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Earth

Keeping It Green

Atmospheric CO2 Levels

(Monthly Averages)

Sep.10, 2023: 419.7 ppm
10 years ago: 396 ppm
Pre-industrial base: 280
Safe level: 350 ppm

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Page Updated:
Sept. 23, 2023

• Get the Lead Out Toolkit
• Oil Spill History
• Big Oil Reality Check
• 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

• • Engineering Marine Bacteria to Destroy Seawater Plastics

  In a First,
  Researchers Have Just That
  
  

  Sep. 21, 2023 -In 2016, Over 14 million tons of plastic litter ends up in the ocean every year, killing thousands of animals and birds that ingest it. Much of it ends up amassing in giant garbage patches and over time breaking down into smaller microscopic pieces that are harmful to marine life.

  A new study offers a glimmer of hope

• • Michael Bloomberg's War on Plastics

  The Former NYC Mayor
  Continues His Environmental Fight
  
  

  Sep. 20, 2023 -Michael Bloomberg is many things: former New York City mayor, founder of a financial data company, failed presidential candidate and the 11th richest man in the world.

  Since leaving public office 10 years ago, Mr. Bloomberg, 81, has also emerged as perhaps the world’s single largest funder of climate activism, making himself an expensive thorn in the side of the fossil fuel industry.

• • The Beach is Lovely, But...

  The Water, Maybe
  Not So Much
  
  

  Sep. 20, 2023 -On a warm day in early July, Ed Houlihan guided kayakers on a four-mile trip on Cape Cod from Popponesset Bay up the Mashpee River to a freshwater pond. It was three hours of paddling round trip, but afterward Mr. Houlihan, 83, felt no worse for wear — at first.

  Five days later, his left shin was red and sore, his body was aching, and he had fever and chills. Doctors diagnosed him with a Shewanella algae infection, a bacterium that thrives in brackish water.

• • Toxic Air Affects Everyone in Europe

  98% of Europeans Breathing Highly Damaging Polluted Air Linked to 400,000 Annual Deaths
  
  

  Sep. 20, 2023 -Europe is facing a “severe public health crisis”, with almost everyone across the continent living in areas with dangerous levels of air pollution, an investigation by the Guardian has found.

  Click now for the whole story.

• • Desert Dust Storm Dangers

  They Can Carry Human-Made Toxic Pollutants, and the Health Risk Extends Indoors
  
  

  Sep. 18, 2023 -Humans have contended with dust storms for thousands of years, ever since early civilizations appeared in the Middle East and North Africa. But modern desert dust storms are different from their preindustrial counterparts.

  Around the world, deserts now increasingly border built structures, including urban dwellings, manufacturing, transportation hubs, sewage treatment and landfills. As a result, desert dust lifts a growing load of airborne pollutants and transports these substances over long distances.

• • A Landfill as Tall as the Statue of Liberty

  It Could Rise Even Higher
  
  

  Sep. 17, 2023 -It’s tough to miss Seneca Meadows, New York state’s largest landfill: Rising nearly 300 feet tall, it’s almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty, including its pedestal.

  A decades-old depository of millions of tons of garbage, sprawled over more than 350 acres, it’s an artificial overlook visible from miles away. For homes to the east, it causes an early sunset.

• • Scotland: ‘Monstrous’ Sea Lice and Jellyfish Invasions

  They're Blighting
  Scottish Salmon Farms
  
  

  Sep. 16, 2023 -Lochs in the Highlands of Scotland are among the most spectacular and pristine wildlife areas in Britain, attracting tourists from around the world. They are also a production line for what have become supermarket staples: smoked and fresh salmon.

  But there's a problem...

• • Glyphosate Danger!

  EU Backs 10-Year Renewal of Disputed Herbicide
  
  

  Sep. 15, 2023 -The European Commission has proposed extending approval of the controversial weedkiller glyphosate, long manufactured under the name Roundup, by 10 years.

  Approval in the EU for the agrichemical is due to lapse this December unless member states agree to a reauthorization.

  The EU's 27 members are expected to discuss the Commission proposal on Friday and will vote on the issue on October 13.

• • Your Cellphone Could Radiate You

  Apple Software Update Could Solve the Problem
  
  

  Sep. 15, 2023 -For many people, the iPhone 12 effectively disappeared from the market on Tuesday, when Apple introduced that model and stopped selling the 12, first released in October 2020. In Europe, however, the iPhone 12 remains a notable device, as a number of countries are following France's lead in looking into the device's electromagnetic profile. With a software update coming, it may go back on sale soon.

