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Carbon offsets alone won’t make flying climate-friendly

Grist

In the presence of the sun’s rays, nitrogen molecules set of a chain of reactions that produce ozone and destroy free-floating atmospheric methane. percent of total warming in 2011 on aviation alone — which may sound small, but the number has been growing fast. It’s tough to pin down the meaning of all this chemistry.

Carbon 103
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A Texas Community Is Being Bombarded by Cancer-Causing Benzene. State Officials Have Known for Nearly Two Decades

DeSmogBlog

Today K-Solv is legally allowed to release almost 20 times more volatile organic compounds — a class of chemicals that includes benzene — into the air each year than it did back then. The visits were usually brief, according to four TCEQ reports filed between March 2011 and October 2012.

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As Alarm Over Plastic Grows, Saudis Ramp Up Production in the US

DeSmogBlog

Rather than transforming the fossilized remains of organisms into gasoline and other motor fuels, the Texas plant breaks apart the molecular structure of oil, through a process called cracking, which turns it into the primary ingredient for car seats, single-use plastic bags, plastic coffee cups and much more.

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Ohio officials know how to stop Lake Erie from turning toxic, but no one will do it

Grist

Since 2011, the state has spent more than $3 billion on it, largely to upgrade sewage and drinking water plants. Mike Ferner, a retired union organizer and former Toledo councilman, leads Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie. But here, too, most fertilizer runoff efforts are voluntary — and exceptions undercut the state’s 2015 ban.

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New data show Houston-area communities are being flooded with chemicals

Grist

Ozone, which can aggravate lung diseases including asthma and emphysema, was well above the EPA’s eight-hour limit. According to a report by Environment Texas and the Environmental Integrity Project, polluters in Texas were fined for less than 3 percent of nearly 25,000 illegal chemical releases between 2011 and 2016. Mark Felix.