dotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdot on Mar 09, 2010 04:46AM

New Report Offers Little Hope for International Climate Agreement

It's the big pink elephant in the room that few others wish to acknowledge, but a central theme in a new report by former climate negotiator Nigel Purvis: An international climate change treaty isn't likely to be signed anytime soon. Purvis served as president Clinton's chief UN climate negotiator, and in his report released today Purvis says that the United States and Europe should "accept reality" and take immediate practical steps to deal with global warming.

dotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdot on Mar 09, 2010 04:31AM

EPA defends plan to regulate Greenhouse gas emissions

The Environmental Protection Agency chief fought back on Monday against Senate attempts to challenge the agency's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, saying delaying action would be bad for the economy. President Barack Obama has long said the EPA would take steps to regulate greenhouse gases if Congress failed to pass climate legislation. The bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate amid opposition from fossil fuel-rich states.

dotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdot on Mar 08, 2010 02:05PM

Impact of Ancient Indonesian Volcanic Eruption

The Toba super eruption occurred between 69,000 and 77,000 years ago at Lake Toba (present day Indonesia), and it is recognized as one of Earth's largest known eruptions. The related catastrophe theory holds that this super volcanic event plunged the planet into a 6 to 10 year volcanic winter, which resulted in the world's human population being reduced to 10,000 or even a mere 1,000 breeding pairs, creating a bottleneck in human evolution. Some researchers argue that the Toba eruption produced not only a catastrophic volcanic winter but also an additional 1,000 year cooling episode. Newly discovered archaeological sites in southern and northern India have revealed how people lived before and after the colossal Toba volcanic eruption 74,000 years ago.

dotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdot on Mar 08, 2010 05:12AM

Neglected tropical diseases NEED to be studied

The 'innovation gap' for neglected tropical diseases is rapidly growing, say Sandeep P. Kishore and colleagues, but research universities in the United States could help close the gap. Total research funding for diabetes is more than 15 times greater than that for malaria, and more than 100 times that of other diseases such as schistosomiasis. The authors suggest three key steps to making a meaningful impact on neglected disease research.

dotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdot on Mar 08, 2010 04:46AM

West Africa mangroves impacted by salt extraction

Salt is precious in poverty-stricken coastal West Africa, but conservation experts say efforts to extract it are laying waste to mangrove swamps, causing erosion and ravaging fish stocks. In Sierra Leone, one of Africa's poorest nations still recovering from a 1991-2002 civil war, lawmakers are preparing a bill to join a seven-nation charter to protect the region's mangrove forests. Conservation group Wetlands International says the initiative is essential for West Africa to save the 800,000 hectares (2 million acres) of mangrove swamps it has left, less than a third of the 3 million hectares it started with.

Mar 03, 2010 10:25AM

GE food: COMING SOON!?!?! - to a supermarket near you?

Just when we thought the threat to our environment couldn't get any worse after world leaders failed to secure a deal to save the climate in Copenhagen - we're now stunned to discover that the EU Commission is exploiting a 'backdoor' loophole to get genetically manipulated crops onto the supermarket shelves in the EU - and into our mouths.

Mar 02, 2010 05:00PM

Activists Call on President Obama: Don?t Overturn the Whaling Ban!

Greenpeace activists constructed a giant whale tail statue at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in St. Pete Beach, Florida to call on President Obama to reject any proposal that would overturn the ban on commercial whaling.

Feb 25, 2010 02:22PM

Historic Decision: Vermont Senate Votes To Retire Nuclear Plant

The Vermont State Senate voted to retire the Vermont Yankee Nuclear plant, owned by the Louisiana based corporation Entergy. Despite Entergy?s efforts to renew the license for the 40-year-old reactor, the Vermont Senate voted to shut down the nuclear plant as scheduled in 2012. The final vote was 26-4.

Feb 22, 2010 05:00PM

What?s Really Crazy is?

A new movie out in theaters, The Crazies, is a story of a small town of innocent people who are mysteriously infected with a fictitious bio-warfare agent Trixie. Unfortunately, for these people, the infection makes them go crazy and the ensuing horror is enough to make you jump out of your seat. Luckily, for us, this is only a movie and the story is pure fiction.

Feb 18, 2010 05:00PM

Facebook status update: Renewable energy now

Facebook recently announced it will build a massive data center in Oregon packed full of the latest energy efficient computers to serve the hundreds of millions of friends connecting on their near-addictive social networking website. But the company plans to run the place on electricity made by burning coal — yes, the dirtiest source of energy and largest single source of global warming pollution in the world.

Feb 17, 2010 11:49AM

Nuclear Power: A Dirty and Dangerous Distraction

President Barack Obama announced more than $8 billion in federal loan guarantees for the construction of the first nuclear power plant in the United States in nearly three decades. Greenpeace is extremely disappointed in the President?s decision to back nuclear power. It?s a dirty and dangerous distraction from the clean energy future he promised America.

Feb 16, 2010 10:06AM

Tokyo Two trial: Prosecution struggles on opening day

It?s been almost two years since the wrongful arrest of Junichi and Toru for their roles in exposing the corruption and lies woven in the fabric that holds the whaling industry together. As the trial for those charges began, it is obvious that the case the prosecution put together is cut from the same cloth.