Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Roy C. Averill-Murray,USFWS/Flickr Desert tortoises have crawled the Mojave Desert since before there was an America, or a Mojave Desert for that matter. For millions of years, these plodding reptiles have ambled across the sands, gnawing on flowers, grasses, and cacti, digging extensive burrow networks, and every once […]
Published by the World Wildlife Fund Water is essential for all life on Earth. Fresh water is used for drinking, sanitation, agriculture, transportation, electricity generation, and recreation. Freshwater habitats—like lakes, rivers, streams, and wetlands—house more than 10% of all known animals and about 50% of all known fish species. One of these freshwater habitats, wetlands—a place […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Is my water safe to drink? This is a fundamental question that government officials should be able to answer without hesitation. Unfortunately for residents in East Chicago, the answer remains a troubling uncertainty. This weekend, an EPA official was in East Chicago to address the various lead contamination […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Despite national commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, some G20 countries still fund highly polluting coal projects. The catch is most of these emissions don’t count towards their carbon footprint – these countries are funding coal projects abroad. If G20 nations are serious about their Paris Agreement goals, […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund A farmer in Iowa Scott Sinklier/Alamy In Curtiss Hall, one of the oldest buildings at Iowa State University, students get their career advice and information on global agriculture from the Monsanto Student Services Wing, dedicated in 2012 with help from the colossal food tech company known for bioengineering […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund [Edited on Jul 12, 2017] We can only avoid the worst effects of climate change if we take swift and decisive action. The world has taken some important steps already, but we had been asleep at the wheel for many decades, releasing vast amounts of carbon into the […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Behind closed doors, New York City, State and federal officials are hammering out the details of a revised plan to safeguard New York City’s irreplaceable Catskill and Delaware water supplies, which provide drinking water to over nine million New Yorkers. The stakes are high. If New York’s watershed plan […]
Published by Ocean Conservancy Our nation’s first two regional ocean plans are complete and well into implementation, and even more regions are beginning to work on their own planning efforts. The six years that regions have spent working together have shown how planning helps ocean users, states and federal agencies achieve better outcomes, and that collaborative […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund President Trump recklessly announced that he’s pulling the United States out of the Paris Agreement. Leaders everywhere responded resolutely with strong signals that they are going to continue to move forward despite his stance. A rooftop solar array in Queretaro, Mexico Ignacio Evangelista/Offset This is our fourth international […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund The world’s largest floating solar energy plant, in Huainan, China Imagine China/Newscom In Sonoma, California, the most important renewable resource will always be grapes. Sonoma’s vineyards, framed by picturesque rolling green hills, produce some of the best wines on the planet; tourists flock to the region to sample […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund I like bees and other pollinators. Every morning I enjoy a soy milk latte from my bee mug. I also like farmers and yummy farm-grown foods that are made from bee- pollinated crops and wildflowers that are pollinated by honeybees and wild bees. That’s why I care about […]
Published by Ocean Conservancy Our survival depends on a healthy ocean—it generates half the oxygen on the planet, creates the rain that feeds our crops and forests, provides our fresh water and feeds millions of people around the world. But the ocean provides another life-sustaining service that you may not be aware of. The ocean has […]
A common definition of the word dust refers to fine, dry particles of matter. From dust storms on earth to cosmic dust, just about everywhere that any form of matter is present, dust will also be present. That includes the ubiquitous household dust that seems to magically appear in our homes on every surface and […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt often says he’s committed to “the rule of law,” and that “regulations should be regular.” His M.O., however, has been neither regular nor lawful. Making things irregular. Photo by Gage Skidmore / Flickr. Creative Commons Much of the attention has been on […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund The administration is moving to repeal the Clean Water Rule, which protects drinking water for one-third of Americans. William Britten/iStock It’s summer, when Americans take to the nation’s rivers, beaches, lakes, and streams for recreation and enjoyment that reminds us of the vital link between clean water and […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Alex Eben Meyer Spraying chemicals in the yard—to make the grass greener, stop pests from nibbling the vegetables, or prevent dandelions from taking over—is a tempting shortcut for many a home gardener. “The main ones people use are insecticides and herbicides, or weed killers, or a combination of […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Richard Moore at the announcement of the EPA’s EJ 2020 Action Agenda in the Valle De Oro National Wildlife Refuge Jessie Jobs/USFWS Five miles south of downtown Albuquerque, on the banks of the Rio Grande, an urban oasis is taking shape on a 570-acre former dairy farm. On […]
Published by the World Wildlife Fund Over the last decade, Linhthong La-Intong has seen many changes in Sobphouan, his small village located in central Laos’s Bolikhamxay Province. But, he says proudly, there’s one thing that has remained the same: the forest. That’s because the village of Sobphouan, with help from WWF, is a leading example of […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Art and Helen Tanderup with their daughter Vanessa Brand, their grandchildren, Kyle and Amelia, and the family dog, Penny Mary Anne Andrei/Bold Nebraska When TransCanada began knocking on doors throughout Nebraska in 2008, most residents didn’t know much about its Keystone XL pipeline or the dirty tar sands […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Trump’s recently proposed budget for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets lofty goals to “ensure that all Americans are protected from exposure to hazardous environmental risks where they live, learn, work, and enjoy their lives.” But just saying it doesn’t make it so. Compare the facts around […]