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Keeping It Green

Atmospheric CO2 Levels

(Monthly Averages)

Oct 14, 2025: 424.4 ppm
10 years ago: 396 ppm
Pre-industrial base: 280
Safe level: 350 ppm

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Page Updated:
Nov. 7, 2025

• The 2024 Clean 15 (Safe Foods)
• Get the Lead Out Toolkit
• Oil Spill History
• World Air Quality Report
• Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act

• US Emissions by Sector Chart

  
  

  Where is all that CO2 coming from? This graph breaks it down by economic sector.

• Greenest U.S. Cities
• Safe Water in Pictures
• U.S. WEA Grassroots Accelerator
• Safer Habitats

• • Valencia Floods Expose Need For Sustainable Transport

  Car-Driven Climate Risk
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}
  
  

  Nov. 5, 2025, Experts told Climate Home News that last year’s destruction in Spain highlights a little considered problem that can put people at greater risk from increasingly heavy rains: an over-reliance on road transportation.

  In late October 2024, a weather system known locally as the DANA killed 229 people and turned towns near Valencia into rivers of mud. In the days that followed, images of wrecked cars swept by floodwaters into piles as high as buildings circulated around the world.

• • Brazil Proposes a New Type of Fund to Protect Tropical Forests

  The Multibillion-Dollar Fund Would Essentially Pay Countries to Keep Forests Standing
  
  
  

  Nov. 5, 2025 -To mow down a forest is usually lucrative. You can sell the wood, then clear areas for animals to graze, or mine for valuable ores, or grow corn or other crops year after year.

  This is how most of the world’s tropical rainforests have vanished in the past 25 years, including in Brazil.

  Brazil is trying to change that.

• • Philippines Begins Cleanup After
  Typhoon Kalmaegi Leaves at Least 85 Dead

  Typhoon Kalmaegi Leaves at Least 85 Dead, Dozens Missing
  
  
  

  Nov. 5, 2025 -Residents of the central Philippines on Wednesday began scraping mud from streets and homes that survived after Typhoon Kalmaegi killed at least 85 and left dozens missing as it tore through the region.

  Scenes of destruction emerged in the hardest-hit province of Cebu, a major tourist hub, as floodwaters receded, revealing the scale of the damage: homes reduced to rubble, overturned vehicles, streets choked with debris, and lives upended.

• • Spinning Leftover Yeast From Beer
  Into Soft, Strong, Biodegradable Fabric

  This New Yeast-Based Fiber Could Replace Millions of Acres of Cotton Fields
  
  
  

  Nov. 4, 2025 -Penn State researchers say the stuff we throw away after making beer, wine, and even some medicines could help feed people and clean up fashion at the same time. In their new study, a team led by Penn State reports a fiber spun from leftover yeast biomass that beats natural fibers in strength while requiring far less land and water.

  The idea is simple on its face. Beer and drug makers end up with tons of spent yeast — a mix of proteins, lipids, and sugars — once fermentation is complete. That “waste” usually heads to low-value uses or the bin. However, in their study, the team isolated the protein, dissolved the resulting pulp in a common solvent, and extruded it through a spinneret. They were then able to produce continuous strands that can be washed, dried, twisted into yarn, and woven into cloth. The solvent is the same one used to make the popular semi-synthetic fibre Lyocell and, according to the researchers, 99.6% of it can be recovered and reused each cycle.

• • Senators, Advocates Demand Explanation
  On Asbestos Risks From East Wing

  The White House Said It Had Mitigated Risks Associated With the Building Material, Which Was Widely Used at the Time of the East Wing’s Construction and Can Be Hazardous
  
  
  

  Nov. 1, 2025 -Democratic senators and public health advocates are demanding that the White House and its contractors prove their rapid demolition of the East Wing last week did not expose workers and passersby to asbestos, a construction material that has been linked to cancer and lung disease.

  White House officials have said work to abate hazardous materials at the site was performed last month but have so far not provided documentation of what contractors did to mitigate risks associated with the material, which was widely used in building projects at the time of the East Wing’s 1902 construction and 1942 renovation.

• • The Surprising Persistence of Carbon in Retired Farmland Soils

  New Research Turns an Old Assumption On Its Head
  
  
  

  Oct. 31, 2025 -When farmland is returned to the wild, it shows a striking ability to hold onto the carbon that built up in farm soils over time, retaining this stock for 30 years or more, a unique, long-term study shows.

  The new finding challenges a long-held view that farmlands release large amounts of CO2 when they are rewilded. At issue are two opposing features of nitrogen fertilizer. On one hand, nitrogen fertilizer drives pollution and can increase emissions from the soil. On the other hand, by nourishing plant growth it also increases biomass, which in turn captures more carbon that is stored in the ground.

