When an ecologist and a cartoonist team up to explore the realities of colonizing Mars, the result is a humorous and highly informative book on whether humans are truly up to settling space. They detour into the intimacies of zero-gravity intimacy and the challenges of ensuring a food supply. From BookShelf contributing editor Melody Kemp, a review of “A City on Mars.”
As the Trump administration rolls back Biden-era rules limiting the presence of “forever chemicals” in drinking water, an updated data mapping tool helps pinpoint local angles on the PFAS story. The latest TipSheet outlines the basics on this class of widely used chemicals, their risks to humans and the challenges of regulating them, plus provides a half-dozen story ideas and questions to ask.
"Multiple efforts are underway to stop a parasitic fly from swarming Texas and the rest of the U.S. and wreaking havoc on the nation’s multi-billion-dollar cattle industry."
"President Donald Trump’s sudden decision Monday to reverse course and lift a stop work order on Empire Wind 1 prompted widespread speculation in Albany and Washington that the president had extracted a commitment from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to allow a new gas pipeline to move forward."
"Congress has voted to undo a Clean Air Act regulation that strictly controls the amount of toxic air pollutants emitted by many industrial facilities like oil refineries, chemical plants, and steel mills."
"The Trump administration issued its long-awaited Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission report Thursday, hammering various industries while deviating from mainstream science on key issues including farming practices, vaccinations and psychiatric medications."
"With warmer than normal ocean waters, forecasters are expecting yet another unusually busy hurricane season for the Atlantic. But they don’t think it will be as chaotic as 2024, the third-costliest season on record as it spawned killer storms Beryl, Helene and Milton."
"House Republicans have scrapped public land sales from the latest version of their tax cut, energy and border security megabill, according to text released Wednesday evening."
"Early this morning, the House voted 215-214 to pass a sweeping budget reconciliation bill with provisions that include a cancellation or phaseout for just about everything that was in the Inflation Reduction Act."
"In a move Democrats warned would have disastrous consequences for the economy, the environment and public health, the Republican-led Senate Thursday voted to block California’s electric-vehicle mandates, revoking the state’s right to implement the nation’s toughest emissions standards."
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