Ask how we as individuals can reduce our own carbon footprints. Of the 10 top energy users, the US is also the world's largest and will remain so for at least another 15 years. [News Source]

Influencing healthy changes in your community. Whether you live in a city, a suburb or a small rural town, the way your community is designed affects your health. [News Source]

Can you clean and still be green? In our quest to rid our homes of germs and dirt, we are unwittingly unleashing a host of chemicals on our families, which studies have shown can cause blindness, asthma, birth defects, reproductive disorders and even cancer, and can severely impair indoor air quality. [News Source]

California dreamin.’ California wants to treat carbon dioxide, a product of the combustion of gasoline and said to be the major cause of global warming, as a pollutant. The only way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is by burning less gasoline to start with. [News Source]

Smoking bills advance in Senate. Smoking is a hot topic in this year's General Assembly. Several bills were introduced in the Senate that either ban or regulate smoking in Virginia. [News Source]

Truckee beating back particulate pollution. The 800-pound gorilla of Truckee air pollution is particulate matter, coming from wood stoves and fireplaces, wind-blown dust and road sanding, and open fires, said Joe Fish, deputy air pollution control officer for the Sierra Air Quality Management District. [News Source]

IDEM commissioner gets statehouse grilling. State Department of Environmental Management Commissioner Thomas Easterly faced a barrage of questions Wednesday from legislators convinced changes at the agency will make it tougher to protect Hoosiers from environmental lawbreakers. [News Source]

New system set up for bad air alerts. Ozone Action Days are now a thing of the past in West Michigan, but that doesn't mean air pollution has been eliminated. [News Source]

Public weighs in on nuke plants. While the meeting held by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission was for comments on the environmental review of a proposed nuclear power plant, it quickly became an appraisal of the current reactors and the new plant’s potential to help the economy. [News Source]

Enforcement could stall idling bylaw. Fears that an anti-idling bylaw would be impossible to enforce could derail efforts to use stricter methods to hit clean air targets. [News Source]

Tanzania develops low carbon economy. The WHO has described indoor air pollution from smoke fumes as a worse threat to life than TB or malaria across many developing countries, where the money to improve cooking conditions for the average family simply doesn’t exist. [News Source]