story?coll=orl-home-headlines  

Deland:

6/10/07

A quieter and more energy efficient ride is being enjoyed in a ferry, now solar-powered, that takes visitors across St. Johns River to Hontoon Island State Park near DeLand FL.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-ferry1007jun10,0,7607869.story?coll=orl-home-headlines  

Tampa:

6/1/07

Some members of Tampa City Council don't practice what they preach on water conservation, as their own homes are heavy water consumers.

http://www.tbo.com/news/nationworld/MGBCNNAIF2F.html

Tampa:

5/27/07

Legacy of Rachel Carson is kept alive in the teachings of a professor of environmental science at University of South Florida.

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB80D5R62F.html

Palm Beach Co.:

5/17/07

With water use restrictions in place in Palm Beach County FL, demand for "reused" (waste water treated) water increases as this water can be used without restrictions.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2007/05/17/s1b_reclaim_0517.html  

Tampa:

5/12/07

Water fight in Tampa Bay area as two water agencies spar over use of Hillsborough River waters for human consumption or replenishing water supplies for area wildlife.

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBCNUFHL1F.html  

Miami:

4/20/07

As Earth Day approaches, surprise is expressed that Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, noted for presiding over the Miami building boom, is emerging is a leader in the nationwide movement among American mayors to promote environmental conservation and "smart growth" developments designed to reduce traffic movement and fuel consumption.

http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/80450.html

Palm Beach:

4/10/07

Palm Beach FL County opens its first "green" elementary school, with an eye to connections to nature, recyclable building materials and encouraging alternative means of transportation.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2007/04/10/m1a_PINEJOG_0410.html  

Jacksonville:

4/9/07

A local activist group, Stepping It Up, has completed a weekend of creative demonstrations focussed on issue of global warming, and plans for such actions in the immediate future.

http://stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=208

Tampa:

4/3/07

Drought is forcing Tampa to spend $6 million to purchase water from a regional water utility.

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBW6AMP10F.html  

Naples:

4/2/07

Comic strip which targets black residents in south Florida  tries to engage minority envolvement in environmental issues like Everglades restoration.

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/apr/01/livin_waters_seen_innovative_way_fed_government_en/

Miami:

3/27/07

Miami mayor's message to would-be developers of high-rise buildings in the area: invest funds in energy conservation if you want to get waivers from zoning codes which specify height limitations on buildings.

http://miamitodaynews.com/news/070322/story1.shtml

Broward Co.:

3/21/07

''When we run out of sand for our beaches, the beaches are going to go bye-bye "  Broward County beach erosion administrator notes the crisis in sand supply for south Florida beaches which, unlike beaches further north, have only a thin "lip" of off-shore sand from which a now-exhausted sand supply can be used to refurbish beaches.

http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/47863.html  

Miami:

3/15/07

A "peak" at the sports pages:.  Miami Herald publishes a breathless story about a spectacular lighting of tennis courts with sumptuous spectator facilities,  failing to take a breath to reflect on the energy consumption involved in such spectaculars.  But folks, be sure to turn down that thermostat and hopefully buy a solar panel to heat your hot water tank. And when are them Blue Angels coming to town?

http://www.miamiherald.com/588/story/42101.html

Orlando:

3/15/07

Small fleet of electric cabs hits the streets in downtown Orlando.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-ocartz1507mar15,0,3492004.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

Tampa:

2/11/07

Tampa Tribune publishes special report on efforts to restore Florida's everglades, with a panoramic depiction of Glades vegetation.

http://www.tbo.com/news/reports/everglades/

Gainesville:

1/25/07

UF GETS MIXED REPORT CARD ON ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY.  National reporting agency gives University of Florida an A on its green building program, an F for the lack of transparency in its investments program. (The Trustees like to make a buck.)

http://gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070125/LOCAL/701250329/-1/news

Gainesville:

1/19/07

Does Alachua County Forever have a future?  Having acquired 8,000 acres of land for conservation from mostly public funds, ACF faces a depleted treasury and the fact that only a very few of those acres have been opened to public use.

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070119/LOCAL/701190318

Palm Beach Co.:

12/20/06

The duck may be lame but she still can fly: In the last days before their terms expire, Governor Jeb Bush and his Cabinet approve a plan for a natural-gas powered plant in western Palm Beach County that environmentalists claim will be a "disaster" for the Everglades.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/pbcwest/content/local_news/epaper/2006/12/20/m1a_powerplant_1220.html

Collier Co.:

12/6/06

Plans for $350 million wetlands restoration project in Collier County are dead in Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2006/dec/06/water_bill_aid_everglades_dies/?latest

Suwanee:

12/6/06

Deliverance becomes "now I can bring my wife": Paddlers along the 170 mile Suwanee River Wilderness Trail will find a system of camps and hubs along the way to furnish cabins, rest rooms and hot showers, including plans to create a "southern hub" in town of Suwanee at site of a former fish camp.

