Climate change is an urgent emergency. Leading climate scientist James Hansen now warns of humanity’s “last chance” [ark] to take the necessary dramatic actions to solve the climate crisis. The scientist who first brought global warming to the public’s awareness 20 years ago this week has now concluded we are well past dangerous levels of greenhouse gas emissions (with no end in sight), and this is going to cause ecosystem collapse and mass extinction. EI is in agreement that this can only be avoided with urgent actions such as ending coal emissions, and that fossil fuel executives are guilty of crimes against humanity and nature [ark].

Alone, and most assuredly in combination with related global environmental crises, global heating and the breakdown in climate patterns threatens civilization, the global ecosystem and the continuation of complex life. This is not conjecture. It is logical consequences of known science and observable trends. Some in the United States government have concluded similarly, that climate change threatens national security [search] and “could destabilize ’struggling and poor’ countries around the world, prompting mass migrations and creating breeding grounds for terrorists [ark].” Meanwhile the White House refuses to open emails [ark] from its own EPA regarding the need to regulate carbon dioxide.

Canberra Times: The world’s coastal oceans are in crisis, with oxygen-starved ”dead zones” increasing by a third in just two years as global temperatures increase with climate change, according to the International Whaling Commission’s latest scientific report. Dead zones, caused by over-enrichment of waters by nutrients from run-off, sewerage and warming waters, represent ”the worst-case scenario for coastal biodiversity” and are the ‘’severest form” of ocean habitat degradation, the report …

Guardian: In The Happening, nature strikes back at mankind by releasing a toxin from trees that causes people to commit suicide. Plants release a great number of volatile compounds. If you walk through a pine forest, or sniff herbs, you’re smelling them. And we’ve known for a long time that there are mind-altering substances in plants such as cannabis and the peyote cactus, but these are not airborne - or at least not until you smoke the cannabis.The Happening suggests, correctly, that vegetation can …

Reuters: The International Maritime Organisation aims to agree this week on steps to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the global shipping industry by making vessels more energy-efficient, officials said. Norwegian ministers and IMO representatives said they hoped a meeting that opened in Oslo on Monday would reach agreement on design standards for new ships. "My hope is that the foundation will be laid here in Oslo for an ambitious package of measures leading to real reductions in …

Reuters: Japan is poised to provide subsidies and tax breaks for solar panel makers next year to maintain its hold on the red-hot industry, two officials at its Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said. The news drove up shares of makers of solar equipment on Monday on expectations that the measure would further spur demand for green energy. Japan, the world’s top maker of solar cells, is home to solar equipment suppliers such as Ulvac Inc which jumped 7.8 percent, NPC Inc which …

Wall Street Journal: Sen. John McCain is putting energy policy at the center of his presidential campaign, embracing a diverse array of positions that defies easy categorization. He is for more oil drilling and also for alternatives to oil. He wants to drill off the coasts but not in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He supports subsidies for nuclear power and clean-coal technology, but has opposed them for ethanol, solar and wind power. He wants to lower gasoline prices by temporarily …

USA Today: Firefighters from neighboring states arrived to help Monday after an "unprecedented" lightning storm sparked more than 800 wildfires, from Big Sur to wine country to Humboldt County.Thousands of firefighters battled the blazes on the ground and from the air and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he was alarmed by the number of fires that kept erupting.

Bloomberg: Republican John McCain is campaigning in California to tout his environmental credentials and instead has found himself on the defensive over his proposal to let states allow oil exploration off the U.S. coast. “When people are hurting, and struggling to afford gasoline, food, and other necessities, common sense requires that we draw upon America’s own vast reserves of oil and natural gas,” McCain said today. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee spoke at the …

Agence France Presse: Outraged conservationists Monday protested Kenyan plans to grow biofuel crops on a coastal wetland, warning that they will ruin the environment home to 350 species, including endangered ones. Britain’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Nature Kenya said allowing the planting of sugarcane on more than 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres, 80 square miles) of the Tana River Delta will damage the fragile ecosystem. Handing over of the delta to state-owned Mumias Sugar …

CBS: More than 840 wildfires sparked by an "unprecedented" lightning storm are burning in Northern California, alarming the governor and requiring the help of firefighters from Nevada and Oregon. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he was told late Sunday evening that the state had 520 fires, and he found it "quite shocking" that by Monday morning the number had risen above 700.