Plastics companies blocked mitigation efforts and may have broken US laws – study. Paper outlines different legal theories that could help governments pursue accountability for harms. Guardian Dharna Noor  Wed 26 Jun 2024  Companies have spent decades obstructing efforts to take on the plastics crisis and may have breached a host of US laws, a new report argues.

The research from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) details the widespread burdens that plastic pollution places on US cities and states, and argues that plastic producers may be breaking public-nuisance, product-liability and consumer-protection laws.It comes as cities such as Baltimore have begun to file claims against plastic manufacturers, but the authors write that existing cases “are likely only the beginning, as more states and municipalities grapple with the challenges of accumulating plastic waste and microplastics contamination.” Taxpayers foot the bill to clean plastic pollution from streets and waterways, and research shows people could ingest the equivalent of one credit card’s worth of plastic per week.“We’re in the midst of a population-scale human experiment on the impacts of multigenerational toxic exposures,” said Carroll Muffett, president of CIEL and a report co-author. “Plastics are at the epicenter of that.” Drawing on newly revealed internal documents and previous investigations, the authors write that producers knew of these risks and produced and marketed plastics anyway Petrochemical producers such as ExxonMobil Chemical and Shell Polymers, and disposable plastic goods producers like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Unilever, should be held responsible, they say. Global plastics production exploded shortly after the second world war, when “an industry that had been producing plastics primarily for military purposes needed new markets”, said Muffett.    

From 1950 to 2000, global plastic production soared from 2m tons to 234m tons annually. And over the next 20 years, production more than doubled to 460m tons in 2019, the authors write, citing data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). But plastics producers knew in the 1950s that their products don’t break down and in 1969, documents show, industry interests discussed plastics accumulating in the environment but kept marketing them. As the public grew concerned about plastic pollution, the industry responded with “sophisticated marketing campaigns” to shift blame from producers to consumers – for instance, by popularizing the term litterbug. In the 1980s, the industry “misled the public” by lobbying states to adopt a plastic-packaging numbering system that resembled the “chasing arrows” recycling symbol and therefore appeared to indicate recyclability. (The Federal Trade Commission is currently re-evaluating the use of the symbols.) Around that same time, some municipalities began attempting to curb plastic pollution.

Coordinated pushback.....In 1989, Massachusetts considered banning all single-use packaging. The ballot initiative, proposed by the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, “had teeth to ensure compliance” including potential fines, jail time and the possibility of civil-enforcement actions. The ban was set to appear on the 1990 ballot, but the industry devised a “highly coordinated and sophisticated campaign” to kill it, the authors write based on internal documents. “Despite being local in its scope, the Massachusetts ban represented a serious threat to plastics producers and a host of other industry interests,” the report says. Tobacco lawyers, whose industry had come under fire for littered plastic cigarette butts, lobbied the Massachusetts attorney general to shut down the measure. And consumer goods producers like Procter & Gamble, petrochemical trade groups like the Chemical Manufacturers Association (which later became the American Chemistry Council), and tobacco lobby group the Tobacco Institute, created a taskforce to direct opposition. The Council for Solid Waste Solutions (CSWS), an industry group funded by major petrochemical producers such as Exxon, Dow, DuPont and Chevron, hired consultants to develop a plan for opposing legislative bans.....read on- there's much more     https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/26/plastics-companies-blocking-mitigation-efforts                          AND.......................

