Oct 11 A quiet rise in unvaccinated children could put the U.S. at risk of outbreaks By Jamie Leventhal For the third consecutive year, unvaccinated communities have grown, the CDC reported Thursday. One school in Oregon has toddler vaccination rates lower than those in Venezuela. Continue reading
Oct 11 Why Hurricane Michael took everyone by surprise and what to expect after it's gone By Nsikan Akpan, Julia Griffin At the moment, the reported links between Hurricane Michael and climate change are murky, at best. Continue reading
Oct 10 Watch 7:42 What's on your citrus fruit? Trump's EPA fights to keep controversial insecticide in use By Miles O'Brien Citrus growers hope to fend off fruit-munching katydids, but one weapon is under scrutiny. Researchers found that children growing up near fields where the insecticide chlorpyrifos was deployed exhibited autism-like symptoms. A court ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to ban… Continue watching
Oct 10 The Plastic Problem By Travis Daub By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans. PBS NewsHour takes a closer look at this now ubiquitous material, how it’s impacting the world and ways we can break our plastic addiction. Continue reading
Oct 08 Watch 9:53 World needs to make near-revolutionary change to avoid imminent climate disaster. Is there hope? Unless we immediately reduce the burning of coal and oil and gas that drive up global temperatures, a new UN report warns the world will suffer tremendous consequences as early as 2040. William Brangham talks with Rafe Pomerance of the… Continue watching
Oct 08 Watch 9:12 Will the traditions of tiny Tangier Island survive or sink? By John Yang, Jaywon Choe Life on Tangier Island has always been defined by water. Now it is menacing its very existence. Battered by Chesapeake Bay's relentless waves, scientists say the land’s shrinking is accelerating, as man-made climate change makes the waves from rising seawater… Continue watching
Oct 08 Twitter chat: How do we fix the planet's plastics problem? By Lora Strum Join the PBS NewsHour on Twitter Wed. Oct 10th at 12 ET for #NewsHourChats on solutions to the planet's plastic pollution problem. Continue reading
Oct 07 Could an artificial intelligence be considered a person under the law? By Roman V. Yampolskiy, The Conversation A new argument has laid a path for artificial intelligence systems to be recognized as people without any legislation, court rulings or other revisions to existing law. Continue reading
Oct 05 Watch 7:03 Tiny Easter Island deals with giant trash problem By Jeffrey Brown, Mike Fritz Easter Island off the coast of Chile has a major trash problem. It’s near what’s known as a “trash vortex” in the middle of the South Pacific and floating waste is constantly washing ashore. Local officials estimate the growing population… Continue watching
Oct 05 A massive plastic cleanup project provokes hope and skepticism By Vicky Stein While The Ocean Cleanup has been hailed as one solution for ocean plastic pollution, some researchers have expressed concern. Continue reading