Nanoplastics Are The Main Oceanic Plastic Pollutants

Marine plastic litter usually grab headlines and generates concern, with images of suffocating seabirds or bottles washing up along coastlines. Increasingly, researchers have been finding tiny microplastic fragments across all environments, from the most densely populated cities to pristine mountaintops, as well as in human tissue including the brain and placenta.

A study published today reveals yet another hidden source of this deadly waste: nanometre-scale particles are literally everywhere, says co-author Dušan Materić, an environmental analytical chemist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany.

Is This The "Hypocrisy" Of Prince Harry?

Several critics are lashing out at Prince Harry for his "hypocrisy" in traveling across the world, emitting tons of carbon in the process, all to promote sustainable travel.

In late May, Harry made a surprise trip to Shanghai to speak at the Envision 2025 Global Partner Conference. The Royal Observer reported that he urged the travel industry to embrace eco-friendly travel and to reach previously set goals of halving carbon pollution by 2030.

Are We Ready To Move Away From Toilet Papers?

For most people, it is difficult to imagine an existence without toilet paper, but it's possible that in the future, going toilet paperless could be a real option.

So, why would humans move away from toilet paper? According to Think Stewartville, "Environmental concerns, health implications, and cultural preferences are driving this change toward more sustainable alternatives."

California's Clean Energy Project Has Started

After successful the trial phase, an ambitious scheme to generate clean energy and save water in California is set to move to the next level in 2025. This is called Project Nexus, a US$ 20-million project to examine the viability of placing solar panels over canals, could have huge implications for California's climate goals.

In 2021, researchers from the University of California's Merced and Santa Cruz campuses calculated that covering California's canals with solar panels could generate huge amounts of energy while conserving water.

Gravity-Powered Technology Can Reshape The Energy Sector

Many energy and power innovators around the world plan to harvest more power from abandoned coal mines, but not by digging up dirty deposits.

Instead, this concept utilizes gravity and renewable energy to transform the defunct locations into next-generation power sites, according to reports from "Reasons to be Cheerful" and "Popular Mechanics".

New Building Material Can Help Fight CO₂ Emissions

Building concrete might seem like an unlikely hero in the fight against harmful carbon pollution, but thanks to one engineer's groundbreaking work, it could be a major player in building a cleaner future.

Mehdi Khanzadeh, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, developed a promising new method for creating carbonatable concrete — a material that not only emits less pollution during production but also absorbs carbon dioxide from the air as it cures.

Is Coca-Cola Backtracking From Its Environmental Commitment?

Softdrink giant Coca-Cola was reported to have quietly gone back on its environmental promises and has increased its plastic use to a concerning level. According to a report shared by Oceana, Coca-Cola is on track to use 9.1 billion pounds of plastic annually by 2030.

Oceana's latest report, "Coca-Cola's World With Waste," highlighted the reality of the beverage company's plastic creation and pollution. If today's trends continue, its annual plastic use will exceed 9.1 billion pounds by 2030. This number is a 40 percent increase from 2018 and a 20 percent increase from 2023.

Twenty-Eight-Year Old Travel Influencer Died In The Philippines

Travel influencer based in the Philippines Vanessa Konopka has died at age 28 on 7 March, months after she was diagnosed with severe liver damage and pneumonia. No additional details were provided on what caused it.

The German content creator was known for posting alongside her boyfriend Fernando, who started a GoFundMe for Konopka when she became ill in the Philippines on 31 December 2024. He posted an update on their shared Facebook page on 7 March to announce the news of her death.

Bhutan Chooses "Green" Crypto To Fuel Economy

The Himalayan nation of Bhutan was reported to be exploring ways to mine and leverage green cryptocurrencies using hydropower to boost its economy and create jobs to reduce brain drain, the chief executive of its sovereign wealth fund said.

Green cryptocurrencies are digital currencies mined using clean energy resources such as wind, hydro or solar power instead of fossil fuel.

LA Fire Was Partly A Result Of Favoring LGBTs Cafe Strolling

While Los Angeles officials were trying their best to defund the their fire department ahead of one of the most destructive wildfires in state history, hundreds of thousands of dollars were channeled to fund irrelevant programs such as a "Gay Men’s Chorus" and housing for the transgender homeless.

