EHN Originals

In my childhood, our nation’s war with itself was seared into me by the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy. For succeeding generations, 9/11, and the massacres at Columbine, Sandy Hook Elementary, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, as well as the rampant gun deaths in…

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The year 2008 seems like a very long time ago. Bill Cosby was America’s Dad. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 9,000 in an economic swoon. And a campaign based on “Hope and Change” swept America. Well, I guess we got the “Change” part. In October of that year, veteran CBS correspondent Bob Schieffer…

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Scientists have concocted many schemes to save coral reefs from climate change. Assisted migration. Selective breeding. Manipulating the coral microbiome. Many of these conservation techniques are risky and unproven, but the stakes are high; the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that with a 2˚C increase in global temperatures, 99 percent of corals…

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Exposure to minuscule amounts of bisphenol-A can cause a multitude of health problems, including effects on the developing brain, heart, and ovaries, according to a paper published on Thursday that integrates data from several animal studies. The findings build on a body of evidence that absorbing or ingesting the ubiquitous chemical may harm people at…

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Living near fracking operations that frequently engage in flaring—the process of burning off excess natural gas—makes expectant parents 50 percent more likely to have a preterm birth, according to a new study. A birth is considered preterm when a baby arrives before 37 weeks (about eight and a half months) of pregnancy. Preterm births can…

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As editor of EHN, I’ve long sought out reporters who can tell stories of environmental injustice and scientists who can put it into context. This year those worlds merged with our Agents of Change series. The fellows from across the country wrote essays that challenged how we house, teach, treat, and feed people. They wove…

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Think for a minute how much the world’s energy profile has changed in the past decade. Wind and solar have finally begun to shake their slumber. Big Coal is in tatters. And stunningly, for a fleeting moment this spring, there was such an oversupply of oil that its per-barrel price briefly went negative —oil suppliers…

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An article written by a group of 19 toxicologists has been published verbatim in eight toxicology journals in the last four months. The article is titled, “Human exposure to synthetic endocrine disrupting chemicals (S-EDCs) is generally negligible as compared to natural compounds with higher or comparable endocrine activity. How to evaluate the risk of the…

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In early March, the Washington state legislature passed a community solar incentives bill meant to help meet renewable energy goals and increase low-income communities’ access to solar technology. The bill, HB 2248, enjoyed widespread stakeholder support; environmental justice groups, renewable energy coalitions, and utility companies were all on board. The day after the bill passed,…

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The vilification of public health officials in the COVID-19 crisis reminds us of their vital role as the crossing guards of science. When their vigilance gives us the green light to eat, drink, and recreate, we hardly notice them waving us onto normal activities, barely knowing their names. When the light turns yellow for bacterial…

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