Please invest in Our Daily Planet today, by making a one time or monthly contribution.
We do not charge our readers a subscription fee for our content. We want to continue to grow our readership, particularly among millennials and public servants. Voluntary contributions from readers will help us employ interns and freelance journalists, expand our content, and reach a larger audience.
If you make a contribution of $150 or more, you will become an official “Friend of the Planet” and receive a Friend of the Planet T-shirt or water bottle. You can also submit opinion essays to us for our consideration for posting on our new “Bright Ideas” op-ed page.
Health
Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the scariest dragon of them all? If we’re assessing scary monsters, air pollution that’s being caused by our addiction to fossil fuels is claiming far more lives each year that the coronavirus. Yesterday we suggested that we should all take the climate threat a little more seriously and channel […]
Continue Reading 95 words
It is women’s history month and so this week we salute two of the highest-ranking women doctors in the federal government who are working to contain the spread of the coronavirus and make sure we are prepared to deal with it here in the U.S.
Continue Reading 297 words
For those of us who work in the climate world the fact that most Americans don’t view the climate crisis as an urgent threat is a big frustration. While there’s a 97% consensus among scientists that anthropogenic climate change is occurring and the fact that no part of the United States will come out unaffected, […]
Continue Reading 519 wordsStay in the know, empower yourself to be a #FriendOfThePlanet, sign up to receive ODP in your inbox each morning!
The rapidly-spreading coronavirus is thought to have originated in China’s Wuhan Huanan live animal market. As Grace Ge Gabriel, the Regional Director of Asia at the International Fund for Animal Welfare recently wrote in her Bright Ideas op-ed of the market, “The sign from the store with “wild tastes” in its name reads like a […]
Continue Reading 553 words
The spread of coronavirus or COVID-19 in the U.S. is increasingly being predicted by medical and public health experts, but the advent of warmer weather cannot be counted on the stem the virus’ spread, as has been claimed by the President and some of his followers. Experts in the medical community and at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have been clear that there is no clear consensus on what will happen once spring arrives, but it is not expected to entirely halt the virus, and in fact, studies have shown that in the humid tropics, similar viruses like the common flu can thrive at any time of the year.
Continue Reading 602 words
In recent days at political rallies and White House events, President Trump has repeatedly made the speculative claim that the coronavirus will go away “miraculously” in “April with the heat — as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April.”
Why This Matters: President Trump is again playing politics with science and the weather — bending the facts to fit his desired narrative that both the U.S. and China having it all under control when it comes to controlling the spread of the virus and that it is safe to make drastic cuts to government research on diseases like this one.
Continue Reading 544 words
by Grace Ge Gabriel, Regional Director of Asia, International Fund for Animal Welfare One billboard at Wuhan Huanan live animal market, where scientists believe the Coronavirus has originated, sends a shiver down my spine. The sign from the store with “wild tastes” in its name reads like a zoo’s exotic animal collection mixed with […]
Continue Reading 622 words
Two new reports from the Union of Concerned Scientists explain in detail how this administration’s rollbacks of bedrock environmental, health and safety standards have exposed children to more poisons in the food they eat, the water they drink, and the air that they breathe and has actively suppressed the science that would give us a greater understanding of how children are uniquely affected by chemicals and toxins.
Why This Matters: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says no safe blood-lead level for lead has been found for children — they should not be exposed at all.
Continue Reading 521 words
New research from the FDA has shown that 7 chemicals traditionally found in chemical (vs mineral) sunscreen enter the human bloodstream at levels that exceed safety thresholds. Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, the arm of the FDA which conducted the studies explained that just because an ingredient enters […]
Continue Reading 385 words
The investigation into the origin of the scary, new virus that just made it to the U.S. is now centered on a “wet” market in China where Bloomberg News reports that the government is focusing on the sale of freshly slaughtered, unpackaged meat. They have closed the market for now.
Why This Matters: Ironically, it is the crackdown on the illegal trade in endangered species that helped to make wet markets less “exotic” and thus avoid a repeat of the SARS virus of twenty years ago.
Continue Reading 447 words
We know air pollution is bad for our lungs, but researchers are now finding connections between breathing bad air and disorders such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. The New York Times explains in a fascinating article that the reason for these links and similarly the reason why some people are more resilient in the face of air pollution may be found in our genes and in how humans evolved.
Why This Matters: Air pollution harms billions of people worldwide — from cars to coal-fired power plants to forest fires — not to mention vaping and cigarette smoking.
Continue Reading 325 words
The New York Times reported on two flu epidemics in the last week — one impacting humans and the other pigs — and both are causing worse problems than expected. According to the Times, in the last year one-fourth of the world’s pig population died last year because the “African swine fever” epidemic swept through […]
Continue Reading 542 words