Flooding from high tides has doubled in the US in just 30 years

Shoreline communities may be inundated in the next two years as ocean levels rise amid serious climate change concerns
Oliver Milman The Guardian 6 Jun 18;

The frequency of coastal flooding from high tides has doubled in the US in just 30 years, with communities near shorelines warned that the next two years are set to be punctuated by particularly severe inundations, as ocean levels continue to rise amid serious global climate change concerns.

Last year there was an average of six flooding days per area across 98 coastal areas monitored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) – an all-time record. More than a quarter of these locations tied or broke their records for high tide flood days, the federal agency states in a new report.

Known as “sunny day flooding”, these events swamp streets and homes with water simply from the incoming tide, without the aid of a storm. Noaa said that in 2017 areas across the US north-east and Gulf of Mexico were worst hit, with Boston, Massachusetts, and Atlantic City, New Jersey, both experiencing 22 days of flooding, while Galveston, in Texas, was soaked on 18 different days.

Noaa warned that cyclical climatic conditions during 2018 and 2019 “may result in higher than expected flood frequencies” in around half of the coastal sites it measures.

The longer-term trend is even more certain, Noaa said, with melting glaciers, thermal expansion of sea water and altered ocean currents pushing the sea level steadily higher and causing further floods.

“Breaking of annual flood records is to be expected next year and for decades to come as sea levels rise, and likely at an accelerated rate,” the report states. “Though year-to-year and regional variability exists, the underlying trend is quite clear: due to sea level rise, the national average frequency of high tide flooding is double what it was 30 years ago.”

The Noaa report is “comprehensive” and “clearly illustrates the increasing problems along our coastlines”, said Ben Horton, a sea level rise expert at Rutgers University. “There is flooding on all our coastlines, places where people live and work. There needs to be a national response to that.”

Last year was marked by three high-profile hurricanes that pummelled the US, triggering flooding that resulted in dozens of deaths and billions of dollars in damage. Scientists have found that warming temperatures, driven by human activity, is making hurricanes stronger, but it is also exacerbating more chronic nuisance flooding events by pushing up the level of the ocean.

“There’s a clear upwards trend of this type of flooding,” said Andrea Dutton, a geologist at the University of Florida. “Extreme events like hurricanes may be the breaking point but this sort of frequent flooding is the taste of what is coming in the future on a permanent basis. We need to rethink our relationship with the coastline because it’s going to be retreating for the foreseeable future.”

Dutton said that south Florida, where weather forecasts in some places now come with tidal warnings, and fish are a regular sight on flooded roads, is particularly vulnerable. The low-lying region sits on porous limestone, which pushes up floodwater from underground, and many communities are unable to easily retreat because they back on to the Everglades wetlands.

“They used to get just one day a year of tidal flooding, now it’s two months of it in the fall,” she said. “Engineering can help delay things but ultimately the oceans will win. We are going to have to live with the water.”

Globally, the seas have risen by an average of nearly three inches since 1992. Parts of the US coastline are unusually prone, with Noaa that the oceans could swell by more than eight feet by 2100.

Despite the risk posed to the US by sea level rise and flooding events, there is no national plan to deal with the issue, with much of the adaption work left to states and counties. The Trump administration has rescinded previous rules to build federally funded infrastructure with climate change in mind and has sought to reverse various measures aimed at taming global warming.

“We need to take this report as a warning to prepare ourselves, or we will just sit around and wait for disaster to happen,” Dutton said.

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A manifesto to save Planet Earth (and ourselves)

Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin, University College London BBC 7 Jun 18;

The impacts of human actions on our home planet are now so large that many scientists are declaring a new phase of Earth’s history. The old forces of nature that transformed Earth many millions of years ago, including meteorites and mega-volcanoes are joined by another: us. We have entered a new geological epoch, called the Anthropocene.

As scientists we agree that society has entered a dangerous new time. But what is to be done?

