By Jessica A. Knoblauch Summers in the Midwest are great for outdoor activities like growing your garden or cooling off in one of the area’s many lakes and streams. But some waters aren’t as clean as they should be. That’s in part because coal companies have long buried toxic waste known as coal ash near […]
By Susan Casey-Lefkowitz This is a rough moment to read or listen to environmental news. As we’re experiencing a seemingly unending parade of rollbacks and pro-polluter actions coming out of DC, the international science community is ringing the alarm bell on a series of issues that need attention — now. Most notably, last year’s IPCC […]
By Emilie Karrick Surrusco The toxic mess left behind from burning coal is a growing, nationwide problem. But we’re seeing that state governments can be convinced to do the right thing and clean it up. Recently, North Carolina joined its neighboring state to become a trendsetter in the proper disposal of coal ash waste. Following […]
By Daniel Ross Hurricane Florence, which battered the U.S. East Coast last September, left a trail of ruin and destruction estimated to cost between $17 billion and $22 billion. Some of the damage was all too visible—smashed homes and livelihoods. But other damage was less so, like the long-term environmental impacts in North Carolina from […]
North Carolina, a state known for the devastating environmental and public health impacts of industrial-scale hog production, now has more than twice as many poultry factory farms as swine operations, according to a new investigation from the Environmental Working Group and Waterkeeper Alliance. The groups’ research found that in 2018, manure from 515.3 million chickens […]
By Katy Neusteter New eras often start with a bang. That was the case in September when explosives blasted a hole in a concrete dam that had barricaded Maryland’s Patapsco River for more than 110 years. Like so many defunct and outdated dams in the United States, Bloede Dam’s impact on the Patapsco far outweighed […]
When it comes to the fossil fuel industry, we’ve all heard the promises before: new jobs, economic growth and happier communities, all thanks to their generosity and entrepreneurial spirit. If you’re struggling or there aren’t a whole lot of other options for work, it can all sound glowing and great. But what they always fail […]
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. […]
By Jake Johnson In a move environmentalists are warning will seriously endanger drinking water and wildlife nationwide, President Donald Trump‘s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reportedly gearing up to hand yet another gift to big polluters by drastically curtailing the number of waterways and wetlands protected under the Clean Water Act. “As a result […]