california

Why Are California Farmers Irrigating Crops With Oil Wastewater?

Why Are California Farmers Irrigating Crops With Oil Wastewater?

In the last three years, farmers in parts of California’s Central Valley irrigated nearly 100,000 acres of food crops with billions of gallons of oil field wastewater possibly tainted with toxic chemicals, including chemicals that can cause cancer and reproductive harm, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis of state data. [facebook https://www.facebook.com/EcoWatch/videos/1328569113822689/ expand=1] […]

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    Toxic Algae Blooms Set Historic Records From Coast to Coast

    Toxic Algae Blooms Set Historic Records From Coast to Coast

    Toxic algal blooms aren’t just a problem in Florida. They’ve popped up in more than 20 states, with ongoing blooms choking waterways and aquatic life from California to the Chesapeake Bay. Cyanobacteria bloom at Clear Lake, Lake County, California, resulted in oxygen depletion in the water and the subsequent mortality of multiple aquatic species, including […]

    Obama Administration Drastically Restricts Renewables in Southern California Desert

    Obama Administration Drastically Restricts Renewables in Southern California Desert

    After eight years of work, the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) will effectively foreclose development of renewable energy resources on millions of acres of federally managed lands in Southern California, said a coalition of renewable energy and labor groups in response to the federal government’s release of the plan. […]

    Judge Strikes Down Plan to Open California Lands to Fracking

    Judge Strikes Down Plan to Open California Lands to Fracking

    A California judge struck down a bid Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to expropriate more than 1 million acres in central California for oil drilling. Judge Michael Fitzgerald found that the BLM failed to consider the dangers of fracking, which is part of the formal application process. Two environmental groups, the […]

    Berkeley Soda Tax Is Working

    Berkeley Soda Tax Is Working

    Jennifer Falbe and other investigators from Kristin Madson’s group at UC Berkeley have just produced an analysis of the effects of the Berkeley soda tax on consumption patterns. Berkeley’s soda tax passed in a landslide in November 2014.Berkeley vs. Big Soda They surveyed people in low-income communities before and after the tax went into effect. […]

    82,000 Evacuated as ‘Once in a Lifetime’ Wildfire Shocks California

    82,000 Evacuated as ‘Once in a Lifetime’ Wildfire Shocks California

    With more than 25,000 acres still burning, firefighters managed to achieve four percent containment of the Blue Cut fire in California late Wednesday night. The blaze, which spread from a few acres to 30,000 in just 24 hours, was called a “once in a lifetime kind of fire” by the U.S. Forest Service. Sizzling temperatures, […]

    350,000 People Call on Gov. Brown to Stop Irrigating Crops With Oil Wastewater

    350,000 People Call on Gov. Brown to Stop Irrigating Crops With Oil Wastewater

    Pushing a wheelbarrow filled with 350,000 petition signatures, concerned Californians gathered outside the capitol Tuesday to urge Gov. Brown and the California Water Resources Control Board to stop the potentially dangerous practice of using wastewater from oil drilling to irrigate California’s crops. The wastewater, sold by Chevron and California Resources Corporation, is now being used […]

    Ending Oil’s Monopoly in California

    Ending Oil’s Monopoly in California

    The eyes and the hopes of climate advocates everywhere should be focused for the next two weeks on California. Interstate 80, seen here in Berkeley, California, is a freeway with many lanes and heavy traffic.Wikipedia Our prospects for breakthrough climate progress rest on five global theaters of war: 1. Curbing and then ending reliance on […]