This year's World Water Day brings fresh concerns about seafood safety in the wake of the earthquake, tsunami and radiation leaks in Japan. Fishermen, fish buyers, and consumers on both sides of the Pacific are dealing with the ripple effects of the crisis. Addressing U.S. consumer safety concerns, the Food and Drug Administration said it was taking steps to measure radiation contamination in......read more
Aww, is it "too cold" to ride your bike in the winter? No matter where you are, it ain't as cold as St. Petersburg, Russia, where Adams Carroll rides his Ukrainian beast — made from surplus military tank parts — through the snow. Check Carroll's notes on winter cycling at the Fader. On a one-way path to wind energy dominance, China is steady flouting world......read more
Falling Up: Almost a year ago, we happily reported that global deforestation rates were falling sharply, thanks in large part to less logging in the Amazon. But newly released study, is turning our upside-down frowns back around again. The figures in the report say that Amazon deforestation rates are up 1000% from last year. Dirty Air Act: Faced with stiff pressure from Congressional......read more
Hmm... maybe banning plastic bags wasn't such a bad idea after all. The LA times reports on alarming new oceanic research from southern California, where scientists from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation and the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project found bits of plastic in the stomachs of 35% of the fish they collected off the U.S. west coast. That's a lot of fish! The......read more
Across the world, oceanic ecosystems are in peril. Overfishing, pollution, and climate change are have pushed oceans worldwide to the precipice of disaster. One Ocean One World, an effort launched last October by Greg MacGillivray of MacGillivray Freeman Films, is urging people to act to save our troubled seas. "The ocean is our planet's life support system, yet in my travels and at......read more
Driven by demand in Japan's seafood market, stocks of the bluefin tuna have depleted 85 percent over the last forty-odd years. Can aquaculture help meet the demand and save the threatened species? In "The Farmer and the Bluefin," The Perennial Plate hones its cameras in on a bluefin tuna farm in Wakayama, Japan. Whereas most bluefin farming operations capture young fish......read more
At only about five inches long, the Peruvian anchoveta seems an unlikely contender for the title of the world's most heavily fished species, by weight. And yet, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the diminutive silver forager is “the most heavily exploited fish in world history,” with annual catches in Chile and Peru sometimes totaling more than 9......read more
Alison Spiegel for the Huffington Post: It was a big year for Big Food. More fast food chains pledged to stop using gestation crates. Country of origin rules -- mandating that meat suppliers label where the animal was born, raised and slaughtered -- took effect. A major food corporation and a fast food chain announced they would stop using artificial dye in some of their products. Despite......read more
Inae Oh for the Huffington Post: Though studies have continuously shed light on the dangers of overfishing and its potentially disastrous consequences for marine ecosystems around the world, the challenge of finding sustainable, responsibly procured seafood remains persistent. The problem is particularly pronounced in New York City, where independent fishmongers have been rapidly pushed out by......read more
Solyndra be damned. The well-publicized failure of the solar energy company is but one black mark on an industry that is actually booming. According to the 2012 edition of Clean Edge's Clean Energy Trends report, things look very bright indeed. At Co.Exist, writer Ariel Schwartz sums up the findings: 2011 was the largest year for global wind power installations ever. Wind power is projected......read more