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U.S. Signals New Support for Global Plastics Reduction, Reports Say

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26 Aug, 2024

This post was originally published on Eco Watch

The U.S. has shifted its policy position and is now in favor of supporting limitations on global plastics, Reuters confirmed.

As reported by Grist, the Biden administration announced in closed-door meetings this week that it supported global efforts to limit plastic pollution via the United Nations’ plastic treaty. Previously, the U.S. had held the stance of allowing individual UN member states to make their own decisions on plastic production, Plastic Pollution Coalition reported.

“Science and common sense tell us that to solve plastic pollution, we need to turn off the tap of plastic production,” Jen Fela, vice president of programs and communications for the Plastic Pollution Coalition, said in a statement. “Industry is already producing more plastic than the world can handle, and it is poisoning people and the planet; we simply cannot produce more.”

The Biden administration has not publicly announced the decision at the time of writing, but the U.S. Department of State confirmed the announcement with Grist.

Salmon, sea-horse and whale sculptures made with plastic waste from oceans displayed in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York, NY on June 8, 2017 during the UN’s “The Ocean Conference.” Volkan Furuncu / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

Following the announcement, the nonprofit Greenpeace is now asking the Biden administration to sign the Bridge to Busan Declaration to address primary plastic polymer production to further establish a commitment to limiting plastics.

“As we near the final round of negotiations we urge the U.S. to lead on this issue by encouraging other countries to prioritize the health of people and our planet over the interest of the oil and gas industry,” John Hocevar, Greenpeace USA Ocean’s campaign director, said in a statement

As Reuters reported, the U.S. is now more aligned with several other countries, including members of the EU, South Korea, Rwanda, Peru and Canada, that approve of limits to plastic production as well as potential limits and a possible phasing out of certain chemicals currently used in plastic production.

Campaigners with the BreakFreeFromPlastic movement call for a binding treaty to accelerate the phasing out of plastic production, in Nairobi, Kenya on Nov. 11, 2023. Han Xu / Xinhua via Getty Images

However, there has been opposition to the treaty and to the newly announced U.S. support for it. Opponents believe that a treaty should address recycling and other downstream initiatives rather than plastic production to reduce pollution. Plastic industry leaders have also argued that plastics can be reused and recycled and that U.S. support for limiting plastic production is “misguided,” as reported by the Plastics Industry Association. The American Chemistry Council also criticized the decision, saying the administration “caved” to environmental organizations, Reuters reported.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, about 460 million metric tons of plastic are produced every year. Yet only around 9% of the total amount of global plastic waste is recycled, while most of it is sent to landfills or ends up as pollution in the environment, the United Nations Development Programme reported.

The U.S. will now be joining negotiations before the Global Plastics Treaty is finalized next year. The treaty, which has been in negotiations since March 2022, will go through a final round of negotiations in Busan, South Korea in November 2024.

The post U.S. Signals New Support for Global Plastics Reduction, Reports Say appeared first on EcoWatch.

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Land water loss causes sea level rise in 21st century

Land water loss causes sea level rise in 21st century

An international team of scientists, led jointly by The University of Melbourne and Seoul National University, has found global water storage on land has plummeted since the start of the 21st century, overtaking glacier melt as the leading cause of sea level rise and measurably shifting the Earth’s pole of rotation.

Published in Science, the research combined global soil moisture data estimated by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) Reanalysis v5 (ERA5), global mean sea level measurements and observations of Earth’s pole movement in order to estimate changes in terrestrial (land) water storage (TWS) from 1979 to 2016.

“The study raises critical questions about the main drivers of declining water storage on land and whether global lands will continue to become drier,” University of Melbourne author Professor Dongryeol Ryu said.

“Water constantly cycles between land and oceans, but the current rate of water loss from land is outpacing its replenishment. This is potentially irreversible because it’s unlikely this trend will reverse if global temperatures and evaporative demand continue to rise at their current rates. Without substantial changes in climate patterns, the imbalance in the water cycle is likely to persist, leading to a net loss of water from land to oceans over time.”

Between 2000 and 2002, soil moisture decreased by around 1614 gigatonnes (1 Gt equals 1 km3 of water) — nearly double Greenland’s ice loss of about 900 Gt in 2002–2006. From 2003 to 2016, soil moisture depletion continued, with an additional 1009 Gt lost.

Soil moisture had not recovered as of 2021, with little likelihood of recovery under present climate conditions. The authors say this decline is corroborated by independent observations of global mean sea level rise (~4.4 mm) and Earth’s polar shift (~45 cm in 2003–2012).

Water loss was most pronounced across East and Central Asia, Central Africa, and North and South America. In Australia, the growing depletion has impacted parts of Western Australia and south-eastern Australia, including western Victoria, although the Northern Territory and Queensland saw a small replenishment of soil moisture.

Image credit: iStock.com/ZU_09

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