We are now the dominant force changing Earth's life support system – the atmosphere, oceans, waterways, forests, ice sheets and biodiversity that allow us to thrive and prosper.
In practice, the ice sheets, oceans, waterways and rainforests – essential for the stability of the whole planet – are priced in the same way as luxury goods: their value in the distant future calculated as negligible.
The disturbing fact that plastic pollution has invaded nearly all of our oceans, waterways, beaches and wildlife in unacceptable quantities is now well known and documented. .
Just as September 11 changed the way society sees threats from terrorists, Sandy has changed how we see threats from the ocean and waterways, Klinenberg said.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, for one, has said that marine debris "has become one of the most pervasive pollution problems facing the world's oceans and waterways".
NRDC's Darby Hoover said food and beverage packaging is a "prime component of the plastic pollution in our oceans and waterways", and that companies have "an opportunity and an obligation" to curb it.
It's not that impossible since last year, more than 205 billion litres of raw sewage and untreated water entered Canada's oceans and waterways, the CBC reports.
One of the more surprising responses came from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the government agency that deals with the conditions of the oceans, major waterways and the atmosphere.
As evidenced by the fact that many scooters have been dumped, as trash, into oceans and waterways, the perceived burden Bird foists on communities isn't the only reason people submit to Bird Graveyard.
"The stable functioning of Earth systems - including the atmosphere, oceans, forests, waterways, biodiversity and biogeochemical cycles - is a pre-requisite for a thriving global society," the Australian-led team wrote in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature.
