Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline Looks a Near Certainty
It has been a very bad week for environmentalists and a worse one for The Standing Rock Sioux. On Tuesday February 7th, The Army Corps of Engineers delivered a letter to Congress stating their intentions to grant an easement to Dakota Access LLC for the construction of the controversial $3.7 billion pipeline. The Army Corps also opted to waive their usual policy of waiting 14 days after Congressional notification to grant the easement, in response to President Trump’s recent executive order. In another attempt to expedite the process, the Army Corps abruptly cut short it’s environmental impact assessment process, with a senior official remarking “I have determined there is no cause for completing any additional environmental analysis.” This all comes as a huge blow to the water protectors who have been fighting the pipeline since July 2016.
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It’s not too late! Join 350.org in a pledge of resistance against the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access Pipeline by signing up through this link. You’ll receive updates on the pipelines as well as resistance notifications.
In this link you can find a rally or protest near you to stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux.
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The Final Buzz
Not just for honey, bumblebees are key to our survival. They are one of the best pollinators for both their unique temperature adaptability and their pollination technique.
Due to climate change and the increased exposure to pesticides, the bumblebee population has dropped a severe 90% since the 1990s.
For more information about the endangered bees click here, and here.
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New England ‘Ghost Moose’
A moose calf can lose its entire blood supply in two weeks to a winter tick infestation, according to New Hampshire Fish and Game officials.
In the Northeast, the moose population is declining. The major cause of this decline is due to ticks. According to the National Geographic, the moose population in New Hampshire went from about 7,500 in the late 90s to about 4,500 by 2013. Though data is scarce, scientists also suspect a decline in the moose population in Maine, a state that makes up the densest moose population in the lower 48 states. Ticks do not have a problem with the warmer winters; they are loving it. And they are loving the ease with which they can stay and pile onto a moose. A single moose, according to a New York Times article written by Jess Bidgoods, can have 100,000 ticks.
For some, climate change can seem like myth, with consequences that we may not have to face until maybe decades or centuries from now. However, the scene of a moose with thousands of winter ticks piled onto and clinging to its body says differently.
Kristine Rines, a wildlife biologist and leader of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department’s Moose Project, describes the ticks covering their bodies “like shingles on a roof.” When the moose gets covered with ticks like this, they leave moose weakened from blood loss, and develop anemia and starve. Moreover, when covered with ticks a moose will also scratch until its fur falls off. Moose with the rub marks are commonly referred to as ghost moose since all you can see is bare skin and the white undercoat.
Overall, According to Rines, “While regional moose populations are indeed facing some serious threats, moose are not on the verge of disappearing from the New Hampshire landscape, but they are declining,” For Rines the solution to this is very clear, and that is to wrap our arms around climate change.
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Website Spotlight
“Toxic News strives to provide a platform for a range of voices on toxic issues. This volume of Toxic News presents a fascinating ensemble of environmental controversies; from ‘Downwinder’ nuclear communities in the USA, to climate activism in China, through to the toxicity of globalization in a former seaside steel town. It looks at global nuclear threats of the Atomic Anthropocene, while also presenting the struggles of a local environmental justice campaigner in Coventry, UK. In our first photo-essay, we are also taken on a visual journey into an incinerator plant in Poland.”
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Refinery Town: "Through years of community organizing and leveraging local politics, the residents of Richmond, California raised the local minimum wage, levied taxes against Big Oil and transformed their formerly poverty-stricken "company town." Through colorful interviews with the people involved, labor reporter Steve Early sheds light on how concerned citizens can reclaim their communities."
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