Bugs may get a bad rap, but a serious possible global decline in their populations is making clearer what may be lost for ecosystems and human societies. Issue Backgrounder peers beneath the detritus to find what insects do, how we try to kill them and how they survive, and why it’s so hard to pin down the data around their shifting numbers.
"A federal court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit alleging US regulators failed to prevent widespread contamination of farmland with toxic PFAS chemicals was based on a “flawed interpretation” of the Clean Water Act, creating “dangerous real-world consequences for public health,” a watchdog group argued in a new court filing."
"Hardly anyone in the natural wine world is talking about environmental justice for those who pick the grapes, labor advocates say. The Guardian Vital label aims to change that."
"Tennessee farmer Todd Littleton expects to pay $100,000 more for fertilizer this season, a 40% spike from his bill last year thanks to the war in Iran — and he is scrambling to cover that extra cost."
"Oklahoma took on an ambitious project to catalog all of the state’s injection wells, which shoot toxic waste generated by oil drilling back into the ground. Despite records showing risk of drinking water pollution, the state chose not to act."
"The Wisconsin Legislature sent a $133 million plan to combat contamination from so-called forever chemicals to Gov. Tony Evers for his approval Tuesday, promising an end to years of squabbling between the Democratic governor and Republican lawmakers over the issue."
"A new analysis links high use of the weed killer glyphosate to elevated rates of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), particularly in the Midwest, reinforcing years of research linking cancer to the weed killer made popular by Monsanto."
"The Quapaw Nation is the only US Native community to carry out a cleanup of one of the country’s worst sites of environmental contamination"
"Some top US lobbying firms are simultaneously working both sides of the Pfas “forever chemicals” issue, raising serious conflict of interest questions and concerns that their activity is slowing states’ efforts to rein in the public health threat."
Two Ghanian video journalists traveled their country to document how contamination from illegal gold mining was harming the health of workers and nearby communities. Their resulting reporting not only won acclaim from their peers but also ignited a debate that resulted in the closing of polluting mining operations. Read more about their award-winning project and its impact in Inside Story Q&A.
