Who owns our trash—and why does it matter? – National Geographic

State Senator Craig Miner tours the Strategic Materials recycling plant in South Windsor, CT, April 4, 2017 (by CT Senate Republicans CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 via Flickr).

Who owns our trash? It’s a heated question being asked by waste pickers around the world who are uniting to fight for their survival. What we throw away, they insist, should be available to all.

Globally, up to 56 million people collect and resell the metal, glass, cardboard, and plastic that the rest of us toss…

10 years later, see how Superstorm Sandy changed the Northeast – National Geographic

Restore The Shore Seaside Heights, New Jersey (by Hypnotica Studios CC BY 2.0 via Flickr).

“When Sandy hit, New York City had zero coastal protections,” says Daniel Zarrilli, special advisor for climate and sustainability at Columbia University…”I credit Sandy as that pivotal moment that not only launched billions of dollars of resilience investments across the city…It also provided the spark for a whole range of other climate policies…”