Pollution
California Activists Redouble Efforts to Hold the Oil Industry Accountable on Neighborhood Drilling
By all appearances, California environmental justice leaders should be taking a victory lap to celebrate recent laws and policies designed to rein in oil industry pollution and profiteering. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors officially approved an ordinance, unanimously passed in September, to prohibit new oil and gas wells and phase out […]
Read MoreOutdated EPA Standards Allow Oil Refineries to Pollute Waterways
Neighbors of refineries can see the glowing flares and visible plumes of air pollution rising into the sky. But water pollution often happens at ground level, or below, out of sight for both local residents and environmental regulators. In a new report, the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project tallied toxic discharges of unregulated pollutants self-reported by […]
Read MoreLocals fight to save ‘a piece of the sea’ in Venezuela’s Andes
When Nelly Flores looks out over the Urao Lagoon, she smiles and asks me: “Do you know what those dots moving in the water are?” Mosquitoes, I guess. Nelly shakes her head and her smile widens. “No. They’re not mosquitoes. They’re, they’re … baby fish. What are they called?” She picks up her cellphone to […]
West Baltimore Residents, Students Have Mixed Feelings About Water Quality After E. Coli Contamination
BALTIMORE—Lily Goldsmith was in her kitchen making soup when she picked up her phone and learned from Twitter that the tap water in her West Baltimore neighborhood was contaminated with E. coli, and residents were being advised not to drink it. A West Baltimore native who always took pride in the quality of the city’s […]
Read MoreNOAA Climate Scientists Cruise Washington and Baltimore for Hotspots—of Greenhouse Gases and Air Pollutants
On a clear and crisp morning, with the sun beating down, Xenrong Ren and Phillip Stratton looked over plans for the day and fiddled with the gadgets installed in a black SUV parked outside the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in College Park, Maryland. “Today we’re going to do […]
Read More‘Bizarre’ newly classified scorpionfly shines light on Nepal’s insect diversity
KATHMANDU– When German professor Jochen Martens and his associate W. Schawaller visited subtropical forests in Nepal in 1988, they collected samples of different insects found in eastern Nepal, including a “bizarre” one that had a long tail with a pincer resembling that of scorpions. Martens, who paid several visits to Nepal along with his associates between […]
Across New York, a Fleet of Google Street View Vehicles Tracks an Array of Key Pollutants
At first glance, Ramses Diaz’s car seems like any other driving through New York City. Then I spot the phrase, “I measure air quality,” on the left door. Inside, a tablet attached to the dashboard displays a map of New York City, and two big boxes in the trunk beam huge quantities of data back […]
Read MoreAcross New York, a Fleet of Sensor-Equipped Vehicles Tracks an Array of Key Pollutants
At first glance, Ramses Diaz’s car seems like any other driving through New York City. Then I spot the phrase, “I measure air quality,” on the left door. Inside, a tablet attached to the dashboard displays a map of New York City, and two big boxes in the trunk beam huge quantities of data uploaded […]
Read MoreWho Were the Worst Climate Polluters in the US in 2021?
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions climbed by 4.1 percent from major industrial sources in 2021, according to new data recently released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The increase is the largest year-on-year rise in emissions tallied across more than a decade of reporting and comes at a time when global climate pollution must quickly be […]
Read MoreTexas’ Environmental Regulators Need to Get Tougher on Polluters, Group of Lawmakers Says
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality needs to improve how it holds frequent polluters accountable, a state review of the agency’s effectiveness has found. A commission that looks at how state agencies perform their duties recommended Thursday that the Legislature require the TCEQ to focus enforcement procedures on repeat violators and big offenders. That recommendation […]
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