Articles by EcoWatch

We found 133 results.


Scientists Create Artificial Worm Gut That Breaks Down Plastic
Paige Bennett | EcoWatch - TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Feb 2024

12 Feb 2024 – News of plastic-eating enzymes and insects have been making headlines. Take, for example, fungi that digests plastic in coastal salt marshes, or the greater wax moth caterpillar that can live on polyethylene in its larval stage. However, scientists need to be able to breed them in large numbers.

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Deforestation 101: Everything You Need to Know
Cristen Hemingway Jaynes | EcoWatch - TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Oct 2022

Deforestation is the clearing of forested land with the purpose of converting it to be used for something other than forest, including the raising of livestock, agriculture, mining, development or other non-forest uses.

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Brazil’s Amazon Lost Record Amount of Forest during First Six Months of 2022
Olivia Rosane | EcoWatch - TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Jul 2022

6 Jul 2022 – Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has breached another record this year. The rainforest lost 1,448 square miles between 1 Jan and 24 Jun. The new findings follow reports that deforestation broke records during 2022. Rainforest advocates have blamed the pro-business policies of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro for the historic losses. 

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Brazil’s Amazon Breaks another Deforestation Record
Olivia Rosane | EcoWatch - TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 May 2022

10 May 2022 – Another month in 2022, another announcement of record deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. “The cause of this record has a first and last name: Jair Messias Bolsonaro.”

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Indigenous Groups Officially Excluded from COP26 Continue Calling for Action
Climate Nexus | EcoWatch - TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Nov 2021

27 Oct 2021 – Indigenous groups from around the world are preparing to travel to Glasgow for COP26 to demand a greater say in negotiations. However, despite being among the least culpable and most harmed by the climate crisis, they will not be fully credentialed.

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Move of Rohingya Refugees Poses Environmental and Human Rights Concerns
Tina Gerhardt | EcoWatch - TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Dec 2020

18 Dec 2020 – On December 4, about 1,600 Rohingya traveled across the Bay of Bengal in seven navy boats from Chattogram to Bhasan Char. Bangladesh plans to move 100,000 families to the island. The move poses serious concerns, both with regard to the environment and human rights.

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Worst Locust Swarm to Hit East Africa in Decades Linked to Climate Crisis
Olivia Rosane | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Feb 2020

27 Jan 2020 – East Africa is facing its worst locust infestation in decades, and the climate crisis is partly to blame. The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization said that Ethiopia and Somalia had not seen a swarm this bad in 25 years, while Kenya was facing its largest infestation in 70 years.

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UN Biodiversity Chief: Humans Risk Living in an ‘Empty World’ with ‘Catastrophic’ Consequences
Jordan Davidson | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Jan 2020

20 Jan 2020 – Talk is cheap, says the acting executive secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, who begged governments around the world to make sure that 2020 is not another year of conferences and empty promises, but instead is the year to take decisive action to stop the mass extinction of wildlife and the destruction of habitat-sustaining ecosystems.

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This Dutch City Has Transformed Its Bus Stops into Bee Stops
Michiel de Gooijer | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 15 Jul 2019

8 Jul 2019 – In the Dutch city Utrecht 316 bus stops now have a green roof. They do not only look great, they also help capture fine dust, storage of rainwater and provide cooling in the summertime. From Bus Stops to Bee Stops

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Hundreds of Sharks and Rays Entangled in Plastic Debris, Study Finds
Jordan Davidson | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 8 Jul 2019

5 Jul 2019 – More than a thousand sharks and rays have become entangled in jettisoned fishing gear and plastic debris, a new study has found. The researchers behind the study warn that the plastic trapping the sharks and rays may cause starvation and suffocation.

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99% of Seabirds Will Have Plastic in Their Guts within Decades
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 May 2019

In a sweeping 2015 study, researchers calculated that 9 billion tons of the material have been made, distributed and disposed in fewer than 70 years. That’s an astonishing figure, but it’s also one that’s hard to picture.

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Cruelty-Free Fashion: Growing Leather without Animals
Lucy Goodchild van Hilten | EcoWatch – Independent Media Institute, 26 Nov 2018

13 Nov 2018 – The future of ethical fashion is here: It’s now possible to grow leather without raising and killing animals.

