The public comment period for the highly controversial US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) fracking study ends today. Food & Water Watch, Environmental Action, Breast Cancer Action and other advocacy groups delivered nearly 100,000 comments from Americans asking the US EPA to redo their study with a higher level of scrutiny and oversight.
The study produced significant controversy due to the discrepancy in what the EPA found in its report and what the agency’s news release title said. The study stated that “we did not find evidence” of “widespread, systemic impacts to drinking water resources,” but the title of the EPA’s news release said, “Assessment shows hydraulic fracturing activities have not led to widespread, systemic impacts to drinking water resources”—a subtle but significant difference that led to most news coverage having headlines like this one in Forbes, “EPA Fracking Study: Drilling Wins.”
EPA Urged by Nearly 100,000 in the US to Redo Highly Controversial Fracking Study
Bush Administration Mulled Using Nukes After 9/11 Attacks
An assistant to former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder claims the Bush government ‘really played through all possibilities’ in responding to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, including the use of nuclear weapons.
Germany’s Der Spiegel reported on its official website on Saturday that the United States thought about employing nuclear weapons against Afghanistan, according to Michael Steiner, who was as a political counselor to then-German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder.
Big Bank Says It’s Going To Cost A Lot To Do Nothing On Global Warming
A new report from Citibank found that acting on climate change by investing in low-carbon energy would save the world $1.8 trillion through 2040, as compared to a business-as-usual scenario. In addition, not acting will cost an additional $44 trillion by 2060 from the “negative effects” of climate change.
The report, titled Energy Darwinism, looked at the predicted cost of energy over the coming decades, the costs of developing low carbon energy sources, and the implications of global energy choices.
General Mills Warns Climate Change Will Lead To Global Food Shortages
n a rebuff to climate deniers, the CEO of American food giant General Mills has asserted that global warming is being created by human activity and is threatening to disrupt global food supplies.
Announcing that the company has set a goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 28 percent over the next decade across its value chain, from farm to fork to landfill, Ken Powell told The Associated Press: “We think that human-caused greenhouse gas causes climate change and climate volatility and that's going to stress the agricultural supply chain, which is very important to us. Obviously we depend on that for our business, and we all depend on that for the food we eat."
Mega-chain the Children’s Place continues to source clothes in unsafe Bangladesh sweatshops
On March 2, 135 large cardboard boxes arrived at the Port of Savannah, in the U.S. state of Georgia. They were packed with hundreds of pairs of shorts in two patterns and delivered to the warehouses of the largest kids’-clothing-only retailer in the United States, the Children’s Place.
The first pattern featured blue pineapples on red cotton twill and the second, red palm trees on a dark blue background. Both styles were a bargain, just $19.95 at retail and, after discount, well under half that on TCP’s website at the time of writing. Belying their carefree design, the mini surfer dude shorts came from a cheerless factory in a landlocked city in a country half a world away — Shams Styling Wears, located on the outskirts of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka.
Alison Parker's parents on gun-control fight: 'We cannot be intimidated'
It's been less than a week since murder set their lives onto a new course, into roles they never wanted to take on and into a battle they never planned to fight.
But only five days in, Andy and Barbara Parker -- the parents of slain television journalist Alison Parker -- speak about gun control with a passion as if they'd spent their lifetimes fighting for it.
Fire at Saudi oil company residence kills 11
— A large fire broke out Sunday in the basement of a sprawling residential complex in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich east, killing at least 11 people and injuring more than 200, officials in the kingdom said.
The blaze began early in the morning in a multistory residential compound known as Radium in the eastern city of Khobar. The complex houses workers for state oil giant Saudi Aramco, which oversees petroleum production in the OPEC powerhouse.
Egypt sentences 3 Al-Jazeera reporters to 3 years in prison
A court in Egypt has sentenced three Al Jazeera journalists to three years in jail after finding them guilty of "aiding a terrorist organization".
Egyptian Baher Mohamed, Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Australian Peter Greste were all handed three-year jail sentences when the court in Cairo delivered the verdict on Saturday, sparking worldwide condemnation of the decision.
Mohamed was sentenced to an additional six months for possession of a spent bullet casing. An appeal against the verdict is planned.
NASA: Sea Level Rise Likely To Get Much Worse
Sea levels worldwide rose an average of nearly 3 inches (8 cm) since 1992, the result of warming waters and melting ice, a panel of NASA scientists said on Wednesday.
In 2013, a United Nations panel predicted sea levels would rise from 1 to 3 feet (0.3 to 0.9 meters) by the end of the century. The new research shows that sea level rise most likely will be at the high end of that range, said University of Colorado geophysicist Steve Nerem.
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