ENVIRONMENT

Rising Seas Could Inundate Coastal Cities Sooner Than Previously Thought

shutterstock_167119931

By Christina Procopiou – Boston and other coastal cities may want to batten down the hatches. A new study from climate scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Pennsylvania State University warns estimates of future sea level rise may be significantly underestimated. The real picture 100 to 500 years from now, they claim, will…

Protesters Crash the Super Dome and Shut Down Gulf Oil Lease Sale

New Orleans oil protest1c 160x120 - Protesters Crash the Super Dome and Shut Down Gulf Oil Lease Sale

Watch police clash with protesters in this original video. – By Glynn Wilson – NEW ORLEANS, La. — About 200 environmental activists from across the county marched from City Hall to the Super Dome here Wednesday and crashed an oil lease sale meeting trying to open up another 43 million acres to drilling in the…

Earth’s Climate May Benefit From Justice Scalia’s Death

scalia

By Glynn Wilson – The death of conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, 79, may be the best thing to happen for the future of the planet than anything since the national Sierra Club and 350.org convinced President Obama to take on climate change due to global warming from the burning of fossil fuels…

President Obama Proposes Boost in Funding for National Parks on 100th Anniversary

GreenBeltPark_findapark1

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Barack Obama released his proposed federal budget for fiscal year 2017 on Tuesday, calling for significant increases in funding for the National Park Service as the agency celebrates its centennial year. “The president’s proposed budget, which significantly increases funding for national parks, further shows the president’s commitment to protecting and restoring…

Zika Outbreak Highlights America’s Vulnerabilities

d391ea06ce22164ab3c49dbdbff445db_XL

By Edgar Wilson – America has another chance to learn from developing regions threatened by a dangerous virus. The mosquito-borne Zika virus, normally found across central Africa and Southeast Asia, has been turning up in more and more countries throughout the Americas, with its biggest footprint in Brazil. In roughly three-quarters of all cases, Zika…

Scrooge Stuffs Your Stocking — Alabama Governor Gives a Wad of Glop

h0B28BB13

By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – You must have been naughty children. Although you didn’t get a lump of coal in your stocking, you got a wad of glop. It’s your present from Alabama governor Robert Bentley, often confused with creepy Mr Burns in The Simpsons show. But that’s only because of their eerily…

Paris Climate Agreement Deals a Crushing Blow to Coal

coal-800x400

By Paul Brown – LONDON — After a decade of aggressive growth in demand, the market for coal has stalled and is unlikely to recover, according to the International Energy Agency. Its report on the medium-term coal market says that demand in China — which uses 50 percent of the world’s coal — has begun…

The Republican Clown Car Threatens to Pollute the Paris Climate Deal

Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush

Nearly 200 countries agreed to save the planet, but the Republicans have a different idea. By Ben Adler – Republicans didn’t even wait for a global climate change deal to be struck in Paris to start trying to undermine it. Last month, congressional Republicans were loudly discouraging other nations from signing onto any agreement, arguing…

Forty Years Later, Vietnam War Continues for Victims of Agent Orange

APME AP Awards

By Marjorie Cohn – The war in Vietnam resulted in the deaths of more than 58,000 Americans and more than 3 million Vietnamese. Twenty years ago, the United States and Vietnam normalized diplomatic relations in an effort to put the terrible legacy of the war behind them. But for the survivors—both Vietnamese and American—the war…

Apocalyptic Capitalism: Why the Paris Climate Summit Will Fail

France Climate Countdown

By Chris Hedges – The charade of the 21st United Nations climate summit will end, as past climate summits have ended, with lofty rhetoric and ineffectual cosmetic reforms. Since the first summit more than 20 years ago, carbon dioxide emissions have soared. Placing faith in our political and economic elites, who have mastered the arts…