The next time you go to throw out a piece of plastic packaging, imagine it resting atop a pile containing the 10.8 trillion pounds of plastic trash we’ve produced in the last six decades. [More]
environment
Volvo Will Begin Transitioning To All Electric Vehicles In 2019
By 7.5.17
Starting in 2019, all new Volvo car lines will have either full electric or hybrid engines, with plans to introduce five such vehicles by 2021. [More]
Cruise Line To Pay Record $40M For Deliberately Dumping Oil Into Ocean
By 12.1.16
Purposefully dumping large quantities of oil into the ocean is not okay. Trying to cover up those actions is also frowned upon. Yet, it appears that some employees of Princess Cruise Lines did just that, and now the subsidiary of Carnival Cruise Lines must pay the largest-ever criminal penalty for intentionally polluting the ocean: $40 million. [More]
Say Goodbye To Microbeads: President Signs Act To Ban Microscopic Plastic Particles
By 12.29.15
If your favorite face wash includes tiny microbeads, you better savor it. After playing catch-up with several states, the U.S. has finally passed a measure that would keep the microscopic plastic spheres from going down the drain and possibly into the stomachs of our seafood. [More]
Bill To Ban The Use of Microbeads In Personal Care Products Nationwide By 2019 Passes House
By 12.9.15
With several states and companies passing or currently considering rules to stop the use of tiny microbeads in beauty products, the nation as a whole has been playing catchup. After at least one failed attempt to pass a measure to keep the microscopic plastic spheres from going down the drain and possibly into the stomachs of our seafood, the House passed legislation this week that would ban the use of the products. [More]
Beauty Products Sold In California To Be Microbead-Free By 2020
By 10.9.15
While a bill that would have prohibited the use of tiny microbeads in face wash and other personal products nationwide died in Congress last year, California didn’t give up its fight to keep the microscopic plastic spheres from entering its waterways and turning up inside the stomach of consumers’ seafood, passing legislation that bans the use of the products in the state by 2020. [More]
From Apple To Walmart, Over A Dozen Of The Biggest Businesses In The U.S. Sign On To White House Climate Pledge
By 7.27.15
A huge number of the world’s nations are coming together in Paris this December to negotiate an agreement to stem emissions and forestall further climate change. Ahead of this winter’s United Nations talks, however, some well-known names here at home are pledging their own contributions to the cause. [More]
3M Vows To Avoid Using Paper Sources That Come From Threatened Forests
By 3.6.15
Manufacturing company 3M announced a policy change today that aims to ensure its pulp and paper suppliers are doing their best to preserve the environment by only providing materials from protected forests. [More]
California’s Plastic Bag Ban Delayed, Must Now Face November 2016 Referendum Vote
By 2.24.15
With just five months until California’s statewide plastic bag ban was set to take effect, opponents of the law have successfully petitioned for a ballot referendum, delaying the law until voters have their say next year. [More]
Toilet Paper-Plagued Idaho River Finally Flushed Clean
By 8.18.11
An Idaho truck mishap that left a river clogged with massive rolls of disintegrating, unprocessed toilet paper has finally been cleaned up after weeks of efforts by clean-up crews. The upper Lochsa River was clogged with the waste, foiling sanitation efforts until recently. [More]
Exxon Mobil Pipeline Leaks Into Yellowstone River
By 7.4.11
Ah, nature. Chirping birds, fresh air and oil gushing into rivers. Credit the latter to a leaking pipeline operated by Exxon Mobil. The company says as many as 1,000 barrels of crude have leaked into Montana’s Yellowstone River, leaving its mark as far as 10 miles away from the pipeline. [More]
Survey: Going Green Is For "Crunchy Granola Hippies"
By 4.29.11
A new study from ad agency OgilvyEarth has found that “Green Rejecters,” who rebel against everything from reusable shopping bags to hybrid cars, are more likely to be male than female, and consider going green an expensive indulgence for “crunchy granola hippies or rich elite snobs.” [More]
Congress Takes Animal Off Endangered Species List
By 4.14.11
Usually the way off the Endangered Species List does not head through legislators, but Congress let the Rocky Mountain wolf off the list, angering environmentalists who believe the reclassification was inappropriate. [More]
Study: Airplane Contrails Cause More Climate Change Than Carbon Emissions
By 3.31.11
A new study contends airplanes leave behind water vapor skywriting that yields frightening messages about the effects flights have on the environment. [More]
Closed For 90 Years, Factory Continues To Contaminate
By 10.25.10
Back in the good ol days of the early 1900’s, workers at the Hutchinson KS soda ash plant just dumped waste alkaline on the factory’s perimeter, creating piles that stretched for acres. Now closed for 90 years, runoff from the piles is creating an underground chloride plume that is contaminating the groundwater, and a confusion of owners and regulations has stymied clean up efforts. [More]
Let's Recycle The Swirling Vortex Of Plastic Garbage Into An Island Utopia
By 7.15.10
The North Pacific Gyre is a giant mass of plastic detritus churning around in the Pacific that isn’t going anywhere soon, and its killing off fish and birds. The birds eat it and it fills up their stomach so that they don’t have any hunger, and then they die of starvation with their stomachs full of plastic. Now one group has an admittedly far-fetched notion to recycle the plastic on the spot via floating factory ships and use the material to build a floating island utopia. [More]
Oily Gulf Seafood Will Literally Be Sniff Tested By Expert Smellers
By 5.27.10
Oil from the explosion of Deepwater Horizon is flooding the waters of some of the most productive coastal fishing areas in the world, says ABC News, so how will the FDA ensure that no oily fish make it into the food system? They’re gonna smell it. With their noses. [More]
