pollution

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5M Masks Handed Out in India—and Not for Halloween

Public health emergency declared over Delhi smog

(Newser) - "Delhi has turned into a gas chamber." So said the Indian capital's chief minister Friday as air pollution reached severe levels. Officials declared a public health emergency and distributed 5 million masks to students and parents at schools across the city in the midst of a public...

Another SE Asian Nation May Be Moving Its Capital

Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha is considering such a switch to provide relief to overcrowded Bangkok

(Newser) - Bangkok is beset by a slew of issues tied to overcrowding, including pollution, traffic congestion, and even sea level rise. That's led Thailand's prime minister to consider a drastic solution: moving the capital elsewhere. The two options that seem the most feasible in Prayut Chan-o-cha's mind, per...

Chesapeake Bay Problem Becomes Political Football

And climate change isn't helping

(Newser) - When the Conowingo Dam opened to fanfare nearly a century ago, the massive wall of concrete and steel began its job of harnessing water power in northern Maryland. It also quietly provided a side benefit: trapping sediment and silt before it could flow miles downstream and pollute the Chesapeake Bay,...

When You Eat and Drink, There's a Hidden Ingredient

A study says we're consuming a lot of microplastics

(Newser) - You're ingesting a secret ingredient when you eat, drink, and breathe: microplastics. The question is, does it matter? A new study estimates that the average adult ingests at least 98,000 plastic particles annually, the Seattle Times reports. The particles apparently come from various sources including shellfish, sugar, salt,...

DOJ: Carnival Re-Polluted, Then Tried to 'Drown Its Deceit'

Cruise company ordered to pay $20M on top of previous $40M for pollution violations, cover-up

(Newser) - Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice—still shame on you, and you're going to pay big for it. That's essentially the Justice Department's message to Carnival Corporation, which just got busted, again, for its ships polluting the waters they sail in, and for trying...

Australia's 'Last Unspoilt Paradise' Is Anything But

Researchers find 414M pieces of plastic debris on remote islands

(Newser) - Study after study has illustrated the insane amount of plastic clogging up our planet. But a new one focusing on Australia's Cocos Islands suggests we still may have greatly underestimated the problem. Researchers surveyed 88% of the total landmass of the remote islands considered "Australia's last...

9-Year-Old's Cause of Death: Air Pollution?

A new inquest will make the determination in 9-year-old's death

(Newser) - Air pollution is believed to cause or contribute to around 40,000 deaths in Britain every year—but it has never been listed as a cause of death. That could change in the case of Ella Kissi-Debrah, a 9-year-old who lived just 25 yards from one of the busiest roads...

Philippines Horror: 'Most Plastic We Have Ever Seen in a Whale'

88 pounds of plastic found in dead whale that washed up on beach

(Newser) - A dead whale washed up on a Philippine beach was distressing enough, but museum workers have deemed what they found inside the creature's gut "disgusting." The BBC reports that the Cuvier's beaked whale turned up on the shoreline east of Davao City on Saturday, and when...

UN Environment Report Names Our 2 Most Pressing Problems

Report uses word 'risk' 561 times in 740 pages

(Newser) - Earth is sick with multiple and worsening environmental ills killing millions of people yearly, a new UN report says. Climate change, a global major extinction of animals and plants, a human population soaring toward 10 billion, degraded land, polluted air, and plastics, pesticides, and hormone-changing chemicals in the water are...

&#39;It&rsquo;s Everywhere&#39;: Plastic Found in Deepest Oceans
'We're Piling Our Crap'
in the Ocean's Depths
NEW STUDY
Feb 27, 2019 10:30 AM CST

'We're Piling Our Crap' in the Ocean's Depths

Shrimp in the deepest ocean trenches found to be contaminated by plastic

(Newser) - With more than 300 million tons of plastics produced each year, it's perhaps no surprise that some has made its way to the bottom of the world’s oceans. New deep-sea research published in the Royal Society Open Science journal has pulled up fragments of plastics in the deepest...

See What's Dumping 50M Gallons of Bad Water Daily

US mines are behind the ghastly pollution

(Newser) - Every day many millions of gallons of water loaded with arsenic, lead, and other toxic metals flow from some of the most contaminated mining sites in the US and into surrounding streams and ponds without being treated, the AP has found. That torrent is poisoning aquatic life and tainting drinking...