  Click now for the whole story.

• • Producing Electricity From Wastewater

  Engineered E. Coli
  Could Make It Happen
  
  

  Sep. 14, 2023 -Researchers have engineered the common E. Coli bacteria to produce electricity from a wide range of common sources, including wastewaster. The findings, presented in the journal Joule, could be a boon for wastewater treatment while also producing energy.

  Traditional wastewater treatment plants consume a large amount of energy and produce about 3 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Using bacteria to convert wastewater into electricity technology could help reduce that environmental impact.

• • iPhone 12's High Radiation Levels

  France is Banning Them
  
  

  Sep. 14, 2023 -A regulator in France asked this week that Apple stop selling its iPhone 12 there, after it said tests found that the device emits radiation levels exceeding European restrictions, giving fresh attention to old concerns about health and cellphone usage.

  Apple disputed the findings.

• • Geoengineering Is a No-No

  Unintended Consequences
  Haven't Been Addressed
  
  

  Sep. 14, 2023 -Governments should place a moratorium on efforts to geoengineer the planet’s climate, as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and the climate crisis takes hold, a panel of global experts has urged.

  Geoengineering is highly controversial, but discussions of its feasibility are gathering pace as the impacts of extreme weather, driven by climate breakdown, grip the planet. There is no global agreement on geoengineering, and no rules on what countries, or businesses, can do.

• • Ohio Injection Wells Suspended

  Their Imminent Danger
  to Drinking Water
  
  

  Sep. 13, 2023 -Environmental groups have called for a suspension of all Class II wells injecting into the Ohio shale for over a decade, describing the shale as “holier than a Swiss cheese.”

  Click now for the rest of the story.

• • Requiring Disclosure of Greenhouse Emissions

  That's What the California
  Legislature in Planning to Do
  
  

  Sep. 13, 2023 -The California Legislature this week passed a landmark bill that would require major companies to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, a move with national and global repercussions in governments’ efforts to fight climate change.

  A spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, declined on Wednesday to say whether he would sign the bill.

• • Washington is Full of Rats

  And We're Not
  Just Talking About Congress
  
  

  Sep. 13, 2023 -The sound of a rat screaming in the jaws of a terrier is the same sound that a stuffed squeaky toy makes.

  It seems so obvious. Of course the toys sound that way, because that sound awakens something deep in a docile dog’s neurons that says: Shake it. Shake it till it’s dead.

• • Raw Sewage Has Affected Rivers in England and Wales

  Hundreds of Thousands of Discharges Were Recorded Last Year
  
  

  Sep. 12, 2023 -More than 384,000 discharges of raw sewage were reported by water companies across England and Wales in 2022, official figures show, in what the Rivers Trust has described as “extremely bad news for environmental and human health”.

  However, the true scale may be even greater, as a new legal challenge has claimed.

• • Carbon Capture and Storage:
  Texas Bets on an Undersea Bonanza

  Federal Money Will Help Support It
  
  

  Sep. 8, 2023 -Hungry for royalties, the state is awarding offshore leases to oil and gas companies that hope to bury heat-trapping carbon dioxide deep beneath the seafloor. But critics worry about leakage through rock layers, pipeline safety and the lackluster record of carbon capture facilities onshore.

• • Flora and Fauna, But What About ‘Funga’

  The Term Will Help People Remember How Important These Organisms Are
  
  

  Sep. 7, 2023 -Fungi. They grow between toes, on bread and in the shower. But the organisms also produce food and medicine and act as ecosystem maids by decomposing dead matter — benefits that are sometimes overlooked. That’s why the Fungi Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to fungi education and conservation, advocates for adding “funga” to the popular phrase “flora and fauna.”

  Click now for more.

• • Agribusiness Giant Cargill Is in Activists’ Crosshairs

  Results From Its Connections to Deforestation in Bolivia
  
  

  Sep. 6, 2023 -Cargill, the world’s largest agribusiness company—and the United States’ largest privately held company—is coming under yet more scrutiny from advocacy groups that have traced its business operations to recently cut tropical forests in Bolivia.

• • Classify ‘Produced Water’ From Fracking as Hazardous Waste?

  Pennsylvania Legislation
  Will Do Just That
  
  

  Sep. 6, 2023 -Katie Muth knew it would be a long shot. This January, the Pennsylvania state senator reintroduced three pieces of legislation aimed at closing loopholes in the laws governing how the oil and gas industry disposes of its solid and liquid waste.

