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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/microplastics/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Microplastics</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/microplastics/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>‘Plastic pollution hotspots’ spawn a public health crisis across Latin America</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/plastic-pollution-hotspots-spawn-a-public-health-crisis-across-latin-america/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/plastic-pollution-hotspots-spawn-a-public-health-crisis-across-latin-america/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Sep 2026 13:33:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/08133303/AP21097556420581-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329024</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Dominican Republic, Global, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Paraguay]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Circular Economy, Governance, Health, International Trade, Microplastics, Planetary Health, Plastic, Pollution, Public Health, Recycling, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Since China banned the import of plastic waste in 2018, plastic pollution has been having a growing impact on the people and ecosystems of Latin America. As the region imports an increasing amount of the world’s used and discarded plastic, new research shows that waste infrastructure in many countries is already buckling under the strain [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Since China banned the import of plastic waste in 2018, plastic pollution has been having a growing impact on the people and ecosystems of Latin America. As the region imports an increasing amount of the world’s used and discarded plastic, new research shows that waste infrastructure in many countries is already buckling under the strain of dealing with domestic trash. As a result, much of the imported plastic is leaking out into the environment, with experts and the U.N. warning of major consequences for human health. A study published in April found that seven countries in the region — the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Paraguay — have become plastic pollution hotspots, or PPHs, where high imports of low-quality plastics meet high rates of mismanaged waste. Global plastic waste generation reached 353 million metric tons in 2019 alone, of which 72% ended up being landfilled or dumped and just 9% was recycled, according to an OECD report. Much of the world’s plastic waste was previously destined for China, but in 2018 the country banned those imports. While Malaysia and Thailand took up much of the slack, Latin America also started importing more plastic waste, although the region has historically been an importer of difficult-to-recycle plastics. “Certain countries in Latin America have started importing more waste but they haven’t actually got the capacity to deal with [it],” Veronica Herrera, lead author of April study and an associate professor at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/plastic-pollution-hotspots-spawn-a-public-health-crisis-across-latin-america/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/plastic-pollution-hotspots-spawn-a-public-health-crisis-across-latin-america/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329024</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tapirs, bats and nests: How plastic infiltrates Amazonian wildlife</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/tapirs-bats-and-nests-how-plastic-infiltrates-amazonian-wildlife/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/tapirs-bats-and-nests-how-plastic-infiltrates-amazonian-wildlife/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Aug 2026 21:12:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tiago da Mota e Silva]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/18210249/tapir-in-suriname-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326600</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Microplastics in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bats, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Fish, Freshwater Fish, Health, Mammals, Microplastics, Plastic, Pollution, Protected Areas, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At the mouth of the Amazon River, birds are already building blue nests out of discarded plastic.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the third and final article in a special series on microplastics in the Amazon. Read the first story here and the second story here. MANAUS, Brazil — Traveling by boat up the Negro River from Amazonas state capital Manaus, it takes eight to nine hours to cover the 100 kilometers (62 miles) to Anavilhanas National Park. This protected area preserves one of the world’s largest freshwater archipelagos, comprising more than 400 islands and 60 lakes. They include Prato Lake, which is about 3.5 kilometers (about 2 miles) long and 1.5 kilometers (nearly 1 mile) wide. Yet, even here, in a protected area far from urban pressures, microplastics were found in the digestive tracts of fish. A recent study found an average concentration of 0.25 particles per liter of microplastics in the waters of Prato Lake. The particles were also present in the fish analyzed, regardless of their feeding habits, averaging 3.3 particles per individual. In total, about eight out of every 10 fish contained microplastics, despite living in a preserved area far from urban centers. “As a result of the entire connectivity dynamic that exists between aquatic environments in the Amazon, plastic is found even in the most remote places,” said co-author of the study Adalberto Val, a biologist from the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA). Plastic’s likely journey begins long before it reaches the lake. Most of the particles found in the fish consisted of filaments of polyamide, also known as nylon, alongside fragments of materials&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/tapirs-bats-and-nests-how-plastic-infiltrates-amazonian-wildlife/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/tapirs-bats-and-nests-how-plastic-infiltrates-amazonian-wildlife/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326600</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Amazon rivers, fish breathe and ingest plastics</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-amazon-rivers-fish-breathe-and-ingest-plastics/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-amazon-rivers-fish-breathe-and-ingest-plastics/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Aug 2026 10:36:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tiago da Mota e Silva]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/07154836/AP23317052192860-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325602</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Microplastics in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Health, Microplastics, Plastic, Pollution, Rivers, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For Amazon fish, oxygen now comes with microplastics.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the second story in a special three-part series on microplastics in the Amazon. Read the first part here. MANAUS, Brazil — In Amazonian waters, the pirarucu lives between two worlds. In the oxygen-depleted waters typical of floodplain lakes, this giant fish rises to the surface to breathe air. Over an evolutionary history spanning at least 100 million years, it developed a modified swim bladder that functions as a primitive lung. This rare adaptation has allowed it to thrive in environments that are too harsh for other fish species. Today, however, the very adaptation that ensures its survival makes it vulnerable to a new threat: Microplastic pollution. “Amazonian environment is already highly challenging,” said Adalberto Val, a biologist and head of the National Institute of Science and Technology for Adaptations of Aquatic Biota of the Amazon (INCT-Adapta). “Here we have high temperatures, low oxygen levels in the water … Organisms already respond to these challenges as they learned during the evolutionary process. Then we start adding new challenges, like plastic.” When breathing becomes a risk Pirarucus (Arapaima gigas) cannot survive for more than 10 minutes without surfacing for air. They rely on an air-breathing organ connected to their modified swim bladder, a necessity that puts them in direct contact with microplastics floating at the surface. Drawing on established knowledge about the species, Val and researchers from the University of British Columbia in Canada published an article outlining the dangers of this exposure. When microplastics enter the pirarucu’s air-breathing organ,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-amazon-rivers-fish-breathe-and-ingest-plastics/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-amazon-rivers-fish-breathe-and-ingest-plastics/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325602</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deep-sea snails and mussels in Indian and Pacific Oceans contain microplastics, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/deep-sea-snails-and-mussels-in-indian-and-pacific-oceans-contain-microplastics-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/deep-sea-snails-and-mussels-in-indian-and-pacific-oceans-contain-microplastics-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Aug 2026 18:38:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[María Paula Rubiano A.]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/03111510/g.-BANNER-GP0STSJH72-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325187</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Deep Sea, Marine, Marine Animals, Microplastics, Molluscs, Oceans, Plastic, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Three days away from shore, in the darkened control room of a huge ship, all eyes are fixed on a glowing wall of screens. Live images of mussels and snails appear. The animals are packed around a deep-sea chimney venting something that looks like black smoke, but is actually superheated, mineral-rich water bursting from the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Three days away from shore, in the darkened control room of a huge ship, all eyes are fixed on a glowing wall of screens. Live images of mussels and snails appear. The animals are packed around a deep-sea chimney venting something that looks like black smoke, but is actually superheated, mineral-rich water bursting from the Earth’s crust. The images have threaded their way back to the research vessel Isabu from some 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) below, via a thin, fiber-optic cable. It’s 2016 and the researchers are in the North Fiji Basin in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It’s the first of two expeditions to study the inhabitants of deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Their next journey will take them to the Indian Ocean. At each stop, the team deploys an underwater robot to catch the tender creatures. Once on deck, each animal is immediately wrapped in aluminum foil and flash frozen at –80° Celsius (-112° Fahrenheit) to prevent contact with airborne contaminants. The work is so delicate it takes the team several weeks to collect just 12 animals during the two expeditions between 2016 and 2019. Almost 10 years later, analysis of the results of these expeditions shows that human activities impact even creatures living in some of the most remote places on Earth. According to a new study, published in Water Research, microplastic particles were found in 11 of the 12 sampled animals, which belonged to four different species of mussels and snails. “Finding contamination in nearly every animal was still&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/deep-sea-snails-and-mussels-in-indian-and-pacific-oceans-contain-microplastics-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/deep-sea-snails-and-mussels-in-indian-and-pacific-oceans-contain-microplastics-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325187</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From rivers to mangroves, microplastics are contaminating the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/from-rivers-to-mangroves-microplastics-are-contaminating-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/from-rivers-to-mangroves-microplastics-are-contaminating-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jul 