National Wildlife Federation. April 2013.
Three years after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and dumped more than 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, wildlife and wetlands are still recovering. This report gives a snapshot view of six wildlife species that depend on a healthy Gulf and the coastal wetlands that are critical to the Gulf’s food web. It describes different sources of restoration funding and provides initial suggestions as to how this funding can be used to improve the outlook for the species discussed in the report. [Note: contains copyrighted material].
http://www.nwf.org/~/media/PDFs/Wildlife/2013_NWF_Restoring_Gulf_Report_FINAL.pdf [PDF format, 15 pages].
Congressional Research Service. December 11, 2012.
Bees, both commercially managed honey bees and wild bees, play an important role in global food production. In the United States, the value of honey bees only as commercial pollinators in U.S. food production is estimated at about $15 billion to $20 billion annually. The estimated value of other types of insect pollinators, including wild bees, to U.S. food production is not available. Given their importance to food production, many have expressed concern about whether a “pollinator crisis” has been occurring in recent decades. In the U.S., commercial migratory beekeepers along the East Coast of the U.S. began reporting sharp declines in 2006 in their honey bee colonies. Because neonicotinoid pesticides have been the focus of concerns in Europe and in the United States, this report briefly describes recent scientific research related to possible effects of exposure to these pesticides on bees.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42855.pdf [PDF format, 26 pages].
Environment America Research & Policy Center. Fall 2012.
Over the past decade, the oil and gas industry has fused two technologies — hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling — to unlock new supplies of fossil fuels in underground rock formations across the United States. “Fracking” has spread rapidly, leaving a trail of contaminated water, polluted air, and marred landscapes in its wake. In fact, a growing body of data indicates that fracking is an environmental and public health disaster in the making, the authors claim. [Note: contains copyrighted material].
http://www.environmentamerica.org/sites/environment/files/reports/The%20Costs%20of%20Fracking%20vUS.pdf [PDF format, 49 pages].
Natural Resouces Defense Council. August 21, 2012.
Getting food from the farm to our fork eats up 10 percent of the total U.S. energy budget, uses 50 percent of U.S. land, and swallows 80 percent of all freshwater consumed in the United States. Yet, 40 percent of food in the United States today goes uneaten. This not only means that Americans are throwing out the equivalent of $165 billion each year, but also that the uneaten food ends up rotting in landfills as the single largest component of U.S. municipal solid waste where it accounts for almost 25 percent of U.S. methane emissions. This report analyzes the latest case studies and government data on the causes and extent of food losses at every level of the U.S. food supply chain. It also provides examples and recommendations for reducing this waste. [Note: contains copyrighted material].
http://www.nrdc.org/food/files/wasted-food-IP.pdf [PDF format, 26 pages].
National Research Council. August 6, 2012.
The current approach for identifying and destroying buried chemical munitions and related chemical warfare materials uncovered during environmental remediation projects is neither reliable enough nor has the capability to efficiently tackle large-scale projects, says the report. An alternative or modified approach is needed to remediate the Redstone Arsenal and other such projects on active and former U.S. Department of Defense sites and ranges. Additionally, the report recommends that the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Army each select a single office to manage and fund recovered chemical warfare material (RCWM) remediation activities for DOD. [Note: contains copyrighted material].
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13419 [HTML format with links to PDF files].
