Los Angeles County banned new oil drilling and set a 20-year phase-out of existing wells in late January. The unanimous Board of Supervisors vote followed similar ordinances passed by Culver City in 2021 and Los Angeles City in 2022. Oil and gas wells are located near more than a million people throughout LA county and […]
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. […]
By Andy Rowell Conservationists and environmentalists in Australia are celebrating a major victory after the oil giant BP announced that it is abandoning its hugely controversial plans to drill for oil and gas in the Great Australian Bight. The area, which is off the country’s southern coast, is a marine park and home to one […]
By Dan Ritzman Migrations are the heartbeat of life in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Groups of thousands of caribou course across the landscape as they complete the longest migration of any land animal in North America. Arctic terns appear to be avenging angels as they guard their nests on riverside gravel bars; these birds […]
Yesterday’s Denver Post has a very important story about the toll of oil and gas production on soil. From spills to disruption, oil and gas operations take a heavy toll on soil. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock Soil sounds like a really boring topic. But, as the Soil Science Society of America says: “soils sustain life.” According to the Society, […]
The Wilderness Society By Tim Woody The first news from Alaska’s North Slope reads like the beginning of a disaster movie. Oil workers on a drilling rig hit a pocket of gas and quickly evacuate to avoid the hazard of an explosion as gas bursts from the ground. The well is out of control and […]