environmental damage news stories on Newser

Sand Mining Craze Stirs Up Health Fears

Neal Colgrass — Sat, 19 May 2012 07:15:05 CDT

The upper Midwest is home to the latest craze in American mining: sand. Mining companies are knocking on doors in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and nearby states to dig up tons of the stuff so oil and gas producers can inject it into the ground in a process known as fracking. Sand...

BP Faces $52B in Gulf Spill Fines

Mark Russell — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 05:45:39 CST

With the trials set to begin tomorrow for BP and the other companies involved in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP alone could conceivably face up to $52 billion in fines and compensation, reports the AP . Under the Clean Water Act, which requires a minimum of $1,100...

NZ Shipwreck Breaks Apart, Threatens New Oil Spill

Mark Russell — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 07:00:54 CST

A cargo ship that has been grounded off the New Zealand coast since October broke in two last night, spilling more debris and raising fears of further oil leakage, reports the AP . Nearly 400 tons of oil leaked into the ocean soon after the Rena ran aground, and 1,100...

London Olympics Blasted for Using Endangered Wood

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 10:09:54 CST

At next year’s London Olympics, the US basketball team will train on some pretty rare ground. The court is being made from eucalyptus wood logged in a 1,000-year-old Tasmanian forest that's home to endangered species such as the Tasmanian Devil, activists allege. The UN World Heritage Committee has called...

Arctic Ozone Took 40% Hit This Winter

Polly Davis Doig — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 06:51:46 CDT

The ozone layer above the Arctic withered by 40% this winter, according to the UN's weather agency, a stark increase from the previous seasonal record of 30%. The loss was driven largely by frigid conditions in the stratosphere—though surface temperatures were actually warmer than normal—and lingering chemicals banned...

Chevron Fined $8B for Ecuador Pollution

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:25:34 CST

An Ecuadorean judge ruled today that Chevron was responsible for oil contamination in a wide swath of Ecuador's northern jungle and fined it at least $8 billion, the plaintiffs' lead attorney says. Chevron said it would appeal and called the ruling "illegitimate and unenforceable" in a news release. The plaintiffs'...

Toxic Sludge Reaches Danube

Nick McMaster — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:59:35 CDT

A spill of toxic waste has reached a branch of Europe's second largest river, the Danube. The sludge from a burst containment reservoir in Hungary has already devastated the first river it came into contact with, the Marcal, reports Voice of America . EU officials say that all fish and wildlife...

Oily Mist Coats Gulf Towns

Nick McMaster — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:55:22 CDT

Beach workers in Orange Beach, Alabama, have noticed that strong winds from the south—that is, from the oil-soaked Gulf of Mexico—bring with them a greasy mist. Few in the town believe BP's claims that the oil is gone—why would they, when, after a day at the beach,...

Gulf 'Dead Zone' One of the Biggest Ever

Nick McMaster — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:25:00 CDT

The Gulf of Mexico is seeing one of the biggest low-oxygen areas—or "dead zones"—on record this year. A dead zone forms in the Gulf around this time every year, but the 2010 incarnation is 7,722 square miles, just a few hundred short of the record size of...