The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] issued a dire climate change assessment yesterday, detailing how humans have altered the environment at an unprecedented pace and warning that the world risks increasingly catastrophic impacts if we fail to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Washington Post: "The landmark report, compiled by 234 authors relying on more than 14,000 studies from around the globe, bluntly lays out for policymakers and the publi

As we reported in December, Singapore is the first nation in the world to approve the sale of "clean meat," cultured meat products. And, so far, it appears to be going well. Illuminate: "Clean Meat" is one of the names that has been given to the process of using animal cells to grow real meat in a lab, replacing slaughter houses and reducing our carbon footprint. It sounds a bit like science fiction but it's already here and you will see clean meat [also called cultured meat]

Brazil's President, chief climate change sceptic, and Covid-denier, Jair Bolsonaro is asking for $1 Billion annually, in return for which Brazil would reduce Amazon forest clearance by between 30% and 40%. He believes developed nations like the United States should support efforts to maintain the Amazon to battle climate change and protect biodiversity. Developing nations, with few resources to address environmental issues, have often asked for and received assistance from t

Happy Earth Day! The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, so this is the 51st anniversary. We have made some progress since then. America's air, rivers and lakes are cleaner because of the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts, but we continue to face numerous environmental challenges like climate change, mass extinctions, over-fishing, ocean acidification, deforestation, mountains of plastic, and a global shortage of clean drinking water. So, adopting a sustainable lifestyle is

As we have reported before, there is a growing global plastics problem, and microplastics are now showing up in some very unexpected places. Illuminate: Plastic waste is everywhere on our planet now, from the deepest parts of our oceans to the tops of the highest mountains on earth. We are literally drowning in the stuff. It's polluting our oceans and rivers, filling our landfills and spoiling our beaches, and it's responsible for killing over 1 million marine animals each ye

Conservatives have a long history of science-denial as historian Matthew Dallek recently explained in a piece for the Washington Post. It has its roots in the debate regarding the teaching of evolution in the early 20th century and intensified in the fight over environmental regulations after WWII. Dallek, Post: "Hostility to science became a pillar of GOP administrations. As president, George H.W. Bush mocked Al Gore as “Ozone Man,” while his son, George W. Bush, acknowledge