MicroHawk's NewsScan

Urban Releaf: How One Community Group Is Saving Urban Neighborhoods and Creating Jobs | Alternet

After working in Soledad Prison in the Salinas Valley, Kemba Shakur moved to North Oakland and realized the prison grounds were more attractive than many of the treeless neighborhoods throughout her city. She decided to change this by planting trees, not only to improve the landscape but also the quality of life.

via www.alternet.org

Harvard law professor criticizes Spruce ruling | Appalachian Mountain Advocates

In an article in the latest edition of The Environmental Forum, Harvard law professor Richard Lazarus slammed the ruling by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson overturning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s veto of the Spruce No. 1 mine permit. Lazarus teaches   environmental law, natural resources Law, Supreme Court advocacy and torts at Harvard.

via www.appalmad.org

First Nations vow to fight nuclear waste storage plans - Sudbury - CBC News

When it comes to nuclear waste, there is often a lot of "not in my backyard" sentiment.

First Nations communities in the Elliott Lake area say the gates to the backyard are firmly shut even though business leaders there are on board with being considered a long-term storage site for nuclear waste.

The North Shore Tribal Council said there's going to be opposition to the area becoming a nuclear waste storage site. The council represents seven First Nations across the North Shore of Lake Huron.

Read the full story at www.cbc.ca

JAPAN: Mothers Rise Against Nuclear Power - IPS ipsnews.net

Japan’s nuclear power industry, which once ignored opposition, now finds its existence threatened by women angered by official opaqueness on radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after it was struck by an earthquake- driven tsunami on Mar. 11.

via ipsnews.net

Green Tech Drives Search for Rare Earths in Argentina - IPS

Argentina could meet part of the rising world demand for "rare earth" metals, required for a variety of green technologies, advanced electronic devices and medical diagnostic equipment. The challenge lies in mining them in a sustainable fashion.

via ipsnews.net

NIGERIA: Fearing the Floods - Sleeping with One Eye Open - IPS ipsnews.net

LAGOS, Nigeria, Dec 15, 2011 (IPS) - The women of Makoko, a low-lying slum close to the Lagos Lagoon along Nigeria’s Atlantic coast, always sleep with one eye open. Many live in fear that when they go to sleep at night they will wake to flooded homes and business.

via ipsnews.net

Shale Gas Craze Gets Bigger | EnergyBiz

Of all the bets on natural gas so far, nothing tops that of Kinder Morgan. It has bid $21.1 billion on El Paso Corp. in what would become the biggest pipeline operator and the fourth biggest energy company in North America.

via www.energybiz.com

Japan 'scared' of telling truth to Fukushima evacuees - ABC Sydney - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Former special adviser to Japan's prime minister and cabinet Kenichi Matsumoto has told the ABC that the government has known for months that many who live close to the Fukushima plant will not be able to return to their homes for 10 to 20 years because of contamination.

via www.abc.net.au

t r u t h o u t | Guatemala: A Test Tube of Repression

Great article by Robert Parry includes some of the long history of U.S. interference in South America. As I suggested to someone this weekend, the U.S. could benefit from a crash course on the non-interference directive:

Last week’s grotesque revelation about American public health doctors infecting nearly 700 Guatemalans with venereal disease to test penicillin from 1946-48 marked just the start of the U.S. government’s post-World War II abuse of that Central American country.

Indeed, as troubling as the VD experiments were, U.S. administrations from Dwight Eisenhower to Ronald Reagan would do much worse, treating Guatemala as a test tube for Cold War counterinsurgency experiments that led to the slaughter of some 200,000 people, including genocide against Mayan Indian tribes.

via www.truth-out.org

Southern States Targeted for Genetically Engineered Tree Plantations « Climate Connections

The USDA recently approved a request by ArborGen to plant over a quarter of a million genetically engineered eucalyptus trees across the southern United States in many of the same ecosystems damaged by Katrina and the Gulf oil spill. GE eucalyptus plantations will threaten recovery of the natural ecosystems:

Like kudzu, eucalyptus trees are wildly invasive, and spread into native ecosystems, displacing wildlife. Additionally, the oil in these eucalyptus trees is extremely flammable. California spends millions each year to eradicate invasive eucalyptus because of the threat of wildfires.  In 2009 over 200 people were killed in Australia in a firestorm fuelled by eucalyptus.  It was the worst fire in the country’s history.

Read the whole story and watch a short video at Climate Connections.