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Keeping It Green

Atmospheric CO2 Levels

(Monthly Averages)

Apr. 15, 2024: 422.0 ppm
10 years ago: 396 ppm
Pre-industrial base: 280
Safe level: 350 ppm

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Page Updated:
April 22, 2024

• 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

• • Antarctica Volcano is Spewing
  Out $6,000 Worth of Gold Dust Per Day

  Good Luck Getting It
  
  

  Apr. 18, 2024 - Antarctica is known for its vast expanse of ice and snow. But it’s also a very active volcanic place. According to a recent study, the continent has at least 138 volcanoes, and Erebus is one of the most active.

  Mount Erebus is a stratovolcano, formed from layers of lava flows and tephra — a mix of volcanic ash, pumice, and other debris. Its summit reaches an altitude of 3,794 meters (12,450 ft), making it the second-tallest volcano in Antarctica, after the dormant Mount Sidley. What sets Erebus apart is its persistent lava lake (one of only a handful on Earth), which resides within the main crater.

• • Changeing How US Govt. Manages 1/10th of its Land

  The Interior Department Rule Puts Conservation and Clean Energy Development on Par With Drilling, Mining and Resource Extraction on Federal Lands for the First Time
  
  

  Apr. 18, 2024 -For decades, the federal government has prioritized oil and gas drilling, hardrock mining and livestock grazing on public lands across the country. That could soon change under a far-reaching Interior Department rule that puts conservation, recreation and renewable energy development on equal footing with resource extraction.

  The final rule released Thursday represents a seismic shift in the management of roughly 245 million acres of public property.

• • Direct Air Capture & Storage In Norway

  Climeworks Wins Funding For It
  
  

  Apr. 15, 2024 -Climeworks, the company responsible for the world’s first and largest Direct Air Capture and Storage (DAC+S) plant in Iceland, has been awarded €2.3 million by Enova, a state enterprise owned by Norway’s Ministry of Climate and Environment. The multi-million euro boon for the world leader in DAC facilities will fund a feasibility study to bring DAC+S to Norway, a world leader in renewable energy.

  Click now to learn more.

• • High Risk of Animal-to-Human
  Diseases Developing in Some China Fur Farms

  Reported by an
  Animal Protection Group
  
  

  Apr. 15, 2024 -An investigation of five fur farms in China housing foxes, raccoon dogs and mink found a high risk of diseases developing that could jump from animals to humans, said animal protection group Humane Society International who conducted the study at the end of 2023.

  The farms in China's northern Hebei and Liaoning provinces each held between 2,000 and 4,000 animals in intensive conditions, including in close proximity to poultry, HSI said.

• • Alabama Mine Cited for 107 Federal Safety Violations

  Where Are State Officials?
  
  

  Apr. 11, 2024 -Following a home explosion that killed one and critically injured another, residents want to know more about the mine under their community. So far, their questions have largely gone unanswered.

  Click now for the rest of the story.

• • EPA Sets Limit for ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water

  Agency Officials Estimate the Rule Will Reduce PFAS Exposure for About 100 Million Americans
  
  

  Apr. 10, 2024 -The Environmental Protection Agency has finalized the nation’s first drinking water standard for “forever chemicals,” a group of persistent human-made chemicals that can pose a health risk to people at even the smallest detectable levels of exposure.

  The new rules are part of the Biden administration’s efforts to limit pollution from these per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which can persist in the environment for centuries.

• • A Dam Bursts and Homes Flood Near the Kazakh Border

  Russians Stage a Rare Protest
  
  

  Apr. 8, 2024 -Russians in the city of Orsk gathered in a rare protest Monday, calling for compensation following the collapse of a dam and subsequent flooding in the Orenburg region near the border with Kazakhstan.

  Hundreds of people gathered in front of the administrative building in Orsk Monday, Russian state news agency Tass said, while videos shared on Russian social media channels showed people chanting “Putin, help us,” and “shame.”

• • Amazon Is Capable of Reducing Plastic Waste in the US

  So, What's Stopping Them?
  
  

  Apr. 8, 2024 -In response to growing pressure to address the plastic pollution crisis, Amazon has been cutting down on plastic packaging. Last July, the company said it used 11.6 percent less plastic for all of its shipments globally in 2022, compared to 2021.

