News Stories

News Stories relating to "pollution"

Airpocalypse

Monday, April 8, 2013
More than a million people die every year from air pollution in China, which has the fastest growing economy in the world. But how do you convince people to come and work in what is ALSO the most polluted city in the world? China's...
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What if Coal Didn't Pollute

Monday, March 11, 2013
We're desperately searching for new oil and gas (with fracking), but we have plenty of coal. China does too, but they use so much of it that their country is hopelessly polluted. If only we could find a way to burn coal without releasing carbon dioxide.

It may have happened. Researchers have just produced heat from coal for 203...
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Far Flung Pollution Affects Us All

Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Chemicals used as flame retardants are present as environmental pollutants all around the globe, including remote sites in Indonesia, Nepal and Tasmania, where no one wears clothes that are treated with these chemicals.

Researcher Amina Salamova says,...
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One of the Worst Pollution Events in History

Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Reduced air circulation and cold winter temperatures have combined to create what is one of the most intense pollution events in history over China. Unhealthy polluted air blankets three fourths of a country the size of Europe. It’s as if the entire United...
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Dolphins Being Hurt by Power Plant Emissions

Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Amid growing concerns about the spread of harmful mercury in plants and animals, a new study compared levels of the chemical in captive dolphins with dolphins found in the wild. The captive...
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Just a Little Hurts a Lot

Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Short-term exposure (for up to 7 days) to all major air pollutants, with the exception of ozone, is significantly associated with an increased risk of heart attack.
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Here's an Irony: Cleaning the Air Causes More Hurricanes

Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Who would have believed it? Cleaning up pollution may lead to more hurricanes!

We're not sure how this might effect tornadoes, but recent research suggests that cleaning up air pollution from factories in North America and Europe could have...
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Poison Hanging in Our Air

Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Humans pump thousands of tons of vapor from the metallic element mercury into the atmosphere each year, and it can remain suspended for long periods before being changed into a form that is easily removed from the atmosphere.

New research shows that the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere work to transform elemental mercury into...
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Electric Cars POLLUTE

Friday, February 24, 2012
China, which is heavily polluted, has a program to replace conventional automobiles with electric cars. But it turns out that these are EVEN MORE polluting than automobiles with gas engines!

When...
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Mystery Disease: Hysteria or Toxic Spill?

Tuesday, January 31, 2012
High school students in the small town of Leroy, New York have been coming down with strange tics and verbal outbursts, with no obvious cause. Several girls have even started using wheelchairs. Some people are saying that these are a result of "mass hysteria," but environmental activist Erin Brockovich thinks a toxic chemical spill 40...
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Pollution May Cause Hurricanes

Thursday, January 5, 2012
Pollution affects the ocean in many different ways. One of these is that it causes hurricanes. A recent increase in the intensity of tropical cyclones in the Arabian Sea may be a side effect of increasing air pollution over the Indian sub-continent.

Traditionally,...
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How We're Polluting Mexico

Tuesday, December 13, 2011
We have a difficult relationship with Mexico and politicians in the Southwest are trying to get elected by using campaign rhetoric that stresses keeping out...
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A Wonderful New Tool to Detect Climate Change

Thursday, October 13, 2011
Not all Smartphone "apps" are ominous--some of them are wonderful (and fun!). Here's another...
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Cooling the Earth: Pollution and Cosmic Rays

Thursday, September 22, 2011
Pollution causes climate change and also helps prevent it, but what it does MOST is make it hard to forecast what will happen to our weather in the future (if you order our...
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Pollution Isn't Just Bad for People

Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Pollution isn't good for us, and if you were exposed to organophosphate pesticides while pregnant, your kids may have lower IQs. One of these pesticides is malathion, which is commonly used on houseplants.

