(토요모임) [7th September, 2019] Saturday meeting topic

[Scarlet]

Howdy !  It's me Scarlett !   

This week we will talk about the ' Justice, Climate Change, Environmental problems 

and Life style Changes '.  Do not be obsessed with all the articles too much.

Just pick some articles what you have interests and prepare your opinions related to

those articles. :) 

◈ History :

--- The Power of Language: Emile Zola and the Dreyfus Affair 

◈ Changes of Life styles :

--- Seismic thrift: welcome to the shopping centre for recycled goods

--- Education publisher Pearson to phase out print textbooks

--- Smoking 'damages eyes as well as lungs'

◈ Science & Environment :  

--- Tiny pieces of plastic found in Arctic snow

--- Scientists Astonished After Finding Microplastics In Arctic Snow

--- You eat thousands of bits of plastic every year

--- What Happens to Your Body When You Accidentally Eat Plastic?
--- What are Microplastics? And 6 tips on how reduce to them
--- Plastic-eating caterpillar could munch waste, scientists say

◈ Climate Change & Side effects :

---  Arctic wildfires: How bad are they and what caused them?

Hope you enjoy the topics ! 

With luv 

Scarlett

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World's First Recycle Mall- ReTuna in Sweden

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Recycling Ideas ~ Upcycling, Repurposing & Reusing - RETRASH

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What is a microplastic?

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Microplastic pollution

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Scientists find microscopic plastic particles in Arctic snow

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These plastic eating caterpillars could help save the planet

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Climate change is part of California’s perfect recipe 

for intense wildfire

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The Power of Language: Emile Zola and the Dreyfus Affair

By Neely Simpson. Jan 13, 2015. 9:00 AM. 

Topics: Literature, History 

"No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world," Robin Williams's character, Mr. Keating asserts in the film "Dead Poets Society." Mr. Keating could have used French writer Emile Zola and the letter he wrote to a Paris newspaper in January 1898 to illustrate his point. Simply titled "J'Accuse" ("I accuse!"), Zola's letter shone a light on the injustice and antisemitism of 19th century France. So powerful was the document that it ultimately led to the exoneration of an innocent man and the passing of a French law separating church and state.

Emile Zola wrote the "J'Accuse" letter four years into what became known as the Dreyfus Affair. Alfred Dreyfus was a young Jewish artillery officer in the French military who was accused of selling confidential military information to the Germans. Dreyfus's family was from Alsace, a French province that had come under German rule after the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. The investigation of leaked information was led by Colonel Sandherr of the French Intelligence Agency who was openly antisemitic as was his deputy, Colonel Fabre. Dreyfus's Alsatian roots coupled with his Jewish identity made Sandherr and Fabre immediately suspicious.

Dreyfus was arrested for treason on October 15, 1984 despite there being little evidence against him. Information about the case was then leaked to the antisemitic newspaper La Libre Parole, which began an virulent crusade against Dreyfus. In December of 1894, Dreyfus was court-martialed during a secret trial in which he was not allowed to know the evidence against him. He was then stripped of his rank in a public ceremony and sentenced for life to a penal colony in French Guyana called Devil's Island where he was placed in solitary confinement.

In July of 1895, due to poor health, Colonel Sandherr was replaced as head of the French Intelligence Agency. His replacement was Lieutenant-Colonel George Picquart. Shortly after becoming head of intelligence, Picquart intercepted the sale of more military secrets to the Germans and found the evidence implicated Infantry Major Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy. Upon looking back through the Dreyfus file, Picquart discovered that Esterhazy was guilty of the crime for which Dreyfus had been accused and sentenced. When Picquart tried to reopen the case, the French General Staff silenced him by transferring him to the southern desert of Tunisia. Fortunately, Picquart had a confidant in his longtime friend, Louis Leblois, and it was Leblois who, on November 8, 1897, approached Emile Zola with the details of the Dreyfus case. From that point on, Zola became the champion of Alfred Dreyfus.

The "J'Accuse" was an open letter to French president Felix Faure. It was printed on the front page of the Parisian newspaper L'Aurore. In the letter, Zola accused French army officials of obstruction of justice and antisemitism in the Alfred Dreyfus case. He also highlighted several of the judicial errors made in the case. Zola's intention in writing the "J'Accuse" letter was to be sued for libel so that the details of the Dreyfus case would be brought to light and made public.

Zola's plan worked. He was tried and found guilty of libel on February 7, 1898, and the Dreyfus case was reopened. Zola fled to England to escape time in jail, but returned to France in 1899 when the charge against him was dismissed. Alfred Dreyfus was pardoned and allowed to return to France in 1899. In 1904, he reappealed his case, and on July 12, 1906 he was found innocent and exonerated. Afterward, he was reinstated in the army as a Lieutenant-Colonel.

Emile Zola continued to be a prolific writer and was nominated for both the 1901 and 1902 Nobel Prize for Literature. When Zola died in 1902, Dreyfus attended his funeral. Zola was originally buried in the Cimetiere de Montmartre in Paris, but in 1908 his remains were moved to the Pantheon and placed in the same crypt as Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas.

Article source : https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/the-power-of-language-emile-zola-and-the-dreyfus-affair

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< Questions >

Q1. What is the meaning of justice? 

