vancouverobserver.com - by Barry Saxifrage - March 28, 2014

America's surge in cheap fracked gas is acting like a climate change Jekyll and Hyde. In the public eye, fracked gas is being applauded for replacing climate-dirtier coal burning. But behind the scenes, it is also an efficient killer of climate-safer energy projects.

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Assumptions to the Annual Energy Outlook 2013

Report - Assumptions to the Annual Energy Outlook 2013 (210 page .PDF report)

GovInslee - Aerial photo of the mudslide

CLICK HERE - Washington Governor Jay Inslee - Oso Mudslide Resources

CLICK HERE - oso.recovers.org - Oso Landslide Recovery Hub

CLICK HERE - Facebook - Washington Wildfires & Emergency Situations

CNN - No fresh signs of life in search after devastating Washington landslide

Reuters - Washington mudslide yields more bodies, but not all may be found

USA Today - Dead and Missing in Washington Landslide

The Altaeros BAT V4, a turbine tethered to land, in a 2013 test at the former Loring Air Force Base in Maine. Altaeros Energies

nytimes.com - by Diane Cardwell - March 20, 2014

The wind industry has gone to great lengths over the years to snap up the best properties for its farms, often looking to remote swaths of prairie or distant mountain ridges to maximize energy production and minimize community opposition.

Now, it is reaching for the sky.

With new technology allowing developers to build taller machines spinning longer blades, the industry has been able to produce more power at lower cost by capturing the faster winds that blow at higher elevations.

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oceana.org - March 20, 2014

(CLICK HERE - REPORT -
Wasted Catch: Unsolved Problems in U.S. Fisheries)

thedailybeast.com - by Abby Haglage - March 23, 2014

A new report by Oceana exposes nine U.S. fisheries that throw away half of what they catch, and kill dolphins, sea turtles, whales, and more in the process.

A new study released this week called Wasted Catch: Unsolved Bycatch Problems in U.S. Fisheries reveals the nine dirtiest fisheries in the United States. It’s a dirty bunch indeed, the waste between them accounting for nearly half a billion wasted seafood meals in the U.S. alone.

Culled by Oceana, the largest international organization for ocean conservation, the fisheries are ranked based on bycatch—the amount of unwanted creatures caught while commercial fishing.

The landmark Superfund program is supposed to clean up the country’s toxic waste. But as one site in Silicon Valley shows, it’s leaving behind its own legacy of environmental problems.

theguardian.com - by Susanne Rust and Matt Drange, The Center for Investigative Reporting, and the Guardian US Interactive Team - March 17, 2014

Below some of the world’s most expensive real estate, in the heart of Silicon Valley, pipes and pumps suck thousands of gallons of contaminated water every hour from vast underground toxic pools.

Giant industrial filters trap droplets of dangerous chemicals at the surface, all in the hope of making the water drinkable again and protecting the workers of tech giants such as Google and Symantec from toxic vapors.

But that costly journey to the surface is only the start of a toxic trail with no clear end.

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A home is nearly surrounded by the Hobet mountaintop-removing coal mine in Boone County, W.V.
Photo by Vivian Stockman

Recent studies suggest that coal mining affects the health of everyone who lives nearby—not just those who work in the mines.

yesmagazine.org - by Erin L. McCoy - February 26, 2014

. . . In recent years, research has drawn new links between coal mining and health problems in the areas where that mining takes place. In response, local groups are working to support further research and boost awareness of these problems. The chemical leak that left 300,000 West Virginians without water for more than a week in January, the 108,000-gallon slurry spill on Feb. 11, and another slurry spill just days ago have brought national attention to the issue. Local advocates hope that this attention, in combination with new research, will translate into a more open dialogue on the health dangers of coal mining.

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President Obama, at the Andrews Air Force Base golf course in Maryland, will visit Europe this week.
(Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images / March 22, 2014)

President Obama's trip will be a plunge into American leadership in Europe after years of shifting U.S. policy away from the Old World.

latimes.com - by Kathleen Hennessey - March 23, 2014

WASHINGTON — Planned as a springtime tour with a modest itinerary — affording time to chat with the pope, admire the Rembrandts and take in the Colosseum — President Obama's weeklong trip to Europe instead has become a high-stakes test of whether he can move the continent's leaders into a tougher response to Russia's annexation of Crimea.

