Polluting Farmers Should Pay

This year’s dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico — an area where decomposing algae consumes all oxygen in the waterlogged in at nearly 7,000 square miles, about the size of New Jersey. Researchers in the Great Lakes region predict that this year’s harmful algal bloom in Lake Erie will be twice last year’s size, and larger than the 2014 bloom that shut down the drinking water supply in Toledo, Ohio. Floridians and Chesapeake Bay residents regularly experience the green gunk and odor symptomatic of algal blooms. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that all 50 states now experience harmful algal blooms. 

These blooms contain toxins that can make us sick after swimming or consuming tainted fish, kill pets and livestock, and raise treatment costs for drinking water. Algal blooms reduce recreational enjoyment from boating, fishing and swimming — resulting in less tourism and lower property values. The economic cost associated with the single shut down of Toledo’s drinking water system is estimated at $65 million. 

Read the story from The New York Times by Catherine Kling - “Polluting Farmers Should Pay.”

The plastics crisis is more urgent than you know. Recycling bottles won’t fix it

West Wales, last weekend. The old foam mattress lying waterlogged on an otherwise clean beach might have been at sea for months before it was washed up on the tide. A large bit of it had broken off, and the rest was crumbling. It was a clear threat to wildlife, so we heaved what was left of it above the wave line and promised to come back to dispose of it properly when it was dry.

 Illustration by Eva Bee

But how do you safely dispose of an old mattress made of billions of tiny plastic particles leaking formaldehyde and other potentially dangerous chemicals? Do you burn it? Bury it? Do you expect the company who made it to come to collect it? Answers to environment secretary Michael Gove, who today pledged to stem the tide of plastic debris by announcing a consultation on a plastic-bottle return scheme for England, which aims to get people to recycle more.

Read John Vidal’s comment from The Guardian - “The plastics crisis is more urgent than you know. Recycling bottles won’t fix it.”