  In Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Senate, Muth said any legislation hampering business as usual for oil and gas companies would garner little to no bipartisan support. Still, there is utility in getting “a lot of legislators on the record voting down clean water,” she said.

• • A Medical Toolkit for Climate Resiliency

  Built on the Latest Epidemiology
  and ER Best Practices
  
  

  Sep. 5, 2023 -Harvard University’s Chan School of Public Health has developed a Climate Resiliency Toolkit to aid emergency rooms and clinics with protocols for robust medical care during climate emergencies, based on the assumption that they now affect every person on the planet.

  The toolkit, developed jointly by Americares and Chan’s Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment contains specific resources and guidance for administrators, physicians and patients at frontline medical clinics to proactively address climate-induced medical emergencies.

• • Lobstermen Face Hypoxia in Outer Cape Waters

  Low Oxygen Levels Linked to Warmer Water Spell Trouble For Local Lobsters
  
  

  Sep. 4, 2023 -Alex Iacono, a lobsterman who says he favors lobsters and ocean solitude over people, is worried about the future of his business. Iacono, who lives in Truro and fishes out of Provincetown on the F/V Storm Elizabeth, says his catch has significantly dwindled in recent years.

  He’s not alone; other lobstermen working across Cape Cod Bay have noticed a downward trend. They believe that hypoxia — dangerously low levels of oxygen in the water — is to blame.

• • Helping Ohio Electric Co-Ops Cut Costs and CO2 Emissions

  Federal Funds to the Rescue
  
  

  Sep. 4, 2023 -A share of $9.7 billion in funding under the Inflation Reduction Act can help Ohio’s rural electric cooperatives save money while cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

  Buckeye Power, which provides generation and transmission services for the group’s 25 rural electric cooperative members, “has more exposure to coal” than any comparable group in the United States, said Neil Waggoner, federal deputy director for energy campaigns for the Sierra Club, so the IRA funding is an especially huge opportunity.

• • Invasive Pests Are Taking a Staggering Toll on Society

  U.N.-Backed Report Say Invasive Species Are Costing the World More than $423 Billion a Year
  
  

  Sep. 4, 2023 -Invasive pests are wreaking havoc across the planet, destroying crops, disseminating pathogens, depleting fish people rely on for food and driving native plants and animals toward extinction, according to a major report backed by the United Nations.

  The landmark assessment found more than 3,500 harmful invasive species cost society more than $423 billion a year, a tally only expected to grow as the modern age of global trade and travel continues to supercharge the spread of plants and animals across continents like never before.

• • The Major Risk to Life Expectancy in South Asia

  Answer: Air Pollution
  
  

  Aug. 29, 2023 - Rising air pollution can cut life expectancy by more than five years per person in South Asia, one of the world's most polluted regions, according to a report published on Tuesday which flagged the growing burden of hazardous air on health.

  The region, which includes the world's most polluted countries of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan, accounts for more than half of the total life years lost globally to pollution, the University of Chicago's Energy Policy Institute (EPIC) said in its latest Air Quality Life Index.

• • NASA Reveals First Pollution Maps

  This is Where Their New
  Space Instrument Comes In
  
  

  Aug. 29, 2023 -NASA's new satellite instrument, TEMPO, is about to turn the skies above North America into a high-definition pollution map. Imagine having real-time snapshots of everything from tailpipe emissions on your morning commute to the haze from distant wildfires and volcanic eruptions -- that's exactly what TEMPO is aiming for.

• • Stripping Over Half of U.S. Wetlands’ Protections

  It's What Happens When the Supreme Court Rules
  
  

  Aug. 29, 2023 -The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Tuesday that it has revised a key rule to comply with a sweeping Supreme Court ruling from this year, which could strip federal protections from up to 63 percent of the nation’s wetlands.

  In a final rule issued Tuesday, the EPA and the Department of the Army changed parts of the previous definition of “waters of the United States” to align with the Supreme Court’s decision, which weakened the federal agencies’ power to regulate the nation’s waterways.

• • New York Creates Battery
  Storage Fire Safety Working Group

  Prompted By Multiple Fires
  
  

  Aug. 28, 2023 -New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the creation of a new Inter-Agency Fire Safety Working Group meant to ensure the safety and security of energy storage systems across the state, following fire incidents at facilities in Jefferson, Orange, and Suffolk Counties this summer.

