California farming has a PFAS problem, with traces of “forever chemicals” from pesticides found on 37% of nearly a thousand samples of the state’s conventionally grown produce, according to a new analysis of 2023 data from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR).
The fires that ravaged Los Angeles County last January destroyed or partially burned more than 18,000 homes and other structures and blanketed a like number in toxic smoke and soot. A year later, recovery is lagging: Fewer than a dozen destroyed homes have been rebuilt, and less than 1,000 rebuilds are on track for this year.
In a canyon 40 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, a fire is smoldering. Unlike the forest fires that erupt every year in Southern California, this fire is 30 feet underground. It’s been spewing toxic gases for three years, with no end in sight.
Farm fields in California, the largest US agricultural state, are sprayed each year with an average of 2.5 million pounds of pesticides containing toxic PFAS, potentially exposing millions of people to the chemicals through contaminated food, soil and drinking water, according to a new analysis of state regulatory data.
ExxonMobil is one of the world’s worst climate polluters, emitting more than 90 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2024. But that only accounts for its direct emissions from oil and gas drilling, refining gasoline and other fossil fuels, as well as from producing plastics.
The US has been importing increasing amounts of paraquat, a pesticide widely used in farming that is linked to Parkinson’s disease, even as other countries have banned the chemical amid growing concerns about risks to human and environmental health, according to the findings of a new report.
Children whose mothers lived near farms and fields treated with certain pesticides during pregnancy have a higher risk of a deadly cancer that is most commonly found in infants before their first birthday, according to a new study.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that would have banned the sale of cookware made with controversial PFAS chemicals, as well as the sale of cleaning products, dental floss, food packaging and other products containing the chemicals.
Massachusetts is one of many states nationwide with programs that encourage renewable energy development to meet robust greenhouse gas reduction goals. And like Massachusetts, many other states are sharpening their clean energy strategies to navigate the anti-renewable energy policies of the Trump administration.
By any measure, California’s San Joaquin Valley is one of the preeminent farming regions in the world. The agriculture industry’s seemingly bottomless thirst gives the Valley another distinction: It is losing its groundwater.