Environment

By Amanda Klasing, Senior Researcher, Women’s Rights Division | (Human Rights Watch) | – – Nearly two years ago, the city of Flint, Michigan switched to a less expensive water source that turned out to be highly corrosive and led to lead poisoning of many children. Public outrage pushed the government to find a safer […]

Environment

Flint’s water crisis is a blatant example of environmental injustice

contributors

Robert D. Bullard | (The Conversation) | – – Many observers see race and class as factors in Flint, Michigan’s drinking water crisis. Earlier this week Flint’s mayor, Karen Weaver, said, “It’s a minority community. It’s a poor community. And our voices were not heard.” We asked Robert D. Bullard, Dean of the School of […]

Climate Change

It’s the CO2, Stupid!: 2015 ‘by far’ Hottest Year on Record & New Torrid Normal

contributors

By Janette Lindesay and Mark Howden | (The Conversation) | – – It’s official: 2015 was the hottest year on record. The US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has confirmed overnight that 2015 saw the global average temperature climbing to 0.90°C above the 20th-century average of 13.9°C. The record has been confirmed by the UK […]

Featured

No, Gov. Snyder, Flint’s water wasn’t poisoned by “Government”: It was by your Appointee

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Perhaps it is inevitable but it is a shame that some people are gaming out how to profit politically from the lead poisoning of the children of Flint, Michigan (pop. 99,000). In the state capital, the Establishment is trying to blame the crisis on “government” or […]

Climate Change

The Real Zombie Apocalypse: Climate Change

contributors

Bill McKibben | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – When I was a kid, I was creepily fascinated by the wrongheaded idea, current in my grade school, that your hair and your fingernails kept growing after you died. The lesson seemed to be that it was hard to kill something off — if it wanted to keep […]

Plutocracy

Sanders: Michigan Governor Must Resign over Flint Lead-Poisoning Crisis

contributors

By Common Dreams staff | ( Commondreams.org) | – – Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday called on Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to resign for his administration’s failure to deal with a lead-poisoning crisis that has sickened thousands of children in Flint, Michigan. “There are no excuses. The governor long ago knew […]

Climate Change

8,000 Suddenly Dead Birds in Alaska; What does it Mean?

contributors

AJ+ | – – “The death of about 8,000 Alaskan birds might be due to unusually warm waters. “Seabirds are indicators of the health of the ecosystem. Now they’re dying, and that is telling us something.” AJ+: “Mass Death Of Alaskan Birds Might Be Linked To Climate Change

Health

People in Lead-Poisoned Flint Still without clean Water

contributors

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer | (Commondreams.org) | – – Important Reminder in the Flint Crisis: People Still Have No Safe Water Emergency declared by governor, but there is no city- or state-run distribution of water. “[P]eople knew from the beginning, as soon as the switch was made in April of ’14, that the water […]

Acidification of Oceans

The Question isn’t of Saving the World via Renewables but of how Much can be Saved

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Humanity is not abandoning fossil fuels fast enough to avoid some massive changes to our world’s climate, with all the implications that change has for sea level, coastal erosion, extreme weather, and desertification and drought. There have been impressive advances in adoption of solar and wind […]