Most recent 40 articles: ehn
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ENVIRONMENTAL - ehn (Apr 1) |
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Apr 1 · Your gateway to environmental health knowledge
Join the Environmental Health News community
"We’d like to be talking about positive things, focusing on our renewable energy future.”
PITTSBURGH - When Sandy Field first heard about the plan to build a new chemical recycling facility in her community in Point Township, Pennsylvania, she thought it sounded like a great idea.
“The plastic waste crisis is a real problem and I thought this sounded like a good solution,” she told Environmental Health News (EHN). “But then I went to the company’s open house and did some more research and I started to realize what a toxic process they’re proposing, taking 450,000 tons ... Read more ...
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Dr. Beverly Wright on how to keep environmental justice momentum - ehn (Jun 16, 2023) |
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Jun 16, 2023 · “The righteous fight in the end will win. Don’t be swayed by all of the noise.”
Dr. Beverly Wright joins the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast to discuss her journey as an environmental justice pioneer and how to maintain momentum in the movement as administrations change.
Fellows Alexa White and Dr. Candis Hunter sat down with Wright, the founder and executive director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice. She also talks about environmental justice collaborations at the international level and what she’s learned after being in this fight for so many years.
The Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast is a biweekly podcast ... Read more ...
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What happens if the largest owner of oil and gas wells in the US goes bankrupt? - ehn (Jan 27, 2023) |
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Jan 27, 2023 · Diversified Energy’s liabilities exceed its assets, according to a new report, sparking concerns about whether taxpayers will wind up paying to plug its 70,000 wells.
Boettner’s report expands on a previous report on Diversified Energy published by the same organization in April 2022 that found the company did not have enough funds on hand to plug its rapidly growing inventory of wells. That report also found that the company claims it can plug wells at a cost less than half the industry average, claims dying wells will continue producing for decades longer than can be reasonably anticipated, and misrepresents methane emissions.
“These unusual assumptions - as well as ... Read more ...
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What I learned reporting on environmental health in Pittsburgh in 2022 - ehn (Dec 21, 2022) |
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Dec 21, 2022 · For a lot of people, 2022 felt like the first “normal” year since 2020. It didn’t for me.
What did change for me in 2022 was a deepened understanding of how interconnected the issues that impact our health are - something disability rights activists have spent the entire pandemic raising the alarm about.
The public health response to the pandemic bears many similarities to our response to environmental health issues, many of which disproportionately impact the same people. In both cases, we fail to prioritize the health of these vulnerable groups, despite the fact that 61 million Americans - one in every four of us - lives with a disability, one in every five Americans ... Read more ...
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Western Pennsylvania can meet its climate goals — if the region stops subsidizing natural gas - ehn (Dec 13, 2022) |
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Dec 13, 2022 · A new proposed plan would lead to a 97% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and create 15,353 new jobs by 2050.
Sean O’Leary, a senior researcher at the Ohio River Valley Institute, said the organization will spend the next year reaching out to policymakers at the state and local level to share the report and discuss the potential for a clean energy transition as an economic development platform in the region.
Clean energy jobs The proposal outlines four ways western Pennsylvania can transition away from its reliance on fossil fuels: Developing local clean energy resources, importing clean energy from the existing energy market, investing in energy efficiency and ... Read more ...
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EU’s new climate change plan will cause biodiversity loss and deforestation: Analysis - ehn (Dec 02, 2022) |
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Dec 02, 2022 · In a plan full of sustainable efforts, the incentivizing of biomass burning has climate experts concerned.
The findings come on the heels of other testing that found the forever chemicals in some popular tampons.
Instead of focusing on negotiations, let the main event be information sharing, financing and partnerships that produce faster technological change.
“People can see you engaged and wanting to begin the work, not only as a researcher, but you’re invested in the community.”
The last time that we lived within the productivity limits of our planet was about 50 years ago - that is a problem.
Residents can voice their opinions at an upcoming public ... Read more ...
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Lawsuits against the plastics industry for health and environmental harm could exceed $20 billion by 2030 - ehn (Nov 07, 2022) |
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Nov 07, 2022 · A new study warns investors and insurers that plastic pollution is costing society $100 billion per year and litigation is coming.
“The challenge is that plastics are completely ubiquitous, so it’s very hard to pinpoint the source of a harmful exposure,” Charles explained. “Eventually that leads you to the somewhat absurd conclusion that it doesn’t matter how toxic your product is - as long as lots of companies are producing as much of it as possible, in as many different ways as possible, nobody has any liability. But that’s something we’re seeing change. There’s an evolution being made in the legal doctrine to deal with that.”
