[posted by David Shukman on BBC, April 19th, 2018]   A crisis of plastic waste in Indonesia has become so acute that the army has been called in to help. Rivers and canals are clogged with dense masses of bottles, bags and other plastic packaging. Officials say they are engaged in a “battle” against waste that accumulates as quickly as they clear it. The commander of a military unit in the city of Bandung described it...

[posted by Josh Gabbatiss on The Independent, April 24th, 2018]   Scientists have found an unprecedented number of microplastics frozen in Arctic sea ice, demonstrating the alarming extent to which they are pervading marine environments. Analysis of ice cores from across the region found levels of the pollution were up to three times higher than previously thought. Each litre of sea ice contained around 12,000 particles of...

[posted by Rina Chandran on Global Citizen, April 25th, 2018]   Parched Cape Town, in South Africa, has managed to push back its “Day Zero” – an estimate of when taps in the city could run dry – to 2019 after successful water-saving efforts. But in India, “Day Zero” has come and gone for residents in many parts of the country, where taps failed long ago and people have turned instead to digging...

[by Sandra Leville, posted on The Guardian, April 12th, 2018] After plastic waste contributed to deadly floods in Recife, one neighbourhood took action. Now people can earn a living by cleaning up the river in a scheme being imitated around the world Maria das Gracas started collecting her plastic bottles after she saw the body of her neighbour floating past her house, carried along with the pollution that helped cause the deadly...

[posted by Sophia Smith Galer on BBC, 28 March 2018] We’re about five metres away from the Mediterranean Sea. To my right, the Zouk Mosbeh power plant pumps out plumes of thick grey smoke into an otherwise bright blue sky. The Jounieh Valley towers behind me over the coastline, a metropolis full of hotels and entertainment venues just outside of Beirut. To my left, I can see some sort of resort in the distance. But all I can smell –...

[posted by Cecilia Erba on Politheor, March 21st, 2018] The production of fossil fuels is still considered of strategic interest in Italy. As of the end of 2015, 114 exploration and 202 exploitation licenses were in force on national territory. Such activities pose a huge threat to the preservation of the environment and the health of local communities. The recently uncovered Val d’Agri affaireexemplifies the damage that oil...