Pollution

Environmental Justice: Everything You Need to Know

Environmental Justice: Everything You Need to Know

Quick Key Facts What Is Environmental Justice? Environmental justice is a facet of broader social justice movements. It considers how individual communities can be overburdened with a disproportionate amount of environmentally negative facilities or activities in their area compared to other, less vulnerable communities. Achieving environmental justice looks like “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement […]

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    Microplastics 101: Everything You Need to Know

    Microplastics 101: Everything You Need to Know

    Quick Key Facts We use a lot of plastic.  Since the 1950s, more than 8.3 billion tons of plastic has been produced by humans. All in all, only 9% of these plastics have actually been recycled, and the rest has either been incinerated or landed up in landfills — and, in many cases, in the […]

    IEA Predicts Electric Car Sales Increase of 35% in 2023

    IEA Predicts Electric Car Sales Increase of 35% in 2023

    Last year was a good year for the electric vehicle market. Of new cars sold in 2022, electric cars made up 14%, or around 10 million units, globally. Now, the International Energy Agency (IEA) is predicting that growth to continue, with electric car sales expected to increase 35% in 2023 compared to last year. In […]

    Algae Growing Under Arctic Sea Ice Found Contaminated by Microplastics

    Algae Growing Under Arctic Sea Ice Found Contaminated by Microplastics

    A new study has noted concentrations of microplastics in Melosira arctica, a type of algae that grows underneath sea ice in the Arctic. As a nutrition source at the bottom of the food web, scientists are concerned about wildlife that eat the contaminated algae.  In the study, led by researchers from Alfred Wegener Institute for […]

    Red Hill Water Crisis 101: Everything You Need to Know

    Red Hill Water Crisis 101: Everything You Need to Know

    Quick Key Facts In November of 2021, the U.S. Navy’s massive Red Hill underground fuel storage facility on O’ahu leaked 19,000 gallons of petroleum into the islands’ main drinking water aquifers, poisoning the water for over 93,000 people and sickening thousands of their own military families and civilians. The disaster occurred after years of protest, […]

    PCB Found in Sediment Samples of Deep-Sea Trench

    PCB Found in Sediment Samples of Deep-Sea Trench

    Researchers have found polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) in samples of sediment sourced about 8,000 meters deep in the Atacama Trench, a deep-sea trench in the Pacific Ocean about 100 miles (160 kilometers) off the coasts of Peru and Chile. Despite bans spanning back to the 1970s, PCB remains are still threatening the environment. New research, published […]

    EPA to Fund Network of Centers to Help Marginalized Communities Access Environmental Justice Money

    EPA to Fund Network of Centers to Help Marginalized Communities Access Environmental Justice Money

    Days into his presidency, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14008, mandating that 40 percent of federal climate, environment and energy funding go towards disadvantaged communities that have been exposed to more than their fair share of pollution. But how will these communities actually access this money?  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Thursday […]

    Industrial Fire Ignites Plastics, Prompts Evacuations in Indiana

    Industrial Fire Ignites Plastics, Prompts Evacuations in Indiana

    A large industrial fire that ignited stored plastics at a the site of a former factory in Richmond, Indiana has led thousands of local residents to be evacuated. The flames are still burning, but under control, and authorities hope to have all flames put out by Saturday. Those living within 0.5 miles of the plant […]