EHN Originals

More than 500 environmental and community groups – from the Nassau Hiking & Outdoor Club to Greenpeace USA – have called on United States and Canadian leaders to abandon efforts to capture carbon emissions from fossil fuels and work harder to curb fossil fuel use in the first place. The technology, known as “carbon capture…

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We’ve long known that aspects of modern life — eating sugary foods or sitting for long stretches in front of the tv or steering wheel, for example — contribute to diabetes. But evidence is mounting that another facet of contemporary life—routine exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals—could be worsening the diabetes pandemic. In a review article out…

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Last year, I wrote about some of the worst efforts to incorporate environmental themes into cinema. One of the all-time stinkers celebrates its 50th anniversary this month. On July 24, 1971, Godzilla versus the Smog Monster made its domestic debut to Japanese audiences. Primarily known for stomping Tokyo, the giant reptile switched mid-career to saving…

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Editor’s note: This is an edited excerpt from the foreword to the new book Herbicides: Chemistry, Efficacy, Toxicology and Environmental Impacts. Despite Rachel Carson epic warnings in Silent Spring, total pesticide use, including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and other “cides”, around the globe has increased five-fold since she published the book in 1962. The herbicidal properties…

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PITTSBURGH—A group of local physicians, researchers, community advocates, and elected officials released a declaration today calling for action on cancer-causing pollutants in southwestern Pennsylvania. The declaration, signed by more than 30 local organizations and 25 individuals so far, explains that rates of several kinds of cancer are “strikingly high” in the region—higher than state and…

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Kartik Amarnath joins the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast to discuss his work and advocacy in community determination and empowerment, and energy justice. Amarnath—a policy specialist for PUSH Buffalo, a MD and MPH candidate at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, and current Agents of Change fellow—also talks about how his family’s past informs…

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Some communities live and die with a single industry. “It’s the reason for the community being here,” Jody Davis, mayor of Terrace Bay, Ontario, told EHN. A wood pulp mill—which started operating in 1947—is the economic engine of the small town of less than 2,000 people. Terrace Bay incorporated in 1959. Davis credits the mill…

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An investigative collaboration between EHN and The Narwhal won silver in the Best Feature Article category for Canada’s 2021 Digital Publishing Awards. The story by freelance reporter Hilary Beaumont and photo journalist Christopher Katsarov Luna, Inside a cross-border battle against cancer and pollution, covered two communities — one in Canada, one in the U.S. —…

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Today’s emerging environmental journalists have one benefit their oldest predecessors didn’t have: predecessors. More than a generation of environmental specialists have left a wealth of experience, and a bounty of institutional memory, to build on. And unfortunately, the volume of subject matter is as bountiful as ever. Some of the old guard is leaving, by…

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The urgency to fix U.S. infrastructure is head-spinning. The recently introduced Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework, focused on traditional infrastructure such as roads and bridges, makes it clear that cities and communities will need creativity to solve more than one infrastructure or climate issue at a time. When rebuilding roads, for example, cities can retrofit road surfaces…

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