“There are tens of thousands of chemicals registered for use in commercial, industrial, and consumer products in the US. Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), EPA is required to assess, manage, and evaluate the safety of existing chemicals, including their exposure potential. A wide variety of exposure-relevant data are necessary to support these chemical… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Environmental Law
NASA’s High-Resolution Air Quality Control Instrument Launches
“A NASA instrument to provide unprecedented resolution of monitoring major air pollutants – down to four square miles – lifted off on its way to geostationary orbit at 12:30 a.m. EDT Friday. The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument will improve life on Earth by revolutionizing the way scientists observe air quality from space.… Continue Reading
Sail & Explore Association Partnership Expands Microplastics Database
“The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) archives data collected by a variety of scientists and institutions. The partnership between NCEI and nonprofit organization Sail & Explore Association has improved and expanded the Marine Microplastics database. The goal of this partnership is to not only expand the database, but to establish a diverse international community… Continue Reading
IBM selling The Weather Channel and the rest of its weather business
CNBC: “IBM said Tuesday it’s selling its weather unit, including The Weather Channel mobile app and websites, Weather.com, Weather Underground and Storm Radar. IBM will sell The Weather Company and its assets to Francisco Partners, a tech-focused private equity firm, for an undisclosed sum; as part of the deal, IBM will retain access to the… Continue Reading
How Do We Inventory the Materials Needed To Build Wind and Solar Farms?
New Database Quantifies What the Country Needs To Meet Its Big Clean Energy Goals – Wind and sun may be nearly infinite resources. But the materials needed to build wind turbines and solar panels are not always common. Take the rare earth metals—neodymium, dysprosium, and praseodymium—for example. Chances are those names are just as unfamiliar… Continue Reading
How Geology Shapes History
Library of Congress, By M. Amelia Raines, Reference Librarian, Geography and Map Division: “Many of the most important cities in the eastern United States owe much of their history to a geological phenomenon which began 250 million years ago. The results of the processes which shaped the Earth itself can be seen on modern maps… Continue Reading
Environmental users abandoned Twitter after Musk takeover
Trends in Ecology, Environmental users abandoned Twitter after Musk takeover. Published: August 15, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2023.07.002 – “In our sample of 380,000 environmentally oriented users, nearly 50% became inactive on Twitter after it was sold in October 2022, a rate much higher than a control sample. Given Twitter’s importance for public communication, our finding has… Continue Reading
Extreme Temperature Diary
Guy on Climate [Meteorologist Guy Walton]: Extreme Temperature Diary – Wednesday August 16th, 2023/Main Topic: “The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to Main… Continue Reading
EWG’s 2023 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce
“Nearly 75 percent of non-organic fresh produce sold in the U.S. contains residues of potentially harmful pesticides, EWG’s 2023 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce™ finds. In this year’s guide, blueberries and green beans join our Dirty Dozen™ list of the 12 fruits and vegetables sampled that have the highest traces of pesticides. Any exposure… Continue Reading
‘Forever Chemicals’ Are Everywhere. What Are They Doing to Us?
The New York Times: PFAS lurk in so much of what we eat, drink and use. “Scientists are only beginning to understand how they’re impacting our health — and what to do about them…PFAS can be removed from tap water, but according to the E.P.A., tap water typically accounts for only about 20 percent of… Continue Reading
City maps show how much hotter it is from neighborhood to neighborhood
The Verge: “A new analysis ranks 44 major cities that altogether are home to a quarter of the country’s population. More than half of the population in these cities live in census tracks that can feel at least 8 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than surrounding areas, according to the analysis published yesterday by the nonprofit Climate… Continue Reading
Climate & Conflict
Climate & Conflict: The interplay between climate and conflict has received increasing attention from researchers and policymakers over the last two decades. There is significant overlap between countries most affected by climate change and those most at risk of violent conflict. Evidence for adverse effects of climate factors on conflict exists predominantly for internal conflict.… Continue Reading
