Day: August 16, 2019

It’s raining plastic: microscopic fibers fall from the sky in Rocky Mountains

Read the full story in The Guardian.

Plastic was the furthest thing from Gregory Wetherbee’s mind when he began analyzing rainwater samples collected from the Rocky Mountains. “I guess I expected to see mostly soil and mineral particles,” said the US Geological Survey researcher. Instead, he found multicolored microscopic plastic fibers.

The discovery, published in a recent study titled “It is raining plastic”, raises new questions about the amount of plastic waste permeating the air, water, and soil virtually everywhere on Earth.

Monster penguin find in Waipara, New Zealand

Read the full story from the Canterbury Museum.

A new species of giant penguin — about 1.6 metres tall — has been identified from fossils found in Waipara, North Canterbury in New Zealand.

Climate change conversations can be difficult for both skeptics, environmentalists

Read the full story from the American Psychological Association.

Reinforcing trust in science and focusing on perseverance may shift views and inspire action, according to studies presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association.

Droughts, heatwaves and floods: How to tell when climate change is to blame

Read the full story in Nature.

Weather forecasters will soon provide instant assessments of global warming’s influence on extreme events.

AgroFresh, Zest Labs Combine Technologies to Reduce Food Waste

Read the full story in Waste360.

The companies will combine resources to help growers, packers and retailers increase visibility into produce shelf life and reduce food waste.

Bamboo Transcends the Tropics for Carbon-Negative Construction

Read the full story from Redshift.

It can be argued either way: Bamboo is a building material that’s criminally underused in construction or one destined to remain a quirky, regional curio.

Long ignored beyond the developing world, bamboo (a grass, not a tree) has the compressive strength of concrete and the tensile strength of steel. Unlike those materials, it sequesters carbon as it grows instead of emitting it while it’s made. It replenishes rapidly, shooting up by as much as three feet per week. It’s hollow and lightweight. “There’s no wood that can compete with that,” says Joana Gomes of the Mexican architecture firm CO-LAB, which recently designed Luum Temple, a bamboo pavilion in Tulum, Mexico.

Leanpath Strives to Stem the Tide of Food Waste

Read the full story in Hotel Business.

What are the benefits of reducing food waste? The bottom line: Hotels are seeing significant savings, and it’s helping the environment. From engaging staff to rethinking the buffet line, there’s much hoteliers can do to be part of the solution.

Buckle up: Climate change is already contributing to bumpier trans-Atlantic flights, study finds

Read the full story in the Washington Post.

Turkish Airlines Flight 1 had just 45 minutes left in its eight-hour-plus journey from Istanbul to New York on March 10, when the Boeing 777 suddenly shook violently and plunged, injuring passengers and members of the flight crew. The plane made an emergency landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport, where 28 passengers and two crew members were treated for injuries, according to news reports.

That flight was cruising over Maine when it encountered severe turbulence, known as clear-air turbulence because it occurs in clear skies without an obvious visual cue for the pilots. Such incidents may become more common in the skies above the North Atlantic due to changes in wind shear as a result of human-caused climate change, according to a new study published Wednesday.

As Hotels Go More Sustainable, Abandoning Mini Toiletries Could Hurt Charities

Read the full story in AdWeek.

Sustainable practices may have unintended consequences.

Zara uncovered: Inside the brand that changed fashion

Read the full story from the BBC.

I am seeing spots. More specifically polka dots, on a white maxi dress. Three women have walked by me – all wearing the same identical dress – in the half hour I’ve been sitting outside this café. I know it’s from Zara, I’ve tried it on, and now I’m seeing those spots everywhere.

It is the dress of the summer, another viral Zara fashion statement, complete with a dedicated Instagram account set up by fans.

Just one sign of how the Spanish clothing giant is bucking the trend of many of its struggling High Street competitors and posting record sales.

Considering the success and size of the company, it might be thought of as a bit of an enigma. It doesn’t advertise, it does little marketing and its boss, who was named best performing chief executive in the world by a business magazine last year, has not given any big interviews, until now.

Pablo Isla recently laid out plans for Zara’s future and said it was all about a digital and sustainable transformation. But is it possible for a company to be sustainable, when the entire business is about getting shoppers to buy as much fashion as possible?

Bracing for Heat

Read the full story in the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit.

Heat waves bring some level of discomfort to nearly everyone. When excessive heat catches vulnerable populations off guard, though, discomfort can advance to illness and even death. Learn about strategies taken in Minnesota that help protect people in both rural and urban settings.

Researchers Are Trying To Find A Solution To Cut Concrete’s Carbon Emissions

Read the full story from NPR.

Researchers are trying to make a cleaner concrete to cut greenhouse gas emissions and curb climate change. The industry is estimated to account for at least 7% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

A Teen Scientist Figured out How to Suck Microplastics from the Ocean. There May Be Hope for Humanity.

Read the full story in Mother Jones.

On Monday, Fionn Ferreira, an 18-year-old from Ireland, took home the top prize—which includes, in addition to a lifetime of bragging rights, a $50,000 educational scholarship—at the Google Science Fair for his project on microplastic pollution.

Microplastics are plastic fragments less than 5 millimeters in size and they pose serious environmental and a public health risks. They are ubiquitous, having contaminated the most remote places of the world, including France’s Pyrenees mountains and the bottom of the Mariana Trench; they can be found in tap water and inside marine mammals and fish. While it’s not yet clear how microplastics affect human health, it’s safe to say they are of great concern to scientists.

Enter Ferreira, who speaks three languages, plays the trumpet, and has a dwarf planet named after him. Living near the water in West Cork, he was inspired to study microplastics after becoming “increasingly aware” of plastic ocean pollution. “I was alarmed to find out how many microplastics enter our wastewater system and consequently the oceans,” he writes in his project’s research paper. “This inspired me to try and find out a way to try and remove microplastics from waters before they even reached the sea.”