Plugging Away – San Diego’s Plan to “Charge” Toward a Cleaner Grid
By Larissa Koehler We love electric vehicles (EVs) in California and we want that love to spread. Why? It isn’t because of the cool factor – though, believe me, EVs like the Tesla are undoubtedly cool. Instead, it’s because these cars can offer significant benefits to the environment, electric…
Plugging Away – San Diego’s Plan to “Charge” Toward a Cleaner Grid
By Larissa Koehler We love electric vehicles (EVs) here in California and we want that love to spread. Why? It isn’t because of the cool factor – though, believe me, EVs like the Tesla are undoubtedly cool. Instead, it’s because these cars can offer significant benefits to the environment,…
Ozone Season in Texas Here Again
By Elena Craft, PhD Source: flickr/Durant Weston Spring time is once again punctuated by the start of the ozone season. March 1 st began the ozone season for Houston and Dallas, while April 1 st marks the season for San Antonio, Austin and Corpus Christi. The dangers of ozone remind us to take…
10 Things BP’s New Report Doesn’t Tell You
This was originally posted on the National Wildlife Federation's Wildlife Promise blog. By Ryan Fikes, National Wildlife Federation BP has just released a new report on the state of the Gulf, called Gulf of Mexico: Environmental Recovery and Restoration . The glossy report is filled with…
Latest Mississippi River Delta News: March 17, 2015
BP report says Gulf rebounding, but government officials, environmentalists dismiss results as ‘cherry-picked’ *Features David Muth, NWF & Melanie Driscoll, NAS By Mark Schliefstein, The Times-Picayune. March 16, 2015 “It is grossly premature and has a very narrow point of view, and they…
More Than Half a Million Americans Call for Better Health Protections from Smog
March 17, 2015
Farmers Using Special Crops in Holtwood, PA to Protect Soil & Help Their Farms Thrive
By Kate Pinkerton and Erika Larsen It is hard to imagine anything growing in fields during winter, but last fall, we visited a farm in Pennsylvania that was covered in thriving, green crops. This farm showcases crop research and water quality conservation practices on agricultural lands. One of its…
Reducing Mercury Use for Your Family and Our Global Community
By Marianne Bailey and Karissa Kovner At EPA, we work every day to reduce the use of mercury in products and processes, making them safer for you and your family. Lowering levels of mercury in our environment is important because at high levels, mercury can harm the brains, hearts, kidneys, lungs…
Latest Mississippi River Delta News: March 16, 2015
BP win cutting Gulf spill tab by $4 billion fought by U.S. By Margaret Cronin Fisk, Bloomberg Business. March 13, 2015 “The U.S. is fighting a judge’s decision that shaved more than $4 billion off the maximum pollution penalties BP Plc must pay for its 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster, the biggest…
On El Niño, snowballs and real climate science
By Ilissa Ocko Source: NASA Just as we thought science was finally taking root, here comes another article claiming that the rise in global temperatures has nearly stopped over the last 15 years. We heard it most recently from the Wall Street Journal . Never mind that it’s been 30 years since a…
A Columnist Wonders: Can Congress Do Its Job?
By jpratt Jack Pratt is Chemicals Campaign Director “It’s not that members of Congress don’t work hard…yet they regularly manage to avoid accomplishing anything even on those matters on which they overwhelmingly agree,” observed Melinda Hennebergert this morning in Bloomberg Politics. …
Methane Gets its Day in the Los Angeles Spotlight
By Tim O'Connor Los Angeles City Council members Paul Koretz and Tom LaBonge at a press conference prior to the event Los Angeles has a methane problem. Recent analysis by NASA and CalTech reveals that concentrations of methane in the Los Angeles basin are more than 60 percent higher than…
March Madness in Austin, Texas: Come for SXSW, stay for ETS!
By Marita Mirzatuny Today, I stand at the precipice of SXSW , the annual music, film, and interactive festival that descends upon Austin, Texas every March. In a few weeks, we locals will be on the other side of SXSW, recovering from the three-week burst of good-time madness and getting ready for…
March Madness in Austin, Texas: Come for SXSW, stay for ETS!
By Marita Mirzatuny Today, I stand at the precipice of SXSW , the annual music, film, and interactive festival that descends upon Austin, Texas every March. In a few weeks, we locals will be on the other side of SXSW, recovering from the three-week burst of good-time madness and getting ready for…
Puerto Rico Shows the Power of Community Involvement in Protecting Waterways
By Mike Shapiro Growing up, I remember playing along the mud flats by Newark Bay and pondering why the water nearby was so dark and sticky. I later learned that the water and mud flats were contaminated with oil and other substances. While Newark Bay is still far from clean by our current…
Bipartisanship is not a dirty word
By Richard Denison Richard Denison, Ph.D. , is a Lead Senior Scientist . The lead editorial in today’s Santa Fe New Mexican pushes back against the grossly unfair criticism of Senator Tom Udall because he is backing critically needed legislation to reform our nation’s nearly 40-year-old…
Cyclone Devastates
Cyclone Pam may be the most devastating natural disaster to ever hit the South Pacific. Houses in the capital, Port Vila, were destroyed and “people are wandering the streets looking for help”, said Tom Skirrow of Save the Children. The BBC reports: Chloe Morrison, an emergency communications…
See no climate, hear no climate, speak no climate…Here we go again?
By Eric Pooley Source: Flickr/Alison Curtis When news broke this week alleging that officials working for Gov. Rick Scott of Florida – a state that faces devastating impacts from climate change, such as being partially submerged – had unofficially banned use of the terms "climate…
Houston Environmental Summit Highlights Gulf Coast Environmental Progress and Future Needs
By Marcelo Norsworthy EDFers Marcelo Norsworthy and Chris Wolfe (L) with Rachel Powers, Executive Director of Citizens’ Environmental Coalition (CEC). The Houston environmental community was strengthened and reinvigorated after last week’s Greater Houston Environmental Summit , an event…
Celebrating National Groundwater Awareness Week
By Dr. Peter Grevatt One of my favorite ways to travel is by bicycle. So, when I visited southern California last month, I jumped at the chance to ride along the San Gabriel River to see how Los Angeles County sustainably manages their drinking water supplies to support their growing population. A…