This is part 3 of a 4 part series by Brad Walker of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment analyzing The Nefarious Connection Between Agriculture and Our Rivers. Read parts 1 and 2 Part 3: Small steps towards river repair There are currently effective Congressionally-authorized programs on the Missouri, Illinois and Upper Mississippi Rivers that
This is part 2 of a 4 part series by Brad Walker of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment analyzing The Nefarious Connection Between Agriculture and Our Rivers. Read Part 1 Part 2: The major culprit There are many well-documented critiques of the industrialized agricultural system, so we will not dwell in detail about why
Underwater habitat at Aquarius Reef Base (photo provided to Flickr courtesy of Stephen Frink, www.stephenfrink.com/) On July 2, 2014, ocean scientists who have spent the last 31 days living in an ocean-floor habitat 63 feet underwater will decompress and return to the surface. They’ve been down there on “Mission 31” intensively studying ocean acidification and climate
This is a 4-part article as written by Brad Walker, Rivers & Sustainability Director for the Missouri Coalition for the Environment (bio below). I provided the illustrations and a few other minor contributions. The article will run one part per week for the next four weeks. Part 1: Introduction — What we have wrought on
A young boy from Africa once said, “You people from America have so much clean water that you flush drinking water down the toilet”. The young boy later explained that he usually misses school because he must walk 3 hours to collect drinking water for his family. So why is it that we Americans use more water
Water is a controversial topic within the environmental community. Plastic used for bottled water is incomprehensible and unsustainable. However, public drinking water in the US and other developed countries does contain a ton of chlorine as well as unregulated chemicals such as triclosan (which is sort of nasty). In the UK, it was actually found recently that traces
Stephen Colbert recently sat down with Tom Friedman — an American journalist, columnist and author who is passionate about tackling climate change — for some fun + a call for climate action now. Of course, Colbert was in his fake über-conservative hat (which we get to watch for a bit longer until he takes over
The Value of Water Coalition hosted an in-depth conversation at the Newseum in Washington DC on the current condition of water infrastructure in the United States, the consequences of letting leaky and failing systems worsen, and solutions to water challenges of today and tomorrow. Our water infrastructure systems, a matter of pride for over a
By now, many of us have heard that the President spent a little time this morning at a Wal-Mart store in in Mountain View, California, near San Jose. Solar deployment and energy efficiency were the two main thrusts of his speech. He spoke about more than 300 recent private and public sector commitments to create
Last week something rare and extraordinarily positive occurred on American television. Fortunately, through YouTube and 350.org, the rest of the world got to see it too. “Something positive?” a critic questions. “If climate change is as bad as you tree-hugger people claim it is, how can anything about it be positive?” The phenomenon tends to
Occasional spring thaws began several weeks ago in parts of the country. As Lewis and Susan Case hiked along Felchner Brook in the placid, mid-March woods of Vermont, they thought they were just making a nice amateur video of a brief walk on a cloudy day. Suddenly, things changed. A roar smacked into the peaceful
It doesn’t take rocket science to draw a line between pollutants in small streams and wetlands and water quality downstream. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers have united to propose a rule that will strengthen the Clean Water Act, applied to safeguard American water quality since 1972. The rule will
When the hydraulic fracturing measure passed the Los Angeles City Council today, several tweeters posted photos of this meeting (source of the above: Walker Foley on twitter). The City Council of Los Angeles, second-most populous metro in the United States, voted 10-0 today to prohibit hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and other “unconventional” deep-underground drilling methods to produce
A very low-tech, but highly effective, new approach to water filtration has been developed by researchers at MIT. Using nothing but a small piece of sapwood, which you can find just about anywhere, you can filter out more than 99% of the dangerous microorganisms in an available source of water. The water filtration approach can
[Reporting from the annual Science/AAAS meeting in Chicago, Illinois] Lacking proper fins and functional eyes, the electric knifefish (of the order Gymnotiformes; one of over a hundred freshwater species native to South America) has a remarkable ability to rapidly maneuver — and find its food — in the most cluttered and murkiest of waters. For
Are you in the environmental sustainability industry and looking for a forward-focused, intensive and up to date conference on water? You are in good company. Over the next two years there will be a number of important summits being held all over the world. Each will discuss topics that pertain to the continued search for
Originally published on ClimateProgress. As over 300,000 people in West Virginia face a fourth day without water, state environmental officials are now estimating that as much as 7,500 gallons of a chemical used to process coal — Crude MGHM — may have spilled into the Elk River. That number is a substantial increase from early
By collecting most of the hot, soapy water that flows off of you during a ten-minute shower, Orbital Systems’ new closed-loop shower promises to reduce your water use by up to 90%, all while reducing the energy it takes to keep that water warm- by as much as 80%! All of which begs the question:
Here’s a video with some beautiful music and some chilling pics of our changing climate: Apparently, the song is by Emily Maguire.