Lawsuits unfolding related to other ... Read more ...
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On climate protests, the media misses the point - ehn (Oct 21, 2022) |
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Oct 21, 2022 · What does van Gogh matter to billions of victims of climate inaction?
One of the key ways these media narratives keep consumers content around their climate inaction, beyond individual-level action such as expensive organic foods and recycling, is by setting the public’s social reality about the enoughness of these actions and decentering the urgency of transformative societal changes, political action, and sacrifices - primarily by the rich - that are needed to tackle the existential threat of climate change.
The other important way the media supports these narratives is by delegitimizing the dread and desperate pleas and protests calling attention to the existential ... Read more ...
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With Ian, treat climate like an 'active shooter' - ehn (Oct 02, 2022) |
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Oct 02, 2022 · And let’s treat climate deniers as accomplices.
We’re staring at an American mystery: We’re clamoring to live in our own future Atlantis, or in our own parched, broiling desert.
The strange phenomenon happens in not-so-hot markets, too: Take Fort Myers and Cape Coral, which suffered far worse from Hurricane Ian. Their Lee County is part of a relentless push toward living on the imperiled coast. In the 1950 census, Lee County had 23,211 citizens. Now, it is home to 787,976 people – meaning there are 34 times as many people in harm’s way than there were in 1950. Read more ...
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With Ian, treat climate like an 'active shooter' - ehn (Oct 02, 2022) |
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Oct 02, 2022 · And let’s treat climate deniers as accomplices.
We’re staring at an American mystery: We’re clamoring to live in our own future Atlantis, or in our own parched, broiling desert.
The strange phenomenon happens in not-so-hot markets, too: Take Fort Myers and Cape Coral, which suffered far worse from Hurricane Ian. Their Lee County is part of a relentless push toward living on the imperiled coast. In the 1950 census, Lee County had 23,211 citizens. Now, it is home to 787,976 people – meaning there are 34 times as many people in harm’s way than there were in 1950. Read more ...
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Does climate action need a king? - ehn (Sep 18, 2022) |
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Sep 18, 2022 · Tradition could silence Charles III’s passionate voice on climate change. But should it?
The King Charles III has been right about climate change for decades. And organic farming. And biodiversity.
Here’s what he wrote for Newsweek in April:
“The world is on the brink, and we need the mobilizing urgency of a war-like footing if we are to win.”
Maybe we should listen a little.
But the backlash might be both strong and varied should the new king break with tradition and remain an active voice on climate.
British journalist Ella Creamer wrote in Politico: “If Charles continues his activist work, he may stand to forfeit not only approval among the ... Read more ...
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The titans of plastic - ehn (Sep 16, 2022) |
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Sep 16, 2022 · Pennsylvania becomes the newest sacrifice zone for America’s plastic addiction.
The purpose of Shell’s massive complex wasn’t simply to refine gas. It was to make plastic.
Five years after construction began at the site, Shell’s complex, which is one of the biggest state-of-the-art ethane cracker plants in the world, is set to open. An important component of gas and a byproduct of oil refinery operations, ethane is an odorless hydrocarbon that, when heated to an extremely high temperature to “crack” its molecules apart, produces ethylene; three reactors combine ethylene with catalysts to create polyethylene; and a 2,204-ton, 285-foot-tall “quench tower” cools down the ... Read more ...
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Solving the climate crisis will help both ‘sacrifice zones' and ‘cute' puffins - ehn (Sep 11, 2022) |
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Sep 11, 2022 · Curbing pollution for families in Chicago calms the climatic conditions that drive fish away from puffins half a continent away.
When I tell bird-loving audiences what puffins mean to me, I start with the expected.
I show my photos of them either with fish in their orange, yellow, and blue-black beaks, gathered in kaleidoscopic multitude, or nuzzling in affection. I always get oohs, ahhs, and a choral, “sooooo cute.”Then I show images that are not so cute.
They are of mothers and children of southeast Chicago, with toxic industries at the end of their block. They live in what environmental justice advocates decry as “sacrifice zones.” In the last decade alone, this ... Read more ...
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Reflections on the Supreme Court's Decision in West Virginia v - ehn (Jul 18, 2022) |
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Jul 18, 2022 · Danger resides in the majority’s having invoked a sweeping “Major Questions Doctrine” to justify its decision in this relatively narrow case.
The anti-regulation, conservative majority did it with a highly contrived, legally threadbare argument simply because they could. Notably, the dispute was about a regulation - the Clean Power Plan (CPP) - that was no longer in effect.
