The 2011 figures for the biggest polluters:
1. China, up 10 percent to 10 billion tons.
2. United States, down 2 percent to 5.9 billion tons
3. India, up 7 percent to 2.5 billion tons.
4. Russia, up 3 percent to 1.8 billion tons.
5. Japan, up 0.4 percent to 1.3 billion tons.
6....
Plastic waste, such as plastic bags, bottles, and containers, are littering the world’s oceans and causing harm to marine animals. Birds often mistake small pieces of plastic for food and swallow them, but because birds are unable to digest plastic, the plastic pieces fill up their stomachs and proh...
The only people not concerned about what carbon dioxide is doing to the oceans are those among us who do not understand the science. And we cannot blame them for what they do not know. However, we can take issue with those who express strong opinions on subjects about which they are obviou...
"There is work to be done still on air quality," EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says. "The best result would be to find that all of our concerns were overblown, but we're not finding this in every case."
Most of the air monitoring completed so far has not found dangerous levels of pollution, the EP...
Soon, we could all be wearing clothes that purify the air as we simply move around in them.Plans are now proceeding to commercialize a new liquid laundry additive called CatClo, which contains microscopic pollution-eating particles.The new additive is the result of collaboration between the Universi...
A new study published online September 24 in Environmental Health Perspectives also indicates that previous estimates of childhood asthma exacerbation related to air pollution may have underestimated the true burden of exposure on society. The research focused on the Los Angeles basin.“Our findings ...
The largest and most comprehensive effort to research air pollution in Britain is underway in London and the skies above it.
As many as 80 scientists from eleven universities are tracking nearly 1,000 different types of gases and particles in the atmosphere.
Pollutants are being ...
One-size-fits-all prescriptions do not work. The Ocean Health Index will assess how oceans are able to support life
Around 20 years ago I took a submarine dive in the Sea of Japan. As we descended into the darkness to a depth of almost 5,500m (18,000ft) – more than two-thirds the height of Mt Eve...
Airlines battling to cut costs and pollution may not find a quick fix in biofuels, as concerns grow that using feedstocks to create an alternative to kerosene will push food prices higher.
The European Union plans to impose a limit on the use of crop-based biofuels, in a major shift in the region's...
In the flat lands of California's Central Valley, oil pumps obscured by waving lines of fuel-richened air dip and rise on the horizon. Two hundred miles to the north and west, aging eighteen-wheelers pound through an urban bypass tunnel, staining the walls black with diesel fumes. Farther to the nor...
by Kristina Smith Horn
When Jerry Whipple was a boy, his grandfather and father impressed upon him the value of the land they farmed and their responsibility to it.
"They were very passionate about the soil," said Whipple, a third-generation farmer. "They said, 'Son, they don't make any more soil....
It may live in peanut butter jars and chocolate milkshakes
by Jason Koebler
Researchers at the University of Southern Mississippi say that lecithin, an ingredient used in non-stick cooking sprays and many food products and cellulose, a compound derived from plants' cell walls that can give ice cre...
By Jim Shelton
It's time to add gassy trees to the list of climate concerns.
According to a new study by Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, diseased trees may be releasing unusually large amounts of methane gas into the air. If the data holds up, it could alter forest ...
By Dominic Frongillo of syracuse.com
Gas from fracking is mostly methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas that is up to 105 times more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over 20 years.
As this record-breaking summer continues to heat up, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is purportedly nea...
Which is better for the environment and the economy — a tomato grown nearby or one from the supermarket?
Local food, hip among urbanites and touted at the White House, is stirring more debate as new research suggests its benefits have been oversold.
“I like the food,” says Joseph Conklin, a custom...
by Amelia Templeton
The House Transportation Committee has approved a bill exempting logging roads from federal storm water pollution regulation.
Dirt and gravel roads can alter the natural plumbing of a forest, channeling mud into streams. In the past, the EPA left it to the states to regulate se...
Is gas drilling ruining the air, polluting water and making people sick? The evidence is sketchy and inconclusive, but a lack of serious funding is delaying efforts to resolve those pressing questions and creating a vacuum that could lead to a crush of lawsuits, some experts say.
A House committee ...
by Stacey Detwiler
Last weekend, I spent the day tubing down the Shenandoah River by Harper’s Ferry, close to where it meets the Potomac. There are few better ways to beat the heat of a Washington, DC summer than escaping downtown and spending some time on (or in) the water!
Fortunately for me and...
by Miles Kemp
LARGE quantities of illicit and prescription drugs are being flushed down toilets.
And they are starting to risk people's health, a UniSA study has found.
The authors have warned there is no policy on the safe disposal of the drugs into treated wastewater, surface water, drink...
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear Los Angeles County's appeal of a lower court decision requiring the county to clean up polluted runoff that flows to the ocean through two urban waterways.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last year sided with environmental groups in finding the county a...
