By Glynn Wilson – Scientists now say 2013 tied with 2009 and 2006 for the seventh warmest year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures, according to a new report out from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). With the exception of 1998, the 10 warmest years in the 134-year record…
ENVIRONMENT
New Study Documents Consequences of Climate Change on North American Forests
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…
New Report Concludes Human Influence on Global Climate is ‘Clear’
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…
Auburn Scientists Confirm Deadly Bacteria in BP Tar Balls
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…
EPA Proposes Carbon Pollution Standards for New Power Plants
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…
A Groundbreaking Year for Environmental Journalism and Activism
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…
Senate Gridlock Breaks: McCarthy Approved at EPA, Perez at Labor
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…
Sierra Club Asks U.S. Forest Service to Withdraw Oil and Gas Lease Sale in Talladega National Forest
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…
Fracking Leases Proposed for National Forests White Washed at ‘Public Meeting’
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…
Fracking in the Talladega National Forest is Not in the National, State or Local Interest
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…
AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka Joins Labor With Environmentalists in BlueGreen Alliance
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…
Union Leaders, Environmentalists Discuss Building a National Dialogue on Green Jobs, Reclaiming Democracy
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.…
More Than 200 Pack Mobile Bay Conference Center to Fight Canadian Tar Sands Crude Pipeline
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…
President Obama Outlines Ambitious Plan to Combat Global Climate Change
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…
A Beach Hotel Conference Center is Not Coastal Restoration in Wake of BP Gulf Oil Disaster
Public Concern About Global Warming is On the Rise Again
A Majority in the U.S. Believe Global Warming is Happening Already – By Glynn Wilson – Apparently all the recent attention in the media about global warming and climate change is having an effect on public opinion. Public concern about global warming is on the rise again after several years of growing skepticism due to…
We Can Save the Planet and the Economy Too
Who Needs Jobs on a Dead Planet? – The Big Picture – by Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following folks from all over the country willing to travel thousands of miles and brave freezing temperatures and a bone chilling wind to march from the Washington Monument around the White House and back to bring…
About 35,000 March on Washington for Action on Climate Change
Watch the video here… By Glynn Wilson WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 17 – During President’s Day weekend and in freezing temperatures and against a brutal wind, more than 35,000 activists marched from the Washington Monument around the White House to support immediate action to contain climate change due to global warming. People from more than 30…
President Obama Devotes Comments in Second Inaugural Address to Environment, Labor
Sierra Club Reveals Plans for Fixing American Democracy
Bruce Hamilton, deputy director of the Sierra Club, talks about how to fix our democracy – By Glynn Wilson – CAMP BECKWITH, Ala. — The Sierra Club is working on a five point plan for the future and the national staff and political committee will be discussing it this weekend. But Sierra Club Deputy Director…