Environment Topics

Democracy Now! stories, posts and pages that relate to Environment

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Environmental Activists Occupy Interior Dept. at End of PowerShift Conference

2:15pm EDT Tim DeChristopher, activist and founder of the environmental group Peaceful Uprising, called Democracy Now! with an update from the U.S. Department of Interior, where 300-400 people are outside protesting and another 50 people are inside and refusing to leave. The march comes at the end of the four-day PowerShift conference in D.C., where 10,000 activists gathered to demand a clean energy future, targeting the Dept. of the Interior...
Apr 18, 2011 | Web Exclusive
As Congress Slashes EPA, Climate Funding, Author Mark Hertsgaard on "Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth"

The budget deal approved by Congress cuts $1.6 billion from the budget of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency—a 16 percent decrease; reduces funding for a planned climate desk within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and eliminates the position of assistant to the president for energy and climate change. Ever since taking control of the House, Republican lawmakers have taken a number of steps to curtail the Obama administration’s...
Apr 15, 2011 | Story
U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Says It Will Continue to Push for New Nuclear Power Plants Despite Growing Global Nuclear Concern

The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility in Japan has set off a debate in the international community about the future of nuclear energy. There are currently 440 nuclear reactors in operation worldwide, generating about 14 percent of global electricity—and plans for construction of new plants have soared in the last decade, especially in India and China. This was the focus on Monday as the fifth review meeting of the Convention...
Apr 05, 2011 | Story
"Prescription for Survival": A Debate on the Future of Nuclear Energy Between Anti-Coal Advocate George Monbiot and Anti-Nuclear Activist Dr. Helen Caldicott

The crisis in Japan has refueled the rigorous global debate about the viability of nuclear power. Japan remains in a "state of maximum alert" as the experts scramble to contain radiation that is leaking from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. Nuclear energy remains a controversial topic in climate change discourse, as environmental activists argue how to best reduce the amount of greenhouse gases being emitted into the atmosphere—often...
Mar 30, 2011 | Story
"Underestimating the Seriousness of the Problem": Experts Urge Japan to Raise Nuclear Alert Level and Evacuate Wider Area

The Japanese nuclear crisis worsens as Japanese authorities race to cool the overheating reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. Earlier today, Japan raised the nuclear alert level at the crippled plant from a four to a five, on par with Three Mile Island. This decision has shocked many nuclear experts. “Our experts think that it’s a level 6.5 already, and it’s on the way to a seven, which was Chernobyl," says...
Mar 18, 2011 | Story
"Why Are We Playing Russian Roulette With the American People?": Longtime Nuclear Critic Ralph Nader Advocates Phasing Out Nuclear Power Industry

Former presidential candidate and longtime consumer advocate and nuclear critic Ralph Nader strongly advocates phasing out nuclear power in the United States by calling for public hearings on the status of every single nuclear power plant. "What we’re seeing here is 110 or so operating nuclear plants in the United States, many of them aging, many of them infected with corrosion, faulty pipes, leaky pumps and combustible materials......
Mar 18, 2011 | Story
“Serious Danger of a Full Core Meltdown”: Update on Japan’s Nuclear Catastrophe

Fears of a full-scale nuclear reactor meltdown are increasing as Japanese authorities use military helicopters to dump water on the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. The water appears to have missed its target and failed to cool the plant’s reactors and spent fuel rods. “The walls of defense are falling, with the melting of the cores, the collapsing of the—we’re expecting the collapsing of the vessels. And then,...
Mar 17, 2011 | Story
Report from Sendai: Fears of Radioactivity Are Hampering Relief Efforts

The official death toll from the earthquake and tsunami has risen to 5,000, and at least 9,400 people are missing. Some 850,000 households have no power, and 1.5 million houses lack running water. Food and gas supplies have been nearly exhausted. We speak with video journalist Tetsuo Jimbo, who is in Sendai, Japan, one of the worst-hit areas. He describes the destruction of Rikuzen-Takata, a city formerly home to around 20,000 residents, half...
Mar 17, 2011 | Story
Hiroshima Organizes Scientific Teams and Medical Treatment Centers to Receive Victims of Radiation Poisoning

For more on the emergency response effort, we speak with Steven Leeper of the Peace Culture Foundation, which manages the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima. “In Hiroshima, we are pretty sensitive to radiation issues, and we’re very sensitive to disaster issues,” Leeper says. “We are known as a place that knows about radiation. We have a team of doctors. They left yesterday to go up into that area with their equipment to...
Mar 17, 2011 | Story
Prominent Japanese Environmentalist Keibo Oiwa Urges Global Movement to End Nuclear Power and Confront the “Crazy System Based on Greed, Anger and Ignorance”

We speak with leading Japanese cultural anthropologist and environmentalist Keibo Oiwa in Yokohama. He is the founder of the Sloth Club, Japan’s leading "Slow Life" environmental group. “I’m realizing again that democracy is so hollow now. We do not have power,” Oiwa says. “We have been controlled by the government and the Tokyo Electric Company, a private company... We have to really look for a lifestyle and a way...
Mar 17, 2011 | Story