Q2. What was Emile Zola known for?

Emile Zola was born in Paris, France in 1840 and died in 1902. He grew up in poverty, but became the most popular writer in France. ... Zola was also known for writing about taboo subjects like sex and menstruation. He is perhaps best remembered for his part in the Dreyfus Affair.

Q3. What was the Dreyfus affair?

Q4. In our society, do you think the journalism works well as a protector of justice? 

Q5. In our society, do you think the law works well as a protector of justice? 

Q6. What was the different point of Emil Zola from other intellects ?

Q7. Could you tell the different voices from the privileged class if you face the false information or unfair situations? 

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Seismic thrift: welcome to the shopping centre for recycled goods
07 Apr 2017 / John McKenna/ Senior Writer, Formative Content

In the Swedish city of Eskilstuna, 100 kilometres west of Stockholm, shoppers are flocking to a mall with a twist.

ReTuna Återbruksgalleria is a shopping centre dedicated entirely to repaired and up-cycled goods.

It opened in 2015, and distinguishes itself from what you might call an upscale yard sale by bringing together other vital mall elements: there are 14 shops, a restaurant, an exhibition area, conference facilities and even a training college for studying recycling.

As outlined on the Make Wealth History blog, staff at the recycling depot intercept and sort incoming goods as they are dropped off, putting aside those that can be repaired or refurbished.

These items are then passed on to workshops to be renovated and sold in specialist outlets for everything from furniture and building materials to computers and clothes. 

The circular economy

Shoppers at ReTuna Återbruksgalleria have reason to feel good about their purchases – they’re contributing to the circular economy, an alternative industrial model that encourages us to do more with less as the world’s resources become increasingly scarce.
It's a concept much vaunted by the World Economic Forum, which in its 2014 report Towards the Circular Economy argued that “continued wealth generation requires a new industrial model that is less dependent on primary energy and materials”.
The report, co-created by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, claims that circularity could be a “tangible driver of industrial innovations and value creation” in tomorrow's economy, and that circular business models will gain a competitive edge in the years to come because they “create more value from each unit of resource than the traditional linear take-make-dispose model”.
Certain industries are expected to be early adopters of this trend, such as the pulp and paper industry, thanks to a strong global awareness of how precious a resource trees are for the planet. Other industries are expected to follow as the economics of circular supply chains improve, driven by raw materials price rises and the falling cost of establishing “reverse loop” manufacturing processes.

The plastics challenge
Of all the material groups that could play a part in the circular economy, plastics provide both the greatest challenges and the greatest opportunities.

So much of what we buy and use today is made from plastic. Indeed, production of the material has grown by a factor of 20 over the past 50 years, according to a 2016 report, The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the Future of Plastics.

However, despite the huge amount of plastics we create and use, it's still rare to find a shopping outlet that deals in upcycled and re-used plastic goods. According to the report, only 14% of plastic packaging is collected for recycling globally, which means a great deal of pollution and an enormous loss of value.

So what happens to the remaining 86%? It ends up incinerated, in landfill or as litter, often in the ocean.

Circular design

To avert this environmental catastrophe and realize the economic potential of all this wasted plastic, a new report launched at Davos this year proposed a re-think of the old mantra of reduce, re-use and recycle. Its proposal: re-use, recycle and redesign.

The use of a wide range of additives during manufacturing makes it difficult to establish recycling processes, particularly when it comes to plastics.

According to the report, part of the New Plastics Economy initiative, without fundamental redesign and innovation 50% of plastic packaging items – 30% by weight – will never be re-used or recycled.

The report is optimistic that redesign and innovation can help boost recycling levels, citing the example of drink-can ring-pulls. The tear-off tab, being a small-format item, was difficult to collect and prone to becoming litter, until it was replaced in the 1970s by the stay-on tab that is preval‎‎‎ent today.

As part of an action plan aimed at tackling this problem – backed by more than 40 business and government leaders at Davos this year – the New Plastics Economy initiative over the next year will launch two global innovation challenges: one aimed at kick-starting the redesign of materials and packaging formats; and one aimed at building a set of global common standards (a "global plastics protocol") for packaging design.

As part of this, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and design company IDEO have launched a Circular Design Guide aimed at inspiring designers, innovators and entrepreneurs to deliver the circular packaging solutions of the future.

Article source : https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/04/

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< Questions >

Q1. What is the difference between recycle and upcycle?

Recycling is the process of turning waste into a reusable material or product. ... Upcycling, on the other hand, is a very specific form of recycling that turns waste into a material or product that is of a higher quality. You do not need to send items to a recycling center to be broken down if you want to upcycle.2017. 2. 28.

source : https://recyclenation.com/2017/02/upcycling-vs-recycling/

Q2. Have you ever heard about the ecological footprint? What is it?

Q3. How many Earths does it take to sustain your lifestyle?

Q4. Have you ever been to flee market ? Please describe your experiences in there.

Q5. Have you ever bought any recycled goods?

Q6. Would you go to shopping center for recycled goods as above article suggested?

Q7. If you have any useless products to you, how do you deal with it?

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Education publisher Pearson to phase out print textbooks

16 July 2019

The world's largest education publisher has taken the first step towards phasing out print books by making all its learning resources "digital first".

