Pollution

"Plastic items from takeaway food and drink dominate the litter in the world’s oceans, according to the most comprehensive study to date."

"The Biden administration says it will consider tougher limits on a deadly air pollutant that disproportionately affects low-income and minority communities."

"Iron ore miner Vale SA's decomissioned Xingu dam is at "imminent risk of collapsing," according to a statement on Wednesday by the Regional Labor Department for the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais."

"The Biden administration is planning to restore wetlands protections lost under a Trump-era rule that promotes development, the EPA announced Wednesday."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will eliminate asbestos reporting loopholes put in place by the Trump administration and collect more data on how much of the carcinogen is made, imported and put into U.S products under a settlement announced Monday."

"EPA might try to toughen hazardous air pollutant standards for coal-fired power plants in the course of revisiting one of the Trump administration's most incendiary environmental moves, according to the agency's acting air chief.

"The amount of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere reached 419 parts per million in May, its highest level in more than four million years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced on Monday."

"Officials from California, New York and other states urged the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday to allow California to set its own automobile tailpipe pollution standards, an action that would reverse a Trump administration policy and could help usher in stricter emissions standards for new passenger vehicles nationwide."

"A cargo ship carrying tonnes of chemicals is sinking off Sri Lanka's west coast, the country's government and navy said on Wednesday, in one of Sri Lanka's worst-ever marine disasters."

"A U.S. judge has permanently blocked a Las Vegas-based bottled-water brand Real Water from being marketed while an investigation continues into at least one death and multiple cases of liver illness among people who reported drinking it."