In our new book, The Human Planet, published on Thursday, we present a new view of how humans climbed down from the trees of Africa to become a geological superpower.

We argue that to avoid ever-larger environmental changes causing a societal collapse, we need to acknowledge the incredible power that modern society possesses and direct it towards a shift to a new type of society in the 21st Century.

Our influence is more profound than many of us realize.

Globally, human activities move more soil, rock and sediment each year than is transported by all other natural processes combined.

The total amount of concrete produced by humans is enough to cover the entire Earth’s surface with a layer two millimetres thick. Micro-plastics are found in every ocean.

We have cut down half of Earth's trees, losing three trillion, with extinctions becoming commonplace.

Factories and farming remove as much nitrogen from the atmosphere as all of Earth's natural processes, and the climate is changing fast because of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use.

Beyond these grim statistics, the critical question is: will today’s interconnected mega-civilisation that allows 7.5 billion people to lead physically healthier and longer lives than at any time in our history continue from strength to strength? Or will we keep using more and more resources until human civilisation collapses?

To answer this, we re-interpret human history using the tools of modern science, to provide a clearer view of the future.

Tracing the ever-greater environmental impacts of different human societies since our march out of Africa, we found that there are just five broad types that have spread worldwide.

Our original hunter-gatherer societies were followed by the agricultural revolution and new types of society beginning some 10,500 years ago.

The next shift resulted from the formation of the first global economy, after Europeans arrived in the Americas in 1492, which was followed in the late 1700s by the new societies following the Industrial Revolution.

The final type is today’s high-production consumer capitalist mode of living that emerged after WWII.

A careful analysis shows that each successive mode of living is reliant on greater energy use, greater information and knowledge availability, and an increase in the human population, which together increase our collective agency.

These insights help us think about avoiding the coming crash as our massive global economy doubles in size every 25 years, and on to the possibilities of a new and more sustainable sixth mode of living to replace consumer capitalism.

Seen in this way, renewable energy for all takes on an importance beyond stopping climate breakdown; likewise free education and the internet for all has a significance beyond access to social media – as they empower women, which helps stabilise the population.

More energy and greater information availability appear to be the necessities for any new kind of society - although these changes alone could increase our environmental problems, as in the past. To usher in a new way of living today’s core dynamic of ever-greater production and consumption of goods and resources must also be broken, coupled with a societal focus on environmental repair.

Two increasingly discussed ideas do just this.

Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a policy whereby a financial payment is made to every citizen, unconditionally, without any obligation to work, at a level above their subsistence needs.

Most people would still work, but UBI could break the link between paid work and consumption.

We all do it – saying, I work so hard, I deserve that fancy over-packaged sandwich, new gizmo, or long-haul holiday.

Consumption is the pay-back for being ever-more productive at work. With UBI we could think long-term, well beyond the next pay cheque, as living in the Anthropocene demands.

Small-scale trials of UBI suggest we would educate ourselves, do useful work, while caring for others and the wider environment.

Environmental repair could come from the simple but profound idea that we allocate half the Earth's surface primarily for the benefit of other species.

This is less utopian than it first appears. As we increasingly recognise that humans are part of nature, new ideas of "re-wilding" (large areas managed to allow natural processes to run) and "restoration" (bringing back forests) are taking hold.

Recent commitments across 43 countries to restore 292 million hectares of degraded land to forest, ten times the area of the UK, show that repair is on the agenda.

Universal Basic Income and Half-Earth are, of course, not the remedies for all of society's ills. But, if acknowledging that we live in the Anthropocene does anything, it shows us that our actions will have major impacts on the only planet in the Universe known to harbour life.

It would be wise to use this immense power to give the best chance for people, and the rest of life, all to flourish.

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Best of our wild blogs: 6 Jun 18

Celebrate World Oceans Day in Singapore
Celebrating Singapore Shores!

