Supposed ecological crusader and Avatar creator James Cameron, along with Google heavies Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, is among the “investor and advisor group” of Planetary Resources Inc—which aims to start mining the asteroids.
With the Keystone pipeline to the US stalled, Canada’s government is pushing a new Pacific route from the Alberta tar sands fields for export to China. But First Nations in the proposed pipelines’ path oppose both routes.
A group of 40 women of the Innu indigenous nation in northern Quebec have launched a cross-country march on Montreal to protest the provincial government’s Plan Nord, a mega-project that would open the north to mining and energy companies.
The Director of National Intelligence released a report warning that competition for increasingly scarce water in the next decade will fuel instability in the Middle East, South Asia and other strategic regions around the world.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed the nation’s first Clean Air Act standard for carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants. But ecologists protest that existing plants are grandfathered in, among other loopholes.
Unsettling findings. From e! science news, Feb. 23: Classic Maya civilization collapse related to modest rainfall reductions A new study reports that the disintegration of the Maya Civilization may have been related to relatively modest reductions in rainfall. The study… Read moreClimate lessons in Maya collapse: study
A new report by British scientists finds that the current level of carbon dioxide emissions will wipe out about 30% of the world’s marine species by the end of the century. Released carbon dioxide is leading to acidification of the oceans.
A federal judge in Louisiana ruled that BP will be held liable for a portion of the damages owed by Transocean stemming from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The company will not be held liable for any punitive damages.
President Obama effuses about turning the US into “the Saudi Arabia of natural gas”—as new EPA studies find water wells contaminated with toxic chemicals from “hydraulic fracturing” across the country, sparking anger from affected residents.
President Obama denied a permit for the controversial Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, saying the deadline imposed by Congress did not leave enough time to conduct the necessary review. Developer TransCanada said it will re-apply.
Citing inadequate progress on nuclear weapons reduction and proliferation, and continuing inaction on climate change, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that it has moved its famous “Doomsday Clock” to five minutes to midnight.
The Pentagon’s new “strategic guidance” document foresees a shift to the Asia-Pacific theater as the primary focus of US global policing. Budget cuts would only bring the US back to 2007 levels—still ahead of the 10 nearest rivals.
