As Big Ag fumed Monday over a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determination that herbicides including the endocrine-disrupting atrazine and carcinogenic glyphosate are likely to harm more than 1,600 protected plant and animal species, environmentalists pointed to the agency’s findings as proof of the need for stricter limits on the use of the dangerous poisons. By Brett Wilkins […]
Faced with a lead crisis that drew comparisons to Flint, Michigan’s, some people have called Newark, New Jersey’s response a “national model.” Still, eliminating lead from drinking water nationwide will not be an easy task. By Lynne Peeples Ensia In July 2018, tests showed that the drinking water supply serving Yvette Jordan’s home in Newark, […]
As cleanup crews on Sunday rushed to contain the damage from one of the largest oil spills in recent Southern California history, environmentalists stressed the necessity of ending offshore drilling—and ultimately, of keeping all fossil fuels in the ground. At least 126,000 gallons of crude oil gushed from a ruptured pipeline off the coast of Huntington Beach […]
A new congressional report released Wednesday revealing the baby food industry has failed to keep products with heavy metals off the shelves spurred calls for federal authorities to enact swift action and tough limits on toxin levels. “This is what happens when you let the food and chemical companies, not the FDA, decide whether our […]
A vote overwhelmingly in favor of placing a moratorium on deep sea mineral mining at a global biodiversity summit this week has put urgent pressure on the International Seabed Authority to strictly regulate the practice. By Julia Conley Common Dreams The vast majority of governments, NGOs, and civil society groups voted in favor of the moratorium […]
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 […]
Conservationists, local tribes, and commercial fishers celebrated on Thursday the Biden administration’s move to permanently protect Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed from the proposed Pebble Mine and similarly destructive projects. By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams “Placing a massive mine at the headwaters of the world’s greatest, most productive wild sockeye salmon fishery has been a terrible idea […]
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 […]
On Aug. 18, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will end use of chlorpyrifos – a pesticide associated with neurodevelopmental problems and impaired brain function in children – on all food products nationwide. Gina Solomon, a principal investigator at the Public Health Institute, clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco […]
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 […]
Environmental justice activist Sharon Lavigne, who led a successful grassroots campaign to block a toxic plastics manufacturing plant in her Louisiana community, is this year’s North American winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize. By Andrea Germanos Common Dreams The awards, sometimes referred to as the Green Nobels, were announced Tuesday to recognize “grassroots environmental heroes” on each […]
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. […]
When most people think about air pollution, they may imagine power plant smokestacks or car tailpipes. But an alarming new study forces us to think about deadly air pollution from another source: factory farms. New research finds that air pollution from agriculture causes more than 17,000 deaths every year. That’s even more than the deaths from pollution generated […]