environment

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EPA Hugely Underestimated How Much Trash We Dump
EPA Hugely Underestimated How Much Trash We Dump
STUDY SAYS
Sep 21, 2015 1:20 PM CDT

EPA Hugely Underestimated How Much Trash We Dump

Scientists say this also means we're obviously not recycling as much as we thought

(Newser) - Americans are sending more than twice as much trash to landfills as the federal government has estimated, according to a new study. It turns out that, on average, America tosses 5 pounds of trash per person per day into its landfills, according to an analysis of figures in a study...

Earth Has 3T Trees —and That's Not Good

Study shows Earth has lost nearly half its trees since farming began

(Newser) - Congratulations, environmentalists, tree-huggers, and people who enjoy breathing oxygen: the Earth has seven times more trees—approximately 3 trillion—than previously estimated, according to a new study in Nature . Scientists from around the world created the first "data-driven global tree census" by combining satellite images with tree counts from...

Dirty Dancing Lake Now Just a Muddy Pit

Fans disappointed when they visit Virginia lodge

(Newser) - Fans of Frances "Baby" Houseman and Johnny "Patrick Swayze" Castle are being put in the corner—emotionally speaking—by what has become of one of Dirty Dancing's major filming locations. The Guardian reports that nearly 30 years after the film was released, thousands of people still come...

We Can't Eat America's No. 1 Crop

We grow three times more grass than even corn

(Newser) - Corn might be the United States' No. 1 food crop, but it doesn't hold a candle to the amount of grass being grown by accidental farmers around the country. In a look at America's "most useless crop," io9 surfaces decade-old research from NASA's Earth Observatory...

Today Marks a Grim Day for Planet Earth

We just used up a year's worth of natural resources in 8 months

(Newser) - Happy "overshoot day." Eight months into 2015, the global population has used up a year's supply of natural resources, meaning we're now in "ecological debt," reports the Guardian , via the Global Footprint Network . The GFN measures "humanity's annual demand for the goods...

Yellow Sludge From Colorado Mine Spill Reaches New Mexico

And, it's headed for Utah next

(Newser) - A plume of yellow sludge spilling from an old gold mine into the Animas River in Colorado has arrived in New Mexico. Communities affected by the sludge have a 90-day water supply, and water treatment plants are no longer drawing from the river. A cleanup crew supervised by the EPA...

SCOTUS Smacks Down Obama Emissions Plan

Says EPA jumped gun on regulations on mercury, other pollutants

(Newser) - In a 2014 ruling , an appeals court decided that the Environmental Protection Agency "properly [put] the horse before the cart" in coming up with mandates to limit power-plant emissions of mercury and other pollutants. The Supreme Court today overturned that ruling, blocking a key White House environmental initiative because...

Pope's Deep Green Dive: 'Our Home' Looks Like 'Pile of Filth'

Humans' 'unethical consumerism' has spurred our current environmental 'crisis'

(Newser) - Three days after it was leaked online (amid whispers the leak may have been an inside job ), Pope Francis' long-awaited encyclical on the environment was officially released today, and he doesn't mince words in describing today's environmental issues as "one small sign of the ethical, cultural...

Obama Accepts Science, Chooses to Ignore It

His decision on Shell in the Arctic is a joke, writes Bill McKibben

(Newser) - President Obama's decision to give Shell the green light to drill in the Arctic is an environmental abomination, writes Bill McKibben in the New York Times . Shell and the entire fossil fuel industry have been ignoring warnings for years about the Arctic, and yet now that it's clearly...

Our Cigarette-Butt Litter Is Staggering

New York state alone gets 1.5M tons of them annually

(Newser) - Cigarette butts aren't just nasty, they're turning up all over the place and damaging the environment, National Geographic reports. Every year, New York state alone is said to create 1.5 million tons of butts, while 2.1 million of them were found in the world's oceans...

Scientists Find Planet's Most Polluted Bird

Cooper's hawk found with higher levels of flame retardants than any other

(Newser) - The Vancouver area is home to what is thus far known to be our planet's most polluted wild bird. Researchers studying the livers of local birds of prey found that the Cooper's hawk was tainted with polybrominated diphenyl ethers, chemicals that function as flame retardants. Of the 13...

