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People Around the World are Helping Scientists in the Fight Against Climate Change by Photographing This Year’s Incredible, Extreme High Tides

/in , /by /Business Insiderby Sophia Ankel

A few times every year, a network of volunteer photographers try to capture so-called “king tides”, which affect several coastal communities around the world.

The group’s aim is to document how high the waterline gets and where the water goes so that the images can be used by scientists, city planners, and policymakers to study and prepare for the effects of climate change.

The photos reveal where flooding can occur on specific roads as well as where it is safe to build new housing.

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An Environmental Group Found Arsenic And Chromium In Tap Water In All 50 US States. Here’s How To Check What’s In Your Taps.

/in , /by /Business Insider by Aria Bendix

In 2017, the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG) released a database of all the known contaminants lurking in US drinking water. After compiling data from 50,000 public water utilities across the country from 2010 to 2015, the group found 267 chemicals that they dubbed concerning to human health.

On Wednesday, the group announced an update to those findings: After analyzing the same data set from 2012 to 2017, the EWG found 278 contaminants in US drinking water.

The health risk of each contaminant is “going to vary region by region, state by state, utility by utility,” Tasha Stoiber, a senior scientist at EWG, told Business Insider.

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Forever Chemicals’ Have Been Found In Bottled Water Brands Sold At Whole Foods And CVS, And It’s Part Of A Larger Contamination Problem

/in , /by /Business Insiderby Aria Bendix

Bottled water is often considered the safest choice for avoiding drinking-water contaminants like arsenic and lead, but a recent spate of investigations has found that not all of it is free of potentially toxic chemicals.

In June, testing from the Center for Environmental Health found “high levels” of arsenic in bottled water brands owned by Whole Foods and Keurig Dr Pepper. Their findings confirmed earlier research from Consumer Reports, which found levels of arsenic that exceeded the allowable limit set by the FDA.

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Silicon Valley’s Largest City Is Sounding The Alarm About A Drinking Water Crisis That No One Knows How To Fix

/in , /by /Business Insiderby Aria Bendix

San Jose, California is plagued by both an absence and surplus of water. Until recently, the city suffered from a prolonged period of drought that forced nearly one million residents to cut back their water usage. Like many coastal cities, San Jose is also vulnerable to the growing threat of sea level rise, which has exposed the city to chronic flooding. In 2017, San Jose saw the worst floods to hit the Silicon Valley in a century — the product of an overflowing reservoir that spilled into the local Coyote Creek, trapping hundreds of residents in their homes and forcing more than 14,000 others to evacuate.

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These $2,000 Solar Panels Pull Clean Drinking Water Out Of The Air, And They Might Be A Solution To The Global Water Crisis

/in , /by /Business Insiderby Aria Bendix

The global water crisis has wreaked havoc on communities around the world, from homes in Flint, Michigan, to megacities like Tokyo and São Paulo. The United Nations estimated that 2.1 billion people live without safe drinking water in their homes — a situation with severe health implications that can also limit economic prosperity. Citizens with access to clean water have a better chance of escaping poverty, fending off disease, and pursuing an education.

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