News Analysis

Vegetable stall in the Old Havana market, Cuba. Photo: Guillaume Baviere via Flickr (CC BY).

Cuba's sustainable agriculture at risk in US diplomatic thaw
1st April 2016

Among Cuba's greatest achievements is its organic farming sector, writes Miguel Altieri. Developed in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union, small agroecological farms now employ 300,000 campesinos and provide an abundance of healthy fruit and vegetables. But now US food and agribusiness corporations are eyeing up a multi-billion dollar business opportunity.

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Internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Timor-Leste, seen here inside a UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) tent, in Beto Timur, July 2008. Photo: UN Photo / Martine Perret.

Australia's complicity in the East Timor genocide: oil, gas and the depravity of power
31st March 2016

In 1975 Indonesia invaded the small Pacific country of East Timor, writes John Pilger, and then massacred a third of its population to suppress demands for independence. Now unearthed documents show the genocide was supported by Australia so it could grab the oil and gas reserves of the Timor Sea. Despite East Timor's independence, won in 1999, Australia is still stealing its oil and gas revenues worth $5 billion and counting.

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An illegal clear-cut on steep-sided hills in Harghita County, just a small part of a much larger illegal clear-cut. Photo: Ecostorm.

Illegal loggers levelling Romania's Carpathian mountain forests
30th March 2016

Austrian timber giant Schweighofer claims to be working hard to ensure that the huge volumes of timber it buys from Romania's mountain forests are strictly legal, writes Katy Jenkyns. But an Ecostorm investigation has uncovered its purchase of illegally cut wood, its acceptance of fraudulent paperwork from suppliers, and the deep shadow of fear it casts over local communities.

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A surface coal mine in Gillette, Wyoming. This type of  large-scale extraction is exactly what the residents of Montana wanted to avoid. Photo: Greg Goebel via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)

People power: how Montana stopped the biggest coal mine in North America
29th March 2016

Campaigners are celebrating after defeating plans to build America’s largest open pit coal mine, writes Nick Engelfriend. In an epic 'David and Goliath' battle, Montana activists challenged the project, and all the politicians and businessmen that supported it, with fierce opposition, protests and demonstrations. The outcome spells hope for all in the fight against dirty energy.

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A day before landfall, on 29th October 2012, Sandy intensified into a Category 2 superstorm nearly 1,000 miles wide. Photo: William Putman / NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and NASA Center for Climate Simulation via Flickr (CC BY).

Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: the threat of irreparable harm
24th March 2016

The term 'global warming' has a reassuring, comfortable sound, writes Jim Hansen. But paleoclimate data shows the reality could be anything but, with rapid climate oscillations, large, abrupt rises in sea level, major disruptions to ocean circulation, and massive superstorms. It may already be too late to forestall this dystopian future - but then it may not be. So let's act while we still can!

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Green Living

If we ate more of this, the world would be a cleaner and healthier place! Fruit vendor in Devaraj Market, Mysore, India. Photo: Christopher Fynn via Flickr (CC BY).

Going veggie could save slash emissions and prevent 8 million deaths a year
31st March 2016

Oxford researchers have quantified the benefits of the world becoming vegetarian, writes Marco Springmann. Their study shows that simple changes - like moving to diets low in meat and high in fruit and vegetables - could lead to significant reduction in mortality and health care costs, while cutting food sector greenhouse gas emissions by two thirds.

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Walking on the South Downs: a perfect place for contemplation, reminiscence ... and love? Photo: JR P via Flickr (CC BY-NC)

Can love stories change the world?
10th March 2016

Sharing tales of love is good for our souls, and allows us to be vulnerable with each other, writes Matt Hopwood. In his life changing journey of emotional exploration, he travelled over 1,500 miles in search of stories of the heart. He found them in abundance, along with tales of loss, pain, suffering, and isolation. And with that came a deeper sense of connection, and a means of personal and social transformation.

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Children learn about the wild fruits of the forest. Photo: Damitha Rajapakse.

Conserving and popularizing wild fruits in Sri Lanka - the Native Forest Foundation
1st March 2016

Modern practices mean that more than ever, people are disconnected from nature, writes Damitha Rajapakse. In Sri Lanka - a biodiversity hotspot which is full of endemic plants with unique properties - a conservation programme is under way to teach the new generation about the rich heritage of native fruits which surrounds them.

