Liberia’s Hasty Forest Sell-Off Risks More Conflict

More than half of Liberia’s forests — dense and packed with rare and endangered species, sprawling for hundreds of miles over the small coastal country — have been granted to logging firms, bypassing environmental laws and with few benefits to the people.

Sea-level Panel’s Mainstream Report

“It has been frustrating to watch the discussion over the issue sea-level rise here in North Carolina…” Geologist Dr. Rob Young of Western Carolina University wrote an op-ed in Raleigh’s News & Observer, that ought to be required reading for the state lawmakers who’ve decided to listen to the global warming deniers/pseudo-scientists on the matter of sea-level rise.

Arctic drilling creeps forward now, and in 5 years

In choppy water under blue sky off Bellingham, Wash., a Shell Oil crew lowered a “capping stack” 200 feet in the water and put it through maneuvers with underwater robots connected by cable to operators on the surface, a test that fulfilled one of the final steps required for permission to drill exploratory wells in Arctic waters…

Toronto Council Votes for Plastic Bag Ban

Canada’s largest city will eliminate its mandatory plastic bag fee on Sunday, just six months before joining the growing movement to ban the single-use bags entirely.