2026 12:42:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tiago da Mota e Silva]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/17154435/AP22157686805487-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323868</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Microplastics in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Drinking Water, Ecosystems, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Microplastics, Natural Resources, Plastic, Pollution, Rainforests, Rivers, Tropical Forests, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MANAUS, Brazil — On June 20, a 50-member team led by NGO Asas de Socorro and Rede Reviva walked about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) along the shoreline of the Puraquequara Lake in eastern Manaus during a garbage-collection effort. When the activity finished covering a stretch of beach on a lake with a water surface estimated at 20-25 km2, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MANAUS, Brazil — On June 20, a 50-member team led by NGO Asas de Socorro and Rede Reviva walked about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) along the shoreline of the Puraquequara Lake in eastern Manaus during a garbage-collection effort. When the activity finished covering a stretch of beach on a lake with a water surface estimated at 20-25 km2, the group had gathered a dumpster full of plastic waste. A similar effort in June 2023 had collected two dumpsters. The group’s experience helped illustrate the results of Eletuza Uchôa Farias’s master’s research: Half of the fish collected at the lake, from two jaraqui species (Semaprochilodus insignis and Semaprochilodus taeniurus), had ingested microplastics. Once inside an organism, the particles can remain in the intestinal tract, reach other tissues and organs, and move through the food chain — from the base to predatory fish — potentially ending up in humans. The jaraqui is the most consumed fish in Amazonas state. All particles found in the fish intestines were fibers: 0.5-4.37 millimeter-thin, elongated filaments. Most of them — 85.7% — were identified as polyamide, a polymer widely used by the textile industry for its strength and flexibility. The Puraquequara’s surroundings are home to communities with no effective basic sanitation. Water from sinks, tanks and washing machines is dumped directly into water bodies, which may explain the presence of polyamide that reach the jaraquis — which, in turn, end up on the plates of Amazonian residents. The Puraquequara case serves as a snapshot of plastic contamination in the Amazon. While microplastics are extensively&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/from-rivers-to-mangroves-microplastics-are-contaminating-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323868</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Microplastic pollution can fuel rise in antibiotic resistance, studies find</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/microplastic-pollution-can-fuel-rise-in-antibiotic-resistance-studies-find/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/microplastic-pollution-can-fuel-rise-in-antibiotic-resistance-studies-find/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jul 2026 16:55:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Asher]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/06145915/1-resistant-bacteria-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322580</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Diseases, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Medicine, Microorganisms, Microplastics, Planetary Boundaries, Planetary Health, Plastic, Pollution, Research, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Plastic pollution is among the gravest environmental crises facing humanity. Plastic production since 1950 has exceeded 8,300 million metric tons, with most plastic waste ending up in the environment, affecting wildlife, ecosystem functionality, and human health. Simultaneously, the ability of disease-causing bacteria to withstand one or more antibiotics (known as antimicrobial resistance, or AMR) has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Plastic pollution is among the gravest environmental crises facing humanity. Plastic production since 1950 has exceeded 8,300 million metric tons, with most plastic waste ending up in the environment, affecting wildlife, ecosystem functionality, and human health. Simultaneously, the ability of disease-causing bacteria to withstand one or more antibiotics (known as antimicrobial resistance, or AMR) has surged to become a public health emergency now accounting for around 5 million deaths worldwide annually. “AMR is an existential human threat,” says Tim Walsh, a professor at the University of Oxford and director of biology at the U.K.’s Ineos Oxford Institute of Antimicrobial Research, who spoke to Mongabay via video call. “It will kill more people [each year] than TB, HIV and malaria, and if unchallenged could eclipse cancer as the biggest killer.” Until very recently, these two global crises, plastic pollution and antimicrobial resistance, were considered separately by scientists and policymakers. But a new line of research suggests they’re inextricably linked: Plastic waste is quickly colonized by microorganisms, creating a new type of ecosystem dubbed the “plastisphere.” And bacteria living in the plastisphere are developing greater resistance to antibiotics at an unprecedented rate. A polyethylene plastic “bio-bead,” used to aid the breakdown of sewage in wastewater treatment plants, which has been colonized by fungi and other microbes. Sometimes, these bacteria-laden plastic pellets can escape wastewater treatment facilities and enter the environment. Image courtesy of Emily Stevenson. How microplastics enhance antimicrobial resistance In 2025, researchers at Boston University found that Escherichia coli bacteria exposed&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/microplastic-pollution-can-fuel-rise-in-antibiotic-resistance-studies-find/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/microplastic-pollution-can-fuel-rise-in-antibiotic-resistance-studies-find/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322580</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘The only possible transition is a just transition’: Interview with WEF’s Clemence Schmid</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/the-only-possible-transition-is-a-just-transition-interview-with-wefs-clemence-schmid/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/the-only-possible-transition-is-a-just-transition-interview-with-wefs-clemence-schmid/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jul 2026 11:37:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jackson Ambole Okata]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/07112338/photo-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322752</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Freshwater Fish, Governance, Health, Marine Animals, Microplastics, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Plastic, Pollution, Research, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[During the 11th Our Ocean Conference held in the coastal city of Mombasa, the Kenyan government, together with the World Economic Forum&#8217;s Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) and UNDP Kenya, formally launched the Kenya National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP Kenya). At least 14 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year making [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[During the 11th Our Ocean Conference held in the coastal city of Mombasa, the Kenyan government, together with the World Economic Forum&#8217;s Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) and UNDP Kenya, formally launched the Kenya National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP Kenya). At least 14 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year making up 80% of all marine debris found in surface waters and deep-sea sediments. Kenya faces considerable challenges with plastic pollution, particularly in urban centers and along its coastline. Plastics account for 20% of the 22,000 tonnes of waste generated daily in Kenya, according to estimates. Only 27% of the plastic waste is collected, of which 8% is recycled and the remaining 19% disposed of in unsanitary landfills or dumpsites. The plastic waste not properly collected and managed often ends up in rivers and the ocean. It disrupts ecosystems, endangers wildlife, and impacts tourism and fisheries. In 2017, Kenya introduced a ban on the use, manufacture and importation of single-use plastic bags. In 2020, the ban was extended to single-use plastics in protected areas. NPAP Kenya will help accelerate the country’s transition to a circular plastics economy, according to Clemence Schmid, Director, Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) at the World Economic Forum (WEF). Clemence Schmid, Director, Global Plastic Action Partnership, World Economic Forum during the formal launch of NPAP, Kenya at the Our Ocean conference in Mombasa. Image courtesy of NPAP Kenya. The GPAP launched by the WEF in 2018 is a multi-stakeholder initiative to tackle&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/the-only-possible-transition-is-a-just-transition-interview-with-wefs-clemence-schmid/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322752</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>If Florida reefs aren’t protected, storms will increase flooding &#038; costs: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/if-florida-reefs-arent-protected-storms-will-increase-flooding-costs-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/if-florida-reefs-arent-protected-storms-will-increase-flooding-costs-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Mar 2026 15:54:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/12050147/b-FKNMS_-_Reef_34136062951-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315628</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Florida, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Marine, Marine Conservation, Microplastics, Oceans, Pollution, Storms, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Healthy reefs aren’t just about colorful fish — they also shield shorelines from intense tropical storms. If Florida’s reefs keep degrading, flooding during tropical storms could get much worse, increasing risks to people and costing nearly a billion dollars a year in damage to buildings and economic disruption annually, a new Earth’s Future study finds. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Healthy reefs aren’t just about colorful fish — they also shield shorelines from intense tropical storms. If Florida’s reefs keep degrading, flooding during tropical storms could get much worse, increasing risks to people and costing nearly a billion dollars a year in damage to buildings and economic disruption annually, a new Earth’s Future study finds. Coral reefs act as natural breakwaters, absorbing up to 97% percent of an incoming wave’s energy, with the top of the reef taking the bulk of the impact. Globally, around 200 million people benefit from this kind of natural flood protection, according to a 2014 Nature Communications study. But around the world, coral reefs are in trouble. The most recent bleaching event, driven by record temperatures, hit more than 80% of reefs. Reefs are also battling coral diseases, pollution, microplastics, physical damage and other threats. In the Florida Keys, live coral cover has declined by about 90%, over the last 40 years, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Degraded reefs aren’t as strong, and crumbling coral means they aren’t as able to cushion the impact of waves. As waves become more forceful, they erode sediment, deepening the seafloor closer to shore. “Waves break relative to their water depth. &#8230; Now, all of a sudden, you make that water deeper, that means a bigger wave can come in closer to shore,&#8221; says Curt Storlazzi, a researcher at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the study’s first author. In a previous study,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/if-florida-reefs-arent-protected-storms-will-increase-flooding-costs-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/if-florida-reefs-arent-protected-storms-will-increase-flooding-costs-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315628</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Plastic, from