Pearson said students would only be able to rent physical textbooks from now on, and they would be updated much less frequently.

The British firm hopes the move will make more students buy its e-textbooks which are updated continually.

"We are now over the digital tipping point," boss John Fallon told the BBC.

"Over half our annual revenues come from digital sales, so we've decided a little bit like in other industries like newspapers or music or in broadcast that it is time to flick the switch in how we primarily make and create our products."

The firm currently makes 20% of its revenues from US courseware, but has been struggling as students increasingly opt to rent second-hand print textbooks to save money.

To counter this Mr Fallon said Pearson would stop revising print books every three years, a model that has dominated the industry for 40 years.

Mr Fallon at the 'Microsoft in Education Global Forum' in 2014

It means that next year the firm will only update 100 of its 1,500 titles in print - down from 500 in 2019.

"There will still be [print] textbooks in use for many years to come but I think they will become a progressively smaller part of the learning experience," Mr Fallon said.

"We learn by engaging and sharing with others, and a digital environment enables you to do that in a much more effective way."

Digital textbooks can be updated responsively and also incorporate videos and assessments that provide students with feedback.

However, many of Pearson's digital products are sold on a subscription basis, raising fears that authors will lose out in the way musicians have to music streaming services.

Mr Fallon denied this, saying the firm's plans would provide authors with "a more sustainable income over time".

He added: "For the Netflix and Spotify generation, they expect to rent not own."

Pearson has been going through a painful turnaround after years of falling sales and profits, but appeared to have turned a corner in 2018.

Its underlying sales rose 2% in the first quarter of 2019, although the firm admitted revenue in its US business could fall by as much as 5% this year.

Mr Fallon said its plans for textbooks would begin in the US, but in time be extended to other markets including the UK.

Article source : https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48998789

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< Questions >

Q1. What do you think of when you hear the word 'textbook'?

Q2. Which one do you prefer between e-books and printed textbooks? Why?

Q3. What are the disadvantages of e-books?

Q4. What are the disadvantages of printed textbooks?

Q5. What will English textbooks be like in the future?

Q6. Do you have a favourite English book?

Q7. Would you like more grammar and pronunciation in English textbooks?

Q8. Do you have any gadget to read e-books? Which one is the best one?

Q9. How could English textbooks be improved?

Q10. Are printed textbooks of digital textbooks best?

Q11. What topics are best for English textbooks?

Q12. How much do you learn from English textbooks?

Q13. Will the 'Spotify generation' prefer digital textbooks?

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Smoking 'damages eyes as well as lungs'
2 July 2019

Millions of people in the UK are putting their sight at risk by continuing to smoke, warn specialists.

Despite the clear connection, only one in five people recognise that smoking can lead to blindness, a poll for the Association of Optometrists (AOP) finds.
Smokers are twice as likely to lose their sight compared with non-smokers, says the RNIB.
That is because tobacco smoke can cause and worsen a number of eye conditions.

How smoking can harm your eyes
Cigarette smoke contains toxic chemicals that can irritate and harm the eyes.

For example, heavy metals, such as lead and copper, can collect in the lens - the transparent bit that sits behind the pupil and brings rays of light into focus - and lead to cataracts, where the lens becomes cloudy.

Smoking can make diabetes-related sight problems worse by damaging blood vessels at the back of the eye (the retina).

Smokers are around three times more likely to get age-related macular degeneration - a condition affecting a person's central vision, meaning that they lose their ability to see fine details.

And they are 16 times more likely than non-smokers to develop sudden loss of vision caused by optic neuropathy, where the blood supply to the eye becomes blocked.

In the poll of 2,006 adults, 18% correctly said that smoking increased the risk of blindness or sight loss, while three-quarters (76%) knew smoking was linked to cancer.

The AOP says stopping or avoiding smoking is one of the best steps you can take to protect your vision, along with having regular sight checks.

Aishah Fazlanie, Optometrist and Clinical and Regulatory Adviser for the AOP, said: "People tend to know about the link between smoking and cancer, but many people are not aware of the impact that smoking can have upon the eyes.

"Smoking increases the risk of sight-threatening conditions, such as age-related macular degeneration, which is an important reason why smokers should consider quitting."

Fewer smokers

In the UK, 17% of men and 13% of women - around 7.4 million people - are smokers. More than half (61%) of them say they want to quit.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show the proportion of current smokers has been decreasing, with the largest fall since 2011 occurring among 18 to 24-year-olds.
In 2017, around 2.8 million people - 5.5% of the UK - were using e-cigarettes, and the most common reason given for vaping was to help quit smoking.

Article source : https://www.bbc.com/news/health-48824720

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< Questions >

Q1. What did you think when you read the headline?

Q2. Do you smoke?

Q3. What do you think of when you hear the word 'smoking'?

Q4. What three adjectives best describe smoking?

Q5. What do you think of smokers or smoking?

Q6. Do you have any bad habits you want to quit ? Why do you want to quit? 

Q7. What can countries do to stop people smoking?

Q8. Should non-smokers be able to sue smokers for eye damage?

Q9. Why is it difficult for people to quit smoking?

Q10. What can people do to look after their eyesight?

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Tiny pieces of plastic found in Arctic snow

The discovery suggests that microplastics are being carried around the planet in atmospheric winds, and that we’re breathing them in.