Encouraging Local Restaurants and Eateries to Embrace Sustainability
People's Movement to Stop Haze

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Heroes Among Us: Discovering new species of animals in our backyard

Since 2009, Mr Tan Ming Kai has discovered over 60 species of orthopterans. Orthopteran is a group of insects that includes grasshoppers, crickets and katydids.
Straits Times 5 Jun 18;

As a child, Mr Tan Ming Kai used to catch grasshoppers with his father.

But the 28-year-old has taken his childhood pastime to new heights.

Since 2009, he has discovered over 60 species of orthopterans. Orthopteran is a group of insects that includes grasshoppers, crickets and katydids.

Thirty of the new species were found in Singapore. Mr Tan named one of them after his mother and another after his wife.

He said that Singapore has a very small proportion of insect species left because of urbanisation.

“But at the same time, there are still many species… that have not been discovered.” said Mr Tan, who is a PhD student at the National University of Singapore.

Like Mr Tan, NPark’s conservation manager Noel Thomas is also on the constant lookout for new species of bats.

He said: “What not many people know is that Singapore… does sit in a biodiversity hot spot if you look at where it is globally.”

Learn more about how the two men discover new species of animals in Singapore in episode three of video series Heroes Among Us.

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Move to get retailers to limit plastic bag usage

This is in line with plan to make it compulsory for businesses to report on packaging waste
Low De Wei Straits Times 6 Jun 18;

Supermarkets and other retailers may be required to report the amount of plastic bags they use, and plans to reduce their usage, by 2021.

Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources, announced this on World Environment Day yesterday at the launch of the United Nations (UN) Environment's #BeatPlasticPollution Campaign.

This move is in line with previously announced plans by the National Environment Agency (NEA) to make it mandatory by 2021 for businesses to report on their packaging waste and waste reduction plans.

Yesterday, a 120m caterpillar made of discarded plastic bottles was unveiled at Marina Barrage to raise awareness about plastic pollution. The art installation will be on display for a month. During that time, more plastic bottles will be added to its body by volunteers from schools, businesses and government agencies.

The artwork, which will be made up of 18,000 bottles in all, will then be broken up and displayed in schools as smaller art installations.

Two other art installations at City Square Mall and South Beach Avenue, along with recycled plastic installations in 11 other Asia-Pacific cities, also aim to raise awareness about plastic pollution.

Dr Khor reiterated the need to tackle excessive consumption of disposable plastic, pointing to how disposable utensils will not be allowed for dine-in usage at new hawker centres here. "The manufacturing of more plastics and the stagnating recycling rate have exacerbated climate change," she said.

NEA figures show that the rate of plastic recycling fell last year, even as the amount of plastic waste generated has decreased.

Some 815,200 tonnes of plastic waste were generated last year, down from 822,200 tonnes in 2016. But less than 6 per cent of the waste was recycled in 2017, compared with 7 per cent in 2016.

Governments around the world have acted to reduce the amount of plastic waste in recent years. Britain has pledged to eradicate avoidable plastic waste by 2042 and is considering banning plastic straws. Malaysia's new government is considering banning the use of plastic bags in a year's time.

Dr Isabelle Louis, UN Environment's deputy regional director and representative for Asia and the Pacific, said South-east Asian countries, including Singapore, have not done enough to tackle plastic pollution.

She stressed the importance of legislative solutions, such as banning single-use plastic, but added that such restrictions must come with measures by governments and businesses to promote sustainability efforts.

"There is also a need to give more incentives to the private sector to bring in alternatives... such as reducing tax imposition, encouraging innovation and laws that ensure better enforcement (of environmental laws)," she said.

Some countries, said Dr Louis, remain hesitant about introducing bans because of concerns about a lack of alternatives and negative economic consequences. In such cases, companies can provide alternatives.


Plastic bags targeted as Singapore marks World Environment Day
LOW DE WEI The New Paper 6 Jun 18;

Supermarkets and other retailers may be required to report the amount of plastic bags they use and plans to reduce their usage by 2021.

Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources, announced this on World Environment Day yesterday at the launch of the United Nations (UN) Environment's #BeatPlasticPollution campaign.

The move is in line with earlier plans by the National Environment Agency (NEA) to make it mandatory by 2021 for businesses to report on their packaging waste and their waste reduction plans.

Separately, four major electronic retailers - Best Denki, Courts, Gain City and Harvey Norman - announced they will be putting up 20 e-waste collection bins at their outlets by the end of this week for shoppers to dispose of their old mobile phones, dead batteries and other e-waste.

The move is part of a new agreement that sees the four companies joining the REcycling Nation's Electronic Waste (Renew) programme, a voluntary community initiative jointly run by telco StarHub, delivery firm DHL and recycler TES.

Yesterday, a 120m caterpillar made from discarded plastic bottles was also unveiled at Marina Barrage to raise awareness about plastic pollution.

The art installation will be on display for a month, during which more plastic bottles decorated to look like flowers will be added by volunteers from schools, businesses and government agencies.

Two other art installations at City Square Mall and South Beach Avenue, along with recycled plastic installations located in 11 other Asia Pacific cities, will also be put up to raise awareness about plastic pollution.

Dr Khor reiterated the need to tackle excessive use of disposable plastic, pointing to how disposable utensils will not be allowed in new hawker centres here for dine-in.

CLIMATE CHANGE
"The manufacturing of more plastics, and the stagnating recycling rate have exacerbated climate change," she said.

Figures released by the NEA show that the rate of plastic recycling fell last year, even as the amount of plastic waste generated has decreased.

Some 815,200 tonnes of plastic waste were generated last year, down from 822,200 tonnes in 2016.

Less than 6 per cent of plastic waste was recycled last year, compared with 7 per cent in 2016. - ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KIMBERLEY CHIA

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Four retailers hop on board e-waste recycling scheme

20 collection bins to be placed in Gain City, Best Denki, Courts, Harvey Norman outlets
Kimberley Chia Straits Times 6 Jun 18;

Shoppers will soon be able to dispose of their old mobile phones, dead batteries and other e-waste in recycling bins at electronic stores.

Twenty e-waste collection bins will be placed in outlets of four major electronic retailers - Best Denki, Courts, Gain City and Harvey Norman - by the end of this week.

The move is part of a newly signed agreement that sees the four companies joining the REcycling Nation's Electronic Waste (Renew) programme.

Jointly run by telco StarHub, delivery firm DHL and recycler TES, Renew is a voluntary community initiative that was started by StarHub in 2012.

Renew bins are provided in locations islandwide and their contents are collected and recycled, with valuable parts extracted and harmful substances treated.

The expansion of the e-waste recycling programme was launched yesterday in conjunction with World Environment Day at StarHub Green in Ubi.

The signing of a memorandum of understanding was witnessed by Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli, and Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources Amy Khor.

Speaking at the launch, Mr Masagos highlighted how rising affluence and technological advancements have led to a rise in e-waste. "What I hope is that our consumers, Singaporeans, dispose of e-waste responsibly," he said.

Mr Julian Neo, head of commercial at DHL Express Singapore, added: "We want to encourage more of our partners, customers and employees to join us on this journey. E-waste growth will only continue to accelerate with the pace of digital transformation."

Renew's expansion is supported by the National Environment Agency's (NEA) National Voluntary Partnership for E-waste Recycling. There will be a total of 468 Renew bins across 422 locations in Singapore, including places such as schools and major shopping malls.

The programme launched in 2012 with just two tonnes of e-waste collected. Last year, 92 tonnes were gathered, with 249 tonnes collected to date.

However, in Singapore alone, 60,000 tonnes of e-waste is produced yearly, half of which comes from households. Based on an NEA study in March this year, only about 6 per cent of this e-waste is sent for recycling through recycling bins.

