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White House Delayed Rules Ahead of 2012 Election To Avoid Controversy

"The White House systematically delayed enacting a series of rules on the environment, worker safety and health care to prevent them from becoming points of contention before the 2012 election, according to documents and interviews with current and former administration officials."

Source: Wash Post, 12/17/2013
January 9, 2024

DEADLINE: George Polk Awards

Long Island University annually seeks nominations for the George Polk Awards for exceptional long-form investigative or enterprise journalism. Categories vary from year to year, but usually include environmental reporting and photojournalism. Cash prizes. Deadline: Jan 9, 2024.

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"Decline of Desert Tortoise in Joshua Tree Linked To Long Droughts"

"In recent years, California’s Agassiz’s desert tortoise population has been decimated by shootings, residential and commercial development, vehicle traffic, respiratory disease and predation by ravens, dogs and coyotes. Now, dwindling populations of the reptiles with scruffy carapaces and skin as tough as rhino hide are facing an even greater threat: longer droughts spurred by climate change in their Sonoran Desert kingdom of arroyos and burrows, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study."

Source: LA Times, 12/16/2013

Are Hurricanes Getting Stronger? Science May Finally Be Nearing Answer

"For more than a decade, the question of how global warming is affecting the scariest storms on the planet—hurricanes—has been shot through with uncertainty. The chief reason is technological: In many parts of the world, storm strengths are estimated solely based on satellite images. Technologies and techniques for doing this have improved over time, meaning that there is always a problem with claiming that today's storms are stronger than yesterday's. After all, they might just be better observed."

Source: ClimateDesk/Mother Jones, 12/16/2013

"How Plastic In The Ocean Is Contaminating Your Seafood"

"We've long known that the fish we eat are exposed to toxic chemicals in the rivers, bays and oceans they inhabit. The substance that's gotten the most attention — because it has shown up at disturbingly high levels in some fish — is."

But mercury is just one of a slew of synthetic and organic pollutants that fish can ingest and absorb into their tissue. Sometimes it's because we're dumping chemicals right into the ocean. But as a published recently in Nature, Scientific Reports helps illuminate, sometimes fish get chemicals from the plastic debris they ingest.

Source: NPR, 12/16/2013

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