Anglers, divers and other residents of the Lake Tahoe Basin have reason to celebrate. Under a settlement agreement finalized this month in federal court in Sacramento, AT&T’s PacBell subsidiary will remove eight miles of decrepit telephone cable from Lake Tahoe, where it has been leaching toxic lead into the iconic lake’s water for decades. The cable […]
The 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York resulted in the loss of 2,753 people in the Twin Towers and surrounding area. After the attack, more than 100,000 responders and recovery workers from every U.S. state – along with some 400,000 residents and other workers around ground zero – were exposed […]
Intensive pumping of aquifers during drought can speed up deterioration of groundwater quality, a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reveals, “The results highlight clean drinking water supply vulnerabilities in California and other western states currently experiencing record drought conditions,” according to the USGS. The study “Critical aquifer overdraft accelerates degradation of groundwater […]
As many as 7,000 babies were born prematurely because of exposure to wildfire smoke between 2007 and 2012, new research from Stanford discovered. The study, published in <a href=”https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S001393512101166X?via%3Dihub” data-wpel-link=”external” target=”_blank” rel=”external noopener”>Environmental Research</a>, found the more days a pregnant person was exposed to smoke the more likely they were to have a preterm birth. […]
In the U.S., nearly 1 in 8 couples struggles with infertility. Unfortunately, physicians like me who specialize in reproductive medicine are unable to determine the cause of male infertility around 30% to 50% of the time. There is almost nothing more disheartening than telling a couple “I don’t know” or “There’s nothing I can do […]
More than 250 frontline community members and elected officials from across California rallied in Ventura — the fastest warming county in the US, according to rally organizers — to demand action from California Governor Gavin Newsom on fossil fuels. By Dan Bacher The rally took place at the site of a gas compressor station SoCalGas, a subsidiary […]
If you’re headed out into the wild this summer, you may need to jump online and book a reservation before you go. For the second consecutive year, reservations are required to visit Yosemite, Rocky Mountain and Glacier national parks. Other popular sites, including Maine’s Acadia National Park, encourage visitors to buy entrance passes in advance. […]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving to eliminate a class of chemicals widely used as coolants in refrigerators, air conditioners and heat pumps. If that feels like déjà vu, it should. By Scott Denning, Colorado State University The Conversation These chemicals, called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, were commercialized in the 1990s as a replacement for […]
Awadhesh Jha, University of Plymouth The Conversation It’s been just over a decade since the fourth most powerful earthquake of the modern era triggered a tsunami that struck Fukushima on the eastern coastline of Japan, causing thousands of deaths and leaving hundreds of thousands unable to return home. That tsunami was also responsible for the […]
The skies in Beijing turned orange recently, thanks to what was widely reported as a massive sandstorm. The problem, at least in terms of public health, is that it was not actually a sandstorm. It was a dust storm. By Matt Telfer, University of Plymouth The Conversation This might sound like an act of geological […]
Around the globe, concern is mounting about the unfolding climate and ecological catastrophe. Yet the extraction of natural resources through mining and energy projects continues on a large scale, with disastrous environmental consequences. By Judith Verweijen, University of Sheffield and Alexander Dunlap, University of Oslo The Conversation To understand how this is possible, one place […]
It’s hard to imagine navigating modern life without a mobile phone in hand. Computers, tablets and smartphones have transformed how we communicate, work, learn, share news and entertain ourselves. They became even more essential when the COVID-19 pandemic moved classes, meetings and social connections online. By Callie Babbitt, Rochester Institute of Technology and Shahana Althaf, […]
We’re running down the 10 most-viewed stories of the past year at Red GREEN and Blue. Here’s #2, which originally ran on June 2nd… Throughout the world, massive corporations make substantial contributions to climate change. But as of late, many businesses have started to incorporate green initiatives. From Toyota Motors to Unilever — which owns brands […]
Plastic production and consumption has snowballed since large-scale production began in the 1950s. In 2020, an estimated 24 million to 34 million tonnes of plastic waste will enter the world’s lakes, rivers and oceans. That is roughly the weight of 21,000 rail locomotives. By Stephanie B. Borrelle, University of Toronto The Conversation And if trends […]
Despite extensive lobbying by the Waste-to-Energy (WTE) industry, environmental and economic concerns have led to a welcome movement away from WTE throughout Europe and North America. In the U.S., citizens have effectively organized in opposition to new WTE plants since 1996, with 400 such proposals defeated and only one new plant built. At the same time, existing […]