Mongolia: A toxic warning to the world

By Stephanie Hegarty 24 March 2019 (BBC News) – All over the world cities are grappling with apocalyptic air pollution but the capital of Mongolia is suffering from some of the worst in the world. And the problem is intrinsically linked to climate change. The country has already warmed by 2.2 degrees, forcing thousands of […]

“Social disaster”: South Korea invokes emergency laws to tackle air pollution after record pollution levels hit the country

By Justin McCurry 13 March 2019 (The Guardian) – South Korea has passed emergency measures to tackle the “social disaster” being unleashed by air pollution, after record levels of fine dust blanketed most of the country in recent weeks. The national assembly passed a series of bills on Wednesday giving authorities access to emergency funds […]

Trump regulation rollbacks will result in more than 200 million tons of additional greenhouse emissions each year – “The Trump administration has taken historically unprecedented actions to roll back years of environmental progress”

WASHINGTON, D.C., 5 March 2019 (NYU School of Law) – Today, the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center at the NYU School of Law announced the release of a Special Report detailing the extensive climate change and public health damage caused by the Trump administration’s environmental deregulatory agenda. In its Special Report, titled “Climate & […]

3-5°C temperature rise is now “locked-in” for the Arctic

Nairobi, 13 March 2019 (UN News) – Even if the world were to cut emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, winter temperatures in the Arctic would rise 3-5°C by 2050 and 5-9°C by 2080, devastating the region and unleashing sea level rises worldwide, finds a new report by UN Environment. Meanwhile, rapidly thawing permafrost […]

Study links Fukushima disaster to spike in infant heart surgeries

By Lucy Craft 14 March 2019 TOKYO (CBS News) – As Japan marks the eight-year anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that claimed some 22,000 lives, a new study suggests it could still be having a serious impact on the nation’s health. The disaster caused by the killer wave at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear […]

Senate confirms former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler as EPA administrator

By Anna M. Phillips28 February 2019 (Los Angeles Times) – The Senate on Thursday confirmed Andrew Wheeler to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, handing the reins of the agency responsible for ensuring clean air and safe drinking water to a former coal industry lobbyist. The 52-to-47 vote removed the word “acting” from Wheeler’s title, installing […]

Plastic pollution found in every tiny animal tested in the Mariana Trench, the lowest point in any ocean – “What you put in the trench stays in the trench”

By Ed Yong 27 February 2019 (The Atlantic) – Alan Jamieson remembers seeing it for the first time: a small, black fiber floating in a tube of liquid. It resembled a hair, but when Jamieson examined it under a microscope, he realized that the fiber was clearly synthetic—a piece of plastic. And worryingly, his student […]

U.S. cities burn recyclables after China bans imports – Residents fear rise in pollution from incinerators

By Oliver Milman 21 February 2019 (The Guardian) – The conscientious citizens of Philadelphia continue to put their pizza boxes, plastic bottles, yoghurt containers and other items into recycling bins. But in the past three months, half of these recyclables have been loaded on to trucks, taken to a hulking incineration facility and burned, according […]

Australia approves dumping of 1 million tons of sludge near Great Barrier Reef – “Dumping dredged sludge into world heritage waters treats our reef like a rubbish tip”

By Colin Drury 22 February 2019 (The Independent) – More than one million tons of sludge are to be dumped close to the Great Barrier Reef after authorities in Australia approved plans to discard industrial dredge spoil. Sediment scooped up from the sea floor during maintenance work at nearby Hay Point Port will be ditched […]

Coastal erosion causes once-buried waste to re-emerge on an English beach – “A massive decline in the numbers of fish”

By Kris Jepson 18 February 2019 (ITV News) – Exclusive: Residents have called on authorities to excavate an historic landfill site, which is leaking waste onto Lynemouth Beach and into the sea. Northumberland County Council told ITV News it undertook a land reclamation in the early 2000s, which involved cleaning up the beach and landscaping […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial