"Vermont is the first US state to ban the weedkilling pesticide paraquat, backed by lawmakers who cited concerns about research showing the chemical substantially increases the risk of the incurable brain ailment known as Parkinson’s disease."
"Bayer’s proposed $7.25 billion class action settlement is a “sweetheart deal” that violates the US Constitution by running “roughshod over basic due process rights, according to a court filing that seeks to undo the nationwide program."
"Although California laws prevent schools and nearby farmers from applying pesticides when students are present, cities are largely an exception. On May 1, Patterson city staff sprayed pesticides at Floragold Park next to Apricot Valley Elementary school while kids were outside."
"In March, a letter to the editor appeared in the Los Angeles Times imploring Congress to take action against a California law that requires farmers provide hogs, calves and chickens with enough room to turn around, lie down and stretch. A chief problem with the law, according to the letter, is that it applies to animals raised in other states if products from those animals are sold into California."
"A controversial land swap orchestrated by the megarich could be “a harbinger of what’s to come” for public lands under Trump."
"In northern Norway, Sami people fear a copper mine will disrupt their traditional lifestyles."
"Each summer, Nils Mikkelsen Utsi guides his reindeer to highland pastures overlooking a fjord, known to locals as Repparfjord, in northern Norway. There, under the Arctic midnight sun, female reindeer give birth and Mr. Utsi marks the ears of the calves. His ancestors have done this for generations.
“This is my reindeer district,” he said. “This is my life.”
"A group of the world’s leading climate scientists are warning governments and the livestock industry against adopting an “accounting trick” that will imperil the all-out global effort required to control heat-trapping emissions."
"The Chesapeake Bay’s blue crabs have clawed their way out of the cellar. The dredge survey conducted last winter by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Virginia Institute of Marine Science found that the Bay’s crab population — especially the young crustaceans — have rebounded from a protracted slump, despite an unusually harsh winter."
"The Trump administration has determined that atrazine, a weedkiller used widely on corn and other crops, does not pose an extinction risk to threatened or endangered wildlife, effectively justifying its continued use, according to a federal review made public this week." "The finding effectively paves the way for continued use of atrazine, a widely used herbicide that has been linked to birth defects and cancer in humans."
"The Senate on Monday narrowly confirmed Steve Pearce, a former New Mexico congressman with a long history of pushing for federal public land sell-offs, to serve as director of the Bureau of Land Management."
