National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration- Sea Shephard Ocean Protection
- Nine Dolphins Held Captive; Dolphin Defenders Grow in Strength in the Town Without PityUPDATE FROM TAIJI: Nine Dolphins Held Captive; Dolphin Defenders Grow in Strength in the Town Without Pity By Michael Dalton Sea Shepherd Taiji Campaign Leader Dolphin lovers from around the world are now starting to converge on Taiji. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society crew members will not be the only dolphin defenders here for long. This afternoon, some tw […]
- Update from Taiji, JapanUpdate from Taiji, Japan by Michael Dalton, Sea Shepherd Taiji Campaign Leader I have just downloaded these pictures from my camera taken this morning. As you can see there is one dolphin in a sea pen waiting to be trained and shipped off to a marine park somewhere for a life of misery, to be fed a cocktail of antibiotics and anti-depressants for the remaind […]
- Ten Dolphins Captured at The Cove in Taiji!Ten Dolphins Captured at The Cove in Taiji, Japan! Sea Shepherd Crew Calls for Assistance at the Cove to Save the Dolphins The first dolphins to be caught in Taiji this season were herded into the notorious Cove at Taiji, Japan today. These dolphins will be killed unless people come to Taiji to defend them. Sea Shepherd has a crew of Australians, New Zealand […]
- Nine Dolphins Held Captive; Dolphin Defenders Grow in Strength in the Town Without Pity
- Environmental Protection Agency
- That’s My Daughter’s Radon Poster Design on the T-Shirt You’re Wearing!I love T-shirts, but what I love even more is a T-shirt about radon, and what I love even more than that is seeing my daughter’s poster design about radon on a T-shirt. Each year, state radon programs have been supporting children, parents and teachers to do just that for the National Radon Poster Contest. […]
- Expedition Day 3: Did Someone Say “Oyster Spat?”By Lisa McWhirter I awoke to the 6 a.m. rally call on Saturday and quickly realized the long bike ride from the day before had taken its toll. It was the third day of the Expedition and barely awake, I tried to rationalize biking another 30 miles. As I took my first sip of French Press […]
- A Back-to School Checklist for Indoor Air Quality?It’s that time of year again and everyone can relate to the annual school supply checklist and the hours spent preparing for the upcoming school year. Binders – check. Pens – check. But, how many school staff, parents or students stop to think about whether the school they will return to is a healthy learning […]
- That’s My Daughter’s Radon Poster Design on the T-Shirt You’re Wearing!
- Environment
- Pennsylvania Wastewater Treatment Plants FinedSewage treatment plants often spill over into adjoining waterways. ARTICLE PHILADELPHIA – July 29, 2010) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it has recently filed administrative penalty complaints against 10 publicly owned wastewater treatment plants (POTWs) operated by nine municipalities in Pennsylvania for failing to comply with the […]
- Pennsylvania Wastewater Treatment Plants Fined
Tracking Air Pollution
Tracking air pollution to and from the United States
When it comes to global air pollution, what goes around comes around. Air pollution from factories, traffic, and power plants in Asia wafts over the Pacific Ocean to the United States, while pollutants produced in the United States wind up in Europe.
A report by the National Research Council of the National Academies released on September 29 takes a close look at how air pollution is transported to and from the United States, concluding that pollutants from foreign sources can significantly impact U.S. air quality and affect U.S. environmental goals. The work has implications for the Environmental Protection Agency’s local air quality regulations.
“Pollution contributions from other continents affecting air quality in the United States are small but significant,” says ESSL/ACD’s David Edwards, a member of the NRC panel that issued the report. “As the EPA starts tightening regulations and lowering the pollution thresholds that urban areas must meet to comply with local air quality standards, foreign contributions will grow in importance.”
The report, “Global Sources of Local Pollution: An Assessment of Long-Range Transport of Key Air Pollutants To and From the United States,” is the first to examine four pollutant classes together: ozone, fine particulate matter, mercury, and persistent organic pollutants. It looks specifically at the impacts of long-range pollution transport on air quality, ground-level deposition and accumulation of pollutants, and the effects on radiative forcing (changes in the difference between the incoming and outgoing radiation energy) relevant to climate change.
The report recommends developing an “integrated pollutant attribution system” that would strengthen capabilities in emission inventories, atmospheric chemical and meteorological modeling, long-term ground-based observations, satellite remote sensing, and process focused field studies.