  State agencies will begin immediate inspections of energy storage sites, and the working group is intended to help prevent fires and ensure emergency responders have the necessary training and information to prepare and deploy resources in the event of a fire.

• • Artificial Reef Made From Pear Trees

  Proves Effective In Netherlands Test
  
  

  Aug. 28, 2023 -A reef is like a canary in a coal mine. It can give advanced warning of changes in the environment that will affect all life on Earth, including humans. Coral cannot relocate if the water they live in gets too hot. Instead, they die. The calcium carbonate structure they create can dissolve if the water gets too acidic, which is what is happening now as more and more carbon dioxide gets absorbed by the oceans.

  People have been trying any number of ways to create artificial reefs to replace the ones that are dying. Old ships are decommissioned and sunk offshore to provide a habitat for marine life. Others are electing to have their ashes mixed with cement and dropped into the ocean after they are cremated.

• • Massive Lithium Deposits in California’s Salton Sea

  Locals Anticipate a Mixed Bag
  
  

  Aug. 26, 2023 -When Sonia Herbert, 78, opened a restaurant in Bombay Beach, a small California neighborhood about 80 miles northeast of San Diego, she welcomed the bustle of tourists and locals visiting the Salton Sea shoreline. Located in Imperial County, the lake and its wetlands offer crucial habitats for migratory birds and a refuge for people from the hot desert sun.

  But for more than 20 years, she’s watched the once-thriving oasis become increasingly desiccated and polluted with agricultural runoff and waste.

• • August is Peak Month For Toxic Algae Illness

  Your Dog May Face a Higher Risk of Algae Poisoning Than Ever
  
  

  Aug. 26, 2023 -In many places, public health advisories limit lake activities to the shore for dogs and people, as tiny microorganisms overtake freshwater bodies in floating mats of scum.

  These microorganisms are often referred to as blue-green algae, but they are actually a type of bacteria called cyanobacteria that make energy from light. They grow rapidly during the summer, when warm temperatures and excess nitrogen and phosphorus enter bodies of freshwater, creating the perfect conditions for algae to grow into harmful algae blooms.

• • Mountain Valley Pipeline Construction Resumes In Virginia

  This Is Despite All Warnings
  
  

  Aug. 26, 2023 -After years of delays from dozens of environmental violations and a slew of court fights, Mountain Valley Pipeline construction resumed earlier this month in Virginia, a state official said.

  The Mountain Valley Pipeline, a controversial project that would transport Appalachian shale gas about 300 miles from West Virginia to Virginia, resumed construction on Aug. 4.

• • Carbon Capture and Storage

  How It Works (or Doesn't)
  
  

  Aug. 26, 2023 -Although CCUS is incredibly promising, various activists have voiced concern over its impact. Some experts believe it’s the answer to climate change, while others feel it’s an excuse for manufacturers to produce more greenhouse gas emissions.

  Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) involves collecting carbon dioxide — primarily from industrial and commercial sources — to make it usable or pump it underground. Instead of offsetting greenhouse gas emissions, it reduces the total amount humans produce.

• • UN-Led Fight Against Locusts

  The Toxic Toll is on Kenyan Farmers
  
  

  Aug. 25, 2023 - The swarms were so thick they obscured the sun. Mohammed Adan, a farmer in northeastern Kenya, watched the horde of desert locusts first descend in late 2019. He’s been grappling with their legacy ever since.

  The battle continues.

• • Japan Releases Fukushima Wastewater into the Ocean

  Pacific Islanders are Reminded of a Never-Ending Nuclear Legacy
  
  

  Aug. 24, 2023 -Danity Laukon was sitting in her bedroom in her two-bedroom flat in Suva, Fiji, when she got the call. It was November 2021, and her dad, more than 1,800 miles away at her home in Majuro in the Marshall Islands, had died after a battle with diabetes.

  He was 50 years old.

  Diabetes is not an illness that is directly caused by radiation. But Laukon believes that American nuclear testing in the Pacific played a role in his early death.

• • PFAS: Much Higher Among Asian Americans

  Forever Chemicals Do Not
  Affect People Equally
  
  

  Aug. 24, 2023 - Asian Americans likely have much higher levels of “forever chemicals” in their blood than other US races and ethnicities, research using a novel method for measuring PFAS exposure finds.

  The peer-reviewed study factored sociodemographic, dietary and behavioral characteristics into its algorithm, which makes it more sensitive to exposure differences among cultures than the standard methods used by the US government and most of the scientific community.