As an island nation, we all have a relationship with the ocean and we must reach out and enable new and diverse ocean activists from city centres to coastal crofts.
The coffeehouse chain plans to introduce program in which customers will pay a deposit for reusable cups, part of an effort to reduce the company’s carbon footprint.
Malaysia became the destination of choice for the world's plastic waste after China banned imports in 2018, but is struggling to fend off a deluge of generally unlicensed unrecyclable garbage.
The Northwest grocery store chain New Seasons Market announced it will eliminate the sale of single use bottles of water in all of its stores by Earth Day, to continue its work to reduce plastic waste in local communities.
A cut in ferry service because of the pandemic means the animals, a Hong Kong icon, are getting a little peace and quiet in a favored habitat. But the break is temporary and the future not bright.
Companies that make, use, dispose, and recycle plastics must participate in international efforts to restrict plastic waste and chemicals used to make plastic, because the policies will affect how they do business, industry officials say.
By 2050, many of climate change's worst projected impacts could be fully upon us—or fully upon our descendants.
<p>The question is, will a half-century of sustained manmade upheaval ever dominate the top of the news?</p><p>I'm skeptical. </p><p>
Worldwide, COVID-19 has had a lock on Top Story for a year now. In the U.S., two horrid mass shootings, one with strongly racist overtones, prompted a flurry of headlines, and a week of outrage, feigned or otherwise, about arming or disarming the populace. </p><p>Reporting on such stories is of course vital. But the press follows the public's attention span. In his long-awaited first press conference on March 25, President Biden fielded 10 questions from the White House Press corps. It was almost a no-brainer that climate change wouldn't make the cut. But wait a minute – neither did coronavirus. The shiny <em>objets du jour</em> included immigration, the filibuster, Afghanistan, China, and, of course, whether President Biden will run for a second term in 2024.
</p><p>
The liberal press watchdog group <em>Media Matters for America</em> issues annual tallies of <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/how-broadcast-tv-networks-covered-climate-change-2020" target="_blank">press coverage of climate-related issues.</a> They found 2020 was the sparsest year for climate coverage on U.S. commercial cable news since 2016. Granted, the presidential election and the COVID-19 pandemic sucked the oxygen out of newsrooms. But the record Atlantic hurricane season, and multiple other extreme weather items, failed to blow any back in.</p>
Plastic nurdles, the primary feedstock of plastic manufacturing. (Credit: Mark Dixo/flickr)
<p>Climate's not the only perpetual bridesmaid. </p><p>The oil and gas industry is keen to remain Big Oil and Big Gas for a long time. They're taking out a one-word insurance policy: Plastics. Miles downstream from Pittsburgh on the Ohio River, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04062020/shell-plastics-plant-pittsburgh-coronavirus/" target="_blank">a multi-billion dollar Shell Polymers plant </a>will take the output of fracking and convert it to a million tons annually of "nurdles" -- the very stuff of life of plastics manufacturing. In Louisiana's "Cancer Alley" of more than 150 refineries and petrochemical plants, Formosa Plastics is running into stiff opposition from local environmental justice campaigners, and President Biden tagged the Formosa project as a poster child for environmental justice. They're arguing against a <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/im-going-to-fight-to-the-end-cancer-alley-residents-vow-to-fight-plastics-plant-as-concern-grows-over-high-rates-of-the-disease-12242737" target="_blank">$9.4 billion construction</a> project and the permanent factory jobs it would bring.</p><p>The moral of this part of the story: The plastics industry has for years been building a long-term environmental menace that could rival climate change; it too has little potential for the kinds of headlines that motivate politicians into action. </p><p>I haven't done a scholarly count on this, but I suspect that on TV and in social media during the last week of February, the kidnapping of Koji and Gustav received more national coverage than the staggering impacts of climate change or plastics. But our long national nightmare wrapped up its Top French Bulldog Story run on the first day of March, when K. and G. were returned to Lady Gaga. (Do you remember where <em>you </em>were when you hard the news?)</p><p>Plastics and the climate crisis aren't going away. When it comes to covering the fate of our planet, news organizations owe us all a little more.</p>
<p><em>Peter Dykstra is our weekend editor and columnist. Contact Peter at <a href="mailto:pdykstra@ehn.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pdykstra@ehn.org</a></em><em> or <a href="https://twitter.com/pdykstra" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@pdykstra</a>.</em></p><p><em>His views do not necessarily represent those of Environmental Health News, The Daily Climate, or publisher, Environmental Health Sciences.</em></p><p><em>Banner photo credit: <a href="https://unsplash.com/@markusspiske" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Markus Spiske/Unsplash</a></em></p>
For years, European countries have built “waste-to-energy” incinerators, saying new technology minimized pollution and boosted energy production. But with increasing concern about the plants’ CO2 emissions, the EU is now withdrawing support for these trash-burning facilities.
A bill proposing to ban exports of non-recyclable plastic waste from Canada to foreign countries narrowly passed through a parliamentary committee Wednesday.
EHN.org scientific investigation finds western Pennsylvania families near fracking are exposed to harmful chemicals, and regulations fail to protect communities' mental, physical, and social health.
