Edmund Rice International- Care of Earth

Source: First US nuclear reactor in 40 years goes online soon in Georgia | Grist

Source: Opinion | Real Solutions to Reduce Plastics Pollution – The New York Times

Re “To Keep Plastic Out of Oceans, Start With Rivers,” by Boyan Slat (Opinion guest essay, May 28):

When your bathtub is overflowing, what is the first thing you do? Find a mop or turn off the faucet?

Unfortunately, Mr. Slat’s projects for in-the-water plastic collection are mops. Big, expensive, technical mops, but still mops.

Meanwhile, the plastic pollution tap remains wide open. Plastic production is estimated to triple in the next three decades.

Only 9 percent of all the plastic waste ever produced since the start of this industry has been recycled. Also, a large portion of ocean plastic sinks and is out of the reach of surface mops. So the mop strategy has been tried. It has failed.

….

Plastics warm the climate. They pollute during extraction and refining of their fossil fuel ingredients, and during their manufacturing, transportation, storage, use and disposal. Plastics’ pollution disproportionately harms low-income and rural neighborhoods, as well as Black, Indigenous and other people of color communities.

An effective global plastics treaty will recognize plastic’s full costs, drastically reduce industries’ plastic production, and implement the plastic-free reuse, refill, repair and share systems we need to eliminate wastefulness — rather than enabling the problem to grow worse by distracting us with false solutions like cleanups and recycling.

Erica Cirino
Washington
The writer is communications manager for Plastic Pollution Coalition and the author of “Thicker Than Water: The Quest for Solutions to the Plastic Crisis.”

Source: ‘I spot brand new TVs, here to be shredded’: the truth about our electronic waste | Waste | The Guardian

Source: More than 800m Amazon trees felled in six years to meet beef demand | Amazon rainforest | The Guardian

Source: Smoke clouds bring a warning: There’s no escaping climate’s threat to health – The Washington Post

Source: Is eating local produce actually better for the planet? | Food | The Guardian

Source: Opinion | As Canadian Smoke Darkens the New York Sky, The Future is Clear – The New York Times

Source: What I Learned at My Audience with the Pope | The New Yorker

Source: Through the Smoke – Third Act

Source: What a carbon tax can do and why it cannot do it all

…A carbon tax reflecting the social cost of carbon is viewed as an essential policy tool to limit carbon emissions: high prices for carbon-emitting goods reduce demand for them. The carbon tax is generally levied on fossil fuels.  Some countries have already adopted such a tax and discussions are ongoing in others. There are proponents of a global carbon tax too. Yet, governments are often keener to adopt measures other than a tax to contain carbon emissions. And amongst countries that have adopted a carbon tax, the levels vary substantially, and other measures exist alongside it.  It is natural to ask why a carbon tax is not used universally in preference to other policies to limit emissions and why, even if there is such a tax, other policies are needed too.