A coalition of Native Alaskans and environmental groups filed suit in federal court Jan. 31 to halt oil drilling in the Chukchi Sea, which lies above the Arctic Circle between Alaska and Russia. Thirty million acres of polar bear, walrus,… Read moreAlaska Natives, ecologists sue to block Chukchi Sea oil leasing
China, which relies on imports for 50% of its oil needs, has established a system of national oil reserve centers, modeled on the US Strategic Reserves. Approved by the State Council in 2004, the four strategic reserve centers in the… Read moreChina, India establish strategic oil reserves
This year the World Economic Forum (WEF), an annual meeting of business and political leaders in Davos, Switzerland in late January, was focused on a financial crisis that shook world stock markets Jan. 18-21—the worst in 60 years, according to… Read moreDavos weighs world financial crisis
The proposed 2,100-acre expansion of Canada-based Cameco’s Crow Butte Resources uranium mine near Crawford in western Nebraska is meeting opposition from members of the Oglala Sioux (Lakota) Tribe, including proponents of commercial hemp cultivation as an economic alternative for the… Read moreLakota oppose expansion of uranium operations
The International Energy Agency is urging OPEC to boost production, with IEA executive director Nobuo Tanaka at the World Economic Forum in Davos calling global supplies “very tight.” Oil ministers from Iraq and Qatar at Davos were noncommittal, saying the… Read moreOil: $200 a barrel by year’s end?
From Reuters, Dec. 12: Residents say lives ruined by South Korea oil spill TAEAN, South Korea – South Korean officials say they have made progress in cleaning up the country’s worst oil spill but residents worried on Thursday about ruined… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
From the Global Justice Ecology Project, Dec. 7: Indigenous Peoples shut out of Climate Change Negotiations Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia – Indigenous peoples representing regions from around the world protested outside the climate negotiations today wearing symbolic gags that read… Read moreIndigenous peoples protest UN climate meet
Perhaps the revolt against the hypertrophy of the technosphere has finally begun. We’ve already noted the rebellion at a Druze village in Israel against the local siting of a cellphone antennae, and the strike by New York City taxi drivers… Read moreRural England revolts against GPS
We wish we were joking. From Canada’s The Tyee, Nov. 21: Earth’s Eighth Continent It swirls. It grows. It’s a massive, floating “garbage patch.” Located in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii and measuring in at roughly twice the… Read moreContinent of garbage grows in North Pacific
Continuing to demonstrate hyper-priapism, oil inches unsteadily but seemingly inexorably towards the symbolic watershed of $100 per barrel despite high output. Prices briefly rose to over $95 a barrel before dropping back to just over $92 Nov. 29 as an… Read moreHyper-priapic OPEC still can’t get it down
It seems scientists at Oregon Health & Science University have cloned monkey embryos to create embryonic stem cells. “Breakthrough or an ethical nightmare?” asks News-Medical.net Nov. 15. We say it is far worse than an “ethical nightmare,” which implies some… Read moreSome monkeys push back
Predictably, a front-page Wall Street Journal story Oct. 25 bashes native plant advocate Richard Halsey of the California Chaparral Institute as a culprit behind the devastating Southern California fires that have left half a million displaced. The article also approvingly… Read moreEcology scapegoated in Southern California disaster
