A research team discovered that the caterpillars of the greater wax moth—considered a pest in Europe because it eats the beeswax from honeycombs—also has the ability to biodegrade polyethylene, the same material used in whale-choking, landfill-clogging plastic shopping bags. Incredibly, this discovery was all down to chance. Scientist and amateur beekeeper Federica Bertocchini of Spain’s […]
The United Nations is “declaring war” on the biggest sources of planetary pollution—ocean plastic. On Thursday, the intergovernmental organization’s environment program (UNEP) launched its #CleanSeas campaign at the World Ocean Summit hosted by The Economist in Bali, Indonesia. The unprecedented global initiative urges governments and businesses to take measures to eliminate microplastics from cosmetics and […]
English researchers have discovered an alarming amount of toxic pollution in the bodies of amphipods living in the deep sea trenches of the Pacific Ocean. The research team from Newcastle University, the James Hutton Institute and the University of Aberdeen caught and tested small crustaceans in the Mariana and Kermadec trenches, which reach about 30,000 […]
Rob Greenfield, adventurer and activist, wore every piece of trash he created for 30 days. Watch the video to find out the challenges Greenfield faced during this epic experiment.
Norwegian zoologists have discovered some 30 plastic bags and other marine debris inside the stomach of a malnourished 20-foot Cuvier’s beaked whale. The whale was an adult male that weighed about 2 tons. Local authorities were forced to euthanize the distressed animal on Jan. 28 after repeatedly stranding itself off the shallow waters of Sotra, […]
Did you know that nearly a month, India’s National Capital Region—a massive swath of land that includes the nation’s capital territory, Delhi—outlawed disposable plastic? On Jan. 1, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) enacted a ban on one-time use items such as plastic grocery bags and cups for the region’s 54 million inhabitants, the world’s second […]
In war, natural disaster and poverty, water is the first relief to arrive alongside the security of life and limb. It is the gift that aids the weary traveler, sits at the table before a meal arrives. The lack of it kills before the lack of food does. It is not a commodity, as in […]
By Matt Davis California’s environmental protections are not for sale. That’s the message California voters sent to out-of-state plastic bag manufacturers when they upheld Proposition 67 by 53 to 47 percent in November. But how did the Golden State manage to win a state-wide bag ban against a national political backdrop that went the other […]
By Daniel Ross With much of North America still in the grips of a drought going back years, managing dwindling drinking water resources is a pressing topic. And in a year when bottled water sales in the U.S. are expected to exceed soda sales for the first time, Nestlé Waters—a water-for-profit poster child that dominates […]
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