Practical Apps Are Being Developed to Tackle Ecological and Economic Disasters – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – Before there was Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election of 2016, before the Trump-Putin “treason summit” in Helsinki, before the end of the Cold War in 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the…
ENVIRONMENT
Scott Pruitt Should Have Been Fired from EPA for Violating the Agency’s Mission
Melting Ice on Antarctica Triples Increase in Rising Seas in Just Three Years, New Study Shows
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — The continent of Antarctica on Earth’s South Pole is losing its ice cover so fast that NASA and the European Space Agency just sent out an email blast about a new study showing that the impact is already contributing to an increase in rising global sea levels in…
It’s Open Season on Academic Science in the Trump Era
Staff report… Most people think university professors – especially those with tenure – are safe from political interference in their research fields. They would be wrong – especially in state universities, according to a recent story just out from Washington State. Washington’s leading expert on wolves, Professor Rob Wielgus, learned this lesson the hard way…
Watercress Darter Habitat Restoration Project Underway on Village Creek
By Glynn Wilson – BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — It only took 10 years after the human-caused environmental disaster, but a habitat restoration project for the endangered watercress darter along Village Creek in Roebuck Springs is finally underway and should be completed by the summer of 2018, according to an announcement just out from the non-profit Freshwater…
New Studies Show Gulf Stream Slowing As Hurricane Season 2018 Approaches
Climate Change Denier Scott Pruitt May Be On the Way Out at EPA
By Glynn Wilson – One of the most disheartening facts about the Trump administration’s policies to the millions of Americans who care deeply about the Earth’s natural environment is the outright war on the planet being waged by President Donald Trump and his cabinet. A couple of new stories just out demonstrate the problem, and…
NASA Scientists Find Way to Focus Research on Changes to Earth’s Frozen Regions
By Patrick Lynch – In spite of restrictions by the Trump administration not to talk about global warming or using the terminology of “climate change,” the scientists and public relations folks at NASA have come up with a way to continue the research and show us the results. NASA research shows that permafrost — permanently frozen…
Massive Reserves of Mercury Hidden Under Thawing Permafrost Could Be Released Due to Warming
Science News – Researchers have discovered that permafrost in the northern hemisphere stores massive amounts of natural mercury, a finding with significant implications for human health and ecosystems worldwide as global temperatures rise and melt the ice covering it up and keeping it trapped. In a new study published in in Geophysical Research Letters, a…
New NASA Space Sensors to Address Key Earth Science Questions
By Glynn Wilson – Why is the Arctic warming faster than the rest of the planet? Does mineral dust warm or cool the atmosphere? These are actual questions just out from NASA about an ongoing research program. While the Trump administration has banished the use of the term climate change or global warming from the…
Gutting the EPA Confirms Trump’s Damning ‘Alabamafication’ of America
ANALYSIS By Glynn Wilson – President Trump needs a new slogan. Instead of declaring that he wants to “make America great again,” if he was an honest man he would say instead: “Let’s make America more like Alabama.” That’s what’s going on as his administration guts the Environmental Protection Agency. If it was possible to…
Assessing the Environmental Damage From Trump’s First Year in the White House
By Lorie Shaull – As a candidate for president, Donald Trump made exaggerated promises tailor-made for his base. One of those was a vow to eliminate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “in almost every form.” In its most literal sense, the idea seemed ludicrous. But that did not stop a Florida congressman from introducing a…
Environmental Activist Offers Solutions to Climate Change Disasters
By Glynn Wilson — WASHINGTON, D.C. — It’s hard to get any official sources in the nation’s capital to talk openly about the reality of climate change due to global warming from the burning of fossil fuels. With the climate change denier in chief in the Oval Office ordering federal agencies to wipe science information…
Drummond Company Executive and Lawyers Indicted in Environmental Bribery Conspiracy
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two Birmingham lawyers and an Alabama coal company executive were indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday on charges of conspiracy, bribery, wire fraud and money laundering for paying a state legislator to fight the cleanup of a Superfund site in north Birmingham. U.S. attorneys, IRS and…
Privatizing National Parks Puts America’s Best Idea At Risk
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nothing is more American than the iconic National Park Ranger hat. The idea of protecting nature and providing public access to natural beauty began in the United States and has spread across the world, but now it’s at risk. While the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest…
A Fairy Tale From 2050: Donald Trump and the Triumph of Anti-Politics
An Update on Thoreau’s Necessities of Life
âThe necessaries of life for man in this climate may, accurately enough, be distributed under the several heads of Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Fuel; for not till we have secured these are we prepared to entertain the true problems of life with freedom and a prospect of success.â – Henry David Thoreau, Walden By Glynn…
Trump’s Federal Hiring Freeze Makes America Less Safe
Even Members of Congress and Trump Voters and Fans Who Visit Washington – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — When New York celebrity businessman Donald J. Trump took office in January, one of his first acts as president was to immediately sign a symbolic memo calling for a “hiring freeze” on federal employees. The…
Trump Administration Could Ignore Climate Impacts in Massive New Gulf Oil Drilling Leases
By Glynn Wilson — MOBILE, Ala. — The Trump administration held public meetings in cities along the Gulf Coast this week to generate public comments on the environmental impacts of opening up 95 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to new oil and gas leases. But while federal law and national policy calls for…
Trump Administration Proposes Opening Millions of Acres Offshore to Oil and Gas Development
By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — The Trump administration has announced a plan to open up more offshore waters in the continental United States to oil and gas exploration and to remove federal regulations imposed by previous administrations on oil and gas drilling, in spite of findings in a federal lawsuit in the 2010…