Pollution

A century of Criminality: How the car and gas industry knew about the health risks of leaded fuel but sold it for 100 years anyway

By Bill Kovarik | – On the frosty morning of Dec. 9, 1921, in Dayton, Ohio, researchers at a General Motors lab poured a new fuel blend into one of their test engines. Immediately, the engine began running more quietly and putting out more power. The new fuel was tetraethyl lead. With vast profits in […]

Climate Crisis

Top 6 Ways to Rescue Our Planet

The Conversation

By Phoebe Barnard and William Moomaw | – For some time, the Earth’s natural resources have been depleted faster than they can be replaced. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has set a 2030 deadline to reduce heat-trapping emissions by half to avoid climate change that is both irreversible and destructive. With colleagues, we coauthored […]

Environment

Plastic trash in the ocean is a global problem, and the US is the top source – a new report urges action

The Conversation

By Matthew Savoca, Anna Robuck, and Lauren Kashiwabara | – Plastic waste of all shapes and sizes permeates the world’s oceans. It shows up on beaches, in fish and even in Arctic sea ice. And a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine makes clear that the U.S. is a big […]

Environment

Lead, Uranium, Fertilizer: Laws Letting Corporations Pollute our Water are written by Lobbyists

Rajan Menon

( Tomdispatch.com) – Think of it this way: what we don’t know will hurt us. And water — yes, water — is an example of just that. Even at a time of such angry political disputes, you might imagine that, in a wealthy country like the United States, it would still be possible to agree […]

Environment

Sacrifice Zones: How the EPA Allows Polluters to Make Neighborhoods breathe Carcinogens

ProPublica

Poison in the Air By Lylla Younes, Ava Kofman, Al Shaw and Lisa Song, with additional reporting by Maya Miller, photography by Kathleen Flynn for ProPublica | – Mapping Cancer-Causing Industrial Air Pollution ( ProPublica ) – From the urban sprawl of Houston to the riverways of Virginia, air pollution from industrial plants is elevating […]

Environment

Plastic, plastic everywhere – airborne microplastics are settling into the most remote corners of the globe

The Conversation

By Elvis Genbo Xu and Xiaoyu Duan | – Little pieces of plastic can now be found everywhere: from table salt, drinking water and food, to the deep seas, far deserts and most remote mountains. While it’s not surprising to find plastics and microplastics in urban environments where they’re used every day, their appearance in […]

Climate Crisis

Coral reefs are dying as climate change decimates ocean ecosystems vital to fish and humans

Juan Cole

By Sam Purkis | – The Chagos Archipelago is one of the most remote, seemingly idyllic places on Earth. Coconut-covered sandy beaches with incredible bird life rim tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, hundreds of miles from any continent. Just below the waves, coral reefs stretch for miles along an underwater mountain chain. It’s a […]

Climate Crisis

California’s latest offshore oil spill could fuel pressure to end oil production statewide

The Conversation

By Charles Lester | – An oil spill first reported on Oct. 2, 2021, has released thousands of gallons of crude oil into southern California coastal waters. The source is believed to be a leak in an underwater pipeline connected to an oil drilling platform 17.5 miles offshore. Oil has washed ashore in Huntington Beach […]

CO2

Ecological Disaster at Huntington Beach as Oil Spill Threatens Marine Life, Wetlands, Tourism Industry

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Drilling for oil in the ocean off California’s pristine beaches is about the stupidest and most evil human activity you can think of. Oil is leaky and gets spilled into the ocean, harming the environment. But if it gets delivered without incident to the refinery and is made into gasoline […]