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Campaigning

Anti badger cull demo in Oxford, 25th October 2014. Photo: Snapshooter46 via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA).

Badger cull: protestors' legal right to information upheld
1st April 2016

Since December 2011, when it became clear that the government was intent on its badger cull, Defra and Natural England have been flooded with FOI requests about how the culls would be set up, conducted and monitored. The notable success of Anna Dale in cutting through official obfuscation has implications for everyone trying to protect the environment and wildlife.

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The Denesuline have long suffered and protested against the treatment of their people from industrial organisations causing damage to their territories and the environment. Photo: ItzaFineDay via Flickr (CC BY)

Sacred land, unholy uranium: Canada's mining industry in conflict with First Nations
30th March 2016

For Saskatchewan, uranium is an important part of the economy, but for the province's indigenous peoples, the land is everything. It is filled with relationships between beings who dwell together in an interconnected web. Their traditional ecological knowledge is not just a set of terms or data, but a deep, broadly-viewed reality which contains systematic respect for all creation.

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The Pacific Heron moored at Falmouth. Photo: Tim Green via Flickr (CC BY)

Secrecy tightens over plutonium shipments from Japan to US
21st March 2016

Two heavily armed, UK registered ships are currently engaged in the transport of UK sourced plutonium across the Pacific, writes Tim Deere-Jones. Details of their safety inspection records, survey status, voyage routes and location have been suppressed in the interests of security but the lack of transparency breaches a number of international safety standards.

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Interviews

Hiroaki Koide (小出裕章さん) speaking at EcoLaboCamp on Mt Takao, August 2007. Photo: Hanako via Flickr (CC BY-NC).

Koide Hiroaki: an insider's exposé of the Fukushima nuclear disaster
17th March 2016

Koide Hiroaki has spent his entire career as a nuclear engineer, and has become a central figure in Japan's movement for the abolition of nuclear power plants. He met with Katsuya Hirano and Hirotaka Kasai to discuss the catastrophic nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima Daaichi in March 2011, and the crimes and cover-ups committed both before and after the event.

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Dr Vandana Shiva in Brussels as part of a tour to promote a new campaign and booklet: 'The law of the seed'. Photo: GreensEFA via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

In the footsteps of Gandhi: an interview with Vandana Shiva
14th February 2016

Vandana Shiva is more than just a leading scientist, author and campaigner on green issues and anti-globalisation, writes Scott London. She is also among the most prominent of Mahatma Ghandi's intellectual heirs. In this interview, she discusses how this led her to be an outspoken voice on such crucial environmental issues as seed legacy, biopiracy and economic injustice.

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Essays

Fenced with barbed wire: Blackfeed Indian tipis near the Glacier Nation Park, where the NPS is excluding the Indians from their rightful access to the Park and its resources, in clear breach of an 1895 contract. Photo: Bon via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND).

A century of theft from Indians by the National Park Service
29th March 2016

George Catlin's original vision of national parks saw them as providing a refuge for 'man and beast' alike, writes Kollibri terre Sonnenblume, giving Indians a home in the 'freshness of their nature's beauty'. But soon the National Parks Service was violating promises, treaties and contracts as it perpetrated over a century of land theft from America's Indian tribes.

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We are all human: photo for the feature film 'A Thousand Times Goodnight' starring Juliette Binoche. More info at www.zoriah.net. Photo: Zoriah via Flickr (CC BY-NC).

Brussels: the savage vision driving a terror-ridden world
23rd March 2016

The random, murderous violence we just saw inflicted on the people of Brussels is absolutely, categorically unacceptable, writes Chris Floyd. So too is the far greater violence routinely inflicted by rich, powerful countries against their innocent victims around the world, and especially in the oil-rich Middle East. To move away from a world of terror, we must make our outrage, and our compassion, inclusive.

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Oil palm plantation in Central Kalimantan. Photo: Klima- og miljødepartementet via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND).

Feeding the bank balance: GMOs, development and the politics of happiness
14th March 2016

To understand how technology is used in the real world we must appreciate who owns and controls it, writes Colin Todhunter: whose interests it serves, and how it works in an economic system driven by profit, geopolitics and the compulsion to capture and control markets - while the monopolists proclaim a noble ideology of 'free choice' and 'democracy'.

