Ocean plastic pollution could triple in a decade without action by the ocean economy. TOMRA CEO Stefan Ranstrand responds to the UK Governments Foresight Future of the Sea report and explains how container deposit schemes and sensor-based recycling sorting could provide a solution.
After banning free plastic bags, can stores begin the process of cutting out all plastic packaging? The alternatives could be much less damaging to our health, our fertility, our wildlife and even our genetic constitution!
Air pollution is rarely linked to water pollution, but the strong links will soon be obvious, just as the surface air movement is influenced by the ocean currents and the temperatures of both. While scientific models can tell us what is going to happen as the earth warms, climate change will also be influenced by small so far neglected fluctuations in chemistry such as these pH changes in our oceans, affecting billions of creatures, and of course, us.
Columbia University has created a maelstrom with publication of probable links between waste water injection and quakes. Long suspected, this evidence is pretty damning, and useful ammunition for the anti-fracking lobby.
Guyana, whose name means 'land of many waters', has implemented a moratorium on the issue of new permits for gold and diamond mining in its rivers.
Remediation of the Hudson River. The Hudson has had to endure almost 200 years of human garbage, chemical and sewage pollution.
Robotic fish used to find pollution. A four-foot robot fish that uses artificial intelligence to track, find and record water pollution is being tested.
An overburdened sewage system may collapse under the strain. This can lead to health and ecological contamination, affecting surface and groundwater resources, essentially our drinking water supplies.
Cyanide leaks into river system in South Africa. The cyanide leaked into a tributary of the Ngagane River near the town of Dundee in KwaZulu-Natal.
A new sewage-powered microbial fuel cell that produces electricity and also cleans up the sewage has been developed and improved by American scientists.
Runoff has been a problem for generations in most countries. In the Great Lakes, it is now creating enormous blooms of algae on the coasts. Enter the Quagga! It's a large mussel, Dreissena rostriformis bugensis, that emigrated from the Ukraine, bearing a superficial resemblance to the Quagga zebra.
Humans can't dodge the charge of endangering corals in Florida, say scientists - it is our feces that are spreading a coral-destroying white pox disease there. A paper out on the online journal PLoS ONE today finds the smoking gun at the sewage treatment plant; but Florida is racing to fix the problem at source.
Water reuse, sometimes referred to as 'toilet to tap', is gaining ground in thirsty states. There are two methods by which this is done: the first, called direct potable reuse, entails treating wastewater to drinking water quality and redistributing it directly into the drinking water distribution system; the second, called indirect potable reuse, is when wastewater is treated to drinking water standards but returned to some water source, such as groundwater, for eventual reuse.
Water and wastewater infrastructure improvements may suffer due to S&P's downgrade of federal debt and municipal bonds. Much needed capital improvements projects could therefore be shelved. Typical improvements include replacing old pipes to reduce leakage and building or upgrading treatment facilities to keep pace with the rapidly changing water quality regulations.
A new patent developed by a scientist in Israel allows for fish farms to minimize or even illiminate water pollution and fish contamination. According to a report by the UN Fish and Agriculture Organization, aquaculture (artificially grown seafood) provides over 47% of total world supply of seafood.
Large scale broiler production is affecting water quality in Chesapeake Bay. A report from Pew Environment Group, Big Chicken: Pollution and Industrial Poultry Production in North America, claims that the vast scale of these operations poses a real threat to the environment.
The House Interior and Environment Appropriation Committee passed an EPA budget cut of 18%, including a 33% cut to a critical water and wastewater infrastructure funding program. This will only exacerbate the massive water infrastructure spending gap identified by EPA.
After nearly 2 years of review by regulators, the City of Philadelphia's landmark stormwater management plan, Clean Waters, Green City, was approved. The $2 billion plan, which proposes to meet water quality requirements through the implementation of green infrastructure solutions, may fundamentally change the future of urban stormwater management.
A bill, The Sustainable Water Infrastructure Investment Act, has been introduced in Congress that would remove bond caps from water and wastewater infrastructure projects, stimulating much needed investment. Given current spending levels, the EPA and ASCE estimate annual spending shortfalls in the billions.
Much of the debate swirling around hydrofracking centers on water quality impacts, obscuring its potential impacts on water quantity. What is undeniable is that the practice called high volume hydraulic fracturing requires large volumes of water, potentially impacting local water supplies and aquatic habitat.
Obama administration hopes to clarify 'vague'' Clean Water Act closing the door on majority of water pollution. In a move delighting environment groups, but drawing concern from agricultural lobbies, the new definition of the 1970s act could the increase the government's abilioty to protect streams, wetlands and other sensitge waterways from pollution.
A film that contrasts the recovery of rivers in the North East of England with the pollution in their Indian counterparts will be premiered on April 19. To be shown at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle on Tyne in North East England,'Black River Business' arose from the experiences of Indian director Sudheer Gupta while based at Durham University's Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) in the region.
