If you’re pregnant and living in one of our many cities with unacceptable air quality, consider this: A study released last June by the Columbia University Center for Children’s Environmental Health demonstrates that developing fetuses are more susceptible to DNA damage caused by combustion-related pollutants than their mothers are, despite protection by the placenta.
On almost any given day in the southern part of Colombia, spray planes fly in with a mission to destroy the cocaine crops that dot the region’s small farms. It starts with the even beat of a military helicopter, followed by a plane that sprays a chemical stream. The substance used is a mixture of glyphosate, water, and added surfactants, comprising a powerful herbicide manufactured by Monsanto that is chemically similar to Roundup.
Ice coring began in the 1950s, and since then researchers have been removing samples from the Arctic, Antarctic and any other location where ice accumulates unhindered by melting. A trove of information about the atmosphere and environment waits inside, gleaned from the physical properties of the ice itself, and from the antique air bubbles within it.
Two high-level commissions have issued a clear message in the past year: Americans are unintentionally destroying the oceans through pollution, over-development and over-fishing. These reports have generated a tidal wave of marine metaphors, with commentators talking about "a sea change" or efforts to "smooth troubled waters." Now ocean advocates are organizing to turn words into action.
While no one questions that conservation efforts have made the bald eagle’s recovery possible, even the environmental community is split on whether delisting the bird is a good idea…
Computer waste can be a hazardous addition to garbage dumps, spreading lead, mercury, chromium and other compounds into the ground. While it may seem obvious that recycling is necessary to reduce the risk of possible pollutants, it remains relatively difficult for consumers to dispose of their old computers easily and cheaply. Now however, Dell has begun to offer a free pickup recycling service to customers buying a new PC.
Shareholders, employees and customers alike are demanding more and more that companies conduct business in an environmentally responsible way. And many are responding by “greening up” everything from the components of their products and the energy used to make them, to the recycled content in their packaging
The Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) is a determinedly non-partisan organization whose members tend to cover the same basic issues, but come from a plethora of publications with widely divergent editorial policies, staffed by reporters with many different personal views.
A recent report summarizing the findings of 500 scientists from 60 countries confirms that the world’s amphibian population is undergoing a die-off of unprecedented proportions, most likely as a result of a combination of human-caused environmental problems. According to researchers at the World Conservation Union, almost a third of the 5,743 known species of frogs, toads, newts and salamanders on Earth are facing extinction within the next few years.
U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer last week ruled that the Clinton-era ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks was invalid because the decision-making process did not involve enough public participation and as such violated federal law. Brimmer’s opinion on the matter stated that the rule was "the product of a prejudged, political decision to ban snowmobiles from all the national parks."
