The Trump administration plans to roll back efficiency standards for light bulbs in a move that is projected to pump millions of tons of pollution into the atmosphere while costing American families billions. The Department of Energy said in that it plans to undo two rules that were put in place in the final days of the Obama administration, which expanded the types of light bulbs subject to stricter efficiency standards under a George W. Bush-era law.

It’s no secret that too many of the plastic products we use end up in the ocean. But you might not be aware of one major source of that pollution: our clothes. Polyester, nylon, acrylic, and other synthetic fibers — all of which are forms of plastic — are now about 60 percent of the material that makes up our clothes worldwide. Synthetic plastic fibers are cheap and extremely versatile, providing for stretch and breathability in athleisure, and warmth and sturdiness in winter clothes.

Nearly eight billion metric tons of plastic finds its way into the oceans each year. This huge amount of plastic either washes ashore or breaks down into tiny pieces that are less than 5 millimeters in diameter and are called microplastics.

The volume of toxic mercury dumped into Lake Michigan from We Energies’ coal-fired power plants in Oak Creek has climbed over the past decade. Why? The company isn’t exactly sure. We Energies is required by state regulators to investigate the source of the increases in its wastewater and find ways to limit contamination that ends up in the lake.

Air pollution has reached hazardous levels in Bangkok, Thailand, leading some officials to attempt an unusual approach: letting drones spray the pollution out of the sky. Earlier in the week, levels of PM2.5—tiny particles 2.5 microns in diameter or smaller that can penetrate deep into the lungs—reached 185 micrograms per cubic meter. Anything above 150 is deemed hazardous for all individuals (50 or below is considered good).

A wide-ranging ban on microplastics covering about 90% of pollutants has been proposed by the EU in an attempt to cut 400,000 tonnes of plastic pollution in 20 years. Every year, Europe releases a bulk amount of microplastics six times bigger than the “Great Pacific garbage patch” into the environment – the equivalent of 10bn plastic bottles. The phasing out proposed by the European Chemicals Agency (Echa) would remove 36,000 tonnes a year of “intentionally added” microplastic fibres and fragments, starting in 2020.

European Chemicals Agency draft law aims to cut 400,000 tonnes of plastic pollution

The lawsuit claims the defendants knew that "PFOA and PFOS were highly soluble and mobile in water, highly likely to contaminate water supplies and other sensitive receptors, were persistent in the environment, and would bio-accumulate in humans causing serious health effects."

Delhi's rickshaw pullers say they don't contribute to air pollution, but are still the worst affected.

Scientists have found the first evidence of plastic contamination in freshwater fish in the Amazon, highlighting the extent to which bags, bottles and other waste dumped in rivers is affecting the world’s wildlife. Tests on the stomach contents of fish in Brazil’s Xingu River, one of the major tributaries of the Amazon, revealed plastic particles in more than 80% of the species examined, including the omnivorous parrot pacu, herbivorous redhook silver dollar, and meat-eating red-bellied piranha.

Authorities have warned residents to stay inside as thick smog shrouds dozens of Chinese cities. Officials are considering temporary driving bans and an extension to the shutdown of heavily polluting factories. Along with 78 other cities, China's capital, Beijing, was again blanketed in thick winter smog on Saturday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Air pollution warnings were issued across the north, northwest and east of the country, forcing residents in many cities to curb outdoor activities due to the potential health risks.

The ban on single-use plastic bags by Australia’s two largest supermarkets prevented the introduction of an estimated 1.5 billion bags into the environment, and the retail industry is hopeful this is only the beginning. Coles and Woolworths’ decision to stop offering single-use disposable plastic bags mid-way through the year was initially met with swift public backlash.

Reuters investigates how a U.S. ‘clean coal’ program that costs taxpayers a billion dollars annually regularly fails to deliver on its environmental promises.

Plastic was found in the gut of every single sea turtle examined in a new study, casting fresh light on the scale of plastic pollution in the world's oceans. The research, published in the journal Global Change Biology, examined more than 100 sea turtles of all seven species, across the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean.

Global carbon dioxide emissions are expected to hit a record high in 2018, despite urgent calls from climate scientists and international groups such as the United Nations to cut back. Worldwide, fossil fuel use is projected to pump 2.7 percent more CO2 into the atmosphere in 2018 compared with 2017. Last year, such emissions contributed 9.9 gigatons of carbon. The data are presented in the Global Carbon Budget published online December 5 in Earth System Science Data. 2018 marks the second year in a row that the emissions, which fuel global warming, have risen substantially after a lull from 2014 to 2016.

