Culture

An enormous—and unprecedented—amount of plastic waste and other marine debris has been washing up on Hong Kong’s southern beaches in recent weeks. Hong Kong’s shores have been inundated by trash since mid-June.Facebook Local authorities have described the filth as a “glacier of trash,” and that the rubbish from one island could even be seen from […]

“Dr. Hyman, I’ve heard so much contradictory information about omega 3 fats,” writes this week’s house call. “Some studies show they help everything while others argue they don’t do much of anything. What’s the real story here?” As I often say, food is information, not just calories. Food influences gene function, hormones, your immune system […]

By Andy Rowell As the U.S. shale industry comes under increasing scrutiny for its environmental and health impact, it has emerged that the U.S. has approved fracking offshore leading to billions of gallons of wastewater to be dumped at sea. The Center for Biological Diversity has released federal documents that reveal that officials approved more […]

It’s only the half-way point of sea turtle nesting season in Florida, and some beaches are already breaking records. Mote’s Sea Turtle Patrol, a group of volunteers and scientists that monitor nests on Florida beaches between May 1 and Oct. 31, report this year has already seen 2,638 nests, some of which are beginning to […]

When Volkswagen (VW) engineers were challenged to enable small diesel engines to meet stringent U.S. standards for nitrogen oxide pollution, they tried—tried—and failing—cheated. Now VW has agreed to one of the largest pollution penalties in history—whose hidden underside is that the engineers are still failing. Of the $15 billion VW has so far committed, $5 […]

It’s as thick as guacamole, but you don’t want it near your chips. You don’t want it in your water, either, but that’s exactly where it is, a sprawling mat of toxic algae the size of Miami, spreading out across Florida’s storied Lake Okeechobee and from there along major rivers to the state’s Atlantic and […]

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is asking big-box retailer Costco to stop its purchase and sale of salmon exported from the Faroe Islands until the Faroes bring the brutal and archaic mass slaughter of pilot whales and other cetaceans, known as the “grindadráp” or “grind,” to a grinding halt. Actors Richard Dean Anderson (MacGyver), Eric Balfour […]

This morning, as the most recent round of trade negotiations between the U.S. and European Union (EU) began in Brussels, the Guardian reported a leaked document from the EU that reveals its intentions to include new, dangerous language in the proposed energy chapter of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Greensefa / Wikimedia A […]