July 2015 is Officially Hottest Month on Record. Ever.

Raging wildfires and apocalyptic smoke. Huge algal blooms visible from space turn seafood on the Pacific Northwest toxic. California’s drought. Alberta’s drought. Alberta’s floods. There’s no doubt: it’s hot and weird out. According to officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) July was the hottest month ever recorded, putting 2015 well on track to […]

Radioactivity Found in Pennsylvania Creek, Illegal Fracking Waste Dumping Suspected

Recently released testing results in western Pennsylvania, upstream from Pittsburgh, reveal evidence of radioactive contamination in water flowing from an abandoned mine. Experts say that the radioactive materials may have come from illegal dumping of shale fracking wastewater. Regulators had previously found radioactivity levels that exceeded EPA‘s drinking water standards over 60-fold in waters in the […]

Will Obama's 2008 Climate Promises Hold Up?

In this DeSmog UK epic history series we meet an American presidential hopeful apparently willing to take on Koch and Big Oil. Barack Obama’s decision to give Shell permission to drill for potential oil reserves in the Arctic threatens to undermine his legacy as the American president who took climate change seriously. The public outcry as he comes […]

Lancashire Anti-Fracking Campaigners Seeking Review of Cuadrilla's Roseacre Wood Planning Permission

Lancashire anti-fracking campaigners are concerned that fracking could still go ahead in Lancashire because the County Council approved a part of Cuadrilla’s two planning applications. Cuadrilla was famously denied permission to carry out any fracking in Preston in June this year. They have since announced that they are going to appeal the council’s decision. However, while […]

Texas Family's Water Well Explodes, Burns 4-Year Old, Father and Grandfather — and Fracking to Blame, Lawsuit Alleges

A family in Texas, including a four-year old, her parents and her grandfather, were severely burned when their water well ignited into a massive fireball after methane from nearby fracked wells contaminated their water supply, a newly filed lawsuit against EOG Resources and several related companies alleges. Cody Murray, a 38-year old who previously worked in […]

Russia Works to Improve Oil Spill Monitoring in Arctic Tundra Region Known for Accidents

As the US grants Shell its final permit to drill off the coast of Alaska, Russia, too, continues to prepare for a future with Arctic drilling as it takes steps to improve environmental safety in the Timan-Pechora tundra after a series of oil spills in recent years. Arctic drilling is a risky business. Russia’s new monitoring […]

Islamic Leaders Join Growing Chorus Of Religious Voices Making Moral Case For Climate Action

A symposium of Islamic leaders from 20 different countries meeting in Istanbul today released a Climate Change Declaration that presents the moral case for the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims to “tackle habits, mindsets, and the root causes of climate change, environmental degradation and the loss of biodiversity.” The declaration calls for world governments to adopt […]

Fracking Fast-Track Stacks Odds Against Planning Refusal

New measures to compel local councils to speed up frackers’ planning applications have a clear intention, writes The Ecologist editor, Oliver Tickell – to make it ever harder for planners to refuse permission. The precise intention of the measures is surely to make it ever harder for Councils to refuse planning applications for fracking even where […]

Man Who Broke Economy Says 'Trust Me Our Ecology Is Just Fine’

This DeSmog UK epic history post explains how neoliberalism almost broke capitalism (and what this might tell us about free markets and the environment). Matt Ridley, as chairman of Northern Rock, was the canary in the coal mine when it came to the calamitous financial crisis of 2008 as he presided over the first run on the […]

This Veteran Climate Scientist Advised Three Australian Prime Ministers. What Would He Say To Tony Abbott?

Scientist Dr Graeme Pearman knows more than most about the responsibilities and the perils that come with communicating climate change to the highest authorities. As one of Australia’s highest ranking government scientists, he was asked into the offices of three consecutive Australian Prime Ministers to brief them on climate change. In the late 1980s, it was Labor […]