plastic

By Jack Marley, The Conversation (The Conversation) – A graph I saw in high school appeared to show the Earth breathing. It was a graph that plotted carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over the course of the 20th century and into the 21st. CO₂ had risen steadily, and then more rapidly, but it hadn’t gone […]

plastic

A tax on new Plastic would slash Waste – if built into the global Treaty on Plastics

The Conversation

By Amelia Leavesley, The University of Melbourne (The Conversation) – Earlier this week, the mining magnate Andrew Forrest made headlines calling for a global “polymer premium” – or plastic tax – to be placed on every tonne of newly manufactured plastics. A tax like this could form part of the Global Plastic Treaty being hammered […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]