"USDA Orders Nationwide Testing Of Milk For Bird Flu To Halt The Virus"
"The U.S. government on Friday ordered testing of the nation’s milk supply for bird flu to better monitor the spread of the virus in dairy cows."
Source: AP, 12/09/2024
EJToday: Top Headlines
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"E.P.A. Bans Cancer-Causing Chemicals Used in Dry Cleaning"
"The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday banned two solvents found in everyday products that can cause cancer and other serious diseases. It was a move long sought by environmental and health advocates, even as they braced for what could be a wave of deregulation by the incoming Trump administration."
Source: NYTimes, 12/09/2024"Their Fertilizer Poisons Farmland. Now, They Want Protection From Lawsuits."
"For decades, a little-known company now owned by a Goldman Sachs fund has been making millions of dollars from the unlikely dregs of American life: sewage sludge."
Source: NYTimes, 12/09/2024"The Climate Risk to the Mortgage System"
"As sea levels rise and natural disasters become more intense, homes in low-lying coastal areas or tinder-dry mountains are starting to lose value. That’s a problem for the finances of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises that back half of the nation’s outstanding mortgages — and keep the residential real estate market liquid by buying mortgages from banks and repackaging them into securities."
Source: NYTimes, 12/09/2024"Rat Poison Harms Endangered Wildlife Up and Down the Food Chain, EPA Warns"
"In humanity’s war against rats, other animals are often collateral. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its final biological evaluation on rodenticides on Nov. 22 and found that the rat poisons are jeopardizing at least 78 endangered species such as black-footed ferrets and California condors."
Source: Inside Climate News, 12/09/2024Biden Proposes Raising Acceptable Threshold For Common Agricultural Pesticide
"The Biden administration is proposing to raise a key threshold determining how much of a pesticide that’s commonly used in the agriculture industry the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finds concerning in the environment — spurring ire from some environmental advocates."
Source: The Hill, 12/09/2024"Lee Zeldin Didn’t Ask To Head EPA. Here’s Why Trump Picked Him."
"When he served as a Republican congressman from New York, Lee Zeldin delighted environmentalists by championing efforts to protect critical wildlife habitat from potential development efforts, including a golf course proposed by Donald Trump." "Now, as Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Zeldin is pledging to deliver on the president-elect’s promise to eliminate several environmental regulations that the fossil fuel industry views as burdensome, according to half a dozen Senate Republicans who met with Zeldin this week."
Source: Washington Post, 12/09/2024"Mosquito-Borne Disease Has Cost The World Billions, Researchers Say"
"Scientists say there were 18.7 million chikungunya cases that exacted a total cost of nearly $50 billion over a decade."
Source: Washington Post, 12/09/2024"More Than 400 Chemicals In Plastic Products Linked To Breast Cancer – Study"
"More than 400 chemicals regularly used in everyday plastic products are linked to breast cancer, and the dangerous compounds could be a driver of increasingly elevated cancer rates in young women, new research finds."
Source: Guardian, 12/09/2024Wetland Loss Could Cost Michiganders Billions In Flood Damage: New Report
"After the loss of key federal wetlands protections in 2023, scientists are warning the damage this change could bring to wetlands would also bring billions of dollars of flood damage with it. According to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, there are 30 million acres of wetlands across the upper Midwestern United States providing crucial flood prevention benefits, whose loss could potentially cost the region more than $22 billion annually."
Source: Michigan Advance, 12/09/2024Just One Mutation Can Make H5N1 Bird Flu A Threat To Humans: Researchers
"California researchers say the world may be just one genetic tweak away from human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 bird flu virus — a worrisome mutation that could open the door to widespread human infections and possibly even a pandemic, according to some experts."
Source: LA Times, 12/06/2024Climate Risks Are Driving Up Insurance Premiums Around The US – Visualized
"Concern over the climate crisis may evaporate in the White House from January, but its financial costs are now starkly apparent to Americans in the form of soaring home insurance premiums – with those in the riskiest areas for floods, storms and wildfires suffering the steepest rises of all."
Source: Guardian, 12/06/2024New Technologies Could Refine Copper Without The Dirty Smelting
"Copper will play a central role in the energy transition. These startups are working on a cleaner way to extract it."
Source: Grist, 12/06/2024"Unrest in Carbon Country"
"One night in 2021, a farmer Steve Kenkel has known since childhood gave him a call. The farmer had news: there was going to be a CO2 pipeline coming through his property in Shelby County, Iowa."
Source: Drilled, 12/06/2024"Report: LNG Operators In Louisiana Offered $21.1 Billion In Tax Breaks"
"If all 15 liquefied natural gas plants in Texas and Louisiana open, reductions in overall U.S. greenhouse gas emissions would slow"
Source: Floodlight, 12/06/2024
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