Much like Halloween, the environment can be terrifying and bring us joy at the same time. On All Hallows’ Eve, let’s revisit some of Earth’s biggest ups and downs this October: 3 Things That Scared Us: 1. UN Releases Dire Climate Change Report Earlier this month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its highly […]
By Mary Mazzoni Global consumers now use a million plastic bottles every minute, 91 percent of which are not recycled. Our growing consumption of single-use plastic is evident in the form of ever-expanding landfills, as well as pollution on our sidewalks, along roadways and in natural ecosystems. Plastic that is littered or blown out of […]
By Patrick Rogers Lizzie Carr was navigating a stretch of the Hudson River north of Yonkers, New York, recently when she spotted it—a hunk of plastic so large and out of place that she was momentarily at a loss to describe it. The sloping side helped her put her finger on it: It was an […]
By Julia Conley A year after researchers at a New York university discovered microplastics present in sea salt thanks to widespread plastic pollution, researchers in South Korea set out to find out how pervasive the problem is—and found that 90 percent of salt brands commonly used in homes around the world contain the tiny pieces […]
Although Pacific bluefin tuna remains a fraction of its historic population, the giant fish is making a comeback off the California coast after a eight-decade hiatus, due to global conservation efforts, Reuters reported. The world’s love of sushi and rampant overfishing has nearly decimated the species. Its population recently bumped to a meager 3.3 percent […]
Greenpeace is on a mission to create the largest protected area on earth in Antarctica, and it just gained a very talented ally to help promote that goal. Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke released a single Tuesday in support of the campaign called “Hands Off Antarctica,” The Guardian reported. “There are some places on this planet […]
When the Burnham Coastguard Rescue Team went to assist a man who fell ill while walking his dogs on a UK beach Oct. 3, they made a shocking discovery. Rough tides had washed up a significant amount of debris onto the beach, including, of course, plastic. [facebook https://www.facebook.com/BurnhamCoastguard/photos/pcb.1127416984107354/1127416907440695/?type=3&theater expand=1] “The beach warden said he had […]
The number of plastics washing up on the beaches of remote islands in the South Atlantic has increased 10 times in the past 10 years, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) found. This is a devastating development for the unique biodiversity of islands in the UK’s overseas territories like Ascension, St. Helena, Tristan da Cunha, Gough […]
Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestlé were identified as the world’s biggest producers of plastic trash in global cleanups and brand audits, a new report from Greenpeace and the Break Free From Plastic movement reveals. Over the span of nine months, an international team of volunteers sorted through 187,000 pieces of plastic trash collected from 239 cleanups […]