The U.S. government have admitted for the first time that bees are dying in record numbers due to pesticide poisoning, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) say they have known this for at least 20 years. Despite a decade of pressure from environmentalists and beekeepers to deal with the bee crisis and curb the use a harmful insecticide causing the bee deaths, the EPA has fought against the public pressure until recently.
Kenya’s ban on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is on the verge of being reversed. The African country may soon allow the use of genetically modified cotton and maize seeds following pressure from agribusiness giant Monsanto, USAID, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Kenya banned GMO imports in 2012 and the upcoming approval has been met with heavy protests by opponents. Last year activists rallied in Nairobi against the lifting of the GMO ban, citing health concerns.
A canyon system potentially bigger than the Grand Canyon in the U.S. could be hiding beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, measuring 1,000km long and as much as 1km deep. Researchers from Durham University and Imperial College London – along with American, Australian, Indian, and Chinese scientists studying satellite data, think that a massive canyon system could be hidden underneath a largely unexplored region of the Antarctic, called Princess Elizabeth Land. The study is being verified by a geological survey, which is now under way.
A hydraulic fracturing operation in Alberta has been shut down indefinitely after an earthquake hit the area Tuesday. The energy company has stopped operating in a part of Alberta that is subject to heavy hydraulic fracking after the province’s energy regulator reported the area’s largest earthquake in more than a year. The magnitude 4.8 quake was reported at 11:27 a.m., said the Alberta Energy Regulator, which ordered the shutdown of the Repsol Oil & Gas site near Fox Creek.
A US government insider has revealed that ISIS are planning to ignite the leaking gas well in Porter Ranch in order to “detonate Los Angeles” and flatten it. The gas leak, located in the Aliso Canyon gas field in Porter Ranch, has been emitting tons of methane gas for the last few months, and authorities have so far failed to plug the leak. Many have declared the situation as the worst natural disaster since the BP oil spill.