home and abroad, spills into Türkiye’s waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/plastic-from-home-and-abroad-spills-into-turkiyes-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/plastic-from-home-and-abroad-spills-into-turkiyes-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Mar 2026 16:59:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Guia BaggiUtku Kuran]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/11152022/4377-compressed-plastic-waste-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315550</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Europe, Mediterranean Sea, Middle East, and Turkey]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Economics, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Industry, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Microplastics, Oceans, Plastic, Pollution, Recycling, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ADANA, Türkiye — Along the final stretch of the Seyhan River, in southern Türkiye, plastic bits in various colors dot the water and sediment. When the river bends, shredded plastic, degraded by the elements, forms large gray patches. Downstream, where the Seyhan flows into Mersin Bay, debris large enough to display clues to its origin [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ADANA, Türkiye — Along the final stretch of the Seyhan River, in southern Türkiye, plastic bits in various colors dot the water and sediment. When the river bends, shredded plastic, degraded by the elements, forms large gray patches. Downstream, where the Seyhan flows into Mersin Bay, debris large enough to display clues to its origin lies scattered across the wetland: wrinkled German-labeled packages of Thai-style chicken noodles, unopened single-use cutlery from the U.K., an empty margarine box from Spain, among many others. Between the small village of Baharlı and the sea, fishing barracks stand at the juncture of a large canal and the river. A fisher uses a wooden oar to lift the anoxic black sediments and show how plastic fragments have become ubiquitous across the riverbed. They are everywhere, his colleague Halil Balıkçıoğlu told Mongabay, along with sewage and chemical waste from big factories. “It wasn&#8217;t like this 30 years ago,” Balıkçıoğlu said. “We used to make tea with this water.” Fishing barracks at the juncture of a large canal and the Seyhan River. Image by Utku Kuran for Mongabay. In recent years, there’s been a rapid evolution in the local recycling industry largely fed by imports of foreign waste. According to U.N. Comtrade data, 677,663 metric tons of plastic scraps traveled to Türkiye in 2024 alone, 77% of it from the U.K. and the EU combined. Since China closed its doors to plastic waste imports in 2018, Türkiye has become a major destination. Most of this scrap heads&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/plastic-from-home-and-abroad-spills-into-turkiyes-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/plastic-from-home-and-abroad-spills-into-turkiyes-waters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315550</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Promising breakthrough creates plastics that self-deconstruct on cue: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/promising-breakthrough-creates-plastics-that-self-deconstruct-on-cue-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/promising-breakthrough-creates-plastics-that-self-deconstruct-on-cue-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Mar 2026 13:45:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Asher]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/10065130/1-BANNER-IMAGE-engin-akyurt-10CKgHbX15A-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315490</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Chemicals, Circular Economy, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Innovation, Microplastics, Plastic, Pollution, Research, Solutions, Sustainability, Waste, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Plastics have a gigantic built-in problem: They’re tenacious, which is very good for a milk jug or a car bumper. But they don’t easily break down, which is bad for the environment. From the 1950s, when plastics were first produced in significant amounts, through 2017, the petrochemical industry churned out more than 8.3 billion metric [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Plastics have a gigantic built-in problem: They’re tenacious, which is very good for a milk jug or a car bumper. But they don’t easily break down, which is bad for the environment. From the 1950s, when plastics were first produced in significant amounts, through 2017, the petrochemical industry churned out more than 8.3 billion metric tons of the nearly indestructible stuff, the vast majority of which is still with us today, polluting the natural world, contaminating wildlife and ourselves. Add to this an estimated 25 billion metric tons of plastic expected to be produced by 2050, and the agonizingly intractable nature of this mega-pollution crisis becomes clear. Humanity’s take-make-waste linear manufacturing economic model for plastics stands in stark contrast to natural systems. Over billions of years of evolution, living organisms developed strong, durable materials (think bone, shell and silk) that self-deconstruct back into harmless components after use. Inspired by the circularity of natural materials, chemists at Rutgers University in the U.S. set out to design plastics that could do the same. And they think they have found a breakthrough solution to the circularity problem, or at least may have taken a big step toward a solution. In a paper published last November, they report that they’ve developed a new molecular structure for plastic, inspired by nature, that allows it to self-deconstruct at the end of a product’s lifespan. In fact, researchers say that a timely programmable breakdown date can even be built into future plastic products. Chemist Yuwei Gu (left)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/promising-breakthrough-creates-plastics-that-self-deconstruct-on-cue-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/promising-breakthrough-creates-plastics-that-self-deconstruct-on-cue-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315490</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Another threat to reefs: Microplastic chemicals may harm coral reproduction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/another-threat-to-reefs-microplastic-chemicals-may-harm-coral-reproduction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/another-threat-to-reefs-microplastic-chemicals-may-harm-coral-reproduction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Dec 2025 18:16:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kari Goodbar]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/05181248/Goodbar-Photo-6-plastic-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310668</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Hawaii, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Green, Invertebrates, Microplastics, Oceans, Plastic, Pollution, Waste, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As the sliver of a new moon shines over Kāneʻohe Bay, Oʻahu, millions of tiny orbs ascend from a reef and swirl in the water column. These spheres are bundles of coral eggs and sperm responding to lunar cycles and chemical cues in the water that tell them when to fertilize and where to settle [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As the sliver of a new moon shines over Kāneʻohe Bay, Oʻahu, millions of tiny orbs ascend from a reef and swirl in the water column. These spheres are bundles of coral eggs and sperm responding to lunar cycles and chemical cues in the water that tell them when to fertilize and where to settle down for their next phase of development. The Hawaiian archipelago’s position near the Pacific Garbage Patch means these bundles often share the water column with microplastics, nefarious little particles that may interfere with these natural chemical cues. Most previous research on corals and microplastics has focused on the effects on adult corals of ingesting or absorbing plastic particles. Few studies have addressed larval stages of coral development or the impact of water contaminated with plastic residue, known as leachate. A coral head in Kāneʻohe Bay, Oʻahu. Image courtesy of Ocean Image Bank/Toby Matthews. The effects of leachate on coral reproduction are complex, according to coral biologist Keiko Wilkins, a researcher at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her most recent study, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, details how leachate affects two different phases of coral reproduction. “The effects that we’re seeing on the fertilization and the effects that we’re seeing on the larvae settling are very different,” Wilkins said. Corals reproduce sexually through one of two methods: spawning or brooding. Spawning coral species release eggs and sperm into the water for external fertilization, while brooding species release larvae that have already fertilized internally. Plastic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/another-threat-to-reefs-microplastic-chemicals-may-harm-coral-reproduction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/another-threat-to-reefs-microplastic-chemicals-may-harm-coral-reproduction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310668</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lethal dose of plastic for seabirds and marine animals ‘much smaller than expected’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/lethal-dose-of-plastic-for-seabirds-and-marine-animals-much-smaller-than-expected/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/lethal-dose-of-plastic-for-seabirds-and-marine-animals-much-smaller-than-expected/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Nov 2025 13:53:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/19132317/turtle-plastic-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309832</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Chemicals, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Microplastics, Oceans, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Plastic, Pollution, Seabirds, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[New research has found that even small amounts of plastic can be deadly to seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals. While previous research has established that plastic can lead to mortality in many species, this new study identifies the types and amounts of plastic that pose the greatest danger, and estimates how likely an animal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[New research has found that even small amounts of plastic can be deadly to seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals. While previous research has established that plastic can lead to mortality in many species, this new study identifies the types and amounts of plastic that pose the greatest danger, and estimates how likely an animal is to die after ingesting it. The study authors found the lethal dose to be much smaller than expected. The team of international researchers, including several from U.S.