The Southern California Gas Co. has been ordered to permanently close and seal a storage well that's poured natural gas into the air over a Los Angeles neighborhood for months and driven thousands from their homes. A hearing board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District on Saturday also ordered the utility to fund an independent health study for residents of the Porter Ranch neighborhood and inspect all 115 wells at the Aliso Canyon storage facility to help prevent...

One of Bolivia's most treasured natural resources, Lake Poopó, has dried up, stunning locals and devastating the ecology of the surrounding area. Situated high in the Andes, Lake Poopó was once the country's second-largest lake, but a combination of environmental factors, including dry El Niño-fueled weather, overexploitation by mining, government mismanagement and changing climate patterns has left the area a desolate wasteland of deserted fishing vessels and dead marine life. The local government enacted a law last month that declared...

While improvements have been made in environmental health, scientists say we have a long way to go in air pollution. Kait Parker is here with the details. ...

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists have determined that the hands of the Doomsday Clock will remain at three minutes to midnight, citing climate change as one of the top reasons for their concerns. According to the Bulletin, the Doomsday Clock is “an internationally recognized design that of our own hands.” These destructive forces include nuclear weapons, climate change, biotechnology and other emerging technologies. A sign showing the 'Doomsday Clock' that remains at three minutes to midnight is seen after it...

Despite making progress addressing some of the world’s environmental issues, other problems such as toxic air have worsened considerably, as shown in a global scorecard created by the Environmental Protection Index (EPI). According to the EPI’s findings, , particularly in countries with rapidly developing economies such as China and India. More than half of the world’s population, which amounts to over 3.5 billion people, live in a nation where the average exposure to air pollutants exceeds the levels found safe...

Northwest Tasmania is home to part of the Gondwana forest. It’s a stretch of primeval-looking temperate rainforest, much like the one found in the Pacific Northwest’s Olympic National Park. Trees more than 1,000-years-old tower above ancient ferns, forming a connection to the distant past. It’s why the region has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But that connection is being broken by climate change. Fueled by extremely dry conditions that stretch back two years, major bushfires have raged across...

A view of the jungle in the Ecuadorean Yasuni National Park, Orellana province, Ecuador, on Nov. 9, 2012. (PABLO COZZAGLIO/AFP/Getty Images) In a move that has angered local tribes and environmental activists, Ecuador plans to sell more than a third of its rainforests to Chinese oil companies. The country's Amazonian rainforest – slightly larger than the total area of South Carolina –according to a 2008 study published in PLOS ONE. The reason for this sale is twofold: Ecuador owes China...

The worst locust infestation in more than 50 years is threatening Argentina. (The National Animal Health and Agri-food Quality Service of Argentina (Senasa)) Locusts are on the cusp of devastating parts of Argentina, as mild temperatures in the region have helped them to flourish, much to the chagrin of farmers, who fear they will obliteratecrops and grassland. The hungry swarms of voracious grasshoppers now cover an "area of northern Argentina about the size of Delaware," The New York Times .The...

Members of the Michigan National Guard load bottled water at a fire station, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016 in Flint, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) With President Obama declaring the Flint water crisis a , numerous Good Samaritans —including celebrities such as Mark Wahlberg, Eminem and Wiz Khalifa — have sent thousands ofwater bottles to help. But now city officials are dealing with a new predicament: what to do with the mounting influx of discarded waste. According to a , only 13...

A fire rages in the largest landfill in the Indian city of Mumbai, January 28. (NASA) A massive fire at a garbage dump in Mumbai, India was so intense it was by a NASAEarth observation satellite. The smoke plume from the blaze is shown in the satellite photograph to envelop much of the city, leaving millions of people exposed to hazardous levels of smog. The fire originated at theDeonar dumping ground, the city's largest junkpile, and has had a "devastating"...

A new study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment finds that mercury levels in rainfall are rising in parts of North America. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) A new report in the journalScience of the Total Environmentfoundmercury concentrations are "rising in rainfall and other forms of precipitation in North America," primarily being detected inthe central and western United States.Peter Weiss-Penzias, lead researcher and environmental toxicologist at UC Santa Cruz, worked with a team of scientists to analyze wet deposition...

Last month brought unprecedented rain to Florida, setting a record for the wettest January on record. And with the all this rain has come a murky environmental mess. To curb flooding, officials "back pumped" polluted water from South Florida's farms into Lake Okeechobee – and now overflowing water from the lake has been dumped into fragile river ecosystems with potentially disastrous effects. Even when Lake Okeechobee was at record low levels in 2007, elevated levels of arsenic and other pesticides...

The photo above shows a sediment-rich meltwater river originating from Leverett Glacier in southwest Greenland in June 2012. Not only is Greenland’s melting ice sheet adding huge amounts of water to the oceans, it could also be unleashing 400,000 metric tons of phosphorus every year. (Jon Hawkings) Melting glacial ice causes sea levels to rise, which can be detrimental to coastal ecosystems. But it seems that the effects of melting glaciers are not all bad; researchers have recently discovered that...