And FISH are suffering from pollution too! A new study finds that zebra fish exposed to a commonly-used flame retardant called...
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Pollution Damages Your BRAIN

Thursday, July 28, 2011
New research suggests that long-term exposure to air pollution can lead to physical changes in the brain, as well as learning and memory problems and even ...
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China's Pollution is Staving Off Climate Change

Monday, July 25, 2011
It's like a bargain made with the devil: It turns out we have China's POLLUTION to thank for the reason climate change hasn't made the weather warmer. Smoke belching from Asia's rapidly growing economies is largely responsible for a halt in...
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Pollution May be Killing Your Dog

Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Scientists have found chemical flame retardants in the blood of pet dogs at concentrations five to 10 times higher than in humans, but lower than levels found in a previous study of cats. Chemicals are bad for PEOPLE too: A recent study found that higher levels of perfluorocarbons (PFCs) in the body are associated with increased odds of having...
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An Unexpected Military Hazard

Thursday, April 7, 2011
Military personnel and contractors stationed in Iraq risk not only enemy gunfire, suicide bombers, and roadside bombs...
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Pollution Solution

Friday, February 18, 2011
What to do about the fallout from air pollution? BUILD with it! Not everyone realizes that ash is an essential ingredient in the manufacture of concrete. The nation's power plants generate about 130 million tons of fly ash, the fine particles that rise with flue gases during combustion, during the coal combustion process. These...
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Pollution Blame for Breast Cancer?

Monday, January 31, 2011
Breast cancer has been blamed on many different things, but pollution? A ground-breaking new study suggests pollution from traffic may put women at risk for this deadly disease. Researcher Mark Goldberg says, "We've been watching breast cancer rates go up for some time....
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Polluted Butter

Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Pollution is everywhere these days--it's even part of your next holiday dinner! Scientists have documented what they think is the worst US case of food contamination with polybrominated diphenyl ether (...
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Whales are Polluted

Friday, December 10, 2010
People are polluted and whales are too. Sperm whales throughout the Pacific carry evidence of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which occur in oil, coal, and tar deposits, and are produced as byproducts of fuel burning. Some of them are carcinogenic, and high levels...
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Pollution at the Top

Tuesday, December 7, 2010
No matter how high up you go, you can't escape pollution. A new study of a glacier on top of Mt. Everest--the tallest mountain in the world--shows how true this is.
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Fat Pollution

Friday, December 3, 2010
Can pollution make you gain weight? It works that way with animals. New research shows that exposure to polluted air early in life led to an accumulation of abdominal fat and insulin resistance in mice even if they ate a normal diet. Animals exposed to the...
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Blowing in the Wind

Friday, April 2, 2010

Dirty dust from China - It's that time of year again (and no, we don't mean Easter!): The economic growth across much of Asia comes with a troubling side effect: pollutants from the region are being wafted up to the stratosphere during monsoon season, and they're blowing OUR way. Not only that, that can circulate around the...

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Pollution: The Chinese Solution

Monday, March 29, 2010

Instead of helping us by importing cars from the US (which would help our ailing car manufacturers), the Chinese are helping stem their pollution problem by getting back on their bikes (which may help THEIR overpopulation problem!)

There are now four million vehicles in Beijing, meaning that they have American-style traffic jams, while...

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Monkey Pollution

Monday, March 22, 2010

This isn't the kind of pollution that monkeys MAKE, it's the kind they DETECT. It turns out that testing hair from Asian monkeys living close to people may provide early warnings of toxic threats to humans and wildlife (and those of us who don't have jungles nearby will just have to find another way). And at least monkeys listen to their...

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Alien Pollution

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Another way to spot intelligent life! - While we keep hoping that disclosure will come soon, scientists are trying to figure out how to spot alien life. One clue might be the pollution they leave behind.

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Another Reason Why Trucks are Dangerous

Monday, October 5, 2009

We know that the tiny particles in air pollution can clog our arteries, leading to heart attacks, but now researchers have found a connection between diesel emissions and cancer. We need to start running our trucks on biofuel!

Diesel exhaust exposure levels in the study were designed to mimic the exposure people might experience while...

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