-based environmental advocacy group Ocean Conservancy, conducted a literature review of more than 50 studies, drawing together the necropsy results for more than 10,000 animals that included data on the cause of death and on plastic ingestion. The mortality data included 1,537 seabirds from 57 species; 1,306 sea turtles from all seven marine turtle species; and 7,569 marine mammals representing 31 species, including whales, dolphins and seals. The team used the data to generate modeling that analyzed the relationship between the plastic in the animal’s gut and the likelihood of death for each animal group, looking at both the total number of pieces of plastic and their volume. Where possible, they also considered the type of plastic the wildlife ingested to understand which types were most lethal to the animals. Plastic found inside a dead black-footed albatross. Image by Dan Clark /USFWS. “That lethal dose is much smaller than we expected,” lead author Erin Murphy, manager of ocean plastic research at the Ocean Conservancy, told Mongabay. She and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/lethal-dose-of-plastic-for-seabirds-and-marine-animals-much-smaller-than-expected/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309832</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can courts combat plastic pollution? Lessons from Indonesia (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/can-courts-combat-plastic-pollution-lessons-from-indonesia-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/can-courts-combat-plastic-pollution-lessons-from-indonesia-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Sep 2025 16:56:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Syahriza Alkohir Anggoro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/02/19013621/83A2078-copy-e1727883583606-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306838</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Commentary, Environment, Environmental Law, Law, Microplastics, Plastic, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly adopted a new resolution laying the first groundwork toward a new legally binding international agreement to end plastic pollution. The treaty will contain ambitious targets covering every stage of the plastic life cycle, including introducing restrictive measures against the production and consumption of single-use plastics, the development of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly adopted a new resolution laying the first groundwork toward a new legally binding international agreement to end plastic pollution. The treaty will contain ambitious targets covering every stage of the plastic life cycle, including introducing restrictive measures against the production and consumption of single-use plastics, the development of a framework for coordinated national action plans, and regional and international cooperation. While the progress of the agreement remains to be seen, from the very beginning, the key to its success clearly relies on the engagement of all parties. In this regard, what role can the courts play? As has been well documented by the Plastic Litigation Tracker, there have been many success stories from plastic waste-related legal actions in the Global North and Global South in recent years. These suits can take the form of citizen lawsuits or class actions in various types of courts, usually targeting governments or producers. In the future, more lawsuits are expected as the negative consequences of plastic pollution on the environment and human health continue to emerge. Plastics in the courtroom Global South countries such as Indonesia are among the world’s significant contributors to plastic waste, therefore courts here can provide valuable lessons on how judicial power contributes to combating this Anthropocene crisis. A manta ray swimming amongst plastic, Indonesia. Image courtesy of Elitza Germanov. The emerging plastic waste litigation in Indonesia demonstrates the involvement of the courts in several ways. First, litigation can arise at the initiative&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/can-courts-combat-plastic-pollution-lessons-from-indonesia-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306838</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Consumed by convenience: The culture of disposability</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/consumed-by-convenience-the-culture-of-disposability/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/consumed-by-convenience-the-culture-of-disposability/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Sep 2025 01:29:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/21201043/Consumed-256x90-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306303</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Books, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Green, Interviews, Microplastics, Plastic, Pollution, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When Saabira Chaudhuri began covering consumer-goods companies for The Wall Street Journal, she thought she was writing about marketing campaigns, product launches, and quarterly results. What she found instead was a tale of industrial ingenuity turned liability: a business model built on disposability, dressed up in the rhetoric of sustainability. Her new book, Consumed: How [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Saabira Chaudhuri began covering consumer-goods companies for The Wall Street Journal, she thought she was writing about marketing campaigns, product launches, and quarterly results. What she found instead was a tale of industrial ingenuity turned liability: a business model built on disposability, dressed up in the rhetoric of sustainability. Her new book, Consumed: How Big Brands Got Us Hooked on Plastic, traces how plastic became indispensable to modern capitalism and why efforts to rein it in have so often failed. Chaudhuri’s route into journalism was neither straightforward nor inevitable. Growing up in Bangalore in the 1990s, she imagined a legal career like her grandfather’s, until she realized her memory may be too poor for the courtroom. A scholarship to Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts opened another path. After earning a sociology degree and submitting more than a hundred job applications, she landed at Forbes as a multimedia producer. That first foothold in journalism led to Fast Company in New York, Mint in New Delhi, Dow Jones, and finally the Journal, where she spent 12 years reporting from New York and London. She stepped down in May 2025, after the publication of Consumed, to work as a freelance journalist. Her book grew out of reporting that began in 2018, as consumer unease about single-use plastics swelled. Bags, bottles, straws, and cups—once symbols of convenience—had become emblems of waste. Companies scrambled to demonstrate environmental responsibility, touting biodegradable packaging or recycled content. Yet Chaudhuri soon noticed a pattern. “The more I reported&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/consumed-by-convenience-the-culture-of-disposability/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306303</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As plastics treaty talks break down, are there paths to a breakthrough?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/as-plastics-treaty-talks-break-down-are-there-paths-to-a-breakthrough/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/as-plastics-treaty-talks-break-down-are-there-paths-to-a-breakthrough/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2025 16:06:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Pekow]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/29125200/6-sfWKxnWg-MarieJacquemin_Greenpeace-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305152</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Consumption, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Microplastics, Oil, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Plastic, Politics, Pollution, and Regulations]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Events this August raise a critical question: Can the United Nations process to combat global plastic pollution ever reach agreement? Or is some other way forward necessary? The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC) set a goal in 2022 of a legally binding treaty by the end of 2024. But the INC missed its [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Events this August raise a critical question: Can the United Nations process to combat global plastic pollution ever reach agreement? Or is some other way forward necessary? The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC) set a goal in 2022 of a legally binding treaty by the end of 2024. But the INC missed its own deadline this month. Negotiators from 184 nations strived at the 10-day summit in Geneva, Switzerland, only to yet again fail to even come close to reaching consensus on a treaty draft. Some delegates and observers left in frustration after the 6th official INC summit (known as INC-5.2) and wondered if the process will ever work. Others cited incremental progress and looked forward with some hope to another negotiating session at a yet-to-be determined time and place. Not only do numerous treaty specifics still need to be worked out, but countries can&#8217;t even agree on the basics: Should the agreement be binding or voluntary? Should it encompass the full life cycle of plastic from creation to disposal, limit production and ban some toxic chemicals, or should it just focus almost exclusively on reuse and recycling? The High Ambition Coalition (HAC), now totaling more than 75 nations, seeks a legally binding, cradle-to-grave treaty that reduces production and consumption and provides an adequately financed enforcement mechanism. “The negotiations on the global plastics treaty are not just any technical debate. It&#8217;s about deciding whether we&#8217;re going to stop pollution at its source, regulating the entire life cycle of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/as-plastics-treaty-talks-break-down-are-there-paths-to-a-breakthrough/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305152</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As UN plastic treaty talks face possible deadlock, what are the ways forward?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/as-un-plastic-treaty-talks-face-possible-deadlock-what-are-the-ways-forward/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/as-un-plastic-treaty-talks-face-possible-deadlock-what-are-the-ways-forward/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2025 18:01:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tosca Ballerini]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/31145526/angela-compagnone-g1xoeXbfuTw-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303512</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Consumption, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Microplastics, Oil, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Plastic, Politics, Pollution, Regulations, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Historically, most United Nations agreements have been reached by consensus. But based on recent events, this no longer seems likely for achieving a fully effective global treaty on plastic pollution, according to many analysts. The fifth resumed session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC-5.2) will take place Aug. 5-14 in Geneva, Switzerland. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Historically, most United Nations agreements have been reached by consensus. But based on recent events, this no longer seems likely for achieving a fully effective global treaty on plastic pollution, according to many analysts. The fifth resumed session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC-5.2) will take place Aug. 5-14 in Geneva, Switzerland. The impending summit’s outcome remains highly uncertain, with two groups of countries holding strongly opposing views on the agreement’s scope: The High Ambition Coalition, along with other nations, totaling 106 member states, is seeking a binding treaty with global caps on plastics production and a ban of the most toxic chemicals used in plastics. The so-called “Like-minded countries” (Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Iran, India) and other countries, including Brazil and the United States, want a voluntary treaty focused only on waste management, especially recycling. Treaty negotiations began hopefully in 2022 and were scheduled to conclude with a final document by 2024 following UNEA Resolution 5/14. But at each new session, oil- and plastic-producing countries (including Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Iran, India, and Brazil) exploited unresolved procedural rules to delay negotiations, used obstructionist tactics to slow down progress and insisted on consensus for all decisions — effectively vetoing majority agreements, observers of the U.N. process say. Tired of the lack of progress in negotiations, on Dec. 1, 2024, the last day of INC-5.1, more than 100 countries came together at a press conference as a coalition of the willing, declaring “No treaty is better than a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/as-un-plastic-treaty-talks-face-possible-deadlock-what-are-the-ways-forward/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303512</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sri Lanka Supreme Court orders $1 bn payment in X Press Pearl marine disaster</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/sri-lanka-supreme-court-orders-1-bn-payment-in-x-press-pearl-marine-disaster/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/sri-lanka-supreme-court-orders-1-bn-payment-in-x-press-pearl-marine-disaster/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2025 