Read the Great Swamp Watershed Association blog to find out what’s going on in microplastic news in the Great Swamp watershed, Passaic River region, New Jersey, and the rest of the world. What are microplastics? Start here for the who, what, where, why, and hows of microplastics.
Great Swamp – Passaic River – New Jersey News
- Watershed: Nature Through A Child’s Eyes, TapInto.com – Visit the Lord Stirling Environmental Education Center and see nature the way children see it. Experience the newly renovated science museum and observe children’s creativity, nature, and more. To see more Great Swamp Partner Events happening in the watershed, check out the our page and event calendar!
- Watershed: Nic Platt Re-Elected as GSWA Board Chairperson, InsiderNJ.com Nic Platt again elected as GSWA Board Chairperson.
- Watershed: Berkeley Heights introduces Plastic Ban Ordinance., TapInto.com – GSWA proud to support the decision at town hall.
- Downstream: Clifton Considering City-Wide Single-Use Plastic Ban., NorthJersey.com At the request of Clifton resident, the Clifton town council promises to look into plastic ban ordinance. “I look at the mess older people are leaving for the next generation. I am embarrassed,” resident said.
- New Jersey: Plainfield PMUA Weighs Using Compostable Single Use Plastic., TapInto.com
- New Jersey: Major Ground Beef Recall in Effect in NJ Due to Plastic Contamination Fears., NJ.com
- New Jersey: Gov. Murphy Unveils Energy Master Plan., InsiderNJ.com – Part of this plan includes “Reforming environmental land use regulations to …allow better planning and building resilient communities by avoiding flood-prone areas, reestablishing chronically inundated wetlands, revegetating riparian areas, and encouraging green building and green infrastructure.”
Arts
- The Biodiversity Heritage Library has 150,000 botanical and animal illustrations free to download. – This is Colossal.com – Billed as the world’s largest open access digital archive dedicated to life on Earth, the Biodiversity Heritage Library is comprised of animal sketches, historical diagrams, botanical studies, and various scientific research collected from hundreds of thousands of journals and libraries around the globe.
- The Insect Jewelry Of the Victorian Age, JSTOR.org – “The wing-cases of gold-enameled weevils hung from necklaces; muslin gowns were embroidered with the iridescent green elytra of jewel beetles. Tiny golden scarabs were glued to the petals of artificial flowers. Delicate moths were perched on hairpins, to float above curls.”
A design for a necklace with Brazilian Beetles, ca. 1900 via Wikimedia Commons
Biology
- When Plastics Change the Soil, BigThink. com – People don’t usually think worms are very important until they stop working the soil.
- The Overlooked Importance of Parasites., JSTOR. org – Call them creepy, but don’t hate them. Parasites provide important ecological service to animals more near and dear to us.
- A New Form of Life Could Help Fight Oceanic Plastics., ScienceDaily. com – Xenobots are newly created animal “robots” made from frog stem cells. They’re programmable and self-repairing and could be used to collect oceanic microplastic, scientists hope.
Business
- Linen Fishing Nets Could Be Cost-Effective Solution to Nylon, OpenChannels.org – “Linen fishing nets are a valid alternative and more ecological production of nets. This study aims to compare the costs of these new linen nets with conventional nets.”
- How Can Companies Sustainably Source Leather? Greenbiz.com – Leather has the same problematic environmental footprint as beef. Yet, petroleum alternatives also pose another environmental problem. How can animal products be more sustainable?
Cringeworthy
- Dismantling the Clean Water Act., NJSpotlight.com – Wetlands and waterways across the country are at risk for an influx of contamination.
Pictured: Buttermilk Falls, Morris County, NJ – EPA’s action ignores recommendations of president’s own Science Advisory Board on intermittent streams and wetlands.
Health and Wellness
- What’s Wrong with Bottled Water? Earth911.com -Americans drink more bottled water than milk or beer — approximately 42.6 billion bottles each year. And we are far from kicking the bottled water habit.
Science and Tech
- Holograms Help Scientists See “Invisible” Microplastics., AdvancedScienceNews.com – Machines trained to image microplastic particles smaller than 1mm shed new light on “invisible plastics”, and give scientists new insights into the size of the pollution problem.
- Plastic “Pouring” Into Antarctica., Sky News.com, In the first attempt to quantify how much plastic has reached the pristine continent, scientists on British Antarctic Survey’s (BAS) ship the James Clark Ross have filtered the water in fjords along the Antarctic Peninsula and the results are not good.
SkyNews: Life in the Antarctic put into greater risk by the plastic problem
News In Micro is compiled by Kristina Necovska, GSWA Membership, GIS, and Social Media guru.