Time-Lapse Video Shows Trash Interceptor Halting Flow of Garbage Into the Ocean Juan Hernandez  Monday August 12, 2024 The Ocean Cleanup may be the world’s largest single effort to rid our oceans of plastic pollution. While there are obviously numerous projects around the world operated by different organizations, Boyan Slat’s endeavor includes tracking down and removing plastic from the ocean itself as well as stopping a great deal of trash flow at the source: rivers. According to the non-profit organization, as much as 80 percent of the world’s river plastic flows through just 1,000 rivers. A quick Google search will tell you there are as many as 150,000 rivers around the globe, so concentrating its cleanup efforts at these waterways represents a textbook case of working smarter rather than harder.The organization designed an Interceptor system which can be engineered to each river’s unique layout and have installed a handful of them in locations around the world over the past couple of years. “When you actually see all that trash together, that huge patch, and you think wow, that’s what was on our beaches? That’s what all the wildlife was playing in? It’s crazy,” says Danny Devaldenebro, a Los Angeles local living near System 007,which was installed near his Marina del Rey home in 2023. “I can’t believe we actually figured out something that can help this.” System 006 was installed thousands of miles away in Rio Las Vacas, which is approximately 16 km north of Guatemala’s capital, Guatemala City. The interceptor system hinges on a set of two strategically located floating booms which capture plastic flowing through the river while water passes by. The booms are chained to foundations dug into the riverside, giving Interceptor 006 enough strength and stability to stop enormous quantities of trash throughout the rainy season. The system was put to the test after an April storm that caused flash floods in the area and eventually led to the system’s largest ever river catch. A time lapse video of the whole operation in motion just weeks later shows a full month of trash flowing through the river before it’s stopped by Interceptor 006. It’s mind blowing to see absolutely no water at certain points in the time lapse, and like Devaldenebro said back in California, it puts into perspective that all this trash would end up on beaches and in the ocean otherwise.....watch a segment of this long video and you'll get the idea!         https://www.theinertia.com/environment/timelapse-video-shows-trash-interceptor-halting-flow-of-trash-into-the-ocean-for-one-month/ 

Big oil ‘fully owned the villain role’ in 2023, the hottest year ever recorded. Fossil fuel firms ‘took the mask off’ as they reneged on climate pledges and doubled down on expansion of planet-heating energy. Guardian Dharna Noor  Wed 3 Jan 2024  Throughout 2023, the hottest year in recorded history, fossil fuel giants doubled down on their planet-heating business models. The moves flew in the face of oil and gas companies’ promises to tamp down their emissions and prioritize cleaner forms of energy. It is evidence they are “unfit to have a role in the energy transition”, said Collin Rees, the US program manager at Oil Change International. Oil majors have over the past several years announced seemingly ambitious climate plans. BP promised to cut its fossil fuel investments by 35 to 40%. Shell pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Exxon, meanwhile, said it would slash its emissions and gas burning and touted its investments in algae as a potential carbon-free fuel. Chevron announced an “aspiration” to reach net-zero upstream emissions by 2050. And dozens of oil companies signed onto an initiative to cut their methane emissions. But in 2023, firms took actions that stood in sharp contrast to those plans. “Companies have gotten more brazen about their plans to keep polluting,” said Rees. “They took the mask off.”

In October, ExxonMobil agreed to buy the shale group Pioneer Natural Resources, and Chevron announced plans to acquire the Texas oil company Hess – two of the country’s largest oil and gas deals in decades. Both mergers are being investigated by federal regulators for potentially impeding competition. And both amounted to Exxon and Chevron placing vast bets on a continued future for fossil fuel production in the US, despite scientific consensus that coal, oil and gas must be phased out to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis. Fossil fuel companies reneged on their previous climate promises earlier in the year, too. BP scaled back its emissions-slashing goal from 35% by the decade’s end to a 20 to 30% cut, while ExxonMobil quietly walked back funding in algae-based biofuels and Shell announced that it would not increase its investments in renewable energy in 2023. A major reason for the change in tack was a shifting market, experts say. As fossil fuels were becoming less profitable years ago, companies announced plans to diversify their business models......read on    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/03/2023-hottest-year-on-record-fossil-fuel-climate-crisis

