Ethanol Train Derails and Burns in Texas, Killing Horses and Spurring Evacuation
Early in the morning on April 24, an ethanol train derailed, exploded, and burned near Fort Worth, Texas, reportedly destroying a horse stable, killing three horses, and causing the evacuation of nearby homes. According to early reports, 20 tank cars left the tracks, with at least five rupturing and burning. While specific details have not yet been […]
Two Weeks of Extinction Rebellion — In Pictures
For a sunny fortnight in Spring 2019, you couldn’t scroll through a newsfeed without seeing the words “Extinction Rebellion”. Thousands of protestors occupied five sites in London over the Easter weekend, demanding the government take urgent action to combat climate change. People from all walks of life were ready to sit, sing, dance, and rebel in […]
'People Are Listening Now' — Extinction Rebellion's 10 Days in the Spotlight
High above Parliament Square, a small group of people swing from hammocks between the trees. They won’t stay elevated for long. Police brought the members of campaign group Extinction Rebellion back down to Earth on Wednesday afternoon, shortly after the group announced it would end its 10-day occupation. The group have gradually been pushed out of five […]
How Big Oil Tried to Capture the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
A secretive fossil fuel lobby group undertook a decades-long campaign to undermine mainstream climate science while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to try and influence major scientific reports, a tranche of newly released documents shows. The Global Climate Coalition (GCC) was a fossil-fuel backed lobby group active in the mid-90s and early 2000s. A collection […]
Wined and Dined by Energy Industry Consultant, State Utility Regulators Met With Its Client
A consulting firm that organizes official missions abroad and conferences for state utility commissioners used the links it cultivated with these regulators to advance its own client’s interests, a DeSmog investigation has found. Documents obtained from several state public utility commissions through open records requests provide a glimpse into the methods employed behind the scenes by […]
Whitehaven: The West Cumbrian Ex-Mining Community Where Coal is Making a Comeback
Whitehaven is a small port town on the coast of Cumbria, where coal means both life and death. It was death in 1947, when an explosion at the William Pit killed 104 miners, and again in 1910, when a fire at the Wellington Pit trapped and killed 136, some of whom had time to scrawl chalk […]
Top EPA Advisers Challenge Long-Standing Air Pollution Science, Threatening Americans’ Health
By Richard E. Peltier, University of Massachusetts Amherst Americans rely on the Environmental Protection Agency to set pollution control standards that protect their health. But on April 11, an important scientific advisory group submitted recommendations to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler that propose new and dangerous ways of interpreting findings on the health effects of air pollution. Wheeler has […]
In Ruling on Coal Mining, Federal Judge Issues Latest Rebuke of Trump's Attack on Public Lands
By Julia Conley, Common Dreams. Originally published on Common Dreams. Green groups on Saturday celebrated the latest federal ruling aimed at preventing President Donald Trump from rolling back environmental regulations that were put in place by his predecessor. Judge Brian Morris issued a ruling late Friday stating that the Interior Department broke federal law when it lifted former […]
Gas Driller at Center of 2019 Pulitzer-Winning Book on Fracking Still Faces Legal Battles
Eliza Griswold’s book Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America examines the impacts of fracking in western Pennsylvania, and on Monday it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. Griswold’s book carefully refuses the birds-eye view of fracking’s impacts — readers will find few state or national statistics — and instead presents the […]
Critics Say Louisiana ‘Highjacked’ Climate Resettlement Plan for Isle de Jean Charles Tribe
Albert Naquin, Chief of the Isle de Jean Charles Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe (IDJC), often loses sleep over his tribe’s fate as its historic island homeland continues to lose land at an alarming rate. His dream to relocate the tribe from Isle de Jean Charles with a federal grant has turned into a nightmare. After helping the Louisiana Office of Community […]
