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+26 +1
Paris is banning traffic from half the city. Why can’t London have a car-free day?
The streets of Paris will be transformed this Sunday, with thousands of people on foot and on bikes expected to take advantage of a ban on cars that covers almost half of the city centre. Mayor Anne Hidalgo promoted the first Journée Sans Voiture a year ago, in response to a rise in air pollution that briefly made the French capital the most polluted city in the world.
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+20 +2
Dunkin' Donuts is still serving coffee in Styrofoam cups 6 years after saying it would stop
For years, Dunkin' Donuts has said it would replace its iconic plastic foam cups with cups that are more environmentally friendly. In a 2010 report, the coffee chain said it considered its use of foam to be "the most prominent sustainability issue we must deal with."
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+25 +2
Single clothes wash may release 700,000 microplastic fibres, study finds
Each cycle of a washing machine could release more than 700,000 microscopic plastic fibres into the environment, according to a study. A team at Plymouth University in the UK spent 12 months analysing what happened when a number of synthetic materials were washed at different temperatures in domestic washing machines, using different combinations of detergents, to quantify the microfibres shed. They found that acrylic was the worst offender, releasing nearly 730,000 tiny synthetic particles per wash...
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+24 +1
UN moves to Ban 'Fastest Growing' Greenhouse Gases
Banning the cooling gases currently used in refrigeration and air conditioning could save half a degree of global warming if a deal can be agreed in Rwanda.
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0 +1
Scientists Accidentally Discover Efficient Process to Turn CO2 Into Ethanol
Scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have discovered a chemical reaction to turn CO2 into ethanol, potentially creating a new technology to help avert climate change. Their findings were published in the journal ChemistrySelect. The researchers were attempting to find a series of chemical reactions that could turn CO2 into a useful fuel, when they realized the first step in their process managed to do it all by itself.
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+27 +1
CO2 Levels Mark 'New Era' in the World's Changing Climate
2016 is likely to be the first year in recorded history in which levels of CO2 in the atmosphere remain above the symbolically important threshold of 400 parts per million.
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+13 +1
More coal plants will deepen - not cut - poverty, researchers warn
Building just a third of planned new coal-fired power plants around the world would push hundreds of millions of people into poverty as it accelerates climate change past an agreed limit of 2 degrees Celsius of warming, development experts warn.
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+11 +1
India's capital closes schools, power plants to tackle severe smog
India's capital announced a slew of measures Sunday to combat the crippling air pollution that has engulfed the city, including closing down schools, halting construction and ordering that all roads be doused with water to settle dust. New Delhi, one of the world's dirtiest cities, saw levels of PM2.5 — tiny particulate matter that can clog lungs — soar to over 900 micrograms per cubic meter on Saturday. That's more than 90 times the level considered safe by the World Health Organization and 15 times the Indian government's norms.
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+35 +1
Two-Headed Sharks Keep Popping Up—No One Knows Why
Two-headed sharks may sound like a figment of the big screen, but they exist—and more are turning up worldwide, scientists say. A few years ago off Florida, fishermen hauled in a bull shark whose uterus contained a two-headed fetus. In 2008, another fisherman discovered a two-headed blue shark embryo in the Indian Ocean. And a 2011 study described conjoined twins discovered in blue sharks caught in the Gulf of California and northwestern Mexico.
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+4 +1
Vast and Pristine, Russia’s Lake Baikal Is Invaded by Toxic Algae
Untreated sewage fuels algal blooms in the world’s largest freshwater lake, home to scores of unique plant and animal species. By Rachel Nuwer.
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+13 +1
The NASA Guide to Air-Filtering Houseplants
Houseplants are not something you would typically associate with NASA, but in the late ‘80s the US government agency joined forces with the Associated Contractors of America (ALCA), to determine the most effective indoor plants for removing toxic agents from the air. By Connor MacDonald.
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+5 +1
Mystery of the Red Tide
A recent bloom of algae off the California coast left sea birds and otters mostly unharmed—and nobody quite knows why. By Sukee Bennett.
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+8 +1
Sperm Whales Found Dead In Germany, Stomachs FULL Of Plastic And Car Parts
In January, 29 sperm whales were found stranded on shores around the North Sea, an area that is too shallow for the marine wildlife. Only recently were details of the animals’ necropsy released. However, scientists were deeply disturbed by what they found in the animals’ stomachs. According to a press release from Wadden Sea National Park in Schleswig-Holstein, many of the whales had stomachs FULL of plastic debris, including a 13-meter-long fishing net, a 70 cm piece of plastic from a car and other pieces of plastic litter.
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+22 +1
Against Leaf Blowers
The scourge of autumn, annoyer of millions. Can anyone stop the seasonal siege of gas-powered landscaping equipment? By David Dudley.
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+9 +1
EPA's late changes to fracking study downplay risk of drinking water pollution
Top officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last year made critical changes at the eleventh hour to a highly anticipated, five-year scientific study of hydraulic fracturing’s effect on the nation’s drinking water. The changes, later criticized by scientists for lacking evidence, played down the risk of pollution that can result from the well-drilling technique known as fracking. Documents obtained by APM Reports and Marketplace show that in the six weeks before the study’s public release, officials inserted a key phrase into the...
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+33 +1
Four of the world’s biggest cities are taking an unprecedented step to battle pollution
Some of the biggest urban-pollution headlines of the past few years haven’t come from likely suspects like Beijing and New Delhi, but rather once-pristine European cities: Paris. Athens. Madrid. Now those three capitals, plus notoriously polluted Mexico City, are taking action by getting rid of all diesel vehicles by 2025. They will be the first major cities to enact such a ban, according to a statement released at the C40 Mayors Summit in Mexico City.
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+31 +1
Mercury levels drop in Atlantic bluefin tuna
Pollution can seem like a vague, general problem, but sometimes it is specific and personal. People with asthma living in some major cities know to keep tabs on the ozone report in the weather forecast, for example. And frequent anglers should be keenly aware of how much of their catch they put on the dinner table because of mercury contamination in fish. Mercury is a problem for marine fish, as well—particularly the ever-popular tuna.
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+21 +1
China tops world for air pollution and carbon emissions, officials admit
Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei one of planet’s most polluted regions, but 'lack of funding hampers progress on 2017 clean-up targets'. China tops the world in almost all types of air pollution, including sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, as well as carbon emissions, top mainland officials admitted. The officials also told a Guangdong forum that the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region’s huge industrial output meant it was one of most polluted areas in the world.
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+30 +1
Paris makes all public transport free in battle against 'worst air pollution for 10 years'
Parisians can use public transport for free for the second day running due to a spike in air pollution and some cars have been barred from the roads. The city is suffering its worst and most prolonged winter pollution for at least 10 years, the Airparif agency which measures the levels said on Wednesday.
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+39 +1
Smog refugees flee Chinese cities as ‘airpocalypse’ blights half a billion
Thousands forced to escape to pollution-free regions as haze descends on the country’s northern industrial heartland. By Tom Phillips.
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