Handwritten journals from 50s show how plastic problem has grown to global emergency A trove of data showing when the Atlantic began choking with plastic has been uncovered in the handwritten logbooks of a little-known but doggedly persistent plankton study dating back to the middle of the last century. From fishing twine found in the […]

New government report shows just how bad things have gotten in recent years. When I first moved to New Zealand 2.5 years ago, I was struck by a few things. For one, the wider public seem to know – and care – a lot about the environment. The people I met could tell me the […]

A new study by researchers from NASA has verified the accuracy of recent global warming figures. The team used measurements of the ‘skin’ temperature of the Earth taken by a satellite-based infrared measurement system called AIRS (Atmospheric Infra-Red Sounder) from 2003 to 2017. They compared these with station-based analyses of surface air temperature anomalies — […]

Drone imagery of coral patches along the coast of Maunalua Bay, Oʻahu, where researchers in the Marko Lab use coral DNA from filtered seawater to assess coral cover on local reefs. Photo courtesy of Patrick K. Nichols. Scientists at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Department of Biology have developed a technique for measuring the […]

Plastic floating in the sea is costing human society “hundreds if not thousands of billions of dollars” every year, including loss of tourism revenue and reduced productivity. The “perceived risk” of the contamination of seafood with microplastic may also be detrimental to the seafood industry, whilst the presence of marine litter can impact physical and […]

Plastic pollution is an urgent issue that is harming the planetary ecosystem, killing marine life, and impacting land animals as well as communities. While we can do our best to avoid plastic and reduce our reliance on plastic products, a shift on an industry level is needed. Nestlé, for instance, produces 1.5 million tons of […]

On March 17, 2002, the German-U.S. satellite duo GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) was launched to map the global gravitational field with unprecedented precision. The mission lasted 15 years, more than three times as long as expected. When the two satellites burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere at the end of 2017 and beginning […]

Recycling rates have been dropping on Oahu. While the cost of the program has been rising…thanks in part to contaminated recyclables in those blue bins. Recycling rates have been dropping on Oahu. While the cost of the program has been rising…thanks in part to contaminated recyclables in those blue bins. Everyone has a reason for […]

Thanks to campaigns, initiatives, and a number of eye-opening documentaries, awareness of pollution – particularly in our oceans – is on the rise every day. There’s a concerted effort, especially among the younger generation, to tackle pollution and waste, as well as the impact it’s having on climate change. When most of us think of […]

If you’re sad when you see stories about dead whales washing ashore with dozens of pounds of plastic in their bellies or feel guilty when you forget to bring your reusable bags to the grocery store, there’s a good reason. The amount of plastic that’s been dumped into the ocean has been increasing, according to […]