Thousands of negotiators and observers representing most of the world’s nations are gathering in the Canadian city of Ottawa this week to craft a treaty to stop the rapidly escalating problem of plastic pollution. Each day, the equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic are dumped into the world’s oceans, rivers and lakes, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. People are increasingly breathing, eating and drinking tiny plastic particles. Negotiators must streamline the existing treaty draft and decide its scope: whether it will focus on human health and the environment, limit the actual production of plastic, restrict some chemicals used in plastics, or any combination of the above. These are elements that a self-named “high ambition coalition” of countries want to see. Alternatively, the agreement could have a more limited scope and focus on plastic waste and greater recycling, as some of the plastic-producing and oil and gas exporters want. |
Columbia University classes go remote as U.S. campuses divided over IsraelColleges nationwide turn to police to quell proFrancisco Lindor slugs a pair of 2How a pheromone perfume could make you irresistible to the opposite sexUtah hockey fans welcome the former Arizona Coyotes to their new homeClimate change is bringing malaria to new areas. In Africa, it never leftTravis Kelce laughs at girlfriend Taylor Swift getting 'Punk'd' by Justin Bieber in 2012Rangers star Corey Seager hit by pitch, leaves game because of shin contusionChina calls for strengthened flood control in Yangtze, Taihu Lake basinsTakeaways from the Supreme Court's latest abortion case