A new study on the total climate-impact of fossil fuels shows that natural gas is more dangerous to the planet than coal - but that top of the roost for climate-change causing fuels may well be shale gas. This massive new energy resource, being aggressively exploited across the US, has been slated for the waste-water pollution contamination from 'fracking'. Now its image as a 'clean' transitional fuel is in doubt too.
Biodiversity improves water quality and helps ecosystems to withstand pressures from pollution, according to a new study published yesterday in the journal Nature. In the study, Cardinale demonstrates exactly why streams that have more species are better at removing these nutrient pollutants from the water, confirming that niche differences among species provides the mechanism for biodiversity's cleansing ability.
Hydraulic fracturing or fracking for shale gas is the new wild frontier of the fossil-fuel industry, one they're keen to promote as a low-carbon alternative to high-polluting coal and oil. Environmentalists are worried, though, about contaminated drinking water, and earth tremors - but perhaps those are the least of the dangers.
Marine pollution does demonstrable harm to sea creatures and new research suggests it also acts as a barrier to movement and makes major changes in the genes of affected populations. The dirtiest outpourings of US land livers are sewage from municipal treatment plants and urban runoff from highly modified river basins.
Investigations indicate that large amounts of pig waste do not cause acid rain. Pig breeding is big business, but in order to make money the producer must have a large number of pigs. One of the problems is that a large number of pigs produces a large amount of waste. Filed under environmental issue: waste/business.
Making the most of the rain requires roofs made of the proper materials - especially if you want to use it in the home, not just the garden. A study from the University of Texas has tested a wide variety of roofing materials for water quality - and come to some interesting conclusions.
Scientists have developed a way to extract a new kind of biodiesel from microalgae. They have worked out that once the microalgae have been through the treatment system and purified the wastewater then it can potentially be used to run construction vehicles, buses and farm equipment.
Zapping microbes with electricity could replace tonnes of chemicals used in cleaning up mining wastewater, thanks to scientists who have developed a new water treatment system. Microbes are already used in conventional wastewater treatments to mop up contaminants by adding or removing electrons. But to work effectively, they need to be 'fed' using vast amounts of nutrients and chemicals.
Indian project to investigate cheap filtration process for waste kitchen water for use in horticulture. Water is a precious and necessary commodity. It is essential to sustain life and its regular supply is something that we take for granted. In the so-called developed world the days are long gone when every drop had to be carried from a well. In this present age very few of us are without a piped water supply and by the nature of our lifestyle, millions of gallons of wastewater are literally poured down the drain every day.
Using the energy in household sewage as a new source of power. Scientists are forever looking for new sources of energy and researchers from the UK's Newcastle University have recently been turning their attention to household sewage. Although previously not thought to be worth bothering with, the Newcastle findings have lead them to believe that household sewage has far more potential as an alternative source of energy than had previously been thought.
The UK's rivers have enjoyed a great decade. The Environment Agency want this to continue. The UK's Environment Agency has defined the last decade as 'the best for rivers since the industrial revolution'. With dramatic improvements in water quality and the general environment around rivers the results have been seen in the recovery of wildlife in the British countryside.
A recent scientific expedition looking at plastic levels in the Mediterranean Sea has revealed the severity of the micro-plastic pollution problem. The research work has been completed by Mediterranean EnDangered (MED), an international programme bringing together scientists, teachers, sailors, artists and associations for the protection of the Mediterranean Sea.
The state of Pennsylvania is in the midst of controversy since last week when it was discovered that the liquid that gushes from its gas wells is only partially treated for substances that could be environmentally harmful, then dumped into rivers and streams from which communities get their drinking water. This creates water that is salty to taste and harmful to health.
To help the River Thames shrug off its tag of the country's least-loved river the problem of run-off and direct discharges need to be addressed.
Five concept vacuum cleaners have been produced, built from waste plastic collected from the world's oceans. A new use has been found for some of the plastic waste contaminating the world's oceans. Five vacuum cleaners have been made from plastic waste, one from each of the oceans where the plastic was collected.
We present some business ideas for those of you who think that the future is greener than the present- we can think of some who don't ---. The advice is general and does not apply exclusively to any one nation.
We use the tiger (this is a prime Siberian example) to show up our failure to conserve wild species, but while we monopolise all the food that animals require, we could remember that it is not only their conservation we urgently need to cover. It is also our own indulgences.
How can you describe the threats existing to species, both large and small? Using the highly-threatened primates, we can perhaps see how they have contrived to exist until the current time. Then we can better understand just how we can prevent factors simply wiping them from the face of the earth, often through ignorance, lack of care, prejudice and of course the universal profit motive. Conservation begins in our minds, but demands much more than that.
The future is certainly renewable, but are we too late to prevent future centuries problems of global warming- and the rest! Here are some current US solutions to waste and warming for you to enjoy---there are some ads in this piece but weve allowed them for one blog only.
Need to save money after the spending boom to end them all? Here are 2 sets of opinions on how to pull out the plugs at night at least.
When dolphins are 'rescued' in various countries, the car given seems to be ill-considered. We are simply looking at the success rate which is reported to be low, in most places. They could even end up in commercial aquarium shows, but they certainly rarely make it back to the sea.
