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Pollution

New Yorkers use an estimated 23 billion plastic bags every year.

New York Says Goodbye to Plastic Bags

A statewide ban prohibiting the distribution of single-use plastic bags went into effect on Sunday

Greg Lecoeur won the title of Underwater Photographer of the Year 2020 for his Frozen Mobile Home, a playful snapshot of seals circling an iceberg.

Dazzling Display of Seals Wins Underwater Photographer of the Year Award

French photographer Greg Lecoeur triumphed over more than 5,500 submissions from hundreds of artists around the world

A "living machine" containing frog stem cells in a new configuration designed by a computer algorithm. Parts shown in green are made up of frog skin cells, while parts in red are frog heart cells.

Scientists Assemble Frog Stem Cells Into First ‘Living Machines’

The so-called ‘xenobots’ could replace traditional metal or plastic robots without polluting the planet, but they raise ethical questions

Employees are contributing to the initiative by supplying reusable cups, plates and utensils for meetings, as well as bringing used plastic packaging materials from home.

Art Meets Science

A Hawaii Museum Has Eliminated the Sale of All Single-Use Plastics

The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu hopes to set a positive example in the fight for a more sustainable future

Minoan single-use cup alongside a paper cup from Air India

Cool Finds

For Easy Clean-Up After Parties, Minoans Used Disposable Cups

A 3,500-year-old single-use vessel is part of a new display at the British Museum that explores our long-standing relationship with trash

Thousands of brooding octopuses were discovered in 2018 on the ocean floor off the coast of California.

Eighteen Things We’ve Learned About the Oceans in the Last Decade

In the past 10 years, the world’s oceans have faced new challenges, revealed new wonders, and provided a roadmap for future conservation

Loss of oxygen allows algae to thrive, which in turn has cascading effects on marine ecosystems.

The World’s Oceans Are Being Starved of Oxygen

An alarming report found that there are 700 marine sites impacted by low oxygen levels—up from 45 in the 1960s

Mercury-Laden Fog May Be Poisoning California’s Mountain Lions

A new study has found that pumas in the Santa Cruz Mountains display higher mercury levels than big cats in inland regions

The study authors write: "We posit here that artificial light at night is another important – but often overlooked – bringer of the insect apocalypse."

New Research

The Devastating Role of Light Pollution in the ‘Insect Apocalypse’

A new study shows excess outdoor light is impacting how insects hunt, mate and make them more vulnerable to predators

City noise can throw off a bat's ability to use echolocation.

Noise Pollution Impacts a Wide Range of Species, Study Finds

From tiny insects to large marine mammals, animals are affected by noise in ways that might threaten their survival

A two-month-old filefish collected in the survey surrounded by plastic bits.

New Research

Newly Identified Fish Nurseries Are Choked With Plastic

Larval fish congregate in surface slicks, which contain plankton—and 126 times more plastic than surrounding waters

Trending Today

Why Did Thousands of Rubber Bands Show Up on an Uninhabited Cornish Island?

Nesting gulls have likely been trying to feed the bands found in nearby flower fields to their chicks for decades

That's the tea.

Your Soothing Cup of Tea May Contain Billions of Microplastics

That’s ‘several orders of magnitude higher than plastic loads previously reported in other foods,’ according to a new study

One of many contaminated crabs at the Deepwater Horizon site.

New Research

Deepwater Horizon Site Is Now a Sticky Wasteland Populated by Sickly Crabs

Degrading hydrocarbons attract shrimp and crab to the spill site, where they are contaminated by oil and develop a variety of problems

Birds given doses of a common pesticide lost significant body mass, fat stores

Common Pesticides Delay Songbird Migration, Trigger Significant Weight Loss

Within six hours of ingesting a high dose of pesticide, sparrows lost six percent of their body weight and 17 percent of their fat stores

Climbing equipment and trash scattered a camp on Mount Everest, according to AFP. Some are calling the mountain "world's highest rubbish dump."

To Clean Up Everest, Nepal Is Banning Single-Use Plastics on the Mountain

Earlier this year, volunteers collected three metric tons of garbage from the famed landmark

A Beloved Baby Dugong Has Died After Ingesting Plastic

The orphaned marine mammal became an internet sensation after images of her nuzzling human caretakers went viral

Scientists think gigantic crinoids would cling to logs with anchor-like stems, creating a floating raft that likely supported a host of other species and enabled their long-distance transport across Jurassic seas.

Ancient Sea Life May Have Hitched Across Oceans on Giant Living Rafts

Enormous crinoids of the Jurassic era, related to sea stars and sea urchins, could have carried whole ecosystems around the world

Neonics are responsible for 92 percent of the increase in U.S. agricultural toxicity

Toxic Pesticides Are Driving Insect ‘Apocalypse’ in the U.S., Study Warns

The country’s agricultural landscape is now 48 times more toxic to insects than it was 25 years ago

Well, that stinks.

Heading to the Beach? Beware the Fecal Bacteria

A new report found that more than 2,600 sites in the U.S. and Puerto Rico were “potentially unsafe” for at least one day in 2018

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