"The inaction on regulating contaminants — including those that likely cause cancer, reproductive or developmental issues — found in the water of millions of Americans illustrates shortcomings in the U.S. response to environmental threats, say experts."
"In her new book, Endangered Eating, Sarah Lohman chronicles disappearing foods – and why they need protecting".
"The American buff goose. Amish deer tongue lettuce. The Nancy Hall sweet potato. The mulefoot hog. When food historian Sarah Lohman stumbled on these fantastical-sounding ingredients in a database of vanishing foods called the Ark of Taste, she set off on a journey across the United States to discover more ingredients and traditions that had been abandoned in the annals of history.
"When Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle five years ago, it left boats, cars and trucks piled up to the windows of Bonny Paulson’s home in the tiny coastal community of Mexico Beach, Florida, even though the house rests on pillars 14 feet above the ground. But Paulson’s home, with a rounded shape that looks something like a ship, shrugged off Category 5 winds that might otherwise have collapsed it."
Freelance food systems reporter Thin Lei Win believes that if the world doesn’t change the way it produces, processes, transports, consumes and discards food, climate change will worsen and hunger levels will spike. But she also worries that powerful interests want to keep the status quo and cites parallels with the tobacco and fossil fuel industries. More in Freelance Files, including places for freelancers to pitch climate-food stories.
"America’s stewardship of one of its most precious resources, groundwater, relies on a patchwork of state and local rules so lax and outdated that in many places oversight is all but nonexistent, a New York Times analysis has found."
"Revelations by a watchdog group reinforce doubts about chemical recycling, a technology promoted by the city in a collaboration with ExxonMobil and other companies."
"Compensation claims filed by veterans and others who say they were sickened by toxic water at Camp Lejeune already total nearly $3.3 trillion, US Justice Department lawyers said in a court filing."
"It’s a glaring weak spot in climate protection: Millions of U.S. residents don’t have flood insurance and face financial ruin if their home is inundated. But the nation’s insurance gap would shrink under a dramatic proposal that could require millions of property owners to buy flood coverage for the first time, potentially costing them thousands of dollars a year."
"Today, spent filters—cigarette butts stuffed with microplastics—are some of the most abundant litter on the beach, which is just one stop on their toxic marine journey that often begins in storm drains."
"Nestled in the San Juan Mountains, Pagosa Springs is located right at the source. Water flows through an elaborate network of streams, rivers, lakes, treatment plants, and pipelines. It can be accessed through the simple turn of a tap. But living at the headwaters of a major Western river system does not equal water security for all."
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