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Scientists Accidentally Develop ‘Mutant’ Enzyme That Eats Plastic
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Apr 2018

17 Apr 2018 – Researchers in the UK and the U.S. have inadvertently engineered an enzyme that eats up plastic. It is able to digest polyethylene terephthalate—the same material used in the ubiquitous plastic bottle that’s clogging up landfills, coastlines and oceans around the world.

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20,000 Scientists Have Now Signed ‘Warning to Humanity’
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 Apr 2018

A chilling research paper —”World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice”—was published in Nov 2017 in the journal Bioscience warning about the fate of humanity. It has received 20,000 signatures and endorsements from scientists from 184 countries and quickly became the largest-ever paper supported by scientists.

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Walmart Files Patent for Robot Bees
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 Apr 2018

16 Mar 2018 – With the mass die-off of bees spelling trouble for agriculture, the world’s largest retailer has filed patents for the use of “unmanned vehicles,” or drones, to aid with pollination and crop production.

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Stephen Hawking’s Final Warnings Urged World to Halt Climate Change
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Mar 2018

14 Mar 2018 – Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest minds on Earth, died peacefully at his home in Cambridge early today at the age of 76. “I am not denying the importance of fighting climate change and global warming, unlike Donald Trump, who may just have taken the most serious, and wrong, decision on climate change this world has seen,” Hawking said last year about the Paris withdrawal.

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‘Plastic, Plastic, So Much Plastic!’: Diver Films Sea of Trash Off Bali
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Mar 2018

6 Mar 2018 – British diver Rich Horner posted footage of his plastic-infested swim off Bali’s Manta Point on Saturday [3 Mar].

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Conservation Goal for the Amazon Exceeded: More than 60 Million Hectares Protected
World Wildlife Fund | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Dec 2017

1 Dec 2017 – The World Wildlife Fund announced today that the Program for Protected Areas of the Amazon, a joint venture with the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, has reached the goal of protecting at least 60 million hectares. This effort represents the conservation of 15 percent of the biome’s territory in Brazil.

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‘History in the Making’: Tesla Switches on World’s Largest Battery
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 4 Dec 2017

1 Dec 2017 – South Australia officially activated the world’s biggest battery today. The feat was achieved much to the credit of Elon Musk, who made a daring bet to “get the system installed and working 100 days from contract signature or it is free.”

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Lion ‘Trophy’ Importation Ban Was Quietly Lifted by Trump Administration in October
David Leestma | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Nov 2017

17 Nov 2017 – Last month the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began issuing hunting permits for the import of lion trophies. Although the USFSW announced Wednesday [15 Nov] it was lifting a ban on the import of elephant trophies, the new guidelines for importing sport-hunted lions have been quietly in effect since Oct. 20.

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Good News at Last: World’s Largest Tropical Reforestation to Plant 73 Million Trees in Brazilian Amazon
Lorraine Chow| EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Nov 2017

1 Nov 2017 – The largest tropical reforestation effort in history aims to restore 73 million trees in the Brazilian Amazon by 2023. The multimillion dollar, six-year project, led by Conservation International, spans 30,000 hectares of land—the equivalent of the size of 30,000 soccer fields, or nearly 70,000 acres.

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New Study Confirms High-Pesticide Produce Linked to Lower Fertility Rates
Dan Nosowitz | Modern Farmer, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Nov 2017

2 Nov 2017 – Studies have previously tied higher rates of exposure to pesticides to decreased male fertility. But a new study from researchers at Harvard University takes a look specifically at women who are already undergoing infertility treatment. And the results seem to have surprised even the researchers.

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China Just Shut Down Thousands of Factories to Fight Pollution
Global Citizen | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Oct 2017

24 Oct 2017 – In an unprecedented crackdown on pollution, the Chinese government shut down tens of thousands of factories in an effort to improve air quality throughout industrial regions in the country.

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Wildfires Rage through Portugal and Spain, Kill at Least 39
Climate Nexus | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Oct 2017

17 Oct 2017 – Wildfires have killed at least 39 people in Spain and Portugal since Sunday [15 Oct]. Sixty-four people died in a wildfire in Portugal in June, and the country has declared a state of emergency in the northern region. “We are facing new (weather) conditions” due to climate change, the Portuguese Interior Minister told the press, as she also referenced the fires blazing in California.

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WWF: 60% of Global Biodiversity Loss Due to Land Cleared for Meat-Based Diets
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 9 Oct 2017

5 Oct 2017 – A new report from the World Wildlife Fund highlights how the livestock industry gobbles up a massive amount of land, leading to wide-scale biodiversity loss. Producing the animal feed for meat- and dairy-heavy Western diets uses up a lot of the planet’s precious resources.

