Environment

The mammoth wildfire destroying Alberta is releasing toxic mercury into the atmosphere. The fires have filled Fort McMurray’s air with dangerous contaminants pushing its air pollution to off-the-charts levels.  But now the fires are releasing mercury into the atmosphere….and mercury can travel around the globe for as long as a year before settling… anywhere Grist reports: The Fort McMurray fire, which merged with another smaller wildfire last week, has displaced residents and cleared nearly everything in its path, including swaths of the region’s dense boreal forests.

The rapid melting of one the largest glaciers on earth, the Totten Glacier in East Antarctica, could raise global sea level at least 2 meters by the end of the century, according to a new study Scientists say the huge glacier is even more vulnerable than they previously thought and that research indicates that the process may be unstoppable.

Hundreds of thousands are expected to gather across 38 countries and 428 cities to join in peaceful protest against the Monsanto Company as a part of the ‘March Against Monsanto‘ grassroots campaign on May 21, 2016. A complete list of events can be found here: Find March Against Monsanto in your city Natural Blaze reports: This movement seeks to raise awareness to the dangers surrounding Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds and cancer-linked herbicide Roundup.

A group of farmers in Nebraska who have all been diagnosed with cancer are suing agrochemical giant Monsanto. The four farmers have claimed that glyphosate, in the the popular Monsanto herbicide brand Roundup, caused them to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and that the company intentionally misled the public about its dangers. Activist Post reports: The lawsuit was filed last Wednesday in federal court in Lincoln, Nebraska. The farmers are seeking punitive damages, alleging defective design, failure to warn, negligence and breach of warranty.

Submitted by Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

Greek Pipeline Breakthrough To Challenge Russian Gas Dominance

After years of debate, political jockeying and acrimony, a major pipeline project to bring natural gas to Southern Europe has broken ground.