  Much of Amazon’s reductions took place in countries that have enacted—or threatened to enact—restrictions on certain types of plastic packaging. But the company’s progress may not extend to the US, which has not regulated plastic production on a federal level.

• • H&M and Zara Cotton Blamed for Deforestation in Brazil's Cerrado

  The Problems Caused
  by Some Asian Garment Makers

  (Context), Apr. 7, 2024, -Clothing factories that supply H&M and Zara are buying cotton linked to environmental destruction and land-grabbing in Brazil's Cerrado - a biodiversity hotspot where deforestation is soaring, research by the Earthsight nonprofit has found.

  Click now to learn more.

• • Climate-Warming Gases Being Smuggled into Europe

  Gases Are the Mostly Hydrofluorocarbons
  
  

  Apr. 7, 2024 -Large amounts of climate-warming refrigerant gases from China and Turkey are being smuggled illegally into Europe, undermining a global pact to phase them out, a report by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) said on Monday.

  The gases are hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a range of chemicals used mostly for cooling in industry and retail, which do not damage the ozone layer like other banned refrigerants, but as greenhouse gases can be several thousand times more potent than carbon dioxide.

• • The Increase in Emissions of SF6, Used to Insulate Power Lines

  The Electrification of
  China is Largely Responsible

  (euronews.green), Apr. 7, 2024, -A greenhouse gas 24,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide is being driven up by China’s growing electricity needs, according to a new study.

  CO2 is the number one greenhouse gas on our radar for good reason. A gas naturally present in the atmosphere but turbocharged by humans’ fossil fuel combustion, it is the single biggest contributor to the climate crisis.

• • A New California Bill Aims to Ban Paraquat

  That Toxic Stuff Is Still Around
  
  

  Apr. 6, 2024 -When Americans of a certain age hear the word “paraquat,” the first thing that might leap to mind is Mexican weed. That’s because, in the late 1970s, the United States government thought it would be a good idea to pay the Mexican government to spray this potent herbicide on marijuana fields south of the border.

  Pot was illegal in every US state then, but plenty of Americans smoked imported weed, and the fear that people were inhaling a nasty chemical along with their THC caused quite the stir.

• • Earthquake Rattles NYC Area

  Tremors Are Felt
  Across the East Coast
  
  

  Apr. 5, 2024 -A 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck northern New Jersey on Friday morning, producing tremors that were felt in New York City and as far away as Maryland and Massachusetts.

  The quake hit at 10:23 a.m. Eastern time, just under three miles below the surface near Whitehouse Station, N.J., about 50 miles from Manhattan, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

• • Indonesian Communities Are Reviving Coral Reefs

  Reparing Human Caused
  Anti-Environmental Mistakes
  
  

  Apr. 4, 2024 -Out among a scattering of islands spilled like beads into the Indonesian shallows, an extended experiment in coral restoration has revealed something marvelous: With a tender touch and a community to care for it, a reef can fully recover from the devastation of blast fishing in just four years.

  The Spermonde Archipelago, which lies a dozen miles off the coast of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, was long home to some of the most dynamic reefs in the world, where schools of fish rainbowed over coral blanketing the seafloor. But dynamite fishing turned swaths of those wonders into wastes.

• • Harvard’s Failed Geoengineering Experiment

  The Hard Lessons Learned
  
  

  Apr. 4, 2024 -In late March of 2017, at a small summit in Washington, DC, two Harvard professors, David Keith and Frank Keutsch, laid out plans to conduct what would have been the first solar geoengineering experiment in the stratosphere.

  Instead, it became the focal point of a fierce public debate over whether it’s okay to research such a controversial topic at all.

• • Major Spring Snowstorm Socks New England

  Power Cut to 600,000 Customers
  
  

  Apr. 4, 2024 -A 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck northern New Jersey on Friday morning, producing tremors that were felt in New York City and as far away as Maryland and Massachusetts.

  The quake hit at 10:23 a.m. Eastern time, just under three miles below the surface near Whitehouse Station, N.J., about 50 miles from Manhattan, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

• • Check Out This Organic Pesticide

  It's Made From Rose Essential Oil
  
  

  Apr. 3, 2024 -

  Essential oils are used in cosmetics and detergents. They may soon make their way to agriculture.

