Mexico issued a binational alert earlier last week for both Mexico and the United States, advising of contaminants that continue to pollute the waterways surrounding the Buenavista copper mine in Cananea, which is in the northwestern state of Sonora. It’s the second spill reported from the same mine since just last month. The mining company’s…
Yet one more prominent global scientific entity has released a dire warning related to greenhouse gas emissions. This time it comes from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). On Tuesday, September 9, 2014, the WMO issued a press release spelling out just how rapidly CO2 and other gas concentrations have grown. According to the WMO, the…
As the debate continues over the financial cost of utilizing renewable energy sources, such as the installation of wind turbines and solar panels, another chorus of dissenting voices has been steadily growing – those who oppose such changes because of what they believe to be their intrusive aesthetics. The opposition argues that installing solar panels and…
Since humans and animals share the same space on the same planet, unfortunately, that also means that we share the same fate when it comes to climate change, pollution, and other environmental game changers. So, it only makes sense that we would collaborate with each other and do what we can to slow the tide of…
On July 11, 2014, in a move that will most certainly negatively impact its credibility as the host of this year’s UN climate conference (COP20), President Ollanta Humala of Peru signed an anti-environment bill into law that frees multinational companies of zoning restrictions and limitations related to mining activity in the country. Calling it a…
It may be surprising to learn that asbestos is not completely banned. It was widely used in construction and mechanics for much of the 20th century; the first restrictions were put in place only in the 1970s. In fact, asbestos is still permitted in manufacturing as long as it composes less than 1 percent of…
When the United Nations General Assembly established June 5th as World Environment Day in 1972, UN members probably had no idea how influential their efforts would be around the world. According to its website, “World Environment Day (WED) is the United Nations’ principal vehicle for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the environment.” Its outreach…
The very real and critically pressing issue of climate change continues to gain steam across all fronts. In a follow-up report to a similar study they released in 2007, an advisory board of retired U.S. military admirals and generals have now entered the fray to help sound the alarm. The current group of 16 three…
On Tuesday, April 29, 2014, in a 6-2 decision (Justice Alito recused himself), the Supreme Court dealt a decisive blow to coal-fired power plants in more than two dozen Southern and Midwestern states. The victory, considered to be a major win for the Obama administration, supported the 2011 EPA Cross-State Air Pollution Rule that targeted…
In a study just released by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), researchers project that until the year 2030 urban areas around the world will grow by a total of nearly 42 square miles every day. To put that daily growth into perspective, 42 square miles is the equivalent of about 20,000…