When General Motors CEO Mary Barra recently affirmed a commitment to “a world with zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion,” she echoed similar statements from the company’s executives over the years. Back in 1972, GM Vice President Elliott Estes had declared that “the automobile will be essentially removed from the air pollution problem in the United States” within another decade or so. That didn’t happen, yet two decades later President Bill Clinton played along with this fantasy. Bowing to the power of GM and its then-Big Three partners, Ford and Chrysler, Clinton broke a campaign pledge to raise Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards and instead underwrote industry research on super-clean future cars. Meanwhile, fuel economy fell while CO2 emissions continued to rise.

The amount of mercury extracted from the sea by industrial fishing has grown steadily since the 1950s, potentially increasing mercury exposure among the populations of several coastal and island nations to levels that are unsafe for fetal development.

Traditional insecticides are killers: they not only kill pests, they also endanger bees and other beneficial insects, as well as affecting biodiversity in soils, lakes, rivers and seas. A team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now developed an alternative: A biodegradable agent that keeps pests at bay without poisoning them.

For nearly 20 years, TRAX light rail trains have shuttled riders up and down the Salt Lake Valley, saving countless car trips and sparing Salt Lake’s air tons upon tons of petroleum-powered pollutants.

Since the 1960s, scientists at the University of Vermont have been documenting the decline of red spruce trees, casualties of the damage caused by acid rain on northeastern forests.

But now, surprising new research shows that red spruce are making a comeback—and that a combination of reduced pollution mandated by the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act and changing climate are behind the resurgence.

A pilot whale that died in Thailand last week had more than 17 pounds of plastic waste in its stomach, including more than 80 plastic bags, according to an autopsy performed by Thailand’s Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, Agence France-Presse reported.

What would happen if all petrol and diesel-powered vehicles were removed from a smaller European city? Up to 4% of all premature deaths could be prevented, according to a new study from Lund University in Sweden. The researchers used Malmö, Sweden, as a case study to calculate the health costs of inner city traffic.

Policymakers are being misinformed by the results of economic models that underestimate the future risks of climate change impacts, according to a new journal paper by authors in the United States and the United Kingdom, which is published today (4 June 2018).

The Trump administration is planning to order grid operators to buy electricity from struggling coal and nuclear plants, which face shutdowns due to competition from cheaper natural gas and renewable energy, according to a draft memo obtained by Bloomberg News. The memo argues that the directive, which would be carried out by the U.S. Department of Energy using emergency authority, is justified for national security reasons.

The number of electric vehicles on the road worldwide could reach 125 million by 2030, up from just over 3 million last year, according to a new analysis by the International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental organization that tracks energy trends. The rapid growth isn’t limited to personal vehicles, but will also be seen with electric buses, two-wheelers (such as motorcycles), and trucks.