Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/02/2011226175935996312.html

Judge orders suspension of hydroelectric plant in the Amazon, citing environemental concerns. The dam project has been criticised for its potential impact on Brazil's native Indian tribes. A Brazilian court has ordered the suspension of a massive hydroelectric dam project in the rain forest, citing environmental concerns. Ronaldo Desterro, a federal judge said in a statement posted on a court website Friday night that environmental agency Ibama erred last month when it approved work to begin on the dam. The statement cites 29 environmental conditions that allegedly have not been met, such as the recovery of degraded areas and measures to guarantee the navigability of rivers. The massive Belo Monte hydroelectric plant in the Amazon jungle state of Para would be the third-largest hydroelectric dam in the world.

Link: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/02/monsanto-gm-sugar-beets-court-ruling-usda-.html

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a lower court’s ruling to destroy the young plants currently being grown to produce genetically modified sugar beet seeds with Monsanto’s Roundup Ready genes.

Link: http://www.truth-out.org/why-monsanto-always-wins67976

The USDA recently approved Monsanto's Roundup Ready alfalfa. Government regulators openly rely on data and research provided by the biotech industry when approving GE technology.
The recent approval of Monsanto's Roundup Ready alfalfa is one of most divisive controversies in American agriculture, but in 2003, it was simply the topic at hand in a string of emails between the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Monsanto. In the emails, federal regulators and Monsanto officials shared edits to a list of the USDA's questions about Monsanto's original petition to fully legalize the alfalfa. Later emails show a USDA regulator accepted Monsanto's help with drafting the initial environmental assessment (EA) of the alfalfa and planned to "cut and paste" parts of Monsanto's revised petition right into the government's assessment.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1358861/BP-Gulf-oil-spill-Shocking-images-prove-seabed-STILL-coated.html

Oil from the BP spill remains stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, according to a top scientist. Samantha Joye has video and slides that she says demonstrate the oil isn't degrading as hoped and has decimated life on parts of the sea floor. That report is at odds with a recent report by the BP spill compensation czar that said nearly all will be well by 2012.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/20

The central issue in our political life is not being discussed. At stake is the moral basis of American democracy. The individual issues are all too real: assaults on unions, public employees, women's rights, immigrants, the environment, health care, voting rights, food safety, pensions, prenatal care, science, public broadcasting, and on and on. Budget deficits are a ruse, as we've seen in Wisconsin, where the governor turned a surplus into a deficit by providing corporate tax breaks, and then used the deficit as a ploy to break the unions, not just in Wisconsin, but seeking to be the first domino in a nationwide conservative movement.

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/17/earth-dodges-geomagnetic-storm-scientist/

A wave of charged plasma particles from a huge solar eruption has glanced off the Earth's northern pole, lighting up auroras and disrupting some radio communications, a NASA scientist said. But the Earth appears to have escaped a widespread geomagnetic storm, with the effects confined to the northern latitudes, possibly reaching down into Norway and Canada.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/17/uranium-demand-grand-canyon-biodiversity

Government report released on Friday will recommend whether raft of proposed mines in region should go ahead. The natural beauty and unique species of the Grand Canyon are "in the crosshairs" because of renewed interest in the region's uranium reserves. That is the warning from critics of the mines, ahead of the release of a government report on Friday on the potential impact of fresh mining.

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41587712/ns/technology_and_science-space/

A powerful solar flare, hurled into space when superhot gases erupted on the sun Sunday, might cause a display of the aurora borealis for parts of the northern United States overnight Monday night.

Link: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/food-price-spiral-causes-and-consequences-4288/

Food prices have been trending upwards. Unchecked increases have social and political repercussions. Speculation on food as a commodity has contributed to the spiral. “Market panic” and “herd mentality” must be checked to avoid volatility. The local and international media have reported almost everyday on the global food price spiral since the beginning of 2011. This reflects concern that price increases of common food items may lead to serious effects on the poor and middle class and indeed destabilise societies. In January 2011, the riots in Tunisia, and the shortage of chillies in Indonesia are but two recent manifestations of the phenomenon. There are serious consequences from unchecked price spirals and the real causes of the increases must be addressed.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/02/09-1

After the anticlimax of the COP-15 climate-policy negotiations in Copenhagen last year (Extra!, 2/10)—in which the more than 190 UN-member nations walked away with a non-binding statement of intent cobbled together in secret by the U.S. and a few other wealthy nations—public and press expectations for this year’s COP-16 meeting (11/29–12/10/10) in Cancún, Mexico, were low.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/08-6

Like most Ontario towns, Port Hope, on the shores of Lake Ontario, has a water treatment plant supplying its drinking water. Incredibly, adjacent to this plant is a huge factory now owned by Cameco. The factory hovers over this picturesque town, emitting uranium gas and dust into the air and Lake Ontario as it manufactures uranium fuel rods for export.

