Microplastics are created when everyday products – including clothes, food and beverage packaging, home furnishings, plastic bags, toys and toiletries – degrade.
As it travels around the ocean, plastic litter can harm wildlife and marine habitats in many ways. This study highlights five key hotspots where floating plastic poses the biggest risk.
Erle C. Ellis, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Scientists have been debating the start of the Anthropocene Epoch for 15 years. I was part of those discussions, and I agree with the vote rejecting it.
On March 7, workers at the Ford Rouge River plant marched for better working conditions, sparking America’s labor movement. Almost a century later, a quiet park honors their memory.
We sampled sewage sludge from 13 wastewater treatment plants across three states. We found every resident adds microplastics to farmland, in dried sewage sludge (biosolids) used as fertiliser.
Phosphorus and nitrogen contribute to water pollution and cause harmful algal blooms. New research shows how mats of floating flower beds can take advantage of these nutrients while cleaning the water.
Vernon Rive, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
By allowing a case against local greenhouse gas emitters to go ahead, the Supreme Court of New Zealand has opened the door to a new front in climate law – one that takes tikanga Māori into account.
The longest-running study of its kind reviewed death records in the path of pollution from coal-fired power plants. The numbers are staggering − but also falling fast as US coal plants close.
Increasing awareness of the dangers ‘forever chemical’ road salts pose to our fresh water systems highlights the urgent importance of finding new approaches to de-icing our roads.
Professor & Chair in Air Quality and Health; Founding Director, Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE), Co-Director, Institute for Sustainability, University of Surrey, University of Surrey