  The fact that the world uses too much pesticides shouldn’t be a secret to anyone. These pesticides ensure that we can produce more food without pest destruction, but these chemicals also cause long-term damage. Pesticides have been linked to a variety of environmental and health issues. And, on the environmental side, they can contaminate soil, water, and other vegetation.

• • California Leads the Nation, But...

  But Not in a Good Way
  
  

  Apr. 3, 2024 -California emits more sulfuryl fluoride, a potent greenhouse gas and toxic pesticide, than the rest of the lower 48 states combined, a new study concludes.

  The study, published Wednesday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, comes after California—a state that touts its leadership role in addressing climate change—denied a recent request to include the emissions in its annual greenhouse gas inventory and phase out the pollutant.

• • The EPA Cleaned Up the ‘Valley of
  the Drums’ Outside Louisville 45 Years Ago

  Why Did it Leave
  the ‘Gully of the Drums’ Behind?
  
  

  Apr. 3, 2024 -A University of Louisville graduate student has exposed a comedy of errors by federal, state and local agencies that has allowed hazardous wastes to pollute the ground and, possibly, a nearby waterway.

  Click now for the complete story.

• • Largest U.S. Egg Producer Detects Bird Flu at Texas Plant

  One More Disease to Worry About
  
  

  Apr. 3, 2024 -The largest egg producer in the United States said Tuesday that it temporarily ceased operations at one of its Texas facilities after detecting bird flu in chickens — the latest in a steady uptick of cases among U.S. farm animals in recent weeks.

  Cal-Maine Foods said it culled about 1.6 million hens and 337,000 pullets (young hens) after some of its chickens at a Parmer County, Texas, facility tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI),

• • New West-East Route Keeps Europe Hooked on Russian Gas

  Despite European Sanctions
  
  <

  Apr. 3, 2024 -Western European governments have sought to reduce their energy dependence on Russia since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, but when it comes to gas, they have increasingly substituted the country's pipeline supplies with its liquefied natural gas (LNG).

  A Reuters analysis of data found more than a tenth of the Russian gas formerly shipped by pipeline to the European Union has been replaced by LNG delivered into EU ports.

• • Taiwan's Strongest Earthquake in 25 Years

  9 Killed and 50 Missing
  
  

  Apr. 3, 2024 -Taiwan's biggest earthquake in at least 25 years killed nine people on Wednesday and injured more than 900, while 50 workers traveling in minibuses to a hotel in a national park were missing.

  Some buildings tilted at precarious angles in the mountainous, sparsely populated county of Hualien, near the epicentre of the 7.2 magnitude quake, which struck just offshore at about 8 a. m. (0000 GMT) and triggered massive landslides.

• • The EPA’s Push to Clean Up Trucking

  Goes Way Beyond 18-Wheelers
  
  

  Apr. 1, 2024 -In the 20 months since Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which offered billions in subsidies for clean energy projects and electric vehicles, President Biden has sought to supplement those climate carrots with a few key sticks.

  The Environmental Protection Agency has in recent months raced to roll them out, in the form of key regulations that penalize carbon emissions from power plants, oil wells, and passenger cars, under an effort to finalize new rules before the election.

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• • New Pollution Rules Aim to Lift Sales of Electric Trucks

  Cleaner Trucks Would Help Reduce Emissions of Soot and Other Pollutants that Affect About 72 Million People Who Live Near Freight Truck Routes in the U.S
  
  

  Mar. 29, 2024 -“Exposure to traffic-related pollution is a serious health hazard to those living in communities with heavy truck traffic,” Harold Wimmer, president and chief executive of the American Lung Association, said in a statement. Air pollution has been linked to a range of health effects, including poor birth outcomes and chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases as well as premature death.

  Click now for more information.

• • What Rose Essential Oil Can Do For Farming

  Can Be a New Use as a Pesticide
  
  

  Mar. 29, 2024 -The fact that the world uses too much pesticides shouldn’t be a secret to anyone. These pesticides ensure that we can produce more food without pest destruction, but these chemicals also cause long-term damage. Pesticides have been linked to a variety of environmental and health issues. And, on the environmental side, they can contaminate soil, water, and other vegetation.

  Click now for the rest of the story.

