AirWatch, a new online hub, will allow communities of color in St. Louis, Missouri to access data, updated hourly, on air quality such as specific pollutants to help protect their health and well-being. The information is updated by residents, researchers, and community leaders, using air sensors on churches throughout the city. Air pollution lands hardest […]
As an incredible 3-part Frontline series on the Power of Big Oil discusses with some of the people involved, the industry has long used its money to buy the appearance of grassroots public support By Climate Denier Roundup The latest is an effort to water down a proposed EPA regulation on smog- and soot-forming nitrogen oxide emissions (NOx) […]
Plastic pollution is a global problem, contaminating terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. Microplastics — plastic particles smaller than five millimetres in size — infiltrate and circulate in the global planetary dust cycle, water cycle and carbon cycle. By Chelsea Rochman, University of Toronto and Xia Zhu, University of Toronto The Conversation Microplastics have infiltrated the […]
Less than two weeks after scientists discovered microplastics in human blood, a team of researchers in the U.K. said Wednesday that the tiny particles have also been detected in people’s lungs. By Julia Conley Common Dreams Researchers at the University of Hull and Hull York Medical School analyzed lung tissue from 13 people who were undergoing surgery […]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it will address ground-level ozone—the main component of smog—that persists throughout the United States. The proposed “Good Neighbor” plan requires reductions of air pollution emitted by power plants and industrial sources in twenty-six upwind states that then blows into downwind states. If finalized, the rule will significantly improve air […]
Pay-as-you-throw is a policy that charges people for the amount of trash they toss out. It’s also sometimes called variable-rate pricing or pay-as-you-waste. Lily Baum Pollans, Hunter College The Conversation Many cities and towns around the world, including over 7,000 in the U.S., have pay-as-you-throw waste policies. Examples include Seattle, Berkeley, Austin and Portland, Maine. […]
People fishing along the banks of the White River as it winds through Indianapolis sometimes pass by ominous signs warning about eating the fish they catch. One of the risks they have faced is mercury poisoning. Gabriel Filippelli, IUPUI The Conversation Mercury is a neurotoxic metal that can cause irreparable harm to human health – […]
Earlier this week Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) went on a tirade against sage grouse, attacking the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) upcoming changes to sage grouse management in the United States. Unmentioned in her attack was the fact that Terra Energy Partners, a company with extensive operations in sage grouse country, has paid her husband nearly $1 million […]
As a child growing up in the tiny village of Blandburg, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, where my playgrounds were un-reclaimed coal strip mines less than 75 yards from our backdoor, I am pleased to see today’s announcement regarding the Department of the Interior releasing $725 million first funds of the $11.3 billion funds authorized by the […]
Environmental justice advocates on Wednesday pointed to a methane plume so large it was seen last month from space via satellite as the latest evidence that emissions of the potent fossil fuel must be reined in. As Bloomberg reported Monday, the geoanalytics firm Kayrros SAS detected the plume of the invisible greenhouse gas, which spanned 56 miles and covered […]
One of the many, many indicators that the conservative “media” system is more purely political propaganda and disinformation machine than it is journalistic endeavors is the fact that it often fails to offer fact-based criticisms of its opposition when the opportunity arrives. Case in point is a recent move by two wildlife conservation organizations to embrace NFTs […]
For years, self-driving car technology has remained tantalizingly just beyond the horizon. Bold predictions notwithstanding, fully automated vehicles still haven’t appeared in showrooms. But the technology appears poised for a leap forward in 2022. Companies including Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Honda are bringing so-called Level 3 AVs to market that will let drivers take their hands […]
As Taro Gomi notes in his best-selling book on the subject for kids and adults, everyone poops . We don’t know exactly how much human excrement is dumped into the world’s waterways without treatment, or its full impacts. One study puts it at 80%. Another says 48%. Regardless, we do know that nearly half the world’s […]
The production and release of plastics, pesticides, industrial compounds, antibiotics and other pollutants is now happening so fast and on such a large scale that it has exceeded the planetary boundary for chemical pollution, the safe limit for humanity, a new study claims. We asked Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez, a PhD candidate at Stockholm University and one […]
“There is a deadly ticking clock counting swiftly down.” So says Tom Gammage, an ocean campaigner at the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a United Kingdom-based group whose new report warns that only a muscular global treaty can turn the tide against the life-threatening crisis of plastic pollution. By Kenny Stancil Common Dreams Published on Tuesday, Connecting the Dots: Plastic […]