The report, Tritium on Tap, produced by the Sierra Club of Canada, warned that radioactive emissions from various nuclear plants across the country have more than doubled over the past decade. The figures were based on statistics compiled by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission which measured pollution coming from the plants. "Once in our body, tritium enters our DNA, fat, proteins and carbohydrates -- and that is where it does its damage from close range," said the Sierra Club report. "It is a carcinogen and causes birth defects."

The letter, sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, bill co-authors John Kerry and Barbara Boxer, and Finance Chair Max Baucus was signed by senators from 14 Midwestern, coal-dependent states—including Minnesota's Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar, who are usually counted among Democrats supportive of climate legislation. The other signatories were Tom Harkin of Iowa, Michael Bennet and Mark Udall of Colorado, Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Russell Feingold and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Roland Burris of Illinois, and Robert Byrd of West Virginia.

At the start of the Neolithic period – about 9500BC – scientists estimate that species were becoming extinct at a rate of 20-30 per year. Since the population explosion of modern humans, that is estimated to have increased to 20,000-30,000. Most have never been documented by scientists. And in a couple of decades, Wilson reckons this will have increased to 200,000-300,000. Wilson's proposed international initiative, which he has developed with Simon Stuart, the chairman of the Species Survival Commission, would document this species loss and work out how to tackle it.

But for all their expensive efforts to sell the public on the wonders of clean coal, ACCCE isn't working quite as hard to make the technology a reality. The coalition's members have committed the comparatively paltry sum of $3.6 billion to research the technology between 2003 and 2017, according to an April report from the Center for American Progress. That's just $257 million on average each year to develop the technology to capture and sequester carbon. To put that in perspective, ACCCE's members made a combined total of $297 billion in profits between 2003 and 2008—meaning, as the report notes, that they're spending less than two cents on clean coal research for every $1 of profit.

Indeed, the Chinese are treating the energy technology competition if it were an arms race. China is spending as much or more on greentech as it does on its military, hundreds of billions of dollars annually on renewable energy and grid infrastructure improvements. Those investments, if not vigorously countered, will effectively erode America's greentech industry leadership and secure China's dominance. China's economic stimulus package, targeted 38% of spending on greentech, as compared to a miserly 12% of the U.S. stimulus program. By 2013, greentech will account for 15 percent of the Chinese GDP. While the United States is projected to roughly triple its wind generation by 2020, China will increase its capacity twelvefold to a wind generating capability more than twice that of America's. And, while the United States is projected to increase its installed solar generation a modest 33% by 2020, China's solar generation is projected to increase 20,000%.

If constructed, the facility will generate a generous annual profit stream for United Water. Yet, local water customers will pay for United Water’s gain in the form of the rate increases that will be necessary to address the costs of United Water’s capital investment, as well as the massive amounts of energy that it takes to run a desalination facility. Because it will draw from the Hudson River, the drinking water the plant produces may contain traces of radioactive chemicals that pose a threat to human health. The plant may also damage the local marine environments and could contribute to global warming. A desalination facility would be an impractical and damaging investment for a state trying to lower its carbon emissions.

Average global temperatures are on course to rise by up to 6C without urgent action to curb CO2 emissions, the lead author of a new analysis says. Emissions rose by 29% between 2000 and 2008, says the Global Carbon Project. All of that growth came in developing countries, but a quarter of it came through production of goods for consumption in industrialised nations. The study comes against a backdrop of mixed messages on the chances of a new deal at next month's UN climate summit. According to lead scientist Corinne Le Quere, the new findings should add urgency to the political discussions.

In-Vitro Meat -- aka tank steak, sci fi sausage, petri pork, beaker bacon, Frankenburger, vat-grown veal, laboratory lamb, synthetic shmeat, trans-ham, factory filet, test tube tuna, cultured chicken, or any other moniker that can seduce the shopper's stomach -- will appear in 3-10 years as a cheaper, healthier, "greener" protein that's easily manufactured in a metropolis.

In a November 17, 2009 op-ed in USA Today, Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) falsely stated clean energy legislation would kill jobs and drastically increase expenses. Contrary to Bond's statement, legislation increasing our investment in clean energy technologies would create jobs in every state and help America become more energy independent, all for less than a quarter a day.

