It has been over two years since the catastrophic meltdown at the Fukusima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and the bad news keeps on rolling in. On the heels of an announcement by Tepco that the water at the facility is contaminated with low levels of cesium, the company reported that the groundwater is also polluted with strontium-90. The highly toxic substance is a by-product of the fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear reactors. The discovery will no doubt complicate Tepco’s ongoing struggle to contain leaks inundating the basements of reactor buildings.

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Post tags: cesium, cleanup, contamination, fukushima daiichi, groundwater, leak, Pollution, Solar Power, strontium-90, TEPCO, tritium

Most nature lovers are familiar with the concept of a threatened species, or organisms that are in danger due to habitat loss, poaching, disease, or environmental factors. The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) compiles a Red List of Threatened Species in order to identify these plants and animals so that steps can be taken to aid in their recovery. A recent paper published in PLOS ONE involving more than a hundred scientists over a period of five years found that climate change has caused many of the world’s creatures to become imperiled. A staggering 83% of birds, 70% of corals, and 66% of amphibians were identified as highly vulnerable.

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Post tags: Africa, albertine rift, Amazon, Climate Change, coral triangle, extinction, global warming, international union for the conservation of nature, IUCN, plos one, red list of threatened species, threatened species, wendy foden

The decline in bee populations has been all the buzz lately, which led Whole Foods Market to team up with the Xerces Society to show us what a world—or at least, produce section—without bees would look like. The University Heights, Rhode Island store removed all foods that are reliant upon the important pollinators, and it leaves a pretty slim selection; 52% of the produce department’s offerings would be pulled from shelves without bees around to help.

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Post tags: bee pollinated food, bee pollination, bee population, eco design, green design, sustainable design, University Heights Whole Foods, whole foods, Xerces

Your morning cup of joe may be next on the endangered list. A disease outbreak in Central America is threatening hundreds of thousands of farms by crippling coffee plants and causing their fruits not to ripen. The culprit, called coffee rust, is a leaf-blighting fungus thought to be flourishing now due to climate change. So far more than 50 percent of the coffee plants growing in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama have been affected by coffee rust.

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Post tags: Central America Coffee, Climate Change, coffee in danger, coffee rust fungus, eco design, green design, sustainable design

Researchers at Washington State University have hatched a plan to help aid dwindling honeybee populations- by creating a bee sperm bank. The plan may seem unusual, but due to pesticides, parasitic mites and climate change, bees aren’t reproducing normally and they can use all the help they can get. The sperm bank, or “bee genome repository,” will help diversify the bee gene pool, creating stronger bees.

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Post tags: bee genome repository, bee populations, bee sperm bank, colony collapse, eco design, green design, Susan Cobey, sustainable design, washington state university

Airbnb is a great way to find inexpensive accommodations while traveling, but the company recently created a new tool to help victims of disasters. The company has just launched a Disaster Response tool that will ask Airbnb hosts if they’d like to offer up their rooms at no cost when disaster strikes. Available rooms will then be listed on a special page, connecting displaced victims with free places to stay.

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Post tags: Airbnb, airbnb disaster tool, Disaster Relief, disaster shelter, eco design, green design, sustainable design

We’ve seen LEGO bricks used to build tons of unexpected creations – from wheelchairs to chandeliers. But everyone’s favorite toy brick can also be used to teach – Hans Rosling, a Swedish doctor and Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institute, has done just that. His simple demonstration uses LEGO bricks to explain the current and future state of population growth and climate change, showing us where we are and where we’re going.

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Post tags: carbon emissions, carbon emissions and population, carbon emissions by population, Climate Change, global population, Hans Rosling, Hans Rosling LEGO, Hans Rosling LEGO video, Hans Rosling YouTube, lego, Lego bricks, LEGO illustration, LEGO teaching, population growth, population increase, YouTube videos

Living along a major river means you are at the mercy of the actions of those living upstream. On May 31, a landslide ruptured the Trans-Ecuador pipeline operated by Petroecuador, sending 420,000 gallons of crude oil into the River Coca, a tributary of the Amazon. Since the disaster, the oil has already reached the Peruvian Amazon region of Loreto, and Brazil has been put “on alert” to watch for the pollution as it makes its way into the country.

