Latest Pollution News
Amid Earth's heat records, scientists report another bump upward in annual carbon emissions
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Even as Earth sets new heat records, humanity this year is pumping 330 million tons (300 million metric tons) more carbon dioxide into the air by burning fossil fuels than it did last year. This year the world is on track to put 41.2 billion tons (37.4...
Biden EPA to charge first-ever ‘methane fee’ for emissions waste by oil and gas companies
WASHINGTON (AP) — Oil and natural gas companies for the first time will have to pay a federal fee if they emit dangerous methane above certain levels under a final rule announced Tuesday by the Biden administration. The Environmental Protection Agency rule follows through on a...
Growing pollution in Pakistan's Punjab province has sickened 1.8M people in a month, officials say
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Worsening air pollution sickened an estimated 1.8 million people in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province in the past month, health officials said Tuesday, as schools across the province were ordered to close for five days to protect children's health. Punjab...
Dutch appeals court overturns landmark climate ruling against Shell
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch appeals court on Tuesday overturned a landmark ruling that ordered energy company Shell to cut its carbon emissions by net 45% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels, while saying that "protection against dangerous climate change is a human right.” ...
In new term, Trump set to go after measures that are doing the most to fight climate change
WASHINGTON (AP) — The election of Donald Trump as president for a second time and the Republican takeback of the U.S. Senate could undo many of the national climate policies that are most reducing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, according to climate solutions experts. When...
UN warns that toxic smog in Pakistan's Punjab province is endangering children
ISLAMABAD (AP) — The U.N. children’s agency on Monday warned that the health of 11 million children in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province is in danger because of air pollution that experts say has become a fifth season in recent years. Toxic smog has shrouded Pakistan's...
UN climate talks to focus on money to help poor nations cut carbon pollution
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — A complex international two-week-long game of climate change poker is convening. The stakes? Just the fate of an ever-warming world. Curbing and coping with climate change's worsening heat, floods, droughts and storms will cost trillions of dollars and poor...
Districts in Pakistan close parks and museums because of record-breaking smog
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Authorities in a broad swath of eastern Pakistan closed all parks and museums Friday because of record-breaking smog that already has prompted the closure of schools and government offices and has sickened tens of thousands of people. The new restrictions...
Kentucky coal firm held in contempt again over West Virginia mine pollution
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday issued a third contempt order against a Kentucky coal company for failing to submit adequate plans to clean up two polluted West Virginia mine sites. U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers ordered Lexington Coal Company LLC to...
Carbon pollution from high flying rich in private jets soars
Carbon pollution from private jets has soared in the past five years, with most of those small planes spewing more heat-trapping carbon dioxide in about two hours of flying than the average person does in about a year, a new study finds. About a quarter million of the super wealthy...