Six months is all it took to flip Europe’s climate from warm and sunny into the last ice age, researchers have found

Herbicides and insecticides are potent environmental toxins. Where GE crops cannot deliver meaningful reductions in reliance on pesticides, policy makers need to look elsewhere. In addition to toxic pollution, agriculture faces the twin challenges of climate change and burgeoning world populations. The biotechnology industry’s current advertising campaigns promise to solve those problems, just as the industry once promised to reduce the chemical footprint of agriculture. Before we embrace GE crops as solution to these new challenges, we need a sober, data-driven appraisal of its track record on earlier pledges.

Many Midwestern members of Congress have expressed reservations about clean energy legislation because they say they are unsure about the plans' effects on agriculture. A new study from the University of Tennessee and 25x'25, a group dedicated to increasing the amount of renewable energy used in America, shows that cap-and-trade legislation could actually increase farmers' profits.

Fishermen in Japan pull up nets full of giant jellyfish. Fish farms in Ireland are invaded and consumed by them. Warming seas are changing the balance of species. It's been said that the Earth will do just fine--it's we who might not survive global warming.

Inhabitants of Bangladesh's chars or river islands, some of the most climate vulnerable communities in the world, urged the government Saturday to push hard, as a key player in Copenhagen, for binding emission pledges by developed nations. Others, addressing a poverty and climate hearing staged on floating boats, called on the government to secure at least $200 billion per year for poor countries in mitigation and adaptation funds. "The frequency and duration of floods and river erosion have increased drastically in the last few years causing severe harm to our lives and livelihoods," char dweller Hamida Begum told a panel of judges in the hearing.

What’s the world coming to when you can get your $1.45 million bulletproof SUV with gold trim, a ridiculously expensive Vertu cellphone and three bottles of premium vodka, but you can’t get the whale-penis-skin interior? We have environmentalists and Pamela Anderson to thank for this. This bizarre story starts in Russia with a company called Dartz, which recently unveiled the Pombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition SUV. Yes, that’s the official name of this four-ton motorized bank vault.To say this monstrosity is opulent is like saying Oprah has money. Ostentatious doesn’t begin to describe a vehicle with gold-plated window surrounds, gauges encrusted with diamonds and rubies, and an exhaust system made from tungsten. But what really stood out was the whale-penis leather seats.Whatever the case, Dartz has scuttled the exotic material." We have no any ideas to kill the whale or something like that. All we want- to make just luxury car…. We just looking for most expensive products for this car — and that’s why we choosed whale penis leathure when we checked it is most of most. After wave of protest we realised our mistake and make a decision not to use natural leathure at all."That’s verbatim, by the way.

Investing billions today to protect threatened ecosystems and dwindling biodiversity would reap trillions in savings over the long haul, according to a UN-backed report issued Friday. More than a billion of Earth's poorest denizens depend directly on coral reefs, forests, mangroves, aquifers and other forms of "natural capital" to eke out a living. Unless world leaders take swift action to halt the accelerating depletion of these resources, the result could be hunger, conflict and environment refugees, the study warned.

U.N. scientists say rich countries must cut carbon emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 to prevent Earth's temperatures from rising 2 degrees Celsius (4 degrees Fahrenheit) above its average temperature before the industrial era began 150 years ago. Any rise beyond that could trigger climate catastrophe, they say. So far, reduction pledges total 11 percent to 15 percent, but those could be seen as negotiable. The European Union — which has said it hopes to lead global climate policy — says it will meet or exceed its target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2012. By 2020, the 27-member EU has vowed to slash emissions by 20 percent, and said it would step that up to 30 percent if the United States, China and other nations also pledge ambitious cuts in carbon dioxide emissions.

In a November 12, 2009 Facebook note, Sarah Palin falsely claimed clean energy legislation was a "job-killing scheme." In reality, an increased investment in renewable energy would create millions of American jobs across every single state.

Water quality in the Clinch River is already impaired, and the river cannot withstand additional pollution. Since 2002, the Clinch River has been identified by the EPA as having unacceptably high levels of mercury, chlorane and other toxins. The river's condition is even worse after the coal ash disaster last year. Nevertheless, TDEC is not requiring TVA to limit the amount of mercury, selenium or other metals that will be discharged from its new scrubber system. Under the Clean Water Act TVA should be required to help restore water quality and at a minimum to install the best available treatment technology for its wastewater. Instead, TVA is dumping essentially untreated wastewater into the Clinch River.

Greenfield's proposed biomass incinerator said it would use fresh water to cool its plant, but now wants to use partially treated sewage instead-- and that's OK with town officials.