14:11:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/29132852/X-Press-Pearl-c-AirForce-Media-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303357</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animals, Environment, Environmental Law, Global Environmental Crisis, Law, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Microplastics, Oceans, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — In a landmark ruling, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has ordered the owners and operators of the MV X-Press Pearl to pay $1 billion in compensation for the devastating environmental and economic damage caused by the ship’s sinking off the island’s western coast in 2021. Delivered in a detailed 361-page judgment by a five-judge [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — In a landmark ruling, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has ordered the owners and operators of the MV X-Press Pearl to pay $1 billion in compensation for the devastating environmental and economic damage caused by the ship’s sinking off the island’s western coast in 2021. Delivered in a detailed 361-page judgment by a five-judge bench led by outgoing Chief Justice Murdu Fernando, the decision is hailed as a milestone in holding corporate polluters accountable through domestic courts. “The verdict sends a strong message that environmental crimes cannot go unchecked, even when committed by powerful transnational actors,” said Dan Malika Gunasekera, an expert in maritime law who followed the X-Press Pearl proceedings closely. The X-Press Pearl, a Singapore-flagged container ship, caught fire in May 2021 and sank off Colombo after burning for nearly two weeks. Onboard were 1,486 containers, including hazardous chemicals and 78 metric tons of plastic nurdles — small resin pellets used in plastic manufacturing. An estimated 70-75 billion nurdles were released into Sri Lankan waters, blanketing the coastline and causing what experts have described as the world’s worst marine plastic spill. Cleaning operations to collect the nurdles spilled on the beaches still continue in Sri Lanka, as buried plastic pellets continue to wash over to the beaches. Image courtesy of the Marine Environmental Protection Authority (MEPA) World’s worst marine plastic spill The court also directed the ship’s owners and its local agents to pay compensation within a year, with the first instalment due by Sept. 23, 2025&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/sri-lanka-supreme-court-orders-1-bn-payment-in-x-press-pearl-marine-disaster/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303357</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Open burning of plastic is an escalating public health threat, say experts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/open-burning-of-plastic-is-an-escalating-public-health-threat-say-experts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/open-burning-of-plastic-is-an-escalating-public-health-threat-say-experts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2025 16:19:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/16132324/Image_9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302653</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Central America, Ghana, Guatemala, Malawi, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Fires, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Health, Microplastics, Planetary Health, Plastic, Pollution, Public Health, Recycling, Toxicology, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When Tiwonge Mzumara-Gawa was a child, her mother sent her to market with a basket woven from grasses. “But now we don&#8217;t do that,” she says, because plastic has taken over most utilitarian purposes in today’s Malawi. “You go and you get a plastic carrier, and they&#8217;re usually not reusable plastics.” In many Malawi communities, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Tiwonge Mzumara-Gawa was a child, her mother sent her to market with a basket woven from grasses. “But now we don&#8217;t do that,” she says, because plastic has taken over most utilitarian purposes in today’s Malawi. “You go and you get a plastic carrier, and they&#8217;re usually not reusable plastics.” In many Malawi communities, and across poorer nations worldwide, there is no waste collection or proper disposal. Instead, families faced with an onslaught of cheap plastic products — including single-use bags, bottles and diapers — commonly burn the waste in pits beside their homes. With a growing number of developing-world communities living beneath a pall of toxic petrochemical plastic smoke, Mzumara-Gawa is sounding the alarm. Now an ecologist at the Malawi University of Science and Technology and an environmental advocate with the NGO Tearfund, she says the widespread open burning of plastics is taking an increasingly heavy public health and environmental toll that is largely being ignored. Experts warn that many communities are resorting to the burning of plastic waste in households as fuel, while burning by industry to make energy is also becoming common. Add to this the vast volume of plastic waste dumped by the Global North on the Global South — waste that often ends up being incinerated without pollution controls. A dump site in Malaysia, a nation that recently blocked U.S. plastic waste exports. Shipments of plastic products and plastic waste from the Global North to the Global South are creating a flood of plastics&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/open-burning-of-plastic-is-an-escalating-public-health-threat-say-experts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/open-burning-of-plastic-is-an-escalating-public-health-threat-say-experts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302653</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Twin ship disasters in India threaten widespread pollution on Sri Lankan coasts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/twin-ship-disasters-in-india-threaten-widespread-pollution-on-sri-lankan-coasts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/twin-ship-disasters-in-india-threaten-widespread-pollution-on-sri-lankan-coasts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jun 2025 06:27:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/19054841/1.-Elsa-3-ship-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301053</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coastal Ecosystems, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Microplastics, Oceans, Oil Spills, Plastic, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Sri Lanka is once again facing a significant marine environmental crisis, as tiny plastic pellets, commonly known as nurdles, have begun washing ashore along the island’s northern coastline. This time, the pollution is linked to the sinking of the Liberia-flagged container ship MSC ELSA 3 off of Kerala, India. The unfolding incident has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Sri Lanka is once again facing a significant marine environmental crisis, as tiny plastic pellets, commonly known as nurdles, have begun washing ashore along the island’s northern coastline. This time, the pollution is linked to the sinking of the Liberia-flagged container ship MSC ELSA 3 off of Kerala, India. The unfolding incident has triggered fears of a repeat of the X-Press Pearl disaster in 2021, the worst maritime disaster to have occurred in Sri Lanka, significantly impacting marine ecosystems and coastal communities. According to the Indian Coast Guard, the MSC ELSA 3, carrying 640 containers including hazardous cargo, sank on May 25, roughly 38 nautical miles off the Kerala coast. The cause was reportedly a failure of its ballast system. Indian authorities confirmed the vessel was loaded with an estimated 85 metric tons of diesel and 367 metric tons of furnace oil, in addition to at least 13 containers of dangerous substances such as calcium carbide. All 24 crew members were safely rescued by Indian Coast Guard and Navy teams. While Indian authorities were able to initially contain an oil spill, the environmental fallout soon escalated. Plastic nurdles released from sunken containers began appearing on beaches in southern India, and by June 11, ocean currents driven by strong gusts of southwest monsoon winds carried them toward Sri Lanka’s northern shores, raising serious concerns among marine biologists and local communities. Plastic nurdles washed ashore on Sri Lanka’s northern coast. Image courtesy of the Marine Environmental Protection Agency (MEPA). Fresh&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/twin-ship-disasters-in-india-threaten-widespread-pollution-on-sri-lankan-coasts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301053</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Microplastics and melting ice reveal deepening crisis in Antarctica</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/microplastics-and-melting-ice-reveal-deepening-crisis-in-antarctica/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/microplastics-and-melting-ice-reveal-deepening-crisis-in-antarctica/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jun 2025 09:14:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Soledad Domínguez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/16090108/Rompehielos-con-la-mision-avanza-por-la-Antartida-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300828</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Antarctica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Glaciers, Global Warming, Marine, Microplastics, Oceans, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Glaciers melting rapidly, fields of moss expanding, water streaming off ice shelves once frozen solid: these are just a few of the impacts of climate change observed by a team of 57 researchers during a 70-day voyage around the Antarctic coast on the Russian icebreaker Akademik Tryoshnikov. The expedition also revealed the presence of microplastics [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Glaciers melting rapidly, fields of moss expanding, water streaming off ice shelves once frozen solid: these are just a few of the impacts of climate change observed by a team of 57 researchers during a 70-day voyage around the Antarctic coast on the Russian icebreaker Akademik Tryoshnikov. The expedition also revealed the presence of microplastics on the southern continent, and that the salinity of the Southern Ocean has decreased due to melting ice. The icebreaker Akademik Tryoshnikov. Image courtesy ICCE/Anderson Astor and Marcelo Curia. Antarctica is Earth’s fifth-largest continent and a key climate regulator. Together with the much smaller Arctic region, Antarctica redistributes the heat absorbed in the equatorial zone, balancing thermal energy. In other words, the ice masses in these two extreme locations of the planet are part of a huge circulatory machine that regulates energy, affecting the global climate. Led by Brazilian glaciologist Jefferson Cardia Simões, from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul’s Polar and Climate Center (CPC–UFRGS), the International Antarctic Coastal Circumnavigation Expedition (ICCE) took place in 2024. A total of 57 researchers from seven countries traveled 29,000 kilometers (about 18,000 miles), circling Antarctica and collecting snow, ice samples and seawater, to understand how the microbial life that inhabits this region is responding to climate change. An ice core collected for analysis. Image courtesy of ICCE/Anderson Astor and Marcelo Curia. The team drilled into the ice, collecting samples that will shed light on the nature of the atmosphere at different times in history, as well&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/microplastics-and-melting-ice-reveal-deepening-crisis-in-antarctica/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300828</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New EU plastic pellet rules greeted with caution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/new-eu-plastic-pellet-rules-greeted-with-caution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/new-eu-plastic-pellet-rules-greeted-with-caution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Apr 2025 06:44:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alex