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Monday Reads: The Fine Particulate Matter Edition
Just in time to ring in the Year of the Dragon, a few days ago, Beijing’s infamously murky air gained a long-awaited official index: real-time measurements of the city’s PM2.5 levels. PM2.5 (also known as soot) are microscopic particulate matter that contribute to the pea soup miasma of air pollution we can all do without.…
Read MoreStand With Donna And All the People of Appalachia
The story of one woman’s fight to save her homeland
Read MoreFriday Finds: Meatless Mondays Go Mainstream
Ag industry takes beef with Americans eating less meat Americans are eating less meat, which means the U.S. obsession with double-bacon cheeseburgers and chicken-fried sandwiches may one day be a thing of the past, reports Grist. According to the USDA, beef, chicken and pork sales are all down, prompting the meat industry to accuse the…
Read MoreMore Than Cranes Are Whooping Over the Keystone Pipeline XL Decision
The President made the right decision on the Keystone pipeline XL today. House Republicans forced the arbitrary deadline of February 21 and there was really only one legal way to answer. Since the State Department hasn’t finished its environmental review of the pipeline and requests for alternative routes that bypass sensitive lands and habitats are…
Read MoreVictories Bring Hope As 2012 Begins
As 2012 begins and election year politics accelerate, you are probably hearing some gloomy predictions about how our environment will fare this year. There is good reason for the concern: many in Congress are dedicated to eliminating long-standing environmental protections. Fossil fuel industry supporters are pulling out all the financial and rhetorical stops in their…
Read MoreThe Florida Everglades–A Jewel Preserved By Litigation
Twenty years after we settled our first lawsuit in Florida, one thing is crystal clear: Without litigation, the Everglades would be left with whatever protection the agencies and the Florida Legislature would be willing to provide under pressure from Big Sugar and other powerful polluters. In other words: not much. Litigation has empowered the community…
Read MoreHappy New Year, Grand Canyon!
About a century ago, a Republican president said: In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I hope you will not have a building of any…
Read MoreFriday Finds: Congress Brakes on Transit Breaks
Transit riders run over by reduced tax breaks Thanks to a lack of action by Congress before the holidays, mass transit commuters will have to pay an additional $550 in taxes this year, reports the New York Times, while those who commute by car will benefit from an increase in pre-tax benefit for monthly parking.…
Read MoreTr-Ash Talk: TVA Disaster Spurs More Toxic Dumping?
Last month we marked three years since the Tennessee Valley Authority Kingston coal ash spill, underscoring the fact that the EPA has yet to regulate toxic coal ash waste. Now we have even more reason to be concerned. According to analysis by the Environmental Integrity Project, the most recent U.S. Toxic Release Inventory indicates that…
Read MoreMonday Reads: The Hybridizing Shark Edition
Climate change has been accused of being many things, from Imposter to Glacier National Park Name-killer. And now to the list we can add…Interspecies Dating Matchmaker? A study published last month in Conservation Genetics documented no fewer than 57 instances of hybrid common black-tip (Carcharhinus limbatus) and Australian black-tip (Carcharhinus tilstoni) sharks off the eastern…
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