By Brandon Turbeville, Natural Blaze After horrible press, fines, and imprisonments, Volkswagen once again found itself in the middle of a controversy when it was revealed that the company was testing its product on animals. Despite having fudged the numbers on its pollution standards software to appear…
By Mariana Fuentes, Florida State University Have you ever considered that small pieces of plastic less than 5 millimeters long, or smaller than a pencil eraser head, called microplastics, can affect large marine vertebrates like sea turtles? My research team first discovered this disturbing fact…
By Jack Burns Researching aquatic life has long been used as a barometer for evaluating pollution levels, and according to a recently published study, opioids are now showing up in the bays in and around Seattle’s Puget Sound—serving as yet another reminder that the United…
By Matthew Coggon, University of Colorado Millions of Americans apply personal care products every morning before heading to work or school. But these products don’t stick to our bodies permanently. Over the course of the day, compounds in deodorants, lotions, hair gels and perfumes evaporate…
By Carey Wedler Scientists with the Ocean Cleanup Company are gearing up to tackle the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an expanse of garbage in the Pacific Ocean that contains as many as 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic and spans 617,763 square miles. Using a device designed by 23-year-old…
By Catherine J. Frompovich What is AIR and how do we define it? Air can be defined as the gaseous substance that inflates balloons and automobile tires. Air is composed of gases—mainly oxygen and nitrogen—we breathe in the environment (plus pollutants). Air is a life…
By Matt Agorist With great technological advances—like the industrial revolution and the subsequent oil boom—came a great impact on the environment. As more industries began to flourish, increasing the quality of life for billions of people around the world, the quality of air began to…
By Vic Bishop A recent viral video of a diver swimming through a sea of plastic is a stark reminder of what we are doing to the world’s oceans. We’ve been reporting on this issue since 2012, watching the development of a massive gyre of…
12By Catherine J. Frompovich Does it seem as if it’s getting a little harder to breathe? You may not be mistaken. That may not be just a figment of your imagination, especially with all the varied and unsuspected sources of air pollution resulting especially from…
By Kevin Samson Fresh water supplies continue to be assaulted on multiple fronts. Front page news at the moment is the unfolding disaster in Cape Town, South Africa which could be completely without water by June. According to some, this is as much the result…
By Eric Sorensen, WSU News WSU researchers have found that salmon face a double whammy when they swim in the stormwater runoff of urban roadways. First, as scientists learned a couple years ago, toxic pollution in the water can kill them. WSU researchers have now…
By Gary G. Kohls, MD, guest to Natural Blaze A Partial Timeline of the Aftermath of the Mount Polley, British Columbia Tailings Lagoon Dam Failure of August 4. 2014 Before reading the timeline of the aftermath of the Mt Polley disaster, please go to the following…
By Natural Blaze For those who lay awake at night terrified by so-called climate change, please know that a number of innovations have surfaced to head environmental issues off at the pass. What if there were a way to collect and clean the air and produce…
By Anna Hunt It can be quite surprising to find out that your facial scrub, body wash or toothpaste contain thousands of tiny plastic microbeads. What’s even more appalling is the fact that thousands of tons of these microbeads end up in the ocean every…
By Matt Agorist A damning report from the Environmental Working Group has just revealed that drinking water for more than 170 million Americans in all 50 states contains radioactive elements that are shown to cause cancer. Not only does the report expose the deadly levels of radiation…
By Markab Algedi, Natural Blaze In Loma de Bacum, a town in Northwest Mexico near the border of Arizona, an indigenous tribe called the Yaqui are challenging the California founded, multi-billion dollar corporation Sempra Energy and their border crossing pipeline in the region. The pipeline’s…
By Jennifer Marie Hurley, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Every winter, local governments across the United States apply millions of tons of road salt to keep streets navigable during snow and ice storms. Runoff from melting snow carries road salt into streams and lakes, and causes many…
By Rachel Blevins The Pentagon has recklessly contaminated more than 40,000 sites across the United States, exposing hundreds of thousands of Americans to deadly chemicals. As the United States continues to increase the budget of the largest military in the world, Americans are paying a price…
By Catherine J. Frompovich Pollution! It’s a trendy but gloomy word designating something most people try to avoid contributing to, but not many folks realize what causes it and how it affects them. Humans and technology are the primary contributors to ALL pollution, either inadvertently…
By Jason Erickson More attention is finally being given to determining the ill effects that microplastics (microbeads) are having on human health and the environment. Previous concerns have been raised in everything from toothpaste to beer to the wider ecosystem where it was found to…
