If you regularly recycle household materials, you’re likely moved by a spirit of doing something good for the environment. For many residents of the developing world, though, “recycling” materials thrown out by others is an act of survival. There’s likely no better place to witness this dynamic than Rio de Janeiro’s Jardim Gramacho, the world’s largest landfill, and photographer Vik Muniz made the landfill, and the catadores that reclaim materials from it, the subject of a series of photographs (shown as a part of his The Beautiful Earth exhibit).
In a historic ruling, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has sided with states and private land trusts that sued large power companies to make them curb their greenhouse gas emissions.
The city of Jeffersonville has agreed to make extensive improvements to its sewer systems to reduce the city’s long-standing sewage overflows into the Ohio River at a cost that is estimated to run between $100 and $150 million.
Tests for toxic chemicals in ordinary school supplies, children’s car seats, vehicles and pet products have detected lead, arsenic and heavy metals, according to the nonprofit Ecology Center that analyzed the products.
The thinning of a gigantic glacier in Antarctica is accelerating, scientists warned today, calling the loss of ice “alarming.” The Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica is losing ice four times as fast as it was a decade ago.
A four-member investigative team from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board is traveling to the ExxonMobil refinery in Joliet, Illinois, the site of a release of propane and toxic hydrogen fluoride Thursday.
Thousand cankers, a newly recognized and devastating disease that attacks black walnut trees, has killed a large number of trees across the western states and has now moved eastward into several communities along Colorado’s Front Range, including Boulder and Colorado Springs and the Denver area.
A joint Customs initiative across Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and Africa has netted more than 30,000 tons and 1,500 pieces of illegal hazardous waste in 57 seizures, ranging from household waste and scrap metal to discarded electronic goods and used vehicle parts.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has posted a list of 44 “high hazard potential” impoundments containing coal combustion residuals, commonly referred to as coal ash, at 26 different coal-burning electric utility facilities in 10 states.
West Virginia State Police today arrested at least 29 demonstrators, including government climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, actress Daryl Hannah, and 94 year-old former West Virginia Congressman Ken Hechler, for tresspassing on the property of a mountaintop removal coal mining company to protest the destructive practice.
Still have bottled water as a regular item on the grocery list? Or just pick up the occasional bottle when you’re out? It’s so convenient…
As you probably know, that convenience comes at an environmental and social price: documentaries such as FLOW and Thirst, organizations such as the Sierra Club and Environmental Defense Fund, and even a few of us lowly bloggers, have reported on the costs created by water’s transformation from a freely-available resource to a multi-billion dollar commodity. That bottle of water you buy now contributes to the world’s third-largest industry.
