Search for Flight MH370 hampered by ocean garbage problem – ‘The world does use the ocean as its toilet, and then expects that toilet to feed it’

By Tom Cohen2 April 2014 (CNN) – Another debris field, another new and so-far futile focus in the search for Flight MH370. More than three weeks after the Malaysia Airlines jet disappeared, one thing has been made clear: the ocean is full of garbage, literally. “It isn’t like looking for a needle in a haystack,” […]

Only half of prescription drugs removed by sewage treatment – Drugs found in Lake Michigan, miles from sewage outfalls

By Brian Bienkowski and Environmental Health News22 Novenber 2013 Only about half of the prescription drugs and other newly emerging contaminants in sewage are removed by treatment plants. That’s the finding of a new report by the International Joint Commission, a consortium of officials from the United States and Canada who study the Great Lakes. […]

Image of the Day: Satellite view of algae bloom on Lake Ontario, 24 August 2013

By William L. Stefanov, Jacobs2 September 2013 (NASA) – This photograph taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station highlights a late summer plankton bloom across much of Lake Ontario, one of North America’s Great Lakes. Microscopic cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, can reach such large concentrations and color the water to such an extent […]

Record algae bloom, 11 thousand square miles in area, covers coastal waters near Qingdao

[Apologies for the tardiness; don’t know how this story got by Des last month.] By Wilfred Chan7 July 2013 (CNN) – For years, China has talked about promoting “green growth.” But this probably isn’t what they had in mind. For the seventh year in a row, monstrous quantities of green algae known as enteromorpha prolifera […]

Algae blooms killing manatees, dolphins, and pelicans in Florida estuary – ‘We fear the fishery collapse may be forthcoming’

By MICHAEL WINES 7 August 2013 MELBOURNE, Florida (The New York Times) – The first hint that something was amiss here, in the shallow lagoons and brackish streams that buffer inland Florida from the Atlantic’s salt water, came last summer in the Banana River, just south of Kennedy Space Center. Three manatees — the languid, […]

Rains or not, India is falling short on drinkable water

By GARDINER HARRIS12 March 2013 CHERRAPUNJI, India (The New York Times) – Almost no place on Earth gets more rain than this small hill town. Nearly 40 feet falls every year — more than 12 times what Seattle gets. Storms often drop more than a foot a day. The monsoon is epic. But during the […]

Six in 10 people worldwide lack access to flush toilets or other adequate sanitation, falling far short of UN Millennium Development Goal

Contact: Michael Woods, Editor, 202-872-629320 February 2013 It may be the 21st century, with all its technological marvels, but 6 out of every 10 people on Earth still do not have access to flush toilets or other adequate sanitation that protects the user and the surrounding community from harmful health effects, a new study has […]

Dietary shifts driving up phosphorus use – World phosphorus footprint increased 38 percent since 1960s

Contact: Chris Chipello  Organization: Media Relations OfficeOffice Phone: 514-398-4201   Mobile Phone: 514-717-4201  17 January 2013 (mcgill.ca) – Dietary changes since the early 1960s have fueled a sharp increase in the amount of mined phosphorus used to produce the food consumed by the average person over the course of a year, according to a new study […]

Rogue geoengineering project: Can we stop modern-day mad scientists?

By Kathryn Doyle28 November 2012 It’s hard to stop a bad idea with enough money behind it—even rogue science on the high seas. Russ George, a wealthy American businessman with a history of big, controversial ideas, launched his latest one this October: dumping 200,000 pounds of iron sulfate into the North Pacific. His aim was […]

Graph of the Day: Lead Concentrations in Spinach Grown in Varanasi, India

This graph illustrates lead concentrations in spinach grown in Varanasi, India. (Singh, et al., 2010) Domestic wastewater comprises dissolved and suspended impurities from households. Untreated or insufficiently treated wastewater is typically contaminated with human excreta, which can cause traditional health risks. In recent years, domestic wastewater has been observed to contain trace quantities of pharmaceutical […]

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