Link: http://www.activistpost.com/2011/02/farmers-watch-harsh-winter-crush-their.html

For Northeastern farmers long used to coping with all sorts of cold-weather problems, this winter presents a new one: snow and ice that's bringing down outbuildings, requiring costly repairs, killing livestock and destroying supplies.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/03/tree-deaths-amazon-climate

Scientists fear billions of tree deaths caused by 2010 drought could see vast forest turn from carbon sink to carbon source. Drought Effects In Manaus Region, Amazon, Brazil Aerial view of a drought-affected area within the Amazon basin in Manaus, Brazil. Billions of trees died in the record drought that struck the Amazon in 2010, raising fears that the vast forest is on the verge of a tipping point, where it will stop absorbing greenhouse gas emissions and instead increase them. The dense forests of the Amazon soak up more than one-quarter of the world's atmospheric carbon, making it a critically important buffer against global warming. But if the Amazon switches from a carbon sink to a carbon source that prompts further droughts and mass tree deaths, such a feedback loop could cause runaway climate change, with disastrous consequences.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/roselle02032011.html

Jimmy Weekly's Campaign to Save Pigeonroost Hollow In the struggle to end mountain top removal coal mining, we don't often have occasions to celebrate, so the December 18th announcement that the Environmental Protection Agency had vetoed the permit for the Spruce No. 1 mine in West Virginia was reason to pop the champagne corks. After all, this was the largest mountain top removal operation ever reviewed by the EPA, covering an area larger than Pittsburgh.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/environment/149774/catastrophic_weather_events_are_becoming_the_new_normal_--_are_you_ready_for_life_on_our_planet_circa_2011/

For two decades now we've been ignoring the impassioned pleas of scientists that our burning of fossil fuels was a bad idea. And now we're paying a heavy price. If you were in the space shuttle looking down yesterday, you would have seen a pair of truly awesome, even fearful, sights. Much of North America was obscured by a 2,000-mile storm dumping vast quantities of snow from Texas to Maine--between the wind and snow, forecasters described it as "probably the worst snowstorm ever to affect" Chicago, and said waves as high as 25 feet were rocking buoys on Lake Michigan.

Link: http://phoenixrisingfromthegulf.wordpress.com/2011/01/30/sos-may-explain-five-serious-unanswered-gulf-oil-spill-questions-we-do-not-know/

1. Why did BP, knowingly and purposefully, drill in such close proximity to a salt formation/mud volcano, as well as into a HUGE batholith?

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8288052/Volcano-erupts-in-Japan-disrupting-flights-and-train-services.html

Train and flight services to southwestern Japan have been suspended after a volcano erupted for the first time in 52 years, spewing columns of smoke and ash thousands of metres into the sky. The eruption of Shinmoedake has forced the suspension of flight and train services to Miyazaki in southwestern Japan and the evacuation of homes.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/brazil/8286640/Brazil-approves-clearing-of-Amazon-forest-to-make-way-for-controversial-dam.html

Brazil's environmental agency has approved the clearing of nearly 600 acres of Amazon forest so that work can begin on a controversial hydroelectric dam. Brazil approves clearing of Amazon forest to make way for Belo Monte dam. The Belo Monte dam, which will be the third-largest such project in the world, has been strongly opposed by environmental campaigners and indigenous people who face being displaced.

Link: http://www.naturalnews.com/031115_Thomas_Manton_oil_spill.html

Former President and CEO of the International Oil Spill Control Corporation, Dr. Thomas B. Manton heroically fought to expose the truth about the massive Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, which was caused by a BP oil platform explosion in April 2010. However, all of his hard work resulted in his false imprisonment and subsequent murder, an all-too-common scenario among whistle blowers who expose lies and corruption.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1350123/Worlds-largest-volcano-Yellowstone-National-Park-wipe-thirds-US.html

The super-volcano beneath Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming has been rising at a record rate since 2004. It would explode with a force a thousand times more powerful than the Mount St Helens eruption in 1980. Spewing lava far into the sky, a cloud of plant-killing ash would fan out and dump a layer 10ft deep up to 1,000 miles away.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/24-14

The world is watching China's economic surge with understandable awe - while politely and passively ignoring the country's ecological disintegration. "If everyone in China jumps at exactly the same time, it will shake the earth off its axis and kill us all." Three decades later, he stood in the grey sickly smog of Beijing, wheezing and hacking uncontrollably after a short run, and thought - the Chinese jump has begun. He had travelled 100,000 miles criss-crossing China, from the rooftop of Tibet to the deserts of Inner Mongolia and everywhere, he discovered that the Chinese state was embarked on a massive program of environmental destruction.

