Does the thought of drinking toxic chemicals that linger in your body and in the environment for decades freak you out? Well, good news: the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has lowered the recommended limits for two types of “forever chemicals” (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS) and created limits for two others. PFAS
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Do impending global disaster and (if that’s not enough) high gas prices have you itching to buy your first electric vehicle (EV)? Before you do, think about investing in a bicycle or a comfortable pair of walking shoes. A new study of the lifecycle emissions of various forms of transportation found that walking and cycling
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Fatherhood, for me, has been a course in community building and reclaiming collective cultural memory. As the son of a social worker and a Vietnam veteran (working with jazz musicians in Brooklyn post-war), I prayed for a daughter named Coltrane so that my parents would see that I understood the lessons that they taught through
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I’m one of the last to arrive, which means the full spectacle of the protest hits me at once as I come around the bend. A crowd of 150 people holding banners and signs surrounds a massive inflatable of CEO Tim Buckley on the lawn in front of the Malvern headquarters of Vanguard. The likeness
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The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education reported on its blog that two local civic associations, the Upper Roxborough Civic Association and the Residents of the Shawmont Valley, met last week to discuss news of a possible sale of the Boy Scout Tract, a section of the Schuylkill Center’s property. The Boy Scout Tract is a
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The Painted Bride Art Center has announced Resistance Garden: Cultivating Abundance, a programming series including five community dinners, five artist residencies, and four zine releases. “When you’re making a radical effort like beautifying and reclaiming land, the best way to engage people is art. Our artist residencies are how we bring an element of creativity
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Target has agreed to stop stocking glue traps in response to advocacy by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Glue traps are small boards with a layer of adhesive, placed sticky side up, that are meant to trap mice. The mice, with all feet stuck on the glue, die slowly from exhaustion and
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How many empty plastic water bottles did you see on the ground today? How about chip bags or blunt wrappers? Plastic litter is so abundant and widespread that it fades into the background, but a new initiative of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University is employing artwork in an effort to highlight the
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The full opening of the Martin Luther King Jr. Drive bridge over the Schuylkill River has again been pushed later, this time to 2025. The bridge, which connects MLK Drive through Fairmount Park West to the Eakins Oval, has been closed since 2020 as part of a project to make repairs to the bridge’s structure,
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Much of the opposition to the FDR Park Master Plan centers on the replacement of the open greenspace of the Meadows with the artificial green of 12 synthetic turf athletic fields. Master Plan boosters cite the “playability” of synthetic turf fields, which can host more hours of play per week than natural grass fields. Recent
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