There is a consensus in the scientific community that human activity, especially the burning of fossil fuels, is heating up the planet and worsening extreme weather.
Some climate damage could be irreversible if the planet heats up enough to cross “tipping points,” such as significant melting of ice sheets that can’t be reformed.
In finalizing this rule, EPA carefully considered and reevaluated the legal foundation of the 2009 Endangerment Finding and the text of the Clean Air Act (CAA) in light of subsequent legal developments and court decisions. The agency concludes that Section 202(a) of the CAA does not provide statutory authority for EPA to prescribe motor vehicle and engine emission standards in the manner previously utilized, including for the purpose of addressing global climate change, and therefore has no legal basis for the Endangerment Finding and resulting regulations. EPA firmly believes the 2009 Endangerment Finding made by the Obama Administration exceeded the agency’s authority to combat “air pollution” that harms public health and welfare, and that a policy decision of this magnitude, which carries sweeping economic and policy consequences, lies solely with Congress. Unlike our predecessors, the Trump EPA is committed to following the law exactly as it is written and as Congress intended—not as others might wish it to be.
The Trump administration alarmed environmental and public health advocates on Friday with the Environmental Protection Agency‘s decision to reauthorize the use of atrazine, an herbicide common in the United States but banned or being phased out in dozens of countries due to concerns about risks such as birth defects and cancer.
German agrochemicals group Bayer AG has been blocked from selling its dicamba herbicide in the United States after an appeals court rejected a federal regulator‘s permit for the product.
One lawsuit against the EPA was filed Friday on behalf of the Center for Food Safety (CFS), Beyond Pesticides, the Rural Coalition, Organización en California de Lideres Campesinas, and the Farmworker Association of Florida.
The global neonic market generated $4.42 billion in revenue in 2018, roughly doubling over the previous decade, according to new figures provided to The Intercept from Agranova, a research firm that tracks the industry.
EPA is now overdue for a new wakeup call: this time on the dangers of neonicotinoids, or “neonics,” a class of pesticides that leaches through the soil and into the water, permeates the food we eat and makes its way into our bodies.
That’s why a leading group of scientists and health experts sent a letter to EPA this week, calling on the agency to fully assess the harms of neonics as required by law — particularly to pregnant women and children — and to ban needless neonic uses that threaten people and wildlife.
The traps are deadly to both their intended and unintended targets. Of the more than 1.5 million native wild animals killed by Wildlife Services in 2018, around 6,500 of them were killed by the traps. In 2017, the traps killed around 13,200 wild animals, the Associated Press reported.