On the heels of a dire government report published last month about climate change and its devastating impacts, many cities and states are scrambling to find ways to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that threaten their air quality, not to mention their economies. As is often the case, California is leading the charge, yesterday becoming the first state to mandate that mass transit agencies purchase fully electric buses only beginning in 2029, and that public transit routes be populated by electric buses alone by 2040.

In the 1960s, there were worries that U.S. economic growth would lead to increasingly dangerous levels of pollution, and that by the year 2000, air pollution would make cities like Los Angeles and New York uninhabitable. Instead, U.S. air quality has improved dramatically since then. Between 1990 and 2008, emissions of the most common air pollutants from U.S. manufacturing fell by about two-thirds, even as real output from U.S. manufacturing grew substantially (see Figure 1).

Air pollution is bad for our heart and lung health – and a new study says it may be bad for brain health, too.

During a research cruise to the Sargasso Sea in fall 1971 marine biologist Ed Carpenter first noticed peculiar, white specks floating amidst the mats of brown sargassum seaweed. After some investigating he discovered they were tiny bits of plastic. He was stunned. If thousands of the broken down particles were showing up in in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, 550 miles from any mainland, he says, “I figured it’s all over the place.”

Nearly 200 countries signed a U.N. resolution in Nairobi to eliminate plastic pollution in the sea, a move some delegates hoped would pave the way to a legally binding treaty. If current pollution rates continue, there will be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050, said the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) which organized the meeting.

Tens of thousands of Londoners died of cholera from the 1830s to the 1860s. The causes were simple: mass quantities of human waste and industrial contaminants were pouring into the Thames, the central waterway of a city at the center of a rapidly industrializing world. The river gave off an odor so rank that Queen Victoria once had to cancel a leisurely boat ride. By the summer of 1858, Parliament couldn’t hold hearings due to the overwhelming stench coming through the windows.

The good news is, our collective efforts to reduce, reuse, recycle and compost have made San Francisco the most successful big city in America at reducing what goes to landfill. The bad news is, plastics have become a huge issue for all of us. “60 Minutes” recently aired a powerful segment on plastic waste and its impact on the environment, along with the (as yet unsuccessful) efforts to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. A portion of that feature was filmed at Recycle Central at Pier 96 in San Francisco, which is Recology’s largest and most technologically advanced recycling facility.

There are only a few places in the world with a worse record of air pollution than large cities in China, where the occasional deep blanket of rolling smog force people indoors. The authors of a study released Monday in the journal Nature Human Behaviour believe that the dramatic nature of the smog that pervades some Chinese cities may contain an important lesson for us all: Air pollution is making people in China unhappy.

Tourists from mainland China take photos in front of a large outdoor banner showing what Hong Kong looks like on a clean air day, in Hong Kong in 2014.

A new study shows a significant decrease in mercury levels for Atlantic bluefish -- and indication that restrictions on coal emissions are working.

The Environmental Protection Agency has a new tool called EJSCREEN, which lets you overlay the agency’s environmental data on a geographic map, along with layers of information showing poverty. The result is as depressing as you’d probably expect.

Water At Some Olympic Venues In Rio de Janeiro Reportedly Contain Virus Levels On Par With Raw Sewage

Air pollution is killing about 4,000 people in China a day, accounting for 1 in 6 premature deaths in the world's most populous country, a new study finds.

The images of Colorado’s Animas River over the past week have been jarring: An abandoned gold mine was breached, causing it to spew tainted water that has dyed the river yellow-orange all the way into Utah. The issue of abandoned mines and their legacy of water pollution is not unique to Colorado.

When was the last time you really could see for miles on a clear day, undisturbed by smog-like pollution? If it's been a while, you might want to visit a wilderness area.

Wildfires in the area made for smoky conditions near Table Rock on Tuesday night in Boise. Video by Anna Webb.

Fishermen pull tonnes of dead fish from Mexico's Lake Cajititlan with authorities investigating whether wastewater treatment plants are to blame.

The report found that when you took the externalized costs into effect, essentially NONE of the industries was actually making a profit. The huge profit margins being made by the world’s most profitable industries (oil, meat, tobacco, mining, electronics) is being paid for against the future: we are trading long term sustainability for the benefit of shareholders. Sometimes the environmental costs vastly outweighed revenue, meaning that these industries would be constantly losing money...

The country's environmental crisis is worse than what has resulted from ''normal'' capitalist development everywhere else.

One of the world's most loved natural wonders is getting its fill of pollution.