fracking, fresh water, lead contamination, water, water pollution, water resources

Water: The Life Blood of the Planet

Fresh ice water is so refreshing on a hot summer’s day! But here’s the thing — take away that water, and you have nothing. If you look at the Earth from space, you will see that most of our planet is liquid. However, the vast majority is salt water and unusable for human consumption. According to ...

Raven Montmorency

Icebergs in the Arctic.

Biodiversity: The Key to Happiness

Biodiversity has taken on a new and vital importance in the conscience of humanity. Money has usually been the main driving force behind efforts for achieving an opulent life. If not opulent, at least a fairly well-supported and comfortable life, but money cannot buy the satisfaction a person feels from within. The pandemic of 2020 ...

Jack Roberts

Macaws sitting on a fence.

Do Face Masks Increase Pollution?

Before the coronavirus pandemic, people used to wear face masks to protect themselves from air pollution. With the spread of COVID-19, the use of face masks has jumped dramatically worldwide. As a result, many environmentalists are concerned that such a huge consumption will lead to large-scale waste generation and subsequent pollution of the land and ...

Raven Montmorency

A woman wearing a face mask.

A New Way to Remove Contaminants From Nuclear Wastewater

Nuclear power continues to expand globally, propelled, in part, by the fact that it produces few greenhouse gas emissions while providing steady power output. But along with that expansion comes an increased need for dealing with the large volumes of water used for cooling these plants. Such wastewater contains nuclear wastewater contaminants made up of ...

Troy Oakes

Steam from a nuclear power plant.

Young Indian Engineer Is Saving Village Ponds From Extinction

India is currently grappling with the pollution of its ponds. Many experts suggested large-scale operations with big budgets were needed to save these water sources. But the actions of Ramveer Tanwar have proved otherwise. Modern hero saving village ponds The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) published a report in 2018 stating that the ...

Armin Auctor

Balloons Are the No. 1 Marine Debris Risk of Mortality for Seabirds

A new IMAS and CSIRO collaborative study has found that balloons are the highest-risk plastic debris item for seabirds — they are 32 times more likely to kill than ingesting hard plastics. Researchers from IMAS, CSIRO, and ACE CRC looked at the cause of death of 1,733 seabirds from 51 species and found that one in three ...

Troy Oakes

Drug Pollution Is Passing From Stream Bugs to Predators

Sixty-nine pharmaceutical compounds have been detected in stream insects, some at concentrations that may threaten animals that feed on them, such as trout and platypuses. When these insects emerge as flying adults, they can pass this drug pollution on to spiders, birds, bats, and other streamside foragers. These findings by an international team of researchers ...

Troy Oakes

A syringe and hospital drugs.

Fracking Wastewater Found in Freshwater Mussel Shells

Elevated concentrations of strontium, an element associated with oil and gas fracking wastewater, have accumulated in the shells of freshwater mussels downstream from fracking wastewater disposal sites, according to researchers from Penn State and Union College. Nathaniel Warner, assistant professor of environmental engineering at Penn State, said: “Freshwater mussels filter water and when they grow ...

Troy Oakes

A freshwater mussel.

Do Sunscreen Chemicals Harm Fish?

For most people, a trip to the beach involves slathering on a thick layer of sunscreen to protect against sunburn and skin cancer. However, savvy beachgoers know to reapply sunscreen every few hours because it eventually washes off. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology have detected high levels of sunscreen chemicals in the ...

Troy Oakes

Sunscreen containers.

‘Crisis’ is the Name for India’s Air and Water Dilemma

India’s air and water dilemma is becoming ever more serious. Although India is one of the world’s top developing countries, it finds itself in the list of the top polluted nations in the world. In fact, the 15 most polluted cities in the world include 6 cities located in the northern belt of India. Additionally, ...

Emma Lu

Extreme air pollution in India.