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World’s Largest Solar Park to Also Host World’s Tallest Solar Tower
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Sep 2017

19 Sep 2017 – The Dubai government has awarded a $3.9 billion contract to construct the 700-megawatt fourth and final phase of the world-record-holding Solar Park. The project also includes an 850-foot-tall solar tower that receives focused sunlight, the world’s tallest such structure.

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European Glyphosate Safety Report Copy-Pasted Monsanto Study
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Sep 2017

15 Sep 2017 – Caught red-handed: Monsanto application copy/pasted into EU food safety body. See for yourself. Dozens of pages from the Renewal Assessment Report “are identical to passages in an application submitted by Monsanto on behalf of the Glyphosate Task Force, an industry body led by the company.”

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Fukushima Radiation and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
Dahr Jamail | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Jul 2017

17 Jul 2017 – Former nuclear industry senior vice president Arnie Gunderson, who managed and coordinated projects at 70 U.S. atomic power plants, thinks it simply makes no sense to hold the Olympics in Japan. “Holding the 2020 Olympics in Japan is an effort by the Japanese government to make these ongoing atomic reactor meltdowns disappear from the public eye. I discovered highly radioactive dust on Tokyo street corners in 2016.” According to him and other nuclear experts, the crisis is even worse.

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Volvo Announces ‘Historic End’ to Combustion Engine, All Cars Going Electric
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Jul 2017

5 Jul 2017 – Volvo Cars announced today that every car it launches from 2019 will have an electric motor, marking a “historic end” to the internal combustion engine.

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Remove My Clip from GMO Propaganda Film
Marion Nestle | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Jul 2017

21 Jun 2017 – I have asked repeatedly to have my short interview clip removed from this film. In my 10-second clip, I say that I am unaware of convincing evidence that eating GM foods is unsafe—this is what I said, but it is hugely out of context.

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How Eating Beans Instead of Beef Will Save You and the Planet
Susan Levin | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 26 Jun 2017

Recently, researchers from Loma Linda University released a new study finding that if Americans simply replaced the beef in their diets with beans, the U.S. would immediately reach up to 75 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets for 2020.

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Cancer Expert: EU Studies on Glyphosate Are ‘Scientifically Flawed’
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Jun 2017

2 Jun 2017 – Dr. Christopher Portier, a toxicologist and former director of the U.S. National Center for Environmental Health, has criticized the conclusions of European Union agencies which found that glyphosate—the active ingredient in Monsanto’s widely used weedkiller Roundup—is not carcinogenic to humans.

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UN Chief Calls World ‘a Mess’ as Trump Expected to Quit Paris Agreement
EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Jun 2017

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said Tuesday [30 May] countries must “get on board or get left behind” with the agreement. While he steered clear of naming Donald Trump specifically in his speech at New York University’s Stern School of Business, Guterres told an audience member in a Q&A session that exiting the deal could have economic, social and security implications for any countries that choose to pull out.

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Emergency Declared at Nuclear Waste Site in Washington State
Stefanie Spear | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 15 May 2017

The Department of Energy declared an emergency Tuesday [9 May 2017] at a plutonium-handling facility at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State after a tunnel partly collapsed. Hundreds of Workers were told to evacuate or take cover as officials responded to reports of “a cave-in of a 20 foot section of a tunnel that is hundreds of feet long that is used to store contaminated materials.”

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Elon Musk: You Can Now Pre-Order Tesla’s Solar Roof Tiles
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 15 May 2017

10 May 2017 — Elon Musk announced via Twitter this morning that Tesla is opening orders for the company’s highly anticipated solar roof tiles. Musk said that the black smooth glass and textured glass tiles will be available for order. The Tuscan and French slate styles will be available in about six months.

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Monsanto Hires Internet Trolls to Cover Up Roundup’s Cancer Risk
Josh Gay | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 15 May 2017

11 May 2017 — Internet trolls, paid for by Monsanto, have been scouring the internet to hide the ugly truth about the herbicide Roundup and the dangers of glyphosate, while the chemical giant worked with government regulators to declare the product safe to use, even though it “probably” causes cancer.

