"California has moved a step closer to banning the controversial weed killing chemical paraquat after a key state legislative committee on Thursday [May 16] allowed the measure to proceed."
Plans for two new U.S. facilities that will use hydrogen instead of coal to make steel hold the promise of decarbonizing this essential but dirty industry. But don’t expect overnight change. Reporter Maria Gallucci looks at the complexities of making the switch, from ditching the blast furnace to reducing pollution all along the supply chain.
"On May 7, Patrick Robinson took a boat out to Año Nuevo Island to survey the sea lions that come to birth on this rocky outcropping north of Monterey Bay. The shore was littered with dead pups — babies that looked as though they’d been delivered too early and therefore were too weak and small to nurse, or had been dead at birth."
"The Navajo Nation Council has signed off on a proposed settlement that would ensure water rights for its tribe and two others in the drought-stricken Southwest -- a deal that could become the most expensive enacted by Congress."
"A Michigan dairy worker has been infected with a highly virulent bird flu, the second human case in less than two months of the H5N1 virus circulating among dairy cows."
"The Environmental Protection Agency has formally denied Alabama’s plan to allow Alabama Power and other utilities to continue storing toxic coal ash in unlined pits at sites across the state."
"Delegates from 194 countries are racing to complete a global pandemic treaty before the World Health Assembly starts next week on Monday, May 27."
"Extreme heat in Mexico, Central America and parts of the U.S. South has left millions of people in sweltering temperatures, strained energy grids and resulted in iconic Howler monkeys in Mexico dropping dead from trees."
"Gov. Jared Polis vetoed legislation on Friday that would have banned state incentives for projects to process waste through pyrolysis and gasification — techniques to break down plastics using heat applied in low-oxygen environments."
"On the worst days, when the backyard would flood and the toilet would gurgle and the smell of sewage hung thick in the air, Monica Arenas would flee to her mother-in-law’s home to use the bathroom or wash laundry."
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