Pollution

Concrete is the most abundant manufactured material in the world. It is primarily composed of water, cement, and aggregate (sand and gravel.) Cement manufacturing is responsible for about 8% of the world’s total CO2 emissions, primarily a result of the chemical reaction of heating limestone and the combustion of fossil fuels used to provide the heat.

Ten years ago, there were about 1,200 satellites in orbit around the earth. Now there are about 12,000 and the numbers are growing rapidly. Starlink alone has 9,000 satellites in its communications swarm and may in a few years have as many as 42,000. By 2040, there may be more than 100,000 active satellites circling Earth.

Deep-sea mining is the extraction of minerals from the seabed in the deep ocean. Most of the interest is in what are known as polymetallic nodules, which are potato-sized mineral deposits that have built up in layers over thousands of years. Found miles below the ocean’s surface, these nodules contain valuable metals used in batteries and electronics, but mining them could harm fragile and largely unexplored deep-sea ecosystems.

At a time when countless communities are resisting powerful corporations—from Flint, Michigan, to the Standing Rock Reservation, to Didipio in the…

For the past 30 years, John F. Sheehan has been the voice of the Adirondack Council on radio and television and in local, regional, and national media. He…

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond.Today's panelists are:WAMC’s Alan ChartockJudith Enck - Former EPA Regional…

Veteran New Yorker staff writer Tony Hiss’ new book, "Rescuing the Planet," is out today. The book is an urgent call to protect 50 percent of the earth's…

Advocates are challenging the findings of a 2019 New York State Department of Health assessment of cancer patterns in Warren County.In November 2019, as…

In "The Future We Choose," Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, who led negotiations for the United Nations during the historic Paris Agreement of…

Environmentalists say plastic pollution is being compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.Environmentalists based in Europe are sounding the alarm about…