Pollution

( Tomdispatch.com ) – The most pressing environmental crisis of these times, our heating of the Earth through carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas pollution, is closely connected to our excessive energy consumption. And with many of the ways we use that energy, we’re also producing another less widely discussed pollutant: industrial noise. Like greenhouse-gas […]

plastic

The only Way to address the Threat of Microplastics in the Great Lakes is to Cut Plastic Production and Consumption

The Conversation

By Lewis Alcott, University of Bristol; Fereidoun Rezanezhad, University of Waterloo; Nancy Goucher, University of Waterloo; Philippe Van Cappellen, University of Waterloo; and Stephanie SlowinskiUniversity of Waterloo | – You would be hard-pressed to find a corner of the world free from microplastics, plastic particles measuring less than five millimetres. They contaminate our drinking water, […]

Environment

The Delusion of Advanced Plastic Recycling

ProPublica

By Lisa Song, Illustrations by Max Guther, special to ProPublica ( ProPublica ) – Last year, I became obsessed with a plastic cup. It was a small container that held diced fruit, the type thrown into lunch boxes. And it was the first product I’d seen born of what’s being touted as a cure for […]

Israel/ Palestine

Gaza and Ukraine Wars Causing Massive Pollution, Environmental Damage

The Conversation

By Richard Marcantonio, University of Notre Dame and Josefina Echavarria Alvarez, University of Notre Dame | – (The Conversation) – As wars grind on in Ukraine and Gaza, another location ravaged by conflict is taking steps to implement a historic peace agreement. From the mid-1960s through 2016, Colombia was torn by conflict between the government, […]

Climate Crisis

Plastic is Climate Change in a Bottle – So let’s put a Cap on It

The Conversation

By Jack Marley, The Conversation | – (The Conversation) – Plastic pollution and climate change have common culprits – and similar solutions. The penultimate round of negotiations for a global pact on plastic ended yesterday in Ottawa. Nearly 200 countries have agreed that a treaty must tackle plastic pollution at every stage of its existence, […]

Egypt

Microplastics found in Nile River Fish: Toxic Pollution threatens World’s Longest River

The Conversation

By Dalia Saad, University of the Witwatersrand | – The Nile is one of the world’s most famous rivers. It’s also Africa’s most important freshwater system. About 300 million people live in the 11 countries it flows through. Many rely on its waters for agriculture and fishing to make a living. The Nile’s two main […]

Chemical Weapons

Another Reason to be anti-War: It Systemically Ruins the Earth’s Entire Ecologic System

The Conversation

By Jonathan Bridge, Sheffield Hallam University | – (The Conversation) – On the morning of December 6 1917, a French cargo ship called SS Mont-Blanc collided with a Norwegian vessel in the harbour of Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada. The SS Mont-Blanc, which was laden with 3,000 tons of high explosives destined for the battlefields […]

Ecology

Researchers alarmed at Damage Caused by Forever Chemicals (PFAS)

The Conversation

By Eadaoin Carthy, Dublin City University and Abrar Abdelsalam, Dublin City University | – (The Conversation) – Since their inception in the 1940s, the so-called forever chemicals have woven themselves into the fabric of our modern world. But recently, they’ve been appearing in alarming news headlines about their damaging effects on our health. PFAS have, […]

plastic

How Microplastics are making their Way into our Farmland

The Conversation

By Branaavan Sivarajah, Carleton University; and Jesse Vermaire, Carleton University | – (The Conversation) – Microplastic pollution is a global environmental problem that is ubiquitous in all environments, including air, water and soils. Microplastics are readily found in treated wastewater sludge — also known as municipal biosolids — that eventually make their way to our […]