Former Japanese Prime Minister Naota Kan warned today that restarting the damaged San Onofre nuclear reactor is driven by the same industrial and regulatory forces in the United States that are seeking the restart of Japanese nuclear reactors. He told a nuclear safety seminar that the worst-case nuclear accident at Fukushima-daiichi would have required evacuating a 190-mile radius from from the disaster, an area in which 50 million people live, threatening the entire future of…
Today, the United States Senate and the American people lost a tremendous champion for a healthy and just world with the passing of Sen. Frank Lautenberg. From fighting for greater access to public transportation and Amtrak to working to reform U.S. chemical policy, Sen. Lautenberg was an environmental leader and will be missed. Our thoughts go out to the Lautenberg family.
-Erich Pica,
President, Friends of the Earth
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
It has just come to light that genetically modified wheat has been found growing on a farmer’s land in eastern Oregon. The problem? No genetically engineered wheat has ever been approved for US Farming.
In 2004 Monsanto, the world’s biggest genetically engineered seed company, pulled their GE wheat from the USDA’s approval process because of growing pressure from some of the most important international importers of United States wheat, including Japan, the UK,…
Good news for fish today as more companies pledge to avoid GE Seafood!
Earlier this year Friends of the Earth announced the launch of the Campaign for GE Free Seafood with the commitment of over 2000 stores nation-wide, including those owned by Whole Foods, Aldi, and Trader Joe’s, to not knowingly purchase or sell genetically engineered salmon, or other genetically engineered seafood should it come to market. This movement is vital given that…
“Chevron has acquired exploration acreage in Eastern Europe offering prospects for production of natural gas located in shale beds.” ---Chevron statement of support for Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership “We can’t let little countries screw around with big companies like this – companies that have made big investments around the world.” – Unnamed Chevron lobbyist, quoted by Michael Isikoff in Newsweek Chevron and other transnational corporations are lobbying for a trade deal between…
Thanks to new high-tech advances, California is on the verge of another oil boom: a fracking boom. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking as it is commonly known, involves drilling horizontal wells and pumping toxic fluids into them at high pressure, which cracks the rocks to allow the trapped shale oil to escape.
The problems with fracking are enormous and well documented in places like Pennsylvania and North Dakota, where an oil and natural gas boom…
Among environmental advocates, and especially forest defenders, REDD can be a complicated and divisive issue; among those a little beyond the inner circles of environmental advocacy, it’s downright baffling.
BP's careful control of image hides a record that should be alarming
With spring fully sprung and another Earth Day past, it is critical the public stay alert to corporations that wrap themselves in a green patina while acting to the contrary. King among the “green-washers” is British Petroleum, BP -- going as far as to assert to having gone “Beyond Petroleum.”
In future years -- on future Earth Days -- BP should forever be…
Updated May 2013: Take action here to tell Home Depot, Lowe's and other stores not to carry products containing bee-killing neonicotinoids. Spring is in the air, and as we plant our vegetable gardens and enjoy the blossoming flowers, it’s easy to forget the small creatures that keep many of our spring favorites alive and are essential to our food supply: bees. One out of every three bites of food you and I eat is…
A new study from an Australia NGO tells how Chinese financing will potentially devastate the Great Barrier Reef.
Yes, you read that correctly. The Great Barrier Reef – home to endangered sea turtles, blue whales, sea snakes, and fragile coral reefs – is being destroyed in exchange for coal ports and LNG plants.
China, Australia, and the US Export Import Bank have placed financial bets on transforming the Great Barrier Reef into…