This year, India and the United Nations (UN) are jointly hosting the global World Environment Day celebrations, with ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ as the central theme. There is no reason to celebrate, rea
Public apathy stems from an inability to embrace the idea of collective ownership. Here&rsquos a brief list of questions on the topic posed on popular website, Quora. 1. Why is there a lack of civic sense among the people of India? 2. Do Indians lack civic sense? And how? 3. What is the reason behind the poor civic sense of Indians? 4. What would be some great ways to increase civic sense
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2/12
Every human activity, from farming to construction (and yes, shopping) affects the environment. Termed &lsquoecological footprint&rsquo, it measures the demand that a nation&rsquos consumption and waste makes on the biosphere (it is measured in global hectares units). China leads the list of resource guzzlers, followed by the US and India, due to their large populations. Surprisingly, whe
Image by Mohamed Farag/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
3/12
Plastic is everywhere, and so is photography now. Leo Baekeland&rsquos association with both is legendary. Around 1894, Leo perfected a photographic paper that would allow enlargements to be printed by artificial light, which he named "Velox". It was the first commercially successful photographic paper. To make up for the lack of an investor, he found a partner and established the Nepera
Image by PlasticsNews
4/12
Dutch conceptual artist, Florentijn Hofman's playful floating duck sculpture called 'Spreading Joy Around the World&rsquo arrived in Hong Kong in May 2013. The 16.5-metre high rubber duck, constructed with more than 200 pieces of PVC, had travelled to 10 countries and 12 cities by then. &ldquoSo much of the ocean feels really inhuman&rdquo the writer Donovan Hohn was quoted as saying, &ld
Image by Jessica Hromas/Getty Images
5/12
Replace the ducks with plastic flotsam and you get the drift. We all have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a collection of plastic floating trash larger than the size of the US, discovered around 1985. Current research from Scientific Reports, collating data from multi-vessel surveys, show 80,000 tonnes of plastic floating inside an area of 1.6 million sq.km in North Pacific Oce
Image by Courtesy- marinedebris.noaa.gov
6/12
Substantial amounts of marine debris from the patch washes ashore on the beaches of the 2.4 sq km long Midway Atoll. Of the 1.5 million Laysan albatrosses that inhabit Midway, nearly all are found to have plastic in their digestive system.The birds eat brightly colored plastic, mistaking them for marine animals (such as squid and fish). Approximately one-third of their chicks die, being f
Image by Sylvain Cordier/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
7/12
At least 8 million tonnes of plastic ends up in the oceans each year, the equivalent of a full garbage truck every minute. In the ocean, it can take hundreds of years to degrade and break down into microparticles (smaller than 5mm). These are consumed by marine animals, finding their way into the human food chain. The danger isn't merely in their toxicity, but its presence that impedes fu
Image by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images
8/12
Bales of plastic waste collected by fishermen from the Tyrrhenian Sea await recycling. As part of the ' Arcipelago Pulito ' project in Tuscany, fisherman bring the plastic they collect, ashore for recycling at Revet Recycling, a specialised plant in Pontedera near Pisa, Italy. The project is the result of an agreement between the Tuscan Region, the Ministry of the Environment, Unicoop Fir
Image by Laura Lezza/Getty Images
9/12
Microplastic pollution arguably poses a bigger threat to life on land, according to UN Environment report. Sewage sludge - which contains upto 80 percent plastic particles - is often applied to fields as fertilizer, ends up affecting fauna&rsquos health and soil functions. Additives from plastic particles can disrupt the hormone system of vertebrates and invertebrates. Nano-sized particle
Image by Satish Bate/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
10/12
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is looking into potential risks of plastic in drinking water after a new analysis by the State University of New York&rsquos scientists (commissioned by journalism project Orb media) was carried out. It found that more than 90 percent of world&rsquos most popular bottled water brands (including India&rsquos) contained tiny particles of plastic. The scie
