Water Quality Monitoring: A Citizens Approach
By Steve Furay The state of Wisconsin prides itself on its agricultural industry, providing top quality products and employing tens of thousands of workers. As the industry continues to grow, large scale industry continues to develop, particularly animal feeding operations. While these facilities represent economic growth, they are also an enormous challenge for the environment, with [...]
Science and Journalism: Understanding the Relationship
By Steve Furay Joe Lauer, a corn agronomist at University of Wisconsin-Extension, has been researching the performance of transgenic corn since the early days of its development. When the media began examining this science and the ethics of it, controversy erupted across the globe. The benefits these new technologies could provide were quickly lost in [...]
Science Institute Calls for Firing in Oil Industry Scandal
A recent press release from the Center for Biological Diversity sent a scathing message to the Alaska Regional Director of the Minerals Management Service (MMS), John Goll, calling for his resignation. An article from last week’s New York Times detail Goll’s involvement in suppressing scientific research and recommendations in order to approve a Shell proposal [...]
Environmental Justice for Earth Day 2010
The struggles for freedoms throughout the world are most visible when the attacks are on the human body. But many are now recognizing that attacks to the environment in which people live are equally insidious to people’s rights and wellbeing. This Earth Day, April 22, it is important to recognize that the extreme damages that [...]
Eastern U.S. Suffering from Deforestation, New Report Details
In a new environmental report, the United States’ Eastern forests have shown a significant loss in recent years, raising the concerns of environmental protectionists seeking to preserve the lands. The study shows that between 1973 to 2000, the forests have declined by 4.1 percent, which is equal to 3.7 million hectares. The research appears in [...]
World Water Day, 3/22: Recognizing the Crisis
On March 22, the international water crisis will be recognized with the global observance of World Water Day. The yearly recognition was developed in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). Water health is one of the leading international challenges of the 21st Century, as many regions [...]
Wealthy Nations Outsource Carbon Emissions
Wealthy European nations have a long history of using the resources of other nations, creating consumer demand on imported goods from tea to timber. In the global economy, inexpensive labor from developing nations has created many contentious relationships, from sweatshop conditions to international gentrification. But aside from the trade of goods and capital, a recent [...]
“Climategate” Controversy – Hype, Not Science
Photo by wili hybrid The recent media focus on what has been dubbed “Climategate” has been a horrific misrepresentation of science and the endless work performed by those researching at the frontlines. The controversy has focused upon the hacking and theft of hundreds of emails between climate scientists, primarily at the University of East Anglia [...]
The Future of the Oil Industry – This Will Get Ugly
The world just can’t seem to get over its addiction to consuming carbon, as the inadequate deal negotiated at the Copenhagen Conference clearly displayed. The main holdup in talks between the nations was that nobody could seem to agree on the effects of carbon emissions, and how dramatic worldwide our cuts should be. But carbon [...]
The People’s Hope for Climate Justice in Copenhagen
Photo courtesy Greenpeace.org At this week’s Copenhagen climate summit, so much is at stake for the future of the world’s environment, but the dialogue within the conference has been dominated by those with the least economic incentive towards creating change. The world’s leading climate polluters have effectively stifled the voices of developing nations, leaving those [...]
