"Winter Inversions Threaten To Increase Air Pollution, COVID-19 Risks"
""We're now talking about two pandemics. We have a pollution pandemic, and we have the COVID pandemic.""
Source: Daily Climate, 12/18/2020
Pollution
"Battling America’s ‘Dirty Secret"
"Climate change raises the risk from failing sewage systems. So Catherine Coleman Flowers is working for a new way to deal with waste."
Source: Washington Post, 12/18/2020
$600 Million Flint Water Settlement Borrowing Plan Approved By Lawmakers
"Michigan legislators on Wednesday finalized a plan to borrow $600 million to finance the state’s proposed settlement with the residents of Flint, whose water was contaminated with elevated levels of the neurotoxin lead."
Source: AP, 12/17/2020
"Can Joe Biden Rebuild The Ravaged US Environmental Protection Agency?"
"Scientists reveal further details about the damage sustained under Trump — and the challenges for Biden in restoring science’s standing at the agency."
Source: Nature, 12/17/2020
Feds Fast-Track Plan To Lease Uinta Basin Lands For Tar Sands Mining
"With the sun setting on the industry-friendly Trump administration and its “energy dominance” agenda for public lands, the Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday proposed leasing 2,100 acres in Utah’s Uinta Basin to tar sands developers."
Source: Salt Lake Tribune, 12/17/2020
It’s Official: Alberta’s Oilsands Tailings Ponds Are Leaking. Now What?
"A years-long international investigation has found ‘scientifically valid evidence’ the massive pits that store toxic waste in the oilsands are leaking, leaving Albertans wondering who’s going to clean them up".
"There are more than a trillion litres of toxic oilsands waste stored in tailings ponds near Alberta’s Athabasca River — and they’re leaking.
Yes, we now have “scientifically valid evidence” that the ponds meant to contain toxic fluids are leaking, according to a years-long probe backed by the governments of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
Source: The Narwhal, 12/15/2020
Biden Faces Environmental Challenges on Multiple International Treaties
As the incoming Biden administration prepares to re-engage on the global stage, environment-related treaties are high on the agenda. The latest Backgrounder, part of our 2021 Guide, takes a closer look at 10-plus top treaties, including those focused on climate change, biodiversity, plastics pollution, airplane emissions, the future of the Arctic and more.
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Environmental Justice Stories Will Keep Proliferating in 2021
The surging racial justice movement has reenergized aspirations to correct the environmental injustices that blemish countless underprivileged U.S. communities. The new TipSheet, another part of our 2021 Guide, scans the landscape of trouble spots, from urban to rural, industrial zones to Superfund sites. Plus, story ideas and reporting resources.
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“You Can’t Fool Mother Nature: The Once and Future Triumph of Environmentalism”
It’s been a half-century since the first Earth Day in 1970 and a new book from an old hand catalogues the advances and the setbacks in the decades since. BookShelf contributor Francesca Lyman reviews “You Can’t Fool Mother Nature: The Once and Future Triumph of Environmentalism,” and explores how a long view from a veteran environmentalist informs the field of environmental reporting.
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"Newsom Taps New Head Of Powerful California Air Board"
"California Gov. Gavin Newsom tapped a veteran regulator Wednesday as the next chair of the powerful Air Resources Board, which implements the state’s ambitious climate change goals. Liane Randolph, 55, will begin the job in January."
Source: AP, 12/10/2020
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