EJToday is a daily weekday digest of top environment/energy news and information of interest to environmental journalists, independently curated by Editor Joseph A. Davis. Sign up below to receive in your inbox. For queries, email EJToday@SEJ.org. For more info, read an EJToday FAQ. Plus, follow EJToday on social media at @EJTodayNews, and flag stories of note by including the @EJTodayNews handle on your posts. And tell us how to make EJToday even better by taking this brief survey.
Want to join the EJToday team? Volunteer time commitments can vary from just an hour a month up to a daily contribution, and would involve helping to curate content of interest. To learn more, reach out to the director of publications, Adam Glenn, at sejournaleditor@sej.org.
Note: Members have additional options to choose from (you'll need your log-in info).
"A three-year drought that has left millions of people in Syria, Iraq and Iran with little water wouldn’t have happened without human-caused climate change, a new study found."
"This is what happens when an apex predator collides with an ecosystem engineer."
"Beavers are influential. By cutting trees and damming streams, these rodents change the world around them, raising water levels and creating habitats for diverse plants, insects, fish and more. They are some of the world’s best-known ecosystem engineers, a term for species that produce outsize effects on their environments.
"Cheetahs are usually daytime hunters, but the speedy big cats will shift their activity toward dawn and dusk hours during warmer weather, a new study finds. Unfortunately for endangered cheetahs, that sets them up for more potential conflicts with mostly nocturnal competing predators such as lions and leopards, say the authors of research published Wednesday ... ."
"The US chemical industry likely spent over $110m during the last two election cycles deploying lobbyists to kill dozens of pieces of PFAS legislation and slow administrative regulation around “forever chemicals”, a new analysis of federal lobbying documents has found."
"The U.S. Forest Service wants to allow carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects on national forest land, according to a proposed rule published by the agency on Friday"
"India's Supreme Court ordered authorities in the states surrounding New Delhi on Tuesday to stop farmers burning crop residue, as the air quality from smog engulfing the world's most polluted capital during the past week reached hazardous levels."
"The inaction on regulating contaminants — including those that likely cause cancer, reproductive or developmental issues — found in the water of millions of Americans illustrates shortcomings in the U.S. response to environmental threats, say experts."
"A former employee of the utility said she was ordered to prepare documents with false information on the now-canceled Kemper carbon capture project."
"Oil sheens up to 18 miles long have repeatedly been reported by an environmental advocacy group on the Monongahela River over the last six months. The site of the recurring pollution is only a few miles from where the Monongahela River merges with the Ohio River, which provides drinking water to more than five million people."
"The vast floating ice platforms of northern Greenland, unrivaled features of the Northern Hemisphere that keep our seas lower by holding back many trillion tons of ice, are in stark decline, according to new scientific research published Tuesday."
"Environmental advocates hope an agreement negotiated earlier this month by Baltimore City, the state Department of the Environment and the nonprofit Blue Water Baltimore to upgrade the city’s two wastewater treatment plants will help meet the state’s Chesapeake Bay restoration goals."
"The soaring cost of home insurance has consumed the town of Paradise, residents and officials say, as it prepares to commemorate the five-year anniversary of the Nov. 8, 2018, Camp Fire. Residents have received annual premiums that near or exceed $10,000 — leaving many to wonder how they’re supposed to rebuild their hard-hit community when insurance is so shockingly high for houses in an area that is supposed to be among the most affordable in California."
"This time he’s claiming the state had lots of blackouts this summer. It did not."
"With UN climate negotiations set for next month, a growing number of nations and business leaders are calling for a phaseout of fossil fuels. But with major fossil fuel expansion projects moving ahead around the globe, advocates of strong action face a daunting challenge."
"The top watchdog tasked with overseeing EPA faced accusations that he abused his authority, wasted government money and showed partisan favor. EPA Inspector General Sean O’Donnell denied the allegations, which an oversight body ultimately deemed not worthy of further investigation, according to documents obtained by E&E News."