• • LADWP Says It Will Shift Its Largest Gas Power Plant to Hydrogen

  LA Just Greenlit an $800M Plan to Turn Part of Its Biggest Gas Plant into a Hydrogen Facility
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Oct. 31, 2025 -The LA Department of Water and Power voted 3-0 to convert two aging gas units at the Scattergood Generating Station to burn a mix of natural gas and green hydrogen by 2029—a move officials call “critical” to hitting the city’s 100% renewable energy goal by 2035.

  Supporters say the project keeps reliability intact while preparing for a hydrogen future. Critics, including the Sierra Club and Communities for a Better Environment, argue it’s a $800M bet that could lock in methane use for decades and worsen local pollution.

• • The Scariest Part of Halloween? A Billion Pounds of Pumpkin Waste

  Once a Vital Food Crop for Ancient Americans, the Humble Pumpkin Has Turned into Disposable Halloween Décor
  
  
  

  Oct. 30, 2025 -Throw up your spider webs and hang those skeletons, Halloween is here! As all terrors are let loose on the day, excessive food waste is also creeping up. Billions of pumpkins have been bought for the occasion — and most of them will end up in the landfill, not beneath a pie’s crust. Which is a shame, as pumpkins are delicious.

  In a world where 2 billion people are malnourished, even though we produce enough food to feed the total world population, and where families turn to food banks even in wealthy countries, wasting perfectly edible pumpkins is immoral. It’s also pollution. Here’s what you need to know.

• • Honeywell Unveils Tech to Make Marine Fuel, SAF From Biomass

  Honeywell has Unveiled a new Biocrude Upgrading Tech That Turns Agricultural and Forestry Waste Into Low-Carbon Fuels For Hard-To-Decarbonize Sectors
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Oct. 29, 2025 -Biomass like wood chips and crop residues can be processed into biocrude at collection sites, then refined into marine fuel, gas, or SAF at larger facilities. The system can be delivered as a modular, prefab plant to reduce deployment time and cost.

  Why it matters: Renewable fuel producers have long struggled with feedstock logistics and high costs. Honeywell says its process lowers both by using local waste sources and cutting production expenses.

• • A River Restoration in Oregon Gets Fast Results

  The Salmon Swam Right Back
  
  
  

  Oct. 29, 2025 -After being absent for more than a century, Chinook salmon have returned to their historic spawning grounds at the headwaters of the Klamath River in Oregon.

  Oregon wildlife officials said this month that the fish had made it past a key milestone, a long lake, and had reached the tributary streams that make up the river’s headwaters.

• • All Operational US Liquefied Natural Gas
  Terminals Have Violated Pollution Limits

  Analysis of Public Records Comes as Trump Administration Aims to Fast-Track Approval of New LNG Export Terminals
  
  
  

  Oct. 29, 2025 -Every fully operational liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the US has violated federal pollution limits in recent years, a new report has found.

  The analysis of public records comes as the Trump administration is aiming to fast-track the approval of new export terminals in an attempt to sell more domestic LNG to Europe and Asia. Joe Biden had previously placed a pause on LNG exports, which Donald Trump lifted on the first day of his return to office.

• • Lyme Bay Was Meant to Be An
  International Conservation Success Story

  So Why Are Fishermen
  Losing Faith In It?
  
  
  

  Oct. 29, 2025 -“It’s annoying, really, the way they say this area is a success,” says a fisherman in Lyme Regis, gesturing towards the sea from the town’s historic harbor wall. “Everyone I know is either selling their boat or thinking about it”.

  It’s not what you expect to hear in a place celebrated as a global triumph of marine conservation. Lyme Regis, a charming seaside town on England’s south coast, is the heart of the Lyme Bay Marine Protected Area (MPA). On paper, it’s a paradise regained. Scientific reports are filled with striking figures of ecological recovery, making it the poster child for a conservation network meant to safeguard the UK’s seas.

• • America’s Super-Rich Are Running
  Down the Planet’s Safe Climate Spaces

  Data Shows Wealthiest 0.1% of the US Burn Carbon at 4,000 Times the Rate of the World’s Poorest 10%
  
  
  

  Oct. 28, 2025 -The US’s super-rich are burning through carbon emissions at 4,000 times the speed of the world’s poorest 10%, according to an analysis provided to The Guardian<.

  These billionaires and multimillionaires, who comprise the wealthiest 0.1% of the US population, are also running down our planet’s safe climate space at 183 times the rate of the global average.

• • Delhi Turns to Cloud Seeding to Spur Rain, Curb Pollution

  This Is the First Time It is Being Tried In the Indian Capital
  
  
  

  Oct. 28, 2025 -Authorities in the Indian capital territory of Delhi began seeding clouds on Tuesday to induce artificial rain and bring down pollution levels in the city that has been battling poor air for days, Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said.

  The method seeks to increase precipitation by adding small chemical particles to clouds around which water droplets form, eventually developing into raindrops.

