Microplastics Are Filling the Skies. Will They Affect the Climate? – Yale Environment 360

Micro Plastics in Arctic Snow (by Felton Davis CC BY 2.0 via Flickr).

Recent studies reveal that tiny pieces of plastic are constantly lofted into the atmosphere. These particles can travel thousands of miles and affect the formation of clouds, which means they have the potential to impact temperature, rainfall, and even climate change.

Plastic has become an obvious pollutant over recent decades, choking turtles and seabirds, clogging up our landfills and waterways. But in just the past few years, a less-obvious problem has emerged…

The Climate Impact of Your Neighborhood, Mapped – Interactive Feature – the New York Times

2020 Worldwide CO2 Emissions by region, per capita (by Tom Schulz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons).

New data shared with The New York Times reveals stark disparities in how different U.S. households contribute to climate change. Looking at America’s cities, a pattern emerges.

Households in denser neighborhoods close to city centers tend to be responsible for fewer planet-warming greenhouse gases, on average, than households in the rest of the country. Residents in these areas typically drive less because jobs and stores are nearby and they can more easily walk, bike or take public transit…