Can the circular economy help the Caribbean win its war against waste? – Mongabay
For decades, a graveyard of corroding barrels has littered the seafloor just off the coast of Los Angeles. It was out of sight, out of mind — a not-so-secret secret that haunted the marine environment until a team of researchers came across them with an advanced underwater camera…Startling amounts of DDT near the barrels pointed to a little-known history of toxic pollution…but federal regulators recently determined that the manufacturer had not bothered with barrels. (Its acid waste was poured straight into the ocean instead.)…
Giant Heaps of Plastic Are Helping Vegetables Grow – Atlantic Magazine
Plastic allows farmers to use less water and fertilizer. But at the end of each season, they’re left with a pile of waste…
Microplastics are in human testicles. It’s still not clear how they got there – Grist Magazine
People eat, drink, and breathe in tiny pieces of plastics — but what they do inside the body is still unknown…
U.S. East Coast adopts ‘living shorelines’ approach to keep rising seas at bay – Mongabay
Excerpt: Along the U.S. East Coast, communities are grappling with the dual destructive forces of rising sea levels and stronger storms pushed by climate change, resulting in effects ranging from ‘ghost forests’ of saltwater-killed coastal trees in the Carolinas, to inundations of New York City’s subway system. While the usual response has been to build […]
‘I swam in the polluted Channel and now I need hearing aids’ – the Times UK
Maggie Alderson blames poor water quality off Hastings for an infection that punctured her ear drum. Samples taken from the sea would appear to back that up…
The Maldives Is Racing To Create New Land. Why Are So Many People Concerned? – Nature
Sun, sand and sea.” Those are the three ingredients for tourism in the Maldives, Mohamed Shaiz’s father told him. For more than a decade, Shaiz’s family owned a successful local hotel in Addu, the Maldives’ southernmost atoll. But nearly 9 months ago, the government took away the sea…
Behind the Story: Land Reclamation in the Maldives – the Pulitzer Center
Most visitors come to the Maldives for its resorts and pristine beaches. For Pulitzer Center grantee Jesse Chase-Lubitz, there’s a story behind that sand…The Maldives face an existential threat from sea level rise, and rebuilding the coastline with dredged sand has become a popular solution. But a series of activists on the 1,200-island archipelago are questioning the tradeoffs…Through interviews with taxi drivers, hotel owners, politicians, and scientists, Chase-Lubitz found that land reclamation is not a one-size-fits-all policy…
How Saving The Maldives May Actually Destroy It – the Medium
Just imagine waking up one day to find the sea that was once at your doorstep replaced by a fake 130-meter beach. This is the new reality for the residents of Addu, the southernmost atoll of the Maldives. But this shocking transformation isn’t new — it’s a desperate move to keep the country above water and thriving…
Maldives to battle rising seas by building fortress islands – PHYS.ORG
Rising sea levels threaten to swamp the Maldives and the Indian Ocean archipelago is already out of drinking water, but the new president says he has scrapped plans to relocate citizens. Instead, President Mohamed Muizzu promises the low-lying nation will beat back the waves through ambitious land reclamation and building islands higher—policies, however, that environmental and rights groups warn could even exacerbate flooding risks…