The Niger Delta is a Sacrifice Zone.... How that devastation manifests itself not historically,  but right here, right now. Here’s a snapshot of what it is like, from my research and observations over 12 years as an insider and an outsider. Around two million people are living within three miles of gas flaring sites across Nigeria. Exposed to the black fumes and toxic smoke they emit, to their excessive heat and roaring noise. Imagine that. In communities close to gas flaring, residents frequently report respiratory problems, severe skin rashes and eye irritations, and worse, increased cancers, health problems experienced by over two-thirds of the population there. If you want more facts and figures, then know that the average life expectancy in the oil and gas-bearing communities in the Niger Delta is just 41 years, 10+ years below the national average. Amongst this gathering, that means about half of us would already be dead, including myself. Imagine that. Know that conceiving a child within seven miles of an oil spill site increases neo-natal and infant mortality by 100%.These are not just numbers, they are real people, with lives and loves, and families, and communities around them. Like Alice, a community leader, who says......"Our lives will never be the same because of Shell’s gas flaring."Gas flares have destroyed everything we have in this community, the flares are an oppression. Oil spills have caused massive destruction. Our rivers are polluted, families have been robbed of fishing, their main source of livelihood. The water is no longer safe to drink or able to support farming, but there is no choice for us.....read on https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/04/nigeria-government-must-halt-shells-sale-of-its-niger-delta-business-unless-human-rights-are-fully-protected/

Big Oil has biodiversity in its crosshairs National Observer Rob Miller | Opinion | June 7th 2024 Canada’s boreal wetlands are the ecosystem equivalent of Aladdin’s cave. These undisturbed wilderness areas are a treasure trove of biodiversity and a massive store of carbon that has been collected for thousands of years. They’re teeming with incredibly rich and vibrant life including birds, fish, mammals, insects, plants, soil, fungi and mosses. Canada’s northern wetlands are the crown jewels in a rich tapestry of biodiversity and ecosystem services. One of Alberta’s largest wetland complexes is the McClelland Lake watershed, located in the heart of oilsands country north of Fort McMurray. The McClelland wetland complex is nestled between Suncor’s Fort Hills open pit mine and Imperial Oil’s Kearl mine, where 300,000 barrels of bitumen are produced each day in the excavated wasteland that was once a boreal forest. The McClelland wetland features an extraordinary patterned fen that is an important stopover point and breeding ground for an abundance of migratory bird species. A patterned fen is characterized by alternating peat or moss ridges (called strings) and water-filled depressions (called flarks) that are perpendicular to the water flow. The ridged terrain calms the water and the mix of chemical properties in the soil gives rise to a wide cross-section of vegetation and diverse plant communities. Fens are home to rare and uncommon species, including endangered woodland caribou and whooping cranes. This natural richness creates a landscape of spirit-lifting beauty that is respected and treasured by local Indigenous communities.Although there are many similar fens in the eastern foothills of Alberta, the size of the McClelland wetland complex is significant. In a 2023 research paper by bryologist and peatland ecologist Dale H. Vitt, the wetland is estimated to be nearly 4,000 hectares with the patterned fen area being around 750 hectares — the size of 1,500 football fields.  From a climate perspective, the wetland complex may store as much as 35 million tonnes of CO2. A study by the University of Lethbridge estimated that McClelland’s extreme-rich fen could potentially absorb 176 grams of carbon per square meter per annum, or over 4.5 kilotonnes of CO2 each year.

But perhaps the greatest value of the McClelland wetland complex is its paleoecological record that scientists can study to unlock the secrets of its resilience to climate change over the last 10,000 years. This knowledge may prove to be invaluable as climate change accelerates due to the burning of fossil fuels.      The feasibility of Suncor’s plans to protect the remaining wetland has been challenged by the Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) and a formal request has been submitted to the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) asking them to reconsider and revoke the approval of Suncor’s operational plan. AWA’s Phillip Meintzer states, “AWA’s vision is for the entire 330 km² McClelland watershed to be designated a permanent protected area including Indigenous co-management, and its two patterned fens designated Ecological Reserves or other stringent protection compatible with the exercise of Indigenous rights.”.......will this happen- read on       https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/06/07/opinion/Big-Oil-Suncor-biodiversity-McClelland-wetland-complex