Mr Dennis Chua, 28, an executive at a social welfare organisation, said: "E-waste recycling is definitely beneficial for Singapore, considering we're pretty advanced in our technology and people are constantly seeking an upgrade in their electronic devices."

Mr Masagos said: "Let each Renew bin convey the message that e-waste must be managed responsibly, so that we can safeguard our environment for our future generations."

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Malaysia: Demand for exotic meat sees illegal poaching in Pahang on the rise as Aidilfitri approaches

AMIN RIDZUAN ISHAK New Straits Times 25 Jun 18;

KUANTAN: The growing demand for exotic dishes to be served during Aidilfitri is expected to result in an increase of poaching in Pahang.

Among the sought-after wildlife which promises lucrative returns are sambar deer, kijang (barking deer) and kambing gurun (serow).

Based on the black market value, a kilogramme of sambar deer meat is priced between RM60 and RM80, the kijang meat can fetch above RM80 while the price of serow, depends greatly on the deal between the buyer and seller as it is very difficult to hunt for one.

It is understood that the unique taste of such exotic meat and the uncommon practice of serving the dishes during Aidilfitri are the reasons behind the rising demand.

State Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) director Ahmad Azahar Mohammed said the department was aware that more poachers would be on the prowl as Aidilfitri draws near.

“We see a rising trend in the illegal activity during the festive season such as Raya due to the growing demand from exotic meat lovers. The poachers will use various methods including setting up traps or shooting the animal.

“Illegal hunters know they can make quick money from such activities. If there is no demand or they cannot make profit, they will not spend days in the jungle just to track down and capture these animals,” he told NSTP when met today.

Azahar said these poaches would usually enter forest areas which has been cleared and have access to the jungle to bring out their catch.

“Animals that occupy forest areas that have been cleared would usually leave their habitat to find food and among the hot spots that the department has identified in Pahang are Kemasul (Bentong), Tekai (Jerantut) and Berkelah (Kuantan),” he said, adding that Perhilitan personnel are currently monitoring the hot spots to curb poaching.

He said the government has put in place a six-year moratorium since 2016 on the hunting of sambar deer, barking deer and serow, and if caught, the illegal hunters could face a hefty punishment.

“Under Section 68 of the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 (Act 716), those caught hunting or keeping fully protected wildlife will face maximum penalty and five years’ jail, while those caught hunting protected species face a maximum RM50,000 fine and two years’ jail under Section 60 of the same act,” he said.

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Malaysia: Consumers’ Association of Penang calls for ban on single-use plastics

Bernama New Straits Times 5 Jun 18;

GEORGE TOWN: In conjunction with World Environment Day, Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) is calling for a ban on single-use plastics.

As the theme for this year’s World Environment Day is “Beat Plastic Pollution”, CAP President SM Mohamed Idris called for concrete action to cooperate and combat one of the greatest environmental challenges.

He highlighted that Malaysian consumers had a habit of requesting or demanding more single-use or disposable plastics from markets and hawker stalls, as well as using disposable plastic utilities such as cups, straws, cutleries and water bottles in a majority of events, including gatherings, festivals, parties and so on.

Mohamed Idris also quoted Malaysian Plastics Manufacturers Association, stating that in 2016, an average Malaysian uses 300 plastic bags per year.

“Single-use plastics has caused many minor and major ecological and environmental issues.

"Eliminating single-use plastic is a necessary step to decrease the amount of waste and pollution in the long term,” he told a press conference, here today.

Mohamed Idris also said that he would write a letter to the newly-appointed Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin to have single-use products and micro plastics included alongside the nationwide ban on plastic bags.