Lake Erie the Subject of Unusual Ballot Question
Lake Erie the Subject
of Unusual Ballot Question
the rundown
Feb 19, 2019 10:15 AM CST

Lake Erie the Subject of Unusual Ballot Question

Residents of Toledo will vote on whether it deserves the same rights as a person

(Newser) - Next week, residents of Toledo, Ohio, will vote on what the New York Times describes as one of the most unusual ballot questions ever to appear in the US—whether to grant Lake Erie the same rights as a human. Specifically, residents will vote on whether to accept the Lake...

Insects Could Disappear Within a Century
Insects Could Disappear
Within a Century
new study
Feb 11, 2019 1:21 PM CST

Insects Could Disappear Within a Century

New global survey provides doomsday warning to world's ecosystem

(Newser) - Insects could completely disappear within the next 100 years, dragging global ecosystems into a catastrophic collapse. The world is embarking on its sixth mass extinction , and the first global scientific review points to a grim outlook for the planet's insects, reports the Guardian . Massive declines have already been seen...

'People Would Be Outraged' by Teen's Find Off Calif. Coast

Alex Weber has pulled out more than 50K golf balls over the last two years

(Newser) - Two years ago, a central California teen began what NPR calls a "Sisyphean task"—hauling hundreds of pounds of golf balls off the ocean floor, only to have them reenter the sea as golfers from five nearby golf courses (including Pebble Beach) hit them right back in. Alex...

24-Year-Old's Plan to Clean Up Ocean Plastic Gets a Tweak

Boyan Slat says a fix is in the works

(Newser) - A floating device sent to corral a swirling island of trash between California and Hawaii has not swept up any plastic waste—but the young innovator behind the project said Monday that a fix is in the works. Boyan Slat, 24, who launched the Pacific Ocean cleanup project, said the...

When You Sprinkle Salt, You're Getting More Than Salt

Microplastics infiltrate 90% of it, especially the stuff from Asia, say researchers

(Newser) - Just like with bottled water , over 90% of the world's table salt contains microplastics—enough that the average human ingests 2,000 pieces each year from salt alone, according to new research. It's been known for years that microplastics are present in salt, per Quartz , but the surprise...

Our Plastic Problem Is Likely Worse Than You Think
Solution to Plastic Pollution
Isn't a 'Sexy' One
longform
May 17, 2018 10:00 AM CDT

Solution to Plastic Pollution Isn't a 'Sexy' One

'We need to just collect the trash,' says one resource economist

(Newser) - You want big picture? National Geographic provides it on the issue of plastic choking the world's waterways. Invented in the late 19th century, plastic didn't truly take off in terms of production until around 1950, when scientists began making it out of petroleum in earnest. Now, we have...

Scientists 'Astounded' by Mysterious Rise in Banned Chemical

Source of CFC-11 is somewhere in East Asia

(Newser) - More than 30 years ago, world governments dealt with an alarming hole in the ozone layer with the Montreal Protocol, which banned damaging chemicals including the chlorofluorocarbon CFC-11. But it looks like somebody failed to get the memo. Scientists say they've detected a mysterious rise in emissions of the...

In One of Planet&#39;s Most Remote Spots, a Plastic Bag
Plastic Bag Found in
Truly Depressing Spot
new study
May 15, 2018 10:45 AM CDT

Plastic Bag Found in Truly Depressing Spot

Not even the bottom of the Mariana Trench is safe from our trash

(Newser) - "Single-use plastic reached the world's deepest ocean trench at 10,898 m," states the study plainly, referring to that great scourge: the plastic bag. National Geographic reports that a review of the Deep-Sea Debris Database, an assemblage of photos and videos taken during roughly 5,000 dives...

Mutant Enzyme Munches Plastic
Mutant Enzyme 
Munches Plastic
Apr 17, 2018 5:52 AM CDT

Mutant Enzyme Munches Plastic

This could massively reduce waste, scientists say

(Newser) - Some rare good news in the fight against plastic pollution: Scientists working with a plastic-eating microbe discovered in Japan two years ago accidentally created a mutant enzyme that sounds like an environmentalist's dream, the Guardian reports. The enzyme breaks down the PET—polyethylene terephthalate—used in plastic bottles even...

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