Environmental issues

Anuja Bali asks a family in Pashan, Pune about their consumption of liquid petroleum gas.

India’s Warrior Moms tackle indoor air pollution — ‘the silent killer’ 

Energy

Many households in India use a clay stove fueled by firewood, coal, cow dung, or even dry leaves, paper or plastic — which all emit excessive, harmful smoke. Poor women and children bear the brunt of this insidious indoor pollution. 

Air pollution in Tehran on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012.

New WHO air pollution standards could save millions of lives each year

Health & Medicine
In this Thursday, July 29, 2021, file photo, birds fly over a man taking photos of the exposed riverbed of the Old Parana River, a tributary of the Parana River during a drought in Rosario, Argentina.

The ’emotional whiplash’ of coming of age during the climate crisis

Climate Change
Los Angeles smog

Prior exposure to air pollution increases risk of death from COVID-19, new research suggests

Paved Paradise

Arts, Culture & Media
An agriculturist prepares to plant "Golden Rice" seedlings at a laboratory of the International Rice Research Institute in Los Banos, Laguna.

Forget chemotherapy — try some genetically modified lettuce to fight your colon cancer

Science

Genetically modified foods are a major political issue, but what if scientists told you they could cure cancer? New research suggests that inserting specific genes known to fight cancer into plant material could be an effective tool to eradicate the disease in certain people.

The MV Akademik Shokalskiy got caught in encroaching ice off Antarctica in late December of 2013. The Russian ship's 52 passengers were airlifted to a nearby icebreaker more than a week later.

In looking back at this year’s environmental news there’s a lot of doom and gloom — but not entirely

Environment

The World’s environment editor Peter Thomson ticks off his top stories of 2014, featuring an ice-bound ship, holes in the tundra and Barack Obama.

People hold signs during one of many worldwide "March Against Monsanto" protests against Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and agro-chemicals, in Los Angeles on October 12, 2013.

Why the term GMO is ‘scientifically meaningless’

Science

Genetically modified crops are a big part of both our food supply and our debates about health and safety. But some scientists and observers argue those debates are getting the science of GMOs wrong, and grouping together crops that don’t belong in the same argument.

A trader checks stacked boxes of cotton before loading them onto a truck inside a cotton processing unit in Kadi near the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.

Are GMOs really behind India’s farming success?

Environment

Genetically modified crops are controversial in the United States, and they’re no less contentious in other parts of the world. In places like India, companies like Monsanto say their GMO crops have boosted agriculture and can help solve nutrition problems, but critics say those claims are wrong.

An employee at a Seattle co-op stocks produce near a sign supporting a 2013 ballot initiative in Washington state that would have required labeling of GMO foods. The initiative failed, with record amounts of money spent to defeat it.

GMO lobbying is a booming business as labeling laws increase

Business

The battle over labeling GMO foods has prompted food companies to pour $27 million into lobbying efforts — just in the last six months. With a lawsuit arguing that Vermont’s GMO labeling law is unconstitutional and fights to stop labeling initiatives in other states, the big food lobbying push is likely to keep growing.