Mesocore offers a container-sized housing solution that purifies rain water and is solar-powered. The potential return on investment for donating one to a family in need is very large. If you consider that there are millions of people around the world living without housing, electricity or clean drinking water, Mesocore self-contained micro homes could drastically
This is the second part of a 10-part series on the “Top 10 Toxic Ingredients Used By The Fossil Fuel Industries.” Read, share, and check in tomorrow for the next part, which will focus on silica. 9. Radon Fossil Fuel Use: Natural Gas Radon is a colorless, odorless, tasteless radioactive gas which causes lung cancer. It
By Maggie Fox, President and CEO, Climate Reality Project It’s funny. A lot of the rhetoric we hear pushing back against putting a price on carbon pollution parrots the argument that “it would threaten our way of life.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Fossil fuels like oil and coal helped power us through the
“Monster” fire consumes almost 10% of Yosemite National Park, August-September 2013 (Photo: U.S. Forest Service) Annual costs of fighting wildfires have grown exponentially over the past decade. They now surpass the value of resources reclaimed. The Rim Fire burning in and near Yosemite National Park has already cost over $65 million, and it is less
Small dams may contribute much more to greenhouse gas emissions than was previously thought, according to new research — the sediments that build up behind dams release more methane than was previously known. The findings add to the growing body of evidence suggesting that dams — particularly large hydroelectric dams — contribute significantly to global
Did you know that McKinsey & Co. has estimated that the world could save $2.9 trillion annually just by eliminating wasted energy? The following video explains how… and so much more!
The amount of water stored in peak snowpack in the McKenzie River watershed of the Oregon Cascade Range will fall by about 56% by the year 2050, as a result of climate change, new research from Oregon State University has found. The research also suggests that similar impacts will be seen in other similar low-elevation
At about 1:15 Saturday morning, a 72-freightcar train carrying crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken shale development, bound for Irving Oil’s plant in Saint John, New Brunswick, slipped its brakes in the eastern Quebec town of Nantes. The train’s only human passenger — the engineer — had checked into a nearby hotel. Driverless and continually
I first heard about the idea of towing icebergs for water a couple years ago when one of our writers covered the potential water crisis solution. The idea came from an engineer named Georges Mougin back in the 1970s. The idea was that towing icebergs for water for those suffering from severe droughts could be a cost
11 billion people in the world by the year 2100? That’s what a new report from the United Nations is predicting. According to the report, that figure is about 8% higher than was previously predicted (in 2011), with the higher prediction being the result of fertility rates in Africa declining more slowly than was previously
On April 19, a truck delivering waste from a fracking operation in Greene County, Pennsylvania, was quarantined after being rejected by a hazardous waste landfill as too dangerous. The truck was carrying highly radioactive radium-226 in concentrations 86 times higher than allowed per EPA limits. After being quarantined at a the landfill, the truck was sent back
We tend to expect a relatively conservative stance from our intelligence community on most any issue affecting national security, and, in particular, the dual issue of global warming and climate change. This ‘traditional’ stance reflects the general position of our elected leaders who continue to resist taking meaningful action and keep kicking the climate
In what is being hailed as a “landmark ruling” a federal judge in California has ruled (on April 8, 2013) that federal authorities at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) broke the law when they leased government-controlled land to oil and natural gas drilling companies without proper environmental oversight and assessment of the risks of
New research done at the ancient Maya site of Medicinal Trail in northwestern Belize has now revealed how some of the rural populations gathered, managed, and purified the water that they used during the dry season. It had already been known that the larger urban areas possessed complex water gathering and filtering infrastructure, but now
One oil spill is too much. Three oil spills happened in the last short week, bringing horror to humans and wildlife alike. Dirty oil, at the root of this, has no moral compass. It is a style of bullying at the worst level. If the earth did not have the resources for renewable energy that its
