NASA Confirms Water On Moon Back in October, there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding NASA’s project of crashing a LCROSS satellite into the moon to determine if there is in fact water on the moon. While it was initially believed by spectators and researchers alike that the mission was a big failure, since there was no visible lunar dust or any other substances that resulted immediately from the cash; NASA says today that it actually was a success, indicating that the moon has a substantial water supply. Read more of this story » ...

Extinction Looms Large for World’s Smallest Rhino Time is running out for the world’s smallest rhino.  According to a recent  press release, scientists and experts from all over the world are rushing to save the Sabah rhino, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni, from extinction.  Sadly, it is estimated less than 50 of the diminutive rhinos exist today.  Read more of this story » Source: Green Options

Economic Value of Ecosystems and Biodiversity — New Report A new report, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), attempts to bring to the world’s attention the truly great economic value of ecosystems and biodiversity, as well as the benefits of taking these into account when making policies. The value of the world’s natural ecosystems and biodiversity is something lacking in most economic analyses. Lack of value for what is truly priceless doesn’t just hurt the environment, however. It is also a sort of economic suicide. This new report, hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme and supported by key EU, UK, German, Swedish, Dutch, and Norwegian bodies, attempts to bring ...

What Is the Matter with Us? Lead and Other Toxins into the Mouths of Babes Over the weekend, someone sent my husband a link to a video called “The Girl Who Silenced the World” from 1992 where a 12 year old girl named Severn Suzuki addresses the UN’s Earth Summit Meeting in Rio de Janeiro. Severn essentially gives the panel and every living adult a well-articulated lashing for leaving the planet in this state for her generation to contend with. Had the Internet been in full force then, this video would have flown around like wildfire. I’d like to help spread it around now. Everyone on this planet should watch ...

Lawsuit Filed to Stop Condor-Killing Development, Save Tejon Ranch A lawsuit to overturn the approval of Tejon Mountain Village - a luxury development which will destroy fragile California condor habitat - has been filed by a coalition of environmental justice advocates, Native Americans, endangered species advocates, and local residents. The Center for Biological Diversity, Wishtoyo Foundation, TriCounty Watchdogs, and the Center on Race, Poverty & The Environment filed the suit under the California Environmental Quality Act in Kern County Superior Court in Bakersfield. Read more of this story » ...

EU on Track to Meet or Exceed Original Kyoto Goals: Estimate 13.9% Below 1990 Kyoto legislation worked. The EU is on track to meet - and actually exceed the carbon emissions target it set of 8% reductions below 1990 levels by 2012, the Commission’s annual progress report on emissions shows. The EU-15 (the first fifteen signatories) will meet and exceed their initial target to get 8% below 1990 levels and 10 of the remaining 12 member states will meet and exceed their reduction goals of 6% below 1990 levels by 2012. This contrasted with economic growth of around 44% over the same period, through 2007. Currently, as ...

Whistleblower: World Running Out of Oil Faster Than IEA Says According to two unnamed sources as reported in the Guardian—one current International Energy Agency (IEA) employee and one former—the IEA has been purposely painting an overly rosy picture of the remaining available world oil supplies to avoid panicking the public. Apparently this obfuscation has been a result of heavy pressure from the United States. As one whistleblower put it, “Many inside the [IEA] believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90m to 95m barrels a day would be impossible but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further. And ...

Greenland Ice Sheet Melting Faster than Ever More data show that ‘Yes, climate change is happening, ice is melting at alarming rates, and the time for action is now.’ Independent research using state-of-the-art modeling and satellite observations shows that melting of the Greenland ice sheet is speeding up. Four months ago, new research showed that Arctic sea ice was at its lowest point in about 800 years, another study a couple months ago showed suprisingly fast melting in Greenland and Antarctica. Now, research from other scientists in Bristol (UK) published in Science confirms that ice sheets in Greenland are melting at an unprecedented rate. There has been a lot ...

Yellowstone Grizzlies Back on Endangered Species List In 2007 federal protections were dropped for the protection of Yellowstone grizzlies. Ever since then, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition have been fighting to give protection back to the bears. They argued that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) failed to address the loss of essential food sources for the bears, whitebark pine seeds and cutthroat trout. On Monday, September 21 they finally achieved what they were fighting for when Judge Donald Molloy ruled that inadequate regulatory mechanisms were put in place to manage the bears. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and six other groups, represented by Earthjustice, have a similar case pending ...

Coal Ditched for Natural Gas at US Power Plants Apparently many modern electric power plants that are coal powered can also use natural gas. So, when the price of natural gas came down in the US, more power stations switched to the cheaper fuel. The result has been a sharp drop in coal use. Unused coal is piling up at power plants. About 175 million tons of coal inventory is now backed up. Inventory is up 26% over last year. This national backlog is now beginning to back up into coal fields too. Wyoming has a 6.5% drop in demand from utilities, especially in the Midwest. For the first ...