"States are continuing to allow sewage sludge to be spread on cropland as fertilizer and in some cases increasing the amount spread, even as the PFAS-tainted substance has ruined farmers’ livelihoods, poisoned water supplies, contaminated food and put the public’s health at risk."
"Louisiana’s proposed $2 billion project to divert water and sediment from the Mississippi River into Barataria Basin as part of an unprecedented plan to fight coastal land loss moved a major step forward on Monday with the release by the Army Corps of Engineers of a final environmental impact statement."
How water moves through the global ecosystem and shapes our landscapes is the subject of a must-read new book by writer Erica Gies, according to BookShelf editor Tom Henry. A significant part of water’s story is how humanity invariably fails when trying to manipulate it. But hope may reside with Gies’ various “water detectives,” who explore how to “let water go where it wants to go.”
Carbon dioxide may get more attention, but the second-most damaging greenhouse gas, methane, is now the focus of a global pledge to cut emissions 30% by 2030. As part of a Society of Environmental Journalists publishing project focused on covering climate solutions, we take a closer look at methane with energy reporter Nushin Huq. A primer on the climate-related problems of methane and the promise of methane-based solutions. Plus, watch a recent SEJ methane solutions webinar and see our Methane and Climate Change Toolbox.
"A bay-breasted warbler weighs about the same as four pennies, but twice a year makes an extraordinary journey. The tiny songbird flies nearly 4,000 miles (6,437 kilometers) between Canada’s spruce forests and its wintering grounds in northern South America."
"Dozens of buildings burned and a major interstate was closed as gusty winds fanned a large wildfire in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains and ignited another blaze nearby, authorities said Tuesday."
"Southwest of Sacramento, California, the branching arms of waterways reach into a patchwork of farm fields and pastures. Canals and wetlands fringed with reeds meet a sunbaked expanse of dry meadows."
"The U.S. House is considering a bill that would put lynching sites in western Tennessee on track to become part of the National Park Service, part of a trend this year of Congress using the agency to advance discussions of the nation’s troubled and often violent racial history."
"A group of conservationists are seeking to get a tiny rare Nevada springsnail listed as an endangered or threatened species, arguing that the species is threatened by a planned lithium mine in Thacker Pass."
In the fine print of the historic Biden climate bill is a controversial commitment to pass legislation on fossil fuel permitting, a measure deeply opposed by the environmental community and calling for heavy political muscle to move through Congress this month. Issue Backgrounder details what’s in it, and what’s not, and takes the measure of the measure’s prospects.
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