"New Michigan data center plans are on the verge of triggering an “offramp” in the state’s nation-leading climate laws that would effectively halt the shift to renewables less than two years after the plans were approved."
"Bayer, the biotech company and manufacturer of Round Up, has substantially increased its spending on lobbying in Iowa since the introduction of a pesticide labeling bill in 2024."
"When school starts in West Virginia next month, 240,000 students in districts large and small will notice something missing from their cafeteria trays. Gone will be red Jell-O fruit cups, yogurt topped with brightly hued sprinkles and and older verisons of Cool Ranch Doritos — all foods made with synthetic dyes."
"The newest draft of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement lacks meaningful pollution reduction targets and allows states to evade legal accountability, according to concerned environmental advocates and experts who have reviewed the document."
"After a plan to sell public land faced bipartisan backlash, the Interior Department appears to be making a bid to halt the expansion of federal public lands."
"While the federal government is scaling back regulations on “forever chemicals,” New Jersey is holding polluters accountable, announcing a record-breaking $2 billion settlement with DuPont and several related companies with a $875 million payout and up to $1.2 billion in cleanup costs."
"Two top officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who led the investigation into the so-called “Sharpiegate” scandal, were placed on leave amid clashes with the Trump administration, according to a report." "The move comes days before a Senate committee votes on the nomination of Neil Jacobs, who was found to have violated the agency’s scientific integrity policy"
"Plastics are a “grave” danger to humans and the planet, responsible for an estimated $1.5 trillion annually in health-related costs, and nations need to center human health as they finalize the global plastics treaty, scientists said in a new report released Monday."
Vital Impacts' online talk at 11 a.m. ET is with David Walter Banks who is known for his blend of stylized portraiture, documentary work and long-term storytelling. You'll be taken behind the scenes of "Trembling Earth," his three-year project focused on protecting Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp.
Fiction and journalism might seem like polar opposites, but some environmental journalists find writing ecofiction is an ideal complement to their day jobs. Drawing on journalistic research skills and curiosity, ecofiction lets them explore environmental issues from a different angle while enjoying an opportunity to unleash their imaginations. Journalist-fictioneers Valerie Brown and Meg Turville-Heitz on working across genre boundaries.
