"Illinois Bans Plastic Microbeads in Personal-Care Products"
"Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation Sunday banning the manufacture and sale of personal care products containing plastic microbeads."
Source: Chicago Tribune, 06/10/2014
Technology
Toolbox: A Swiss Army Knife for Environmental Data Journalists
The U.S. EPA has put online a "Data Finder" tool that simplifies finding and accessing data that may help you report your particular story. Find datasets by searching in many dimensions: media (air, water), health risks, pollutants, and others. It has an easy browse feature, and links to even more datasets than does EPA's mainstream Envirofacts portal.
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Journos Fight Feds To Keep Drones As News Tool
More than a dozen news media organizations filed a brief May 6, 2014, arguing that the Federal Aviation Administration is violating the First Amendment with its limits on drones. The media groups were intervening in the appeal of a judge's overturning of a $10,000 Federal Aviation Administration fine imposed on Raphael Pirker, a videographer who shot a promotional video of the University of Virginia campus.
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TOOLBOX: Labor Dept. Enforcement Data Tool Can Help Journalists
Workers exposed occupationally to toxic chemicals and other safety threats are often the first sign of danger to the general population. A new portal combining Labor Department enforcement databases offers environmental journalists a new tool for exploring such stories.
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"U.S. Not Ready for Oil Spill in Arctic Waters"
"The warming climate is melting sea ice, opening U.S. Arctic waters to shipping and oil and gas development, but the National Research Council warned today that U.S. personnel, equipment, transportation, communication, navigation, and safety resources are not adequate for an Arctic oil spill response."
Source: ENS, 04/24/2014
"The Bet: Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon, and Our Gamble over Earth’s Future"
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"Drones Are Becoming Energy’s New Roustabouts"
"PALO ALTO, Calif. — The egg white drone lifted off from its ground station at a hospital construction site here, hovered for an instant, then zoomed off, sounding like a five-pound bee as it buzzed around the cranes towering over the six-acre project."
Source: NY Times, 04/23/2014
New Oil-Gas Well Database Offers Tool for Environmental Reporters
The federal government certainly won't tell you. But the nonprofit research group FracTracker will give you data and maps on some 1.1 million oil and gas wells in 36 U.S. states. It's a great starting point for stories on the environmental impacts of drilling and fracking in your area.
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