By Jason Mathers Here’s something to think about next time you are stuck in traffic next to an 18-wheeler: The average tractor-trailer can travel only six miles per gallon of diesel. These heavy trucks travel a lot too; averaging more than 120,000 miles a year or 20 roundtrip drives between Boston and San Francisco. Freight trucks…
New report: How climate change is impacting where you live
By Ilissa Ocko The National Climate Assessment (NCA) report, prepared by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, is essentially the U.S. equivalent of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): Using the best available science, over 300 experts synthesized current understanding of observed and future climate changes and impacts, particularly in the U.S. The third ever…
Nearly Two-Thirds Of People In China Consider Themselves ‘Envirionmentalists’
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – In China, the world’s biggest polluter, about 64 percent of people identify themselves as environmentalists, more than double that of Europe and the United States, a report published on Wednesday showed. The survey by Dutch research agency Motivaction said in China, where public anger has mounted over hazardous levels of pollution in…
The Ocean Floor Is Littered With Humanity’s Garbage
We hope you liked the Okeanos Explorer livestream as much as we have. We saw shiny things and creepy things, passive things and aggressive things. We’ve also occasionally seen trash, such as a kitchen glove. For the Okeanos mission, which focused on recording marine life, those were incidental finds. But one recent deep-sea mission sought…
‘Feeding 9 billion’ requires facing up to climate change
By EDF Blogs This post was co-authored by Kritee, Senior Scientist, International Climate; Richie Ahuja, Regional Director, Asia; and Tal Lee Anderman, Tom Graff Fellow – India Low-Carbon Rural Development National Geographic’s May cover story, “Feeding 9 billion,” offers valuable insights into how to feed a growing global population while reducing agriculture’s environmental impacts. But it omits some…
The 10 Most Polluted Cities In The US
California may be a haven for plug-in electric cars, but it’s also home to many of the most-polluted cities in the U.S. Of the 10 most polluted U.S. cities in the American Lung Association’s State of the Airreport (via Mashable), seven are in the Golden State: 1. Los Angeles-Long Beach, Calif. 2. Visalia-Porterville-Hanford, Calif. 3. Bakersfield, Calif. 4. Fresno-Madera,…
60% Of China’s Underground Water Is Too Polluted To Drink
Sixty percent of underground water in China which is officially monitored is too polluted to drink directly, state media have reported, underlining the country’s grave environmental problems. Water quality measured in 203 cities across the country last year rated “very poor” or “relatively poor” in an annual survey released by the Ministry of Land and…