Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park is home to one of the most biodiverse concentrations of plant and animal life on Earth. In an historic vote of nearly 60 percent in favor, Ecuadorian citizens chose to stop the development of new oil wells in the park, the country’s National Electoral Commission said. Approval of the referendum means […]
The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously on Friday to ban new oil and methane gas drilling, and phase out existing wells within 20 years. The ordinance is a major victory for communities — disproportionately communities of color essentially forced to live in sacrifice zones — who have long suffered from decades of carcinogenic pollution released by […]
The Biden administration has taken a major step on a proposed oil drilling project in Alaska’s North Slope by releasing a draft of an environmental impact statement (EIS), much to the dismay of climate advocates, CNN reported. The ConocoPhillips project, known as Willow, would release tons of carbon dioxide emissions and spell disaster for the […]
Three oil companies have canceled their leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Drilling in the refuge has long been a controversial issue, as the 19.5-million-acre wilderness area is home to 45 species of mammals including polar bears, bowhead whales and caribou and considered sacred by the Indigenous Gwich’in people, according to the Gwich’in Steering […]
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced that it will pursue the reversal of a Trump-era plan that would leave more than 82 percent of Alaska’s 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve (NPR-A) vulnerable to new oil drilling, The Hill reported. The BLM will instead seek to follow an Obama administration plan that allows 52 percent of the reserve to be made available for drilling.
By Jon Queally Defenders of ocean habitats celebrated Friday after a federal court upheld a lower court ruling defending the right of the U.S. executive branch to set aside marine areas as national monuments. Citing the authority found under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to establish marine national monuments, the U.S. Court of Appeals in […]
By Andy Rowell You would have thought that after being battered by two devastating hurricanes in recent weeks, which experts believe were fueled by warmer seas caused by climate change, even the most die-hard climate denier would think again. But you would be wrong. You would have thought that as the cost of rebuilding after […]
Human’s impact on planet Earth is huge. Thanks to the work of environmentalist and photographer, J Henry Fair, we can now get a bird’s-eye view of the world’s ever-increasing demand for energy, eating habits and rampant consumerism that are degrading our planet. Fair’s new book, Industrial Scars, The Hidden Costs of Consumption, shows the effects […]
Four out of five large earthquakes in Southern California from 1900 to 1935 may be linked to the state’s early oil boom, says a study written by two leading U.S. Geological Survey scientists published Tuesday in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. The 1933 Long Beach earthquake killed 120 and injured 500 people.J. […]