• • The Mysterious Rise of Cancer Among
  Young Adults in the Corn Belt

  In Iowa, Young Cancer Patients Are Making the Small State a Bellwether of a Generational Reckoning
  
  
  

  Oct. 27, 2024 -WINTERSET, Iowa — Mackenzie Dryden’s happiest childhood memories are of running barefoot through the sunlit corn fields of her hometown. But when she was diagnosed with cancer 2½ years ago at 18 years old, a disturbing thought began to take hold.

  Could something in the land she loved have made her sick?

  Dryden went to social media for answers, and stumbled upon a deeper mystery: Within just two years, four other recent graduates from her high school — home to only 500 students — had also been diagnosed with advanced cancers.

• • Exxon Sues California Over New Climate Disclosure Laws

  The Oil Giant Said Requirements That Companies Calculate New Details About Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Risks Violate Exxon’s Free Speech Rights
  
  
  

  Oct. 25, 2025 -Exxon Mobil sued California late Friday claiming that two new state laws that aim to fight climate change would violate the oil company’s free speech rights.

  The two laws, passed in 2023 and known as the California Climate Accountability Package, would require thousands of large companies doing business in the state to calculate and report the greenhouse gas emissions created by the use of their products, along with the business risks that climate change represents for the companies.

• • More Than 100M Red Crabs Migrate On
  Christmas Island, Delighting Conservationists

  Authorities Report Progress in Controlling Pests – the Yellow Ant Invaders – That Are Threatening the Charismatic Crustaceansts
  
  
  

  Oct. 24, 2025 -Christmas Island’s red crabs begin their famed annual migration as authorities report progress to control pests threatening the charismatic crustaceans.

  More than 100 million red crabs making their annual trek from Christmas Island’s rainforest to the coast are creating a migration spectacle that occupies countless bucket lists.

  Their dominance of the landscape is an eye-catching phenomenon loved by tourists and treasured by residents.

• • This Air Filter Could Make Your Home
  (and Everyone Else’s) a Carbon-Capture Plant

  Engineers Have Made a Nanofiber Filter That Fits in Building Ventilation Systems and Soaks Up CO2 at Lower Cost Than Massive Direct-Air Capture Plants
  
  
  

  Oct. 23, 2025 - Direct air capture, the technology to snag carbon dioxide emissions from thin air, has always been contentious. It requires giant fans to blow large volumes of air across expensive sorbent materials and then heating those materials to release the trapped CO2. Costs have been high, and haven’t gone down much despite a few large projects running for the past few years.

  Researchers now say they have a low-cost alternative to large DAC plants. They want to turn houses and buildings into distributed carbon-capture plants with an air filter that passively captures CO2 from building ventilation systems. “Same as rooftops provide existing access to solar energy without additional land use, buildings can also support DAC through the existing ventilation systems,” the authors write in the journal Science Advances.

• • Wetlands Help Remedy Agricultural Pollution

  Some Illinois Farmers Are Installing New Ones
  
  
  

  Oct. 23, 2025 -One September morning Jim Fulton was pumping fuel into a combine harvester and watching the sky for rain.

  Fulton’s family has been farming in Illinois since the 1890s. Fulton, who now grows mostly soybeans and corn, said he thinks a lot about how to protect the land. That explains, in part, why he has created a man-made wetland on his 690-acre property in Livingston County, a method that has been gaining traction as an agricultural innovation.

  “My dad was conservation-minded. It’s kind of been passed on to me,” said Fulton, 69. When a Chicago-based nonprofit called the Wetlands Initiative gave a presentation in 2018 on “smart wetlands,” Fulton said he thought, “well, that sounds interesting.”

• • Trump Opens Pristine Alaska Wilderness
  to Drilling in Long-Running Feud

  The Interior Department Also Said It Would Allow a Contentious Road to Be Built Through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Southwestern Alaska
  
  
  

  Oct. 23, 2024 -The Trump administration on Thursday announced a plan to allow oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the largest remaining tracts of pristine wilderness in the United States.

  The decision was the latest twist in a long-running fight over the fate of the refuge’s coastal plain, an unspoiled expanse of 1.56 million acres that is believed to sit atop billions of barrels of oil but is also a critical habitat for polar bears, caribou, migratory birds and other wildlife.

• • $1.3M to Remove Toxic Fluorescent
  Lights in WA Schools Left On the Table

  It Isn’t Clear Why Most School Districts Haven’t Participated in the Cleanup Programs
  
  
  

  Oct. 16, 2025 -For six years, state Department of Ecology officials have offered money to any Washington schools looking to remove and replace lights containing PCBs, banned chemicals that have the potential to seep into classrooms.

  Just one school district has taken advantage of the funding. Only two other districts have tapped into a similar pool of money allocated by state education officials.

