• GOP lawmakers pledge to 'rein in' Obama environmental measures

    GOP lawmakers pledge to 'rein in' Obama environmental measures

    May 31, 2015 08:28 PM EDT

    ... ABOUT THE RULES? GOP lawmakers criticize the rules as anti-business job killers that go further than needed to protect the nation's air and water supplies and other natural resources. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the new water rule will send "landowners, small businesses, farmers and manufacturers ...

  • Gov. Jerry Brown: California has to change what’s comfortable to address drought

    Gov. Jerry Brown: California has to change what’s comfortable to address drought

    Apr 01, 2015 11:33 PM EDT

    ... of companies, of farmers, of families. And we're trying our best to lay out a framework, an operational game plan that will reduce wasteful water use, unnecessary water use, and give incentives for new technologies, both for efficiency and new -- generating new water, whether by recycling or from desalinization ...

  • Level of plastic waste in the ocean higher than previously thought

    Level of plastic waste in the ocean higher than previously thought

    Feb 12, 2015 11:07 PM EDT

    ... fixing the problem is not by focusing on removing the plastic from the ocean, but by preventing plastic from leaving the coasts and entering the water in the first place, three of the study's researchers -- Dr. Jenna Jambeck from the University of Georgia, Dr. Kara Lavender Law from the ...

  • EPA decision not to classify coal ash as hazardous angers environmentalists

    EPA decision not to classify coal ash as hazardous angers environmentalists

    Dec 20, 2014 01:18 AM EDT

    ... the story. JEFFREY BROWN: December 22, 2008, more than a billion gallons of coal ash, a by-product of coal-burning energy production, mixed with water, burst through the banks of a containment pond in Kingston, Tennessee. The coal ash slurry flooded homes, farmland and poured into the Emory River ...

  • 'We need the rain': Jobs, land languish as California drought endures

    'We need the rain': Jobs, land languish as California drought endures

    Dec 13, 2014 05:13 PM EDT

    ... water storage facilities and water recycling projects. This escalating thirst for water has also led to some surprising partnerships. For example, 21 million gallons of water every day flow into the Cawelo Reservoir – water helping save 90 desperate farmers south of Delano. The water comes from of all places…here ...

  • Inspired by a plastic bag's potential, nonprofit trains mothers in Ghana

    Inspired by a plastic bag's potential, nonprofit trains mothers in Ghana

    May 19, 2014 01:21 PM EDT

    Friends Rebecca Brandt and Callie Brauel quickly learned two things while they were studying and volunteering in Ghana’s capital Accra: Everyone drinks water out of disposable bags, which end up discarded in the streets, and tens of thousands of children were living on the streets. The women thought they ...

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    Getting Trashed on the Job: My Day in the Dump

    Jan 25, 2013 10:10 PM EDT

    ... of Americans, especially in environmentally aware places like San Francisco. As I worked on a story for the PBS NewsHour, I visited landfills, composting centers, recycling facilities, garbage-as-art studios and curbside pickup sites, and talked with everyone from garbage men and sorters on the recycling line to executives ...

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    Climate in the Classroom: Teachers Share Their Stories

    May 01, 2012 09:01 PM EDT

    This week, the PBS NewsHour will report on one teacher's struggles to teach climate change in her Colorado classroom. This comes as the National Academies Press is preparing to roll out new national science standards for kindergarten through 12th grade. For the first time this year, new standards will include guidelines on teaching climate change....

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    In Peru, Gold Rush Leads to Mercury Contamination Concerns

    Dec 27, 2011 11:25 PM EDT

    In remote regions of the Peruvian Amazon, extensive gold-mining operations have stirred major environmental concerns over mercury contamination in fish, fish-eating wildlife and humans. In collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, special correspondent Steve Sapienza reports.

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    Tuesday: Oil Washes Ashore on Texas Beaches; Obama to Meet With Netanyahu

    Jul 06, 2010 01:19 PM EDT

    Strong storms and rough water in the Gulf of Mexico kept oil skimming boats idle Tuesday morning, as BP's oil reached Texas beaches for the first time. The oil has now reached every Gulf state. About a dozen tar balls were found Saturday on Crystal Beach and about five gallons of oil were found Sunday...