Plastic pollution
Microplastics Found in Antarctic Sea Ice Samples for First Time, Scientists Say
For the first time, microscopic plastic pollution has been found in Antarctic sea ice samples collected more than a decade ago, suggesting that microplastic concentrations in Southern Sea ice may be higher than previously believed.
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Meat and Plastic Sales Are Slowly Dropping, Survey Finds
As environmental awareness spreads, shoppers are making different choices.
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A Northwest Passage Journey Finds Little Ice and Big Changes
After decades of travel in the Far North, E360’s Arctic correspondent joins a voyage through the Northwest Passage and witnesses a world being transformed, with ice disappearing, balmy temperatures becoming common, and alien invaders – from plastic waste to new diseases – on the rise.
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James Cameron’s New Docu-Series Will Make You Ditch Plastic and Seafood
James Cameron is teaming up with National Geographic to make a groundbreaking ocean documentary series, which may convince you to ditch plastic and seafood. Named “Mission OceanX,” the six-episode series will follow a hand-picked team of scientists, cinematographers, and filmmakers on board the maiden voyage of the Alucia2 as it sails across the Indian ocean.
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The Great Reckoning
In essence, the postmodern age was ending, though few seemed to know it — with elites, in particular, largely oblivious to what was occurring. What would replace postmodernity in a planet heading for ruin remained to be seen.
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Something Fishy: Toxic Plastic Pollution Is Traveling Up the Food Chain
Widespread deaths of plankton caused by microplastic would certainly disrupt the marine food web. But their consumption is already changing the health of the oceans: Microplastic has been found in middle-ocean and deep-sea fish, which, like mackerel, are prey to ocean top predators, like seals or mahi-mahi.
Read MoreHidden Plastics: Glitter Gum and the Air We Breathe
The plastic contamination of the natural world flows from three main sources: complacency, apathy and ignorance, a poisonous trinity that is itself the result of a narrow and destructive approach to living. While there are signs of a shift in attitudes among many people, resistance to changing the lifestyle habits that feed the environmental crisis, is strong.
Read More16 Companies Rethinking Packaging
Packaging is also the main source of the plastic pollution that is clogging the ocean and expected to exceed the weight of all fish by 2050 at current rates. The food industry is largely responsible for this growing packaging problem. Recognizing this issue, and under pressure from consumers, several of these very same corporations have recently pledged to reduce the environmental impact of their packaging.
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G20 agrees to tackle ocean plastic waste
Group of 20 environment ministers agreed on Sunday to adopt a new implementation framework for actions to tackle the issue of marine plastic waste on a global scale, the Japanese government said after hosting the two-day ministerial meeting.
Read More9 Easy Ways You Can Protect the Oceans
The ocean is astonishing, but it’s also deteriorating. A report published in the journal Current Biology in 2018 found that 87 percent of the world’s oceans are dying. Just 13 percent of oceans have intact marine ecosystems “untouched by the damaging impacts of humanity,” The Guardian reported last year.
Read MoreNearly Everything You Consume Is Contaminated by Microplastics, Report Says
The average person consumes at least 50,000 microplastics annually from the food they eat, according to a new report published Wednesday in the American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Read MoreClimate Plan
The Climate Plan advocates measures that can be taken in efforts to improve the situation regarding the climate, as well as regarding the health, prospects and wellbeing of people and life in general. These measures can and should be implemented immediately, in line with the current climate crisis.
Read MoreHow Africa Is Leading the World in a Shift from Plastic
Tanzania isn’t the only African country to introduce such a ban. Over 30 African countries have adopted similar bans, mostly in subsaharan Africa, according to National Geographic.
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Record-Breaking Diver Finds Plastic Bag in Deepest Part of Ocean
An America man completed the deepest-ever solo underwater dive May 1. But when he reached the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, he found that another representative of the human world had gotten there first: plastic.
Read MoreA Next-Generation Plastic That Can Be Recycled Again and Again
A team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has designed a recyclable plastic. Like a Lego playset, it can be disassembled into its constituent parts at the molecular level. It can then be reassembled into a different shape, texture, and colour again and again without loss of performance or quality.
Read MorePlastic Waste Is Threatening Ocean Bacteria That Produce 10% of the World’s Oxygen
Chemicals leached from ocean plastic are endangering marine bacteria that produce up to 10% of the world’s oxygen, according to a new study published in the science journal Communications Biology.
Read MoreNearly All Countries Agree to Stem Flow of Plastic Waste into Poor Nations
Almost all the world’s countries have agreed on a deal aimed at restricting shipments of hard-to-recycle plastic waste to poorer countries, the United Nations announced on Friday. Exporting countries – including the US – now will have to obtain consent from countries receiving contaminated, mixed or unrecyclable plastic waste.
Read MoreCosta Rica Set To Become The Worlds First Plastic-Free And Carbon-Free Country By 2021
Costa Rica is in the top 5 of countries that are leading the way into renewable resources. It might seem small but it has a really big environmental impact. Since 2014 the country’s energy has been coming from 99% renewable sources, and it has been running on 100% renewable energy for over two months twice in the last two years.
Read MoreAustralia Reduced Plastic Bags by 80% in 3 Months
In the space of three months, Australia has reduced its use of plastic bags by 80 percent.Australia’s National Retail Association reported that the drop was not led by legislation or government policy, but by two of the nation’s biggest supermarket chains: Coles and Woolworths.
Read MoreNew Research Exposes a Crisis in the Global Trade of “Recyclable” Plastics
Plastic waste from industrialized countries is literally engulfing communities in Southeast Asia, transforming what were once clean and thriving places into toxic dumpsites. It is the height of injustice that countries and communities with less capacity and resources to deal with plastic pollution are being targeted as escape valves for the throwaway plastic generated by industrialized countries.
Read MoreWhy Plastic Pollution is an Environmental Justice Issue
Both around the world and in our own countries, waste often flows into the communities without the money or government support to protect themselves. We need to wake up to the fact that plastic pollution is an environmental justice issue.
Read MoreThe (Other) Economic Madness of the Green New Deal
A green new deal that creates new jobs and stimulates economic growth amounts to little more than a final blow-out binge before our once-and-done global economy comes crashing down around our ears. The only means of mitigating the environmental catastrophe that is gathering pace around us is to engage in a managed process of de-growth to create far smaller, localised and less consumptive economies than we have had for many decades.
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Nature May Have the Answer to Plastic Pollution
Scientists working on solutions to the growing problem of plastic pollution are now focusing attention on a potential breakthrough supplied by Mother Nature.
Read MoreWhy Recycling is a ‘Pseudo-Solution’ to Reducing Plastic Waste
In response to the myriad problems that plastic use has created over the years, we have repeatedly turned to and relied on recycling. However, it is a not a solution because it is finite, it does not contribute to significantly reduce plastic waste, and recently, it has become more expensive.
Read MoreWWF Releases Report on Global Plastic Pollution Crisis
Unless there is a dramatic change of approach to the global plastics crisis an additional 104 million metric tons of plastic pollution could enter our ecosystems by 2030. Over 75% of the plastic ever produced is already waste.
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