By Cheryl Katz/ PUBLISHED August 14, 2019

Microplastics, those pervasive relics of modern times, have invaded seemingly every part of the planet today, including rain over the Rocky Mountains and the most remote reaches of the Arctic. Scientists have been puzzling over how this flood of pollution makes its way to such distant locations far from the urban centers where it’s generated. A new study finds a surprising route for the tiny particles—they’re ferried aloft to fall in the Arctic as snow.

“Substantial” amounts of plastic fragments and fibers are landing atop ice floes in the Fram Strait—an unpopulated expanse of ocean between Greenland and the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard—reports the study, published today in Science Advances.

Scientists from Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and the Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research measured microplastics in snow samples from this remote location during research cruises from 2015-17, and found levels they conclude could only have fallen from the sky. The study raises concerns about how much microplastics contaminate the atmosphere, posing a potential health risk to people and animals that breathe them in.

“I think the exposure pathway for us, the main exposure pathway, may be the air that we breathe,” says Melanie Bergmann, a marine ecologist with the Alfred Wegener Institute and lead author on the new paper.

Although it’s remote, the Arctic is far from pristine, with much of the world’s pollution eventually making its way there. Bergmann and her colleagues had been studying plastics on the Arctic sea floor since 2002. Over the past decade or so, they noticed huge increases in the amount they were seeing, including a tenfold rise at one station.

So they started to look for microplastics in the Arctic water column. Copious amounts turned up everywhere they looked. In deep sea sediments, they found about 6,000 particles in every 2.2 pounds of mud. Sea ice was even more laden—as much as 12,000 particles per 34 ounces of melted ice, according to Bergmann. And other researchers found that Arctic surface waters had the highest microplastics concentrations of all the world's oceans.

"We asked ourselves, where does it all come from?" says Bergmann.
The biggest load, studies suggest, is ferried north by the Gulf Stream and strong Atlantic currents. Most of it likely started off in Northern Europe.

Sky transport?
But Bergmann and colleagues wondered whether the atmosphere posed another transportation route for microplastics. Researchers in France and China had found plastic particles in the air near cities. And a recent study found deposits in a part of the Pyrenees so remote that they must have drifted airborne over the mountains. Could microplastics be catching rides on the wind and landing far to the north as snow?

It turns out they are, says Bergmann. Snow samples from ice floes in the Fram Strait had surprisingly high concentrations of microplastics. One spot, close to the middle of the passage, had 14,000 particles per 34 ounces. The average across all samples was 1,800 particles.

For comparison, the researchers also analyzed snow near urban sites in Germany and the Alps. While the microplastics measured in those samples were considerably higher, with an average of 24,600 particles per 34 ounces, the study concluded that the amount found in the Arctic is still substantial and shows significant atmospheric contamination.

“Basically microplastic is everywhere,” says Bergmann. “Aerial transport is the pathway to transport microplastic to the remotest parts of our planet.”

And this means the atmosphere may be a key source of exposure for humans and animals.

“Microplastic is in the air, and it's not unlikely that we also inhale some of it,” says Bergmann.” And part of this may actually make it into our lungs."

Plastics are literally everywhere
The new study drives home the reality of microplastics traveling in the atmosphere, said Jennifer Provencher, head of the wildlife health unit for the Canadian Wildlife Service who studies the impacts of plastics in Arctic ecosystems and was not involved with the study.

“The message I'm often trying to communicate to people, specifically people who live in the middle of the continent away from a large water body, is that there's so much information about, you know, garbage patches and turtles with straws up their nose, all of that stuff, that people think that plastic pollution is a middle-of-the-ocean problem,” says Provencher.

“And the more we work on this, the more we are learning that it's not a middle-of-the-ocean problem. It's a water body problem. It's a terrestrial problem, it's an air problem, it's a tropical problem, it's an Arctic problem,” she says.

But Provencher worries less about the threat that inhaling microplastics poses to wildlife than about contaminated snow dumping its plastics load into waterways. “From an ecosystem perspective,” she says, “we're much more concerned about what happens when that snow melts and often enters the aquatic environment.”

University of Toronto microplastics researcher Chelsea Rochman, who did not take part in the study, says she was surprised at first to learn that the particles were being transported in the atmosphere.

“But, when we take a step back and see the big picture,” she says, “we know that this is not novel for other persistent contaminants.”

The Arctic has long been a sink for pollutants like flame retardants and pesticides, which spiral northward on ocean and wind currents.

“Now that we know that microplastics cycle in the atmosphere too,” Rochman says, “maybe we should not be so surprised they are entering the Arctic this way as well.”

Is it hurting us?
The science on the health impacts of microplastics is still evolving.

“For human health, we currently know very little,” says Rochman. “There is a lot of concern because we know we are exposed… For wildlife, we know that microplastics enter every level of the food chain in aquatic ecosystems.”

Laboratory studies find some physical and chemical effects from microplastics exposures, but the findings vary by plastic type, shape and size.

“More research is needed to fully understand health effects,” says Rochmann.

The health impacts of inhaled microplastics are even less known, Bergmann said.

Even worse may be the threat from airborne nanoplastics—so small they’re essentially invisible and about which almost nothing is known so far.

"They may actually enter cells,” says Bergmann. “So we may have a big problem."

