PLANET IN PERIL

EcoWatch Forty five years have passed since Earl Butz, then U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, asserted, “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.” Time has proven Butz very wrong. Story here.

inside climate news Mass die-offs in California, the Southwest and Europe are not only tied to global warming by new studies, they will add to it. Story here.

EcoWatch Algal blooms on Lake Erie, similar to Florida's. Photo by NOAA. Waterways and beaches along Florida’s Atlantic coast have been taken over by thick, blue-green algae blooms , prompting Florida Gov. Rick Scott to declare local states of emergency in St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach and Lee counties. Story here.

ensia Smouldering peat gives off massive quantities of carbon dioxide and other pollutants, but the search for solutions is on. Story here. RELATED: "One of North America' Biggest Peat Bogs Burns Near Vancouver." "Only Heroic Efforts Will Spare Earth's Mighty Boreal Forest From the Worst Ravages of Climate Change."

CommonDreams Despite ambitious pledges, global energy ministers could not agree on a target date to phase out billions in subsidies to dirty energy. Story here.

by Larry Powell Some of the wildlife and terrain we saw and photographed in and near the park. Enjoy! A lone member of the park's herd of prairie bison. A shy (and rare) burrowing owl. Ringneck pheasant Black-tailed prairie dogs "Seventy-Mile Butte" A sweep of rare, wild prairie, preserved for posterity in the park. (All photos by PinP.) Please also visit: "Wild Critters of the Grasslands, a Picture Story."

CommonDreams The same day TransCanada  Pipelines sued the U.S. government for $15 billion , the Democratic Party’s  platform drafting committee met in Missouri . Between the two, there is a lesson to be learned about free trade and the climate crisis. Story here.

CommonDreams Opponents "said 'no' to Enbridge 12 years ago when it first proposed the project. And now that 'no' has the backing of the courts." Story here.

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment Forest fires are not an unusual thing in the Northwest Territories, but the summer of 2014 went beyond anything Yellowknife residents had seen before. The air quality index was at 10 or worse – the worst it can be – for much of the summer because of all the smoke. Story here. RELATED: " B.C. remains quiet over polluted Hullcar aquifer"

VANCOUVER SUN Three professional hydrologists have told the provincial government that it should immediately impose a full ban on spreading liquid manure above a contaminated aquifer that provides drinking water to several hundred householders in the Okanagan Valley. Story here.

CBC news 'Megafires' result from severe drying, says McMaster researcher. Story here. RELATED: "Only Heroic Efforts Will Spare Earth's Mighty Boreal Forest From the Worst Ravages of Climate Change."