Environment

Hundreds of volunteers are racing to rescue hundreds of pilot whales that have beached themselves on the shallows at Farewell Spit. The narrow sand spit, located on the north-western coast of the South Island of New Zealand is a known black spot for whale strandings. NBC News reports: About three-quarters of the whales had already died by the time they were discovered Friday morning at a place called Farewell Spit on South Island. The incident is being called one of the worst whale beachings in New Zealand’s history.

Earlier this week the U.S Department of Agriculture released its biannual report of farm incomes which paints a very bleak picture for the American farmer.  In its first forecast for 2017, the USDA sees real farm cash receipts down 14% versus 2015 and 36% from the previous high set in 2012 as farm debt continues to soar and leverage surges to all-time highs. 

Congressman Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) has introduced House Joint Resolution 46, making it easier for oil and gas companies to drill within National Parks. Environmental groups oppose the bill that aims to roll back recently introduced regulations, making it harder for the National Park Service to monitor private oil and gas companies that want to extract oil and natural gas in split-estate national parks.

French authorities said an explosion occurred at the EDF-operated Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant in France’s north-west, in the power plant's machine room, but added that there is no leak of radiation. The incident occurred at 10:00 local time (09:00 GMT) in an engine room, Ouest-France newspaper reported. No injuries have been reported.

“It is a significant technical failure but it is not a nuclear accident” because the explosion occurred “outside the nuclear zone,” Olivier Marmion, director of the prefect's office, told AFP.

Submitted by Chris Hamilton via Econimica blog,

In this article, I want to spend a little time reviewing two of the most relatively reliable data sets, population size/growth and energy consumption/growth.  I'll compare the total energy consumption of nations / groupings of nations vs. their core (25-54yr/old) employed populations and total core (25-54yr/old) populations.