Thousands of negotiators and observers representing most of the world’s nations are gathering in the Canadian city of Ottawa this week to craft a treaty to end the rapidly escalating problem of plastic pollution. Each day, the equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic are dumped into the world’s oceans, rivers and lakes. People are increasingly breathing, eating and drinking tiny particles of plastic. Some at the talks thinks there should be less plastic produced. Oil and gas companies and some countries rich in these resources disagree. Most plastic is made from fossil fuels. Inger Andersen, at the UN, says it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fix something everyone knows must be fixed.
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FILE - A thick greenish film covers trash and plastics polluting the waters of Lake Maracaibo, as fishermen prepare their bait in the background, in Maracaibo, Venezuela, Aug. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
FILE - Cranes lift waste, mostly plastic and paper at the GreenNet recycling plant in Atarot industrial zone, north of Jerusalem, Jan. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)
FILE - A man walks on a railway track littered with plastic and other waste materials on Earth Day in Mumbai, India, April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, File)
The Environmental Protection Agency has designated two forever chemicals used in cookware, carpets and firefighting foams as hazardous substances. Friday's action is intended to ensure quicker cleanup of the toxic compounds and require those responsible for contamination to pay for its removal. Designation as a hazardous substance under the Superfund law doesn’t ban the chemicals, known as PFOA and PFOS. But it requires that releases of the chemicals into soil or water at certain levels be reported to federal, state or tribal officials. The EPA could then require cleanup to protect public health and recover costs. PFOA and PFOS have been voluntarily phased out by U.S. manufacturers but remain in the environment because they don't degrade.
A raft of agreements between African countries and Dubai-based company Blue Carbon could give the company control over large swaths of land for conservation projects. In Liberia, 10% of the country's land area is to be signed away, and 20% in Zimbabwe. Activists say that previous projects on the continent have led to human rights abuses, including forcible eviction of Indigenous communities, and have labeled them “carbon colonialism." These projects are based on polluters’ purchase of carbon credits meant to offset their greenhouse gas emissions. Experts say it's a market whose benefits are difficult to determine. Activists say the Blue Carbon agreements lack transparency and communities weren't consulted. Blue Carbon didn't respond to requests for comment.
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday defended a new $20 billion federal “green bank” program. EPA Administrator Michael Regan said it will finance projects to combat climate change, including in disadvantaged communities most affected by pollution. Regan said the money could fund things like residential heat pumps and other energy-efficient home improvements as well as larger-scale projects such as electric vehicle charging stations and community cooling centers. Republicans have called the program a “slush fund” and wondered whether there will be sufficient accountability and transparency from private groups getting the money. The Republican-controlled House approved a bill last month to repeal the bank and other parts of President Joe Biden’s climate agenda.
The Biden administration has issued a final rule aimed at limiting methane leaks from oil and gas drilling on federal and tribal lands, its latest action to crack down on emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to global warming. The rule issued Wednesday by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management will tighten limits on gas flaring on federal lands and require that energy companies improve methods to detect methane leaks that add to planet-warming greenhouse gas pollution. The actions follow a more comprehensive methane-reduction plan announced by the Environmental Protection Agency in December. Oil and gas production is the nation’s largest industrial source of methane, the primary component of natural gas.
A new United Nations report estimates that 19% of the food produced around the world went to waste in 2022. That's a little more than 1 billion metric tons of food that could have helped feed the hundreds of millions of people who live with hunger every day. The biggest share of that waste, about 60%, came in households. Almost 30% came in food service operations, such as restaurants. The updated Food Waste Index out Wednesday comes three years after the U.N.'s first attempt to quantify the problem as part of trying to cut food waste in half by the year 2030. Besides leaving people hungry, food waste means needless greenhouse gas emissions and amounts to a misuse of the land and water required to raise crops and animals.
Delaware’s Attorney General Kathleen Jennings has announced a lawsuit filed against numerous chemical company for allegedly contaminating the First State’s natural resources.