Read the rest of Ecuadorian Pipeline Leak Sends 420,000 Gallons of Oil Towards Brazilian Amazon River

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Post tags: Amazon, amazon river, Brazil, clean carribean & americas, ecuador, loreto, manuel pulgar vidal, oil spill, peru, petroecuador, rafael correa, river coca, trans-ecuador pipeline

Brazil just released some encouraging figures that suggest the government has been able to drastically reduce the rate of deforestation in the Amazon. According to reports, deforestation has been reduced by 84 percent over the past eight years, putting the nation on track to meet goals set at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. However, concerns are being raised that this positive trend is already reversing, with an uptick in destruction of the Amazon’s canopy in recent months.

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Post tags: amazon rainforest, amazon river, amazon trees, brazil amazon, brazil environment, deforestation, farming environment, Izabella Teixeira

There’s nothing new about the fact that global warming is causing ice sheets to melt, resulting in rising sea levels. However a new study by an international team of scientists led by Edward Hanna of the University of Sheffield makes more accurate predictions about the process in Greenland and the Antarctic. The study, which was published in this month’s edition of Nature, found that Antarctic ice loss might only be half of what has been previously reported. But the team also found a major loss of mass from the Greenland Ice Sheet, which appears to be twice as large as the Antarctic contribution to global sea-level rise.

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Post tags: 2007 ipcc report, antarctic ice sheet, arctic ice sheet loss half of what was predicted, behavior of ice sheets, edward hanna, global sea level rise, global warming, greenland ice sheet, greenland ice sheet loss twice that of the antarctic, ice sheet mass loss, ice sheet response to climate change, new study predicting changes in ice sheets, predicting changes in ice sheets, uncertainty in ice sheet predictions, university of sheffield

It appears that Sean Parker, the billionaire who was recently married in a Big Sur redwood forest, might not be the forest trasher that he has been depicted as. Parker sent a letter of explanation in reaction to the original article written by Alexis Madrigal for The Atlantic, which paints a very different picture than the California Coastal Commission’s report. It is true that Parker spent around $10 million to prepare the Big Sur site for his wedding, but what wasn’t reported is that the internet mogul donated an addition $2.5 million to restore the somewhat crumbling private campground after his nuptials were over.

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Post tags: Alexis Madrigal, California Coastal Commission, eco design, green design, Save the Redwoods League, Sean Parker, Sean Parker trashes redwood forest, Sean Parker wedding, sustainable design, The Altantic

When Hurricane Ivan coursed through the Gulf of Mexico in 2004, it knocked out operations at a Taylor Energy Company platform and ruptured several well heads in the area. Since then the wells have been leaking oil into the sea 12 miles south of New Orleans, and according to Grist, efforts to cap the wells appear to have ceased in 2011. While Taylor has stated that the resultant slick is 200 feet wide and 6.5 miles long, NOAA’s estimates suggest that there is a one mile wide, 20.2 mile long oil slick—that’s roughly 80 times larger than Taylor is reporting.

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Post tags: environmental destruction, fossil fuels, gulf of mexico, nrc, oil industry, oil slick, oil spill, on wings of care, skytruth, US Coast Guard, water pollution

Thousands of homes are being built on contaminated plots of land throughout China – and hardly anybody knows about it. Gao Shengke and Wang Kai wrote an investigative report for Caijing magazine that uncovered the fact that the government is allowing new homes to be constructed on the sites of relocated and unremediated chemical and pesticide factory plants that previously leaked carcinogenic and mutagenic pollutants into the soil and groundwater.

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Post tags: Caijing, china, Chinese factory lands, environmental news, groundwater pollution, polluted land in China, Pollution, toxic wastelands, urban planning

The Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, just reversed its statement that the water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is not contaminated. The utility company has detected low levels of radioactive particles in the groundwater flowing into the plant. The admittance is part of a growing list of errors that have taken place during the cleanup effort, and many are critical of Tepco’s ability to remedy the situation after it allowed the plant to reach catastrophic radiation levels in the first place.