It’s also worth noting that market forces had already done more to drive a transition away from coal in U.S. electricity generation than the CPP had been predicted to do, had it stayed in force.
The only apparent reasons for the Supreme Court to take the case were (1) to allow the Court’s most ... Read more ...
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Climate change denial and me - ehn (Jul 10, 2022) |
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Jul 10, 2022 · Since the 1990’s, I’ve had a front row seat for TV news's abject failure in covering climate change.
In 2010, Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway thoroughly explained how petrochemical and tobacco makers masterfully used this in their book Merchants of Doubt.
In my 18 years at CNN, I never had more success in persuading top execs that climate change was real than I did by explaining the climate-O.J. connection. Really.
Go-to climate denier Around the same time, Pat Michaels complained that he was blackballed from appearing on CNN due to his denialist views. Michaels was the go-to climate denier in the 1990’s. His science credentials were strong: A Ph.D. in ecological ... Read more ...
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Roe v. Wade draft bodes ill for air, wetlands and the EPA - ehn (May 23, 2022) |
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May 23, 2022 · Justice Alito’s longstanding consistency in wanting to restrict EPA authority makes it transparent where he wants the court to go.
If Justice Alito marshals his conservative colleagues against environmental laws as the leaked draft decision in Roe v Wade suggests he has done, there are many opportunities ahead for the court to curtail their reach, the EPA’s authority to use them, and, ultimately, the level to which the nation can fight climate change and environmental injustice.
The Court is expected soon to render its judgment in West Virginia v. EPA. At issue in this case is whether and how the EPA can set standards for carbon emissions at power plants. When the Obama ... Read more ...
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Solar power at Pennsylvania schools doubled during the pandemic - ehn (May 20, 2022) |
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May 20, 2022 · “If this growth continues, schools could set Pennsylvania up as a clean energy leader and not just the fossil fuels we’re known for.”
Midd-West School District in Middleburg is located in rural central Pennsylvania. In 2019 the district began installation of its solar array, which covers 7.25 acres divided between two school properties and creates up to 2.56 megawatts of solar power. Since the system went online in 2020, the district has generated 90%-95% of the school district’s power, which is expected to reduce its electricity bill by $9 million over 40 years.Most of the schools that have installed solar panels are in the central and eastern parts of the state, with just a ... Read more ...
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A corpse in a barrel in a drying reservoir - ehn (May 08, 2022) |
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May 08, 2022 · And other climate change tales for our age
A grim story about human remains found in a barrel exposed by the receding shoreline of Nevada's Lake Mead caught my eye this past week.
For me, it had all the elements: I grew up in a North Jersey town known for housing a few Mafia celebs, like Willie Moretti, the real-life inspiration for The Godfather’s legbreaker, Luca Brasi.
A few miles away were the heavily-polluted Meadowlands, a once-gorgeous wetland that had become, among other things, the alleged final resting place of countless Mafia debtors, rivals, and no-account Goodfellas.
So when drought-parched Lake Mead gave up the skeletal remains of a potential ... Read more ...
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It's time to recognize, research, and remove environmental causes of mental illness - ehn (Apr 04, 2022) |
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Apr 04, 2022 · No one should suffer mental illness due to pollution. We need to better understand and address this danger to our brains.
Scientists conducting this kind of research have faced difficulty publishing their work because it spans both mental and environmental health - fields that have traditionally been siloed. Owing to that separation and the complexity of the causes of mental illness - which are an interplay between genetics, lifestyle, and environmental factors - exposure to pollution isn’t even on the radar as a risk factor for many in the mental health field.
The study of obesity comes to mind. For years researchers focused on diet and exercise, neglecting to consider ... Read more ...
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It's time to recognize, research, and remove environmental causes of mental illness - ehn (Apr 04, 2022) |
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Apr 04, 2022 · No one should suffer mental illness due to pollution. We need to better understand and address this danger to our brains.
Scientists conducting this kind of research have faced difficulty publishing their work because it spans both mental and environmental health - fields that have traditionally been siloed. Owing to that separation and the complexity of the causes of mental illness - which are an interplay between genetics, lifestyle, and environmental factors - exposure to pollution isn’t even on the radar as a risk factor for many in the mental health field.
The study of obesity comes to mind. For years researchers focused on diet and exercise, neglecting to consider ... Read more ...
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One year after our “Fractured” investigation on fracking: Lots of talk, no action - ehn (Apr 01, 2022) |
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Apr 01, 2022 · Despite evidence that children are exposed to harmful toxics at dangerous levels, lawmakers drag their feet on tackling oil and gas pollution.
EHN became aware of this letter for the first time recently. We plan to follow up with the new head of the agency.
