Long Beach Wetlands Survive a Proposed $320 Million Development Project

Developers’ Classic Jobs vs. Environment Argument Fails to Convince City Council

Just days before the Christmas holiday, wetland-loving folks in Long Beach, California received an early gift: their hard work had fended off a proposed $320 million development that would have harmed the increasingly vibrant Los Cerritos Wetlands.

Photo courtesy Save Los Cerritos WetlandsLocal residents, environmentalists oppose plans to build a boutique hotel and shopping plaza on the Los Cerritos
Wetlands, which is home to more than 120 bird species and is a nesting spot for the endangered Belding's
Savannah Sparrow.

Both sides of hotly contested plans to build a boutique hotel and upscale shopping plaza along prime Long Beach waterfront, and adjacent to an already embattled wetlands, piled into Long Beach City Hall on December 20 to lay out their positions for and against the ambitious multi-million blueprints.

Quaintly dubbed Second+PCH by high-paid PR mavens (a reference to the corner of the proposed site, 2nd Street and Pacific Coast Highway), the arguments that night were familiar to political veterans.

It was jobs vs. the environment once again, a classic narrative that has echoed throughout the area’s …more

by Joshua Frank – January 24, 2012

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Risking Our Environment and Health to Burn a Few More Years of Natural Gas

US Energy Dept Cuts Marcellus Shale Gas Reserve Estimates by 66%

The big number to remember in natural gas in the US is that we consumed 24 trillion cubic feet of it in 2010. That’s a lot of hydrocarbons. Today, entire sectors are making decisions about future energy choices based on how much natural gas we have left to burn. And with the new Annual Energy Outlook, it appears we have been making those choices on false assumptions.

Photo by Gerry DincherNatural gas well in Mainesburg, Pennsylvania. US Energy Dept's new estimate says the Marcellus Shale has
only 141 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas reserves.

The report, released yesterday, issues new estimates of recoverable natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, a vast formation more than a mile below 8 eastern states, including New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. In 2002, before the shale gas boom got underway, the US Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that there were 2 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas in the Marcellus Shale. Then, as the drilling boom was picking up steam in 2009, Penn State geologist Terry Engelder …more

by Jennifer Krill – January 23, 2012

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2011 — A Year of Climate Extremes. Can 2012 be Far Behind?

14 Major Weather and Climate Disasters Cost the US $55 Billion in Damages

It’s raining in Berkeley today. After an unusually long, dry winter spell that had everyone worried, the clouds finally burst yesterday afternoon. I don’t much like cold, grey skies and wet streets, but like most Californians, I’m happy to put up with the gloomy weather for the sake of our parched patch of Earth. Weird climate, after all, is the new normal these days.

Twenty-eleven has been quite a year of climate extremes, hasn’t it? Prolonged drought in Texas, blinding snowstorms in the Northeast, raging wildfires in Arizona and New Mexico, floods stretching from North Dakota to Mississippi, tornadoes in the Rockies and the Midwest, tropical storms landing in the Gulf Coast and going on to weak havoc as far up north as New York and Pennsylvania… just one onslaught after another.

When I was compiling data for an article on climate change and adaptation for the Journal’s 2011 fall issue last year, I thought we had it bad. Halfway through the year, extreme weather related disasters had cost an estimated $23 to $28 …more

by Maureen Nandini Mitra – January 20, 2012

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Whooping Cranes, Sea Turtles Among Top 10 US Species Threatened By Fossil Fuels

Report on At Risk Species Urges Lawmakers to End Oil Subsidies, Focus on Renewables

It’s not breaking news that fossil fuel extraction is extremely destructive and puts our plant and animal kingdom at risk. But I think it’s always worthwhile to pause and take stock of exactly how much of our land, waters and wildlife we are destroying in our headlong pursuit of more and more comfortable, wired, heated, air-conditioned and mobile lives.

A new report released today by the Endangered Species Coalition does just that.

Fueling Extinction: How Dirty Energy Drives Wildlife to the Brink, highlights the incredible toll the development, storage and transportation of fossil fuels has had on America’s natural world. The report focuses on ten “particularly vulnerable” animals, plants, birds and fish that are at risk of extinction due to our dependence on fossil fuels.

Coalition members, including Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Sea Turtle Restoration Project, and WildEarth Guardians, nominated candidates for inclusion in the report, and submissions were then reviewed, judged, and voted on by …more

by Maureen Nandini Mitra – January 19, 2012

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Keystone XL Victory a Tale of Ambition and Overreach

Greens Pushed Just Right, GOP Pushed Too Far

The State Department’s widely anticipated decision that it will reject the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline across the United States marks a major victory for the environmental movement.

Photo courtesy tarsandactionKeystone XL Pipeline Protest at White House.

Just a year ago, many greens were bruised, battered, and demoralized after suffering the defeat of decade-long effort to pass comprehensive climate legislation. There was a good deal of soul searching in offices of environmental NGOs. Then, sometime last summer, it was as if all the energy changed, and suddenly a broad range of environmental organizations pivoted, found their voices again, and collectively turned their energies on sinking the pipeline.

As activists savor the victory, here’s a couple of important lessons to keep in mind.

Play Politics. Greens have a reputation for being too nice and not wanting to ruffle the feathers of political allies, which usually means elected Democrats. On the Keystone fight, 350.org founder Bill McKibben ran a different playbook. From the start, he framed the fight as a crucial test of President …more

by Jason Mark – January 18, 2012

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White-nose Syndrome Has Killed Nearly 7 Million Bats in North America, says USFWS

With No Cure in Sight, Preventing the Fungs from Spreading is the Only Option for Now

I just finished editing an article yesterday on how the White-nose Syndrome has been ravaging cave-dwelling bat populations in North America and this afternoon I get a press release from the US Fish and Wildlife Service with latest toll figures. USFWS biologists and their partners now estimate that at least 5.7 million to 6.7 million bats have died since the fungal outbreak was first detected in 2006. Earlier USFWS estimates had pegged the number at only over one million.

Photo courtesy USWFSUS Fish and Wildlife officials measure the forearm of a big brown bat, one of the species affected by the
White-nose Syndrome.

It is a strange coincidence indeed, and a sad and scary one. Especially since scientists expect the disease to continue to spread.

The new mortality estimate was agreed upon by biologists who met last week at the Northeast Bat Working Group’s annual meeting in Pennsylvania, one of the states hit hardest by the bat die-off. It follows recent reports of a few surviving bats in Vermont — a discovery that had raised hopes …more

by Maureen Nandini Mitra – January 17, 2012

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Yokohama Anti-Nuke Meet Draws Thousands of Activists, Experts

But 10 Months After the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster it’s Unclear if Japanese Citizens will be Able to Force their Government to Phase Out Nuclear Power

In the 10 months since an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Daiici nuclear power plant, people in Japan have engaged in some of the most dramatic activism in the country’s recent history. Mothers have stormed public meetings. Angry citizens have taken to the streets in numbers not seen in 50 years. Concession by painfully-won concession, they have forced the government to start taking radiation health concerns more seriously and rethink current energy policy.

Photo by John AshburneRegardless of political implications, the sheer energy at the "Global Conference for a Nuclear Free World" in
Yokohama was amazing.

One thing most people in Japan hadn’t had a chance to do in those ten months was come together with activists, politicians, and scientists from other countries to talk about what Fukushima means, what the world’s energy future should look like, and how to get there. Last weekend, at the Global Conference for a Nuclear Free World, civil society organizations made that happen.

The two-day event in Yokohama (near Tokyo) drew 11,500 participants, 200 community groups, and six national legislators from …more

by Winnie Bird – January 17, 2012

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