On May 28, Zuraida made the announcement on implementing a nationwide ban on plastic bags within a year. — BERNAMA

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Indonesia: Borneo's last remaining orangutans threatened by illegal logging, despite government protection

Peatland forest is being exploited in 'major embarrassment for Indonesian government,' Greenpeace claims
Josh Gabbatiss The Independent 6 Jun 18;

The forest which is home to some of the last remaining Bornean orangutans is being logged despite the Indonesian government’s vow to protect it, Greenpeace has claimed.

The group said six illegal logging settlements had been identified in Sungai Putri, the peatland forest home to around 1,200 of the critically endangered apes.

Campaigners obtained photos and aerial drone footage showing an extensive drainage canal full of water, heavy earth-moving equipment and planting of pulp wood tree seedlings.

The Indonesian government has previously ordered a moratorium on drainage and logging in the country's peatland forests following extensive dry season fires in 2015.

They were blamed on the drainage of swampy peatlands to create industrial plantations, which had left the forests highly combustible.

The new evidence produced by Greenpeace comes after the Indonesian environment and forestry minister Siti Nurbaya called for the company responsible to cease operations in March.

“This is a major embarrassment for the Indonesian government, which has consistently promised to protect Sungai Putri,” said Ratri Kusumohartono, Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner.

“The government cannot let this stand – it must uphold the law and ensure the full and permanent protection of this beautiful and important forest.”

The ministry's director-general of law enforcement and its director of environmental disputes did not respond to calls or text messages.

The ForestHints website, a semi-official news site for the ministry, said in an article earlier this month that Ms Nurbaya had "displayed great consistency" in making sure Sungai Putri is not cleared.

It said the forest would "unquestionably have been destroyed" without the ministry's previous sanctions.

Exploitation of the Sungai Putri forest and Chinese investment in a related wood-processing plant is supported by provincial and district officials in West Kalimantan province on Borneo.

An Indonesian company, Moharison Pawan Khatulistiwa, has a forestry ministry permit for logging in the forest, and a forestry ministry-approved work plan, both of which are now overridden by the moratorium on peatland development.

Greenpeace said it was unclear whether the company was carrying out the logging or if other parties had taken advantage of roads built by the company to further encroach on the forest.

The wood was supplying sawmills and furniture businesses in the Ketapang region of West Kalimantan, it said.

A study published in February reported that Borneo had lost more than 100,000 orangutans in the space of just 16 years.

Over the last decade, the Centre for Conservation of Natural Resources in Indonesia together with the animal welfare organisation International Animal Rescue (IAR) have rescued over 30 orangutans in Sungai Putri and the surrounding area.

However, the great apes continue to be threatened by hunting, logging and palm oil expansion.

“Habitat destruction forces orangutans to enter neighbouring plantations and farms looking for food and this frequently leads to conflict with humans,” said Karmele Llano Sanchez, programme director of IAR in Indonesia. Sungai Putri is home to one of the largest populations in the world and we are at a critical point for the Bornean orangutan, without forests like this they can’t survive.”

Additional reporting by AP.

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Coral decline in Great Barrier Reef 'unprecedented'

Reef monitoring program shows northern section has lost half of its coral cover
Ben Smee The Guardian 5 Jun 18;

A steep decline in coral cover right across the Great Barrier Reef is a phenomenon that “has not been observed in the historical record”, a new report by the Australian Institute of Marine Science says.

The institute, Australia’s government-backed marine research agency, periodically releases results of a long-term reef monitoring program. Each reef along the Queensland coast is visited by researchers every two years to assess its condition and coral cover.

The latest results, released on Tuesday, detail how major bleaching events in 2016 and 2017 have impacted on different sections of the reef. AIMS said it had no previous record of bleaching events occurring in successive years.

“Over the 30-plus years of monitoring by AIMS, Great Barrier Reef reefs have shown their ability to recover after disturbances, but such ‘resilience’ clearly has limits,” the report says.

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“The predicted consequences of climate change include more powerful storms and more frequent and more intense bleaching events.

