Articles by Lorraine Chow

We found 39 results.


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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Ten Grim Climate Scenarios if Global Temperatures Rise Above 1.5 Degrees Celsius
Lorraine Chow | Independent Media Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service, 7 Jan 2019

3 Jan 2019 – Here’s A Peek into Our Climate-Addled Future

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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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‘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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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