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Germany Breaks Record: 85% of Energy Comes from Renewables Last Weekend
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 8 May 2017

4 May 2017 – Germany’s “Energiewende”—the country’s low-carbon energy revolution—turned another successful corner last weekend when renewable energy sources nearly stamped out coal and nuclear.

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Mountaintop Removal Site Could Become Kentucky’s Largest Solar Farm
Cassie Kelly | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

Berkeley Energy is working to build a 50-100 megawatt solar farm right on top of the old coal mine. The project was announced on Tuesday [18 Apr]. “This is really a history-making project for the region,” said Ryan Johns, an executive with Berkeley Energy Group.

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16 European Nations Vote against GMO Crops
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

27 Mar 2017 – The majority of European Union governments voted against a proposal to authorize two new strains of genetically modified (GMO) maize today.

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The Whole World Is Watching as Trump Trashes U.S. Climate Policy
EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Questions over whether Trump’s executive order would end U.S. involvement in the Paris agreement. China showed it would continue to cement its global leadership on climate, as officials reaffirmed the country was still committed to it. “It’s important to understand that no single country, no matter how large or small, can cancel the Paris Climate Agreement.”

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Jane Goodall: How Can We Believe It Is a Good Idea to Grow Our Food with Poisons?
Katherine Paul | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

9 Mar 2017 – Two new reports published in recent weeks add to the already large and convincing body of evidence, accumulated over more than half a century, that agricultural pesticides and other toxic chemicals are poisoning us. Both reports issue scathing indictments of U.S. and global regulatory systems that collude with chemical companies to hide the truth from the public, while they fill their coffers with ill-gotten profits.

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Germany Converts Coal Mine into Giant Battery Storage for Surplus Solar and Wind Power
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

The Prosper-Haniel coal mine will be converted into a 200 megawatt pumped-storage hydroelectric reservoir that acts like a giant battery. The capacity is enough to power more than 400,000 homes.

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These Two Rivers Were Just Given the Same Legal Rights as Humans in India
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Mar 2017

The High Court of the Indian state of Uttarakhand ruled that the Ganges and Yamuna rivers and their tributaries are “legal and living entities having the status of a legal person with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities.” The judges noted that the once-mighty rivers are “losing their very existence.” The decision marks the first time a court has recognized a non-human as a living entity in India.

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Where We Drill, We Spill: Commemorating Exxon Valdez
Franz Matzner | EcoWatch, Natural Resources Defense Council – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Mar 2017

24 Mar 2017 – Twenty eight years ago today the world experienced a massive wake-up call on the hazards and harms of oil spills when the Exxon Valdez oil tanker split open and poured oil into Alaskan waters. At the time, images of oil coated wildlife and a devastated ecosystem in one of the world’s most delicate, iconic and majestic environments drew global attention. Today, oil still lurks under the surface of Prince William Sound, impairing wildlife and human lives.

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Hare Krishna Community Sues DAPL Company to Protect Sacred Lands from Rover Pipeline
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Mar 2017

Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, is facing a familiar legal battle over its proposed Rover Pipeline. A Hare Krishna community in West Virginia is challenging the project on religious grounds, saying that the pipeline’s planned route could cut through sacred lands.

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Rate of Ocean Warming Quadrupled Since Late 20th Century, Study Reveals
Roz Pidcock | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Mar 2017

The buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases is warming the upper ocean four times faster than during the period 1960-1990, according to new research.

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347 Native Bee Species ‘Spiraling Toward Extinction’
Center for Biological Diversity | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Mar 2017

2 Mar 2017 – In the first comprehensive review of the more than 4,000 native bee species in North America and Hawaii, the Center for Biological Diversity has found that more than half the species with sufficient data to assess are declining. Nearly one in four is imperiled and at increasing risk of extinction.

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Germany Bans Meat at Official Functions to ‘Set a Good Example for Climate Protection’
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Feb 2017

23 Feb 2017 – Eating less meat is essential to curbing climate change, which is why Germany’s Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks is only serving vegetarian food at official functions. The ministry said it wants to be a “role model” and justified their provision to fight the negative “effects of the consumption of meat.”

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Trump Administration Sued for Suspending Protections for Endangered Bumble Bee
Natural Resources Defense Council | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Feb 2017

The Natural Resources Defense Council sued the Trump administration Tuesday [14 Feb 2017] for illegally suspending the rule to put the rusty patched bumble bee on the endangered species list. It has lost approximately 90 percent of its range in the past 20 years and is the first bumble bee ever listed under the Endangered Species Act.

