Billions of face masks and other personal protective equipment have been used throughout the pandemic. Containing plastic, these items are damaging wildlife and their environments.
UV absorbents and industrial antioxidants are used in many household goods to protect them from UV radiation. They can have an adverse impact on ecosystems.
Climate change is colliding with old factory sites where soil or water contamination still exist, and the most vulnerable populations are particularly at risk.
Matthew E. Kahn, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
A 1972 report warned that unchecked consumption could crater the world economy by 2100. Fifty years and much debate later, can humanity innovate quickly enough to avoid that fate?
This Plastic Free July, we need to be teaching children to demand less plastic from the world’s worst producers instead of expecting change from individual recycling efforts.
Julien Emile-Geay, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Thanks to humans, the concentration of planet-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is now 50% higher than before the industrial era. These gases are raising Earth’s temperature.
Mike Joy, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
A new study of dairying in Canterbury shows previous estimates vastly underestimate the impact of intensive farming. A 12-fold reduction in cow numbers could be needed to meet safe water standards.
Some Niger Delta residents are less concerned about oil-induced hazards and risks, or floods and erosion. They are more worried about a lack of sanitation amenities.
This long, uncharacteristically early heatwave has hit hundreds of millions of people in one of the world’s most densely populated and vulnerable regions.
A global treaty on plastic pollution must incentivize a take-make-reuse waste management system and include quantitative targets based on geography-specific emissions.
Laboratory studies suggest sunscreen chemicals are dangerous to coral reefs. But in real world conditions, that’s not true. Bleaching must have another cause.