Snippets

Snippets of environmental news content from EarthFix and other trusted places. Curated by Toni Tabora-Roberts.
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By midmorning, the smell of hot peanut oil dissipated and inside the tightly sealed laboratory known as Building 51F, a pink hamburger sizzled in a pan over a raging gas flame. Overhead, fans whirred, whisking caustic smoke up through a metallic esophagus of ductwork.

Woody Delp, 49, a longhaired engineer in glasses — the Willie Nelson of HVAC — supervised the green bean and hamburger experiments. He sat at a computer inside a kitchen simulator, rows upon rows of numeric data appearing on his screen, ticking off the constituents of the plume sucked up the flue. A seared hamburger patty, as he sees it, is just a reliable source for indoor pollution.

“I can claim Alice Waters’ influenced the recipe,” he said. “It’s all fresh and local.”

But Dr. Delp and his colleagues aren’t really interested in testing recipes. They are scientists at the Energy Department’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the morning’s experiment concerned another kitchen conundrum, a fight against physics: how to remove harmful contaminants caused by cooking.

Microplastics are becoming a pollutant that’s threatening waterways across the country. In a Columbus Dispatch article about how it’s affecting Ohio waters, Jeffrey Reutter, the director of Ohio State University’s Stone Laboratory on Lake Erie said
“...

Microplastics are becoming a pollutant that’s threatening waterways across the country. In a Columbus Dispatch article about how it’s affecting Ohio waters, Jeffrey Reutter, the director of Ohio State University’s Stone Laboratory on Lake Erie said

Have you ever washed your hands with hand soap that feels a little bit gritty? Those are microplastics.

Fracking studies have pit the Environmental Protection Agency against the oil and gas industry, which says the agency has over-reached on fracking and that its science has been critically flawed. The recent closing of EPA fracking investigations has some environmentalists worried that the agency is feeling the effects of industry pressure and tight budgets.

From Quest:

From Coal to Canvas

This painting is the work of artist John Sabraw, an Ohio artist who turns runoff from coal mines into richly colored paint pigments. Find out how the paint is developed, what it means to run a sustainable art studio, and how Sabraw hopes to spur the clean-up of local streams: http://ow.ly/mLeEE

This is part of Orion Magazine’s first installment in their new series, Reimagining Infrastructure. Read the article this audio slideshow accompanied, Water Works.

Also, check out our series that we did last year for the 40th birthday of the Clean Water Act, Clean Water: The Next Act.

More signs that China may not be a market for U.S. coal exports.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China may impose higher quality standards for imported and locally traded coal to cut air pollution, two sources said, in a move that could slash imports while boosting the fortunes
A songbird called the streaked horned lark has a curious propensity for risky neighborhoods such as airports, Army training fields, and dredge spoil dumping sites. The bird is being considered for listing as an endangered species. Credit: U.S. Fish...

A songbird called the streaked horned lark has a curious propensity for risky neighborhoods such as airports, Army training fields, and dredge spoil dumping sites. The bird is being considered for listing as an endangered species. Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The EPA wants to hear from the public about their plan to clean up Seattle’s Duwamish superfund site.

The EPA wants to hear from the public about their plan to clean up Seattle’s Duwamish superfund site.