environment 
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SOURCE: The New Republic
12/15/2022
If a Biotech Firm Can Revive the Woolly Mammoth, There's No Law Stopping Them
Governments are entirely unprepared to respond to the potential of private companies to produce de-extinction of wildlife.
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11/13/2022
A Loss for Bolsonaro is a Win for the Amazon and the Planet
by Alon Ben-Meir
Much work remains to preserve the Amazon, but the defeat of Jair Bolsonaro's regime was a precondition to any progress on this key aspect of the climate crisis.
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SOURCE: Informed Comment
10/31/2022
Lula's Defeat of Bolsonaro is a Victory for Brazil and the Planet
by Juan Cole
A second Bolsonaro term would have promised more of the dangerous combination of resource extraction and anti-indigenous racism that have guided accelerated deforestation of the Amazon.
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SOURCE: Associated Press
10/16/2022
Radioactive Pollution from WWII-Era Atomic Bomb Projects Contaminates St. Louis Elementary School
Waste from weapons production was dumped into streams near an airport and still contaminates a suburban elementary school.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
10/4/2022
Southwest Florida's Overdevelopment Made Ian Worse
by Zeke Baker
Massive hydrological projects undertaken to make Southwest Florida's wetlands into developable agricultural land and then high-priced real estate removed the key buffers for coastal floods. Storms like Ian are a rebuke to the idea that humanity and commerce can bend nature to their will.
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SOURCE: Smithsonian
6/1/2022
Shirley Temple Black's Second Act as a Diplomat
An unpublished memoir of her late life, recently released to the Smithsonian, shows how Shirley Temple Black worked to thwart pervasive sexism in the diplomatic arena while advocating for a global environmental awareness.
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6/5/2022
The Environmental and Humanistic Sensibility of Pasternak and Lessons from Dr. Zhivago for Today
by Walter G. Moss
Boris Pasternak's masterwork exhibited a profound awareness of the onenness of creation – human and natural alike – that should guide the projects of peace and environmental protection.
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5/29/2022
Putin's Ukrainian War and Ecocide
by Walter G. Moss
The Russian invasion of Ukraine shows us how gravely the environment is harmed by war and militarism.
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SOURCE: TomDispatch
5/22/2022
Will the War in Ukraine Doom International Climate Action?
by Michael Klare
The international tension provoked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine couldn't come at a worse moment for efforts to advance action to fight climate change.
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SOURCE: NPR
5/2/2022
Despite Decades of Warnings, Lead Still Poisons Kids in the Midwest
Residual lead from paint and industry remains present in and around enough homes to make chronic, low-level poisoning an ongoing concern.
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SOURCE: Jacobin
2/24/2022
The US Military is an Obstacle to Climate Action
by Michael Franczak
The Kyoto protocols are inherently undermined by negotiated pledges that preserve the ability of the Pentagon to burn fossil fuels around the globe.
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SOURCE: New Left Review
3/7/2022
Thanatos Triumphant
by Mike Davis
Russian's invasion of Ukraine has revealed the nihilism of the world's leaders from Moscow to Washington, and the failure of the American left to develop a meaningful alternative to a global death-wish led by oligarchs.
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SOURCE: TomDispatch
12/16/2021
There are No Human Rights Without Human Survival
by Alfred McCoy
The political struggles of the current international order will be rendered meaningless by climate change unless that nation-based order can learn to cooperate.
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SOURCE: TomDispatch
5/20/2021
Lithium, Cobalt, and Rare Earths: The Post-Petroleum Resource Race and What to Make of It
by Michael Klare
Renewable energy may close the door on the era of oil war, but it's imperative that industrial nations not allow a new global conflict over access to the materials needed to build a renewable energy infrastructure.
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SOURCE: New York Times
2/21/2021
Why Texas Republicans Fear the Green New Deal
by Naomi Klein
The Texas blackouts show the political and social dead ends of the market revolution and the fossil fuel economy, says Naomi Klein. Politicians and industries wedded to the status quo are attacking the idea of a "Green New Deal" because it's encouraging people to imagine alternatives.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
2/17/2021
Texas’s Power Grid Failing Shows why Biden Needs to Go Big on Infrastructure
by Teal Arcadi
The lesson of the Interstate Highway system is that when it comes to large and necessary infrastructure programs, opportunistic partisanship is better than laboriously building a bipartisan coalition.
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SOURCE: LA Progressive
12/2/2020
"A Life on Our Planet" Provides Environmental Hope
by Walter G. Moss
Although the recent Netflix documentary on the global environment describes a grim present, it explains a path forward that is simple (if the political will can be found).
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6/21/2020
Viral Consequences
by David Marks
The indifferent response of the Trump administration to the COVID-19 pandemic and the repressive police response to protests are a signal that we need a political and social transformation to address the ongoing global climate crisis.
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SOURCE: Counterpunch
5/22/2020
Greening the Old New Deal
National service and a green new deal, with lessons from the old new deal, could be the first step in “civilianizing” our nation, and beyond recovery, enhancing the world’s prospects for health, justice, and sustainability.
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5/24/2020
Honor the Work of Brazil's Villas-Bôas Brothers by Protecting the Amazon's Indigenous
by John Hemming
The Villas-Bôas brothers worked with Brazil's indigenous people to balance the preservation of their Amazonian lands with inclusion in modernizing society. The policies of Jair Bolsonaro are a dire threat to their work, the survival of indigenous peoples, and the planet.