Shaw]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Daniel]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/21093409/6168627154_8b8a4f0693_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297870</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Consumption, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Microplastics, Oil, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Plastic, Politics, Pollution, and Regulations]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A coalition of leading European environmental groups has cautiously welcomed a “landmark” agreement by lawmakers in Brussels on new rules aimed at curbing a major source of microplastic pollution in the world’s oceans. The provisional deal, reached last week between the European Council and the European Parliament, introduces binding EU-wide legislation on handling plastic pellets [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A coalition of leading European environmental groups has cautiously welcomed a “landmark” agreement by lawmakers in Brussels on new rules aimed at curbing a major source of microplastic pollution in the world’s oceans. The provisional deal, reached last week between the European Council and the European Parliament, introduces binding EU-wide legislation on handling plastic pellets or “nurdles,” pea-sized granules used to make plastic products. The regulation covers the entire supply chain, from production to shipping, and is expected to take effect two years after it is formally adopted. The Rethink Plastic alliance, which includes Greenpeace, the Environmental Investigation Agency and ClientEarth, called the deal a “meaningful first step” in a joint statement, but warned that loopholes and delays would weaken its impact. “This agreement represents a tremendous show of EU leadership in the global fight against microplastic pollution,” said Amy Youngman, legal and policy specialist at the EIA. “Now is the time to back bold words with bold action and ensure this law is delivered in practice.” As much as 184,000 metric tons of pellets pollute the environment across Europe each year, equivalent to up to 7,300 truckloads. Just last month, a shipping collision off the English coast spilled thousands of pellets, contaminating beaches and conservation areas. Once in the ocean, the granules linger for decades, leaching toxins and harming marine life. The new rules say companies and transporters must focus on stopping such accidents. And if a spill happens, they must follow clear steps to clean it up. Each&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/new-eu-plastic-pellet-rules-greeted-with-caution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297870</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Award-winning film highlights lasting damage from X-Press Pearl disaster in Sri Lanka</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/award-winning-film-highlights-lasting-damage-from-x-press-pearl-disaster-in-sri-lanka/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/award-winning-film-highlights-lasting-damage-from-x-press-pearl-disaster-in-sri-lanka/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Apr 2025 14:47:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/11134016/1-Oyster-Pearl-c-Tharindu-Ramanayaka-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297496</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coastal Ecosystems, Disasters, Ecosystems, Environment, Film, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Marine Conservation, Microplastics, Oceans, Plastic, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Beneath Sri Lanka’s serene waters, a pearl oyster cherished her pearl, living in harmony. But disaster struck when a blazing ship sank, poisoning the sea. Entangled in debris, she lost her treasured pearl. Desperate, she started to search despite the waves and found glistening orbs. Believing she had recovered her lost pearl, she [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Beneath Sri Lanka’s serene waters, a pearl oyster cherished her pearl, living in harmony. But disaster struck when a blazing ship sank, poisoning the sea. Entangled in debris, she lost her treasured pearl. Desperate, she started to search despite the waves and found glistening orbs. Believing she had recovered her lost pearl, she embraced the glistening objects. Yet, they were not pearls, but toxic plastic pellets, part of the ship’s deadly cargo. As the poison seeped into her, she closed her shell one last time. The ocean, once her sanctuary, became her grave. This haunting narrative unfolds in This is Not a Pearl, a short film by Sri Lankan filmmaker Tharindu Ramanayaka, which powerfully illustrates the environmental catastrophe caused by the MV X-Press Pearl disaster in artistic form. The film delves into the aftermath of the ship’s sinking off Sri Lanka’s west coast in May 2021, an event that triggered the world’s largest-ever spill of nurdles, the tiny pellets from which plastic products are made. A total of 1,680 metric tons of nurdles, from 87 containers, were unleashed into the ocean. The 15-minute experimental production “This is Not a Pearl” serves as a cinematic protest, using artistic expression to powerfully portray the environmental devastation caused by the sinking of the cargo carrier X-Press Pearl. Image courtesy of Tharindu Ramanayaka. Sri Lanka has long been known as the &#8220;Pearl of the Indian Ocean,&#8221; not just for its breathtaking landscapes and rich biodiversity, but also for its famed Gulf of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/award-winning-film-highlights-lasting-damage-from-x-press-pearl-disaster-in-sri-lanka/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/award-winning-film-highlights-lasting-damage-from-x-press-pearl-disaster-in-sri-lanka/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297496</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bangladesh continues promotion of biodegradable bags amid battle against polythene</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/bangladesh-continues-promotion-of-biodegradable-bags-amid-battle-against-polythene/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/bangladesh-continues-promotion-of-biodegradable-bags-amid-battle-against-polythene/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Apr 2025 13:45:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mohammad Al-Masum Molla]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/01134157/vegetable-and-plastic-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296823</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Conservation, Consumption, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Law Enforcement, Microplastics, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Plastic, Politics, Pollution, Regulations, Toxicology, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On a busy morning in November 2024, a dramatic scene unfolded in a supermarket in Banani, Dhaka. Government officials, armed with security personnel, launched a joint operation to crack down on the widespread use of plastic bags. As the supermarket employees wrapped goods in the familiar crinkling plastic, officers moved in, ready to seize the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On a busy morning in November 2024, a dramatic scene unfolded in a supermarket in Banani, Dhaka. Government officials, armed with security personnel, launched a joint operation to crack down on the widespread use of plastic bags. As the supermarket employees wrapped goods in the familiar crinkling plastic, officers moved in, ready to seize the items. A clash of voices filled the air. Employees and customers alike protested, arguing that the alternatives were simply too costly and that banning plastic bags would bring significant everyday inconveniences. This moment encapsulated the ongoing struggle Bangladesh has faced since becoming the first country in the world to ban plastic bags in 2002. While the intention — tackling the environmental and health crises caused by plastic waste — was noble, implementing the law has proved to be far more challenging than expected, shows a 2022 study. The groundbreaking law was enforced too loosely over the two decades, allowing plastic bags to gradually creep back into the market. The study mentions that, by 2006, as the government encouraged alternatives like jute and cloth bags, plastic bags had nearly disappeared from major retailers. However, the lack of strict enforcement left a gap that enabled plastic bags to re-emerge, first in large retail outlets and then in local markets. A growing crisis: Plastic waste overwhelms Dhaka A report by World Bank shows that Bangladesh’s per capita plastic consumption in urban areas increased to 9 kilograms (20 pounds) for the year 2020, from 3 kg (6.6 lbs.) in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/bangladesh-continues-promotion-of-biodegradable-bags-amid-battle-against-polythene/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/bangladesh-continues-promotion-of-biodegradable-bags-amid-battle-against-polythene/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296823</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Microplastic within humans now a health crisis: Interview with ‘Plastic People’ filmmakers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/microplastic-within-humans-now-a-health-crisis-interview-with-plastic-people-filmmakers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/microplastic-within-humans-now-a-health-crisis-interview-with-plastic-people-filmmakers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Mar 2025 12:53:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/19115137/PlastIcPeople_1920x1080_20240103-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296052</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond the screen: DCEFF]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Consumption, Environment, Environmental Law, Film, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Industry, Interviews, Media, Microplastics, Nutrient Pollution, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Plastic, Poisoning, Pollution, Public Health, Research, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a lab in Türkiye, researcher Sedat Gündoğdu zooms in on the image of a small red fiber. For the first time on film, viewers are witnessing microplastics in the human brain. The moment is emblematic of an emerging environmental and health crisis affecting nearly every corner of life on Earth, from the deepest depths [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a lab in Türkiye, researcher Sedat Gündoğdu zooms in on the image of a small red fiber. For the first time on film, viewers are witnessing microplastics in the human brain. The moment is emblematic of an emerging environmental and health crisis affecting nearly every corner of life on Earth, from the deepest depths of the ocean to the blood in our veins. Microplastics, it seems, are everywhere. The award-winning documentary Plastic People: The Hidden Crisis of Microplastics follows science journalist Ziya Tong as she examines her own body for microplastic contamination and traces the latest microplastic science and solutions around the globe. The thesis: we are all becoming “plastic people.” “I was surprised at the ubiquity of microplastics in the human body,” Rick Smith, executive producer of the documentary, said in an interview with Mongabay. The film grew out of Smith’s 2020 reporting for The Globe and Mail, in which he worked with scientists to test his own body for microplastics. “The question isn’t, ‘do we have microplastics in us?’” Smith said. “The question is, ‘how much?’ And the question isn’t where in the human body microplastics exist. The question is, ‘where doesn’t it exist?’ We haven’t actually found a human organ without measurable microplastic levels yet.” The film takes viewers on a global journey, tracking researchers who are finding microplastics not only in the environment but in human bloodstreams, brains and placentas. Recent studies confirm these findings, showing that microplastics have infiltrated virtually every part of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/microplastic-within-humans-now-a-health-crisis-interview-with-plastic-people-filmmakers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/microplastic-within-humans-now-a-health-crisis-interview-with-plastic-people-filmmakers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296052</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Researchers find microplastics for the first time in the Finnish Sámi waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/researchers-find-microplastics-for-the-first-time-in-the-finnish-sami-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/researchers-find-microplastics-for-the-first-time-in-the-finnish-sami-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Feb 2025 17:10:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/04164013/Field-visits-to-the-Naatamo-River-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293842</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Arctic Ocean, Europe, European Union, and Finland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Climate Justice, Conservation, Environment, Fish, Fishing, food security, Freshwater Fish, Indigenous Peoples, Microplastics, Oceans, Plastic, Pollution, Research, Saltwater Fish, Social Justice, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Finland’s freezing Arctic, lakes and rivers have nourished the lifeways of Indigenous Skolt Sámi communities for generations as they fished and herded reindeer. But three years of research undertaken by Sámi traditional knowledge holders and scientists have, for the first time, detected another presence in their waters: microplastics. “The plastic concentrations were really small, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Finland’s freezing Arctic, lakes and rivers have nourished the lifeways of Indigenous Skolt Sámi communities for generations as they fished and herded reindeer. But three years of research undertaken by Sámi traditional knowledge holders and scientists have, for the first time, detected another presence in their waters: microplastics. “The plastic concentrations were really small, but they were definitely there in higher quantity than it was thought to be,” said Tuomo Soininen one of the study authors and a PhD scholar at the department of technical physics in the University of Eastern Finland. “It’s really pristine when you observe these areas, and you don&#8217;t see big plastic debris anywhere.” The research found that the average size of the microplastics was 100 micrometers (μm) and that concentrations ranged from 45 to 423 microplastic particles per cubic meter (35.3 cubic feet).  They sampled both freshwater and marine water that are part of the Finnish Skolt Sámi traditional use: Lake Inarijärvi (Inari), Näätämö river catchment and the Neiden Fjord in the Barents Sea. The Näätämö River in Lapland, Finland’s northernmost region, flows and drains into the Neiden Fjord, before continuing into the Barents Sea. Neighboring Lake Inari was also sampled as a lake ecosystem but it is not in the same basin. The most common polymer types the researchers found were polyethylene, polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate. Microplastic concentrations were lower in the fjord compared to the catchment area of Näätämö River or Lake Inari. The source of these microplastics is unknown. However, the authors hypothesize&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/researchers-find-microplastics-for-the-first-time-in-the-finnish-sami-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/researchers-find-microplastics-for-the-first-time-in-the-finnish-sami-waters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293842</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deadlocked plastic treaty talks will lead to renewed negotiations in 2025</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/deadlocked-plastic-treaty-talks-will-lead-to-renewed-negotiations-in-2025/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/deadlocked-plastic-treaty-talks-will-lead-to-renewed-negotiations-in-2025/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Dec 2024 15:32:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Pekow]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/10105306/BFFP-PR-Graphics-Banner-Landscape-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291394</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Consumption, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Microplastics, Oil, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Plastic, Politics, Pollution, and Regulations]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“Just wait till next year!” goes the slogan often attributed to disappointed sports fans. Those same words could equally apply to proponents of an internationally binding U.N. agreement to phase out plastic pollution; they’ll now need to wait at least till next year to try and achieve that goal. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“Just wait till next year!” goes the slogan often attributed to disappointed sports fans. Those same words could equally apply to proponents of an internationally binding U.N. agreement to phase out plastic pollution; they’ll now need to wait at least till next year to try and achieve that goal. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution this month failed to meet its self-imposed deadline to approve final plastics treaty language by the end of 2024. Instead, at its fifth major session, known as INC-5, conducted Nov. 25 to Dec. 1 in Busan, South Korea, the parties remained deadlocked. In the end, with the summit running into overtime, the great divide couldn’t be crossed. Oil- and plastics-producing nations (including Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Iran and India), refused to compromise on their demands for a voluntary accord only covering plastic reuse and recycling. The majority of nations — more than 100 in total — held out for a binding treaty mandating reductions in plastic production and restricting use of certain toxic chemicals. The Busan meeting was the fifth major international negotiation session in a fast-tracked process that began in 2022 to address the global plastics pollution crisis. More than 3,300 participants attended the INC-5 summit, including delegates from more than 170 nations and 440 observers. Environmentalists and delegates from the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution representing 68 nations (counting the European Union as one) headed home disappointed but hopeful for progress, and maybe a treaty breakthrough, in 2025. The United&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/deadlocked-plastic-treaty-talks-will-lead-to-renewed-negotiations-in-2025/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/deadlocked-plastic-treaty-talks-will-lead-to-renewed-negotiations-in-2025/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291394</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Thousands of chemicals from food packaging found in humans, a major study reveals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/thousands-of-chemicals-from-food-packaging-found-in-humans-a-major-study-reveals/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/thousands-of-chemicals-from-food-packaging-found-in-humans-a-major-study-reveals/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Nov 2024 16:00:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rita Aksenfeld]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/25154948/Rita-Aksenfeld-plastics-03-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290589</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Chemicals, Consumption, Environment, Food, Food Industry, Green, Microplastics, Novel Entities, Plastic, Pollution, and Toxicology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At the end of a long day, you might sit down with friends or family to eat a bowl of hot noodle soup. A savory scent fills the air as you bring the broth to your lips. Whether that meal is homemade udon or canned chicken noodle soup, you will also unwittingly swallow chemicals that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At the end of a long day, you might sit down with friends or family to eat a bowl of hot noodle soup. A savory scent fills the air as you bring the broth to your lips. Whether that meal is homemade udon or canned chicken noodle soup, you will also unwittingly swallow chemicals that leached into the ingredients from everything they touched on their way to your table. Different types of food packaging contain multiple classes of chemicals that can leach into food. Credit: RISheehan on Wikimedia Commons Food processing equipment, storage containers, packaging, and serving bowls all contain chemicals that can bleed into your food in tiny amounts. When you eat your soup, every noodle, vegetable, and protein picked up these &#8220;food contact chemicals&#8221; along the way. Researchers knew people ingested chemicals like bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates with their food, but the full scope of this exposure was unclear. To create such a catalogue, a team of public health specialists based in Switzerland compiled the results of three databases of molecules found in the human body, five biomonitoring programs, and hundreds of studies. They found that among the 14,402 known food contact chemicals, 3,601 – more than 25 percent – are present in human blood, urine, hair, umbilical cords, placentas, and breast milk. Eighty of those chemicals cause cancer, decrease fertility, cause birth defects, or are toxic to humans. An additional 59 do not yet have safety information, according to a recent study published in the Journal&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/thousands-of-chemicals-from-food-packaging-found-in-humans-a-major-study-reveals/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290589</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Plastic pollution pushing Earth past all nine planetary boundaries: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/plastic-pollution-pushing-earth-past-all-nine-planetary-boundaries-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/plastic-pollution-pushing-earth-past-all-nine-planetary-boundaries-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Nov 2024 15:19:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alden Wicker]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/25125427/ocg-saving-the-ocean-IminhMpXoCQ-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290604</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aerosol Pollution, Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Conservation, Consumption, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Microplastics, Natural Gas, Oil, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Plastic, Politics, Pollution, Regulations, Toxicology, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“Plastics pollution exacerbates the impacts of all [nine] planetary boundaries,” warns a report published this month in the journal One Earth in the run-up to what could be the final United Nations summit to hammer out an international treaty addressing the global plastics crisis. That meeting, known as INC-5, in Busan, South Korea, happens from [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“Plastics pollution exacerbates the impacts of all [nine] planetary boundaries,” warns a report published this month in the journal One Earth in the run-up to what could be the final United Nations summit to hammer out an international treaty addressing the global plastics crisis. That meeting, known as INC-5, in Busan, South Korea, happens from Monday, Nov. 25, to Sunday, Dec. 1. The planetary boundary framework, hypothesized in 2009 and updated several times since then by an international group of scientists, seeks to identify the safe limits of human activity impacting Earth systems. Beyond those safe limits — dubbed the “safe operating space for humanity” — the planet’s natural processes can destabilize, degrade, stop self-regulating or even collapse, creating an extreme and hostile environment for life as we know it. As of this year, human activities have transgressed six of the nine boundaries. The fifth of those limits to be violated, scientists note, was the novel entities boundary, which was determined crossed in 2022. Novel entities encompass human-made chemicals and other synthetic entities added to the natural environment. One of the most pervasive of novel entities today is plastic. Globally, 500 million tons of plastics are produced every year, but only 9% get recycled, says the One Earth research article. Plastics are persistent and don’t break down. And some plastics, along with many of their additives, are toxic to life. Plastic has been found everywhere on Earth — from deepest oceans to high mountains, in clouds and pole to pole.