Natural Resources Defense Council

Toxic Train or Green Railway? L.A. Harbor Neighbors, Environmentalists and Long Beach Officials Fight Los Angeles

By Christina Schoellkopf The job-creating $500 million Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway plan is heading to the Los Angeles City Council for a vote on the Environmental Impact Report even as a top environmental group says working-class families and children in polluted Wilmington will be subject ... More >>

Toxic Chemicals in Lunchboxes, Canned Foods and Rice: A Summary Tips for Parents and Non-Parents

Three recent studies have left some parents wondering if the cards are stacked against them when it comes to protecting their kids. New research on dangerous chemicals in vinyl lunch boxes, canned foods and dozens of rice products suggests that what we don't know could hurt us. Children are most at ... More >>

710 Freeway Expansion Would 'Improve Air Quality and Public Health,' Says Metro; Residents Call B.S.

A new wave of resistance is swelling in the decades-old struggle between California transportation officials and L.A.-area residents over both an expansion and extension of the uber-clogged 710 freeway. That's because one of various extension scenarios just released by Caltrans and Metro happens to ... More >>

Three L.A. Designers Who Do Green Fashion Right

More stories from our 2012 Fashion Issue on dressing ethically: *West Hollywood's New Fur Ban *Does L.A. Still Have Sweatshops? *Yael Aflalo's Reformation Makes Vintage Cool *Santa Monica's Main Street, a Green Fashion Hub *Three L.A. Designers Who Do Eco-Fashion Right It's not easy being green. Bu ... More >>

D.A. Will Not File Charges in John Bryson Hit and Runs

Just weeks after John Bryson quietly tendered his resignation from Obama's cabinet, the Los Angeles district attorney has declined to press charges against the ex-commerce secretary. "The District Attorney's Office has declined to file a case against former Secretary of Commerce John Bryon," Sand ... More >>

Fight Against BPA in Food Packaging Takes a Hit

The fight to get bisphenol A (BPA) out of our kitchens took a hit on Friday, when the Food and Drug Administration declined to ban the controversial chemical from food packaging. The FDA rejected a petition from the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), but also said it will ... More >>

Beaches in L.A. Moving Inland: Rising Seas Via Global Warming Mean Drinking Water Problems

Kim Davies​Why go to the beach when the beach will come to you? Literally. Slowly: A fraction of an inch at a time. A new report says that by the mid point of this decade sea level will be a foot and a half higher. That, in our view, could be devastating to the way-too-close-to-the-beach deve ... More >>

Groups Sue FDA Over Antibiotics in Animal Feed

Flickr/delgaudm​ A coalition of consumer groups filed a federal lawsuit May 20 against the Food and Drug Administration, saying that the use of human antibiotics in farm feed creates dangerous "superbugs," Agence France-Presse reports. The suit alleges that the FDA has known since 1977 that ... More >>

Incandescent Light Bulb, You Were 100 Watts of Wonderful: A California Eulogy

Appliance.netEdison vs. the environment​If Thomas Edison were alive today, he'd surely shed a tear. January 1 marked the beginning of a sad, slow death for the brightest household light bulb known to man -- and we're not about to let it fade from our lives without a fair memorial. Though he's ... More >>

NRDC Sues U.S. Over Clean Trucks Program

The Santa Monica-based Natural Resources Defense Council has sued the Federal Maritime Trucks Entering L.A. HarborCommission to learn why the government agency tried to block implementation of parts of the Clean Trucks Program that the L.A. and Long Beach ports are trying to enforce. The NRDC had fi ... More >>

A Tale of Two SoCal Makeovers

Curbed L.A. does a double-take on the corner of Cahuenga Boulevard and Fountain Avenue, with Now You See It/Now You Don't pictures. (See photos above.) The first photograph shows obsolete, Spanish Revival bungalows from the 1920s occupying the spot in November. The second image depicts the same spot ... More >>

Blue Whale Requiem

Mystery reigns as sonar tests pit military training against beloved Southland pods

The Lost Streams of Los Angeles

Uncovering our wet and wild past. Is it safe, or even possible, to let the water flow again?

Beaches of Shame

Why can’t we keep our oceans clean?

I'll Believe It When I Breathe It

Residents question ports’ clean-air plan

The Greening of Ships

Can California stop air pollution out at sea?

Think Globally, Act Santa Monically

One city’s attempt to cool down global warming

This Land Is My Land

Has the Endangered Species Act put wildlife above people?

Letters

Ports of Cough

What it will take to clean up the mess caused by ships and trucks

The Air That We Breathe

Just when it looked like we might win the war on smog, a new and more deadly form of air pollution stalks Los Angeles

Outing Polluters

Pacoima’s Lot

A deindustrialized L.A. imports its smog

Reforming the Environmentalists

How the Sierra Club and other groups can help clean the air

Clean Air vs. Cancer

A federal judge re-affirms California's authority to fight pollution

Go Vertical, Young Green

How apartment living is good for the environment

Lost in the Smog

Environmentalists say the energy industry helped write Clear Skies. Yeah? So what else is new?

The Great Wet Hope

Will Measure O remake Los Angeles? Only if voters know it exists

Arnold’s State Control

Top-heavy plan to reshape government likely to bottom out

Brave New Cityscape

Lord of the Race

Serving on two powerful air-quality boards., L.A. Marathon founder William Burke sets a fast pace. But it just might be when he crosses the finish line, the public — and clean air — are the big losers.

A Chokehold on the Future

Hopes for cleaner air disappear into the haze

Better Than Bush

But which Dem is green enough for California?

Beaching the Cleanup Plan

How a one-man crusade to overturn pollution controls became a $1 million legal fight

Larry on Laurie

Or, the perils of being married to an environmentalist

Curb Your SUV

Laurie David put celebrity activism in the driver's seat

Port in a Storm

Dealing with the polluting ways of world trade

Ports of Cash

Out-of-court settlement could force shakeup at Port of Los Angeles

A Draining Problem

Cleaning up the ocean pits environmentalists against local cities

The Gods of Small Things

The Center for Biological Diversity cares as much about the unarmored threespine stickleback as it does a cathedral forest of trees, which is why it is reinventing the environmental movement and could be saving Southern California in the process.

Paradise Lost — Again

The Bush plan for the environment

Burned Again

Bush's forestry plan courts its own disaster

Little Caesars

Urban Naturalist: The $5.5 Billion Bird

Eight Excellent Reasons Not To Cheat on Your Taxes

Kiddie Diesel

A cut-rate, questionable cure for school-bus pollution

Take Me to the River

L.A.’s hopes for a new park

Cross of Gold

The California Air Resources Board swivels in the battle of the standards

Power Play

South Gate is already one of the most polluted cities in California. Does it really need a massive new electric plant?

The War at Home

Local Progressives Talk About Kosovo