In American towns, private profits from public works.
Nicole Adamczyk’s drinking water used to slosh through a snarl of pipes dating from the Coolidge administration — a rusty, rickety symbol of the nation’s failing infrastructure. more…
Weekend Environment Reader
What Changed the World This Week
New Ebola vaccine gives 100 percent protection.
After decades of trying, scientists have finally devised a powerful vaccine against a terrifying contagion. more…
Obama will use his executive authority to impose new permanent bans on offshore drilling.
Invoking a rarely used provision in federal law, the Obama administration on Tuesday announced a permanent ban on offshore drilling in broad parts of the Arctic and Atlantic coasts. more…
Our 2016 holiday themed news quiz.
Test your holiday-themed environmental news knowledge, or just gather some fun facts to help get you through awkward family dinners. more…
Smog linked to third of deaths in China, study finds.
Smog is related to nearly one-third of deaths in China, putting it on a par with smoking as a threat to health, according to an academic paper based on the study of air pollution and mortality data in 74 cities and published in an international journal. more…
Coverup in the South China Sea.
How China killed essential reefs and built military bases on top. more…
Audubon counters fan out in search of birds .
Thousands of shoppers will rush around today for last-minute gifts for Christmas. A smaller number of locals will take part in a more solitary pursuit: counting birds. more…
Can we save the world? Part II.
Even among those engaged full time in efforts to save the environment, few dare take a hard look at how much we really achieve. more…
Endocrine disruptors: The discreet but major gift to the pesticides lobby.
The European Commission submits its proposal for regulation of chemical substances today. A loophole could leave thousands of tons of hazardous pesticides on the EU market. more…
Piers Sellers, climate scientist turned astronaut, dies at 61.
Piers Sellers, a British-born climate scientist for NASA who remained optimistic about the fate of the Earth despite the grim climate change models he oversaw and who gained American citizenship to fulfill a childhood dream of becoming an astronaut, died Dec. 23 in Houston. He was 61. more…
Editor comments: In January, Sellers wrote this about his terminal illness and his optimism about climate change.-PD
The big sort.
Clearing tonnes of plastic debris off beaches is only the first step—then comes the conundrum of what to do with it all. more…
Amid smoggy days in London, growing calls to clean up Europe’s toxic air.
Across Europe, cities are trying to turn around the deadly results of pushing the supposedly cleaner fuel. more…
US EPA turns away from CAFO water pollution.
Inspections and enforcement have declined since 2011, but fines for all pollution increased. more…
The legacy of the man who changed our view of nature.
The 19th-century German scientist Alexander von Humboldt popularized the concept that the natural world is interconnected. Biographer Andrea Wulf explains how Humboldt’s vision helped create modern environmentalism. more…
Top weekend
Commentary: Fiends of the Earth.
Some environmental planners spend their careers mapping out worst-case scenarios. As of January 20, they've got one in the White House. Environmental Health News.
Commentary: He’s no Ronald Reagan.
Some have compared Trump’s wrecking crew to the one brought in by Ronald Reagan in 1981. But there are crucial differences between then and now. Environmental Health News.
Super Typhoon Nock-ten (Nina) making landfall on the Philippines on Christmas Day.
Super Typhoon Nock-ten rapidly intensified through Christmas Eve and is now making landfall on the Philippines on Christmas Day. This dangerous storm will hammer that country into Monday, bringing destructive winds, massive storm surge flooding and torrential rainfall. The Weather Channel.
Smog returns to haunt several Chinese cities including Beijing.
Pollution returned to haunt Chinese capital Beijing and surrounding provinces on Christmas Day today, three days after a nearly week-long red alert for the worst smog of the year was lifted. Press Trust of India, India.
PROFILES IN TREMENDOUSNESS : The Daily Show's report on Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson.
Part of the Daily Show's series on Trump's cabinet appointments. The Daily Show.
How to convince someone when facts fail.
Have you ever noticed that when you present people with facts that are contrary to their deepest held beliefs they always change their minds? Me neither. In fact, people seem to double down on their beliefs in the teeth of overwhelming evidence against them. The reason is related to the worldview perceived to be under threat by the conflicting data. Scientific American.
Cleanup of lead-polluted yards begins in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.
Crews have finally begun to dig up yards contaminated by years of toxic lead emissions from a Pilsen factory, more than a decade after activists tested soil and discovered high levels of the brain-damaging metal throughout the Chicago neighborhood. Chicago Tribune, Illinois.
St. Joseph, LA endures nation's latest case of lead-contaminated drinking water.
Health officials are gathering samples from every one of the 500 homes in St. Joseph to determine how widespread the lead problem is in the northeast Louisiana town's drinking water, the state's doctor said Thursday. Baton Rouge Advocate, Louisiana.
The Mix
Exxon Mobil is fighting to keep its dangerous chemicals in children's toys.
Among Exxon Mobil's chemical products are phthalates, a family of chemicals widely used to make plastic pliable. Exxon Mobil insists its products pose no harm. But numerous independent studies have linked the chemicals to health problems. The Intercept.
