Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Ever since Hurricane Katrina flooded much of New Orleans, experts have warned about a similar levee collapse in the San Francisco Bay-Delta. With 1,100 miles of levees, many claimed that the question about those levees was not if they would fail, but when. The same could be said […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Today a group of 32 craft brewers sent a letter to the U.S. Senate asking members to vote against Scott Pruitt’s nomination to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. These brewers, who are partners in NRDC’s Brewers for Clean Water campaign, are standing up for the clean water protections that […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Every water system leaks – some a little, some a lot. Last October, a break in a 10-inch water main in McCandless in Allegheny County sent water rushing into a nearby home and cut water service to 20 other homes, according to KDKA. In December 2013, a 48-inch […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund I anticipated that relief and joy would be my overriding emotions today in announcing the communities in which SPARCC—the Strong, Prosperous and Resilient Communities Challenge—will invest. But I find that what I feel most strongly is an overwhelming sense of urgency. That’s what happens when you put years […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Children playing in the yard of a Ruston, Washington, home while a Tacoma smelter stack showers area with arsenic and lead residue, August 1972 Gene Daniels/U.S. National Archives “Restoring nature to its natural state is a cause beyond party and beyond factions,” said Richard Nixon, the founder of […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund A new report issued today by independent New York-based investment firm Kerrisdale Capital Management concluded that Northern Dynasty Minerals—the proponent behind the low-grade gold and copper mine to be located at the headwaters of Bristol Bay’s world-class salmon runs—is “worthless.” Photo credit: Robert Glenn Ketchum Northern Dynasty Minerals […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Despite the Trump administration’s apparent affection for the fossil fuels industry, individual states are looking at the numbers and coming up with a different conclusion: The future belongs to pollution-free electric vehicles, and the sooner we get them on the road, the better off we’ll all be. And […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Today’s meeting between Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau and President Trump highlights how much we need Canada’s climate leadership in the days to come. The Trump government has already invited reapplication of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. He is considering pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, undermining […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund A grizzly in Denali National Park Gregory “Slobirdr” Smith/Flickr For 20,000 years, grizzly bears padded over Washington’s North Cascades, foraging for berries and plants, hunting small prey, and fishing for salmon in frigid streams. Then a few centuries ago, white settlers showed up and starting shooting, driving the […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Like a batter who loves to swing for the fences no matter what, power companies keep swinging for big increases in mandatory fixed fees on electricity customers—and mostly keep striking out. Last year, state utilities commissions rejected or scaled back 85% of the more than 30 proposals from […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Welcome to our weekly Trump v. Earth column, in which onEarth reviews the environment-related shenanigans of President Trump and his allies. Scott Pruitt arriving at Trump Tower in Manhattan, December 7, 2016 Reuters/Brendan McDermid Missing E-mails, Part 2 The office of Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt, Trump’s pick to head […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund [embedded content] The following is a transcript of the video. Over the past four and a half decades, presidents from both parties have furthered environmental protections designed to keep the American people safe and healthy. But President Trump and the Republican‑led Congress are poised to wipe out these […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund After just three weeks on the job, Donald J. Trump is well on his way to becoming the most anti-environmental president—ever. Call him “The Polluters’ President.” He has moved aggressively to undermine commonsense health and environmental safeguards, including issuing an order requiring that for every new measure a […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Rick Gershon/Verbatim President Trump and the Republican-led Congress are poised to wipe out America’s crucial environmental safeguards, put the interests of polluters ahead of the health of our communities, and derail the global fight against climate change. We refuse to let this happen on our watch—but we need […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund The monarch butterfly population has declined yet again to 2.91 hectares—almost 30% less than last year’s population. The monarch population has been in steady decline for the past 20 years—reaching a high of over 20 hectares in 1997 and plunging to 0.67 hectares in 2014. Last year’s count […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund The second in a two-part series about the potential of state energy policy. You can find the first installment here. If you’re concerned about the fate of our climate and the job-creating clean energy industry over the next four years—and, really, given everything the Trump administration has said […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Paving the Amazon with roads, fires in Chile threaten bees, Mexico might soon have an electric taxi To get the weekly Latin America Green News blog delivered directly to your email, subscribe here. February 2 – 9, 2017 Special Report on Chile’s Rivers Chilean Patagonia is known around the […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Giuseppe Milo/Flickr In 1630, as waves buffeted the ship carrying him and his fellow Puritans across the ocean to the nascent Massachusetts Bay Colony, a lay minister named John Winthrop delivered a sermon introducing one of the most enduring tropes in American political rhetoric. In “A Model of […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund A group of GOP elder statesmen, economists, and business leaders have proposed a carbon tax to address the growing dangers of climate change. It’s welcome and long overdue to see prominent Republicans acknowledge that “Mounting evidence of climate change is growing too strong to ignore,” and that “the […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Let’s say you’ve got a problem that’s, well, big-league. As in an all-out assault on the very air you breathe, the water you drink, and the ground you stand on. Your representatives in Congress can help—especially after their phone lines get lit up by citizen activists. Need proof? […]