Full scale of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans revealed for first time – More than five trillion pieces weighing 269,000 tons are floating in our oceans

By Oliver Milman10 December 2014 (The Guardian) – More than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes, are floating in the world’s oceans, causing damage throughout the food chain, new research has found. Data collected by scientists from the US, France, Chile, Australia and New Zealand suggests a minimum of 5.25tn plastic […]

TOXIC: Garbage Island, Part 1 – Oh, this is great, humans have finally ruined the ocean

By Thomas MortonPhotos by Jake Burghart (VICE) – I’m not one of those guys who corners folks at parties to rant at them about biodiesel or calls people “fucking idiots” for being skeptical about global warming. But I should also point out that I’m not one of those Andrew Dice Clay “Fuck the whales” types […]

Polar bears among 31 new species issued protection status by UN conservation body

By Joaquim Moreira Salles 10 November 2014 (Climate Progress) – The Eleventh Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) has extended protections to scores of migratory birds, fish and mammals. Over 100 countries came together in Quito, Ecuador for a week […]

Scientists find toxic flame retardants in Americans – ‘When you sit on your couch, you want to relax, not get exposed to chemicals that may cause cancer’

By Robert Preidt12 November 2014 (HealthDay News) – Scientists report that they found evidence of six kinds of toxic flame retardants in Americans. The researchers tested urine samples from California residents and found detectable levels of a rarely studied group of flame retardants known as phosphates, and one — tris-(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP) — has never […]

Beer: a magical mixture of hops, barley, and tiny pieces of plastic

By Liz Core10 September 2014 (Grist) – Plastics are everywhere: on the street, in our refrigerators, all over the oceans — you name it. But now they’re hitting us where it really hurts. Authors of a new study published in the latest edition of Food Additives and Contaminants found traces of plastic particles (and other […]

Plastic microfibers from clothing comprise 85 percent of human-made material on shorelines worldwide

By Mary Catherine O’Connor27 October 2014 (The Guardian) – Ecologist Mark Browne knew he’d found something big when, after months of tediously examining sediment along shorelines around the world, he noticed something no one had predicted: fibers. Everywhere. They were tiny and synthetic and he was finding them in the greatest concentration near sewage outflows. […]

Graph of the Day: Distribution of plastic pollution in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans

By Laura Parker 15 July 2014 (National Geographic) – When marine ecologist Andres Cozar Cabañas and a team of researchers completed the first ever map of ocean trash, something didn’t quite add up. Their work, published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, did find millions of pieces of plastic debris […]

Scottish otters dying early because of poisoned seas – ‘Our otters are not living long enough to significantly expand the population further’

By Mike Merritt and Tristan Stewart-Robertson13 October 2014 (The Scotsman) – Scottish otters are only living a third of the lifespan of those on mainland Europe because of poisoned seas, a leading expert on the species has warned. Zoologist Dr Paul Yoxon said chemicals in everyday products are accumulating in fish and shellfish on which […]

This Hawaiian island is so polluted with plastic that it might become a Superfund site – ‘These animals face enough threats to their survival from sea level rise and habitat loss, the last thing they need is to choke on a floating plastic bag’

By Taylor Hill12 September 2014  (takepart.com) – Hawaiian green sea turtles, monk seals, and black-footed albatrosses are all closer to getting a cleaner, plastic-free home as the federal government takes a step toward declaring a remote Pacific atoll a Superfund site. The designation, which the United States Environmental Protection Agency gives for areas severely contaminated […]

Choking the oceans with plastic

By Charles J. Moore25 August 2014 LOS ANGELES (The New York Times) – The world is awash in plastic. It’s in our cars and our carpets, we wrap it around the food we eat and virtually every other product we consume; it has become a key lubricant of globalization — but it’s choking our future […]

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