• • What Dangers Oil and Gas Projects Pose

  Could Emit 14 Billion Tons of CO2

  Mar. 28, 2024 -This would be equivalent to more than an entire year’s worth of China’s emissions.

  It includes 8GtCO2 from new oil and gas reserves discovered in 2022-23 and another 6GtCO2 from projects that were approved for development over the same period.

• • Millions Go Hungry While So Much Food is Tossed Out

  UN Food Waste Index Report Also Finds Global Food Wastage is Big Contributor to Climate Crisis
  
  

  Mar. 27, 2024 -More than a billion meals are thrown away every day, in poor countries as well as rich ones, despite more than 730 million people living in hunger around the world.

  About a fifth of food is wasted, sometimes through profligacy or poor planning, sometimes from a lack of access to refrigeration or storage, according to the UN Food Waste Index report, published on Wednesday, at a global cost of about $1 trillion a year.

• • Accidents Involving Toxic Vinyl Chloride Are Commonplace

  An Industry Group Defends this Dangerous Product
  
  

  Mar. 27, 2024 -The vinyl chloride industry made headlines across the country last winter when a train carrying the flammable, carcinogenic chemical derailed near the town of East Palestine, Ohio. News outlets published dystopian images of the smoke plume released by a controlled burn of the vinyl chloride cars, and thousands of people were evacuated from their homes.

  Months later, when several environmental organizations, including the nonprofit Beyond Plastics, began advocating for the Environmental Protection Agency to consider banning vinyl chloride.

• • The Tangles of the Great Lakes Pipeline

  Affecting Politics in Two Battleground States
  
  

  Mar. 27, 2024 -An icy crust on the Straits of Mackinac is melting into slush atop a shimmering, narrow waterway prized for its beauty and its role in supporting the local economy.

  Snaking along the bottom of the heavily trafficked Straits, which connect Lake Huron to Lake Michigan, is a four-mile section of an oil and gas pipeline known as Line 5 at the center of a debate about whether it belongs there at all.

• • Methane Escaping From Landfills

  This Report Quantifies It

  (Science), Mar. 27, 2024, Methane is the most important trace greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, and anthropogenic emissions account for more than half of the global total. Landfills containing solid waste are potentially major sources of methane, but their importance has remained poorly constrained.

  Cusworth et al. report data gathered by airborne imaging spectrometers from about 20% of open US landfills to show that considerable point source emissions can be detected at a majority of sites. These results underline the need for better monitoring of landfill emissions to help guide climate change mitigation policy.

• • Possible Outline For Maritime “Net-Zero Framework

  International Maritime Organization Agrees It Must Be Done

  (IMO), Mar. 27, 2024, ?IMO has agreed on an illustration of a possible draft outline of an “IMO net-zero framework” for cutting greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from international shipping.

  This marks a step forward in the legal process towards adopting global regulations, referred to as “mid-term GHG reduction measures”, that will help achieve the targets contained in the 2023 IMO Strategy on the Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships.

• • MTA Gives Final Approval For Congestion Pricing in NYC

  Driving in Manhattan Will Be Costly

  (Gothamist), Mar. 27, 2024, The MTA board on Wednesday gave its final approval of congestion pricing, paving the way for the agency to charge drivers a $15 daytime toll to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street.

  The 11-1 vote finalizes a years long saga to launch the tolls. The state Legislature first approved the initiative in March 2019, which was followed by a lengthy federal and environmental review process. The MTA board signed off on the prices of the tolls in December, triggering a 60-day review period.


• • Unsafe Air - Big Surprise

  One Thing Most
  Countries Have in Common
  
  

  Mar. 26, 2024 -Only 10 countries and territories out of 134 achieved the World Health Organization’s standards for a pervasive form of air pollution last year, according to air quality data compiled by IQAir, a Swiss company.

  The pollution studied is called fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, because it refers to solid particles less than 2.5 micrometers in size: small enough to enter the bloodstream.

• • Baltimore's Cargo Ship Woes

  What It All Could Mean
  
  

  Mar. 26, 2024 -To bridge experts, the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge after being hit by a heavy cargo ship was as inevitable as it was devastating.

  Click now for the whole story.

• • Can Desalination Help Us Survive Water Scarcity?