Article source : https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/08/microplastics-found-in-arctic-snow/

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Scientists Astonished After Finding Microplastics In Arctic Snow
Plastic may be a significant source of air pollution, concluded a new study that shows how microplastics may be carried through winds and precipitation.

ENVIRONMENT 08/18/2019 10:26 am ET / By Dominique Mosbergen

Scientists in Germany are raising the alarm after finding a significant amount of microplastics in snow samples in the Alps and the Arctic — two of the most pristine locations on Earth.

In a study published in the journal Science Advances last week, the researchers said their findings point to a troubling possibility: that plastics aren’t just polluting our lands and clogging our waterways, but befouling the air around us as well.

“I was really astonished concerning the high concentrations” of microplastics found in Arctic snow, study co-author Gunnar Gerdts told the Los Angeles Times. Microplastics are tiny fragments of plastic that often originate from larger debris that have degraded over time. Gerdts’ team said it found up to 14,400 microplastic particles per liter of melted Arctic snow ― a staggering amount for a remote region where few humans reside.

“We found a lot of microplastics, like record concentrations,” Gerdts said of the Arctic snow, “and the question arose: From where does the microplastic originate?”

There are just two possibilities, he noted: “from the water or from the air.”

While it’s known that microplastics and other plastic debris is transported by ocean currents, scientists have become increasingly convinced that small plastic fragments are also being carried through winds and precipitation.

Earlier research conducted in Tehran, Iran, and Dongguan, China, found evidence of microplastics in the cities’ atmospheric fallout. A 2015 study in France found that microplastic concentration in urban dust increased fivefold after it rained, suggesting that rain and other precipitation could play a role in transporting the pollutant to the Earth’s surface. And just last week, researchers from the United States Geological Survey said they’d found evidence that it was “raining plastic” over the Rocky Mountains.

To assess the validity of this precipitation theory, the German researchers analyzed snow samples from a variety of locations including urban areas in Europe, as well as the remote Swiss Alps and ice floes in the Arctic.

“The scientists were careful to sample only snow on the surface because they wanted to see how much microplastic was brought there by fresh precipitation,” the Times reported.

The team concluded that precipitation did indeed appear to have transported the pollutant ― and, in the case of the Alps and the Arctic, over vast distances.

“The large concentrations of [microplastics or MPs] and microfibers in snow highlight the importance of the atmosphere as a source of airborne MPs and microfibers,” the study said. “Through this pathway, MPs likely find their way into soil and aquatic environments and therefore also into food chains.”

The researchers warned that humans might not just be injesting microplastics in our food but also inhaling them in the air we breathe. Chronic inhalation of microplastics could lead to health risks including respiratory irritation, inflammation and fibrosis, the authors wrote.

The study concluded by urging more research into airborne microplastics and their potential risks.

“The high [microplastic or MP] concentrations detected in snow samples from continental Europe to the Arctic indicate significant air pollution and stress the urgent need for research on human and animal health effects focusing on airborne MPs,” it said.

Article source : https://www.huffpost.com/entry/microplastics-snow-arctic-alps-precipitation_n_5d59289be4b0d8840ff48b4f?ncid=engmodushpmg00000003&fbclid=IwAR0VD1hIgpdnCRsZrvd9HPctePbGiaE2dp55td1JIS0-v1kLFvEvQiNodmM

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You eat thousands of bits of plastic every year
Though abundant in water, air, and common foods, it’s unclear how it might affect our health.
By Sarah Gibbens/ PUBLISHED June 5, 2019

The tiny pieces of plastic scientists call microplastics are everywhere. They sit at the bottom of the sea, mix into beach sand, and blow in the wind. They’re also inside us.

Last October, microplastics were found in fecal samples from eight people participating in a pilot study to research how much humans might be inadvertently consuming plastic.

Now, a new study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology says it's possible that humans may be consuming anywhere from 39,000 to 52,000 microplastic particles a year. With added estimates of how much microplastic might be inhaled, that number is more than 74,000.

How did they estimate this range?
A microplastic particle is any piece of plastic smaller than five millimeters, but many are much smaller and only visible under a microscope.

The study reviewed existing research on microplastics found in beer, salt, seafood, sugar, alcohol, and honey. To calculate how often one person might eat each of those items in a year, the study looked at recommendations made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Currently, the existing research on microplastics in food represents only 15 percent of the calories consumed by the average person.

The research team also looked at studies that reviewed the amount of microplastics in drinking water and air. People who meet their recommended water intake through tap water ingest an additional 4,000 plastic particles annually, while those who drink only bottled water ingest an additional 90,000, the study found.

Study author Kieran Cox expects that his conclusions are underestimates, and that it's likely people are consuming far more.

“A lot of the items we considered are the ones you're eating raw. We haven't gotten to the layers and layers of plastic packaging,” Cox says. “I think it's probably the case that more plastic is being added than we realize.”

One study published in 2018 in the journal Environmental Pollution concluded that people were more likely to ingest plastic through dust in their environment than by eating shellfish.

What are the health impacts?
So what happens to plastic once it's in your body? Does it enter your bloodstream? Does it sink into your gut? Or does it simply pass through without doing harm?

