During this bruising presidential campaign, there was an eerie sense that we had moved into a post-truth world, with fake news circulating on Facebook and the veracity of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump continually called into question. In fact, Oxford Dictionaries just declared “post-truth” its 2016 international Word of the Year. But for me personally, facts…
You have likely seen the pictures of albatross chicks choking on plastics. These images are tough to look at and the death these birds suffer from ingesting plastics is gruesome and painful. Albatross consume a whole range of plastics that float in the ocean, from cigarette lighters, to toothbrushes to shards of plastics from a…
This week Ocean Conservancy is releasing its yearly data report highlighting the efforts of the nearly 650,000 dedicated volunteers who removed over 12 million pounds of trash from beaches and waterways around the world during the recent International Coastal Cleanup. The release of these data is a great opportunity to celebrate the success of this…
Just as I was getting ready to head out for my Christmas break yesterday, my email Inbox signals that the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released its recommendation to approve the first-ever, genetically-engineered animal for human consumption. For those who track the FDA, they know this isn’t unusual – the agency often makes…
“The cost of responding to ocean acidification may be substantial, but it is still far less than the costs of inaction” — Bill Ruckelshaus, co-chair Washington Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean Acidification, November 27, 2012 Consensus is hard. Any time you bring together a range of interests, it’s rare the group can speak in a…
The amount of money spent in politics is huge and ever expanding; for the first time, the two main Presidential campaigns raised more than 1 billion dollars. That’s billion with a “b”, a staggering sum. But the role of money extends well beyond big-time presidential politics; it has moved all the way down to state…
Our trash tells a lot about who we are, what we value and how we behave. Some of the lessons are inspirational and uplifting but many more are troubling. This year’s International Coastal Cleanup (ICC), and a subsequent research project, reveals the full range of trash tales. As part of Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free…