Youth win historic climate lawsuit against Montana
By Dana Drugmand
A group of young people who sued Montana officials for failing to adequately address climate change have prevailed in what observers say is a historic legal challenge.
regulation
“Polluter pays” debate heats up over toxic PFAS chemical cleanup plan
By Carey Gillam
As US regulators work to tackle the toxic threat posed by a class of widely used chemicals known as PFAS, debate is heating up over who could – and should – get hit with the cleanup costs.
Worrisome levels of potentially cancer-causing metal found in children’s diets
By Grace van Deelen
Young children are being exposed to a potentially cancer-causing heavy metal known as cadmium through many of the foods they eat, often at levels that exceed safety standards, according to a new study.
Native American tribe takes a stand to protect its natural resources
By Keith Schneider
MAHNOMEN, Minn. – It’s been centuries since the White Earth tribe migrated west across North America, following an ancestral prophecy to go where “food grows on water.” One of seven Ojibwe bands in Minnesota, White Earth found that prophecy fulfilled along the many shallow clear lakes that lie in the state’s northern forests, where luminous green stalks of wild rice grow in abundance.
Aging Americans face deadly risk due to wide temperature swings, study warns
By Dana Drugmand
People over age 65 face a higher risk of dying when exposed to temperatures that swing far outside the seasonal average, findings that underscore an “urgent” need to mitigate climate change, according to new research.
Postcard from California: In climate crisis, farmworkers need more protection from heat
It’s been over 20 years since a 24-year-old migrant farmworker named Constantino Cruz collapsed and died following a nine-hour shift picking tomatoes in 107-degree Fahrenheit heat near Bakersfield, California.
Reporting project examines the scandal of US farm pollution
By Keith Schneider
There’s no way to describe farm-related nutrient pollution other than what it is – a national scandal. A tiny minority of Americans, half of one percent, is grossly fouling the waters for tens of millions of others.
In Montana, a landmark legal challenge over climate change
By Dana Drugmand
For 20-year-old college student Olivia Vesovich, climate change is not a future concern. It’s a current and near-daily crisis. “Climate change has impacted my ability to breathe,” Vesovich testified from the witness stand of a Montana courtroom last week.
PFAS contamination trial delayed as 3M negotiates sweeping settlement
By Shannon Kelleher and Carey Gillam
Chemical conglomerate 3M is working to settle claims that it is liable for knowingly contaminating the environment with toxic chemicals for decades, delaying what would have been a closely watched bellwether trial in South Carolina.
Citing safety concerns, groups seek moratorium on new CO2 pipelines
By Dana Drugmand
Environmental and public health advocates are calling on President Joe Biden to issue a moratorium on new carbon dioxide pipelines, citing “serious safety concerns” and significant gaps in current federal safety regulations.