"Nearly five years ago, the United States Department of Energy, or DOE, began an unusual partnership with the country’s largest lobbying group for the plastics industry." "Critics argue that the agency’s work with a lobbying group is a conflict of interest."
"The exponential rise in microplastic pollution over the past 50 years may be reflected in increasing contamination in human brains, according to a new study."
"Americans have long accumulated wealth by owning their homes, but a new study predicts that spiking insurance rates and climate disasters now herald an era of widespread losses."
Bestselling Indigenous botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer, in her new book, exalts a simple berry that helps sustain the life around it, and in doing so exemplifies the economic power of giving. “The Serviceberry” explores the traditions of the gift economy and its potential to be nurtured alongside the market economy. The latest BookShelf from contributor Jenny Weeks.
"The pause affects billions of dollars and is delaying home repairs, factory construction and other projects, many in states that voted Republican."
"A new strain of bird flu — H5N9 — has been detected in California’s Merced County at a commercial duck operation."
"Hours after being sworn in as the new U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy took aim at the main way the federal government regulates miles per gallon for cars and pickup trucks — also a principal way that it regulates air pollution and addresses climate change. Duffy ordered the federal agency in charge of fuel economy standards to reverse them as soon as possible. The standards have been in place since the 1970s energy crisis and were intended to conserve fuel and save consumers money at the gas pump."
"In the summer of 1975, Trenton’s public water utility experienced so many failures that its reservoir ran dry and residents had no water, forcing fire trucks to line up for miles to pump water from the suburbs and civil defense to truck in water, too. ... Fifty years later, little has changed at Trenton Water Works, according to two new independent reports the state Department of Environmental Protection issued Monday."
"Over the past century, the biodiversity of apple trees has declined sharply in the United States. Monoculture orchards have erased the mature forested orchards that once served as habitat for dozens of bird species such as bluebirds, northern flickers, and scarlet tanagers. There once were some 16,000 named apple varieties in the US alone. We’ve now lost more than half of those varieties, with only 3,000 remaining."
"The latest data from the CDC and USDA show the continued devastating effects of bird flu outbreaks across the United States – with Iowa, the nation's leading egg producer, suffering substantial losses."
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