Human Ecology Contemporary Trends

Pollution Statistics

• Pollution kills more people than all wars and violence (New York Daily News)
• Nearly 2 Million Kids Die From Pollution Each Year (Live Science)

Climate

• America After Climate Change (CityLab)
• Uncovering the mental health crisis of climate change (Quartz)
• The Temperature of Your Hometown Shifts Your Personality, Study Suggests (Inverse Science)
• Hotter, Drier, Hungrier: How Global Warming Punishes the World’s Poorest (The New York Times)

Air Pollution

• That Junk in the Air Is Really Bad for Us (Bloomberg)

Electronic Waste & Hazards

• Where 3 Million Electric Vehicle Batteries Will Go When They Retire (Bloomberg)
• Apple Supplier Workers Describe Noxious Hazards at China Factory (Bloomberg)

Food Waste

• American Households Waste Nearly A Third Of Their Food (Study Finds)

• Leftovers in Landfills: How Uneaten Food Impacts the Environment (Farmington Patch)

Waste and Trash

• Discarded cigarette butts are the most widespread man-made pollutant (World Economic Forum)
• California has a recycling crisis. The only way to solve it is to stop making so much trash (Los Angeles Times)
• China Just Handed the World a 111 Million Ton Trash Problem (Bloomberg)

Light Pollution

• Loss of the night: Light pollution rising rapidly on a global scale (CNN)

Noise Pollution

• These scientists think peace and quiet should be a human right (Popular Science)

Plastic

• 90% of plastic polluting our oceans comes from just 10 rivers (World Economic Forum)

• A sperm whale that washed up on a beach in Spain had 64 pounds of plastic and waste in its stomach (CNN)
• We Depend on Plastic. Now We’re Drowning in It. (National Geographic)
• Why some people are giving up plastic for Lent (Mashable)
• The problem with bioplastics (Tree Hugger)
• Beach audit reveals which brands are worst offenders for plastic waste (Treehugger)
• Half of All Plastic That Has Ever Existed Was Made in the Past 13 Years (The Atlantic)

Waterways & Oceans

• Oceans suffocating as huge dead zones quadruple since 1950 (The Guardian)
• Our rivers and lakes contain a scary number of pesticides and pharmaceuticals (Popular Science)
• Trillions of Plastic Bits, Swept Up by Current, Are Littering Arctic Waters (The New York Times)
• Straw Wars: The Fight to Rid the Oceans of Discarded Plastic (National Geographic)
• Plastic Fibers Are Found in 83% of the World's Tap Water, a New Study Reveals (Time)

Consumption

• Clothing companies are trashing unsold merchandise instead of donating it (The Outline)
• The Ultimate Fashion Fail: One Garbage Truck Of Textiles Is Thrown Away Every Second (Huff Post)
• If everyone became vegetarian, would the planet actually be better off? (Popular Science)
• China says it won't take any more foreign garbage (Reuters)
• Mountains of US recycling pile up as China restricts imports (Public Radio International)

Energy Use

• American energy use, in one diagram (Vox)

Infrastructure

• Concrete: the most destructive material on Earth (The Guardian)

• America has a water crisis no one is talking about (Vox)

Social Inequality

• There’s More Bad News Than You Think (Foreign Policy)

• Is inequality bad for the environment? (The Guardian)
• As Groundwater Dwindles, a Global Food Shock Looms (Huffington Post)
• Developing world cannot sustainably achieve same living standards as West (Independent)

Environmental Justice (Environmental Racism)

• The blackest city in the US is facing an environmental justice nightmare (The Guardian)

• A Leader in the War on Poverty Opens a New Front: Pollution (The New York Times)

• Study Finds Racial Gap Between Who Causes Air Pollution And Who Breathes It (NPR)

• California officials say housing next to freeways is a health risk — but they fund it anyway (Los Angeles Times)
• As the rich move away from disaster zones, the poor are left behind (Grist)

Extinction

• Smuggled, Beaten and Drugged: The Illicit Global Ape Trade (The New York Times)
• Humans now drive evolution on Earth. They’re creating and destroying species (National Post)

Recycling

• The Fatal Flaws of Interventionism Scuttle “Recycling” (The Savvy Street)
• The Recycling Con (The New York Times)

• What Happens When One Of The World's Biggest Cities Doesn't Recycle (Huff Post)

Public Policy

• For a true circular economy, we must redefine waste (World Economic Forum)
  

• How a 9-Year-Old Boy’s Statistic Shaped a Debate on Straws

• France was the first country to ban supermarkets from throwing away unused food (Business Insider)
• French Food Waste Law Changing How Grocery Stores Approach Excess Food (NPR)
• Ecomodernist Manifesto (Ecomodernist Manifesto)
• L.A.’s mayor wants to lower the city’s temperature. These scientists are figuring out how to do it (Los Angeles Times)

Innovation

• The rise of the plastic-free, zero-waste grocery store (Mic)
• Waste Not, Want Not: Why Aren't More Farms Putting Poop To Good Use? (NPR)
• Scientists Turn Air Into Drinking Water With Device Powered Solely by Sunlight (Newsweek)
• Pollution-fighting Vertical Forest buildings coming to China (CNET)
• This Bug Can Eat Plastic. But Can It Clean Up Our Mess? (National Geographic)
• Floating Hospitals Treat Those Impacted by Rising Seas (National Geographic)

Ecology

• Unlike Humans, Plants Shown to be Sensitive to the Needs of Their Friends (Inverse)
• A biologist believes that trees speak a language we can learn (Quartz)
• Teenager Is on Track to Plant a Trillion Trees (National Geographic)