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Beaver in the Highland Wildlife Park, Scotland. Photo: Dunnock_D via Flickr (CC BY-NC)

Beavers and the coming revolution in Scotland's countryside
8th March 2016

After beavers' reintroduction to Scotland, landowners have accused the native rodents of damaging the environment, causing floods, and worse, writes Louise Ramsay. But the public have rallied to the cause of these charming, beneficial creatures, leaving conservative landowners isolated. Could the shift in sentiment trigger long overdue change in the Scottish countryside?

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US suburbia: alright for some. But access to it was regulated along strictly racial lines. Mid 20th century calendar illustration. Photo: wackystuff via Flickr (CC BY-NC).

Racist housing? How postwar suburban development led to today's inner-city lead poisoning
7th March 2016

The lead poisoning crisis in Flint, Michigan is just the tip of a vast iceberg of lead contamination afflicting mainly urban black communities, writes Leif Fredrickson. A rigid 'race bar' on postwar suburban housing and mortgages left black families in inner cities, exposed to flaking lead paint in run down housing, leaded gasoline residues and lead pipework. Now is the time to correct this shocking historic injustice.

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Blogs

Wild coffee grows in these forests of the Ethiopian highlands - and nowhere else. Photo: Indrias Getachew.

Ethiopia's vulnerable tropical forests are key to securing the future of coffee
24th March 2016

Coffee may be grown all around the tropics, writes Fiona Hesselden, but it originates in just one place: the 'coffee rainforests' of the Ethiopian highlands. We depend on the wild plants for new genes and varieties, yet the forests are falling fast to the advance of farmers. To preserve the forests and all their biodiversity, the original people of the forest must receive their just rewards.

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Soon there will be more cycles on London's roads than cars - is that something to be frightened of? Photo: Andreas Kambanis via Flickr (CC BY).

There's only one real climate change debate, BBC: what should we do about it?
22nd March 2016

After a succession of the hottest years and months ever recorded, climate is a hot topic, writes Liz Hutchins. But BBC1's 'Big Questions' climate change debate last Sunday completely missed the point. Instead of debating the only real question - how should we respond? - the BBC ran yet another repeat of the so-over 'believers versus deniers' ding-dong. Why do they still not get it?

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Coffee cup. Photo: Kordite via Flickr (CC BY-NC).

UK's 3 billion waste coffee cups a year: let those who profit pay the cost
18th March 2016

Our insatiable appetite for expensive coffee is causing a global trail of waste and destruction, writes Donnachadh McCarthy. Following the successful campaign for a 5p plastic bag levy, it's time to move on to a much larger 25p levy on disposable coffee cups - making those that profit from the waste carry the cost of its disposal.

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What? You must leave us? So soon? US Senator Marco Rubio of Florida speaking at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr (CC BY-SA).

Meet the Koch-affiliated fracker behind Marco Rubio's energy policy
15th March 2016

Barring a miracle Marco Rubio is set to be Trumped in the Republican primary tomorrow in Florida, his home state, putting an effective end to his campaign. But it's not for want of support from one of the US's biggest frackers, Devon energy, and its politically active CEO Larry Nichols. And with or without Rubio, Nichols's influence on the red states' energy policy is only going to get bigger.

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IARC believes the glyphosate molecule itself is damaging to health, not just commercial herbicide mixtures complete with co-formulants. Image: Benjah-bmm27 via Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain).

WHO / IARC: glyphosate itself is the cancer and genotoxicity problem
11th March 2016

With industry spinning that glyphosate is harmful to health, if at all, only with co-formulants like tallowamine, the World Health Organisation's cancer agency IARC has just released a Q&A document (below) stating that 'pure' glyphosate poses similar cancer and genotoxicity risks as its formulations. Banning particular co-formulants, as proposed by some EU countries, does not solve the problem.

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Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine

Vegetable medley. FreeImages.com/ William Stadler

A Food Renaissance
28 January 2016

Colin Tudge reports on The College of Real Farming and Food Culture; a project designed to tackle the current issues in global food production. The current system is not fit for purpose but through a holistic approach and an overhaul of current mainstream agriculture, achieving a balance between feeding the world and conserving the environment is within grasp.

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Comment

Turbine at EDF Renewable Energy's Bobcat Bluff Wind Project, spanning approximately 14,000 contiguous acres, in Archer County, Texas. Photo: EDF Renewable Energy.

