pollution

A large-scale, collaborative effort to clear polluting boats, barges, and buildings out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is under way. But hauling these sometimes decades-old structures out of the rivers isn't easy. This week, CNET went along on one outing to see how it's done.

We've posted a handful of oversize photos from the tour in this blog. For more, see our photo gallery here.

Cars might get a lot of the press surrounding air pollution, but commercial shipping puts out a hefty amount of pollution as well. Cargo ships, tankers, and cruise ships spew almost half as much particle pollution as the world's cars, according to a study published Wednesday by the American Geophysical Union.

Researchers analyzed the exhaust of more than 200 commercial ships in the Gulf of Mexico and shipping channels near Galveston, Texas, in the summer of 2006. Specifically, researchers focused on sulfates, a kind of particulate pollution produced by diesel-fueled cars and trucks, but which is also found in … Read more

Tiny bits of toner wafting from laser printers can't be blamed for polluting indoor air, according to research released this week.

In 2007, a study from Queensland University of Technology in Australia suggested that breathing toner particles from printers could hurt the lungs as much cigarette smoke.

But researchers from that school and the Fraunhofer Wilhelm Klauditz Institute in Germany have found no evidence to support that claim, after examining the makeup of chemicals released from laser printers.

They determined that such airborne materials include paraffins and silicon oils that evaporate when a printer's fixing unit, which attaches … Read more

Virgin America announced Thursday it will offer customers the option to pay a voluntary fee when booking their ticket, which will go toward supporting carbon offset projects.

The U.S. domestic airline based in California, of which Richard Branson's Virgin Group is a minority share investor, has partnered with Carbonfund.org on the effort.

Through Carbonfund.org, the money Virgin America collects from consumers will be directed toward projects sanctioned by the Environmental Defense Fund's (EDF) official CarbonOffsetList.org.

One of the projects from that list that Virgin America chose to support, for example, is IdleAire.

IdleAire lets … Read more

Portable headphones come in two main styles: in-ear and on-ear. The former comprise the ultratiny earbuds and canalbuds that you place at least somewhat inside your ears, while the latter often feature a headband and circular earpads that rest over the ears. iPod accessories maker iFrogz offers several models in both varieties, including the in-ear Ear Pollution Plugz headphones featured here. Unfortunately, this $15 set rather lives up to its name, offering audio quality about on par with the stock 'buds included with most MP3 players. On the plus side, the earphones offer a hint of style, an ultracompact design, … Read more

Portable headphones come in two main styles: in-ear and on-ear. The former comprises the ultratiny earbuds and canalbuds that you place at least somewhat inside your ears, while the latter often features a headband and circular earpads that rest over the ears.

iPod accessory maker iFrogz offers several models in both varieties, but the on-ear Ear Pollution Toxix headphones are the subject here. Thankfully, the $20 set doesn't totally live up to its name, but neither does it sound particularly good. The earphones offer a hint of style and a lightweight design, so they could work in a pinch … Read more

When 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley and his crew went to China to record the black market dismantling of electronic waste, or e-waste, the experience was almost as hazardous for the 60 Minutes team as working with the toxic material is for poor Chinese workers.

Jumped by a gang of men overseeing the e-waste operations who tried to take the CBS team's cameras, Pelley's crew managed to escape and bring back footage of the hazardous activities. Pelley's investigation will be broadcast this Sunday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

The Chinese attackers were trying to protect a lucrative business of mining the e-waste -- junked computers, televisions and other old electronic products -- for valuable components, including gold. "They're afraid of being found out. This is smuggling. This is illegal," says Jim Puckett, founder of the Basel Action Network, a group working to stop the dumping of toxic materials in poor countries that certifies ethical e-waste recyclers in the United States. "A lot of people are turning a blind eye here. And if somebody makes enough noise, they're afraid this is all going to dry up."

E-waste workers in Guiyu, China, where Pelley's team videotaped, put up with the dangerous conditions for the $8 a day the job pays. They use caustic chemicals and burn the plastic parts to get at the valuable components, often releasing toxins that they not only inhale, but release into the air, the ground and the water. Potable water must now be trucked into Guiyu and scientists have discovered that the city has the highest levels of cancer-causing dioxins in the world. Pregnancies in Guiyu are six times more likely to result in miscarriages, and seven out of 10 children there have too much lead in their blood. … Read more

In a rare independent study of China's energy sector, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found that the problem with China's coal power generation is not that its power plants lack cleaner technology.

The emissions are definitely higher than they could be, the report found, but the culprit is usually low-quality coal rather than low-tech plants. As an MIT statement explains:

Lower-grade coal, which produces high levels of sulfur emissions, can be obtained locally, whereas the highest-grade anthracite comes mostly from China's northwest and must travel long distances to the plants, adding greatly to its … Read more

Much has been made of Beijing's decision to keep a lighter version of its Olympics traffic restrictions, not least because whatever the city did to clean the air seemed to have worked in August. But the renewed measures are weaker and the probable effect is unclear.

Alex Pasternack at Treehugger points out that the sustained restrictions, which took effect October 1, will be weaker than during the Games. Only one fifth of cars will be pulled from the road on weekdays, versus half under the Olympics rules.

According to The Beijinger (also via Alex), the city's other restrictions … Read more