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97% of Endangered Species Threatened by Two Common Pesticides
EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Jan 2017

The EPA released its first rigorous nationwide analysis Wednesday [18 Jan] of the effects of pesticides on endangered species, finding that 97 percent of the more than 1,800 animals and plants protected under the Endangered Species Act are likely to be harmed by malathion and chlorpyrifos, two commonly used pesticides. Another 78 percent are likely to be hurt by the pesticide diazinon. The World Health Organization last year announced that malathion and diazinon are probable carcinogens.

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It’s Official: Solar Energy Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 Jan 2017

27 Dec 2016 – Renewable energy has reached an important milestone. The World Economic Forum has determined that in many parts of the world, solar energy is now the same price or even cheaper than fossil fuels for the first time.

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Leonardo DiCaprio’s Climate Doc Exposes Destruction of Rainforest for Palm Oil as Huge Driver of Global Carbon Emissions
Rainforest Action Network | EcoWatch - TRANSCEND Media Service, 31 Oct 2016

25 Oct 2016 – A new documentary produced and starring actor and activist Leonardo DiCaprio premieres in Los Angeles today and will be broadcast globally in 45 languages in 171 countries on the National Geographic Channel starting Oct. 30, timed to air in advance of the November elections.

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Boycott Launched After Nestlé Outbids Drought-Stricken Town to Buy Well for Bottled Water
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Oct 2016

26 Sep 2016 – Nestlé’s grab of a Canadian community’s water supply has sparked international outrage and calls to boycott the company and bottled water. The multinational food and drink giant outbid the Township of Central Wellington in Ontario for water rights to a local well to ensure “future business growth.”

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Norway to Kill 47 of Its Remaining 68 Wolves
Dan Zukowski | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 26 Sep 2016

Norway has announced plans to kill more than two-thirds of its remaining wolves, justifying the action as protection for livestock. The plan has sparked outrage by conservationists.

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Monsanto and the Poisonous Cartel of GMOs in India
Vandana Shiva | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Sep 2016

11 Sep 2016 – Engaged in litigation on many fronts, Monsanto is trying to subvert India’s patent laws: Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers Right Act, Essential Commodities Act and Competition Act. It is behaving as if there is no Parliament, no democracy, no sovereign laws in India to which it is subject. Or it simply doesn’t have any regard for them.

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Millions of Honeybees Killed in Attempt to Prevent Zika
Dan Zukowski | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Sep 2016

3 Sep 2016 – Aerial spraying of the pesticide naled in a South Carolina county, done in an attempt to prevent Zika-infected mosquitoes from gaining a foothold in the state, resulted instead in the massacre of millions of honeybees. On one farm in Summerville, 46 hives were wiped out instantly, killing 2.5 million bees.

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Kurt Vonnegut’s 1988 Letter to the Future More Relevant Today Than Ever Before
Kick Kennedy | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Aug 2016

In 1988, my then Hyannis Port neighbor the late Kurt Vonnegut wrote a prescient letter to the Earth’s planetary citizens of 2088 for Volkswagen’s TIME magazine ad campaign. His seven points of advice are perhaps more relevant today than at any time in human history.

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Radiation Along Fukushima Rivers Up to 200 Times Higher Than Pacific Ocean Seabed
Greenpeace | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jul 2016

A radiation survey team, supported by the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior, conducted underwater survey along the Fukushima coastline from Feb. 21 to March 11 this year, as well collecting samples in river systems. The samples were measured at an independent laboratory in Tokyo.

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Leaked Document Reveals Alarming New Environmental Threats of TTIP
Sierra Club | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jul 2016

Leaked document from the EU reveals its intentions to include new, dangerous language in the proposed energy chapter of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

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Glyphosate Sprayed on GMO Crops Linked to Lake Erie’s Toxic Algae Bloom
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Jul 2016

Glyphosate, the controversial main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup and other herbicides, is being connected to Lake Erie’s troubling algae blooms, which has fouled drinking water and suffocated and killed marine life in recent years.

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TransCanada Files NAFTA Suit Demanding More Than $15 Billion for Keystone XL Rejection
Michael Brune | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Jun 2016

On Jun 24 2016, foreign oil company TransCanada filed a lawsuit against the U.S. under NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, arguing that the U.S. rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline violated NAFTA’s broad rights for foreign investors by thwarting the company’s “expectations.” As compensation, TransCanada is demanding more than $15 billion from U.S. taxpayers.

