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Children living in FEMA trailers are alarmingly sick

Photo: Marni Rosen Children who moved into FEMA trailers after losing their homes in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have alarming rates of sickness and mental health problems, according to an in-depth review of medical records. Forty-two percent of the children studied suffer from respiratory troubles that may be linked to formaldehyde in the trailers.

Sentence of the day

“The students say they initially planned to hang bed sheets, but had trouble collecting 350 sheets, so they moved to undergarments.” — “Coeds Take Off Underwear to Be ‘Green’,” AP

Oceans acidifying much faster than thought, study says

An eight-year study of ocean pH levels off the Northwest coast of the United States found that pollution is increasing the ocean’s acidity about 10 or 20 times faster than previously thought and that the process is already significantly disrupting ocean ecology.

Giant mob protests Brazil crackdown on illegal logging

A mob of some 3,000 people trashed a government office in Paragominas, Brazil, on Monday to protest the government’s crackdown on illegal logging. Environment Minister Carlos Minc says the riot will not deter anti-logging efforts. sources:

PBS’s Now on green jobs

For some reason they don’t allow their videos to be embedded on other sites — luddites! — but if you want to click over and watch it, PBS’s show NOW recently did an episode on green jobs. As it happens, NOW also interviewed Grist’s Dear Leader Chip Giller on the subject. Check it out.

Western Shoshone tribe files suit against gold mine on sacred mountain

Members of the Western Shoshone Indian tribe have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management seeking to stop a just-approved open-pit gold mine from digging up what they say is a sacred mountain in Nevada to get at some 5 million ounces of gold. If the project continues ahead as planned, the […]

Federal court upholds Michigan’s clean-ballast-water law

A Michigan state law requiring oceangoing ships to keep their ballast water onboard or treat the water to kill any live organisms before discharging it into the Great Lakes has been upheld by a federal appeals court. So far, over 180 different invasive species have made a home in the lakes — many of them […]

Rescuers save 11 whales after mass stranding

Most of the 64 pilot whales that were stranded on a beach in Tasmania this weekend have died, but rescuers were eventually able to save 11 of them by moving them to another beach where they could more easily reach the sea. The reason for the mass stranding is unknown, though some activists speculated that […]

Friday music blogging: Dr. Dog

Dr. Dog is an indie band out of Philadelphia. Their new album Fate is their fifth, but their first on a new label (Park the Van). It feels like a breakthrough. And it may be my favorite album of the year. They’re usually called “psychedelic” but that doesn’t quite get it. It’s more like the […]

Companies liable for annoying pollution even if it’s legal, says Canadian court

Polluters in Canada can be sued for spewing excessively annoying smells, noise, or dust — even if their pollution is within legal limits, Canada’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The ruling, specific to a class-action lawsuit brought by 2,000 Quebec City citizens fed up with a nearby cement plant, may have far-reaching implications. (We personally find […]