Last week, a federal district court in Colorado stopped the expansion of a coal mine in the North Fork Valley of western Colorado due to the federal government’s failure to quantify the costs of burning greenhouse gas emissions. The court found the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service arbitrarily based their approval to expand on-the-ground mining exploration in the Sunset Roadless Area based solely on the estimated economic benefits of the project,…
With the proliferation of industry-associated scientists, websites and opinion pieces attacking organic agriculture and spinning their narratives about the safety of chemical-intensive GMO foods, reporters and the public must probe deeper and question the real motives behind these so-called “independent” sources of information.
Two weeks ago, we asked Friends of the Earth members to sign a petition asking British palm oil company EPO and Malaysian palm oil company KLK to respect the demand of Liberian communities to end their operations in that country. We’re pleased to report that the 20,000 signatures we gathered contributed to the more than 90,000 that were delivered yesterday by delegates from Jogbahn Clan, the traditional community whose lands are threatened by…
May 2014 marked the third lowest May Arctic sea ice extent on satellite record, totaling 4.93 million square miles. The sea ice remains 235,500 square miles below the 1981-2010 average. According to the fifth IPCC report on climate change, by 2050 there may be as many as 125 days during the summer of sea ice-free conditions in the Arctic. This would allow for reliable shipping passage through previously inaccessible areas and a quicker…
Recently, I had the opportunity to appear with Ian Levitt, the host of The Daily Report on Minnesota radio station KTNF. He is conducting a series of interviews with me regarding the environmental threat posed by legislation that would "fast track" the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement and a similar trans Atlantic free trade agreement, which is the early stages of negotiation. The focus of our discussion was the TPP, which appears…
On Friday, May 23, the United States and the European Union concluded weeklong negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (also called the Trans Atlantic Free Trade Agreement). This fifth negotiating round was held behind closed doors in the Washington, D.C. area. TAFTA negotiating documents were classified as government secrets, even as several hundred corporate lobbyists who are “cleared advisors” to the U.S. Trade Representative were granted privileged access.
Our partners at Friends of the Earth Europe announced yesterday that Deutsche Bank has sold its shares in the Indonesian palm oil supplier Bumitama, an important supplier to palm oil giant Wilmar International. Friends of the Earth U.S. works closely with Friends of the Earth Europe to pressure financiers to make problematic palm oil companies clean up their act, and this news from Europe signals a major victory in our efforts.
Last November
Like traditional GMOs, the products of synthetic biology are unlabeled, virtually unregulated and the novel risks to human health and the environment posed by synthetic organisms have not been adequately assessed.
It is all too rare that communities in the global south -- or anywhere -- win recognition of their rights to say 'no' to extractive projects on their lands. So when we received news a few weeks ago that Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf stood up for communities there to kick out a major palm oil company called Equatorial Palm Oil, we were extremely excited to share the following article about it by Sustainable Development Institute/Friends of…
A recent Oxford University study found that “organic farms support 34 percent more plant, insect, and animal species than conventional farms,” including important pollinators.