“I don’t think there was ever any real follow-up there,” state Sen. Katie Muth, who drafted the initial letter along with state Rep. Sarah Innamorato, told EHN. “There’s a lot of convincing that still needs to happen, and people understanding this issue and applying public pressure is going to continue to be really important.”
Despite our investigation providing shocking evidence that children who live near ... Read more ...
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Cielo Sharkus on how engineering can bolster environmental justice - ehn (Mar 23, 2022) |
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Mar 23, 2022 · “I didn’t want to just be someone producing science for the sake of science."
Cielo Sharkus joins the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast to discuss how the field of civil engineering can help combat environmental injustice and better engage with communities.
Cielo Sharkus, a PhD candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and former Agents of Change fellow, talks about the challenges of being a woman of color in engineering, and how she started a nonprofit to combat the doom and gloom in the environmental space.
The Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast is a biweekly podcast featuring the ... Read more ...
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Nurses urge upstream approach to clean water and health - ehn (Mar 23, 2022) |
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Mar 23, 2022 · As trusted messengers, nurses have a vital role to play in the fight for clean water.
Today, aging infrastructure leaches heavy metals, such as lead and copper, into drinking water. Combined sewer overflows continue to discharge untreated sewage into waterways. Moreover, in 2015 some 27 million people in the U.S. were served by water systems that had reported health-based violations under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
There are newer threats, as well. Climate change is worsening droughts, floods, and pathogen overgrowth - all of which affect water availability and quality. And per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) - a persistent pollutant linked to cancer and ... Read more ...
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A new monitor could revolutionize the way air pollution is regulated - ehn (Mar 18, 2022) |
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Mar 18, 2022 · “Our goal is to create a dense network of highly accurate, extremely localized, real-time air quality data, which doesn’t exist today.”
The monitor uses angular light scattering technology. It’s complex, but essentially entails shining tiny lights on air pollution particles, using a sensor to measure the angles at which the light scatters, then using an algorithm to calculate the particles’ surface area and mass based on those measurements. Angular light scattering technology has been around for a while, but it’s only recently that the light sources and light sensors needed to make these measurements have become affordable.
“Our goal is to create a dense network of ... Read more ...
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ENVIRONMENTAL - ehn (Mar 02, 2022) |
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Mar 02, 2022 · “The environmental justice term didn’t come until later. When the farmworker movement started it was already happening but it's not what it was called.”
The UFW is the longest standing farmworker union in the U.S., established in Delano, California, in 1962, initially as the National Farm Workers Association. They started as part of the broader multi-racial Farmworker Movement that initiated the Delano Grape Strike and boycott in the 1960s and 1970s, bridging public consumer concerns of pesticide exposure with farmworkers’ fight for better workplace conditions.
As a sociologist, I’ve met and interviewed former UFW organizers. For some, their work in environmental justice ... Read more ...
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Hollywood's third strike on climate change? - ehn (Jan 10, 2022) |
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Jan 10, 2022 · "Don't Look Up" is ambitious - but trips over its subject matter.
Anyway, Costner defeats “The Smokers,” finds Dry Land, and gets the girl. Alas, there’s nothing he can do about climate change. The end.
“WaterWorld” released six years after real-world NASA scientist James Hansen’s powerful Congressional testimony on the perils of a warming Earth. It was thought that Hansen’s chilling scenario would be, to use today’s most overused cliché, a game changer. But almost 34 years later, the game has barely changed.
“WaterWorld” received one Oscar nomination for sound editing. It didn’t win. At the box office, it barely broke even.
“The Day After Tomorrow” debuted ... Read more ...
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The role of electric vehicles in the push for environmental justice - ehn (Nov 11, 2021) |
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Nov 11, 2021 · Expanding electric vehicle access will help improve air quality and mobility in low-income communities plagued by environmental racism.
For those who don't drive, it's much cheaper to spend $10 and get a day pass for the bus than to navigate gas costs. In addition to gas, there are regular maintenance costs for oil changes, tune ups, and vehicle repairs. Those dollars quickly add up, on top of things like car insurance, parking fees, annual emissions tests, toll roads, car payments, and more. When money is tight, it makes sense to avoid those costs by simply opting for the bus or train.
When I used to drive a gas-powered vehicle, there were times I did not have money for ... Read more ...
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Fuel price spikes, pandemic recovery may push clean cooking goals out of reach: Study - ehn (Nov 07, 2021) |
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Nov 07, 2021 · "It is simply unfair and unequal."
