By Glynn Wilson – On the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the 10th anniversary of the BP oil disaster, and a couple of months into the coronavirus pandemic and economic collapse, I’m not feeling so well or very optimistic about the future of human life on planet Earth. It’s similar to how I feel about…
ENVIRONMENT
Earth Day: A Decade Later, Our Oceans and Wildlife Still at Risk
By Michele Harmon – Ten years ago this month, our community experienced the worst environmental disaster in the history of our country. In fact, the spill was 30 percent larger than originally calculated, and deadlier. Below the surface, “invisible oil” was hidden from view of satellites that were intended to capture the extent of the…
Coronavirus Hits Gulf Coast Just In Time for Spring Break
U.S. Senator Doug Jones, the Democrat from Birmingham, Alabama, Urges People to Be Concerned and Prepare, but Not Panic – By Glynn Wilson – PENSACOLA, Fla. — The Spring Break travel and tourism season is just now getting into full swing along the Gulf Coast, just in time for what could be the worst human…
Coronavirus Pandemic Spreads and Causes Health and Financial Uncertainty
By Glynn Wilson – There’s nothing like a global health pandemic to make people wish they had paid attention in science class, or at least voted for politicians who believed in providing health care to people. Now maybe even President Donald Trump at least privately wishes he had not been so hasty in firing and…
Can Altruism Trump Selfishness to Save Democracy and Planet Earth?
Part II: How Existential Anxiety Leads to Authoritarianism – Case Studies: Donald Trump and George Wallace By Glynn Wilson – Introduction Donald Trump has fired all the scientists in the White House. He’s made working conditions in the federal agencies so intolerable that many smart, educated people have simply quit. That seems to be by…
Science Proves That 2019 Was the Second Warmest Year on Record
Yes, the global warming is caused by human activities – By Glynn Wilson – The science is in. Yes, planet Earth is still growing hotter, and 2019 was the second hottest year since records have been kept beginning in 1880. And yes, the global warming is caused by humans burning fossil fuels for energy. There…
U.S. Senate Unanimously Passes Conservation Bills in Bipartisan Vote
By Glynn Wilson – While the Trump administration continues to do the bidding of fossil fuel companies by proposing to gut the National Environmental Policy Act, with little fanfare and in bipartisan fashion the United States Senate unanimously passed a package of bills this week called America’s Conservation Enhancement Act (ACE) to expand federal funding…
Trump Advisory Committee Recommends Near Total Privatization of National Parks
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — While the world is focused on President Donald Trump’s latest crazy tweet, pulling U.S. troops out of Syria and allowing Russia and Turkey to release ISIS fighters and destroy the Kurds, U.S. allies, along with the impeachment investigation in the House, there are all kinds of under the…
Thirty States and Local Governments File Motion in Federal Court to Intervene in Lawsuits and Defend EPA’s Authority to Limit Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Dirty, Coal-Fired Power Plants
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – Maryland’s attorney general filed a motion in federal court on Tuesday joining 30 states and local governments in an attempt to intervene with the federal government to defend the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to establish air emission limits on greenhouse gases from power plants and other industrial sources…
Millions of People Take to the Streets to Protest Lack of Government Action to Address Global Warming in Climate Strike
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — An estimated four million people around the world walked off the job, skipped school and joined marches and rallies on Friday to protest inadequate government action to address climate change due to global warming from the burning of fossil fuels in what youth organizers called a Climate Strike.…
Hurricane Dorian Floods U.S. Coast from Florida to North Carolina
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — After skirting Puerto Rico and flattening and inundating the Bahamas, where the death toll is rising to more than 30, Hurricane Dorian flooded the east coasts of Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina and made landfall at Cape Hatteras and the Outer Banks as a Category 1 storm Friday…
Hurricane Dorian Hits Major Category 4 as it Barrels Toward Florida Coast
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – While the U.S. island of Puerto Rico dodged the worst damaging winds and flooding on the weak side of Hurricane Dorian, hot Atlantic Ocean waters of up to 85 degrees fueled the system from a tropical storm into a deadly category 4 hurricane on Friday and Saturday as…
World’s Food Supply Threatened by Climate Change, New Report Warns
By Glynn Wilson – In another international report that will be largely ignored in Washington with climate change deniers in the White House and the number of federal employees and government regulations dwindling, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is meeting this week in Geneva, Switzerland and is set to release its latest…
National Park Service Works to Save Mulberry ‘Witness Tree’ by the Washington Monument
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – It was a cold day in the nation’s capital on February 21, 1885 when the Washington Monument was finally dedicated on the National Mall after decades of fits and starts and problems finding matching stones and money to build it, according to the National Park Service, and there…
Alabama’ Coal Ash Problem Tops Flint Michigan’s Contaminated Water Scandal
Only the Alabama Coal Ash Pollution is Not Being Covered as a National Crisis – Interactive Map By David Underhill â MOBILE, Ala. â Coal is mostly carbon. When burned it turns into carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that merely heats the planet and sends the climate into a gradual, though accelerating, death spiral. But…
‘Ominous’ UN Report Warns Human Activity Has Pushed One Million Plant and Animal Species to Brink of Extinction
“Nature is collapsing around us and it’s a real wake-up call to humanity.” By Jake Johnson – A United Nations report described as the most authoritative and comprehensive assessment of global biodiversity ever published found that human exploitation of the natural world has pushed a million plant and animal species to the brink of extinction…
This Is How Human Extinction Could Play Out
Food-system collapse, sea-level rise, disease. In his new book Falter, Bill McKibben asks, “Is it Too Late?” – Excerpted from FALTER: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? by Bill McKibben. Published by Henry Holt and Company April 16th 2019. Copyright © 2019 by Bill McKibben. All rights reserved. By Bill McKibben –…
A Large Majority of Americans, 65 Percent, Now Favor Protecting the Environment Over Economic Growth
By Glynn Wilson – The Trump administration’s partisan war on the environment is taking its toll not only on public lands and the planet. A new Gallup poll shows that and the booming economy due to the Obama administration’s policies are driving public opinion away from unregulated economic growth and toward more environmental protection. By…
We Should All Be Talking About the Green New Deal
Human-Induced Global Warming Impacts Are Already Being Felt by Life on Earth
By Glynn Wilson – In direct contradiction to the public position of the president of the United States, two of the federal agencies charged with monitoring the science on climate change released a joint statement and a report on Wednesday declaring unequivocally that the effects of human-induced global warming from the burning of fossil fuels…