Imagine the dirtiest engine legal in the United States. It’s an engine responsible for an annual 30 million tons of carbon dioxide, 21,000 tons of fine particulates and 68,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, which are harmful to human health and the environment, PennEnvironment reports. A heavy-duty truck or SUV may spring to mind, but this
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Bekah Carminati spent her childhood making mud pies and inspecting insects in her backyard in Montgomery County. When she grew up, she took up landscaping as a way to channel her love for craft and nature. But there was a problem. The company she worked for insisted on applying black dyed mulch, planting annuals and
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From April 26 to April 29, Philadelphia and its adjacent counties will be competing against cities around the world to recruit the greatest number of people to find the most species in their regions. Using the iNaturalist app as a tool, the City Nature Challenge encourages us to explore and document the biodiversity right where
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By Noah Raven and Francis Raven We filled our backpacks with over a dozen trees: chestnut oaks, black cherries and red mulberries, as well as two shovels, a pair of clippers, two pairs of gloves and several wooden stakes to label each of the seedlings. Our goal was to plant them in a degraded area
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On Feb. 21, 32 environmental justice organizations submitted a joint letter protesting the first public meeting on the proposed Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub (MACH2) that is scheduled to take place on March 11. The letter calls for the meeting to be made more accessible to community members who would be affected by MACH2, which is set
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For thousands of years, people used organic materials like plants, insects and minerals to create dyes. But in 1856, an 18-year-old chemistry student named William Henry Perkin changed everything. While attempting to create synthetic quinine using coal tar, Perkin accidentally developed mauveine, the world’s first synthetic dye. His invention of the rich purple hue unlocked
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Update: Would you like to weigh in on the EPA’s proposed dissolved oxygen standards in the Delaware River? The public can provide comments about the proposed regulation changes through the EPA website no later than February 20, 2024. By Meg McGuire and Katherine Rapin In December 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made a bold
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Update: On February 1, 2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a preliminary permit to York Energy Storage, LLC for the pumped hydroelectric storage project the company is proposing in York County. The preliminary permit gives York Energy Storage priority for building a project on the site (essentially calling dibs) and opens up a
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Tighter air pollution limits announced by the EPA on February 7 should have Philadelphians breathing easier. The new rule sets the limit, averaged over a year, of nine micrograms of tiny soot particles per cubic meter of air. “This final air quality standard will save lives and make all people healthier, especially within America’s most
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