(Re-published with permission from DeSmog Canada) The Helmholtz Association of Research Centres, a major German scientific body with more than 30,000 researchers and US$4.4 billion in annual funding, has dropped out of a joint Alberta tar sands project over fears that the project was damaging the institution's reputation.  In April 2011, the Province of Alberta invested $25 million to form the "Helmholtz-Alberta Initiative" that would study ways to deal with leakage from the toxic tailings ponds that are a by-product of tar sands mining operations. The HAI was also tasked with finding ways to upgrade the energy extracted from bitumen and lignite coal in …

A recent green light could see radioactive uranium shipped right over one the greatest natural wonders in the world. Ever scuba dived? Or even just put a mask to your face in knee-deep water and looked under the surface at all the brilliant fish and creatures that make a tropical reef their home? It is brilliant, and one of those moments you never forget. Now the largest and most well-known of these reefs, Australia's Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of the province of Queensland, is under threat of becoming a shipping route for uranium  -- the radioactive substance used …

The day after the November 6 election I wrote about Obama’s electoral victory over Romney, which I was glad for. My column was about the need for the climate movement to “make it impossible for the Obama administration not to speak up and take action on the rapidly deepening and most important issue human civilization has ever faced. The world is crying out, almost literally, for smart, determined and visionary leadership on the climate crisis.” When I heard a few weeks later that Obama had directed White House staff to come up with proposals for what he should be doing …

Imagine that you've grown up in a beautiful, hilly countryside near many streams where you played and fished as a child. Now, years later, you can't even let your own kids or grandkids play in those same waterways because of pollution from a nearby mountaintop-removal coal mine. Such is the reality for thousands of people living in small Appalachian communities across West Virginia, Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky. "Mountaintop removal makes aquatic life sick; it makes people sick; and it destroys vital communities," says Jim Sconyers, Sierra Club West Virginia chair. This week the Sierra Club joined the West Virginia Highlands …

Remember the letter a group of Senators sent a couple weeks ago urging the President to approve the problematic Keystone XL pipeline?  We wrote about it at the time, and in so doing we discovered that the Senators who signed have received over 236% more in fossil fuel campaign contributions than the rest of the Senate. This analysis didn’t come as a surprise to us at Oil Change Internatonal — every single time a grouping of Senators or other Members of Congress have come together to push for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, those groups have followed the same pattern: January …

By J. Matthew Roney Defying conventional wisdom about the limits of wind power, in 2012 both Iowa and South Dakota generated close to one quarter of their electricity from wind farms. Wind power accounted for at least 10 percent of electricity generation in seven other states. Across the United States, wind power continues to strengthen its case as a serious energy source. The United States now has 60,000 megawatts of wind online, enough to meet the electricity needs of more than 14 million homes. A record 13,000 megawatts of wind generating capacity was added to the country’s energy portfolio in …

I remember the first time I saw a mountaintop-removal coal mining site - Kayford Mountain in southern West Virginia. Those images have never left my mind - a barren landscape where there was once lush forest. And right around the destroyed site, homes where people were trying to live despite having the world blown up next door. Their lives are never the same when a mountaintop-removal coal mine starts blasting. One major loss for these families is clean water. We expect our water to be safe and drinkable. Many folks here in Appalachia have streams or creeks running through their …

Palms, Matzah, Our Planet, and the White House: A Religious Call to Civil Disobedience at 12:00 Noon, Thursday, March 21st  At noon on March 21st, religiously and spiritually rooted Americans of all traditions will gather at the White House for a moral act of loving nonviolent civil disobedience.  This action, organized by the Interfaith Moral Action on Climate (IMAC), will make clear to President Obama that his inspired pledge to halt the destruction of the Earth from climate change requires that he take bold and courageous actions, including rejecting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. As religious leaders and individuals …

The enormous growth in local renewable energy is decentralizing the electricity system, often supplanting energy from centralized power plants.  But not all renewable energy is built locally, even in a country like Germany with massive local ownership of its renewable energy systems.  The Germans are undergoing significant upgrades to their electricity grid as they push 25% renewable energy, and transmission is part of the plan. And as with their wind and solar generation, the Germans are committed to letting ordinary citizens reap the economic benefits of the “energy change,” announcing a new plan to let citizens invest in transmission lines. …

The twenty-first annual Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital kicks off this week in Washington, DC. The event, which runs from March 12 – 24, will screen 190 films that celebrate our connection with the natural world—from an exploration of the Amazon to a kayaking trip down the infamous Los Angeles River. I caught up with Peter O’Brien, the Festival’s executive director, who answered a few questions via e-mail. The 2012 Festival was one of the most ambitious to date—over a hundred films were screened—but this year’s event looks even bigger. What are some of the highlights? The 2013 …