"Emission controls required on out-of-state power plants have yielded big reductions in mercury pollution in Western Maryland's air, a study has found. So far, however, the state's fish remain as contaminated with the toxic chemical as ever, researchers say."
With SEJ currently celebrating its 25th anniversary year, we asked some of the society’s founders — among them luminaries in the environmental journalism profession — to share their thoughts on what the organization has meant to the field, where SEJ is going next and what they see as the big environmental stories of our time. Here are their insights.
"The Barnett Shale's emissions have been vastly underestimated, sweeping Environmental Defense Fund-backed study finds."
"MUSTAFABAD, India — Khushboo Kushwaha has a few years before she will have to squat in front of a filthy, smoking open stove three times a day to cook meals for her family, as her older sister and cousins do now.
Khushboo is 11, and the girls in her home usually take up cooking duties as teenagers. But the smoke that billows from the wood and dried dung they burn, stinging the older girls’ eyes and throats, already affects her.
"Hydroelectric dams grace bank notes in developing countries, from Mozambique to Laos, Kyrgyzstan to Sri Lanka, a place of honor reflecting their reputation as harbingers of prosperity."
"An undercover sting by Greenpeace has revealed that two prominent climate sceptics were available for hire by the hour to write reports casting doubt on the dangers posed by global warming."
"U.S. gasoline pump prices are poised to drop below $2 a gallon for the first time in more than six years, which is sure to bring comfort and joy to drivers."
"Ethiopia's government has increased to 10.1 million the estimated number of people who desperately need food aid because of a drought."
Environmental policy riders are one of the bones of contention stalling a massive omnibus funding deal in Congress as the December 11 government shutdown deadline looms.
"WASHINGTON — The bazaar is open on Capitol Hill as lawmakers rush through unfinished budget business.
Congress is trying to wrap up its work for the year and it's hoping to go out with a bang by passing a massive spending bill and a separate measure reviving a boatload of tax breaks that mostly reward business interests like high-tech firms and producers of renewable energy.
"In Hampton Roads, Va., the epicenter of both the evangelical movement and climate change, land and ideology are losing the battle to a rising Atlantic."
