The Los Angeles Times tells the story of Topacio Reynoso, a farmer’s daughter from a remote village in Guatemala who, at fourteen, “devoted herself to opposing construction of a large silver mine planned for a town nearby”.
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Here’s what oil drilling looks like in the Arctic Refuge, thirty years later
“These satellite images of a small part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge show the site of what, so far, is the only oil well ever drilled in the refuge, an exploratory well known as KIC-1 that was completed in the mid-1980s. The well was plugged and abandoned, and the drilling equipment and a special timber pad it sat on have long since been removed. “
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Drilling for oil in Arctic Refuge is in the Republican Party’s tax scam bill. Can Maria Cantwell thwart it?
Washington Senator Maria Cantwell is trying to nix the Republican Party’s latest attempt to open the Arctic Refuge to oil drilling.
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Puerto Rico’s farms wiped out by Hurricane Maria
There will be no food in Puerto Rico… There is no more agriculture in Puerto Rico. And there won’t be any for a year or
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Texas Republicans lobbied against imposition of safety rules on chemical plant that exploded
“The French company that says its Houston-area chemical plant is spewing ‘noxious’ smoke — and may explode — successfully pressed federal regulators to delay new regulations designed to improve safety procedures at chemical plants, according to federal records reviewed by International Business Times.”
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Say no to Longview coal terminal
“The Department of Ecology should therefore take a firm stand on behalf of sound science and strike a resounding blow against unreason by denying the permit for this unpopular, poorly conceived project.”
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Brazilian court blocks President Temer’s attempt to open vast stretches of Amazon to mining
Via the BBC, a victory (at least for now) over a blatant attempt to allow the forces of greed to wreak havoc in the Amazon: “A Brazilian court has suspended a government decree that would open up a vast natural reserve in the Amazon to commercial mining. The area covers 46,000 sq km (17,800 sq miles) and is thought to be rich in gold, manganese and other minerals. On Monday, following widespread criticism, the government revised the decree, prohibiting mining in conservation or indigenous areas.”
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Hurricane Harvey: The link to climate change
The BBC talks to climate scientists about the connection between the catastrophic flooding in Texas and Earth’s warming climate. Global warming has resulted in an atmosphere that can hold more moisture and hotter seas, conditions which are making storms like Harvey much more severe.
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Greed wins again: Brazil opens vast Amazon reserve to mining
It’s not just the Trump regime that is harming our environment. The BBC reports that the government of Brazil has “abolished a vast national reserve in the Amazon to open up the area to mining”. Conservationists are — appropriately — gravely distressed.
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New rule intended to protect West Coast whales, sea turtles gutted by Trump regime
Trump’s minions gutted rule created at the behest of the fishing industry to protect whales and sea turtles just because they could. The well-being of wildlife is no concern of theirs.
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Even Cathy McMorris Rodgers thinks privatizing the Bonneville Power Administration is a bad idea
The regime of Donald Trump may be enthusiastic about privatizing the Bonneville Power Administration, but Republicans in the Pacific Northwest are not.
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The Weather Channel goes after Trump, climate deniers after Rose Garden announcement
Chris Matyszczyk: “After Donald Trump’s staged announcement that the US would be withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, the people who sometimes give you the right weather reacted with a coruscating collage of disbelief.”
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ExxonMobil shareholders pass resolution demanding accounting of climate damage policy risks
In a groundbreaking rebuke of the company’s management, a supermajority of ExxonMobil shareholders approved a nonbinding resolution that calls for an open, transparent accounting of the risks posed to its business by policies aimed at reversing climate damage.
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On climate damage, the cost of leaving Paris
“Meanwhile, the nation that landed men on the moon and pioneered so many scientific breakthroughs has pulled into a shell of selfishness and denial. Future generations will curse us.”
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Don’t bolster education funding by selling out our environment
If the Legislature is not prepared to create a carbon tax that is scaled to meet the challenges we face, it will be up to
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Great Barrier Reef: Two-thirds damaged in ‘unprecedented’ bleaching
The BBC recaps the bad news: “Unprecedented coral bleaching in consecutive years has damaged two-thirds of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, aerial surveys have shown. The bleaching – or loss of algae – affects a 1,500km (900 miles) stretch of the reef, according to scientists.”
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WATCH: Trailer for Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
Al Gore is back! Watch the new trailer for An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, the sequel to An Inconvenient Truth. In theaters July 28,
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Attorneys general of Washington, Oregon, and California sign on to letter warning Trump not to undo Clean Power Plan
Excerpt from a letter to Donald Trump from attorneys general representing New York, California, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, the District of Columbia, Boulder (CO), New York City, Broward County (FL), and South Miami (FL).
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Christmas Arctic heatwave could break records
Via the BBC: “Temperatures at the North Pole could be up to twenty degrees higher than average this Christmas Eve, in what scientists say is a record-breaking heatwave.” Science reporter Victoria Gill has more.
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5.0 magnitude quake rumbles Oklahoma oil town of Cushing, nearby region
A strong earthquake has caused serious damage in the central Oklahoma oil town of Cushing, which is home to the United States’ largest commercial oil
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Big win for Earth’s climate: 170 nations agree to reduce use of planet-warming HFCs
Negotiators representing most of the world’s nations have agreed to a new legally binding accord that would significantly cut down on use of hydrofluorocarbons, a chemical coolant used in air conditioners and refrigerators. HFCs are a highly potent heat-trapping gas, considered to be a thousand times as potent as carbon dioxide. The new accord is an extension of the landmark Montreal Protocol negotiated in the 1980s, which phased out ozone-depleting CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons).
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