Blog
Carts before horses at Green Climate Fund
Originally posted on Reuters The board of the fledgling U.N. Green Climate Fund (GCF), which met in South Korea last month, continues to gloss over the foundational issues of the purpose of the Fund and who it is supposed to serve – even though these questions underlie most of… Read More
Tell Kroger: It’s time to take a stand on GE-seafood!
Today, Friends of the Earth launched a social media day of action for its Campaign for GE Free Seafood. We are asking Kroger to join Whole Foods, Aldi, and Trader Joe’s, Target, and others in not knowingly purchasing or selling genetically engineered salmon, or other genetically engineered seafood,… Read More
A dark venture: Tales from Borneo, the global heart of palm oil — Part 2
When we left off, our narrator was speaking to a corporate public relations man about the environmental and public health problems arising from a dubious palm oil plantation…. See previous post, here At the second plantation we visited, we were asking the public relations man about landgrabbing, the… Read More
More lies: John Kerry must clean up the Keystone permit process
Last week brought fresh revelations of lying and deceit in the State Department’s environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline. Research conducted by Friends of the Earth revealed that Environmental Resources Management — the London-based consulting firm hired by the State Department to do the supplemental environmental impact statement… Read More
Carts before horses: Reflections on recent Green Climate Fund meeting in Korea
For 2 weeks, I’ve been contemplating whether there is something new and exciting to say about the June board meeting of the Green Climate Fund in Korea. In short, the answer is — not really. The GCF board continues to gloss over the foundational questions at hand: “What is the… Read More
A dark venture: Tales from Borneo, the global heart of palm oil
This past month, our China Sustainable Finance campaigner, Rey Edward, traveled to Borneo, Indonesia, to view first hand the environmental disaster caused by palm oil plantations. Edward interviewed several community members who described the ongoing pollution, health, and labor problems triggered by palm oil. According to the findings of the… Read More
Obama’s “grand” climate plan: reflections from a policy wonk
Today President Obama gave a much-anticipated climate change speech at Georgetown University. In true Obama fashion, the speech was pretty inspiring and sounded great; but dig a little deeper into the actual plan and you’ll start uncovering some warts. As Friends of the Earth’s climate and energy director,… Read More
New dangers for the Hudson River
The decades-long fight to protect the lower Hudson River in New York City from habitat destruction and overdevelopment has heated up with several recent developments: (1) Amendments that enormously weaken the state law governing the area passed the NY State legislature in the dead of night on the last day… Read More
Sinister partners: transatlantic trade agreement & toxic chemicals
Chemicals are the sinister and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world–the very nature of life. – Rachel Carson. On July 8, in Washington, D.C., trade negotiators from the United States and the European Union are expected to open the first round of… Read More
Another whale likely killed by a ship strike
On Thursday morning, a 68-foot long fin whale was found dead in the sand at a beach located in Ocean Shores, Washington on the outer coast near Grays Harbor. Biologists from Cascadia Research and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife concluded that the fin whale was… Read More