“More intense disturbances mean greater damage to reefs, so recovery must take longer if the growth rate remains the same. At the same time, the intervals between acute disturbance events are decreasing and chronic stresses such as high turbidity and high ocean temperatures can slow rates of recovery.”

Survey reefs in the northern section, the worst hit by climate-induced marine heatwaves, have lost about half their coral cover. The impacts of the most recent heatwave is not fully represented in the results, as the most recent AIMS surveys have been in the central and southern sections.

The central section “sustained significant coral loss due to coral bleaching and the continued southwards spread of the current wave of crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks”. Total coral cover decreased from 22% in 2016 to 14% in 2018.

“The geographic scale of recent bleaching means that breeding populations of corals have been decimated over large areas, reducing the potential sources of larvae to recolonise reefs over the next years,” the report says.

“It is unprecedented in the 30-plus year time series that all three regions of the [reef] have declined and that many reefs have now very low coral cover.

“The prognosis of more frequent disturbances, each causing greater damage to reefs, combined with slower rates of recovery will inevitably lead to less living coral on reefs.”

Imogen Zethoven, from the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said the report highlighted the unprecedented scale of coral loss on the reef.

“We need the government to see this as a national crisis, which it is. We are responsible for the protection and conservation of this world treasure. We have a legal and moral obligation to look after it.”

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Plastic wasteland: Asia's ocean pollution crisis

AFP 5 Jun 18;

A Vietnamese mangrove draped with polythene, a whale killed after swallowing waste bags in Thai seas and clouds of underwater trash near Indonesian "paradise" islands -- grim images of the plastic crisis that has gripped Asia.

About eight million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into the world's oceans every year, the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic being tipped into the sea every minute of every day.

More than half comes from five Asian countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a 2015 Ocean Conservancy report.

They are among the fastest growing economies in Asia, where much of the world's plastic is produced, consumed and discarded -- most of it improperly in countries where waste management is at best patchy.

"We are in a plastic pollution crisis, we can see it everywhere in our rivers, in our oceans... we need to do something about it," Greenpeace Indonesia campaigner Ahmad Ashov Birry told AFP.

World Environment Day on Tuesday is highlighting the perils of plastic with the tagline "if you can't reuse it, refuse it".

But it is not just an issue of aesthetics, plastics are killing marine life.

Last week a whale died in southern Thailand with 80 plastic bags in its stomach, an increasingly common sight alongside dead seabirds and turtles gorged on plastic and washed ashore.

- Invisible threat -

Experts warn the greatest threat might be invisible.

Microplastics -- tiny shards that easily soak up toxins after breaking off from larger plastic pieces -- have been found in tap water, ground water and inside fish that millions of people eat across Asia every day.

Scientists still do not fully understand the health effects of consuming microplastics.

"We're conducting a global experiment with no sense of where we're heading with this whole thing," Carl Gustaf Lundin, head of the global marine and polar programme at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, told AFP.

That worries Vietnamese fisherwoman Nguyen Thi Phuong, whose sleepy village on the South China Sea coast in Thanh Hoa province has slowly transformed into a dump site over the years.

"It's unbearable, people discard their garbage here... it's so polluted for the children, it's not safe," she said in the baking heat thick with the smell of trash and fish.

In the nearby mangrove forest, her neighbours dig through warm, trash-speckled mud for snails or shrimp.

But the tree branches above are blanketed with faded plastic bags left behind from tidal waters that wash up fresh waste every day.

A one-kilometre (half-mile) stretch of beach is lined with sandals, biscuit wrappers, tubes of Japanese toothpaste, juice boxes, fishing nets, furniture and heaps of discarded clothing, as piles of trash burn nearby.

"It's hard for us to work here finding shrimp and fish," said fisherman Vu Quoc Viet, who often finds plastic trash in his nets.

- More plastic than fish by 2050 -

Rubbish collection is low in rural Vietnam as elsewhere in Asia, one of the main reasons why so much plastic ends up in the sea, according to Joi Danielson, programme director of Oceans Plastics Asia at SYSTEMIQ.