• • U.S. Mine Waste Contains Enough Critical
  Minerals and Rare Earths to Easily End Imports

  But Tapping into These Resources Is Anything but Easy
  
  
  

  Oct. 23, 2024 -Most U.S. metal mines are built to dig for one or two things: copper, iron, or in some places maybe gold. But here’s the thing — when these mining companies pull up ore, the majority of its content isn’t copper or iron or gold. It’s something else. And that “something else” might just hold the keys to our clean energy future.

  “We’re only producing a few commodities,” said Elizabeth Holley, a mining engineer at the Colorado School of Mines. “The question is: What else is in those rocks?”

  The answer, as her new study shows, is a lot.

• • New York City Needs More Housing

  Should it Come With Promises to Protect Green Space?
  
  
  

  Oct. 22, 2025 -The Elizabeth Street Garden, a cherished green space in lower Manhattan, was at the center of a heated debate that pitted locals against affordable housing advocates and city officials.

  Residents in the neighborhood, known as Little Italy, and beyond were deeply attached to the garden and rallied to save it, fighting plans to build a 123-unit affordable housing development for senior citizens on the site. Their efforts led Mayor Eric Adams to abandon the project.

• • Gulf South Residents and Green Groups Sue
  Trump and EPA Over Toxic Air Pollution Exemptions

  The Lawsuit Fights a White House Proclamation Exempting 50 Chemical Manufacturing Plants From Hard-Won Restrictions on Cancer-Causing Pollutants
  
  
  

  Oct. 22, 2025 -Frontline community groups teamed up with national environmental organizations Wednesday to sue the Trump administration for letting chemical manufacturing plants off the hook for toxic, carcinogenic air pollution.

  The lawsuit targets an executive action from July that gave 50 plants a two-year exemption from a Biden-era U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule that tightened restrictions on cancer-causing air toxics like ethylene oxide and chloroprene. After years of fierce grassroots advocacy from communities harmed by chemical plants, the EPA enacted the 2024 HON rule—Hazardous Organic NESHAP (National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants)—and projected that it would reduce air pollution-related risks for communities living near these facilities by about 96 percent while cutting the industry’s emissions by more than 6,200 tons annually.

• • Congress Members Question Pentagon’s
  Delay in ‘Forever Chemical’ Cleanup

  A Bipartisan Group of Lawmakers Has Asked the Military to Explain Why Cleanup of PFAS Chemicals At Bases Nationwide Has Been Pushed Back
  
  
  

  Oct. 22, 2024 -Three dozen members of Congress, including two Republicans, asked Wednesday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explain why the Pentagon has pushed back its cleanup of “forever chemical” contamination at nearly 140 military sites nationwide.

  The New York Times reported last month that the Department of Defense had delayed its cleanup efforts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, which are used in firefighting foam at military installations across the country. The chemicals are linked to serious diseases including cancer.

• • Cutting Emissions, the Roundabout Way, in New Hampshire

  The City of Keene, has Become an Example of the Safety and Climate Benefits of Swapping Traffic Lights For Roundabouts
  May Be Some 'Good Signs'
  
  
  

  Oct. 21, 2024 -In 2023, Keene, a small college town with about 23,000 residents, installed its seventh and newest roundabout. These circular intersections are easily confused with rotaries or traffic circles, but are distinctly free of traffic lights. Instead they require drivers to yield to traffic before entering and are constructed to be slower-moving while minimizing stopping.

  These features make modern roundabouts significantly safer than other intersections. Because of the position of the cars, they can drastically reduce the chances of potentially deadly crashes, like T-bones or head-on collisions. And because cars can generally keep moving without idling at red lights, they also burn less gasoline.

• • An Iranian Volcano Appears to Have
  Woken Up 700,000 Years After Its Last Eruption

  Iran’s Taftan Volcano Shows Unsettling Signs of Pressure Building Beneath Its Surface
  
  
  

  Oct. 21, 2024 -For centuries, the Taftan volcano in southeastern Iran was considered inactive; just another mountain in the desert. But recent evidence shows that something beneath it has started to shift.

  Between July 2023 and May 2024, the ground near Taftan’s summit rose by roughly 9 centimeters, according to a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters. The finding marks the first clear sign of unrest at a volcano that last erupted about 700,000 years ago.

• • PNW Could Face Energy Shortage During Extreme Conditions

  The Report Analyzed the Region’s Energy Plans Against Potential Weather and Hydropower Conditions Across Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho and Parts of Utah and Wyoming
  
  
  

  Oct. 21, 2024 -Does the Pacific Northwest have the energy it needs to prevent rolling blackouts? A new report commissioned by the region’s largest utilities has raised concerns.

  Starting next year, the Northwest could face a power shortage that would challenge the reliability of the grid during extreme conditions, according to the report.

• • Why Diwali Is Also the Start of Air Pollution Season in New Delhi

  The Air Quality in India’s Capital Ranks Among the Worst in the World, But Experts Say Politics Stand in the Way of Improving It
  
  
  

  Oct. 21, 2024 -As India and the Indian diaspora celebrated Diwali on Monday, residents of New Delhi and much of north India also gasped through the start of air pollution season.

