Anything related to air quality, air pollution, or the atmosphere
"Coal-fired power plants across the country released more mercury last year as power demand surged, reversing a yearslong downward trend in the emissions of a toxic metal that impairs brain development."
"Blue Hill is the nation’s oldest continually operating weather observatory, according to executive director Alex Evans. Since 1885, staff and volunteers have relied on many of the same instruments, including mercury and alcohol thermometers, hygrometers that use human hair to measure moisture in the air, and that glass sphere on the roof tracking the hours of bright sunshine."
"The world’s maritime nations preserved a plan to adopt the first global carbon fee on shipping, as they agreed to keep working on it in the fall and adjourned their meeting Friday. However, they also agreed to continue discussing alternative proposals and entertain new ones, which could change the plan substantially."
"The Trump administration says the cities shouldn’t be penalized for unhealthy air because pollution can blow in from abroad. Some experts say that’s preposterous."
"A proposed waste-to-energy facility in Fiji has been labelled as "waste colonialism" by opponents of the plant. The $900 million venture, backed by Australian billionaire Ian Malouf, would burn hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste each year at a site built near a popular tourist destination."
"For 152 million Americans, including nearly half of the nation's children and teens, just breathing air in the places they live can be harmful. According to the American Lung Association's latest State of the Air report, 44% of the U.S. population reside in areas with unhealthy levels of pollution, including 33 million who are younger than 18."
SEJournal is providing full coverage of all eight of the day-long tours from the annual Society of Environmental Journalists’ conference, April 15-18, in Chicago. In Part 2, contributors Meg Duff, Nathaniel Eisen, Nhung Nguyen and Marlowe Starling provide detailed reports from tours focused on the transitioning steel industry, microgrids, climate-friendly crop practices and evolving Midwestern agricultural systems.
Also check out the first round of tour coverage and read all the great work from our team of early-career freelance journalists, part of SEJournal’s live #SEJ2026 Live conference reporting.
Nearly as rejuvenating as attending the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual gathering is perusing the après-conference spoof by contributing quipster David Helvarg. While it seemed he was mostly there unabashedly preselling his forthcoming book, he somehow found time to send up SEJ’s earnest sessions, lambast its blown-up tours and rib its beat dinners. Read his Chicago roast.
"Belching smoke from a new plastic waste processing plant in central Ohio has stirred opposition to an even larger “chemical recycling” factory planned for Arizona by the same company."
"The Environmental Protection Agency is reconsidering whether facilities that recycle plastic chemically should be held to the same strict air pollution standards as incinerators. The possible change is alarming environmental advocates who say it would lead to more dangerous pollution spewing into communities, with fewer or no checks at the federal level."
