Education

It has been almost five weeks since the tragic derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. On Thursday, I will appear before Congress to talk about the progress we’ve made cleaning the derailment site, providing financial assistance to residents whose lives have been disrupted, and investing in the future of the community. We have a responsibility to…

Massachusetts may consider itself a progressive leader in many respects, including on climate action, but a new report is challenging that perception on at least one front: renewable energy. Though wind and solar power generation soared in the United States last year, that growth was led not by Massachusetts but — perhaps surprisingly — by…

Another atmospheric river system has set its sights on California, raising considerable concern about flooding and structural damage as warm rain is expected to fall atop the state’s near-record snowpack this week, forecasters say. “It now appears increasingly likely that a potentially significant and very likely warm atmospheric river event will probably affect some portion…

It’s an arcane system of water law that dates back to the birth of California — an era when 49ers used sluice boxes and water cannons to scour gold from Sierra Nevada foothills and when the state government promoted the extermination of Native people to make way for white settlers. Today, this antiquated system of…

Across the state, extreme weather — including hurricanes, rising sea levels and the heat island effect — are changing the way people live. But the impacts of climate change will also affect economies and culture, prompting the state Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to launch a two-year assessment of the state’s future. Around 80…

Dead birds still fall from the sky near my hometown. Their bodies hit the ground as part of the fallout of an environmental disaster that dates back to the 1970s, the result of corporate pollution that made the county I grew up in the home of one of Michigan’s most notorious Superfund sites. It’s impossible…

After weeks of questions about contamination associated with a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday ordered rail company Norfolk Southern to test the area for dioxins, a dangerous and persistent class of pollutants created when plastic is burned. The train that crashed there Feb. 3 was carrying chemicals used…

California Chinook salmon populations have fallen to their lowest levels in years, according to new estimates released by state and federal scientists — a decline that could trigger a shutdown of the commercial and recreational fishing season along the coast. “The salmon are struggling,” said Chuck Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and…

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has told residents of the town of Kingsbury, Washington County, that it’s shoring up oversight after an elevated risk of cancer was found for those working and living near a local industrial plant. The facility, Sterigenics, uses the chemical ethylene oxide to sterilize medical devices. Sterigenics’ parent company notes that…

“Already one of the fastest-warming bodies of water in the world, the Gulf of Maine recorded its second-hottest year ever in 2022, another ominous indicator of how global warming threatens the rich marine world off New England. The Gulf of Maine Research Institute reported recently that average annual sea surface temperature for the sprawling ocean…