The sun can help break down ocean plastic, but there’s a catch
A recent study found that when four different types of post-consumer microplastics collected from the waters of the North Pacific Gyre were placed under a solar simulator, they dissolved into organic carbon, then, for the most part, munched up by marine bacteria in the water, which then likely converting it to carbon dioxide.
Sand re-nourishment could be culprit for beach-related accidents
A group of researchers found that after beach re-nourishment projects, there was a significant increase in the number of drownings and serious accidents along those same beaches.
We’re recycling but garbage keeps piling up: What you may not know about the recycling industry
Recycling is a market-driven industry. But if there is no market for the recyclable goods, then those materials go to landfills.
How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster
In the Marshall Islands, Runit Dome holds more than 3.1 million cubic feet — or 35 Olympic-sized swimming pools — of U.S.-produced radioactive soil and debris. Nowhere else has the United States saddled another country with so much of its nuclear waste, a product of its Cold War atomic testing program.
Venice is sinking and this time it may go under
From its founding in the Early Middle Ages, Venice has had a fraught relationship with the sea, protected from the mainland by the waters of the lagoon, yet always threatened by changing environmental conditions. Venetians have always recognized that human choices would shape their relationship with the natural world.
He’s doing the ‘dirty work’ to keep plastic out of the ocean
Afroz Shah, a lawyer in Mumbai, hasn’t had a weekend off in four years. But he hasn’t spent this time writing briefs or preparing for court. His mission? Saving the world’s oceans from plastic pollution.
Worst floods for 50 years bring Venice to ‘its knees’
The worst flooding to hit Venice in more than 50 years has brought the historic city to its knees. Local authorities in the Italian lagoon city called for a state of emergency to be imposed.
Newly identified fish nurseries are choked with plastic
A new study reveals that it’s not just adult sea animals that are getting a gullet full of plastic. Larval fish are inundated with plastic fragments in their nursery habitats and they’re eating those pieces along with their natural food sources
Red tide is back off the coast of Florida.
The toxic algae has returned to the waters off southwest Florida and has begun to slowly creep up the state’s Gulf coast over the past month.