About 700 new chemicals are created each year. Last year the Environmental Protection Agency set a goal to review 40. It finished only 3.
In 2011, the EPA was set to cite evidence of cancer risks in hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing chemical found in tap water that was brought to light in the film “Erin Brockovich.” Yet a special EPA panel urged the agency to delay action. Learn about the shocking truths revealed in this investigation.
Billions lost in agriculture and thousands of homes destroyed - track the impact of the drought with the new app by StateImpact Texas.
Before and After: the Southwest drought from space
Dead Trees in Memorial Park, Houston, Texas
Before (left): May 3, 2010 | After (right): September 26, 2011
The Southwest drought has had a devastating impact on the state’s trees. The Texas Forest Service estimates more than 500 million trees were killed by the drought. The trees that were under the most stress were actually urban trees, when local governments restricted watering public landscapes. These pictures from the Texas Forest Service show Memorial Park in Houston, where trees turned brown and died over the course of a year.
Move the slider over to see before and after shots of this image and more here.
(Image from USGS)
-KC
In honor of World Water Day, here’s the tale of two cities in Texas that have run out of water because of the drought. The town of Robert Lee in West Texas has already cut its water consumption by 80 percent, and conditions are only getting worse.
According to climate scientists, little rainfall compounded by record high temperatures across the Southwest could be the new norm. In 2011, losses in crops, livestock and timber from the drought reached $10 billion.
(Photos by Saskia de Melker)
-KC
Cloud Juice: Harvesting Rainwater in a Drought
For centuries, long before centralized public water systems were developed, rainwater collection and storage was a common practice in households across Texas. Now there is a renewed interest in the practice as a cheap, reliable water source, particularly in the face of climate uncertainty.
The heavy rains soaking the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya — the largest in the world — would normally mean sweet relief. But this year the rains have also caused an uptick in cholera, a potentially deadly disease caused by a bacteria that spreads through contaminated water.
(Somali boys fetch water from a puddle in the sprawling Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya. Photo by Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images.)
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