Scientists still aren't quite sure about the amount of microplastics a body can tolerate or how much damage they do. In 2017, a study out of King's College in London hypothesized that, over time, the cumulative effect of ingesting plastic could be toxic. Different types of plastic have varying toxic properties. Some are made with toxic chemicals like chlorine, while others pick up trace amounts of chemicals like lead found in the environment. A build up of these toxins over time could impact the immune system.

When researchers from Johns Hopkins looked at the impact of eating seafood contaminated with microplastics, they too found the accumulated plastic could damage the immune system and upset a gut's balance.

Cox says scientists are scrambling to understand the dose at which microplastics start to have noticeable health effects. Like air pollution or harmful construction materials, those who have more exposure or preexisting conditions may be less able to tolerate plastic.

Leah Bendell, an ecotoxicologist at Simon Fraser University in Canada, says Cox's study takes a simplistic look at a complex issue with many variables, “but the conclusion that we are ingesting lots of microplastics I think is valid.”

She says it's important to remember that microplastics come in the form of fragments, pellets, beads, fibers, and film. It can be made up of from a number of different materials with hundreds of different chemical additives. For this reason, she describes microplastics as having “multiple personalities.” Some might harbor toxic chemicals, while others could be suitable vectors for bacteria and parasites.

A plastic-free diet?
Humans consume microplastics via many channels. We might ingest them while eating seafood, breath them in through the air, or consume food with trace amounts of its plastic packaging.

For this reason, it's difficult to completely avoid them, says Cox, “if not impossible.”

Certain lifestyle changes like drinking trap water instead of bottled water would reduce the amount of microplastics a person consumes, he says.

Among the research they reviewed, microfibers were by far the most commonly found type of plastic. Microfibers shed from textiles like nylon and polyester. They often wash off clothes and enter the ecosystem through washing machine wastewater.

Fragments of plastic like those commonly used for bags and straws were the second most common plastic found.

Cox says he hopes his research highlights that plastic pollution extends beyond marine wildlife.

“We haven’t considered ourselves to be a potential impact [of plastic pollution],” he says, “but we are.”

Article source : https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/06/you-eat-thousands-of-bits-of-plastic-every-year/

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What Happens to Your Body When You Accidentally Eat Plastic?
Take a deep breath, stop panicking, and read on.
Michelle Hahn/ University of Chicago

You've heard of how plastic ruins the environment; because it's not biodegradable, plastic continues to pollute the oceans. Many animals also die thinking they're full but suffer from a lack of nutrition from the plastic in their stomachs.

But, when you occasionally bite off a piece of plastic from a wrapper as you're eating a sandwich, do you feel the need to spit it out? I will shamelessly say that sometimes I can't be bothered to rummage through my mouth to find that small piece among a sea of chewed food, so I end up swallowing that plastic. How bad could a 1 mm piece of plastic be, anyway?

The good news is that eating a piece of plastic won't mean you will have the same fate as the poor animals that mistake plastic for food. According to Lusher, the plastic will leave your system after a day since it's small and your body tries to get rid of anything that can't be dissolved or used effectively. But, constantly eating plastic or food that is packaged in plastic can leave long-term side effects that you want to avoid.

There are chemicals in plastic that can easily be transferred to your food by microwaving things in plastic, eating canned food lined in plastic lacquer, drinking bottled water, etc. The most commonly used chemical is phthalates, which makes plastics soft and bendable. This is not chemically bound to plastic, so it can get transferred to other things easily.

That's not the worst part. Some problems from ingesting this chemical are premature births, asthma, cancer, miscarriage, male infertility, premature breast development, and abnormal male sexual development. Right now, they don't seem like threats, but they will when you get older.

So, next time you eat plastic—accident or not—you might want to stop yourself. Also, try not to eat things that have been in plastic containers for a long time. Although there won't be a significant change in the short term, you might experience harmful effects later on.

Article source : https://spoonuniversity.com/lifestyle/plastic-eat-what-happens-to-your-body

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What are Microplastics? And 6 tips on how reduce to them

March 7, 2019, 5:31 pm

What are Microplastics?
Microplastics are small plastic pieces less than 5mm (0.2 in) long. They have been found everywhere! They are found in our oceans, our rivers, our air, but also our food, bottled water, and tap water. Due to their small size, they are easy to digest and are now the subject of a health review by the World Health Organisation.

Microplastics end up in our ocean, are eaten by marine life, which in turn are eaten by humans or larger animals. They have been found in over 94% of tap water in the USA and 72% in Europe, as well as in 93% of bottled water around the world.

Where do microplastics come from?
Microplastics come from a variety of sources, including from larger plastic debris which degrade into ever smaller pieces of plastic. The omnipresence of plastic in our modern society is generating thousands of tons of microplastics annually according to the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.

Every time your car tires or your shoe wear off; when you wash your cloth or exfoliate your body – you are generating microplastics, microfibers, and microbeads.

What are microfibers?
The textile industry is one of the largest producers of a specific type of microplastics. Most of our clothes contain fibers, which are made out of plastic. Regular wear and tear, of synthetic fibers, such as polyester, nylon, and acrylics produce what are called microfibers. Everyday washing of clothes produce microfibers which then travel to your local wastewater treatment plant, where up to 40% of them enter rivers, lakes, and oceans. Dryers are also responsible for a large amount of the microfibers, which are ejected into the air, and once again, end up in our lakes, rivers, and subsequently, our tap water.