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061206/LOCAL/61206006  

Tamarac:

11/24/06

Water shortage in south Florida symbolized by decision of Tamarac City Council to require restaurants to give customers drinking water only if they ask for it.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cwaterxnov24,0,7884268.story?coll=sfla-news-broward

Gainesville:

11/14/06

Afterburner entertainment: two Navy F-18s from Virginia Beach made a typical flyover at last Saturday's UF/SC game in Gainesville, but pilots had to "turn on the afterburners" to arrive just as the band concluded its halftime program.  Such flights raise questions about crowd safety, expense and energy consumption, but not to worry, they are a great "recruiting tool" for the military, provide "training" and a "morale boost" (fun)  for our airmen, and are a "big hit with the crowds."  So let us entertain us!

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061114/NEWS/211140322

Jacksonville:

10/23/06

Catchy tune and a "Think 2" (water lawns twice a week) conservation campaign fails to reduce water usage in Jacksonville area.

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/102306/met_5730568.shtml

Tampa:

10/23/06

Tampa Bay's water supplier agency, with rapid development in Tampa's suburb, is increasingly using water from Hillsborough River, to the concern of some environmentalists.

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBL3WBAMTE.html  

Collier County:

10/20/06

Greater Naples Better Government Committee endorses Collier County voters' approval of a ballot proposition that would extend the county's land preservation program, first instituted in 2002.

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2006/oct/20/group_backs_extending_land_preservation_program/?latest

Merritt Island:

10/9/06

Defenders of Wild Life lists Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge as among the 10 wildlife refuges most endangered by consequences of global warming.

http://www.flatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061009/NEWS01/610090324

Jacksonville:

8/22/06

A Florida DOT-funded Vanpool program that allows car-pooling of people living in an area who are going to the same area to work is a project with no takers so far.

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/081906/nen_4474304.shtml

Florida City:

8/18/06

Florida City (in southern Miami-Dade County) gets warning from state that it has insufficient water for a planned development project without endangering the Everglades aquifer.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15301750.htm  

Pensacola:

7/15/06

Blue Angels are back and so is Pensacola: "pre-Ivan" level crowds are wowed on the Beach.  Sorehead editor's question: how much gas was guzzled by the planes and the car trips to the beach to "wow" us again?

http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060715/NEWS01/607150322/1006

Tampa:

7/5/06

Green Ribbon Coalition is urging Tampa to join Gainesville, St. Petersburg and Sarasota County in adopting conservation-conscious building practices.  http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBSWZCZ8PE.html    

Gainesville:

6/10/06

Alachua County Forever....or not. While about 1/3 of the county's acreage has been "nominated" for purchase under the county's conservation trust program, its administrators are doubting whether local voters will fund much expansion of the acquisitions. 

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060610/LOCAL/60610007/1078

Gainesville:

5/16/06

Gainesville City Commission stands up to developer of downtown project, Gainesville Greens: restore provisions for affordable housing and energy efficiency or be denied request for additional funding: 

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060516/LOCAL/205160322/1078

Gainesville:

4/25/06

Re-cycling big-time: demolishers of 11-story hotel in Gainesville expect to salvage at least 70% of material, partly for the construction of a Shands cancer hospital on the same site:   http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060425/LOCAL/204250313/1078/news

St. Petersburg:

4/18/06

Curbside re-cycling plan is dead in St. Petersburg as no vendors are found willing to undertake a contract:

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/04/18/Southpinellas/Curbside_recycling_pu.shtml

Palm Beach:

4/15/06

Environmental and other quality of life issues continue to stymie plans to locate Scripps Institute's half-billion dollar location in Palm Beach County:

http://www.bocanews.com/index.php?src=news&prid=14913&category=1987e035e1789

Okeechobee

4/13/06

Called the "world's largest river restoration project," Kissimmee River project ready to roll: http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060413/NEWS/604130389/1039

Lakeland:

4/12/06

To forestall a large housing development, owner is making "deal" to sell large tract of land in Polk County called Green Swamp to a conservation trust agency: http://www.tampatrib.com/MGBPQAU4XLE.html

Osceola County:

4/12/06

Developers, environmentalists and state regulators are negotiating around building of the new town of Destiny in rural Osceola County near Yeehaw Junction:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/growth/orl-mdestiny1206apr12,0,57811.story?coll=orl-home-promo

Orlando:

3/22/06

Urban sprawl and environmental destruction are feared effects of proposed toll road for Central Florida:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/growth/orl-newroads22_106mar22,0,96883.story?coll=orl-home-headlines  

Gainesville:

3/15/06

University of Florida fights waste by buying re-cycled products.

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060315/BUSINESS/20

Gainesville:

3/13/06

Proposal to fund maintenance of Alachua County nature preserves by leases for logging and cattle grazing on that land raises controversy: http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060313/LOCAL/60313001/1078/news  

Gainesville:

3/9/06

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in UF speech, blasts Bush administration for failing to protect our environmental legacy by catering to corporate interests: http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060309/LOCAL/203090350/1078 

Palatka:

2/19/06

To dam or not to dam the Ocklawaha River controversy enters Florida Governor's race:  http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060219/LOCAL/202190345/1078

St. Petersburg:

2/17/06

Pinellas County considers building large restaurant on unspoiled DeSoto Park: http://www.sptimes.com/2006/02/14/Columns/Who_wants_all_that_ic.shtml  

Tallahassee:

2/1/06

State considers spending $4 million for conservation easement in a developing area in Leon County: http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060131/NEWS01/601310335/1010

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