We’re Just Starting to Learn How Fracking Harms Wildlife

EcoWatch

A PinP photo.

Spills highlight the dangers that come with unconventional fossil-fuel extraction techniques that go after hard-to-reach pockets of oil and gas using practices like horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing (otherwise known as fracking). Details here.

How a small Manitoba town urged action on our climate crisis - a video by Larry Powell

Unprecedented damage to oceans has Canada's marine life on the run

Canada's National Observer 
The world's foremost climate scientists have found oceans are getting intensely warmer, sea levels are rising and the Earth's waters are losing oxygen and becoming more acidic. Story here.

A Pacific ocean perch (top) and blackspotted rockfish (bottom).
Photo by NOAA.

RELATED:

• New research finds that “marine reserves” – tracts of ocean where fishing is banned – are protecting fish, the coral reefs where they live and vast undersea "gardens," a lot more than once thought. - by Larry Powell
• Do Marine Reserves Provide a Buffer Against the Ravages of Climate Change? Yes, say experts! - by Larry Powell

Greta Thunberg's full speech to the United Nations

We must act now - for people and our planet. (Video)

In Alberta, a shocking abuse of political power to protect the oil industry

NATIONAL OBSERVER

This story is part of "Covering Climate Now," a global collaboration of more than 220 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story:

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The Government of Alberta has created the new “Energy War Room” (with an annual budget of $30 million) to combat environmental NGOs, specifically those who have been campaigning against the oil sector. This may come as a surprise to taxpayers wondering why a billion-dollar industry needs such government-subsidized assistance in the first place. Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage provided an answer of sorts, offering the following as the higher purpose of the Energy War Room: More here.

An aerial photo believed to depict a dump site near the Muskeg River mine,
Alberta tar sands. A "Beautiful Destruction" photo.

Three billion birds in the US and Canada have vanished since 1970, surveys show

Science magazine

North America's birds are disappearing from the skies at a rate that's shocking even to ornithologists. Story here.

Birds ranging from the iconic meadowlark (l.) to the common house sparrow (below) are being hit. PinP photos.