Fighting for their right to pollute

MSNBC: Tighten smog rules? Industry fights proposal
As the US government prepares to introduce new tougher limits on smog emissions, various industries are actively fighting back.  As usual, they argue that making the required changes will cost money and hurt the economy.  Health experts point out that thousands of lives would be spared and millions of dollars saved on health care and missed days of productivity.  If it was terrorists killing thousands of Americans each year instead of smog, you can bet the problem would be taken slightly more seriously.

Black rivers and flattened mountains

Toronto Star: Coal mining ravages Appalachian mountains
I often read dreary stories about environmental disaster, but this one made an unusual impact. The scale of destruction nearly incomprehensible, with entire mountains razed, floodwaters black with coal debris, and houses rendered uninhabitable. Just as shocking are the stories of those who are being attacked, threated, and intimidated for simply trying to protect their own homes.

The brake lines on her truck were cut. Her dog was shot and left at her 17-year-old son Jessie’s school bus stop. Last October, 200 bullets coming from the mountainside splattered around her in her yard, she says. She gardens now in a bullet-proof vest.

Pollution needs no travel visa

Telegraph: China’s pollution closes South Korea schools
Having one country’s environmental recklessness affect another is nothing new (North Americans drive SUVs which contribute to the droughts that kill millions of Saharan Africans; US rust belt auto manufacturing creates acid rain that falls on Canada) but this is a new one: this week, dust storms laced with toxic pollution blew from China into South Korea, forcing them to close schools and alter their lifestyles. Yet another potential cause for future wars?