Monarch butterflies drop, migration may disappear

[T]he displacement of the milkweed the species feeds on by genetically modified crops and urban sprawl in the United States, extreme weather trends and the dramatic reduction of the butterflies’ habitat in Mexico due to illegal logging of the trees they depend...

Monarch Butterfly 2013 Migration Smallest on Record

[T]he primary food source for monarch larvae that emerge in the United States and Canada is disappearing. The common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, is being wiped out by the glyphosate herbicides used on genetically modified crops. Monarch Butterfly 2013 Migration...

“Creativity” or Mass Destruction?

In total, the excess gas could heat a million homes, releasing roughly six million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year — roughly equivalent to three medium-size coal-fired power...

The Filth and Misery of Modern Meat and Dairy

A candid and graphic portrait of a criminal industry desperate to keep its crimes hidden away: http://www.rollingstone.com/feature/belly-beast-meat-factory-farms-animal-activists

City Destroyed

[T]he volatile Bakken crude, a substance slightly thicker than vegetable oil that every minute extended its reach deeper, threatening to sicken communities, poison the air, and ruin ecosystems....

Permanent Regret

“These major projects will be synonymous with the worst excesses of this era, and the mark they will leave in history is going to be very difficult to erase.” Fan goes on to warn that the great dams will become “a source of permanent grief and regret...

Poachers poison waterholes to kill elephants in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean ivory poachers have in the past two months killed more than 101 elephants by poisoning water holes with cyanide, which according to Zimbabwe’s Environment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere on September 25, 2013, is endangering one of the world’s...

China smog emergency shuts city of 11 million people

Unhealthy in the extreme: “An index measuring PM2.5, or particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), reached a reading of 1,000 in some parts of Harbin, the gritty capital of northeastern Heilongjiang province and home to some 11 million...

Dolphins as shark bait

Peru eyes restricting shark fishing to stop dolphin slaughter: http://planetark.org/wen/70108

Execute elephant poachers on the spot, Tanzanian minister urges

[M]ore than 1,000 rangers having been killed while protecting animals over the past decade. Tanzania is said to have lost half its elephants in the past three years. [O]ne elephant is killed every 15 minutes for its tusks and they could disappear from the wild by...

2.75 billion years

A recent study asserting that a well-intentioned policy of distributing free coal in the winter could have cut China’s collective life expectancy by more than two and a half billion years has set off a vigorous debate in the media and drawn skeptical responses from...

Indigenous Nicaraguans Fight to the Death for Their Last Forest

Indigenous Nicaraguans Fight to the Death for Their Last Forest “They shoot everything, burn everything, poison the water in the rivers, and chop down the giant trees that have given us shade and protection for years, and then they continue their advance, and nothing...

Prince Charles calls for war on animal poachers

“We face one of the most serious threats to wildlife ever, and we must treat it as a battle – because it is precisely that,” said Charles. “Organised bands of criminals are stealing and slaughtering elephants, rhinoceros and tigers, as well as large...

China says its legal ivory trade not to blame for poaching

http://planetark.org/wen/68724 China’s small traditional trade in carving uses ivory acquired through legal auctions and in no way encourages or worsens the problem of elephant poaching in Africa, a senior Chinese official said on Tuesday. Demand for ivory as an...

U.S. tax dollars promote Monsanto’s GMO crops overseas: report

I’m not sure this is what I asked for: “U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill for overseas lobbying that promotes controversial biotech crops developed by U.S.-based Monsanto Co and other seed makers, a report issued on Tuesday said. A review of 926...

China Is Plundering the Planet’s Seas

http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/04/china-is-plundering-the-planets-seas/275437/ I have always loathed the word “delicacy”. There’s nothing delicate about liquidating the biosphere.

No trace left of three types of butterflies native to south Florida

After six years of searching, an entomologist has concluded that three varieties of butterflies native to south Florida have become extinct, nearly doubling the number of North American butterflies known to be gone. “These are unique butterflies to Florida. This...

The Keeling Curve

Be sure to checkout the 300 year and 800,00 year curves: The Keeling...

Countering Dietary Pollutants & Pesticides

We have so polluted our planet that eight different pesticides were recently found contaminating the snow-capped tips of the Rocky Mountains. If they’re contaminated, then everywhere is contaminated. The best we can do is just try to eat as low on the food chain as...

Deep sea fishing is ‘oceanocide’

All it would take is cutting the oil subsidies given to these fleets. This would so strongly jeopardize the profitability of the fishing operations that they would inevitably cease. Instead of that, states are pumping public funds into keeping those few ships afloat,...

Market failing to provide for human needs?

How could that be? Bill Gates: capitalism means male baldness research gets more funding than malaria “Our priorities are tilted by marketplace imperatives,” he said. “The malaria vaccine in humanist terms is the biggest need. But it gets virtually...