Sustainability Summarised - July 2021 edition
We’re always keeping up to date on the latest news and trends in the sustainability and environmental space, and we’ve decided to start summarising the latest announcements, so you can too.
Welcome to the first edition of Sustainability Summarised.
How do our beaches get so trashed & where does all of this trash come from?
Ever wondered how rubbish finds its way onto our beaches? Mick Fanning and the team at Surfrider Foundation explain that the majority of rubbish in the ocean and on our beaches comes from the waste we produce in our day-to-day lives.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of the most common items found on Surfrider beach clean ups are plastic bottles, straws and food wrappers.
Try to cut down your plastic use where you can, and when you do find yourself with plastic waste, make sure you recycle it properly.
At Project Blu we convert a wide range of polluting materials, such as ocean-bound plastic and discarded fishing nets, into sustainable designs. We are always on the lookout for new ways to turn pollution into sustainable materials.
Top US scientist on melting glaciers: ‘I’ve gone from being an ecologist to a coroner’
Diana Six is an entomologist studying bark beetles near Glacier National Park in Montana. Despite her lifelong love of the outdoors, Diana feels as though her identity as an ecologist is being stripped away.
She’s shared her concerns on the impact of the climate crisis and how it’s destroying glaciers, and many other parts of our world with it. Climate change is not just melting the ice, but it’s devastating to the species that rely on it.
Speaking to the Guardian, Diana shares how this destruction has forced her role to change.
“I had gone from being an ecologist to a coroner. I am no longer documenting life. I’m describing loss, decline, death.”
Unilever to test carbon footprint labels on products in 2021: report
There’s been some good news for sustainability in the food and beverage industry as the consumer giant, Unilever, announced it will test carbon footprint labels on its products this year in America or Europe.
The details of the labels are still being finalised, however it’s thought they will be in place by the end of 2021. Unilever is also considering trialling a traffic light system that grades products as green, amber or red based on their environmental friendliness.
A new study shows just how quickly the world’s cryosphere is shrinking
A new study in the journal Earth’s Future has found that the cryosphere, or all of the earth’s frozen spaces, are shrinking rapidly. The study is the first that takes into account the loss of the entire cryosphere, including sea ice, glacier ice, snow cover and near-surface frozen soils.
Alarmingly, over 102,000 square kilometers of frozen areas were lost in the Northern Hemisphere from 1979 to 2016. These reductions are heavily linked to rising temperatures.
Beavers to Be Reintroduced in London for Urban Rewilding
If cute furry animals are your thing, then you’ll love this story! British beavers are officially back in the wild for the first time in over 400 years following their reintroduction in London.
This comes after a successful five-year trial of an urban rewilding scheme, which found the beavers’ dam-building activities were good for people and wildlife.
Have you seen any other stories about sustainability and environmental news and issues that you think we should include? Let us know!
