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Sep 19, 2013

Will China's New Pollution Plan Matter?

Barbara Finamore is senior attorney and Asia director for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). This Op-Ed was adapted from a post on the NRDC blog Switchboard. Finamorecontributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. As China prepares to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional time for viewing...

Sep 26, 2013

The Surprising Source of Most Mercury Pollution

If, as Robert Frost wrote, nothing gold can stay, then mercury sticks around forever. Mercury has an uncanny ability to bind to precious metals, and for millennia, people have used it to mine gold and silver. Small-scale, or artisanal, mining — which makes use of mercury in this way —...

Sep 26, 2013

How Climate Change Could Make Mercury Pollution Worse

Mercury pollution and climate change are both unintended consequences of burning fossil fuels for centuries. A new study finds another link between the two problems: Climate change has the potential to make mercury pollution worse. Mercury is a particularly persistent pollutant, and sticks around in surface waters and the air...

Oct 11, 2013

Erin Brockovich: Carcinogens Still Plague California's Drinking Water (Op-Ed)

Erin Brockovich is an environmental and consumer advocate. This article first appeared in The Desert Sun. The NRDC contributed this Op-Ed to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Our government should protect people from dangerous chemicals in our drinking water supplies. I'm not alone in that belief; basically, Californians agree....

Oct 14, 2013

Air Pollution 'Fertilizer' Threatens National Parks

An influx of nitrogen-based pollution is acting as an unwanted fertilizer and is disrupting the ecology of dozens of national parks, according to new research. Of the 45 U.S. parks the research team studied, 38 were blanketed with high levels of nitrogen-based air pollution from power plants, car exhaust and...

Dec 11, 2013

Shanghai's 'Airpocalypse': Can China Fix Its Deadly Pollution? (Op-Ed)

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The current “airpocolypse” emergency in Shanghai - which has seen schoolchildren ordered indoors to protect them from the polluted air, flights grounded and companies ordered to cut production - comes...

Feb 6, 2014

Smothering Smog Over New Delhi Worries Health Officials

Taking a deep breath in New Delhi may be more difficult, as spikes in smog levels have even sparked comparisons with Beijing’s low air quality. India's air pollution is getting worse, according to the 2014 Yale University Environment Performance Index (EPI). One of the ways pollution is measured is by...

Feb 26, 2014

Chinese Man Sues Government Over Air Pollution

In a first, a man in a smog-filled city in China is suing the government for failing to rein in air pollution. Li Guixin, a resident of the northern city of Shijiazhuang, submitted a formal complaint in the district court and is also seeking compensation for residents of the city,...

Mar 5, 2014

California Drought Worsens Air Pollution

The long California drought is worsening winter haze in the state. The combination of low rainfall and stagnant, still air has increased the levels of soot and particulates in the air near the ground. As a result, the state has had 33 percent more bad air days this year than...

Mar 18, 2014

Rare Smog Leads to Paris Travel Restrictions

This article was provided by AccuWeather.com. An extended period of dry weather produced by a large area of high pressure centered over northern France has forced Paris to enforce restrictions on travel due to increasing amounts of air pollution. In a drastic attempt to reduce air pollution, it was announced...

Mar 25, 2014

Air Pollution Linked to 1 in 8 Deaths Worldwide

Air pollution exposure contributes to one in eight deaths around the globe, according to estimates released Tuesday (March 25) by the World Health Organization. More than doubling previous estimates of air pollution-related deaths, the new report says air pollution killed 7 million people in 2012, making it the No. 1...

Mar 28, 2014

Air Pollution Deaths Should Not Be a Partisan Issue (Op-Ed)

Emily Davis is an attorney for the Clean Air Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). This Op-Ed was adapted from one that appeared on the NRDC blog Switchboard. Davis contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Air pollution problems worldwide are even worse than...

Apr 14, 2014

Asian Pollution Boosts Pacific Storm Power

Pollution from China's coal-burning power plants is pumping up winter storms over the northwest Pacific Ocean and changing North America's weather, a new study finds. Northwest Pacific winter storms are now 10 percent stronger than they were 30 years ago, before Asian countries began their industrial boom, according to research...

Apr 25, 2014

China's 'Great Wall of Dust' Seen From Space

Northern China is infamous for dust storms that can sometimes choke Beijing in a yellow haze. A new satellite image shows one of these storms from above. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites captured this image on April 23, acording to NASA's Earth Observatory....

May 20, 2014

Olive Oil Could Protect Heart from Smog

Taking olive oil supplements may help reduce the negative effects of air pollution on blood vessels, according to a new study, but experts remain skeptical of the findings. In the study, the researchers found that lab-created pollution had less of an effect on the function of the lining of blood...