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/plastic-pollution-pushing-earth-past-all-nine-planetary-boundaries-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290604</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Microplastics are sickening and killing wildlife, disrupting Earth systems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/microplastics-are-sickening-and-killing-wildlife-disrupting-earth-systems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/microplastics-are-sickening-and-killing-wildlife-disrupting-earth-systems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Nov 2024 15:43:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/21110656/bottlenose-dolphin-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290402</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Animals, Birds, Chemicals, Conservation, Consumption, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Health, Mammals, Microplastics, Natural Gas, Oceans, Oil, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Plastic, Poisoning, Politics, Pollution, Seabirds, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Bottlenose dolphins leapt and torpedoed through the shallow turquoise waters off Florida’s Sarasota Bay. Then, a research team moved in, quickly corralling the small pod in a large net. With the speed of a race car pit crew, veterinarians, biologists and their assistants examined the animals, checking vital signs while taking skin, blood and other [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Bottlenose dolphins leapt and torpedoed through the shallow turquoise waters off Florida’s Sarasota Bay. Then, a research team moved in, quickly corralling the small pod in a large net. With the speed of a race car pit crew, veterinarians, biologists and their assistants examined the animals, checking vital signs while taking skin, blood and other samples. They held a petri dish over each dolphin’s blowhole until it exhaled, with an intensity similar to a human cough. Then, they rolled up the net and the dolphins swam off unharmed. A pod in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay was similarly tested. Generations of dolphins have been part of this ongoing dolphin health study, run by the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program since 1970. It tracks populations and individuals and also looks for health issues related to pollutants in the marine environment. In the lab, scientists discovered that all 11 of the dolphins had breathed out microplastic fibers, shed from synthetic clothing, says Leslie B. Hart, associate professor at the College of Charleston and an author on this research. The fibers resembled those found in human lungs in previous studies, proving that dolphins, like us, are breathing plastic. In people, microplastic has been linked to poor lung function and possible lung disease. An earlier collaboration linked phthalates circulating in the dolphins’ blood to alterations in their thyroid hormone levels — an effect also found in humans that can impact nearly every organ in the body. Phthalates, toxic chemicals found in flexible plastics, readily leach into the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/microplastics-are-sickening-and-killing-wildlife-disrupting-earth-systems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/microplastics-are-sickening-and-killing-wildlife-disrupting-earth-systems/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290402</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The plastics crisis is now a global human health crisis, experts say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-plastics-crisis-is-now-a-global-human-health-crisis-experts-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-plastics-crisis-is-now-a-global-human-health-crisis-experts-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Nov 2024 18:15:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alden Wicker]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/19131858/pexels-mumtahina-tanni-1080117-8395838-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290316</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coal, Conservation, Consumption, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Health, Microplastics, Natural Gas, Oceans, Oil, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Plastic, Poisoning, Politics, Pollution, Protests, Public Health, Regulations, Social Justice, Toxicology, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s been clear for some time: We’re in the midst of a rapidly escalating global plastics crisis. More than 11 billion metric tons of virgin plastics were produced worldwide from 1950 to 2022. And the rate of production has soared, with at least 71% of all plastics ever made produced in the 21st century. Of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s been clear for some time: We’re in the midst of a rapidly escalating global plastics crisis. More than 11 billion metric tons of virgin plastics were produced worldwide from 1950 to 2022. And the rate of production has soared, with at least 71% of all plastics ever made produced in the 21st century. Of all those billions of tons manufactured, three-quarters were discarded in landfills, open dumps or directly into the environment. Today, our oceans, beaches, rivers, cities and wild places are awash in discarded plastic and synthetic textiles, while microplastics have been detected from pole to pole, on remote mountaintops and in clouds. In view of the tremendous buildup of visible trash, it’s not surprising that the plastics crisis so far has mostly been treated as a problem of poor waste management and consumer choice. Likewise, efforts for a fix have largely focused on recycling and consumer education. But talking about plastic as a litter problem ignores one of the most alarming facets of our plastic addiction: its impacts on human health. Fast-mounting evidence points to microplastics entering the human body and doing internal damage. Likewise, thousands of chemicals that leach out of plastics are finding their way into our bodies (via food wrappers, storage containers, cooking utensils and other routes) with some of those chemicals linked to a range of health impacts, including immune suppression and cancer. In a new report out Nov. 7th in the journal One Earth, an international group of researchers attempted to gather&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-plastics-crisis-is-now-a-global-human-health-crisis-experts-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-plastics-crisis-is-now-a-global-human-health-crisis-experts-say/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290316</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How &#8216;waste colonialism&#8217; underpins Asia’s plastic problem (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/how-waste-colonialism-underpins-asias-plastic-problem-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/how-waste-colonialism-underpins-asias-plastic-problem-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Nov 2024 17:31:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Coleen Salamat]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/07/14053427/26356574503_1b0b886e88_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290265</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Commentary, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, E-waste, Environment, Governance, Microplastics, Plastic, Pollution, Social Justice, Trade, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[‘Out of sight, out of mind’ is a typical approach to waste and is one of the main reasons why the waste trade persists. The world discovered that toxic waste was being dumped in Africa and other developing countries in the 1980s, and since 1988, more than a quarter of a billion tons of plastic [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[‘Out of sight, out of mind’ is a typical approach to waste and is one of the main reasons why the waste trade persists. The world discovered that toxic waste was being dumped in Africa and other developing countries in the 1980s, and since 1988, more than a quarter of a billion tons of plastic waste have been exported around the world, usually from the Global North to common destinations like Southeast Asian countries plus India and Turkey. Following public outcry and heightened environmental awareness, the Basel Convention, the first global legal instrument to control the transboundary movement of hazardous waste, was developed in 1989. It took 3 decades for the Convention to also include plastic waste through its amendments, but the Basel Convention Plastic Waste Amendments came into force in 2021. But why does waste trade still happen? The term ‘waste colonialism’ was coined in 1989 at one of the convention meetings, to describe the dumping of waste from higher-income countries in lower-income countries. It is also referred to as ‘waste neocolonialism,’ since it’s the direct export of toxic waste into former colonial states or other areas on the economic periphery. Malaysia and India, which are former British colonies, receive plastic waste from the United Kingdom, while Vietnam receives plastic waste from the European Union and the United States, and Indonesia from Japan, the United States, and the European Union, for instance. On average from 2021 to 2023, Malaysia received 1.4 billion kilograms of plastic waste, Vietnam 1 billion,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/how-waste-colonialism-underpins-asias-plastic-problem-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/how-waste-colonialism-underpins-asias-plastic-problem-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290265</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>U.S. toughens stance on plastics production in run-up to key treaty summit</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/u-s-toughens-stance-on-plastics-production-in-run-up-to-key-treaty-summit/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/u-s-toughens-stance-on-plastics-production-in-run-up-to-key-treaty-summit/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Nov 2024 16:03:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Pekow]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/05103316/bangladesh-plastic-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289684</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Consumption, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Industry, Microplastics, Overconsumption, Plastic, Politics, Pollution, Regulations, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The chances for a stronger international agreement on limits to plastic production may have increased dramatically as the world nears a U.N. deadline for achieving a plastics treaty. The game changer: The United States, one of the world&#8217;s largest producers of plastics, has shifted its position to recognize the need to control the entire life [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The chances for a stronger international agreement on limits to plastic production may have increased dramatically as the world nears a U.N. deadline for achieving a plastics treaty. The game changer: The United States, one of the world&#8217;s largest producers of plastics, has shifted its position to recognize the need to control the entire life cycle of plastics, whereas previously it had advocated for a nonbinding treaty emphasizing mainly recycling and reuse. The U.N. Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution is scheduled to conduct its fifth and possibly final session (dubbed INC-5) this month, when it faces a self-imposed deadline to hammer out an internationally binding agreement, with the treaty language then going to the world’s nations for ratification. It’s possible, however, that if agreement isn’t reached, the process could run into next year. Since the world began treaty negotiations in 2022, the U.N. meetings have been buffeted by widely diverging viewpoints. Large plastic-producing nations, such as the U.S., China, Russia, India and Saudi Arabia, have opposed efforts to limit or control production, whereas a self-named High Ambition Coalition (HAC) of 67 nations has fought to highly regulate it. Among coalition members are coastal and island nations on the receiving end of ocean-carried plastic waste. The U.S. has so far taken no known steps to join the HAC. Between the INC’s fourth session, which took place in Ottawa in April, and the fifth session slated for Nov. 25-Dec. 1 in Busan, South Korea, the United States modified&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/u-s-toughens-stance-on-plastics-production-in-run-up-to-key-treaty-summit/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289684</doi>				</item>
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