Today's Top 5

Trump Moves Decisively to Wipe Out Obama's Climate Legacy

President Trump will take the most significant step yet in obliterating his predecessor’s environmental record Tuesday, instructing federal regulators to rewrite key rules curbing U.S. carbon emissions. The sweeping executive order also seeks to lift a moratorium on federal coal leasing and remove the requirement that federal officials consider the impact of climate change when making decisions. The order sends an unmistakable signal that just as President Barack Obama sought to weave climate considerations into every aspect of the federal government, Trump is hoping to rip that approach out by its roots. - Washington Post

When Is It Time To Retreat From Climate Change?

While managed retreat is not always the right choice for communities threatened by climate change,  it may be the right choice more often than we’re willing to admit. Well more than a hundred million people are expected to face displacement by rising seas before the end of the century. - The New Yorker

Lamar Smith, Unbound, Lays Out Political Strategy at Climate Doubters Conference

Representative Lamar Smith (R–TX) rarely expresses his true feelings in public. But speaking yesterday to a like-minded crowd of climate change doubters and skeptics, the chairman of the science committee in the U.S. House of Representatives acknowledged that the committee is now a tool to advance his political agenda rather than a forum to examine important issues facing the U.S. research community. - Science

Villagers Vote To Ban Massive Gold Mining Project in Colombia

 Residents of a town in central Colombia sent a clear message on Sunday to the powers that be that they don’t want a large-scale mining operation in their backyard. In an almost unanimous vote of 6,165 of 6,296 voters (about 98 percent), inhabitants of the Colombian municipality of Cajamarca voted against one of the world’s largest planned gold mines. Dubbed La Colosa, the open-pit mine is a project of world’s third largest gold producer, AngloGold Ashanti. - Mongabay

Deal Ups Flow of Funding For Flint Water Fallout

Michigan will spend an additional $47 million to help ensure safe drinking water in Flint by replacing lead pipes and providing free bottled water under a proposed settlement announced Monday. The money is in addition to $40 million previously budgeted to address Flint’s widespread lead-contamination crisis. The state also will set aside $10 million to cover unexpected costs, bringing the total to $97 million. - The Detroit News

Today's Top 5 Trending: Honduras Activists, Coal Exec Sentenced, Antarctic Ice Sheet Predictions, Coral Die-Offs, Flint Lawsuit

Why Is Honduras the World's Deadliest Country for Environmental Activists? 

My story today on the environmental as an important battleground for human rights, and why Honduras has become so dangerous for indigenous and environmental activists. - The Guardian

Coal Exec Gets Maximum Sentence in West Virginia Mining Disaster

Former Massey Energy Co. CEO Don Blankenship, who rose from humble beginnings in Mingo County to become the wealthy and powerful chief executive of one of the region’s largest coal producers, will serve one year in prison and pay a $250,000 fine for a mine safety criminal conspiracy, a judge decided Wednesday. - Charleston Gazette

Antarctica in the Year 2500

A new scientific study predicts varying scenarios in which climate change could cause the West Antarctic ice sheet to melt in the coming decades and centuries. If greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced significantly, seas around the world could rise to potentially catastrophic levels before 2100. This graphic shows what could happen by 2500. - Los Angeles Times

Scientists Blame El Nino, Warming for 'Gruesome' Coral Death

Kiritimati is where El Nino, along with global warming, has done the most damage to corals in the past two years, experts said. While dramatic images of unprecedented total bleaching on Australia's Great Barrier Reef are stunning the world, thousands of miles to the east conditions are somehow even worse. - Associated Press

Michigan Claims Immunity in Flint Class Action Lawsuit

Attorneys for the state and Gov. Rick Snyder are asking a judge to dismiss one of several class action lawsuits filed on behalf of Flint residents over the city’s ongoing water contamination crisis, claiming immunity in federal court. A motion filed Monday with U.S. District Judge John Corbett O’Meara argues the federal court does not have jurisdiction to hear the case and that plaintiff claims against Snyder are “not viable.” - Detroit News

Today's Top 5 Trending: EU Greenhouse Gases, Michigan v. EPA, Mosquito Dangers, Fertility and Plastics, Artificial Sweeteners

EU Transport Target 'May Have Increased Greenhouse Gas Emissions' 

Renewable transport goal has encouraged biofuels including those from palm oil and soybean, which are found to be worse than diesel oil for emissions - The Guardian

Michigan Group Says Flint Crisis Shows Need to Stop Fighting EPA Pollution Rules

In the context of Flint, Michigan’s ongoing lead-tainted water crisis, regional environmental groups are calling on Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette to stop his fight against federal rules for mercury emissions from power plants. - Midwest Energy News

Undergoing Fertility Treatment? Watch Your Plastics

For women trying fertility treatments, research indicates that exposure to one ubiquitous chemical, bisphenol-A, might greatly impair their chances of having a baby. But federal agencies remain steadfast in the safety of the chemical, known as "BPA" and found in some canned foods and beverages, paper receipts and dental sealants. - Environmental Health News

Could Artificial Sweeteners Like Splenda Trigger Cancer?

An artificial sweetener promoted as a healthier alternative to sugar may raise the risk of leukaemia, a study has found. Italian researchers found Splenda, a sweetener which containing sucralose, was linked with an increased risk of this type of blood cancer as well as other cancers. - London Daily Mail

Mosquitos' Rapid Spread Poses Threat Beyond Zika

As the world focuses on Zika's rapid advance in the Americas, experts warn the virus that originated in Africa is just one of a growing number of continent-jumping diseases carried by mosquitoes threatening swathes of humanity. - Reuters

Today's Top 5 Trending: Flint Lawsuit, Christie Lead Veto, Utah Land Battle, High-Speed Rail Fight, Bird Deaths

Flint Families File Lawsuit Over Water Contamination

A group of Flint families with children has filed new lawsuits in the Michigan city's water crisis, accusing private companies of professional negligence and government employees of misconduct that led to the contamination of the water supply. - Reuters

NJ Governor Defends Veto of Lead Poisoning Bill, Calls Problem 'Over-dramatized'

 Gov. Chris Christie is pushing back against measures by Democratic lawmakers to protect thousands of New Jersey children already exposed to dangerous levels of lead. Christie is defending his veto of a previous effort to increase funding for lead abatement on financial terms and stressing that the state already spends tens of millions each year to help keep children from getting sick. In a press conference last week, Christie said the issue has been “over dramatized” and blamed Democratic-led requests for extra funding for driving the state’s budget problems. - Montclair NJ Spotlight

Remote Utah Enclave Becomes Latest Battleground Over Reach of US Control

At a moment when much of President Obama’s environmental agenda has been blocked by Congress and stalled in the courts, the president still has the power under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create national monuments on federal lands with the stroke of a pen. A coalition of tribes, with support from conservation groups, is pushing for a new monument here in the red-rock deserts, arguing it would protect 1.9 million acres of culturally significant land from new mining and drilling and become a final major act of conservation for the administrations - New York Times

Controversy Over California Ballot Measure To Kill High-Speed Rail and Use Money for Reservoirs

The campaign, bankrolled by San Joaquin Valley farmers, is already drawing fire from environmentalists and fellow farmers, who call it a "Trojan horse." - San Jose Mercury News

Alaska Scientists Continue Researching Sea Bird Mystery Deaths

Common murres are one of the northern hemisphere's most common seabirds. Die-offs have occurred before but not on this magnitude. Common murres routinely live 20-25 years but have a metabolism rate so high that they can use up fat reserves and drop to a critical threshold for starvation, 65 percent of normal body rate, in three days of not eating. - Associated Press