dead zone

Gulf shrimpers fight for their livelihoods in a fertilizer-fueled dead zone

Farm pollutants from multiple states feed a massive dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Shrimpers pay the cost.

Fertilizer feeds humanity — and it’s destroying the Gulf of Mexico

How can we slow down a pollutant we depend on for survival?

Climate change is wreaking havoc on our water

Conditions will be ripe for toxic algae blooms.

Do we really need to double food production by 2050? Actually … no.

What we need is a new food system that keeps people fed and ecosystems healthy.

Increasing Pollution, Dwindling Options

The Food and Environmental Reporting Network released a striking report this week (Sept. 18) describing how industrial agriculture and climate change are fueling massive blooms of toxic algae: Blooms have closed lake beaches or led to swimming advisories from Vermont’s Lake Champlain to Dorena Reservoir in Oregon and from Florida’s Caloosahatchee River to Wisconsin’s Lake Menomin. In addition to […]

Parched Midwest could mean smaller Gulf dead zone

The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico could be unusually small this year -- not because of better agricultural practices, but because of drought.

How to kill the Gulf's dead-zone zombie

The Gulf of Mexico's dead zone is the largest in the world, and it keeps coming back. But there are steps we could take to get rid of it.

Chesapeake Bay dead zone could be the largest ever

One-third of the Chesapeake Bay is a dead zone this year. The Washington Post reports:

Especially heavy flows of tainted water from the Susquehanna River brought as much nutrient pollution into the bay by May as normally comes in an entire average year, a Maryland Department of Natural Resources researcher said. As a result, “in Maryland we saw the worst June” ever for nutrient pollution, said Bruce Michael, director of the DNR’s resource assessment service.

The dead zone could grow to be the largest ever.

Critical List: Floods herald largest Gulf dead zone on record; the Senate hearts ethanol

Louisiana fishermen can't catch a break. Flooding on the Mississippi River could create the largest dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico on record.

Louisiana, in general, can't catch a break. A plant that blends chemicals used in oilfields exploded on Tuesday.

The Senate decided against ending subsidies for corn-based ethanol in a vote that split, not just along party lines, but also between Big Ag states and everyone else.

Google's newest clean energy investment hands $280 million to a solar company that leases panels to customers.