NEWSWORTHY
Regulators said 'asleep at the wheel' in raising health alarm over Houston chemical conflagration
As a towering plume of black smoke billowed a mile above Houston for a third day, local officials said they don't know how long the petrochemical blaze that sent orange fireballs into the sky will continue. Five tanks holding gasoline ingredients were still afire about ...
Environment is deadly and worsening mess, but not hopeless: U.N.
Earth is sick with multiple and worsening environmental ills killing millions of people yearly, a new U.N. report says. Climate change, a global major extinction of animals and plants, a human population soaring toward 10 billion, degraded land, polluted air, and plastics, pesticides and hormone-changing ...
South Korea labels air pollution a 'social disaster' in move that could unlock emergency funds
South Korea on Wednesday ramped up its firepower as it battles pollution, passing a set of bills that designate the problem a 'social disaster' and which could unlock emergency funds to tackle the issue. Pollution in Asia's fourth-largest economy has been driven up by factors ...
Italian freighter sinks off France's Atlantic coast after fire; all 27 aboard rescued
An Italian cargo ship sank about 330 km (200 miles) off the Western Atlantic coast of France on Tuesday after rescue vessels were unable to put out a fire that broke out late Sunday, officials said. All 27 people aboard the Grande America were rescued ...
Trump seeks 90% cuts for cleanup of Great Lakes and other waterways
President Donald Trump is trying again to slash federal cleanup funding for major U.S. waterways, including the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay. The president's 2020 budget released Monday calls for spending $30 million on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a program intended to remove toxic ...
As global concern over plastic pollution rises, corporate giants such as Coca-Cola and Unilever are pumping cash into a recycling initiative in Kenya they hope will provide a model for other developing countries. However, the voluntary scheme lacks legal backing, leaving a few companies to ...
We can no longer ignore the fact that plastic is a problem at all stages of its life cycle — not just after it ends up in the ocean.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has proposed a joint project with China to use artificial rain to clean the air in Seoul, where an acute increase in pollution has caused alarm. Moon also on Wednesday instructed government officials to quicken the retirement of old coal-burning ...
Underground fire smoldering for seven months at Arkansas dump raises health fears
More than seven months after residents first noticed a fire at an illegal dumping site in northwest Arkansas, it's still smoldering, sending noxious smoke throughout the town and seeping into homes, with costs to extinguish the fire estimated at tens of millions of dollars. Chris ...
Senate confirms former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler as head of U.S. environment agency
The Senate on Thursday confirmed former coal industry lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, despite concerns by Democrats and one Republican about regulatory rollbacks he has made in eight months as the agency's acting chief. Senators voted 52-47 to confirm Wheeler, who ...
Animals in the deepest ocean trenches have been found with plastic fragments in their gut, according to new research showing how pollution reaches even the bowels of the planet. More than 300 million tons of plastics are produced annually, and there are at least 5 ...
As the world drowns in plastic, Kameoka in Kyoto and other cities across Japan fight back
Plastic pollution in the ocean has become one of the world's most urgent environmental problems. Footage of vast fields of floating plastic debris between California and Hawaii — now commonly known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — have driven home the gravity of ...