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Glyphosate Found in Urine of 93 Percent of Americans Tested
Organic Consumers Association | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2016

29 May 2016 – Glyphosate, labeled a “probable human carcinogen” by the World Health Organization’s cancer agency IARC in 2015, has now been revealed to be ubiquitous in the first ever comprehensive and validated LC/MS/MS testing project to be carried out across America.

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Taiwan Recalls Quaker Oats Products Imported from US after Detecting Glyphosate
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 May 2016

29 May 2016 – More bad news for Quaker Oats. A random inspection from Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) detected glyphosate in 10 out of 36 oatmeal products it tested, exceeding the country’s legal limit.

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Will One of the World’s Most Endangered Whales Be Saved Before It’s Too Late?
Alicia Graef | Care2, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 May 2016

13 May 2016 – Conservationists took legal action this week to get protection for one of the most endangered species of whales on Earth. At the time of their discovery, the best estimate of their population put their number at fewer than 50 individuals, which raised concerns that they are one of the most endangered whales on earth who will likely disappear entirely without intervention.

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Beekeepers Lost 44% of Honey Bee Colonies Last Year in the USA
Friends of the Earth | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 May 2016

On Tuesday [10 May] the Bee Informed Partnership, in collaboration with the Apiary Inspectors of America and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, released its annual report on honey bee losses in the U.S. Beekeepers reported losing 44 percent of their total number of colonies managed over the last year. These losses are considered too high to be sustainable for U.S. agriculture and the beekeeping industry.

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EU: Results of Glyphosate Pee Test Are In ‘and It’s Not Good News’
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 May 2016

12 May 2016 – Last month, Members of the European Parliament volunteered to take a urine test to see if glyphosate—the cancer-linked weedkiller—is in their system. Forty-eight MEPs from 13 different EU countries participated. Test results from the accredited Biocheck Laboratory in Germany: “All participants excreted glyphosate by urine.”

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Largest Civil Disobedience in History of the Environmental Movement Begins Today
350.org | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 9 May 2016

3 May 2016 – Starting today, a global wave of peaceful direct actions lasting for 12 days will take place across six continents targeting the world’s most dangerous fossil fuel projects, under the banner of Break Free.

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Solar Impulse Pilot: ‘I Flew Over Plastic Waste As Big As a Continent’
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch - TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 May 2016

As the Solar Impulse 2 made its historic 62-hour flight from Hawaii to California without fuel, pilot Bertrand Piccard personally saw the horrific amount of plastic in our oceans.While flying above the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Piccard sent out a tweet to Boyan Slat, the 21-year-old founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup.

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Monsanto’s Glyphosate Found in California Wines, Even Wines Made with Organic Grapes
Zen Honeycutt, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 4 Apr 2016

Test results from Microbe Inotech Lab show 10 different wines contained glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller, including wine made with organic grapes.

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Japan Kills 333 Minke Whales Including 200 Pregnant Females
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch - TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Mar 2016

According to Reuters, 103 of the slaughtered whales were male and 230 were female, with 90 percent of the mature females pregnant. “This rogue act is in blatant disregard of international law and diplomacy, and sets a dangerous precedent for all nations that respect the rule of law.”

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Shipping Containers Are Becoming ‘Home, Sweet Home’ All Over the World
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Feb 2016

From Berlin to Bangalore to London, people all over are shacking up in shipping containers. And now a Copenhagen-based container architecture firm has designed the “CPH Village,” a planned shipping container structure aimed to help solve the area’s student housing shortage.

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Signing Polluter-Friendly TPP Trade Deal Is Gambling Away Our Future
Michael Brune, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 8 Feb 2016

For years, the Sierra Club has reported on and campaigned against the TPP’s threats to our air, water, climate, families and communities. The U.S. Trade Representative is gambling away our jobs, our clean air and water, and our future by pushing the polluter-friendly Trans-Pacific Partnership, so it only makes sense that it was signed in a casino and convention center.

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Renewable Energy Soars in 2015
Nathanael Greene, Natural Resources Defense Council, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Dec 2015

With Tax Incentives’ Renewal, Expect More of the Same in Years to Come – The truth is, 2015 has been one in a series of very good years for these pollution-free, renewable resources—years that are helping us get on track for the low-carbon future we need and need now.