EDF shows that wind makes better sense than nuclear
1st April 2016

EDF in the UK may be propelled by its disastrous nuclear ambitions, writes Chris Goodall. But across the Atlantic it's another story: the company is the US's biggest wind developer, and selling its power, profitably, for under 40% of the price it has been promised for Hinkley C, including federal tax credits.

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Smoke, mirrors and raindrops: Exxon station at Columbus, Montana. Photo: J.C. Burns via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND).

Exxon is the one guilty of 'chilling' climate science!
31st March 2016

ExxonMobil has long known that climate change is real and dangerous, write Louise Rouse & Naomi Ages, while denying it in public and supporting climate change deniers. Now they accuse their critics of 'chilling' climate science and the search for solutions. The truth is the precise opposite.

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Small fishing boat at St Andrews, Scotland, UK. Photo: dun_deagh via Flickr (CC BY-SA).

Brexit could spell disaster for the UK's fishing industry
30th March 2016

The much-derided Common Fisheries Policy must be one of the EU's most unpopular aspects, write Bryce Stewart & Griffin Carpenter. But in fact it has been a notable success, reflecting public concern over bycatch discards and restoring sustainability to Europe's fishing grounds, and profitability to a long declining industry.

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The BBC trustees who, collectively, decided against allowing the Green Party of England & Wales to give a single national broadcast for the 2016 election despite winning over 1 million votes in 2015. Photo: from BBC Trust website.

BBC must give the Greens 2016 election broadcasts!
29th March 2016

The Green Party is the only national party in Westminster to be denied a Party Political Broadcast by the BBC, write Bennet Francis and Rupert Read. The decision reveals a massive failure of impartiality against which there is no right of independent appeal - save to the court of public opinion.

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Peoples' Representatives marching to Malacañang to confer the 'King Coal Award to President Noynoy Aquino, for his approval of 59 coal plants in the Philippines; 20th October 2015. Photo: AC Dimatatac / 350.org via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA).

Climate hypocrisy: JP Morgan's empty promises on coal
24th March 2016

JP Morgan's announcement that it's pulling out of coal is purest doublespeak, writes Assaad Razzouk. But it's not the only financier to engage in climate hypocrisy, as banks prepare to lend $5 trillion to build 2,440 new coal power stations. To deliver the Paris Agreement they - and the loans that would finance them - must be cancelled.

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A US 11-megaton nuclear bomb is detonated at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, 1954. Photo: US Government via International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons on Flickr (Public Domain).

A World War has begun. Break the silence
23rd March 2016

The world is in the grip of a massive wave of militarism of which most of us are blissfully ignorant, writes John Pilger. When did mainstream media last tell you about the US's $1 trillion nuclear weapon renewal? NATO's massive build up of military power on Russia's eastern frontier? The encirclement of China by nuclear-armed US bases? The world is at war. Pass it on!

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Berta Cáceres. Photo: Prachatai via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND).

The unfinished work of Berta Cáceres: now it's up to us!
22nd March 2016

Since the Obama-Clinton coup in Honduras the murder of eco-defenders and other activists has become a routine instrument of government, writes Dan Beeton. We must demand an end to the killings, the restoration of political freedom, and a halt to the tide of corporate megaprojects - beginning with the Agua Zarca dam.

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Reviews

Contemporary illustration of Alexander von Humboldt - used in the cover of 'The Invention of Nature'.

The Invention of Nature: adventures of Alexander Humboldt, lost hero of science
3rd March 2016

Andrea Wulf's book about the remarkable 19th century explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt is welcome, opportune and a pleasure to read, writes Matt Mellen, packed as it is with high adventure and amazing discoveries. We have much to learn from him today in tackling the world's environmental crises; reading this book is an excellent - and enjoyable - way to begin.

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From front cover of 'Killing the Host' by Michael Hudson.

'Killing the Host': the financial system is destroying the global economy
12th February 2016

The main engine of economic exploitation is the financial system's ever increasing extraction of value through interest payments, according to economist Michael Hudson. Paul Craig Roberts finds his analysis all too accurate, as the over-financialized economies of western countries head down a spiral of poverty, decline, injustice and despair.

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Oil palm plantation in Indonesia. Photo: Ryan Woo for Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND).

‘Land Grabbing’: exposing the impacts of large-scale agriculture on local communities
8th February 2016

Agriculture is big business and with the EU pumping money at the sector, the corporate profiteers are holding all the aces, writes Chris Lang. The documentary ‘Land Grabbing’ investigates what happens when well-financed agro-investors take over rural communities' land and water.

