At least 22 people have died as tornadoes cut a swathe through Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia on Friday. Among them was a monster twister that rated a 4 on the 0 to 5 Enhanced Fujita scale for intensity. The three-quarter-mile-wide tornado tore through Mississippi for 59 miles and around an hour and 10 minutes, devastating […]
A small, bright fish found in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama will start the new year on the Endangered Species list, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) reported Thursday. The trispot darter fish was thought to be entirely extinct in Alabama for more than 50 years until it was discovered in 2008 in Little Canoe Creek. […]
When it comes to the people he chooses to protect the nation’s environment, President Donald Trump sure knows how to pick’em. In his brief stint at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt wracked up an impressive amount of truly bizarre scandals, including blowing thousands of taxpayer dollars on “tactical pants.” Ryan Zinke, the […]
By Daniel R. Petrolia and William C. Walton For Cainnon Gregg, 2018 started out as a great year. After leaving his job as an installation artist to become a full-time oyster farmer in Wakulla County, Florida in 2017, Gregg began raising small oysters in baskets or bags suspended in the shallow, productive coastal waters of […]
By Matt Smith Lot by lot, backhoes and dump trucks are scraping and hauling away yards on the north side of Birmingham to remove soil laced with heavy metals and other industrial wastes—the legacy of this city’s years as a steelmaking power. Federal prosecutors say that effort also uncovered something else: a scheme to save […]
By Brett Walton State of the State speeches are where governors sketch their legislative priorities and report on the overall health of their dominions. The state of the state is almost always “strong” and water issues are occasionally mentioned. Below are summaries of the governors’ references to water, climate and the environment. This post will […]
By Evlondo Cooper Roy Moore, Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, has drawn media attention for his extreme and dangerous views on homosexuality, birtherism, and the role of Christianity in government (even though much of the coverage has been inadequate and misleadingly framed). But one of his extreme positions has received almost no major media attention […]
By Elizabeth Hernandez and Eric Chaney Up close, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the U.S. isn’t as big as you’d expect it to be. From most angles, you can’t even see it until you’re right on top of it. But hit the right gap in the rolling hills of north-central Alabama, and the […]
Last week’s Colonial Pipeline spill has prompted Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal to both declare states of emergency over gasoline shortages on Thursday. Aerial photo of two of the three mine water retention ponds at the site of a pipeline leak that spilled an estimated 250,000 gallons of gasoline in Shelby […]