Pollution

A newly launched guide, called the UP Scorecard, helps consumers and companies identify more sustainable packaging options.  The scorecard tool ranks food packaging based on six main sustainability factors, including water use required for manufacturing, recoverability, chemicals used in manufacturing, plastic pollution, sourcing and climate impacts. “With the launch of the UP Scorecard, businesses and […]

In a new review published in the journal Oxford Open Climate Change, scientists have issued an urgent warning that the fossil fuel industry and its products are driving intertwined crises threatening humans, wildlife and our shared future on this planet. The collaborative review by scientists from the Center for Biological Diversity and several universities synthesizes […]

In New York City, a ban on natural gas in new buildings has been upheld in federal court, the first case to go against a previous, similar ban in Berkeley, California that was struck down in court. New York City first adopted a phaseout of fossil fuels in new buildings in 2021, while the state […]

Stanford University researchers have discovered that small bursts of electricity — which they call microlightning, created by oppositely charged water droplets interacting in the early Earth, likely created the first organic compounds that later led to life. For decades, one of the leading hypotheses for the origin of life has been the Miller-Urey hypothesis. In […]

Coca-Cola products will be responsible for up to 1.33 billion pounds of plastic waste making its way into the planet’s oceans and waterways each year by 2030 — enough to fill the stomachs of more than 18 million blue whales, according to a new report by nonprofit Oceana. Coca-Cola’s World With Waste projects that the […]

One of the largest studies ever conducted on biodiversity loss worldwide has revealed that humans are having a severely detrimental impact on global wildlife. The number of species is declining, as well as the composition of populations. “Biological diversity is under threat. More and more plant and animal species are disappearing worldwide, and humans are […]

According to a new study currently undergoing peer review, chewing gum could be a source of ingested microplastics. Researchers found that chewing gum could release thousands of microplastic particles into saliva over time, increasing the chance of ingestion. “Our goal is not to alarm anybody,” Sanjay Mohanty, principal investigator of the study and an engineering […]

Tackling the climate crisis with bold action will increase nations’ economic growth instead of damaging it as net-zero policy critics have claimed, according to new research from the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Ambitious goals and implementing policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would lead to […]