  Despite a yearslong ban on Diwali firecrackers, which exacerbate the seasonal increase in pollution, a drop in temperatures at this time of year creates a blanket of smog so thick that many historical sites in New Delhi, India’s capital, become invisible. The city’s residents choke on its air, with the air quality index soaring past 350 on Monday.

• • Lead Contamination Still Threatens Children Decades After Ban

  Researchers Mapped Lead Contamination in Chicago’s Soil and the Results Are Alarming
  
  
  

  Oct. 20, 2024 -Lead is a neurotoxin that can damage multiple body systems and lead to learning and developmental problems. The element has been phased out of use in paint, gasoline, and other industrial applications for decades, but it can persist for years in the soil. Children, who can be particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning, can accidentally ingest and inhale lead particles when they play in contaminated areas.

  Even though one in four U.S. homes likely has soil lead levels over the recommended safety limits, no major U.S. city includes systematic soil monitoring as part of its lead prevention services, and blood testing often happens only after exposure. That’s why this research is so important.

• • From Mexico to Ireland, Fury Mounts Over a Global A.I. Frenzy

  As Tech Companies Build Data Centers Worldwide to Advance Artificial Intelligence, Vulnerable Communities Have Been Hit By Blackouts and Water Shortages.
  
  
  

  Oct. 20, 2024 -The United States has been at the nexus of a data center boom, as OpenAI, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others invest hundreds of billions to build the giant computing sites in the name of advancing artificial intelligence. But the companies have also exported the construction frenzy abroad, with less scrutiny.

  Nearly 60 percent of the 1,244 largest data centers in the world were outside the United States as of the end of June, according to an analysis by Synergy Research Group, which studies the industry. More are coming, with at least 575 data center projects in development globally from companies including Tencent, Meta< and Alibaba.

• • Battery Storage Public Hearing Draws Frustration in MA

  More than 600 Residents Turned Out to protest a Proposed Lithium-Ion Battery Storage Facility in Tewksbury, Massachusetts
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Oct. 19, 2025 -Opponents called the site “a disaster waiting to happen,” pointing to its location near homes, assisted living facilities, and a wellhead protection zone. Local leaders cited fire risks, environmental concerns, and unclear community benefits.

  Many urged the state to delay approval until new battery buffer zone bills—which would bar projects within 2,000 feet of homes or 3,000 feet of sensitive ecosystems—can take effect.

• • Dolphins Are Getting Alzheimer’s
  Symptoms Due to Pollution and Algae

  Could Toxic Algae Be Nudging Marine Mammals—and Perhaps Humans—Toward Cognitive Collapse?
  
  
  

  Oct. 20, 2024 -Dolphins keep turning up on Florida’s beaches, stuck in the shallows and barely moving. Volunteers and scientists try to help by cooling them down, keeping them wet, and sometimes getting them back to sea. But many don’t make it.

  Why such intelligent, social creatures beach themselves has long mystified scientists. Now, a new study published in Communications Biology offers an unsettling possibility: some of these dolphins may be suffering from Alzheimer’s-like brain disease, triggered by exposure to toxic algae flourishing in warming coastal waters.

• • World’s Landscapes May Soon Be ‘Devoid of Wild Animals’

  Margot Raggett, Whose Latest Compilation Shows Animals Scrubbed From Natural Habitats, Calls For Rethink on UK Accelerated Housebuilding
  
  
  

  Oct. 29, 2025 -Margot Raggett has spent the past decade raising money for conservation efforts around the world but now she feels nervous about the future. “It does feel like we’ve taken a backward step,” she said.

  The wildlife photographer has raised £1.2m for the cause in the past 10 years through her Remembering Wildlife series, an annual, not-for-profit picture book featuring images of animals from the world’s top nature photographers. The first edition was published in 2015, when the Paris climate agreement was being drafted but, in the years since, efforts to tackle the climate crisis have been rolled back.

• • A Completely New Way To Cool Things That
  Could Make Our Polluting Fridges Obsolete

  From Ice to Ions, Scientists Have Now Made a Breakthrough in Heating and Cooling Technology
  
  
  

  Oct. 17, 2024 -During winter, you’ll often see municipal trucks spray salt on roads and sidewalks to clear them of snow. Although no heat is added, the dissolution of the salt effectively lowers the freezing point of water, which explains why the ice melts even in sub-zero temperatures. And since the natural world is guided by energy conservation, the melting ice cools its environment.

  Remarkably, no energy input is required for this to happen, which gave some scientists a cool idea. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the U.S. have used this exact physical principle to develop a new refrigeration device that cools stuff in an entirely different way compared to your kitchen fridge.