An oiled murre passes the darkened shoreline near Prince William Sound, Alaska, less than a month after the March 1989 spill.  Erik Hill/Anchorage Daily News/MCT/Landov

npr.org - by Elizabeth Shogren - March 22, 2014

On March 24, 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez struck a reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil into the pristine water. At the time, it was the single biggest spill in U.S. history. In a series of stories, NPR is examining the lasting social and economic impacts of the disaster, as well as the policy, regulation and scientific research that came out of it.

Twenty-five years of research following the Exxon Valdez disaster has led to some startling conclusions about the persistent effects of spilled oil.

When the tanker leaked millions of gallons of the Alaskan coast, scientists predicted major environmental damage, but they expected those effects to be short lived. Instead, they've stretched out for many years.

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A barge loaded with marine fuel oil sits partially submerged in the Houston Ship Channel. The bulk carrier Summer Wind, reported a collision between the Summer Wind and a barge, containing 924,000 gallons of fuel oil, towed by the motor vessel Miss Susan.  Photo: U.S. Coast Guard

Dike, ports closed after barge collides with ship

galvestondailynews.com - by Wes Swift, T. J. Aulds and Kevin M. Cox - March 23, 2014

TEXAS CITY — A collision between a barge and a ship Saturday near the Texas City Dike spilled 160,000 gallons of heavy oil into Galveston Bay.

The accident forced authorities to evacuate the dike and surrounding areas — and to close the Houston Ship Channel.

Authorities also suspended operations of the ferry between Galveston and Port Bolivar.

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ALSO SEE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION IN LINKS BELOW

http://time.com/34630/barge-leaking-oil-in-galveston-bay-after-collision/

Under restrictions, a Mumford, Tex., farm on the Brazos River could not draw water from it, while cities and power plants could. Credit Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times

nytimes.com - by Michael Wines - March 16, 2014

MUMFORD, Tex. — Across the parched American West, the long drought has set off a series of fierce legal and political battles over who controls an increasingly dear treasure — water.

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Sea Level Rise Planning Tool

environmentalleader.com - March 20, 2014

Google, Microsoft and other companies joined the White House yesterday to launch a suite of climate data projects designed to serve businesses, governments and the public.

The Climate Data Initiative calls on the private sector to build tools using government datasets, as a number of well-known tech companies are starting to do.

In addition, more than 100 datasets, web services and tools related to coastal flooding and sea level rise are now publicly available at www.data.gov/climate.

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http://www.data.gov/climate/

Photo: Associated Press

huffingtonpost.com - by Barbra Streisand - March 17, 2014

Imagine if we could quickly reduce the threat of climate change and grow healthier crops at the same time, without the sacrifice the coal and oil industry tells us are inevitable! Turns out we can, and the solution is literally right under our feet.

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CLICK HERE - U.N. Report - Trade and Environment Review 2013
Wake up before it is too late: Make agriculture truly sustainable now for food security in a changing climate

CLICK HERE - Nature - Soil Carbon Storage

sciencedaily.com - March 18, 2014

The health benefits of eating dark chocolate have been extolled for centuries, but the exact reason has remained a mystery -- until now. Researchers have just reported that certain bacteria in the stomach gobble the chocolate and ferment it into anti-inflammatory compounds that are good for the heart. . .

"We found that there are two kinds of microbes in the gut: the 'good' ones and the 'bad' ones," explained Maria Moore, an undergraduate student and one of the study's researchers.

"The good microbes, such as Bifidobacterium and lactic acid bacteria, feast on chocolate," she said. "When you eat dark chocolate, they grow and ferment it, producing compounds that are anti-inflammatory."

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Image: “No standard in Europe will be lowered because of this trade deal; not on food, not on the environment, not on social protection, not on data protection,” EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht said in February, before meetings this week in Brussels to negotiate the details of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Photograph: Georges Gobet/AFP

theguardian.com - March 14th, 2014 - Karl Mathiesen

Both the EU and US are adamant TTIP will not affect both regions’ environmental protection standards. But green groups, forewarned by past experiences of free trade agreements, are incredulous.