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Right of Reply

Artists impression of the Garden Bridge planned for the Thames in London. Photo: Garden Bridge Trust.

Everything in the Garden Bridge is lovely!
3rd September 2015

The Garden Bridge will offer a new kind of green space in the heart of the city, strengthening London's status as the greenest capital in Europe, writes Bee Emmott. It will benefit the health and wellbeing of local communities and visitors alike.

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Cattle grazing near Swanage, Dorset, July 2015. Photo: Claire Cox via Flickr (CC BY-ND).

The case for the Dorset badger cull
31st August 2015

The government is right to extend the badger cull into Dorset, writes Mel Squires in this 'right of reply' article. While culling badgers is only part of the solution of bovine TB, along with annual TB testing of cattle and badger vaccination, it is a necessary measure in areas of high risk.

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Biomass for energy is the common sense option
5th June 2015

Today UK campaigners against burning biomass for power will deliver a 110,000 signature petition to DECC to protest at government subsidies for the practice. But in this 'Right of Reply' article Matthew Rivers, chairman of Drax Biomass, argues that biomass combustion is sustainable, benign, and helps to conserve forests worldwide.

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Ecologist Partners

Scotland's Social Justice Secretary Alex Neil with Kimberley Stoddart, a tenant of West of Scotland Housing Association. Photo: Scottish Government via Flickr (CC BY-NC).

Community Energy Fortnight - to participate is to resist!
11th September 2015

This year's Community Energy Fortnight is taking place at a strange time, writes Jonathon Porritt, with the entire renewable energy industry under government attack as never before. What can we do about it? For a start, by joining in some of the hundreds of events that are taking place across the UK!

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Women in India preparing to dry their farm produce using Sunbest equipment. Photo: Ashden.

Solar heat - transforming rural enterprises around the tropics
4th June 2015

Solar energy is not just about electricity, writes Anne Wheldon. It's also about heat - and three innovative projects highlighted by the Ashden Awards are showing how solar heat can dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of food processing and farming, while helping agricultural businesses increase profits.

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Calendar

My Spiritual Journey

Satish Kumar, environment activist and editor-in-chief at Resurgence & Ecologist magazine, is giving a talk at Alternatives on 14 March about his personal journey both spiritual and physical.

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Climate Rising
15 January 2016

A day of workshops, speakers and updates on the climate crisis organised by Friends of the Earth, PCS and This Changes Everything. Join them in London on 30th January to plan the next step in the fight to protect people and planet after the Paris climate talks.

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Courses

Telling Stories of the Future
Schumacher College

To celebrate 25 years at the forefront of environmental education, Schumacher College are launching a new short course programme: Soul, Spirit and Story.

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Leading for Sustainability Programme

Join Lead's highly experiential programme for experienced, mid to senior professionals and sustainability practitioners who want to increase their ability to make positive change in the world around them.

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News in Brief

Male Atlantic salmon showing the kype (hook) in the lower jaw, used in battle with rival mates during the spawning season. Photo: E. Peter Steenstra / US Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region via Flickr (CC BY).

FDA sued for 'unlawful' approval of GMO salmon
1st April 2016

A coalition of fishing, consumer, and environmental groups are suing the FDA for its 'unlawful' approval of Aquabounty's GM salmon, as it relied on treating the fish as an 'animal drug' under a 1938 law, and ignored serious risks to wild salmon and fishing communities.

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350.org executive director May Boeve: 'A trial of ExxonMobil and the fossil fuel industry would be even bigger than the cases against Big Tobacco.' Photo: 350.org / Twitpic.

Attorneys General unite to target Exxon climate crimes
31st March 2016

An unprecedented coalition of 20 Attorneys General from US states and the Virgin Islands have combined to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the deception they have inflicted on customers and the wider public over climate change, writes Lauren McCauley, in a move hailed as a 'turning point' in the battle to save the climate.

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Nigerian farmers like her see no benefit from GM crops, only pain and poverty. Photo: Conflict & Development at Texas A&M via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND)

Nigerians say no to Monsanto's GM crops
30th March 2016

Groups representing over 5 million Nigerians are resisting Monsanto's attempt to introduce GM maize and cotton, writes Vanessa Amaral-Rogers. With growing evidence of harm to human health and environment, and failing GM crops in other countries, they say Monsanto's applications must be refused.