• • Scientists Find a New Way to Trace
  Years of Exposure to Deadly Indoor Radon

  Your Toenails Could Reveal If You’ve Been Exposed to This Invisible Cancer-Causing Gas
  
  
  

  Oct. 17, 2024 -When Emi Bossio began to cough, she didn’t think it would be anything serious. She was 47, a healthy lawyer in Calgary who had never smoked. “I ate nutritiously and stayed fit,” she said. “I thought to myself, I can’t have lung cancer.”

  But the diagnosis came anyway—and it upended her life. “It was super shocking. A cataclysmic moment. There are no words to describe it.”

  Bossio had to leave her law practice to focus on treatment. Later, she began speaking publicly about lung cancer and how it can strike even those who never light a cigarette. Her story led her to Aaron Goodarzi, a biochemist at the University of Calgary who studies one of the most overlooked environmental killers on Earth: radon.

• • New method Recycles Arsenic For Clean Energy

  From Poison to Power
  
  
  

  Oct. 21, 2025 -Arsenic is a double-edged sword. It is a known carcinogen found naturally at high levels in groundwater. But it is also an element that is critical for clean energy technologies such as solar cells.

  Connecting those two flows, researchers have found a way to convert the arsenic in groundwater into pure arsenic nanoparticles that can be used in manufacturing. “The creation of valuable [critical raw materials] from carcinogenic treatment by-products is a potentially disruptive technology for the water sector that can alter global [arsenic] supply chains,” Kaifeng Wang and Case M. van Genuchten, geochemists at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, write in a paper published in the journal Science Advances.

• • Organizations, Businesses Across the Country Urge
  Congress to Stand Up For Energy Efficiency Standards

  Hundreds of Businesses and Organizations Are Urging Congress to Defend Federal Appliance Efficiency Standards That Save Consumers Money and Cut Emissions
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Oct. 15, 2025 -Led by Environment America and the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, groups in 10 states delivered letters to lawmakers calling for protection of water- and energy-saving standards facing rollback threats.

  A broad coalition of local governments, nonprofits, and companies from Alaska to North Carolina say efficiency rules are “common-sense climate policy” that lower bills and boost competitiveness.

• • Unsafe Amounts of Lead Found in Some Protein Powders

  More Than Two-Thirds of the 23 Protein Powders Tested Had Lead Levels Exceeding the Group’s Daily Intake Safety Standards
  
  
  

  Oct. 15, 2025 -More than a dozen protein powders tested for toxic metals were found to have unsafe or concerning amounts of lead, the nonprofit watchdog Consumer Reports said Tuesday, adding that the average lead levels in such products appear to be worsening compared to years prior.

  Of 23 protein powders tested, more than two-thirds contained more lead in a single serving than is considered safe to ingest in a day, Consumer Reports said, citing its own safety standards.

• • Newsom Vetoes California’s Ban on ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Cookware

  He Was Concerned That the Measure Restricting PFAS Chemicals Would Make Pots and Pans More Expensive for Californians
  
  
  

  Oct. 14, 2024 -Gov. Gavin Newsom of California vetoed a bill that would phase out harmful “forever chemicals” used in nonstick cookware, saying he was worried it would make pots and pans more expensive for Californians.

  The veto, announced late Monday, is a victory for the cookware industry as well as for celebrity chefs and cooks who had defended the chemicals’ use, saying that nonstick pans are safe when used responsibly. Rachael Ray, David Chang and Marcus Samuelsson had all opposed the bill.

• • The West's Power Grid Could Be Stitched Together

  If Red and Blue States Buy In
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Oct. 13, 2025 -California just opened the door with a new law that allows for a regional energy market across 11 states. Supporters say a Western RTO would cut costs, strengthen reliability, and speed the clean energy transition by letting states trade surplus power instead of building peakers that sit idle most of the year.

  Yes, but: Some states worry about losing control. Climate leaders don’t want coal-heavy neighbors dragging them backward, and conservative states distrust California’s influence. Others warn a Trump-era FERC could use a regional grid to prop up fossil fuels.

• • Microplastics Are Everywhere

  You Can Do One Simple
  Thing to Avoid Them
  
  
  

  Oct. 13, 2025 -If you are concerned about microplastics, the world starts to look like a minefield. The tiny particles can slough off of polyester clothing and swirl around in the air inside your home; they can scrape off of food packaging into your take-out food.

  But as scientists zero in on the sources of microplastics — and how they get into human bodies — one factor stands out.

  Microplastics, studies increasingly show, are released from exposure to heat.

• • How Microplastics May Be Reshaping Our Bodies and Minds

  The Plastic Inside Us
  
  
  

  Oct. 12, 2025 -Microplastics have been found almost everywhere: in blood, placentas, lungs – even the human brain. One study estimated our cerebral organs alone may contain 5g of the stuff, or roughly a teaspoon. If true, plastic isn’t just wrapped around our food or woven into our clothes: it is lodged deep inside us.

