stillness is a lie, my dear
Abandoned oil and gas wells are scattered across the United States, lying in wait for unwary property owners and recreators. A lack of accountability for the industry is creating an environmental crisis.
As farms increase to the load of particulate pollution, it’s time to talk about how industrial agriculture can reform its practices to protect the environment.
Way back in the day, we did two things right: Building really cool factories and filling them with child labour. Wait, make that one thing: Building really cool factories. People seriously did not mess around when it came to designing and constructing absolutely beautiful buildings designed to endure for decades, and a century or more […]
A fascinating recent study on environmental racism in the United States reveals the stark nature of the interaction between race, pollution, and health: even high income people of colour experience more exposure to pollutants than their white counterparts. While one might expect an interaction between race, class, and environmental exposures, the study indicates that race […]
In mid-January, strange and troubling news began to leak out of West Virginia. After residents complained of a licorice-like scent and strange odor in their water, officials did some sleuthing and uncovered an active chemical spill pouring into a local river. They issued a stop drinking order, forcing West Virginians to use bottled water for […]
I’ve been watching a lot of The Brain Scoop lately, which of course involves going through her archives, and at one point, a viewer asked her if she still thought there was a place for amateurs in science. Her response was an enthusiastic and delighted ‘YES!’ as she explained that, well, yes. Citizen scientists gather […]
Last year, the World Health Organisation came out with an extremely puzzling study that flew in the face of previous work on the subject: it determined that there wasn’t a firm link between the use of depleted uranium ammunition by US forces in Iraq and the incidence of birth defects. The study is puzzling because […]
Western culture has a way of extending itself over the rest of the world in a constant reminder that colonialism is never truly dead. Our attitudes and practices spread to other regions, and may even become fashionable, desirable, or prized as signs of cultural or political sophistication. Thus it is that imperialism in pop culture, […]
I’ve been following the story of Kettleman City for a long time. The Southern California town has flickered in and out of the news as a result of a wave of congenital disabilities residents believe are associated with a nearby waste management facility, and they’ve fought to have the issue recognised, and to get action […]
The oil and gas industry generates a boggling amount of waste, between drilling fluids, lubricants, and other industrial components used in drilling and processing. Much of that waste is toxic, containing an alphabet soup of compounds that are hazardous to humans and other living things, and it has to go somewhere. Enter the disposal or […]