Five years of drought and over-use of water from feeder rivers has seen Utah’s Great Salt Lake shrink by almost 40 percent. The changes were dramatically revealed in before-and-after photos taken by the Landsat 8 satellite, recently released by NASA. Before and after images taken in 2011 and 2016 reveal dramatic shrinkage of Farmington Basin […]
Nestlé’s grab of a Canadian community’s water supply has sparked international outrage and calls to boycott the company and bottled water. More than 150,000 Facebook users are talking about the news on the social media site. The Council of Canadians is calling on people to sign a declaration on its website to boycott bottled water […]
In a major setback for environmental groups, a federal judge in California has tossed out allegations that the U.S. Forest Service allowed Nestlé’s bottled water operation to take water from the San Bernardino National Forest on a permit that expired back in 1988. A federal court has ruled in favor of the U.S. Forest Service […]
By Mike Gaworecki Electricity generation from wind, solar and other renewable energy technologies have set monthly records every month so far in 2016, based on data through June released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Wednesday. “Both hydroelectric and nonhydroelectric renewables have contributed to this trend, but in different ways. After a lengthy West […]
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, […]
The 16-year drought on the Colorado River has drained Lake Mead and Lake Powell to their combined lowest level in history. But that’s nothing compared to what could happen, according to a new study from the State of Colorado. The study indicates that a drought like the one that happened in 2000 – 2006 “would […]
By Douglas Bevington In California, dead trees are big news. In June, the U.S. Forest Service reported that 66 million trees had died since 2010 as the state has experienced a prolonged drought. Drought stress has weakened trees’ natural defenses to native bark beetles, resulting in a pulse of tree mortality. Yet amid all of […]
A huge wildfire burning since Friday in the Santa Clarita Valley area north of Los Angeles has tripled in size over the weekend to 33,172 acres, destroying at least 18 homes and leaving one man dead. More than 1,500 homes have been evacuated as 1,673 firefighters battle the Sand fire. A California wildfire spread across […]
By Kendra Klein and Kari Hamerschlag Forty five years have passed since Earl Butz, then U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, asserted, “Before we go back to organic agriculture in this country, somebody must decide which 50 million Americans we are going to let starve or go hungry.” Time has proven Butz very wrong. The weight of […]