Writer Rebecca Altman said she has focused on studying plastics because “some of the stuff coming off the plant where my dad had worked was implicated in suffering and childhood sickness in New Jersey. I just really wanted to understand this larger system of which it was a part.” buff.ly/kLy9nK4

"How does it feel to be a worker in an oil-and-gas industry and a Canadian petrostate amid the climate crisis and the early stages of a transition away from fossil fuels?" - Melanie Dennis Unrau niche-canada.org/2024/11/27/n... #envhist #envhum #fossilfuels #labour #poetry

Wrote for the @thebulletin.org about the EPA’s latest website removals on the human causes of climate change, the administration’s yearlong assault on climate information, and why the everyday person should care about disappearing data: thebulletin.org/2026/01/epas...

Dear @ievajusionyte.bsky.social is a Brown University anthropologist and an EMT/paramedic who has focused on gun violence for most of her career, particularly on the US-Mexico border. But what happened here at Brown this past weekend... Read her here:

The Song of Styrene: Intimate Histories of Plastics to be pub'd March 2027 @scribnerbooks.bsky.social Meanwhile, 3 new titles: Consumed | Saabira Chaudhuri The Problem with Plastics | Judith Enck @beyondplastics.bsky.social w/ @adamlmahoney.bsky.social Plastic, Inc.| @bethgardiner.bsky.social

I feel like this is the nightmare we all dread in the US — an active shooter in your community. Brown University is still in shelter in place 3 hours in, with 2 confirmed deaths, 8 in critical condition, and no shooter(s) in custody. One of my students had to run from the scene. Horrified.

Happy to have written about plastic for @thepolycrisis.bsky.social. Thanks to @70sbachchan.bsky.social for sourcing the excellent graphics. And thanks to @rebecca-altman.bsky.social and @anjakrieger.bsky.social for being my go-to's on all-things plastic. www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/pla...

Hey #DiscardStudies folks. The European Commission has a public consultation period open until November 6 for its planned Circular Economy Act. If you have an article or post you want included, register and submit at ec.europa.eu/info/law/bet...

Enshittification of reality

To the artists, scholars, advocates, journalists, writers, historians, lawyers, entrepreneurs, policy folks, thank you for your good work. To address plastics is to work for human rights, climate stability, human health, environmental justice, global unity, & the rights of future generations. 🙏🙏🙏

Plastics have woven their way into the fabric of every ecosystem, into everything & everyone, into strata & time, but it has also woven a web of us, & introduced me to people who also work for change, whose presence in the world makes the work all the more meaningful. W/ thx #plasticstreaty #envhist

“A new study of one of Canada's most urbanized rivers suggests it dumps the equivalent of about 18 cars worth of microplastics into Lake Ontario every year, a finding that shocked the lead author.” — from Chelsea Rochman’s lab #plasticpollution www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Environmental scientists highlight role of paint in microplastic pollution phys.org/news/2025-03... Paint: a ubiquitous yet disregarded piece of the microplastics puzzle - by Zoie Diana et al. academic.oup.com/etc/article/...

“There was no job announcement, no search committee to identify top candidates, no interviews or reference checks.” Re: new head of the National Institutes of Environmental Health

Newsflash ⚡️ www.euronews.com/green/2025/1...

It's MOLE DAY. Happy mole day all. #Chemsky #chemistry #moleday #realtimechem

Built overtop former Union Carbide HQ — dismantled girder by girder before built anew — 60 stories for 10K employees and apparently, per reporting here, no cockroaches.

I am very much appreciating @cassienewland.bsky.social’s opening chapter on #plastics history — begins with the whole rubber-human rights mess, ace primary sources, and puts the whole celluloid spared the elephant trope in its full context. 👏👏👏👏

This is how you blurb

This book. My word, this book! Plastics folks— the archaeologists on plastics are 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 I’m in do not disturb mode over here until I finish it.

Our national parks are increasingly stressed because of the government shutdown. With a large portion of National Park Service staff furloughed, there are fewer personnel available to enforce rules or care for the land. Across parks, reports are emerging of trash accumulating,

"They built their businesses on disposability": Author Saabira Chaudhuri says brands made single-use plastic inescapable.

BREAKING NEWS: Community, Health, and Environmental Groups Sue to Stop President Trump’s Unlawful Toxic Air Pollution Exemptions Learn more: environmentalintegrity.org/news/groups-...

NEW REPORT documents dangerous levels of toxic benzene and chromium at fencelines of plants in PA, IN, AL, IL, OH, MI Read the report: environmentalintegrity.org/news/trump-r...

👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

October is "Great Global Nurdle Hunt" Season! Join #nurdle hunters around the world and help gather evidence to address microplastic pollution! 🔎Do you want to become a nurdle hunter? Head to the Fidra website to find out how to take part. 👉 www.nurdlehunt.org.uk/take-part/th...

Finally looked up how to get rid of Google‘s automatic AI answers (and the attached waste of resources) and it‘s so easy! What relief. 😅 www.reddit.com/r/techsuppor...

Yes!!!! A permanent solution to my search engine woes.

Oh, for fork's sake.🍴 "Men who use plastic cutlery and tableware have a higher accumulation of #microplastics in their semen, which is linked to lower sperm count," according to a recent paper in the J. of Nanobiotechnology. Via @ehnewsroom.bsky.social #plasticstreaty www.ehn.org/microplastic...

Watchdog report says American e-waste is causing a 'hidden tsunami' in Southeast Asia abcnews.go.com/Business/wir... #eWaste #BaselConvention #PlasticPollution #PlasticWaste @dalhousieu.bsky.social

Sometimes adjunct, but full-time mom of dyslexic kids asking profs to bear specific cases in mind — the digital is assistive tech, closing the gap between academic demands & learning differences/disability — speech to text, text to speech/ear reading makes all the difference for some learners. 🙏

“I hope this lawsuit is recycled in other states,” Judith Enck of @beyondplastics.bsky.social told the New York Times of the California suit pursuing plastic bag makers’ false recycling claims 🔥🔥🔥 #plastic www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/u...

Data-rich thread from @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social on China. Coal, gas consumption along with steel and cement production are all down. What's up? Petrochemicals driving oil consumption. Reining in #plastics production needs to be a primary #climate target.

Listening now, join me? "Can a cancer hotspot be saved from our addiction to plastic?" with @risestjames.bsky.social @descendantsproject.bsky.social & @ciel.org #plasticstreaty #humanrights www.dw.com/en/can-a-can...

“We don’t know where we’re going, or where we’re going to live. Or if we’ll ever go back home,” Darrell John from Kipnuk, in a great piece in the Northern Journal on western Alaska’s typhoon aftermath— www.northernjournal.com/were-in-gods...

Last week, western Alaska was hit by the powerful remnants of a typhoon. Recovery is just beginning for communities an airplane away building materials & other support. PBS has a good overview of this social-climate disaster. Ways to support linked below. m.youtube.com/watch?v=t5kz...

We wrote a BOOK! 📘 “The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It's Too Late” is due out from @thenewpress.bsky.social on Dec. 2 🗓️ Pre-order your copy right now: www.beyondplastics.org/problem-with...

NEW: There’s a disaster unfolding in Alaska right now. And no major network is covering it. The remnants of Typhoon Halong battered western Alaska overnight. Homes, with people in them, have literally been swept into the Bering Strait. At least 20 are missing. No comment from any federal agency.

For some context the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report in addition to being just a good read, to quote wikipedia, "is the main vehicle for publishing public health information and recommendations that have been received by the CDC from state health departments. "

“Freshwater tidal marshes, critical for wildlife and coastal protection, are now serving as microplastic catch basins, according to a team of researchers at Penn State. They recently found that these marshes trap large amounts of diverse plastics...” Learn more in: phys.org/news/2025-09...

„Obesity rates continue to rise globally, and the pressure exerted by food systems on planetary boundaries shows no signs of abating.“ Plastics are the key enabler of globalized food systems… https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01201-2/

“Bodies bearing assemblies of plastics become archaeological sites in themselves, with archaeological ‘depth’ a reflection of how far plastic particles have penetrated…” Pull quote continues in comments.

This morning I read this 2025 paper from John Schofield & colleagues on the archaeology of #plastics — and it was 🤯🤯🤯 — on so so many levels — my copy is fully highlighted and annotated and marginalia’d ✍️

"Walt Whitman was messy. I mean really, really messy." Today's small delight is from Jillian Hess's Noted: jillianhess.substack.com/p/walt-whitm...

> “603,000 El Paso residents, about 90 percent of the city’s population, are exposed to a cancer risk above 1 in 1 million just from Cardinal Health’s two warehouses.” Great work from @naveenasadasivam.bsky.social and Lylla Younes grist.org/health/ethyl...

And here's our latest investigation on this issue: grist.org/health/ethyl...

Thanks to the people who reposted and quote posted this below! Good for a) my morale and b) people's awareness of just how long we have known there might be trouble ahead...

In the #plasticstreaty negotiations, China is the 800-pound gorilla, so even subtle shifts are important. We all heard them break from the Saudi-led "like minded countries" in Geneva. The question is, where does this road lead? www.politico.eu/article/chin...