EHN Originals

President Biden’s Wednesday night speech before the House and Senate generally drew praise from the pundit class. But instead of the traditional few throwaway lines – even Trump talked about joining a global “trillion trees” planting effort – Biden laid out an ambitious agenda for climate, clean energy, toxic cleanups, and more. But will any…

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In May 2020, Greg Johnson went to Little Saint Germain Lake in northern Wisconsin to spear walleye. He was with Carl Edwards and Leon Valliere, friends from his tribe, the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, and a visiting friend, Stephanie Stevens. The four loaded their boat and set out. At the…

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Out of the airplane window I saw a smoke plume in the distance towering thousands of feet above the burning forest floor. It was the 2019 Shady Fire raging 150 miles northeast of Boise, which had started two weeks earlier after a lightning strike set the central Idaho wilderness ablaze. At first, I was unmoved.…

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With the U.S. back in the Paris Agreement, and with governments across the country evaluating how they can cut carbon emissions, a question remains about one contentious “carbon neutral” energy source: wood pellets. Wood pellets are burned as a form of biomass energy, or bioenergy, and are touted as a “carbon neutral” energy source in…

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The Colorado River’s largest reservoirs have steadily declined, reaching their lowest combined level since 1965, when Lake Powell was first filling.

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In April 1991, public radio listeners got a unique new show: A one-hour environmental newsmagazine called Living on Earth. It’s still on the air—a minor miracle for both nonprofit radio and environmental news. The main factor in the show’s staying power is Steve Curwood, both honcho and show host since Show One. Curwood had previously…

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This day last year, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, was supposed to be complete with international summits, events, and celebrations. But most of that was scrapped thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Here we are on the 51st anniversary—still battling COVID-19. Since last year the world has faced an unprecedented economic crisis, racial reckoning, and…

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PITTSBURGH—Lead was detected in 80 percent of water systems in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, which encompasses Pittsburgh, in 2019, according to a new two-year analysis. While the federal limit for lead in drinking water is 15 parts per billion (ppb), experts—including those at the American Academy of Pediatrics, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and…

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Abrania Marrero joins the Agents of Change in Environmental Health podcast to discuss the increasing push for food security and sovereignty in Puerto Rico, and how the island’s relationship with the U.S. mainland has impacted its residents’ health. Marrero, Ph.D. candidate at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, talks about how dinners with her…

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Esta es la parte 1 de nuestra serie de 4 partes, “Fractura Hidráulica”, una investigación de las sustancias químicas de fracturación en el aire, el agua y las personas del oeste de Pensilvania. CONDADO DE WASHINGTON, Pensilvania – En el verano del 2019, Gunnar Bjornson, de 13 años, pasaba la mayoría de los días tocando…

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