By Glynn Wilson – Climate change due to human induced global warming from the burning of fossil fuels makes North American forests more vulnerable to insects and disease, according to a new study published by a team of researchers from Dartmouth University in the journal Ecological Monographs. After reviewing about 500 scientific studies dating back…
By Glynn Wilson – While the Republican-controlled House of Representatives is engaged in a tense, government-shuttering budgetary standoff against a Democratic president and Senate, the Republican Party is now viewed favorably by only 28 percent of Americans, down from 38 percent in September, the lowest favorable rating measured for either party since Gallup began asking…
By Glynn Wilson – As if there was still any doubt in the scientific community, we now know that “human influence on the climate system is clear,” according to a new report just out from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause…
Under the Microscope – By Glynn Wilson – Out of the mud on the banks of “the singing” Tennessee River in North Alabama, during a time of racial strife across the land in the late 1950s and ’60s, there came a sound so funky and soulful that it transformed Rhythm and Blues and helped create…
By Glynn Wilson – The Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, and the waves of tar balls deposited on the beaches shortly thereafter, prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to produce a tar ball fact sheet. Among the factoids was one stating that those sticky, coin-sized clumps of…
By Glynn Wilson – The autumn season is upon us, since the fall equinox occurred on September 22, and it is about to be a busy time of year for travelers who like to get outdoors and chase the changing leaf colors in the most beautiful of seasons in North America. According to officials in…
By Glynn Wilson – The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed new Clean Air Act standards to cut carbon pollution from new power plants “in order to combat climate change and improve public health,” according to the announcement sent out Friday morning. The new standards are set to go into effect by June 1, 2014. The…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – It’s been one of the most interesting and groundbreaking years in a long time for environmental activism, environmental journalism and the Sierra Club nationally and in my home state of Alabama. Since I made the decision to cross the line and join the club to get personally…
Newhouse Update IncludedThe Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – What will become of America’s institutions, great and not so great? That’s a subject that has been on my mind some of late, even before the surprise announcement that Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos will buy the Washington Post for a mere $250 million. The Huffington Post…
By Glynn Wilson – Something has come over the Republicans in the U.S. Senate. Gridlock in Washington is cracking, and President Obama’s nominees are now working their way through confirmation like water through an open dam. A bipartisan deal was reached this week with the Republicans to allow votes on all seven of the pending…
By Glynn Wilson – The Alabama Chapter of the Sierra Club is formally asking the U.S. Forest Service to withdraw a plan to lease 43,000 acres for oil and gas exploration in the Talladega National Forest. A letter is being mailed today to Forest Supervisor Steve Lohr, who admitted in a video interview with me…
Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management on the Hot Seat – By Glynn Wilson – MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A so-called “public meeting” on oil and gas leases proposed for the state’s national forests at a city park by a golf course was not exactly attended by many average citizens and working folks, so far from…
Editors Note: The nightmares of natural gas fracking being documented all over America are coming soon to Alabama, brought to you by Halliburton and its real estate agent, the federal Bureau of Land Management — unless enough people get together and lodge enough political protests now to stop it. The Bureau of Land Management and…
WASHINGTON, D.C. – After the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference, I took the time to do a walking photography tour of some of the national monuments in the nation’s capital. Check it out. All rights reserved. By Glynn Wilson. Click on the images for a larger view. Cherry Blossoms Frame Jefferson Memorial[/caption]
Watch the Video – Key segments from the speech – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 17) — The head of the largest and most powerful coalition of unions in America voiced his unequivocal support for the growing alliance between organized labor and the environmental community under the umbrella of the BlueGreen Alliance, a…
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Some of the most powerful union leaders and environmentalists in the country came together in the nation’s capital this week to find common ground on the critical question of how to create jobs and improve the economy while at the same time protecting the environment of the U.S.…
Watch the video – Share the video – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE BAY, Ala. – More than 200 concerned citizens, public officials and environmental activists showed up at a citizens-called town hall public hearing Tuesday night to learn more about a plan to pump thick, hot Canadian tar sands crude oil making its way…
Should American Democracy Be Purely About Capitalism? Or Is There Room for Compassion? Editor’s Note – An informed reader and contributor recently reminded me of the Powell Memo or Manifesto, what some credit as the beginning of the hyper activity on the part of American corporations to change the debate in the United States to…
President Obama spoke to the nation Tuesday at Georgetown University and laid out his vision for the steps needed to prepare for the impacts of climate change and lead the global effort to fight it – By Glynn Wilson – President Barack Obama, who was already guaranteed to go down in history as the first…
ANALYSIS – By Glynn Wilson – The American public’s confidence in newspapers as an institution to report accurate information and serve as “the press” under the U.S. Constitution to write about public affairs in a way that serves their interests continues its historical decline, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject. Survey research…