To examine global access to clean cooking by 2050, the researchers constructed three types of simulations: baseline scenarios, a slow economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic scenario assuming a 20-year recovery period, and ambitious climate mitigation policy scenarios set to limit global warming to below 2 °C by the end of the century.
The study also showed that the potential prolonged economic downturn after the pandemic could strip 470 million more people's access to clean cooking by 2030. This aligns with the UN's recent estimation that COVID-19 could possibly leave around 420 - 580 million people in poverty.
Additionally, ... Read more ...
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Environmental groups petition EPA to rescind factory farms' 'free pass to pollute' - ehn (Oct 28, 2021) |
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Oct 28, 2021 · Air pollution from factory farms and growing feed crops kills an estimated 12,700 people in the U.S. a year.
A recent study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) estimated that air pollution from U.S. meat production, including raising feed crops for livestock, kills 12,700 people a year. Animal manure gives off acrid-smelling gases like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide and releases volatile organic compounds, while livestock kicking up dust and farmers tilling fields release fine particles into the air.
"For nearly 20 years, the EPA has given the industry a free pass to pollute, with seemingly no end in sight to this immunity," Emily Miller, ... Read more ...
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Environmental groups petition EPA to rescind factory farms' 'free pass to pollute' - ehn (Oct 28, 2021) |
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Oct 28, 2021 · Air pollution from factory farms and growing feed crops kills an estimated 12,700 people in the U.S. a year.
A recent study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) estimated that air pollution from U.S. meat production, including raising feed crops for livestock, kills 12,700 people a year. Animal manure gives off acrid-smelling gases like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide and releases volatile organic compounds, while livestock kicking up dust and farmers tilling fields release fine particles into the air.
"For nearly 20 years, the EPA has given the industry a free pass to pollute, with seemingly no end in sight to this immunity," Emily Miller, ... Read more ...
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As masses of plaintiffs pursue Roundup cancer compensation, migrant farmworkers are left out - ehn (Oct 18, 2021) |
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Oct 18, 2021 · Hampered by fear and deprived of resources, migrant farmworkers are unlikely to come forward and seek restitution.
Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman is the law firm that co-represented Dewayne Lee Johnson - the high school groundskeeper in the first-ever Roundup cancer trial. The firm, which has since represented about 3,400 plaintiffs in Roundup cancer lawsuits, told EHN that no farmworkers have come to the firm asking to be represented. The firm also noted that when they asked the United Farm Workers (UFW), one of the nation's largest agricultural workers' organizations, how many UFW farmworkers had come forward for the settlement, the answer was none.
In an email to EHN, ... Read more ...
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“Code Red” for climate means reducing US oil and gas production - ehn (Oct 12, 2021) |
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Oct 12, 2021 · Whatever long game the Biden administration hopes to play, the planet is telling us that we are going into the fourth quarter with no promise of overtime.
One example: while the Treasury Department said that it will vote against any loans for oil and coal projects by multilateral development banks such as the World Bank or the African Development Bank, it left multiple loopholes for natural gas.
Switching from coal and oil to gas for heat and electricity helped reduce global warming emissions in many nations, including the United States. But scientists now uniformly say that continued reliance on gas is a major impediment to fighting climate change. In addition to the ... Read more ...
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Joe the bummer - ehn (Oct 12, 2021) |
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Oct 12, 2021 · No, not President Joe. Senator Joe Manchin holds all the climate cards in Congress. How did that happen? Read more ...
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Pallavi Pant on decolonizing global air pollution research - ehn (Oct 07, 2021) |
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Oct 07, 2021 · Science "needs to made more equitable across geographic spaces, and across the types of groups and individuals that are seen as credible voices."
Dr. Pallavi Pant joins the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast to discuss combatting air pollution in India, and how she's working to elevate the voices of fellow female scientists.
Pant, an air pollution scientist and a staff scientist at the Health Effects Institute, also talks about why she chose to pursue research at a nonprofit, tools she uses to explain complex pollution data, and what it means to be language enthusiast.
The Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast is a biweekly podcast ... Read more ...
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The US falls behind most of the world in plastic pollution legislation - ehn (Oct 05, 2021) |
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Oct 05, 2021 · One of the world's biggest contributors to the plastic crisis has yet to pass meaningful federal regulation on plastic pollution, but a new bill may change that.
More than 90 countries have established (or have imminent plans to establish) either bans or fees on single-use plastic bags or other products, according to data from the non-profit ocean conservation organization Oceana. The U.S. is not one of them. Though Americans have been aware of plastic pollution as an environmental concern as early as the mid-20th century, U.S. action against plastics has been piecemeal - the federal government has left it up to individual cities, counties, and states to decide whether and how ... Read more ...
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