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Ground rules for carbon markets

Nov 15, 2024
In this week's "Make Me Smart" newsletter, we explain the latest moves to establish a credible global market for carbon credits. Plus, we do the numbers on open enrollment and the rising cost of health care.
Carsten Koall/Getty Images

Space industry pollution above could have serious consequences for the environment below

Feb 5, 2024
Damage to the ozone layer could raise the risk of skin cancer, cataracts and immune disorders, says science reporter Shannon Hall.
Decommissioned satellites are designed to burn up in Earth's atmosphere, but they leave behind pollutants in their wake.
Chadan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images

Will “deprinting” reduce the paper industry’s carbon footprint?

Aug 17, 2022
A new device will allow the same sheet of paper to be erased and reprinted 10 times, cutting waste and carbon emissions.
The cycle of felling trees, transporting them and using fossil fuel-based processes to turn them into pulp for paper is highly polluting.
rustycanuck/Getty Images

Port slowdowns worsen air pollution in neighboring communities

Dec 1, 2021
Portside communities in California have suffered from polluted air for years.
A ferry passes the Port of Los Angeles. Neighborhoods surrounding the port have suffered from pollution linked to transporting massive volumes of goods.
Mario Tama via Getty Images

Stimulus could fund ventilation improvements in classrooms

Mar 15, 2021
Run-down public schools made air quality a problem before COVID.
Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

Can plastic-eating bacteria help cut down on pollution?

Oct 26, 2020
British and American researchers have developed a “super-enzyme” to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of recycling of plastic waste.
Municipal workers clear plastic from a canal in Bangkok in June.
Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP via Getty Images

Artist turns thousands of plastic bags into Times Square public art project

Oct 26, 2020
The pop-up "store" is filled with handcrafted items made from single-use plastic bags.
Artist Robin Frohardt stands outside her Times Square immersive art exhibit, "The Plastic Bag Store."
Maria Baranova/Courtesy of Times Square Arts

For public good, not for profit.

China makes audacious promise of aiming for carbon neutrality by 2060

Sep 25, 2020
How will the world's most populous country and its worst polluter get there?
Employees work on a floating solar power plant in Huainan, a former coal-mining region, in China's eastern Anhui province in 2017.
AFP via Getty Images

Eliminating the concept of waste from the economy

Aug 19, 2020
For architect William McDonough, an economy of the future is a "circular economy."
"If we're destroying the Earth, we have to ask ourselves, is this is our intention? And if it's not, perhaps we need a new design," architect William McDonough says.
David McNew/Getty Images

Cities are piloting e-bike programs in a bid to reduce delivery truck traffic

Nov 21, 2019
Montreal and Oslo are aiming to alleviate truck traffic and pollution.
A driver cycles on a tricycle delivery vehicle to deliver packages for UPS in the rain in 2018 in Berlin, Germany.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images