drinking water

64% of World’s Farmland at Risk From Pesticide Pollution, Study Finds

64% of World’s Farmland at Risk From Pesticide Pollution, Study Finds

About one third of the world’s agricultural land is at high risk from pesticide pollution, a new study has found. The research, published in Nature Geoscience Monday, looked at the use and spread of 92 active pesticide ingredients in 168 countries. They considered an area at risk if the concentration of a chemical exceeded the […]

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    New Charges Over Flint’s Water Crisis Offer Only a Trickle of Justice

    New Charges Over Flint’s Water Crisis Offer Only a Trickle of Justice

    By Derrick Z. Jackson No punishment has yet fit the crime of the Flint water crisis, complete with its child poisoning and lethal outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease. After a prior investigation fell apart in 2019, Michigan state prosecutors unveiled a slew of fresh charges against nine figures involved in the fateful penny-pinching move to switch […]

    Appeals Court Agrees that Dakota Access Pipeline River  Crossing Is Illegal

    Appeals Court Agrees that Dakota Access Pipeline River Crossing Is Illegal

    A federal appeals court has struck another blow against the contested Dakota Access Pipeline. A three-judge panel on the U.S. District Court of Appeals from the D.C. Circuit agreed Tuesday with a lower court ruling that the pipeline‘s crossing at the Missouri River near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation is illegal and requires an in-depth […]

    Life-Saving Drinking Water Disinfectants Have a ‘Dark Side’

    Life-Saving Drinking Water Disinfectants Have a ‘Dark Side’

    By Lynne Peeples Editor’s note: This story is part of a nine-month investigation of drinking water contamination across the U.S. The series is supported by funding from the Park Foundation and Water Foundation. Read the launch story, “Thirsting for Solutions,” here. In late September 2020, officials in Wrangell, Alaska, warned residents who were elderly, pregnant […]

    Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ Were Dropped Over Millions of Acres via Aerial Pesticide, Tests Reveal

    Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ Were Dropped Over Millions of Acres via Aerial Pesticide, Tests Reveal

    By Jessica Corbett A national nonprofit revealed Tuesday that testing commissioned by the group as well as separate analysis conducted by Massachusetts officials show samples of an aerially sprayed pesticide used by the commonwealth and at least 25 other states to control mosquito-borne illnesses contain toxic substances that critics call “forever chemicals.” Officially known as […]

    Microplastics Discovered Near Mount Everest Summit

    Microplastics Discovered Near Mount Everest Summit

    Apparently, there ain’t no mountain high enough to keep away the twin pressures of plastic pollution and the climate crisis. A series of newly-published studies based on a National Geographic expedition to Mount Everest in 2019 provide a shocking picture of how human activity is impacting the highest point from sea level on Earth. One […]

    Michigan Governor Moves to Prevent Great Lakes Oil Spill by Shutting Down Aging Pipeline

    Michigan Governor Moves to Prevent Great Lakes Oil Spill by Shutting Down Aging Pipeline

    Enbridge’s aging Line 5 pipeline may finally be forced into retirement. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Michigan Department of Natural Resources Director Dan Eichinger informed Enbridge Friday that they were revoking the Canadian company’s easement to run twin pipelines under the Straits of Mackinac, which divide Lakes Michigan and Huron, the Detroit Free Press reported. […]

    How Will the Biden Administration Tackle ‘Forever Chemicals’?

    How Will the Biden Administration Tackle ‘Forever Chemicals’?

    By Scott Faber No candidate for president has ever pledged to make the toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS a priority – until now. In his environmental justice plan, President-elect Joe Biden pledged to set enforceable limits for PFAS in drinking water and to designate PFAS as a hazardous substance under the Superfund cleanup law. […]