Plastic Pollution in the Ocean and Our Planet

Plastic pollution activist uses TikTok to teach Gen Z about eco-friendly lifestyles | Must Watch | AOL.comAOL Logo Must Watch Family freaks out when pet tarantula escapes cage More Info When their pet tarantula escaped its cage, this English family freaked outSee AllFamily freaks out when pet tarantula escapes cage20-foot python found hiding in women's bedroomWorld's first 3D-printed fiberglass boat sets sailRobot dog serves ice creamFive tips for a budget-friendly tripMeet Rocky NoHands, a pro gamer who plays using his mouth aloneFashion designer has outrageous closet with unbelievable featuresGreat White Shark almost attacks pro surfer in shocking Australian drone footageSee AllMeghan Markle takes part in Teenage Therapy podcast for World Mental Health DayWishing Cardi B a happy 28th birthday!Remembering Luke Perry on his birthdayHenry Winkler Got Sia's Phone Number After Meeting Her In Whole FoodsAnita Hill explains her support for Biden: '…

Outrage over last month’s sprawling Mississippi River nurdle spill in New Orleans and the lax government response to it has inspired a bill in Congress to prevent similar incidents.Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., had already introduced a wide-ranging bill to reduce plastic pollution, and last week he drafted a new one aimed specifically at prohibiting the discharge of plastic pellets, called nurdles, into rivers and oceans.While plastic pellets, known as nurdles, pile up along the Mississippi River bank in Algiers Point on Aug. 17, 2020. Tristan Baurick, Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate “There should be no questions about who is responsible for the damage these discharges have already caused,” Udall said. “That is why my legislation would prohibit companies from discharging this dangerous waste into our environment â€" to put an end to the tragic spills we’ve seen in states like Louisiana.”The dumping on Aug. 2 of about 740 million nurdles from a cargo ship moored in…

The skyrocketing use of disposable plastic masks and gloves. Lockdowns on movement and shuttered recycling facilities. Suspensions or delays on laws that would have restricted singleuse plastic bags in shops and markets. The plastic pollution crisis, already sharply escalating over the last decade, has been significantly exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.The resulting crisis is not only environmental, but also starkly humanitarian. At the local level, informal sector waste pickers and others working in waste management are facing evaporated livelihoods and high risk of infection. Women and girls, traditionally marginalized by harmful societal norms and excluded from employment and protections in the formal sector, are disproportionately affected.When we started the Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) two years ago to translate commitments to reduce plastic pollution into concrete action, we knew this would be a daunting and complex task. But we could have never anticipated the…

A newly published study is warning that there will be 53 trillion metric tons of plastic pollution in the world's rivers, lakes, and oceans by 2030.The research, published in Science, found that humanity is on track to put 53 million megatons (the equivalent 53 trillion tons) into the world's waterways, even if severe measures are taken to reduce the plastic waste currently being produced."Unless growth in plastic production and use is halted, a fundamental transformation of the plastic economy to a framework based on recycling is essential, where end-of-life plastic products are valued rather than becoming waste," said University of Toronto assistant professor and study co-author Chelsea Rochman, in a statement.Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean is yet another remote island littered in plastic waste (Credit: Marcus Eriksen) PLASTIC WASTE IN OCEANS WILL TRIPLE BY 2040, RESEARCHERS SAY"Even if governments around the world meet their ambitious global com…

A vital refuge for rare wildlife has been polluted by the largest accumulation of plastic waste of any island on the planet.Aldabra, a remote atoll in the Indian Ocean, has 513 tonnes of plastic washed up on its shore, including 360,000 flip-flops, according to researchers from the UK and Seychelles.Sky News joined the team from The Queen's College, University of Oxford, and the Seychelles Islands Foundation last year, as they removed 25 tonnes of marine plastic.We saw turtles attempting to nest on beaches littered with an extraordinary number of flip-flops, bottles, lighters and other plastic debris that had been carried thousands of miles by ocean currents.The three-week clean-up of Aldabra, described by Sir David Attenborough as one of the world's last remaining natural treasures, underlined the logistical challenge of removing piles of plastic from remote islands.New calculations by the team, published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, suggest that despite the effo…

NewsOpinionColumnists Wars fought with weapons exported from developed countries, economic problems and environmental degradation are among the reasons why people leave developing countries in search of a better life, writes Kenny MacAskill. Wednesday, 2nd September 2020, 4:45 pmI don't know why poor 
Mercy Baguma died or what brought her here. But it's a tragedy that is going to be repeated unless we change how we treat these desperate people. Moreover, it won't be the Royal Navy that will stop them coming but what the developed world does in their lands.Some are fleeing wars or conflicts that we participated in or fuel through weaponry. That's reprehensible and must stop. The UK's fingerprints are all over armaments causing a humanitarian disaster in Yemen. Sign up to our daily newsletter The i newsletter cut through the noise Read More Monarch of the Glen killed by plastic waste is a call to arms – Steve Cardownie But there i…