  Vital in Regions Such as East Africa and the Middle East Facing Increasing Drought and Dwindling Freshwater
  
  

  Mar. 22, 2024 -From Ancient Greek sailors boiling seawater to Romans using clay pipes to filter salt, making saltwater drinkable through desalination has a long history.

  But modern forms of this millennia-old technology are now the "present and future of coping with water scarcity," said Manzoor Qadir, deputy director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.

• • New York State Legislature Votes to Ban CO2 Fracking

  Closing a Decade-Old
  Loophole in State Law
  
  

  Mar. 22, 2024 -New York State lawmakers voted Wednesday to pass a bill prohibiting carbon dioxide fracking, expanding the state’s decade-old fracking ban.

  The bill—which amends the existing environmental conservation law—was introduced in January and passed the state Assembly earlier this month by a margin of 98-50. On Wednesday, the bill passed the state Senate by a 46-16 vote and it now awaits the signature of Governor Kathy Hochul.

• • Thai Scientists Breed Coral In Labs

  It Can't Happen Over Night
  
  

  Mar. 21, 2024 -On a starry night, four Thai marine biologists scuba dived through shallow waters off an island in the country's south as billions of pink specks floated up from the ocean floor in a spectacle that takes place only once a year.

  The pink specks were sperm and eggs released by coral. The scientists collected as many samples as possible for breeding, as they fight to save Thailand's expansive reefs from degradation driven by warming oceans and human activity like tourism.

• • The Marañón River Has Legal Rights To Exist

  Rule From a Peruvian Court, Flow
  and Be Free From Pollution
  
  

  Mar. 20, 2024 -The Marañón River, which flows from Peru’s Andes mountains into the Amazon river, has “intrinsic” value and possesses the rights to exist, flow, and be free from pollution, among other rights, a Peruvian trial court ruled Monday.

  The case marks the first time Peru has legally recognized the so-called rights of nature.

• • Flaring and Venting at Industrial Plants Causes Death

  Causes Roughly Two
  Premature Deaths Each Day
  
  

  Mar. 20, 2024 -Researchers said that the practices worsen asthma in children, increases emergency room visits and costs Americans $7.4 billion each year.

  Click now for the complete story.

• • Unsafe Air - Big Surprise?

  One Thing Most
  Countries Have in Common
  
  

  Mar. 19, 2024 -Only 10 countries and territories out of 134 achieved the World Health Organization’s standards for a pervasive form of air pollution last year, according to air quality data compiled by IQAir, a Swiss company.

  The pollution studied is called fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, because it refers to solid particles less than 2.5 micrometers in size: small enough to enter the bloodstream.

• • Window Into the Persistent Inequities of Environmental Policy

  Researchers Found That the Effectiveness of the Clean Air Act is Often a Function of Race and Socio-Economic Factors
  
  

  Mar. 18, 2024 -Germaine Gooden-Patterson has lived in Clairton, Pennsylvania, for more than 15 years, but it wasn’t until she began a job as a community health worker in 2019 that she understood how much air pollution was affecting her neighbors’ lives—and her own.

  Click now for the rest of the story.

• • The Lead-Tainted Drinking Water in Chicago

  Nearly 130,000 Children Exposed
  
  

  Mar. 18, 2024 -About 129,000 Chicago children under the age of six are exposed to poisonous lead in their household drinking water because of lead pipes, according to a study published on Monday.

  The study used artificial intelligence to analyse 38,000 home water tests conducted for the city of Chicago, along with neighborhood demographics, state blood samples and numerous other factors.

• • Death By Petrochemical

  New Report Warns in
  the New England Journal of Medicine
  
  

  Mar. 18, 2024 -It’s well known that fossil fuels are the primary driver of climate change. A dirty secret is that they’re also the source of toxic chemicals linked to rising rates of chronic and deadly diseases.

  Click now to learn what they are.

• • U.S. Bans the Last Type of Asbestos Still in Use

  Joining More Than 50 Other Countries that Have Banned the deadly carcinogen, although the Phaseout Will Take More Than a Decade.
  
  

  Mar. 18, 2024 -The Biden administration on Monday finalized a ban on the only type of asbestos still used in the United States, the first time since 1989 the federal government has moved to significantly restrict the toxic industrial material.

  Click newt read on.