Pollution

"Barb Boustead remembers learning about corn sweat when she moved to Nebraska about 20 years ago to work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and found herself plunked down in an ocean of corn. The term for the late-summer spike in humidity from corn plants cooling themselves was “something that locals very much know about,” Boustead, a meteorologist and climatologist, recalled."

"An internal watchdog criticized the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) top air official for participating in the development of a rule that regulates an industry in which he reportedly had financial holdings."

"Last year’s Canadian wildfires, which blanketed much of the eastern U.S. in smog, released more carbon emissions than all but three countries worldwide, according to research published Wednesday."

"New studies suggest global warming boosts natural methane releases, which could undermine efforts to cut emissions of the greenhouse gas from fossil fuels and agriculture."

"Soil, plants and water along popular recreation spots near Los Alamos, New Mexico, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, are contaminated with “extreme concentrations” of plutonium, a new study has found, but calls for the federal government to act have been dismissed."

"The consultants, who worked for Dow, the pesticide’s manufacturer, help corporate interests defend their products against environmental and health regulations."

"Gavin Newsom’s late session proposal to extend deadlines — by more than four years in one case — for oil companies to  comply with a new law fizzled and died late this week."

"A $5 million prime-time ad campaign is aimed at climate policies the industry claims make life miserable for Californians."

"An industrial worker got one whiff of ethylene oxide. Twenty years later, he still hasn’t recovered — and his community is searching for answers."

"Scientists with financial ties to industry and histories of producing controversial research to derail chemical regulations are mobilizing to attack strict new federal drinking water limits for toxic PFAS, or “forever chemicals”, documents reviewed by the Guardian reveal."