22 families had to evacuate a suburban neighborhood in Mayflower, Arkansas due to Exxon’s recent oil spill. It is not yet a week since Mayflower began to suffer from the Exxon oil spill, which is estimated at 12,000 barrels of oil and chemicals. The smelly mess is horrific, with risks to nearby bodies of water
“I am going out on this broken fin, and I assume it won’t collapse” — so says James Balog as he slides over to the edge of an endless cliff of ice that would make many feel faint simply to observe. Balog is nothing if not obsessive — however, brilliantly so. Needing his third knee
“We can see oil running down the road like a river,” explains a Mayflower resident. Crude oil has leaked and this is extremely unfortunate to Mayflower, Arkansas; damaging neighborhoods, and possibly endangering Lake Conrad. The size of the spill remains unclear. Faulkner County Judge Allen Dodson said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated the spill
Climate change is the biggest challenge facing the world right now, hands down. Even the US Department of Defense has called climate change a destabilizer of geopolitical peace and a national security threat. Worldwide, we’re attacking climate change from a wide variety of angles. There’s energy efficiency going on seemingly everywhere and renewable energy development like there’s
After making his fortune on computer software, Bill Gates has shifted his focus to social and environmental problems (of course, environmental problems are also social problems). While I don’t agree with everything he promotes or thinks, he definitely seems genuine and is putting a lot into these matter. One of his recent topics of focus
No, it isn’t news of a full extinct species restoration, but scientists did successfully clone cells from an extinct frog species. Researchers in Australia used somatic cell nuclear transfer to make gastric brooding frog embryos. Cell nuclei were taken from tissue samples of the extinct species collected in the 1970s. Then they were placed in
All of the sudden people said, “Wait a minute, this is not how we have to live.” …Call us Peace, We’re about peace… Paul Watson on a wide screen is sweet looking, kind of like a baby as a young man, thinner with dark curly hair framing his doe-eyed face as he stands in life-threatening
Prajob Nao-opas was an activist who called attention to toxic waste dumping in Thailand. He was shot one recent afternoon four times while waiting for service on his truck to be completed. The Bangkok Post reported Prajob had campaigned against factories polluting areas in Phanom Sarakham and Plaeng Yao districts. Pol Maj Gen Niwat Rattathammawat
Four days before President Obama promised, during his second inauguration address, to combat climate change, officials at the US State Department received a new report by scientists which details how a particular byproduct of the Keystone XL pipeline — “Petroleum Coke” — renders the project even more dangerous to the climate than previously estimated. The
Rivers all over the world have been becoming saltier and saltier in recent years, potentially leading to a global crisis in the near future. The rise in salinity has been because of a variety of reasons: water use and diversion, agricultural runoff, industrial waste, mining, deforestation, and a changing climate. But now as climate change
Adding to the increasing numbers of celebrities adding their voice to the anti-fracking and anti-extreme extraction movement overall, Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon today joined protesters at a rally at the offices of NY Governor Andrew Cuomo in Albany. The rally was organized by a coalition of anti-fracking activists, including “Artists Against Fracking” and
A study conducted by researchers at MIT found that increased levels of carbon dioxide cause ice to weaken and make it more likely to split and fracture, regardless of the temperature. With the increase in global temperatures and CO2, the polar ice caps could melt at a faster rate than experts previously projected. The study was published
In a little-noticed breakthrough for sustainable, non-fossil-fuel electricity generation, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last month issued the first-ever license for a wave power station in the United States. The license was issued to Ocean Power Technologies, a New Jersey–based private corporation specializing in wave energy. The first stage of the station, a
Update: Depressed by this news. Check out: “A Transformation From Environmental Grief to Environmental Action,” which will be on Google+ on Wednesday, 3/12/2004 at 11:00 am PST. The gist: environmental news can be depressing. How do you maintain your resolve to fight for a better environmental future? A new report issued by the International Union for Conservation of
