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A lead crisis strikes an Indiana housing complex -

The mayor of East Chicago, Indiana, recently announced the city will raze the West Calumet Housing Complex due dangerously high lead levels in the ground outside. The site is close to a massive former lead smelting plant, and directly on top of a smaller former smelting operation. Comparing the crisis to what happened in Flint, Michigan, residents are asking why the EPA didn't warn them about their toxic environs sooner. New York Times

Zimbabwe is dehorning its rhinos to thwart poachers -

The country plans to take drastic action to protect its 700-plus rhinos. Demand for rhino horns in traditional Asian medicine has surged in recent years—last year, poachers killed 50 Zimbabwean rhinos, and a record 1,305 across Africa. Reuters

In the last 30 years we’ve really moved into exceptional territory...It's unprecedented in 1,000 years.

Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, says the pace of global temperature change in recent decades makes it unlikely the world will be able to keep warming below the 1.5-degree threshold agreed on in Paris last year. Meanwhile, President François Hollande says countries are still a long way away from implementing the historic climate deal.

A quarter of China's power generation last year came from renewables -

Hydropower, wind, and solar together accounted for 24.5 percent of the country's total power generation in 2015. The grid wasn't quite ready for the new technology, though—due to congestion, some of the clean electricity was wasted, and many installed wind turbines sat unusedBloomberg

New England is losing its mussels -

A new study finds that the number of mussels along the Gulf of Maine fell by more than 60 percent in the last 40 years. Warming waters, invasive species, and overharvesting have all likely played a role in the die-off. Associated Press

Rulebreaking is on the rise at national parks -

There's plenty to celebrate on the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, but the park system faces plenty of problems, too—including misbehavior like wildlife harassment, illegal camping, and vandalism from an increasing number of visitors. In July, rangers at the 10 most visited national parks dealt with more than 11,000 incidents. Associated Press