So much ocean plastic originates from sources on land, but once floating in the sea it poses a risk to marine wildlife and habitats.
Rich Carey/Shutterstock
As it travels around the ocean, plastic litter can harm wildlife and marine habitats in many ways. This study highlights five key hotspots where floating plastic poses the biggest risk.
Human influence on the climate started even before the Industrial Revolution.
Print Collector/Getty Images
Erle C. Ellis, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Scientists have been debating the start of the Anthropocene Epoch for 15 years. I was part of those discussions, and I agree with the vote rejecting it.
Sewage fungus outbreaks are a sign that our freshwater ecosystems are unhealthy and polluted.
Dmitriy Prayzel
Sewage fungus is actually not a fungus. Our expert explains what it is, where it lives and what can be done to reduce outbreaks in polluted rivers.
A Dearborn policeman knocked unconscious was the first casualty of the 1932 Ford Hunger March in Detroit and Dearborn.
Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University/Detroit News Burckhardt.
On March 7, workers at the Ford Rouge River plant marched for better working conditions, sparking America’s labor movement. Almost a century later, a quiet park honors their memory.
Polluting cooking fuels are still preferred in parts of Africa.
Alan Morgan/Flickr
We sampled sewage sludge from 13 wastewater treatment plants across three states. We found every resident adds microplastics to farmland, in dried sewage sludge (biosolids) used as fertiliser.
Millions of Ghanaians rely on private commercial transport to commute.
Fquasie/Wikimedia Commons
Phosphorus and nitrogen contribute to water pollution and cause harmful algal blooms. New research shows how mats of floating flower beds can take advantage of these nutrients while cleaning the water.
Vernon Rive, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
By allowing a case against local greenhouse gas emitters to go ahead, the Supreme Court of New Zealand has opened the door to a new front in climate law – one that takes tikanga Māori into account.
Scientists have found that hermit crabs are increasingly using plastic and other litter as makeshift shell homes.
metamorworks/Shutterstock
Garbage is decomposing in landfill sites across sub-Saharan Africa, releasing methane gas. If governments harnessed this as clean energy, Africa would avoid environmental damage worth US$6.7 billion.
Residents queue for water after municipal supply became contaminated with cholera.
Felix Dlangamandla/Daily Maverick/Gallo Images via Getty Images
This year’s Blue Drop Audit report of water quality in South Africa has found that 46% of water supply systems are contaminated and over two thirds of wastewater treatment plants are close to failure.
The longest-running study of its kind reviewed death records in the path of pollution from coal-fired power plants. The numbers are staggering − but also falling fast as US coal plants close.
A front-end loader dumps road salt into a truck in Chelsea, Mass.
(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Increasing awareness of the dangers ‘forever chemical’ road salts pose to our fresh water systems highlights the urgent importance of finding new approaches to de-icing our roads.