At a time when institutions of business and government continue to fail society, two of our leading academic institutions missed the opportunity to provide essential moral leadership on the most pressing challenge ever faced in the history of human civilization. Harvard President Drew Faust issued her October statement first: She and her colleagues on the […]
By Adam Chimienti “This is the Court of Chancery … which gives to monied might the means abundantly of wearying out the right, which so exhausts finances, patience, courage, hope, so overthrows the brain and breaks the heart …” — Charles Dickens, Bleak House The court proceedings in the case of the 21st century, between […]
The volume of electronic waste generated worldwide is expected to climb by 33 percent by 2017 to 65 million tons, according to a study conducted by a partnership of United Nations organizations, industry, governments and scientists. Computers, televisions, mobile phones and other devices are tossed away so often, that in 2012, 50 million tons of […]
On Monday evening climate justice groups stopped a controversial shipment of equipment bound for the Alberta tar sands. Concerned citizens locked themselves to two disabled vehicles in front of the 901,000 pound load, blocking its route along highway 26 outside of John Day, OR. Police responded and arrested 16 at the two blockade sites. A […]
Bottlenose dolphins in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay have lung damage and adrenal hormone abnormalities not previously seen in other dolphin populations, according to a new peer-reviewed study published today in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. The Deepwater Horizon spill heavily oiled Barataria Bay. The study was conducted in August 2011 as part of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) by […]
Indigenous and farmer communities in Ecuador scored a major victory over Chevron yesterday when an Ontario appeals court ruled they have the right to pursue enforcement of a $9.5 billion Ecuadorian court judgment against Chevron’s assets in Canada. Chevron used substandard methods to handle toxic waste derived from oil production at their Ecuadorian sites from […]
Four years after the late Sen. Robert Byrd’s frank admission that “most members of Congress, like most Americans, oppose the practice” of mountaintop removal mining, “and we may not yet fully understand the effects of mountaintop removal mining on the health of our citizens,” West Virginia residents traveled to Washington, DC to make a special appeal to […]
Students across the country are escalating their campaigns for fossil fuel divestment after a number of high profile colleges and universities have rejected measures demanding they sell their stocks. Schools that have rejected requests for divestment include Harvard University, Cornell University, Middlebury College, Boston College, Vassar College, the City University of New York, Brown University and […]
By Don Lieber There are many reasons to reject fossil fuels now, after 200 years of their reign as society’s primary energy source. History will articulate both the benefits provided to human society derived from fossil fuel energy technologies from 1750 to the present—and the extensive costs. In addition to transportation, electricity, industrial power, military […]