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-pesticides-and-bees-2192387.html

Your shocking revelations about the impact of neonicotinoids on pollinating insects ("Poisoned spring", 20 January) confirms the worst fears of scientists, conservationists and organic farmers. There is a terrible sense of history repeating itself, as government scientists, politicians and chemical companies deny the impact of this new set of chemicals, just as they did with DDT in the 1960s. Back then it took the disappearance of many of our birds of prey before the problem was recognised. It looks as if the same is going to happen to bumblebees and honey bees.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/water/149641/have_public_servants_charged_with_protecting_drinking_water_for_15_million_people_sold_out_to_the_gas_drilling_industry/

Environmentalists are squaring off against the gas drilling industry, but the playing field does not appear to be level. Over the past decade, 34 states have succumbed to the hazardous and largely unregulated hydraulic fracturing (widely known as "fracking") of deep shale formations to extract natural gas. This radical drilling method, blasting its way from Texas and the Rockies, through Louisiana and Arkansas to the east, has wreaked havoc, turning large swathes of the nation sitting above shale formations into industrial zones, degrading landscapes, economies, land values, air quality, and perhaps most importantly, water. ►Fracking the life out of Arkansas and beyond

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54203

Half of the Czech Republic’s population could face water shortages because of climate change, a top climate change expert has warned. The country has become one of the driest in the EU, according to local media, and climatologists say the land, and crucial underground water supplies, are drying up. Professor Michal Marek, head of the EU-funded CzechGlobe climate change research project, told IPS: "The Czech Republic is already seeing the effects of climate change in more frequent extreme weather events and changes in biodiversity.

Link: http://oilandgasleaks.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/in-honor-of-dr-thomas-b-manton-a-true-modern-american-hero/

A BP Gulf Oil Spill HERO is railroaded through the Florida Criminal Justice System, then dies after being assaulted in the Florida State Prison System. Dr. Thomas B. Manton passed away on Wednesday, January 19th, after suffering an assault at Liberty Correctional Facility in Bristol, Florida. He was serving an unlawful 15-year prison sentence, after being wrongfully convicted of a crime he did not commit. Tom was the former President/CEO of the International Oil Spill Control Corporation which was one of the very first oil spill control companies in the world formed outside of the rubric of the Oil & Gas Industry. In this capacity he helped create many of the protocols and establish many of the standards that are still in use today throughout the realm of oil spill control. He became an increasingly vocal critic of the BP response to the Gulf Oil Spill, and wrote five searing articles in that regard. He was particularly distressed that the US Federal Government allowed BP to completely take charge of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster area, as his experience taught him that the offending oil company should never be given command over the oil spill response.

Link: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article20486

One of the many marvelous things about Reality Sandwich is that it takes quite seriously the significance of dreams and other forms of visionary experience. Indeed, visionary experience is at the very heart of this community. The most talked about “dream” of our age is that millennia old dream that gave rise to the Long Count of the Maya Calendar, which culminates in the end date of December 21, 2012. We do not know and cannot even begin to speculate about the identity of the individual who may have first had the waking vision that hinted at some as yet undetermined future revolution in human history. . .

Link: http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/tiny-amounts-of-oil-corexit-cocktail-are-poisonous

Washington's blog is again weighing in to raise awareness among what appears a sleeping public about the crime against humanity and planet unfolding, the Gulf of Mexico operation. The well circulated"blog" has re-emphazied the mega human rights violation: that the Corexit-Crude oil deadly cocktail, mixed and applied by the petrochemical-military-industrial-complex in the Gulf Region, adheres to even smallest sea life where the food chain begins, after which -- on the American dinner table and in the family it ends.

Link: http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1439.htm

Reports that the Arctic sunrise in Greenland arrived two-days early on January 11th has shocked scientists the world over as this historic event leaves many wondering if, in fact, the End of Days are now truly here. In a world where virtually nothing is a certainty (except death and taxes), the precession [a change in the orientation of the rotation axis of a rotating body] of the Earth in relation to the Sun and Moon has remained a constant throughout recorded human history, with the single exception being an ancient occurrence where the Sun was reported to have ‘stood still’ in the sky for nearly 24 hours.

Link: http://worldvisionportal.org/wordpress/index.php/2011/01/the-perfect-genetic-storm

There’s a new proprietary recipe being force-fed to all of us here on the Gulf of Mexico that is now becoming available worldwide. Although this recipe has been closely guarded for 8 months, we were able to break it down after examining the plentiful supply us “Gulf Coasters” have available here. The ingredients are abundantly available while both the recipe and the brewing process are not as secret as everyone had thought.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/01/18-6

A major 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit southwest Pakistan on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said. The quake struck at around 1:20 am local time (2023 Tuesday GMT) at a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles) with its epicentre around 50 kilometres west of the town of Dalbandin, close to the border with Afghanistan.

Link: http://gosrc.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/letter-from-bk-lim-to-congressmen-fred-upton-and-john-simkus/

The following letter has been sent to Congressmen Fred Upton and John Simkus by BK Lim, Geohazards Specialist, (Click here for CV/BIO) in response to our request to inform the US Congress about a situation of which that they appear to be unaware. The growing need for a real US Congressional Inquiry into the matter of the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) – the site of the BP Oil Spill which began on April 20, 2010 – has been apparent for many months now.

Link: http://thecitizen.co.tz/business/-/7242-rising-food-prices-point-to-a-looming-global-food-crisis

As the New Year begins, the price of wheat is setting an all-time high in the United Kingdom. Food riots are spreading across Algeria. Russia is importing grain to sustain its cattle herds until spring grazing begins. India is wrestling with an 18-per cent annual food inflation rate, sparking protests.

Link: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/food/news/article.cfm?c_id=206&objectid=10699716

If all the food in the world were shared out evenly, there would be enough to go around. That has been true for centuries now - if food was scarce, the problem was that it wasn't in the right place. But there was no global shortage. However, that will not be true much longer.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1346936/The-sun-rises-days-early-Greenland-sparking-fears-climate-change-accelerating.html

Experts say the sun should have risen over the Arctic nation's most westerly town, Ilulissat, yesterday, ending a month-and-a-half of winter darkness. But for the first time in history light began creeping over the horizon at around 1pm on Tuesday - 48 hours ahead of the usual date of 13 January.

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41062817/ns/business-consumer_news/

Activists from India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) women's wing shout slogans against the Congress-led government during a protest against an increase in milk, vegetables and food prices in New Delhi on April 1, 2010. The BJP activists protested against the price hikes of essential commodities. Food inflation is still at 17 percent according to official figures. Strained by rising demand and battered by bad weather, the global food supply chain is stretched to the limit, sending prices soaring and sparking concerns about a repeat of food riots last seen three years ago. Signs of the strain can be found from Australia to Argentina, Canada to Russia.

Link: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/11/snow-present-in-49-of-the-50-u-s-states/

After big snow and ice events in the Southeast, Plains, and Midwest this week, 49 out of the 50 states currently have snow on the ground – yes, even Hawaii, where snow falls in Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea all winter. The only state that has avoided this icy blast is Florida. Does that make you want to go on a nice, warm vacation to the Sunshine State? You're not alone.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/436614/organic_ag_in_jeopardy%2C_usda_close_to_approving_ge_alfalfa/#paragraph6

The USDA seems to be paving the way for approval of genetically modified (GM) alfalfa with pleas for coexistence and cooperation. These will be needed. Organic alfalfa is the mainstay of organic animal feed. Organic standards exclude GM. But pollen from GM alfalfa transmits GM genes to organic alfalfa.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/01/201111220623348908.html

Many residents of the three main towns in Serrana region have been made homeless by the floods [EPA] More than 350 people have been killed after floods and landslides devastated towns and villages in a mountainous area near Rio de Janeiro. Rescue workers were digging desperately on Thursday in an attempt to reach people buried after the equivalent of a month's rain fell on the Serrana region in less 24 hours, toppling houses and buckling roads.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/01/2011111211152762979.html

Thousands flee Australia's third-largest city before floods that are expected to sweep through scores of districts. Thousands of residents have begun evacuating the outskirts of Australia's third-largest city as other people piled sandbags outside their homes and stockpiled food amid rising floodwaters and more heavy rain. The streets of Brisbane in the state of Queensland were largely deserted, with 80 suburbs expected to be flooded if the Brisbane river bursts its banks as expected on Thursday.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthcomment/geoffrey-lean/8247029/One-poor-harvest-away-from-chaos.html

Millions of the world’s poorest people and the state of the global economy are threatened by the food price rises, writes Geoffrey Lean. Hunger pains: millions of the world?s poorest people and the state of the global economy are threatened by the food price rises. 'Within a decade," promised the top representative of the world's mightiest country, "no man, woman or child will go to bed hungry." Dr Henry Kissinger, at the height of his powers as US Secretary of State, was speaking to the landmark 1974 World Food Conference. Since then, the number of hungry people worldwide has almost exactly doubled: from 460 million to 925 million.