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Post tags: cesium, contamination, fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant, groundwater, Japan, radioactive, reactor, TEPCO, tokyo electric power company, united states

It’s not unusual for the weddings of the rich and famous to veer into ridiculous excess, but internet billionaire Sean Parker’s recent nuptials really take the over-the-top wedding cake. Parker’s wedding took place in a redwood grove on a Big Sur campground. Apparently the natural grandeur wasn’t good enough for Parker and his guests, because the groom spent a reported $10 million on the festivities, which involved trashing the forest to build a pond and fake castle ruins.

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Post tags: Big Sur campground, Big Sur campground trashed, Big Sur ecological damage, Big Sur ecological system, Big Sur trailhead, Big Sur wedding, California Coastal Commission, CCC, ecological damage, public forests, public spaces, Sean Parker trashes redwood forest, Sean Parker wedding

This week heavy rainfall in Central Europe caused some of the worst flooding in centuries as rivers across Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic breached their banks. At least 16 people have died in the massive floods, and thousands have been evacuated from their homes. While the main focus of rescue workers has been on getting people to safety, authorities have also been forced to shut down chemical plants that were threatened by the floods.

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Post tags: Austria, budapest, Central Europe, czech republic, Deggendorf, Dresden, Europe floods, floods, germany, Lovochemie chemical plant, Prague

Agricultural giant Monsanto is facing a growing problem with its genetically modified wheat. The company attracted criticism earlier this month with news that their GMO wheat had infiltrated an Oregon farm. This Monday, a Kansas farmer filed a civil lawsuit in US federal court against Monsanto citing “gross negligence” and seeking compensation for his discovery of rogue GMO wheat. Monsanto dismissed the allegations as unfounded.

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Post tags: contamination, ernest barnes, GMO, Japan, Kansas, Monsanto, Oregon, south korea, susman godfrey, united states, US, US Department of Agriculture, wheat

Hundreds of people living in St. Charles County near St. Louis, Missouri were evacuated from their homes after a levee breach Monday night. The Mississippi River at St. Louis was 10 feet above flood stage overnight according to the US Geological Survey, and flood warnings were put into effect from Illinois down to Louisiana. Residents of West Alton, MO have been told to review their exit plans and get ready to leave as the sandbag reinforced levees are also beginning to show signs of stress in their area.

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Post tags: allenville, alton bridge, argosy alto casino, con agra plant, corps of engineers, evacuation, flood, grafton, mike peterson, Mississippi, Missouri, modot, river, st. charles county, st. louis, tornado, us geological survey, west alton

Last winter, beekeepers in the United States lost an alarming one-third of their hives to colony collapse disorder. While many acknowledge that pesticides, climate change, and habitat loss may be be contributing factors to their decline, a new study by the University of Illinois points to yet another stressor. Honey substitutes (such as high fructose corn syrup) fed to the bees while their own honey is sold could be denying bees the nutrients they need to establish strong immune systems.

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Post tags: ban, bayer ag, beekeeper, colony collapse disorder, epa, Europe, food, high fructose corn syrup, honey, honey bee, immune system, Monsanto, national academy of sciences, neonicotinoids, p-coumaric acid, pesticides, sugar, syngenta, university of illinois, varroa mite

In an effort to curb global climate change, policy makers and scientists agreed in 2010 that the total levels of CO2 emissions should not exceed 350 parts per million. That magic number would still lead to an average planet-wide temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius, but it would at least stave off the worst effects from a warming planet. But with CO2 levels surpassing 400 parts per million for several days last month according to data collected at a Hawaiian monitoring station, politicians are being urged this week to draft a backup plan at their meeting in Bonn, Germany. The authors of a new study from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs are urging UN envoys to establish a new target that would be more realistic in light of recent discoveries.

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Post tags: aosis, Bonn, Climate Change, CO2 emissions, envoys, german institute for international and security affairs, germany, global warming, hawaii, industrial revolution, least developed countries, oliver geden, Policy, Target, UN, un environment program