  Now, researchers suspect these particles may also be meddling with our gut microbes. When Dr Christian Pacher-Deutsch at the University of Graz in Austria exposed gut bacteria from five healthy volunteers to five common microplastics, the bacterial populations shifted – along with the chemicals they produced. Some of these changes mirrored patterns linked to depression and colorectal cancer.

• • A Short-Lived Win in a Never-Ending Fight Over Forever Chemicals

  For Seven Years N.C. Activists Overcame Political and Scientific Hurdles to Convince the EPA to Enact PFAS Regulations in Drinking Water
  
  
  

  Oct. 12, 2025 -AK ISLAND, N.C.—Emily Donovan stood before 100 people in the pews at Ocean View United Methodist Church in a small seaside town in Brunswick County, North Carolina. It was May, the start of beach season. She had invited a scientist to speak about the astronomical levels of PFAS—nicknamed “forever chemicals”—that had been detected in sea foam four miles away.

  But before she began her presentation, Donovan, a co-founder of Clean Cape Fear, had to deliver some bad news. That morning, Lee Zeldin, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator appointed by President Donald Trump, had announced his intention to rescind drinking water regulations for several types of PFAS compounds.

• • A Push For ‘Global Energy Dominance’

  Puts Alaskan Wildlands at Risk
  
  
  

  Oct. 11, 2025 -This is the Western Arctic of Alaska, America’s Arctic. Much of it was set aside as a petroleum reserve by President Warren G. Harding in 1923. Congress in 1976 set limits on drilling here, intended to protect the land’s spectacular ecological value. The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), at 23 million acres, is the largest sweep of public land in the country, and it has remained largely undeveloped.

  Now Trump in his second term, just as in his first, is calling for full-on extraction of oil and gas here. The Trump plan would open about 82 percent of the NPR-A to oil and gas extraction, including 13 million acres in five designated Special Areas, where protections against drilling were strengthened under the Biden administration.

• • San Andreas and Cascadia Faults May
  Produce Synchronized Earthquakes

  Samples From the Seafloor Reveal Evidence of Several Earthquakes Along the West Coast’s Two Major Fault Zones Happening In Quick Succession Over the Past 3,000 Years
  
  
  

  Oct. 13, 2025 -The West Coast of North America is a geologically tumultuous zone where tectonic plates collide, subducting under and scraping past one another. Over the eons, this activity has regularly caused major earthquakes. New research reveals that some of these seismic events may have happened in sync along the coast’s two major faults: the San Andreas Fault and the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

  A team of researchers analyzed a trove of seafloor sediment from the region where the faults meet off the coast of northern California. The researchers’ findings, published recently in Geosphere, reveal that the fault systems have produced several synchronized earthquakes over the past 3,000 years.

• • Electric Heating Gains Ground
  as Natural Gas Declines in U.S. Homes

  See the Breakdown
  
  {EIA}
  
  

  Oct. 10, 2025 -An increasing share of U.S. households are using electricity for heating, although natural gas remains the most common heating fuel. In 2024, 42% of U.S. households reported that electricity was their main space heating fuel, according to annual estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Natural gas was the main heating fuel in 47% of homes last year, a decline from 49% in 2010.

  Evolving trends in home heating fuels reflect shifts in housing populations, changes in technology and policy, and decisions by households and home builders. The center of American population continues to generally move west and south, from areas with colder weather to areas with warmer weather. As that population has shifted, overall demand for space heating has declined.

• • Most Energy Execs Fear ‘Major Incident
  on Power Grid Due to Aging Infrastructure

  The Nation’s Aging Power Infrastructure is on Borrowed Time
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Oct. 10, 2025 -Roughly 9 in 10 executives believe a preventable “major incident” is likely within years, according to SwissDrones’ Energy Infrastructure Index, as extreme weather and rising demand strain equipment built decades ago.

  About 70% of US transmission lines are 25+ years old, with many nearly the end of their 50–80-year lifespan. The American Society of Civil Engineers downgraded the nation’s energy infrastructure to a D+ this year.

• • China’s Green Push for the Global South

  Domestic Overproduction of Green Technologies Means New Markets Need to Be Found
  
  {GEO POLITICAL FUTURES}
  
  

  Oct. 10, 2025 -As the world transitions from hydrocarbons to renewables, Washington and Beijing are pursuing diverging paths that will have important implications for global leadership and geoeconomic power in the 21st century. Under President Donald Trump, the United States has rolled back green energy policies, doubled down on fossil fuels and questioned the viability of green technology. China, meanwhile, has set its sights on eliminating its reliance on foreign oil and natural gas to become the first global electro-state. In this global reordering, Africa – home to 60 percent of the world’s best solar resources and chronic energy deficits – has become the proving ground for Beijing’s ambitions.

  Click now to learn more.

• • 2025 Chemistry Nobel Goes to Molecular Sponges

  They Purify Water, Store Energy and Clean Up the Environment
  
  
  

  Oct. 8, 2025 -The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded for a versatile technology that can be used for an astonishing variety of purposes, from environmental remediation to drug delivery and energy storage.

  Metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs, are molecular sponges that are already in clinical trials for use in cancer radiation treatment and are being sold as a way to contain carbon dioxide taken from cement and to fuel hydrogen production. They are also being explored as methods of pulling water out of air in arid places, cleaning up wastewater, and removing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from the environment and for providing targeted drug delivery. The researchers behind MOFs—Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi—will share the Nobel Prize and divide the award of 11 million Swedish kronor, or about $1 million.

• • How a City Awash in Garbage Is Trying to Take Out the Trash

  Illegal Dumping has Inundated Oakland, Calif., a City With More Garbage Than Almost Anywhere Else
  
  
  

  Oct. 8, 2025 -It’s hard to stay calm when it’s your job to rid Oakland, Calif., of trash.

  Josh Rowan, the city’s acting public works director, becomes irate when he drives through the canyons of cardboard boxes, mattresses and busted appliances in Oakland.

  “I stay furious, piping mad, dropping F-bombs kind of furious,” he said on a recent morning as he sifted through sour-smelling garbage beside a road. He said his anger fueled his work.

  “I love this city, but what’s up with all of the trash?”

• • These Florida Communities Wanted to
  Be More Sustainable and Resilient

  A New State Law Blocks Their Efforts
  
  
  

  Oct. 8, 2025 -Manatee County’s commissioners didn’t expect to be threatened with removal from office for considering two measures meant to enhance disaster resilience in this fast-growing county on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

  The measures, both amendments to the county’s comprehensive plan, were widely supported in the sizable county that stretches south from Tampa and east from the Gulf of Mexico, encompassing beachy barrier islands and bucolic inland communities. One of the measures was intended to protect the county’s wetlands and guard against future flooding by prohibiting development within 50 feet of the marshes

• • Vulture Nests Serve as 600-Year Archives
  of Human and Environmental Change

  How Scavenger Behavior Can Provide New Data for Archaeology, Toxicology, and Ecosystem Studies
  
  
  

  Oct. 8, 2025 -Endangered bearded vultures disappeared from the cliffs of southern Spain decades ago. But a peculiar legacy remains, one that offers a glimpse back in time more than 600 years.

  The massive nests these vultures built are also a sort of guano-stained archive, full of human bric-a-brac dating as early as the 13th century. Scientists studying the vultures uncovered a trove of more than 200 human-made odds and ends when they picked through 12 abandoned nests.

• • Scientists Seek to Turbocharge a
  Natural Process That Cools the Earth

  Terradot, a Carbon Removal Company, is Using “Enhanced Rock Weathering” to Sequester Carbon
  
  
  

  Oct. 8, 2025 -Across vast stretches of farmland in southern Brazil, researchers at a carbon removal company are attempting to accelerate a natural process that normally unfolds over thousands or millions of years.

  The company, Terradot, is spreading tons of volcanic rock crushed into a fine dust over land where soybeans, sugar cane and other crops are grown. As rain percolates through the soil, chemical reactions pull carbon from the air and convert it into bicarbonate ions that eventually wash into the ocean, where the carbon remains stored.

• • The Link Between Air Pollution and Infertility

  A Harvard Researcher, Investigated the Fertility Risks Women Face From Air Pollution
  
  
  

  Oct. 8, 2025 -Shruthi Mahalingaiah: I am a physician scientist, which means I am a doctor who does research, specializing in environmental exposure and women’s reproductive health.

  Several years ago, I received a nearly $3 million federal research grant to start asking questions about air pollution exposures and reproductive health. No one was asking this.

• • Nestle Bows Out of Initiative to Reduce Dairy’s Climate Impact

  The Food Giant Has Left the Dairy Methane Action Alliance, an Effort to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Herds of Cattle
  
  {Bloomberg}
  
  

  Oct. 8, 2025 -Less than two years ago, a group of the world’s biggest food companies, including Nestle SA, Danone SA and Kraft Heinz Co., announced a major alliance to cut methane emissions from their hundreds of thousands of dairy suppliers.

  Last month, however, Nestle’s logo vanished from the initiative’s website. Officials at the Swiss food giant confirmed that they’ve withdrawn from the effort, known as the Dairy Methane Action Alliance.

• • Growing ‘Continuous Corn’ Drives
  Emissions of a Powerful Greenhouse Gas

  It Doesn’t Have To
  
  
  

  Oct. 8, 2025 -Year after year, the same 15 million acres across Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin are planted with corn.

  Each August, the fibrous green leaves in those fields reach eye level. And each November, the dusty stalks are razed to stumps.

  “Continuous corn,” as the growing strategy is called, allows farmers to profit from a steady demand for corn from the ethanol and livestock industries. The approach is also a major source of a potent and little-discussed greenhouse gas: nitrous oxide.