What are microbeads?
Microbeads are little bits of plastic of less than 1mm large, which are used in the cosmetic industry. They are mostly found in exfoliating products such as face wash, or toothpaste. Unlike other microplastics, microbeads are intentionally manufactured to be small bits of plastic. Recent studies on the high level of microplastics in fish have raised awareness and more and more countries are banning microbeads, including the US with the Microbead-Free Waters Act 2015.

6 Tips to limit your microplastics intake and impact
Now that we understand what are microplastics, and what are microbeads, and what are microfibers, we can start to reduce our consumption and our impact.

1 – Buy a water filter, and stop using bottled water. Most carbon block filters with a micron rating of 2 or less will remove microplastics. TAPP is an example of a water filter using coconut shell carbon block technology – and it used biodegradable refills. Order TAPP 2 now with a $10 discount with coupon “order-now”.
2 – Buy non-synthetic eco-friendly clothes. Brands like SLOactive are creating ocean-friendly swimwear and wetsuits while cleaning out oceans. Aizome Bedding are producing zero-waste, all cotton bedding with natural indigo-dyeing.
3 – Get a laundry ball: Catch microfibers shedding off our clothes in the washer. The Cora Ball is inspired by the way coral filters the ocean and collects your microfibers into fuzz you can see, so you can dispose of microfibers in the right way.
4 – Air dry, don’t use the dryer.
5 – Use public transport, and favor rail infrastructure.
6 – Reduce your meat and fish consumption. You don’t have to go full Vegan, but consider a more flexitarian approach.

Also read our blog about how to remove microplastics from tap water.

Sources:
https://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2015/10/978-87-93352-80-3.pdf
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07lfkq2
https://orbmedia.org/sites/default/files/FinalBottledWaterReport.pdf
https://orbmedia.org/stories/Invisibles_plastics/multimedia

Article source : https://tappwater.co/us/what-are-microplastics-and-5-tips-to-reduce-them/

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Plastic-eating caterpillar could munch waste, scientists say

By Helen Briggs / BBC News/ 24 April 2017

A caterpillar that munches on plastic bags could hold the key to tackling plastic pollution, scientists say.

Researchers at Cambridge University have discovered that the larvae of the moth, which eats wax in bee hives, can also degrade plastic.

Experiments show the insect can break down the chemical bonds of plastic in a similar way to digesting beeswax.

Each year, about 80 million tonnes of the plastic polyethylene are produced around the world.

The plastic is used to make shopping bags and food packaging, among other things, but it can take hundreds of years to decompose completely.

However, caterpillars of the moth (Galleria mellonella) can make holes in a plastic bag in under an hour.

Dr Paolo Bombelli is a biochemist at the University of Cambridge and one of the researchers on the study.

"The caterpillar will be the starting point," he told BBC News.
"We need to understand the details under which this process operates.
"We hope to provide the technical solution for minimising the problem of plastic waste." 

Plastic after being biodegraded by 10 caterpillars for 30 minutes 

Dr Bombelli and colleague Federica Bertocchini of the Spanish National Research Council have patented the discovery.

They want to speed up the process of discovering the chemical secrets behind the natural degradation of plastic.

They think microbes in the caterpillar - as well as the insect itself - might play a role in breaking down plastic.
If the chemical process can be identified, it could lead to a solution to managing plastic waste in the environment.

"We are planning to implement this finding into a viable way to get rid of plastic waste, working towards a solution to save our oceans, rivers, and all the environment from the unavoidable consequences of plastic accumulation," said Dr Bertocchini.

"However, we should not feel justified to dump polyethylene deliberately in our environment just because we now know how to bio-degrade it."

The research is published in the journal, Current Biology.

Article source : https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39694553

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< Questions >

Q0. What do you think of when you hear the word 'Arctic'?

Q1. What did you think when you read the headline? How does the microplastic was found in Arctic area?

Q2. According to a new study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology says it's possible that humans may be consuming anywhere from 39,000 to 52,000 microplastic particles a year. What do you think of above sentence?

Q3. What images are in your mind when you hear the word microplastic'?

Q4. What are the dangers of Microplastics?

Q5. Are Microplastics in Food a Threat to Your Health?

Q6. Can you die from eating plastic?

Q7. What is the difference between microbeads and Microplastics?

>>>> With the term microbeads, we used to refer to the visible particles of plastic smaller than 5mm which are usually of spherical shape. The term 'microplastic' is not consistently defined but is typically considered to refer to small, usually microscopic, solid particles made of a synthetic polymer.

Q8. Where do microplastics come from?

Q9. How can you prevent Microplastics?

Q10. Do you think Plastic-eating caterpillar can be a solution for Microplastics pollution?

Q11. What would be the side effects of Plastic-eating caterpillar?

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Arctic wildfires: How bad are they and what caused them?
2 August 2019

Wildfires are ravaging parts of the Arctic, with areas of Siberia, Alaska, Greenland and Canada engulfed in flames and smoke.

Satellite images show how the plumes of smoke from the fires, many caused by dry storms in hot weather, can be seen from space.
While wildfires are common at this time of year, record-breaking summer temperatures and strong winds have made this year's fires particularly bad.
They are now at "unprecedented levels", says Mark Parrington, a wildfires expert at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (Cams).