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World Leaders Agree to Historic Global Climate Agreement
Stefanie Spear, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 14 Dec 2015

12 Dec 2015 – World leaders from 195 countries adopted an historic international climate accord Saturday [12 Dec] in Paris. The 31-page pact, which comes after two weeks of negotiations at the COP21 climate summit, is the first-ever agreement that commits almost every country in the world to fight climate change.

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Monsanto Handed ‘Double Whammy’ by Mexican Courts over Planting GMOs
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Nov 2015

9 Nov 2015 – Two separate court decisions in Mexico have blocked cultivation of Monsanto’s genetically modified corn in the country and soy in two states.

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These Five Countries Account for 60 Percent of Plastic Pollution in Oceans
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 9 Nov 2015

Roughly 8 million tons of plastic is dumped into the world’s oceans every year, and according to a new study, the majority of this waste comes from just five countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

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It’s Official: 19 European Countries Say ‘No’ to GMOs
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Oct 2015

The 19 countries opting out are: Austria, Belgium for the Wallonia region, Britain for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia.

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Monsanto Fights Back Against Cancer Lawsuits as Company Eliminates 12% of Workforce
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Oct 2015

9 Oct 2015 – Monsanto is on the defensive after the agricultural giant was sued by two U.S. farm workers who claim that glyphosate—the primary ingredient in Monsanto’s weedkiller, Roundup—caused their cancers.

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Monsanto’s Tobacco Files: University Scientists Caught Conspiring with Biotech Industry to Manipulate Public Opinion on GMOs
Dave Murphy, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Sep 2015

What happens when a private company with a long history of producing some of the most toxic chemicals on the planet and now produces our food starts facing public pressure from a growing national grassroots movement to label their products to conform with basic principles of democracy and transparency?

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Two More European Countries Ban Monsanto’s GMO Crops
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 7 Sep 2015

Lativia and Greece have chosen the “opt-out” clause of a European Union rule passed in March. Scotland and Germany made headlines in recent weeks for seeking a similar ban on GMOs.

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Breaking‬: Massive Pod of Pilot Whales Slaughtered in the Faroe Islands
Cole Mellino, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Jul 2015

23 Jul 2015 – The people of the Faroe Islands have a tradition of herding whales into a cove and slaughtering them for food and other uses, which, needless to say, draws condemnation from people worldwide who see the custom as archaic, cruel and unnecessary. GRAPHIC VIDEO

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Photo of ‘Mutant Daisies’ Near Fukushima Goes Viral
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Jul 2015

23 Jul 2015 – A recent photograph of less-than-perfect daisies near Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster site is generating headlines and is making the rounds on social media.

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Bill Nye on Glyphosate: ‘We Accidentally Decimated the Monarch Butterfly Population’
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Jul 2015

People developed this herbicide called glyphosate that kills all the weeds, and kills all of everything except the plants that have this cool gene in them that allows them to grow right through it. So we accidentally have decimated the monarch butterfly population, reduced it over the last two decades by 90 percent.

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Five Reasons You Should Eat Probiotic-Rich Fermented Foods
Julia Westbrook, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Jul 2015

7 Jul 2015 – The best way to prevent anxiety—and the stress-induced bellyache that comes along with it—may be to balance your gut bacteria. Eating probiotic-rich fermented foods is associated with less social anxiety, according to a new study published in Psychiatry Research.

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Pilot Whales Brutally Slaughtered in Yet another Horrific Faroe Islands Grind
Paul Watson, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jul 2015

The bodies were hoisted onto the dock by a crane as each animal was disemboweled, unborn fetuses ripped from their mothers’ wombs. The bodies were decapitated one by one. One supporter of the slaughter sent me a message saying, “We could show ISIS a thing or two about decapitation, you whale-loving bastards.”

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World’s Largest Offshore Wind Turbine Unveiled in Fukushima
Cole Mellino, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Jun 2015

22 Jun 2015 – Japan officially unveiled today its 7 megawatt (MW) wind turbine, the world’s largest offshore turbine to date. It is slated to be operational by September.

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6 Devastating Heat Waves Hitting the Planet
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Jun 2015

23 Jun 2015 – Need proof that we’re having the hottest year on record? Scorching heat is searing parts of the world, sparking wildfires and claiming lives due to heat stroke and dehydration.

