by Ian Angus / Climate & Capitalism Introduction. It is impossible to overstate the importance of the ocean to life on Earth. Covering 71% of the planet’s surface, it contains 97% of the world’s surface water and is central to the great biogeochemical cycles that define the biosphere and make life possible. Marine plants generate half […]
by Alaa Alassar / CNN Biologists at New Mexico State University are trying to find out why hundreds of thousands of migratory birds have been found dead across the state. The mystery started August 20 with the discovery of a large number of dead birds at the US Army White Sands Missile Range and White […]
by Lena Mercer, Perilous Chronicle The newest disaster inside Oregon prisons is raging from the outside in. As one of the most severe fire seasons attacks the West coast, prisoners across Oregon are being shuffled into sub-standard conditions and possible COVID-19 exposure as Governor Brown continues to deny releases. The COVID-19 pandemic is slow moving […]
By Hiroko Tabuchi / NY Times Last summer, oil and gas-industry groups were lobbying to overturn federal rules on leaks of natural gas, a major contributor to climate change. Their message: The companies had emissions under control. In private, the lobbyists were saying something very different. At a discussion convened last year by the Independent […]
by Rhett Butler / Mongabay Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon was more than 20 percent lower for the second straight month relative to the prior year according to data released today by Brazil’s national space research institute INPE. But forest loss in the world’s largest rainforest remains well above the average of the past decade. […]
from NY Times Wildfires in California, Oregon and Washington State have killed seven people, with fears more have died in towns destroyed throughout the West. Oregon is approaching 900,000 acres burned across the state, Gov. Kate Brown said. In the past 10 years, the state has seen an average of 500,000 acres burned every year. […]
by Liz Kimbrough / Mongabay There have been more fires alerts around the world this year than last year, spelling dire consequences for health, biodiversity, and the economy — and human actions are mostly to blame. “The world witnessed the devastating consequences of the fires last year, from billions of wildlife lost and people losing […]
by Malavika Vyawahare / Mongabay Thousands of people demonstrated in Mauritius on Aug. 29 over the government’s handling of a recent ship grounding that spilled 1,000 tons oil in the seas around the island nation. In what appears to be the latest toll in the incident, dolphins and whales have beached close to where the […]
Photovoltaic panels are a boon for clean energy but are tricky to recycle. As the oldest ones expire, get ready for a solar e-waste glut. by Maddie Stone/Grist Solar panels are complex pieces of technology that become big, bulky sheets of electronic waste at the end of their lives—and right now, most of the world […]
by Antonio José Paz Cardona / Mongabay The erosion has progressed at an accelerated rate and has reached other rivers, threatening a national highway and Indigenous communities. Studies commissioned by the Ecuadoran government call for emergency infrastructure to mitigate the erosion, which could reach the catchment dam of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant, with […]