Pollution

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 […]

Environment

The Hype of a Nuclear Power “Renaissance:” The Forever Dangers of Small Modular Reactors

Tomdispatch

By Joshua Frank ( Tomdispatch.com) – If you didn’t know better, you’d think Lloyd Marbet was a dairy farmer or maybe a retired shop teacher. His beard is thick, soft, and gray, his hair pulled back in a small ponytail. In his mid-seventies, he still towers over nearly everyone. His handshake is firm, but there’s […]

Climate Crisis

We don’t Need to let Fossil Fuels and Forest Fires Choke Us — Green Energy is Here and its Price is Plummeting

Wisconsin Examiner

Dr. Joel Charles ( Wisconsin Examiner ) – Every day last week I woke up dismayed to see the haze from the Canadian wildfire smoke. I am dismayed because as a rural family doctor I know how damaging this smoke is to my community. I am dismayed not just at the harm this summer’s smoke […]

Corporations

Plastic Pollution: Campaigners around the World are using the Courts to Clean Up, but Manufacturers are Fighting Back

The Conversation

By Sam Varvastian, Cardiff University | – Plastic pollution has become such major problem that it’s threatening our human rights. That’s the view of two UN special rapporteurs (human rights advisers) who recently issued a joint statement, warning against the “overwhelming toxic tidal wave” of plastic endangering us and the environment “in a myriad of […]

Agriculture

Time to Dial it Back: We Humans have Exceeded the Boundaries of 80% of the Planet’s Key Systems

The Conversation

By Steven J Lade, Australian National University; Ben Stewart-Koster, Griffith University; Stuart Bunn, Griffith University; Syezlin Hasan, Griffith University; Xuemei Bai, Australian National University | – (The Conversation) – People once believed the planet could always accommodate us. That the resilience of the Earth system meant nature would always provide. But we now know this […]

Environment

Environmental Hazard: How Russia’s War in Ukraine Threatens the Planet

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has resulted in the deaths so far of more than 8,700 Ukrainian civilians, including more than 500 children. It has caused a massive drop in the country’s economic output, with GDP declining by 29.1 percent. And it has had widespread consequences for the […]

Climate Crisis

Iran’s Environmental Standards, Polluted Reality Mix Like Oil And Water

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Michael Scollon ( RFE/RL) – National Clean Air Day was not a cause for celebration this year in Tehran, where many residents were shuttered in their homes for their own safety to avoid exposure to the Iranian capital’s infamous and deadly smog. In the run-up to January 19, the day Iran dedicates to promoting […]

Climate Crisis

Iraq Gas Flaring Tied to Cancer Surge

Human Rights Watch

Antonia Juhasz Senior Researcher, Environment and Human Rights @AntoniaJuhasz ( Human Rights Watch) – Ali Hussein Jaloud, an Iraqi man barely in his 20s, died April 21 of leukemia, a disease Ali and his family attributed to the pollution from the oil production and constant gas flares that surround their community in the southern […]

military

The Toxic Legacy of U.S. Foreign Policy in Vieques, Puerto Rico

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Monisha Rios ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Puerto Ricans had no say in the U.S. war of conquest with Spain over its colonial possessions or in the Treaty of Paris that dictated they were to become the property of a new empire. The United States acted according to a well-crafted strategic narrative […]