America’s seafood nightmare: Why the USA needs to rethink its fish

Paul Greenberg, bestselling author of "Four Fish," takes on the bizarrely illogical global seafood chain

Why are we importing our own fish? That’s the question posed by Paul Greenberg, author of the bestselling “Four Fish,” in a recent New York Times Op-Ed. The query also served to unde ... Read more »

Right Now We ‘Grossly Underestimate’ Economic Damage From Climate Change, New Paper Says

Our current models “grossly underestimate” the economic damage that will be wrought by climate change, according to British climate change economist Lord Nicholas Stern. So he and a colleague just published a new preliminary ... Read more »

A Texas-sized climate crisis: Water wars break out across state

Extended drought and supply-side water policy have left rural regions of Texas fighting for resources

Gary Cheatwood grew up near the town of Cuthand, in far northeast Texas, and he always found peace along the wooded banks of Little Mustang Creek. His grandfather had bought 100 acres in 1917 and now Gary’s family owns 600 acres of bottomland near where the creek’s clear waters meet the Sulphur River. He especially loves the woods around the creek – some 70 species of hardwood trees, ... Read more »

So much Arctic ice has melted that we need a new atlas

In new estimates released earlier this year, WHO reports that in 2012 around 7 million people died - one in eight of total global deaths – as a result of air pollution exposure. This finding more than doubles previous estimates and confirms that air pollution is now the world’s largest single environmental health risk. Reducing air pollution could save millions of lives.

New estimates

In particular, the new data reveal a stronger link between b ... Read more »

Ecological economists such as Herman Daly write that the more full the world becomes, the higher are the social or external costs of production.

Social or external costs are costs of production that are not captured in the price of the products. For example, dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico that result from chemicals used in agriculture are not included as costs in agricultural production.  The price of food does not include the damage to the Gulf.

Food production is a source of large s ... Read more »

Defying repeated threats of a lawsuit from Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), on May 8, Peter Shumlin, Governor of Vermont, signed a historic bill requiring food manufacturers to label genetically engineered (GE) foods, and to drop the practice of labeling GE foods as “natural” or “all natural.”

On May 9, true to its word, the GMA confirmed that it will sue Vermont in federal court to overturn H. 112.

Vermont is ... Read more »

The GMO biotech sector is involved in a multi-pronged campaign to influence governments and the public about the benefits of its products. It uses various means.

 It sets up or infiltrates institutions and co-opts prominent political and scientific figures to do its bidding (1).

It hijacks regulatory and policy making bodies (2,3). With help from the US Government, it assumes strategic importance in international trade negotiations and is then able to set a policy and research agenda, as ... Read more »

Germany Sets New Record, Generating 74 Percent Of Power Needs From Renewable Energy

On Sunday, Germany’s impressive streak of renewable energy milestones continued, with renewable energy generation surging to a record portion — nearly 75 percent — of the country’s overall electricity demand by midday. With wind and solar in particular filling such a huge portion of the country’s power demand, electricity prices actually dipped into the negative for much of the afternoon, according to Renewables International.

In the first quarter of 2014, renewable energy sources met a record 27 percent of the country’s elect ... Read more »