Plastic straws might have quickly become this summer’s bogeyman, with bans by Starbucks, hotel chains, resorts and some big cities. But as this week’s TipSheet points out, straws are only a part of the massive marine litter problem facing the world’s oceans. Here’s how to put recent straw bans into broader perspective.
"Omirserik Ibragimov fixed his gaze on the hole he had carved out from the frozen Aral Sea. The 25-year-old’s hands moved steadily, pulling out a fishing net that he and his father had left under the solid, snow-covered surface just three days earlier."
"A costly “ice wall” is failing to keep groundwater from seeping into the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, data from operator Tokyo Electric Power Co shows, preventing it from removing radioactive melted fuel at the site seven years after the disaster."
"A court in central Vietnam has sentenced an activist to 14 years in jail for livestreaming fishermen marching to file a lawsuit against a Taiwan-owned steel plant’s spill of toxins into the ocean."
"Hong Kong boasts glittering skyscrapers, seamless transportation and billion dollar infrastructure projects, but it is struggling with a much more mundane problem: disposing of its trash."
New White House tariffs on solar imports may put the brakes on the solar installation boom in the United States. That means numerous local and regional stories are waiting to be told. This week's TipSheet has plenty of ideas for coverage, plus resources to track solar activity in your locale.
"Global warming could be responsible for forcing 24,000 people to leave the Mekong Delta every year".
"Bunker fuel may now be leaking from the Iranian oil tanker that sank in the East China Sea last Sunday, China’s State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said, underlining fears for contamination from the world’s worst oil ship disaster in decades."
"Rising waters now cover homes and land on a Bangladeshi island, leaving farmers desperate."
"An oil spill from an Iranian tanker that sank in the East China Sea is rapidly spreading, officials said Tuesday, alarming environmentalists about the threat to sea and bird life in the waterway."
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