On average only about 40 percent of garbage is properly collected in the five plastic-addled countries that spit out most of the ocean's trash, with few resources dedicated to proper waste management especially in mushrooming mega-cities.

Plus, plastic consumption -- and waste -- continues to balloon along with growing incomes and dependence on plastic products integral to almost every aspect of daily life.

"You're battling against this constantly growing target," Danielson told AFP.

At the current rate of dumping, the total amount of plastic trash in the world's oceans is expected to double to 250 million tonnes by 2025, according to Ocean Conservancy.

That means there could be more plastic than fish in the world's seas by 2050 if the nothing is done to turn the tide.

- 'Not rocket science' -

Environmentalists are looking to China to lead by example when it comes to tackling the problem.

Last year the world's second largest economy said it would stop importing the West's recycling, refusing to be "the world's garbage dump".

But the vast majority of China's waste is homegrown and collection remains low in rural areas, according to Danielson.

Experts agree that while the problem seems daunting with plastic waste so ubiquitous throughout Asia, it is a crisis with a solution.

Social media campaigns calling for plastic bans and viral videos like the one featuring British diver Rich Horner swimming through clouds of trash off the coast of Bali have helped to spark pubic awareness.

Improved waste collection and reduced consumption have been flagged as crucial next steps.

Ocean Conservancy has also called for new plastic materials and product designs and more investment into waste-to-energy and waste-to-fuel schemes.

For Lundin, political will is perhaps the biggest hurdle at the moment.

"It's not rocket science... there's no place that couldn't fix it if they decided they had to," he said.

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India will abolish all single-use plastic by 2022, vows Narendra Modi

Country will also introduce a campaign against marine litter and a pledge to make 100 national monuments litter-free
Damian Carrington The Guardian 5 Jun 18;

India will eliminate all single-use plastic in the country by 2022, prime minister Narendra Modi has announced.

The pledge is the most ambitious yet of the global actions to combat plastic pollution that are taking place in 60 nations around the world. Modi’s move aims to drastically stem the flow of plastic from the 1.3 billion people living in the fastest growing economy in the world.

“The choices that we make today will define our collective future,” said Modi on Tuesday. “The choices may not be easy. But through awareness, technology, and a genuine global partnership, I am sure we can make the right choices. Let us all join together to beat plastic pollution and make this planet a better place to live.”

A UN report issued on Tuesday – World Environment Day – showed dozens of nations acting to cut plastic, including a ban on plastic bags in Kenya, on styrofoam in Sri Lanka and the use of biodegradable bags in China.

A tax on single-use plastic bags in the UK has slashed their use, and ministers have banned microbeads in personal hygiene products. But prime minister Theresa May’s pledge to end “avoidable plastic waste by the end of 2042” was criticised as far too slow.

Millions of tonnes of plastic enter the seas each year, choking whales and other creatures, much of it in Asia. Plastic pollution has been found across the globe, from the most remote oceanic islands to high Swiss peaks. Microplastics have now also been found in tap water and human food around the world, with unknown implications for health.

Writing in the Guardian on Tuesday, Erik Solheim, head of UN Environment, said: “Let there be no doubt: we are on edge of a plastic calamity.” But he praised India’s initiative: “They have shown that political motivation, turned into practical action, can inspire the world and ignite real change.”

India, which has 7,500km of coastline, also announced a national marine litter action campaign and a programme to measure how much plastic enters India’s coastal waters. The nation will also pledge to make 100 national monuments litter-free, including the Taj Mahal.

“Environmental degradation hurts the poor and vulnerable the most,” Modi said. “It is the duty of each one of us to ensure that material prosperity does not compromise our environment.”

In 2014, Modi pledged to bring electricity to the almost 20,000 that still lacked power by 2019. On 28 April, he claimed this had been achieved.

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