By Sean Walton Western governors are disappointed that the U.S. Department of Energy didn’t consult their states’ nuclear waste experts before releasing a five-year plan for a nuclear waste facility in New Mexico, the governors say. The Western Governors’ Association in a Sept. 30 letter…
By John Vibes The Shell oil corporation is burning off large volumes of ethane because they can’t sell it to their regular customer, which is a plant on the same property owned by ExxonMobil. The location is officially known as “Mossmorran,” and is used by…
Scholars warn attention needed to make wastewater potable and ensure public safety nationwide against emerging threat of antibiotic resistance As policymakers look urgently to wastewater recycling to stem the gap in water resources, the question is– how best to reuse water and ensure public safety….
By Mayukh Saha This is one waste problem that could instead be turned into a boon for our energy-starved planet. We are drowning in plastic and have already produced 8.3 billion tons of plastics in just 65 years, equivalent in weight to 25,000 Empire State…
A new interdisciplinary study on the “Havana Syndrome” led by Dr. Alon Friedman M.D. of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel and Dalhousie University Brain Repair Center in Nova Scotia, Canada, points to overexposure to pesticides as a likely cause for neurological symptoms…
By Tom Mullen When you’re several decades older than Greta Thunberg, her impassioned warning of impending doom hits you differently than it may college students or early twentysomethings. In a word, it sounded “familiar.” I’m not just talking about the climate change movement, nor exclusively…
A community garden occupies a diminutive dirt lot in Phoenix. Rows of raised garden beds offer up basil, watermelons and corn, making this patch of land an agricultural oasis in a desert city of 1.5 million people. In fact, this little garden is contributing in…
By John Vibes Trader Joe’s was one of the first chain grocery stores to begin selling organic food, but their products have not necessarily been eco-friendly. A vast amount of the produce that can be found at Trader Joe’s is needlessly covered in plastic, but…
Disrupting the daily routine of gut microbes in mice impacts their metabolism, increasing the risk for metabolic dysfunction, according to a new study. The results may inform a link between microbiota damage and human obesity, for example, in our modern environment, the authors say. “Our…
Middle-aged and older adults that live in greener neighbourhoods are at lower risk of developing metabolic syndrome than those living in areas with less green spaces. This is the main conclusion of a new study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution…
Many people are trying to reduce their plastic use, but some tea manufacturers are moving in the opposite direction: replacing traditional paper teabags with plastic ones. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology have discovered that a soothing cup of the brewed beverage…
On-the-job exposure to high levels of pesticides raised the risk of heart disease and stroke in a generally healthy group of Japanese American men in Hawaii, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, the open access journal of the…
Three new studies by scientists at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Cincinnati, highlight the relationship between air pollution and mental health in children. A study to be published Sept. 25 in Environmental Health Perspectives found that short-term…
By Mayukh Saha Our water and air – the two most essential things that human life depends on – have become polluted on a global scale. And our generation is privy to the devastating news that plastic has covered the polar region, a place once…
From the Great Pacific garbage patch to inland rivers, plastics are among the most widespread contaminants on Earth. Microplastics — particles of plastic smaller than five millimeters — are especially pervasive. As they build up in Earth’s waters, microplastics are also becoming a permanent part…
By Mayukh Saha Two Detroit locals have taken a sweet initiative to fight inner-city urban blight by taking abandoned lots and converting them into full-fledged urban bee farms. Detroit Hives, a non-profit organization, has been working towards both honey bee conservation and city refurbishment since…
By Jason Erickson It’s well understood by most readers of this site that Egypt has experienced massive turmoil over the last decade in the aftermath of a contentious revolution in 2011. While it’s a tendency to ignore political machinations in far-off lands, unless they have…
By John Vibes The Baltimore harbor is by far the most popular tourist destination in the city, but over the years conditions in the water began to deteriorate. Luckily, a Maryland resident invented a device that has been helping to remove millions of pounds of…
Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest public health challenges in the world today since many common bacterial infections are developing resistance to the drugs once used to treat them, and new antibiotics aren’t being developed fast enough to combat the problem. Once primarily confined…
By Common Dreams Plastic byproducts were found in an alarming 97-100% of blood and urine samples from 2,500 children tested between 2014 and 2017, according to a new study by the German Environment Ministry and the Robert Koch Institute. Der Spiegel, the German weekly magazine,…