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A US nuclear weapon is detonated at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands in 1946. (Image has been colorized.) Photo: US Government via International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons on Flickr (Public Domain).

Marshall Islands accuses nuclear bomb nations at International Court of Justice
29th March 2016

The tiny Pacific state of the Marshall Islands has given oral evidence to the International Court of Justice against all nuclear armed states for failing to pursue disarmament. The UK, India and Pakistan were present to deny the charges, but the US, Russia, France, China, Israel and North Korea have denied the ICJ's compulsory jurisdiction.

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EDF chief Vincent de Rivaz giving evidence today to Parliament's Energy & Climate Change Select Committee. Photo: still from parliamentlive.tv.

EDF promises MPs: 'we will build Hinkley C!' But still no 'final investment decision'
23rd March 2016

MPs today grilled EDF Energy supremo Vincent de Rivaz over the troubled Hinkley C nuclear plant in Somerset. He insisted that the project was definitely going ahead - but refused to say when the 'final investment decision' was due. Confused? Bewildered? Frustrated? So were the MPs.

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From a mock-up of a possible label on a can of Campbell's Soup Spaghetti-Os, with the words: 'Partially produced with genetic engineering.' Image: Campbell's Soup.

Soon a flood? Mars, General Mills begin US-wide GMO labels
22nd March 2016

The small state of Vermont is changing the face of US food as companies hasten to comply with its GMO labeling rule which comes into effect in July 2016. Mars and General Mills - and now Kelloggs and ConAgra - are the latest companies to announce their labels will comply with Vermont law US-wide - and many more are sure to follow.

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Artist's impression of the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant. Image: EDF Energy.

Hinkley C 'secret documents' may have to be disclosed
21st March 2016

Backed up the Information Commissioner, DECC refuses to release the documents it sent to the European Commission to support its massive subsidy package for the Hinkley C nuclear plant, writes Terry McAlister. But now the case will go before a tribunal which could order their release.

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Global emissions trajectory 1975-2015, showing standstill in 2014 and 2015. Image: IEA.

Global emissions stand still as temperatures soar
18th March 2016

For the second year running CO2 emissions flatlined even as the global economy was growing at around 3%, writes Alex Kirby. But sharply rising temperatures show the need for further massive renewable energy deployment to actually bring emissions down.

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ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel producer and funder of the ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture in the Olympic Park, London have benefitted from a proportion of the EU's €24 billion handout. Photo: .Martin. via Flickr (CC BY-ND)

Europe's biggest polluters land €24 billion carbon windfall
17th March 2016

The European Union's carbon market, the EU ETS, is meant to cut pollution in a cost effective way. But a new report shows that it handed the EU's biggest emitters a €24bn bumper payout over six years. Not so much the 'polluter pays' principle but the precise opposite: people pay, and polluters profit.

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A COPINH protestor with Honduran policeman. Photo: Felipe Canova via Flickr (CC BY-NC).

Berta Caceres colleague murdered in Honduras
16th March 2016

Less than two weeks after the murder of Honduran eco defender Berta Caceres, another indigenous leader has been shot dead during the violent police and military eviction of 150 families from the settled community of Rio Chiquito. International funders of the controversial Agua Zarca hydro project are now backing out..

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A Mélange of Ice ... a glacier pours from the Greenland ice sheet between two mountain peaks into a narrow valley on its journey to the sea. Photo: NASA's Earth Observatory via Flickr (CC BY).

Greenland's darkening ice is melting faster
15th March 2016

A dusty film of pollution is muting the reflective whiteness of Greenland's pristine icecap and making it vulnerable to accelerated melting rates, writes Tim Radford. And as warming continues, the declining reflectivity of the ice is accelerating the process.

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Oil-coated dolphin washed up on the Gulf coast following the Deepwater Horizon disaster, projected onto the walls of the Science Museum by 'BP or not BP'. Photo: BP or not BP.

BP doubles EU lobby spend, drops Tate sponsorship
14th March 2016

Oil giant BP is the UK's single biggest EU lobbyist, spending over £2 million reaching out to European policy makers in 2014, new figures show. But citing hard times, the company has dropped its controversial sponsorship of the London's Tate Galleries - and more such branding deals may bite the dust.

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