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Pope Francis’ Encyclical Urges Swift Action on Climate Change Ahead of Paris Climate Talks
Anastasia Pantsios, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Jun 2015

18 Jun 2015 – Today in Rome, Pope Francis released his long-anticipated encyclical on climate change, fueling precisely the international conversation the Pope hoped to drive. The widespread media coverage of the 180-plus page document, Laudato Si, or Praised Be to You, has undoubtedly increased public awareness of environmental issues dramatically.

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Elon Musk: ‘We’ve Dramatically Increased the Power Capability’ of the Tesla Powerwall
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 15 Jun 2015

12 Jun 2015 – Its only been a month since Elon Musk unveiled a suite of batteries to help wean the world off fossil fuels. And now, the Tesla CEO is already upping the ante with the Powerwall, a home battery that charges using electricity generated from solar power.

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Hawaii Enacts USA’s First 100% Renewable Energy Standard
Cole Mellino, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 15 Jun 2015

11 Jun 2015 – Hawaii enacted a law this week, which mandates that all of the state’s electricity come from renewable sources no later than 2045. This renewable energy standard is being hailed as “the most aggressive clean energy goal in the country.”

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U.S. Honeybee Population Plummets by More Than 40%, USDA Finds
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

According to the latest annual government study, U.S. beekeepers reported losing 42.1 percent of the total number of colonies managed from April 2014 through April 2015, much higher than the 34.2 percent from the year prior.

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Obama Administration Approves Shell’s Plan to Drill in the Arctic
Cole Mellino, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 May 2015

11 May 2015 – The Obama administration gave conditional approval today to Shell to start drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean this summer. Shell has been fighting for the right to drill in the Arctic for years, despite a number of botched forays in recent years, and it looks like they are still going to get their way.

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Fukushima’s 4th Anniversary Brings Hope Amidst Radioactive Ruins as Renewable Energy Revolution Soars
Harvey Wasserman, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Mar 2015

11 Mar 2015 – Fukushima’s Anniversary Should Remind Us Nuclear Power Poses Threat to Human Survival – The catastrophe that began at Fukushima four years ago today is worse than ever. But the good news can ultimately transcend the bad—if we make it so.

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U.S. Solar Energy Industry Achieves Record-Shattering Year
Rhone Resch, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Mar 2015

America’s solar energy industry, which continues to grow at a very brisk pace, now has more employees than tech giants Apple, Google, Facebook and Twitter combined. And to top it all off, 2014 turned out to be another record-shattering year!

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Captain Paul Watson: If I Were CEO of SeaWorld
Paul Watson, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Jan 2015

There is no justification for the enslavement of animals. None. There never has been and there never can be. Slavery is slavery—unjustifiable, cruel, evil and soul-destroying, both for the victims and the oppressors. Circuses and places like SeaWorld are despicable places, and the only zoos that should exist are those that rehabilitate wildlife, contribute to the conservation of habitat and provide medical facilities for animals in the wild.

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Mountaintop Removal Linked to Cancer
Anastasia Pantsios – EcoWatch, 27 Oct 2014

Mountaintop removal is not only environmentally destructive; it is also responsible for lung cancer among coal miners and the loss of many jobs in the coal industry. This is a lot of ammunition for environmentalists to use to help end this landscape devastation.

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Barriers to Sustainable Farming Put Burden on World’s Poor
Prof. Vandana Shiva, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Oct 2014

The conflict between “free trade” and food rights came to the fore again at the WTO negotiations in September [2014], when India did not back down from its stance that a permanent solution be found for food security issues before signing the Trade Facilitation Agreement.

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6 Things You Need to Know about Food and Cancer
EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Servicer, 18 Aug 2014

The notion of using food to prevent or delay the onset of certain ailments is centuries old—Hippocrates himself is famous for saying “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

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PETA’s Undercover Shearing Videos Expose Horrific Sheep Abuse in U.S. and Australia
Brandon Baker, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Jul 2014

It would be tough to think of any disgusting, gutless acts that aren’t featured in new videos about brutal sheep shearing in Australia and the U.S., produced by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

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Fukushima’s Children Are Dying
Harvey Wasserman, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 7 Jul 2014

More than 48 percent of some 375,000 young people—nearly 200,000 kids—tested by the Fukushima Medical University near the smoldering reactors now suffer from pre-cancerous thyroid abnormalities, primarily nodules and cysts. The rate is accelerating.

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