Those Beads in Your Body Wash? They’re Harming Ecosystems

Staff / Truthdig Jan 26, 2014 "Microbeads" -- bits of plastic no bigger than grains of salt, which absorb industrial toxins after being flushed down drains -- are floating along the Los Angeles River and into the Pacific Ocean. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Cooler Pacific ‘Is Slowing Warming’

By Alex Kirby, Climate News Network Aug 31, 2013 Climatologists are puzzled that greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated, while the atmosphere is warming more slowly than they expected. Now two scientists in the U.S. think they know why. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Experts Fear Fukushima Leaks Sending Radioactive Water Into the Pacific

BLANK Aug 25, 2013 The radiation crisis at the melted-down Fukushima power plant is worsening as leaking tanks and underground water add new and critical problems that some fear are beyond the Tokyo Electric Power Company's ability to handle. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Polar Ice Melt Will Mean Uneven Sea-Level Rise

By Alex Kirby, Climate News Network Feb 21, 2013 Research shows some parts of the world are likely to get higher sea levels than others this century, particularly along the Pacific Ocean. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

Powder Keg in the Pacific

By Michael Klare, TomDispatch Jan 23, 2013 China’s determination to assert control over disputed islands in the potentially energy-rich waters of the East and South China Seas spells trouble not just regionally, but potentially globally. Dig deeper ( 10 Min. Read )

Bluefin Tuna Carry Radiation Across the Pacific

Staff / Truthdig May 29, 2012 Small amounts of radioactive cesium were detected in samples of bluefin tuna caught off the coast of California last summer, just five months after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster in Japan, a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Journal reports. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Some Progress, but More Worry, at Japanese Plant

Staff / Truthdig Apr 7, 2011 Although a stopgap measure has apparently plugged the leak in Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, keeping more radioactive water from spilling into the Pacific, the crisis has shifted over to Reactor 1, which could be headed for a blowup. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Senate Lets Sharks Keep Their Fins for Christmas

Staff / Truthdig Dec 23, 2010 The Senate has moved to close a loophole that allows fishing concerns in America's corner of the Pacific Ocean to engage in finning -- that's when you catch a shark, cut off its fin and dump the mutilated, still living-but-not-for-long animal back in the water so it can suffer to death. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )