Wildlife

California state documents obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity in October 2014 revealed that the oil industry had illegally dumped almost three billion gallons of wastewater from fracking (hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and gas) into central California aquifers. According to the Center for Biological Diversity report, the leaking occurred through at least nine injection disposal wells used by the oil industry to dispose of contaminated waste.

In January 2000, the people of Cochabamba, Bolivia, shut down the city in protest against the privatization of their municipal water system, which had resulted in rate hikes that doubled or tripled their water bills. In February of that year, Pacific News Service correspondent Jim Shultz broke the story in the Western press with “A War Over Water,” his firsthand reports of clashes between riot police and protesters

Birth defects, premature births, endocrine disruption, cancer, Parkinson’s—why are we doing this to our kids? According to a new study published in the journal Endocrinology, oil and natural gas operations are contaminating surface and ground water with chemicals that wreak havoc on birth and growth hormones. Other recent reports show toxic levels of selenium contamination in the groundwater near fracking operations. This is leading to premature births.

When those who believe in global warming discuss this issue, the word “methane” does not always come up, but there are those who believe that this can have an even more substantial effect upon alleged global warming than man-made impacts, particularly in light of large stores of it places such as East Siberia.

A comprehensive pair of reports by dozens of researchers convened by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) offered “a damning critique of geoengineering,” according to Tim McDonnell of Mother Jones. Highly controversial, geoengineering refers to technological efforts to counteract global warming by altering the atmosphere’s chemical composition.

Something should be done to save the endangered pollinators, and Norway has found a simple and effective solution to this problem – a safe passage for the bee population is planned to be built in Oslo, Norway’s capital. This world’s first ‘highway for bees’ will be a network of green zones of the city, such as green roofs and balconies, as well as private gardens and flower beds. It will make it possible for the pollinators to move safely through these flowering habitats inside the city.