Deadly fires erupted across Southern California this week, which were amplified by fierce winds that resulted in about 10,000 homes and businesses being destroyed. After fire hydrants weren't producing water and homes burned to the ground, residents began calling out Democratic-led leadership in the state, who cut the Los Angeles Fire Department's (LAFD) funding by $17.6 million just months prior.

Visionary Wants To Use Trash To Pave The Roads

There is one woman in Kansas City who made it her mission to solve the trash problem and has turned into an innovative solution for better streets. She is doing all of this by turning waste into roads, reported Fox 4 Kansas City.

The lightbulb moment came when Olivia English spent countless hours picking up litter at her landscaping jobs. "Every job I went to, before we could start, it was picking up all of this trash," she told Fox 4. She kept wondering where it all went.

Toxic Coal Waste May Be A Source Of Rare Metals

There are currently millions of tons of coal ash left over from burning the planet’s dirtiest fossil fuel that are sitting in ponds and landfills. They usually end up leaking into waterways and pollute soil. But this toxic waste may also be a treasure trove for the rare earth elements needed to propel the world toward clean energy.

Scientists analyzed coal ash from power plants across the United States and found it could contain up to 11 million tons of rare earth elements — nearly eight times the amount the US has in domestic reserves — worth around US$ 8.4 billion, according to recent research led by the University of Texas at Austin.

LA County Files Lawsuit Against Coca-cola And Pepsi

According to the Associated Press, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are in hot water after Los Angeles County accused the soda giants of bottling up the truth about their plastic pollution. The suit alleges that the companies promoted a "circular economy" while their plastic bottles are largely unrecyclable after one use.

With Coca-Cola and PepsiCo ranked as top global plastic polluters, the county said these practices contribute significantly to environmental harm, including microplastic pollution.

The World Desertification Talks Have Started

The United Nations has started talks aimed at halting the degradation and desertification of vast swathes of land started in Saudi Arabia last 2 Deember after scientists fired a stark warning over unsustainable farming and deforestation.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called it a "moonshot moment": a 12-day meeting for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), looking to protect and restore land and respond to drought amid the onslaught of climate change.

No Agreed Treaty To Address Plastic Pollution Crisis

Different nations of the world has wrapped up the fifth UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) meeting intended to yield a legally binding global treaty in Busan, South Korea. It was meant to be the final one.

However, countries remained far apart on the basic scope of a treaty and could agree only to postpone key decisions and resume talks, dubbed INC 5.2, to a later date.

Shell Wins Appeal On Emission Ruling

Climate activists may gave won against Shell in 2021 when a Dutch court commanded the oil giant to reduce its carbon emissions by 45 percent by the end of 2030, but it did not last long.

Three years later, Shell managed to win its appeal against this ruling. In the court's view, Shell doesn’t have a "social standard of care" to curtail emissions, the BBC reports.

Desalination Using the Sun's Power

In order to extract potable liquid from seawater, distillation is required. It is basically boiling the water into steam and then cooling the purified vapor in condensation tubes.

Problem is, this method is incredibly power intensive with nearly half of the input energy going towards just boiling the water. But, a team of researchers from Rice University have developed a new technique that not only drastically reduces the amount of energy needed but can decouple the process from the power grid altogether.

Hurricane Resilient Homes Stood Tall In Florida

Some residents of a sustainable hurricane-proof community in Florida were glad that their homes survived major Hurricanes Helene and Milton — and kept the lights on the whole time. It was a tense moment, but their investments may have paid off.

As CNN reported, Hunters Point, a waterfront neighborhood in Cortez, Florida, is touted as the world's first residential development to attain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design net-zero credentials.

The Affordable and Portable Water Filter System

(This story was first published by Olivia Ho for The Straits Times, Singapore in 2015. This is a solutions-based story that can inspire change on a global level.)

It weighs no more than 300g, fits easily into a backpack and looks like any other plastic bag, but the simple device is a life-saver for people who have no access to clean, drinking water.

The bag, called Fieldtrate Lite, filters dirty water, such as river water, through a membrane and turns it into potable water in the same time it would take to run it from the tap.

One U.S. City Tries To Wage War Against Invasive Species

This will be the case of man versus nature as One Tennessee city tries to maintain the status quo and protect the environment from invasive species.

Last June, Knoxville received US 25,000 to get rid of bush honeysuckle, privet, and more, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported. The 100-acre project covers greenways, the Ijams Nature Center, and other locations around the city.