Humans’ impact on the environment has important social, political, and economic implications that aren’t always discussed in depth on the news. Here are a few environmental stories from 2014 that you may have missed.

“I’m afraid you have humans.” New Yorker Cartoon By: Eric Lewis

**Click on each headline below for the full story

January

Australia permits dredge dumping near Great Barrier Reef for major coal port (Reuters)

Extreme air pollution in Asia is affecting the world’s weather and climate patterns, according to a study by Texas A&M University and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory researchers (TamuTimes)

Nobel Peace Prize winner connects civil rights to climate change. He warned that it is the poor and minorities who will suffer the most in each case, because they often lack the power to get their ideas known and needs addressed. (Northwestern University)

February 

We broke the jet stream: Study- global warming likely has destabilized the jet stream causing severe weather across the globe and ‘stuck’ weather patterns that last for weeks. (BBC)

Stanford scientists unveil plan to transform U.S. to renewable energy. They’ve created a 50-state roadmap for replacing coal, oil and natural gas with wind, water and solar energy. (Stanford University)

March

Great Barrier Reef damage is ‘irreversible’ unless radical action taken. Researchers say unless temperature rise is kept below 2C, reef will cease to be coral ecosystem (The Guardian)

April

The manager of the Fukushima nuclear power plant admits to embarrassment that repeated efforts have failed to bring under control the problem of radioactive water, eight months after Japan’s prime minister told the world the matter was resolved  (NYTimes)

EPA drastically underestimates methane released at drilling sites. Drilling operations at several natural gas wells in southwestern Pennsylvania released methane into the atmosphere at rates that were 100 to 1,000 times greater than federal regulators had estimated, new research shows.  (LATimes)

Search for Malaysian Airline Flight 370 Reveals World’s Oceans Are Full of Trash (National Geographic)

May

The collapse of the ice sheets in West Antarctica have begun and is almost certainly unstoppable. A rise in global sea level of at least 10 feet may now be inevitable. (NYTimes)

The super rich are buying property in Vancouver because the city is resistant to climate change (The New Yorker)

Bees crucial to many crops are still dying at worrisome rate: USDA  (Reuters)

June

Americans by 2 to 1 Would Pay More to Curb Climate Change. 62 percent to 33 percent, Americans say they would pay more for energy if it would mean a reduction in pollution from carbon emissions. (Bloomberg)

July

“If every American stopped eating beef tomorrow and ate chicken instead, that would be the equivalent of taking 26 million cars off the road.”  (The Atlantic)

August

Wal-Mart, IBM and Coke Among Companies Addressing Climate Change – Nearly every large multinational corporation (even big oil companies such as Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, and BP) now accepts climate change science on its face. (US News)

September

6th Mass Extinction? Humans Kill Species Faster Than They’re Created (Live Science)

Over the next 100 years, as the severe weather patterns (droughts, floods, and hurricanes) associated with climate intensify, Detroit will become one of the safest cities to live in. (NYTimes)

October

Pentagon Declares Immediate Risk to National Security Posed by Global Warming (The Scientific American)

Colombian farmers sue BP for $29M over alleged land degradation (Aljazeera)

The oceans absorb about a third of the CO2 that’s being produced by industrial society, and this is changing the chemistry of seawater. If we carry on emitting CO2 at the same rate, ocean acidification will create substantial risks to complex marine food webs and ecosystems.”  (BBC)

November 

Dark Ice’ Speeds Up Melting in Greenland (Live Science)

December

Rapidly Warming Oceans Set to Release Heat into the Atmosphere: The seas have stored most of the excess heat generated by greenhouse gases since 2000, but they are due to send it back skyward  (The Guardian)

Brazil’s ‘Chainsaw Queen’ Appointed New Agriculture Minister – Kátia Abreu is a leading figure in “ruralista” lobby. She’s called for more roads through the Amazon, government control over demarcation of indigenous reserves, & the approval of genetically modified “terminator seeds”. (The Guardian)