Lisa Song
ProPublica
Boston, MA, United States
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Past articles by Lisa:
The Next Deadly Pandemic Is Just a Forest Clearing Away
The next deadly pandemic is just a forest clearing away. But we’re not even trying to prevent it. → Read More
What to Know About the Risks of Gas Stoves and Appliances
After learning her gas stove was leaking methane, one reporter consulted public health experts to learn about the scope of the problem and what people can do to reduce these risks at home. → Read More
The Polluter Just Got a Million-Dollar Fine. That Won’t Cure This Woman’s Rare Cancer.
Rhonda Fratzke’s oncologist asked if she had ever worked with vinyl chloride, a potent carcinogen. She had not, but she lived near a Westlake Chemical plant that was just fined a million dollars for polluting the air with the dangerous chemical. → Read More
When Home Is a Toxic Hot Spot
More than a thousand people talked to ProPublica about living in hot spots for cancer-causing air pollution. Most never got a warning from the EPA. They are rallying neighbors, packing civic meetings and signing petitions for reform. → Read More
They Knew Industrial Pollution Was Ruining the Neighborhood’s Air. If Only Regulators Had Listened.
Raw throats, burning eyes, strong acid smells. Air monitoring that showed chemicals linked to leukemia. Barbara Weckesser and her neighbors told regulators that air pollution was making them sick. The law let them ignore her. → Read More
Poison in the Air
The EPA allows polluters to turn neighborhoods into “sacrifice zones” where residents breathe carcinogens. ProPublica reveals where these places are in a first-of-its-kind map and data analysis. → Read More
Lawmakers Question California Cap and Trade Policies, Citing ProPublica Report
California legislators asked the state Air Resources Board to review its forest offsets program after an investigation by ProPublica and MIT Technology Review found that up to 39 million carbon credits aren’t achieving real climate benefits. → Read More
A Nonprofit Promised to Preserve Wildlife. Then It Made Millions Claiming It Could Cut Down Trees.
The Massachusetts Audubon Society has managed its land as wildlife habitat for years. Here’s how the carbon credits it sold may have fueled climate change. → Read More
The Climate Solution Actually Adding Millions of Tons of CO2 Into the Atmosphere
New research shows that California’s climate policy created up to 39 million carbon credits that aren’t achieving real carbon savings. But companies can buy these forest offsets to justify polluting more anyway. → Read More
Rapid Testing Is Less Accurate Than the Government Wants to Admit —
Rapid antigen testing is a mess. The federal government pushed it out without a plan, and then spent weeks denying problems with false positives. → Read More
The Financial Catastrophe That Coronavirus Brought to Small Towns —
The federal government has abandoned America’s small towns as the coronavirus depletes their budgets. It’s flood season and local leaders have no idea how to help residents through natural disasters. “We do not see how we will survive,” one told us. → Read More
Grieving Families Need Help Paying for COVID-19 Burials, but Trump Hasn’t Released the Money
FEMA has helped pay for the burials of victims of past disasters. But months into the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration has sat on similar requests. Families of COVID-19 victims have been forced to turn to religious centers and GoFundMe. → Read More
There’s Been a Spike in People Dying at Home in Several Cities. That…
Coronavirus death counts are based on positive tests and driven by hospital deaths. But data from major metropolitan areas shows a spike in at-home deaths, prompting one expert to say current numbers were just “the tip of the iceberg.” → Read More
You Might Be Buying a Hand Sanitizer That Won’t Work for Coronavirus
Sanitizers that don’t contain the CDC’s recommended minimum of 60% alcohol are flying off store shelves and listed by sellers on Amazon for outrageous prices. Here is what you need to know. → Read More
Cap and Trade Is Supposed to Solve Climate Change, but Oil and Gas Company Emissions Are Up —
Countries have called California’s cap-and-trade program the answer to climate change. But it is just as vulnerable to lobbying as any other legislation. The result: The state’s biggest oil and gas companies have actually polluted more since it started. → Read More
The Word Nobody Wanted to Say at the UN Climate Action Summit —
ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. → Read More
MIT Media Lab Kept Regulators in the Dark, Dumped Chemicals in Excess of Legal Limit
Documents and interviews show the Media Lab, already under fire for accepting contributions from Jeffrey Epstein, is being investigated for an apparent violation of state environmental regulations. They paused operations after we asked questions. → Read More
If Carbon Offsets Require Forests to Stay Standing, What Happens When the Amazon Is on Fire? —
The emergency threatening part of the world’s largest rainforest is proof that offsets are too risky to count on to cancel out corporate pollution, and that the Amazon needs help without strings attached. → Read More
California Legislators Urge Caution, but Greenlight a Plan That Could Lead to the Widespread Use of Forestry Offsets —
Influenced by a ProPublica investigation, they emphasized the need for “vigorous and proactive monitoring,” noting concerns long voiced by scientists about the integrity of carbon credits. → Read More
These 4 Arguments Can’t Overcome the Facts About Carbon Offsets for Forest Preservation —
Those trying to make them work reacted passionately about ProPublica’s investigation, which found they have failed to deliver the climate benefit they promise. Their arguments come up short. → Read More