Hi everyone! In a previous blog post, I had written about how we can tackle marine chemical pollution through the purchasing choices we make as consumers. This time, I would like to encourage you to take action against plastic pollution by highlighting the amazing efforts of Singapore’s ground-up, clean-up community on our shores and in… Read More Singapore’s Clean-Up Community
Having access to energy is recognised as a crucial factor in increasing the standards of living for people around the world. Artificial lighting allows communities to go about activities safely at night (Rondolat, 2015) and extends the hours that children can spend learning and studying. However, as urbanisation increased, it gave rise to the issue… Read More Mapping Light Pollution in the Ocean
As consumers, we can take action against marine chemical pollution through the lifestyle choices and purchasing decisions we make. Purchasing non-toxic products not only reduces the amount of harmful chemicals that may eventually reach and contaminate the ocean but also ensures that human health is not affected during the product’s production and use stage. So,… Read More Taking Action as a Consumer
As a continuation of the series of posts on the Back to Blue report on marine chemical pollution, let’s explore some of the recommendations that were provided in the report. The mitigation, resolution and prevention measures recommended have been split into four categories, namely Regulations, Industry, Finance, & Consumers and civil society. In this post,… Read More The Invisible Wave III: The Role of Stakeholders
Carrying on from the previous post on the marine chemical pollution report by Back to Blue, this blog post will look at what the chemicals of concern are, as well as the impacts they have on human health and marine life. The report identified 11 categories of marine chemical pollutants (with some overlapping chemicals), of… Read More The Invisible Wave II: What Are The Key Chemical Pollutants?
Back to Blue, a joint initiative by Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation, recently released a report on marine chemical pollution titled ‘The Invisible Wave: Getting to zero chemical pollution in the ocean‘. The 260-page report aims to raise awareness of the urgent topic by mapping out current knowledge, research gaps and recommendations for various… Read More The Invisible Wave I: State of the Ocean in 2045
With the recent news of the United Nations treaty on plastic pollution, I began to be curious about what the current legislation and policies governing marine plastic pollution are, particularly those relevant to Singapore. Hence in this blog post, I’ll be looking at some national policies and agreements tackling marine plastics in Singapore. 1. Environmental… Read More Singapore’s Marine Plastic Policies
Over the past month, I have been reading the book ‘Of Orcas and Men: What Killer Whales Can Teach Us’ by David Neiwert. The book paints killer whales (or orcas) as beautiful, intelligent creatures and brings up a number of impacts that humans have had on their species, including boat-engine noise, a less-talked-about type of… Read More The Underwater Cacophony
Carrying on from the last post, we will be discussing the effects of marine plastic pollution on human health. I’m sure that many of you have heard of the message from the World Wildlife Fund International that we could be eating up to a credit card worth of plastic every week. Reuters Graphics also visualised… Read More Plastic, Not So Fantastic III: Impact on Human Health
The previous post explored the extent of plastic pollution in the ocean, with an introduction to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. In this post, we will zoom further into the plastic problem, focusing specifically on its impact on marine life. Plastics are synthetic or semi-synthetic polymers, often produced from petroleum. Their unique properties make them… Read More Plastic, Not So Fantastic II: Impact on Marine Life