This pesticide is prohibited in Britain. Why is it still being exported?
Paraquat, one of many pesticides that can’t be used in Europe but is sold in the United States and elsewhere, has been linked to Parkinson’s disease in a growing body of research. New York Times.
Environmental donations are up thanks to Trump.
Green groups have found a silver lining in Donald Trump’s election win — more members and more money. BuzzFeed.
How do Exxon and State line up on human rights?
Exxon deals with dozens of countries and leaders around the world in political environments ranging from liberal democracies to corrupt autocracies. What does Tillerson's Exxon suggest about the priorities of a Tillerson State Department? EnergyWire.
How Rex Tillerson changed his tune on Russia and came to court its rulers.
Once a vocal critic of Russia’s justice system, the Exxon Mobil chief came to partner with the country’s biggest players. What will that history mean for the slated secretary of state? New York Times.
The Energy Department helped start a revolution – and doesn’t know who to hand it off to.
Costs for wind and solar have plunged by 40 and 60 percent since 2008. But the Trump administration wants to pursue fossil fuels. Washington Post.
Fukushima’s $70 billion cleanup leaves foreign firms in cold.
Cleaning up the Fukushima nuclear plant is the mother of all salvage jobs. Still, foreign firms with decades of experience are seeing little of the spoils. Bloomberg News.
26 lawmakers defend Energy Department scientists against Trump.
Keep your hands off our climate scientists. Mashable.
Opinions
The next big climate-change battle starts in India.
Some climate activists worry that Donald Trump’s presidential election will be the death knell for the global environment. That’s almost certainly untrue. Whatever Trump’s attitude toward climate science and energy policy, two big outside factors will be much more important -- technological progress and policy in developing nations. more…
Utah lands and politicians.
I am afraid. Each day since the election, I have arisen worried about what a Trump presidency means for civilized society, for the safety of our nation, for the future of our democracy. But nothing strikes more fear into my heart than our elected officials’ talk about their plans for southern Utah. more…
If you want peace on earth, take care of creation.
This Christmas, like shepherds long ago watching over their flock by night, many people all over the Upstate, across this country, and around the world are faithfully taking care of some portion of God's good creation — in their families, yards, communities, regions, and throughout this orbiting globe. more…
Trumping the environment.
Whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump was elected, the environment is going to suffer. more…
Endocrine disrupting chemicals – is there any larger, more neglected health problem?
The vast majority of agricultural and veterinary chemicals used today on food in Australia are unassessed for specific EDC activity. more…
Book Review: Douglas Brinkley's 'Rightful Heritage' explores FDR's legacy as environmental steward.
It might surprise many to learn that Florida's award-winning state park system grew out of the green vision of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. more…
Editor comments: Historian Douglas Brinkley makes the case that Teddy wasn't the only Roosevelt focused on conservation.-PD
Tim Egan: Red state hope for Democratic blues.
For the longest nights of the year, there is no better place to be than on snow-crusted ground, staring up at Montana's big empty sky. Democrats across rural America must know the feeling, this Christmas week, of looking into a black void and feeling so very alone. more…
A Defense of swamps.
President-elect Donald Trump is vowing to “drain the swamp” in Washington. He talked it up during his campaign, and when a couple of his advisers suggested Thursday that it’s not a priority for him, he responded by reaffirming his commitment to purging the city of its proverbial alligators. more…
Frontline communities will lead the fight for environmental and climate justice under Trump.
If we want to succeed, it's more important than ever to invest in the leadership of people of color and indigenous communities. more…
Editorials
Black lung, incurable and fatal, stalks coal miners anew.
Appalachian health officials report a shocking rise in cases of black lung -- the deadly coal-mining disease thought to have been reined in by a landmark federal law passed in 1969. more…
Rick Perry, Trump's memorable pick for energy secretary.
Sometimes it seems as if Trump is playing jokes. more…
Leaving the Arctic alone.
President Obama’s decision to block drilling has been a boon to efforts to protect fragile environments. more…
Asbestos: Canada finally bans a deadly substance.
At last, the use of this fire-retardant and insulation material will be quenched in Canada, though hardly soon enough. more…
Eight years of air struggles.
Though Fairbanks has seen limited success in cleaning up its air, the North Pole area continues to struggle with regular wintertime episodes of pollution well in excess of safe levels. more…
Hiding environmental money from Christie was long overdue.
For too many years - across too many administrations - environmental cleanup cases have been one of the most insufferable hide-the-cash shell games from a New Jersey government that is infamous for them. more…
Tobacco is — still — a bad investment for pension fund.
Yes, there may be big money to be made investing in this poison product. If individual investors can live with that, fine. But public institutions such as CalPERS shouldn’t. more…
Rush to save climate data is a good thing.
Scientists see a change in the climate coming, and they are acting fast to prepare for its effects. They believe they know exactly when it will change: Jan. 20, inauguration day for Donald Trump, when the political climate turns. more…