Previous Oceans and Water News 2018
Trump Prepares to Unveil a Vast Reworking of Clean Water Protections 12-10-18
The Trump administration is expected on Tuesday to unveil a plan that would weaken federal clean water rules designed to protect millions of acres of wetlands and thousands of miles of streams nationwide from pesticide runoff and other pollutants. Read more at The New York Times
Water Protectors Take Action to Keep Pipeline Out of Black and Indigenous Communities 08-20-18
Over the weekend, local police arrested a journalist and three Water Protectors protesting the Bayou Bridge Pipeline on private property. Read more at Truthout
Corporate Food Brands Drive the Massive Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico 08-01-18
Whole Foods bills itself as “America’s healthiest grocery store,” but what it’s doing to the environment is anything but healthy. According to a new report, the chain is helping to drive one of the nation’s worst human-made environmental disasters: the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Read more at EcoWatch
As North Sea Oil Wanes, Removing Abandoned Rigs Stirs Controversy 06-26-18
With thousands of North Sea oil wells soon to be shut down, ecologists are warning that removing the gargantuan platforms could be more environmentally harmful than leaving them. The rigs have nurtured cold-water corals and other marine life. Read more at Yale Environment 360
The Ocean Is Getting More Acidic—What That Actually Means 06-15-18
Thanks to carbon emissions, the ocean is changing, and that is putting a whole host of marine organisms at risk. These scientists are on the front lines. Read more at National Geographic
Straw Wars: The Fight to Rid the Oceans of Discarded Plastic 05-23-18
Americans use 500 million straws daily. Citizen activists want to shrink that number.
Of the eight million tons of plastic trash that flow every year into the world’s oceans, the plastic drinking straw is surely not a top contributor to all that tonnage. Read more at National Geographic
We can now see how humans have altered Earth’s water resources 05-16-18
For millennia, humans have harnessed rivers, built dams, and dug wells to quench our growing civilization. Now, for the first time, we have a picture of what all those generations have wrought on our blue planet’s most defining resource. Read more at Grist
10 Most Endangered U.S. Rivers of 2018 Ranked 04-10-18
American Rivers released its America’s Most Endangered Rivers report Tuesday identifying ten rivers under imminent threat. Read more at EcoWatch
A swim in the Potomac? The river’s remarkable recovery makes that a possibility, report says. 03-27-18
The Potomac River is healthier than it’s been in decades, according to an annual state-of-the-river report. Read more at The Washington Post
Ocean Plastic Projected to Triple Within Seven Years 03-21-18
If we don’t act now, plastic pollution in the world’s oceans is projected to increase three-fold within seven years, according to a startling new report. Read more at EcoWatch
Impact of Warming Seas Felt by Northeastern Fisheries 02-26-18
CAPE ENRAGE, New Brunswick — It is here in the upper reaches of the Bay of Fundy that nature flexes its tidal muscles while sending a surge of 160 billion tons of seawater in and out of the funnel-shaped bay. Read more at the Toledo Blade
An international plastics treaty could avert a “Silent Spring” for our seas 02-08-18
It was welcome news when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada will use its year-long G7 presidency to turn the global spotlight on ocean plastics and pollution. Read more at The Conversation