Where has been affected?
Eastern Russia and Alaska, both within and outside the Arctic Circle, have been particularly badly affected.
Russia's Federal Forestry Agency says more than 2.7m hectares (6.7m acres) of remote forest are currently burning across six Siberian and eastern regions.
However, Greenpeace Russia says as many as 3.3m hectares are burning - an area bigger than Belgium.

Smog has prompted several regions to declare states of emergency and smoke has blown across major cities like Novosibirsk, blotting out the sun and making it difficult for some people to breathe.

The smoke from the Siberian fires has even spread to Alaska and parts of the west coast of Canada.

In Alaska, as of 31 July, 105 large fires had burned more than 0.7m hectares (1.78m acres).

The majority of the blazes were caused by lightning strikes, according to the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center.

Greenland is also battling a fire in Qeqqata Kommunia, close to the Arctic Circle Trail, popular with hikers.

The area has been experiencing a heatwave, which has also meant the sea ice has been melting at a fast rate.

Canada's Arctic is also suffering. One large wildfire in the Northwest Territories, inside the Arctic Circle, has burned at least 45,500 hectares (112,000 acres) according to the Northwest Territories Environment and Natural Resources agency, although the area is likely to be bigger.

What has been the impact?
The wildfires are not just having an impact on the ground. They release harmful pollutants and toxic gases into the atmosphere.

Thick smoke is visible on satellite images and distinguishable from every-day clouds across vast areas of the Arctic.

Nasa has traced the megatons of harmful particles in that smoke - and where they have gone.

The satellite images on the left below show the fires as red dots. The globe on the right shows the concentration of black carbon particles - or soot - released by the fires.

This soot can be harmful to humans and animals, entering the lungs and bloodstream.

It also plays a role in global warming. Nasa scientists say the soot absorbs sunlight and warms the atmosphere. If it falls on ice or snow, it reduces reflectivity and can trap more heat, speeding up the melting process.

The fires also contribute to the climate crisis by releasing carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere.

They emitted an estimated 100 megatons of CO2 between 1 June and 21 July, almost the equivalent of the carbon output of Belgium in 2017, according to Cams.
 
How unusual is this?
Although wildfires are common in the northern hemisphere between May and October, the location and intensity of these fires as well as the length of time they have been burning, has been particularly unusual, according to Cams.

"It is unusual to see fires of this scale and duration at such high latitudes in June," said Mr Parrington.

"But temperatures in the Arctic have been increasing at a much faster rate than the global average, and warmer conditions encourage fires to grow and persist once they have been ignited."

Extremely dry ground and hotter than average temperatures, combined with heat lightning and strong winds, have caused the fires to spread aggressively.

The burning has been sustained by the forest ground, which consists of exposed, thawed, dried peat - a substance with high carbon content.

Global satellites are now tracking a swathe of new and ongoing wildfires within the Arctic Circle. The conditions were laid in June, the hottest June for the planet yet observed in the instrumented era.

The fires are releasing copious volumes of previously stored carbon dioxide and methane - carbon stocks that have in some cases been held in the ground for thousands of years.

Scientists say what we're seeing is evidence of the kind of feedbacks we should expect in a warmer world, where increased concentrations of greenhouse gases drive more warming, which then begets the conditions that release yet more carbon into the atmosphere.

A lot of the particulate matter from these fires will eventually come to settle on ice surfaces further north, darkening them and thus accelerating melting.

It's all part of a process of amplification.

 
What is being done to tackle the fires?
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the army to help tackle the fires raging in Siberia and other regions in the east.

A state of emergency has been declared in parts of the republics of Buryatia and Sakha (Yakutia). Ten planes and 10 helicopters with firefighting equipment were being deployed in the regions.

Many residents had been critical of the Russian authorities for not doing enough to tackle the fires.

Hundreds of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for tougher action after Russian authorities said they were not planning to tackle wildfires in remote uninhabited areas because they were no direct threat to people.

The hashtags #putouttheSiberianfires and #saveSiberianforests are currently trending on Twitter.

Some argue that the Notre Dame fire in Paris received far more media attention than the forest fires.

"Remember how far the news about the Notre Dame fire spread? Now is the time to do the same about the Siberian forest fires," said one tweet.

Another said: "Let's not forget that nature is no less important than history. Numerous animals have lost their homes, and many of them are probably dead. Just thinking about this is painful."

US President Donald Trump has since offered Mr Putin help in putting out the fires.

By Rosie Blunt, Dominic Bailey and Lucy Rodgers. Design by Irene de la Torre Arenas and Debie Loizou.

Article source : https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49125391

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< Questions >

Q1. What do you know about the methane under the tundra in Siberia?

Q2. Why has this news got less attention than the Notre Dame fire?

Q3. How can we stop the fires in the Arctic?

Q4. What happens if the Greenland ice shelf melts?

Q5. Why are there so many fires in the Arctic?

Q6. How can we help animals in wildfires?

Q7. What would you do if you were caught in a wildfire?

Q8. What do you know about global warming?

Q9. What will the world's climate be like in 20, 50 and 100 years from now?

Q10. What questions would you like to ask the meteorologists?