By Sarah Chasis June 8 is World Oceans Day, dedicated to celebrating our beautiful, mysterious, and life-giving oceans. As our oceans make up more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface, their health drives the future of our planet. Oceans give us every other breath we take, provide a critical source of protein and a […]
By Jennifer Sass Yet again, our government scientists—the oft neglected but so important brain trust of our nation—bring the public some very important new data. Pesticide water monitoring experts at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) paired up with scientists from the University of Iowa in a federally funded collaboration to track neonicotinoid pesticides or ” […]
By Jessica Corbett In a decision deemed by critics unsurprising but also “absolutely unconscionable,” the Trump administration’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reportedly plans to refrain from regulating a pair of toxic chemicals linked to kidney and testicular cancer, even though they are contaminating millions of Americans’ drinking water. Sources familiar with an unreleased draft […]
By Jason Bittel On January 2, a snail named George shriveled up and died in his tank at the University of Hawaii. He was 14 years old, which for a land snail is pretty long in the tooth (or in George’s case, radula). But in all of his years, George never sired any offspring. There […]
By Rhea Suh One month on, the longest and most senseless U.S. government shutdown in history is taking a grave and growing toll on the environment and public health. Food inspectors have been idled or are working without pay, increasing the risk we’ll get sick from eating produce, meat and poultry that isn’t properly checked. […]
By Ana Unruh Cohen As the longest government shut down in history drags on, and the experts protecting our air and water remain off the job, the Senate is barreling forward to put Andrew Wheeler at the wheel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He is unfit for this public trust. In his seven-month […]
The population of monarch butterflies that spend winter along the California coast dropped 86 percent since 2017, according to a recent count by the Xerces Society, an invertebrate conservation group. Preliminary results from the Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count, an annual citizen science program, recorded less than 30,000 butterflies overwintering in California, a significant decline from […]
By Tara Lohan In the last few weeks of 2018, the Trump administration set the stage for a big battle over water in the new year. At stake is an important rule that defines which waters are protected under the Clean Water Act. The Trump administration seeks to roll back important protections for wetlands and […]
In its latest attack on clean air protections, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its new proposal to weaken the Obama-era Mercury & Air Toxics Standards (MATS), putting public health at risk from more than 80 dangerous pollutants, some of which are known to cause brain damage in children. “This is an unconscionable rollback […]