1 September 2015, The Conversation, Seabirds are eating plastic litter in our oceans – but not only where you’d expect. Many of you may have already seen the photograph above, of an albatross carcass full of undigested plastic junk. But how representative is that of the wider issue facing seabirds? To help answer that question, we carried out the first worldwide analysis of the threat posed by plastic pollution to seabird species worldwide. Our study, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that nearly 60% of all seabird species studied so far have had plastic in their gut. This figure is based on reviewing previous reports in the scientific literature, but if we use a statistical model to infer what would be found at the current time and include unstudied species, we expect that more than 90% of seabirds have eaten plastic rubbish. Rising tide of plastic. Our analysis of published studies shows that the amount of plastic in seabird’s stomachs has been climbing over the past half-century. In 1960, plastic was found in the stomachs of less than 5% of seabirds, but by 2010 this had risen to 80%. We predict that by 2050, 99% of the world’s seabird species will be accidentally eating plastic, unless we take action to clean up the oceans. Read More here
Tag Archives: consumption
30 August 2015, Science Daily, Discarded electronics mismanaged within Europe equals about 10 times the volume of e-waste exported. Mismanagement of discarded electronics within Europe involves a volume 10 times that of e-waste shipped to foreign shores in undocumented exports, according to a comprehensive 2-year investigation into the functioning of the used and waste electronics market. The European Union-funded project, Countering WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) Illegal Trade (CWIT), was undertaken by INTERPOL, United Nations University (UNU), United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, the WEEE Forum, the Cross Border Research Association, Zanasi & Partners and Compliance and Risks. The project found that in Europe just 35% (3.3 million tonnes of 9.5 million tonnes) of used (but still functioning) and waste electronics and electrical equipment discarded by companies and consumers in 2012 wound up in official collection and recycling systems. The other discarded electronics — 6.2 million tonnes in all — was either exported, recycled under non-compliant conditions or simply thrown in waste bins. The study estimates 1.3 million tonnes of discarded electronics departed the EU in undocumented mixed exports, of which an estimated 30% (about 400,000 tonnes) was electronic waste; and 70% functioning equipment. Read More here
17 August 2015, Resilience, Moral Discomfort, Privilege, and the Politics of Air-Conditioning…..Consider the cultural and historical perspective. Of course you could survive without air-conditioning, just as your grandparents and great-grandparents did and just as most people living in far hotter parts of Africa, South America, and Asia do. At least a billion people of the world, mainly women, wash clothes exclusively by hand, and in climates much hotter than ours. Most people still don’t own cars, but manage somehow nonetheless. We often pity them but without really understanding their lives, supposing that we are the only people with happy and fulfilling lives. Humans are far more adaptable and resilient than we are led to believe, and find joy and meaning in a broader range of conditions than we, who can command comfort at the push of a button, are often able to imagine, our sense of possibility withering under the cool dry air, perhaps. Very few of us would actually be stricken with heat stroke by continuing with our daily household toil in all but the rarest of conditions. Read More here