Electric utilities have disconnected U.S. households more than 3.5 million times since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, while shareholder returns and executive compensation have skyrocketed, according to Powerless in the Pandemic 2.0, a new report from the Center for Biological Diversity and BailoutWatch.
From Center for Biodiversity
Once a model for sustainable land use, scientists alert world to “the tragedy of the commons” afflicting one of Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystems
The world’s largest wetland, the Pantanal in South America, is at the risk of collapse due to a series of local and seemingly minor decisions that fail to account for their cumulative impact on one of Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystems, according to a team of scientists.
From DownToEarth:
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/wildlife-biodiversity/brazilian-scientists-warn-that-the-pantanal-is-at-risk-of-collapse-82745
If they can escape death in poachers’ nets, the endangered marine mammal is well poised to rebound despite inbreeding
The world’s smallest marine mammal — the critically endangered vaquita porpoise, which lives only in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez — is believed to have only 10 living members, if that, of the species. The vaquita is widely thought to be on the verge of extinction, but a new scientific analysis by a team of biologists concludes the species remains relatively healthy and can survive — if the illegal use of ‘gillnet’ fishing ceases promptly.
The Land Back movement has become a climate justice tool for activists.
When the oil tanker Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound, hundreds of thousands of acres of water were threatened.
The 1989 spill, considered one of the most devastating environmental disasters in U.S. history, destroyed the livelihood of local Indigenous fishermen, local food sources, as well as the natural habitats of local fish, whale and bird species.
“The thing about the oil spill that a lot of people don’t realize is that was like climate change happening to […]
Several U.S. environmental groups on Thursday and the UAW union filed suits seeking to block the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) plan to buy mostly gas-powered next-generation delivery vehicles, arguing it failed to comply with environmental regulations.
From US News and World Report
https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2022-04-28/environmental-groups-sue-usps-over-delivery-vehicle-purchase-plans
The Secretariat of the Convention on Biodiversity. The second part of COP 15 will take place in the third quarter of 2022 (dates to be determined).
https://www.cbd.int/meetings/
Researchers have developed global forecasts that can provide up to a year’s advance notice of marine heatwaves, sudden and pronounced increases in ocean temperatures that can dramatically affect ocean ecosystems.
From the Environmental News Network
Talks ahead of the key Cop15 summit on halting mass extinction of life were slow – and much has been asked of the developing world
From The Guardian
There are few places more dangerous on earth than Central America.
Endemic gang violence and poverty has always been blamed for forcing hundreds of thousands to head north to find sanctuary in the United States.
The migrants have been routinely politicised as a fundamentally criminal rabble intent on exporting their violent lives and culture to America.
But new analysis of the root causes of the migration shows that there is a greater, far more unpredictable and far more serious reason driving the mass movement of so many people.
Rather than escaping gangs and corruption, some […]
Using MBARI mapping technology, researchers have established a baseline for tracking future changes to the seafloor
A new study has documented how the thawing of permafrost submerged underwater at the edge of the Arctic Ocean is affecting the seafloor.
Source
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
From Science Daily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220314154407.htm