Our Stories

The Latest by Jessica A. Knoblauch

Senior Staff Writer

Jessica is a former award-winning journalist. She enjoys wild places and dispensing justice, so she considers her job here to be a pretty amazing fit.

Satellite image of a hurricane.
June 6, 2014

Friday Finds: Girly-Named Hurricanes Less Feared

By Jessica A. Knoblauch  /  Headquarters Office

People don’t take female-named hurricanes as seriously—and suffer the consequences.

The Statue of Liberty.
May 22, 2014

Friday Finds: Lady Liberty Takes a Dive

By Jessica A. Knoblauch  /  California Office

The Statue of Liberty’s torch-bearing arm may become a distress signal as sea levels rise.

May 20, 2014

New Name, Same Game

By Jessica A. Knoblauch  /  Washington, D.C. Office

The men behind the poisoning of West Virginia’s drinking water begin anew.

Residents rally outside Berkeley City Hall to show opposition to a proposed crude by rail project.
March 28, 2014

Explosive Crude-By-Rail Rolls Into Main Street America

By Jessica A. Knoblauch  /  California Office, Northeast Office, Northwest Office & Washington, D.C. Office

Concerned communities are fighting back.

The largest environmental protest in Baltimore, MD, called on political leaders to stop Dominion Power's Cove Point liquefied natural gas export terminal on the Chesapeake Bay.
March 13, 2014

Coast-to-Coast Opposition to Exporting Dirty Energy

By Jessica A. Knoblauch  /  Northeast Office & Northwest Office

Communities nationwide are rejecting fossil fuel export facilities.

January 31, 2014

Friday Finds: Drought Leaves CA Glass Half Empty

By Jessica A. Knoblauch  /  California Office & Northwest Office

Climate change threatens grapes, salmon and other dining favorites

September 18, 2013

Friday Finds: Pushing Clean Air’s Buttons

By Jessica A. Knoblauch  /  Washington, D.C. Office

Tired of breathing dirty air during your daily commute? Just turn on your car vent’s recirculation button, ‘advises researchers from the University of Southern California.

September 6, 2013

Friday Finds: Sea Otters Keep Seas Squeaky Clean

By Jessica A. Knoblauch  /  California Office

Sea otters regularly draw crowds at aquariums and along shorelines for their famously cute mustaches and furry bodies, but recent research shows that these little starlets should really be applauded for their ability to keep algae from mucking up our oceans. According to researcher Brent Hughes from the University of California, Santa Cruz, sea otters’ …

April 24, 2013

Friday Finds: Seafood S.O.S.

By Jessica A. Knoblauch  /  Florida Office, Northwest Office & Washington, D.C. Office

Seafood lovers hooked on $1 oyster nights may soon have to find a new source of comfort for the work week blues. Thanks to an increase of carbon in both the atmosphere and our water bodies (which absorb about a third of all carbon emissions), carbon munching critters like crabs, lobsters and shrimp are getting …

April 4, 2013

Friday Finds: Flying High on Flame Retardants

By Jessica A. Knoblauch

Airplanes may contain high flame retardants levels New research has found that commercial airliners contain high levels of flame retardants, a suite of chemicals that have been under fire lately due to concerns over health hazards, reports Environmental Health News. Because having a plane catch fire mid-air could be disastrous, federal regulators require that all …