toxics

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    David Attenborough Calls For Ban on Deep-Sea Mining

    David Attenborough Calls For Ban on Deep-Sea Mining

    Sir David Attenborough wants a ban on deep-sea mining. The 93-year-old conservationist spoke out in an interview with Sky News Thursday in conjunction with a new report that warns of the potentially devastating consequences of extracting metals and minerals from the deep places of the ocean. The practice could harm biodiversity, limit the ocean’s ability […]

    Mine Waste Dams Threaten the Environment, Even When They Don’t Fail

    Mine Waste Dams Threaten the Environment, Even When They Don’t Fail

    By Christopher Sergeant, Julian D. Olden Scars from large mining operations are permanently etched across the landscapes of the world. The environmental damage and human health hazards that these activities create may be both severe and irreversible. Many mining operations store enormous quantities of waste, known as tailings, onsite. After miners excavate rock, a processing […]

    5 Biggest Pesticide Companies Are Making Billions From ‘Highly Hazardous’ Chemicals, Investigation Finds

    5 Biggest Pesticide Companies Are Making Billions From ‘Highly Hazardous’ Chemicals, Investigation Finds

    Poor people in developing countries are far more likely to suffer from exposure to pesticides classified as having high hazard to human health or the environment, according to new data that Unearthed analyzed. The analysis shows that the world’s top five pesticide makers are making billions, accounting for more than 36 percent of their income, […]

    Bald Eagles Are Still Dying From Lead Poisoning

    Bald Eagles Are Still Dying From Lead Poisoning

    America’s national bird is threatened by hunters. Not that hunters are taking aim at the iconic bald eagle, but bald eagles are dying after eating lead bullets, as CNN reported. The Cape Fear Raptor Center, North Carolina’s largest eagle rehab facility, has recently treated seven eagles for lead poisoning, executive director Dr. Joni Shimp told […]

    World’s Largest Producer of Toxic Pesticide Chlorpyrifos Ends Its Production

    World’s Largest Producer of Toxic Pesticide Chlorpyrifos Ends Its Production

    Corteva, formerly part of the chemical manufacturing giant Dow Chemical, announced today that it would stop making chlorpyrifos — a toxic, brain-harming pesticide commonly sprayed on various U.S. food crops, including apples, oranges, and berries — by the end of the year. The decision by the chemical’s biggest producer, which cited declining sales, marks a […]

    This Fern Is Absorbing Arsenic, Copper From Toxic Mining Soil in the Philippines

    This Fern Is Absorbing Arsenic, Copper From Toxic Mining Soil in the Philippines

    Filipino scientists have discovered what might be the next big indigenous plant material for rehabilitating a mining site teeming with copper and arsenic — and it’s a largely ignored local fern. Published in the peer-reviewed journal Chemosphere, the study by a group of scientists led by Rene Claveria of the Ateneo de Manila University records […]