Earth and Science News- Earth and Science Videos and News // Current

: ^#3

Greenpeace hangs protest banner on Mt. Rushmore

Greenpeace activists draped an enormous banner next to the carved stone faces of Mount Rushmore today, calling for more-aggressive... more

InformedTexan
added this

Audio suggests Soviets attempted to land on moon before U.S.

The United States wasn’t the only country hoping to land on the moon in July 1969 — the Soviets were trying to beat us... more

InformedTexan
added this

Pickens abandons massive wind farm in Texas

HOUSTON – Plans for the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle have been scrapped, energy baron T. Boone... more

InformedTexan
added this

Stricter labelling urged for bottled water

Consumers know less about the water they pay dearly for in bottles than what they can drink almost for free from the tap because... more

JanforGore
added this

Is Sat-Nav(GPS) Destroying Local Knowledge?

"Joe Moran writes in the BBC News Magazine that Sat-Nav clearly suits an era in which 'map-reading may be going the way... more

Tyrannous
added this

Farthest supernova ever detected

PARIS (AFP) – Astronomers on Wednesday said they had found the farthest supernova ever detected, a giant star that ripped... more

InformedTexan
added this

G8 sells out the world on climate

Agreeing to allow temperature to increase 3.6 degrees rather than pledging bold reductions now is dooming the world to climate... more

JanforGore
added this

First Fuel Cell Plane Flies in Germany

HAMBURG, Germany (AFP) – The world's first piloted aircraft capable of taking to the air using only power from fuel... more

CarlosIsDown
added this

Scientists Reprogram Adult Cells Into Stem Cells

Researchers have succeeded for the first time in reprogramming clearly defined adult cells into pluripotent stem cells -- directly... more

Tyrannous
added this

Al Gore speaks on soil carbon sequestration

I'm posting this video of Al Gore speaking recently at Oxford because he mentions soil carbon and its importance in... more

JanforGore
added this

New Wonder Material: Harder than diamonds and one atom thick!

"WASHINGTON — Imagine a carbon sheet that's only one atom thick but is stronger than diamond and conducts... more

CarlosIsDown
added this

Web site for unwanted goods seeks to raise funds for schools, environment & charities for free

A bake and yard sale veteran, Falmouth, Maine, resident Carolyn Gillis decided to take school fundraising to a higher level. She... more

CarolynGillis
added this

Urban farming movement "like a revolution"

On a plot of soil, nestled against the backdrop of skyscrapers in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, a group of residents are turning a... more

JanforGore
added this

Seal Sorrow: 90,000 Seals To Be Clubbed To Death

Wow: this is the first time I have seen a slaughter like this because the animal is in direct competition with our food source. Is... more

leahl
added this

Supreme Court Shock: Ruling Says Lethal Mining Waste Can Be Dumped in Lakes

In a ruling that will shock and dismay environmentalists everywhere, the US Supreme Court decided that the Clean Water Act shouldn't prevent mining companies from dumping their toxic waste into lakes--even with full knowledge that doing so will exterminate every trace of life within.

It's absolutely appalling, and now, it's legal. The court's decision will allow Coeur Alaska Inc, a gold mining company, to dump 4.5 million tons of waste into Lower Slate Lake. And that bit about extermination above, that's no exaggeration--the mining company, environmental groups, and even the Supreme Court are all well aware that dumping the waste will literally extinguish all life in the lake.

It's just, the defense goes, that it's the easiest way to get rid of it. And it's "less environmentally damaging than other options." Say what? Okay, before I get ahead of myself, here's how the whole thing happened:

Mining Waste Case Origin
In 2005, Coeur Alaska applied for a permit to dump 4.5 million tons of slurry waste--you know, that toxic stuff that's full of good stuff like arsenic and that likes to break out of containment areas (though it's different than coal ash). They applied to the Army Corps of Engineers, overseen then by the Bush administration, which doled out the permit with full knowledge that the dumping would eliminate all life in the lake and leave permanent environmental degradation. But some green groups got wind of the situation, and sued, saying the Bush administration was violating the Clean Water Act with the action. The US Court of Appeals agreed, and promptly negated the permit in 2007.

Now, after two more years of appeals, the Supreme Court has overturned the Court of Appeals' ruling. Dump away, says the ruling.

A Precedent for Unregulated Dumping?
Now, the biggest problem here isn't that 4.5 million tons of waste are going to be dumped into a lake in Alaska, believe it or not. It's that the case could set a precedent for unregulated dumping in the future.

The New York Times reports:
“If a mining company can turn Lower Slate Lake in Alaska into a lifeless waste dump, other polluters with solids in their wastewater can potentially do the same to any water body in America,” said Trip Van Noppen, president of the environmental advocacy group Earthjustice, whose lawyer argued the case before the court.

That's what makes the decision so horrifying. There's a glimmer of hope that the EPA could decide that the ruling affects its ability to keep US waters safe, but as of yet, the agency has only said that it's looking into the matter.
It's a truly alarming case, and an unfortunate one in regards to the safety of US lakes and rivers.In a ruling that will shock and dismay environmentalists everywhere, the US Supreme Court decided that the Clean Water Act... more