"The Obama administration has restored U.S. land managers' powers to curb development on vast tracts of America's back country, undoing what conservation groups called a 'no more wilderness' policy put in place under President George W. Bush."
News accounts often present a false balance between the central estimate of 5 or 6 degrees Fahrenheit global warming (for doubled carbon dioxide) and much lower estimates put forth by fossil-industry-funded "skeptics" at the fringes of legitimate science. In fact, the skeptics' take should be balanced by the real worst-case estimate from mainstream science: 18 or 20 degrees of warming.
Alarm bells are being set off by a new study of the families of California farm workers exposed to pesticides. It finds much higher levels of pervasive developmental disorder among children of mothers exposed to higher levels of neurotoxicant organophosphate pesticides.
After initially being blocked by naysaying Republicans, Congress cleared a $4.2-billion aid package for workers and survivors sickened by the fallout from the 9/11 collapse of the World Trade Center.
"HOUSTON — The feud between Texas and the Environmental Protection Agency reached a new level this week, with federal officials saying that they will take over the granting of permits for new power plants and refineries in the state because Texas refuses to regulate its emissions of greenhouse gases."
"The Environmental Protection Agency is suggesting that water utilities nationwide test their drinking water for hexavalent chromium, a probable carcinogen, after an independent survey released earlier this week found the chemical in tap water drawn from 31 cities."
A California state appeals court ruled that an organic farmer can seek damages from a pesticide company whose product was applied to neighboring fields and contaminated the organic farmer's fields by volatilization rather than spray drift.
Water shortages in the Southwest may be postponed for a while after Mexico agreed to store some of the Colorado River water it is entitled to in U.S. reservoirs while it repairs canals and pipelines damaged in a recent earthquake.
Optimists think General Electric and the EPA may agree in January on the final phase of Superfund cleanup of PCBs that polluted the Hudson River.
"A Transocean supervisor who worked on the Deepwater Horizon rig before it exploded has since participated in an investigation of the blowout preventer that failed to stop gushing oil from the well it was drilling — a possible conflict of interest that a congressional critic says threatens the integrity of the probe."
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