Protecting cold water is essential for conserving wild, native fish | Wenatchee Watershed Cold Water Campaign

Protecting cold water is essential for conserving wild, native fish. Check out our Wenatchee Watershed Cold Water Campaign to learn how you can support this grassroots effort to conserve cold water in Washington's Wenatchee River. #coldwater #wildsalmon #wildsteelhead #riverstewards

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Historic Resistance to Dakota Pipeline | #NoDAPL

The $3.8 billion Dakota access pipeline has been partially halted after several months of protests by Native Americans and environmentalists.  North Dakota has responded by arresting dozens and declaring a state of emergency.

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SAY NO TO THESE THREE URANIUM MINES AT GRAND CANYON

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality is preparing to issue permits to allow the operation of three uranium mines in greater Grand Canyon watershed. Of course, this would benefit Energy Fuels Resources, Inc., the mining company that's requesting the permits. But what do the rest of us get? Radioactive pollution that threatens human health, wildlife, and ground and surface water.  

Allowing private companies to profit at the expense of public health and the environment is just wrong -- and we can't let it happen.  

Uranium mining creates fine dust containing radioactive particles, lead and arsenic. Because the dust is so fine, it travels far from mines into our waterways, recreation sites and communities. It can increase the risk of lung cancer, birth defects and kidney disease. Uranium mining exacts other costs as well: The federal government has spent billions trying to clean up old uranium mines, and the costs continue to mount. 

The Center for Biological Diversity has been working to end all uranium mining in the greater Grand Canyon region. Stopping these three mines is a very important part of that greater goal, and we need your help to make it happen. 

Please take action below -- tell the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality that you oppose the operation of the Canyon, AZ1 and EZ uranium mines.  

And if you can, join us on Tuesday, Aug. 30 in Flagstaff at Sinagua Middle School to voice your opposition to the issuance of new permits that will allow toxic uranium mining to continue on the rim of Grand Canyon. If you plan to attend, RSVP to Katie Davis.

SIGN NOW: Say No to These Three Uranium Mines at Grand Canyon

3 cyclones hitting Japan | earth :: a global map of wind, weather, and ocean conditions

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earth :: a global map of wind, weather, and ocean conditions

Japan Meteorological Agency | Tropical Cyclone Information

Syria: Little boy in Aleppo a reminder of war's horror - CNN.com

(CNN) His name is Omran Daqneesh. The image of him, bloodied and covered with dust, sitting silently in an ambulance awaiting help, is another stark reminder of the toll of the war in Syria.

He is young -- one witness puts him at five years old, as old as the Syrian war itself. But his chubby arms and legs and the way he clings to the man who pulled him from the rubble of his bombed-out home suggest he is younger, maybe still a toddler...

more: Syria: Little boy in Aleppo a reminder of war's horror - CNN.com

Can we feed 10 billion people on organic farming alone? | Guardian Sustainable Business | The Guardian

In 1971, then US Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz uttered these unsympathetic words: “Before we go back to organic agriculture in this country, somebody must decide which 50 million Americans we are going to let starve or go hungry.” Since then, critics have continued to argue that organic agriculture is inefficient, requiring more land than conventional agriculture to yield the same amount of food. Proponents have countered that increasing research could reduce the yield gap, and organic agriculture generates environmental, health and socioeconomic benefits that can’t be found with conventional farming.

The flower petals and the labels represent different sustainability metrics that compare organic farming with conventional farming. They illustrate that organic systems can better balance the four areas of sustainability: production (orange), environment (blue), economics (red) and social wellbeing (green). Illustration: John Reganold and Jonathan Wachter

Organic agriculture occupies only 1% of global agricultural land, making it a relatively untapped resource for one of the greatest challenges facing humanity: producing enough food for a population that could reach 10 billion by 2050, without the extensive deforestation and harm to the wider environment.

That’s the conclusion my doctoral student Jonathan Wachter and I reached in reviewing 40 years of science and hundreds of scientific studies comparing the long term prospects of organic and conventional farming. The study, Organic Agriculture in the 21st Century, published in Nature Plants, is the first to compare organic and conventional agriculture across the four main metrics of sustainability identified by the US National Academy of Sciences: be productive, economically profitable, environmentally sound and socially just. Like a chair, for a farm to be sustainable, it needs to be stable, with all four legs being managed so they are in balance...

more: Can we feed 10 billion people on organic farming alone? | Guardian Sustainable Business | The Guardian