Will the undervaluing of environmental risks and resources lead to another financial meltdown like the sub-prime mortgage disaster? A new report says credit rating agencies are ignoring water scarcity risks when rating municipal utility bonds. Investors stand to lose hundreds of billions.
Physicists probing the origins of the universe at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva hope they will turn up evidence of parallel universes.
"U.S. environmental groups filed a suit on Wednesday against British-based oil giant BP Plc saying the world's worst offshore spill inflicted "ongoing unlawful" harm on endangered wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico."
"Bangladesh and India are the countries most vulnerable to climate change, according to an index on Wednesday that rates the Nordic region least at risk."
The billionaire Koch brothers, who are estimated to have given as much as $50 million to anti-environemental groups, meet twice yearly with major industries to coordinate right-wing efforts to eliminate 90 percent of all laws. Those in on the planning include the Wall St. Journal's Stephen Moore and Fox News' Glenn Beck.
"The bankruptcy estate of General Motors will commit $773 million toward cleaning up old plant sites and other property abandoned by the automaker, under a deal reached Wednesday with the Obama administration and 14 states."
"An asbestos-like mineral used on western North Dakota gravel roads can cause changes in workers' lungs consistent with commercial asbestos exposure that could lead to breathing problems, a study has found."
Photojournalists doing environmental stories have been harassed and blocked by federal police for a decade or more when they try to take pictures of federal facilities from public spaces. Now, under a court settlement, the federal government is publicly acknowledging that it is acting illegally when it does this.
The new buzzword is "dark money." Since the US Supreme Court's decision to override Congress and allow unlimited secret cash from corporations (even from foreign governments) to influence US elections, following the money has gotten hard.
It's hard to believe that some of the reports Congress demands of federal agencies are not available to the public. But it's true — not because the reports are classified but because neither the agencies nor Congress bothers to publish them.
