On a cool and cloudy January day in the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen, tens of thousands of men and women pounded the streets in the first IAAF Gold Label road race of 2019. But this was a competition with a difference -- heavy on sustainability, light on single-use plastics and the first international marathon to join UN Environment’s Clean Seas campaign.
As a metaphor for the back-to-basics simplicity needed to stem the toxic tide of plastic pollution engulfing the world’s seas, the image of a dhow sailing boat sliding silently through the tranquil waters of the Indian Ocean is peerless. Especially if that dhow is made from recycled plastic and thousands of discarded flip flops.
An interview with Silvia Calvó, Minister of Environment, Agriculture and Sustainability of Andorra
What do you think is the most pressing environmental issue today and why?
Since Arpit Dhupar, founder of Chakr Innovation, won the Young Champions of the Earth prize for Asia and the Pacific region, his start-up has come a long way.
Every day, hundreds of thousands of pieces of lost or abandoned fishing equipment haunt the world’s oceans, killing indiscriminately and endangering marine life and livelihoods.
As it drifts, this ghost fishing gear takes on a life of its own; trapping fish, entangling all kinds of animals from seabirds and turtles to dolphins and whales, and snagging or smothering coral reefs.
UN Environment has been working with a broad range of partners to better assess the health of lake ecosystems in India, Kenya and the Philippines.
Economic activity in and around Lake Naivasha, and the rapidly growing population, have placed mounting environmental pressure on this important source of freshwater in central southern Kenya.
As the Flipflopi glided towards Jomo Kenyatta Public Beach in Mombasa this week, scores of people gathered on the sand, craning their necks to catch a glimpse of the flamboyant dhow made from recycled plastic that has become an African icon for a new plastic revolution.
A recent spell of especially soupy air has Bangkok scrambling to disperse dangerous pollutants and protect residents against dire health impacts.
The government has reacted quickly, clamping down on heavily polluting vehicles, deploying police and military to inspect factories and incinerators, shutting schools to protect children, and even deploying cloud-seeding planes to force rain and clear the air.
Monish Siripurapu’s air cooling system may be based on the design of a beehive but the Indian innovator’s inspiration did not come while he was striding through fields of flowers. He was actually in a stifling hot factory in New Delhi, where he was doing some design work.
Ocean lovers are often left out of the bigger environmental discussions and so struggle to see how they can do their part to stop climate change.
But one organization, Sustainable Surf, is committed to changing all that by directly engaging the global surfing community to save and restore threatened mangrove forest ecosystems. Mangroves are five times more effective at sequestering carbon emissions than land-based trees.