Conservatives: Pope 'Misled' on Climate Change

Koch-funded think tank argues against 'unscientific agenda' Francis is pushing

(Newser) - Pope Francis has taken on procreation , ISIS , and the Vatican's money issues , and now he's about to take on climate change caused by humans. He's still preparing a secret papal encyclical on the environment due in the summer, and today Vatican officials are hosting a summit to...

NYC to Stop Dumping Its Garbage in Other States

Mayor de Blasio plan to slash waste 90%, stop most trash exports

(Newser) - The nation's biggest city is marking Earth Day by announcing an ambitious goal of reducing its waste output by 90% by 2030. The plan, set to be unveiled today by Mayor Bill de Blasio, includes an overhaul of the city's recycling program, incentives to reduce waste, and tacit...

Scientists Investigate 'the Four Corners Mystery'

Satellite data found methane 'hot spot' in the area last year

(Newser) - Last year, a puzzle emerged in the Four Corners area , where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah come together: The area, scientists found, has had a far higher concentration of methane than anywhere else in the US. Now, teams of federal, university, and other researchers are trying to figure out...

Toxic Lake of Horror Comes From Making All Our Gadgets
 Toxic Lake of Horror 
 Comes From Making 
 All Our Gadgets 
in case you missed it
Apr 11, 2015 11:35 AM CDT

Toxic Lake of Horror Comes From Making All Our Gadgets

Inner Mongolia lake filled with sludge from processing of rare earth minerals

(Newser) - "Dystopian" and "horrifying" are just two adjectives Tim Maughan uses to describe for the BBC what he recently witnessed in the remote industrial city of Baotou in Inner Mongolia. Most disturbing was his visit to a man-made lake filled with toxic sludge that makes the surrounding area smell...

Climate Change Will Wreck Our Health: Obama

But Google, Microsoft will help us out, president set to announce today

(Newser) - At Howard University's College of Medicine today, President Obama will ask Americans to think of climate change as a threat not just to the environment, but also to their health. The president is set to announce a series of steps that corporate entities like Google and Microsoft are taking...

Meat Industry Fumes Over Federal Report Touting Vegan Diet

Officials point to environmental benefits of avoiding animal products

(Newser) - A new federal report points to the environmental benefits of a vegan diet, and the meat industry is not exactly happy about it. Industry representatives say sustainability isn't within the purview of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, whose recommendations factor into guidelines by the federal agriculture and health departments,...

Why the Inventor of K-Cups Doesn&#39;t Use Them
 Why the 
 Inventor of 
 K-Cups Doesn't 
 Use Them 
in case you missed it
Mar 7, 2015 10:36 AM CST

Why the Inventor of K-Cups Doesn't Use Them

For one, 'they're kind of expensive,' John Sylvan says

(Newser) - If anyone would brew his morning joe using K-Cups, you'd think it would be the inventor of the K-Cup himself. But John Sylvan, whose single-serve pods revolutionized the coffee landscape, sticks with making coffee the old-fashioned way. "I don't have [pods]. They're kind of expensive to...

Researchers Solve Piece of Easter Island Mystery

The ongoing debate: Did Rapa Nui do themselves in, or are Europeans to blame?

(Newser) - The ongoing debate over what prompted the decline of Easter Island's native Polynesian inhabitants, known as Rapa Nui, is being clarified by scientists digging for answers in the soil. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , an international team of researchers explain that they examined agricultural...

How Civilization Really Declined on Easter Island
What Really Happened to People of Easter Island
study says
Jan 9, 2015 4:20 PM CST

What Really Happened to People of Easter Island

Study points to environmental decline before Europeans came

(Newser) - A new study is wading into the hot debate over exactly why Easter Island's indigenous people declined—and already news sources are interpreting it differently. The international team of researchers come to one clear conclusion: Environmental conditions made life hard for the Rapa Nui people before Europeans ever arrived...

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