Mountaintop removal coal mining is the worst environmental tragedy in American history. When will the Obama administration finally stop this Appalachian apocalypse?If ever an issue deserved President Obama's promise of change, this is it.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Washington Post , July 3, 2009

A U.S. Senate subcommittee held a hearing yesterday on the impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining on water quality in Appalachia, and the proceedings suggest there's a consensus developing that the practice needs to be stopped. The hearing of the Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife was called by Sen. Ben Cardin, who with Sen. Lamar Alexander is a co-sponsor of the Appalachia Restoration Act. The bill would add language to the federal Clean Water Act prohibiting the dumping of mine waste into streams, effectively ending mountaintop removal mining. The practice -- which involves blasting off the tops of mountains and dumping the waste in the valley below -- has already ruined more than 500 mountains while burying an estimated 1,200 miles of ecologically critical headwater streams under tons of mining waste.

Editorial - The Institute for Southern Studies , June 26, 2009

A major shortcoming of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change was its failure to address the huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions caused by the destruction of the world’s rain forests. A proposal that rich nations be allowed to offset some of their emissions by paying poorer counties to leave their rain forests intact was shot down after European environmental groups objected. They argued that it would allow rich countries to buy their way out of their own obligations. The planet has been paying for that colossal blunder ever since.

Editorial - The New York Times , May 29, 2009

The land-protection policy has been fought by the timber industry and was undercut by the Bush administration, but Obama championed it while campaigning. The U.S. Forest Service will announce a "timeout" on new road-building and other development in designated roadless areas of national forests today, sources say, prolonging a seesaw battle over a policy first announced in the waning days of the Clinton administration. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which former President Clinton issued shortly before leaving office in 2001, protects nearly 60 million acres of national forest land from logging and other development, largely in Western states.

By Jim Tankersley | Washington, D.C. - The Los Angeles Times , May 28, 2009

American Electric Power Co. Inc. and Duke Energy Corp. joined other businesses and environmental groups today in announcing their unified support for provisions for protecting tropical forests in cap-and-trade legislation. The coalition reached an agreement with two major facets. The groups support using 5 percent of valuable greenhouse gas emission allowances under the bill's cap-and-trade system to prevent tropical deforestation and reduce international forest emissions. They also want companies to receive credits for tropical forest protection activities.

By Noelle Straub, Greenwire - The New York Times , May 20, 2009

An EU-commissioned study entitled The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity was published last October. It concluded that the annual cost of forest loss alone is running at $2-$5 trillion. This is double the putative total losses to date on Wall Street, but the natural capital losses are occurring year after year. The analysis concluded that forest decline and the consequent loss of critical natural services could be costing around 7 per cent of global GDP – in other words, a calamitous rate of decline that has the profoundest implications for every species on Earth.

By John Gibbons - The Irish Times , February 26, 2009

Americans like their toilet tissue soft: exotic confections that are silken, thick and hot-air-fluffed. The national obsession with soft paper has driven the growth of brands like Cottonelle Ultra, Quilted Northern Ultra and Charmin Ultra — which in 2008 alone increased its sales by 40 percent in some markets, according to Information Resources, Inc., a marketing research firm. But fluffiness comes at a price: millions of trees harvested in North America and in Latin American countries, including some percentage of trees from rare old-growth forests in Canada.

By Leslie Kaufman - The New York Times , February 26, 2009

Ho Chi Minh City residents are angry that the Saigon Water Supply Corporation hiked prices without telling them. But would they have been so angry if they’d known the money was protecting local forests? “We’re ready to follow government policy on the issue,” said Tran Thi Anh from Tan Binh District. “But the water company should have told us before applying the increase.” Anh said the increase was applied for the first time in January without any note or reason given on the invoice.

By Mai Vong - Thanh Nien News | Dinh Muo, Vietnam , February 20, 2009

Trees across the tropics are getting bigger and offering help in the fight against climate change, scientists have discovered. A laborious study of the girth of 70,000 trees across Africa has shown that tropical forests are soaking up more carbon dioxide pollution than originally thought. Almost one-fifth of our fossil fuel emissions are absorbed by forests across Africa, Amazonia and Asia, the research suggests. Simon Lewis, climate expert at the University of Leeds, who led the study, said: "We are receiving a free subsidy from nature. Tropical forests are absorbing 18% of the CO2 added to the atmosphere each year from burning fossil fuels."

By David Adam - The Guardian | UK , February 19, 2009

A California-based Forest Service researcher says treating lodgepole pines with a substance called verbenone could cut pine-beetle infestation rates by 30 to 60 percent. Recent experiments suggest that applying pheromone flakes from the air could be a way to protect high-value stands of trees in Summit County and elsewhere, including areas around campgrounds and even forests bordering ski-area trails. “It’s a ubiquitous natural product,” said entomologist Nancy Gillette. “The pheromone we’re testing has been known for decades.”

By Bob Berwyn - Summit Daily News | Colorado , February 08, 2009