A ban on single-use plastic items like bags and straws is closer to becoming reality in Massachusetts after the state Senate approved a broad bill addressing plastics last Thursday. The Senate passed the bill by 38-2.

The ban, which has now moved to the state House of Representatives, would ban plastic bags at retailers, charge a $0.10 fee per paper bag used and require straws and plastic utensils to be made available only by request. The $0.10 fee per paper bag would allocate 50% of the collected fee toward retailer expenses and the other 50% for environmental initiatives, South Coast Today reported.

The bill would also establish a recycling program for large plastic items, like car seats, according to a report from The Associated Press.

“This vital legislation is another step forward towards eradicating plastics, a top environmental offender, in our everyday life,” said Sen. Michael Rodrigues, chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, as reported by The Associated Press.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Massachusetts State Senate (@ma_senate)

In addition, the bill will make a previous executive order from Gov. Maura Healey, banning state agencies from buying single-use plastic bottles, into law. That executive order was signed in September 2023, PBS reported.

If the bill passes, it will make Massachusetts the 13th state to establish a plastics ban. The state already has many plastic restrictions in place locally, with around 70% of the population across over 160 towns and cities under bans on single-use plastic bags.

According to the Sierra Club, Massachusetts threw out about 900,000 tons of plastic in 2022 alone, and a ban on single-use plastics could help reduce the amount of plastic going to the state’s landfills each year.

In a report published in early 2024, researchers found that plastic bans, particularly bans on plastic bags, have made a big impact in the U.S. Bans in New Jersey, Philadelphia and Vermont — along with bans in Portland, Oregon and Santa Barbara, California — have cut single-use plastic bag consumption by around 6 billion bags per year.

“Today, state leaders have chosen to take a big step toward reducing waste and protecting our neighbors and local wildlife from the dangers of excessive plastic usage,” Jess Nahigian, state political director for Sierra Club Massachusetts, said in a statement. “Plastics harm our ecosystems and communities. Cutting down on plastics is a necessary step toward achieving our state climate goals and creating a more sustainable home for future generations of Massachusetts residents. This is an important and vital step in plastic reduction, and Sierra Club Massachusetts encourages the Massachusetts House to pass this bill.”

The post Massachusetts State Senate Passes Plastics Ban appeared first on EcoWatch.

As modern humans find ways to adapt and build resiliency to anthropogenic climate change, one art exhibition is looking to the past to uncover how the 17th century Dutch acclimated themselves to extreme weather.

The Getty Center, a museum in Los Angeles, opened an exhibition on May 28 titled On Thin Ice: Dutch Depictions of Extreme Weather, which features Dutch artists’ works from the 1600s. 

The Little Ice Age

The exhibition, on display through Sept. 1, explores the everyday resilience to the extreme weather during a time period nicknamed the “Little Ice Age.” According to the museum’s representatives, this time period consisted of particularly harsh winters as well as cooler-than-usual summers. 

While it wasn’t a massive ice age on a global scale, the Little Ice Age lasted hundreds of years, from around 1300 to 1850 and affected much of the Northern Hemisphere, particularly Europe. This was caused in part by volcanic activity and changing wind patterns and ocean currents, and it led to long winters, with frequent and heavy snowfall.

While the Dutch struggled, facing extreme weather such as powerful storms and flooding, historians have uncovered more and more evidence that the Dutch in particular were able to build resilient communities that helped provide food to disadvantaged families, improve infrastructure, further scientific advancements and more, according to an essay in Aeon.

Building Resiliency

While the Industrial Revolution — and the emissions that skyrocketed since — didn’t begin until the 18th century, long after the artworks in the On Thin Ice exhibition were created, humans today can still relate to how people throughout history adapted to more natural bouts of climate change and extreme weather, the exhibition suggests.

A sense of community and innovation helped people of the past adapt to the extreme weather they were facing. In the Netherlands, this looked like adapting to frozen waterways that remained icy into spring with improved icebreaking tools and greasing ships and strengthening ship hulls to combat icy waters, as The Washington Post reported. If the ice couldn’t break down, communities would pivot and host ice fairs to attract visitors and generate income. During this time, the Dutch also invested in charities and established insurance policies to offer more protections against the many things that could go wrong in the face of extreme weather.

The Works on Display

The Getty Center exhibition includes around 40 drawings and paintings by Dutch artists, with a highlight on works by painter Hendrick Avercamp. 

The entrance to the exhibition reads, in part, “In the seventeenth century the Dutch Republic experienced a period of political stability, economic prosperity, and great technological advancement. A complex system of levees, canals, and windmills protected the Netherlands from the encroaching sea and transformed marshland into highly fertile tracts of farmland.”

“Astute observers and critics of their time, artists underscored the fundamental uncertainty of climate conditions, and their works offer opportunities to reflect on our current environmental crises,” the exhibition introduction continues.

One painting by Avercamp, “Winter Landscape With Skaters,” was painted during one of the harshest winters of the time period. You can see moored boats partially frozen in a thick sheet of ice, and some people in the foreground standing near a large hold for ice fishing. Some people are walking together, some people are playing games on ice and others are hauling goods.

“Winter Landscape With Skaters” by Hendrick Avercamp. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam / public domain

Another work from Avercamp, “A Winter Scene with Two Gentlemen Playing Colf,” shows people enjoying time outdoors, whether they’re just standing on ice talking to one another or sledding and skating. Two people at the foreground of the painting engage in a game of colf, a Dutch game with similarities to golf and hockey.

“A Winter Scene with Two Gentlemen Playing Colf” by Hendrick Avercamp. Getty Museum

Another work, “January” by Jan van de Velde, shows a community coming together for merriment, like skating on a frozen lake and walking in groups on an outdoor path, despite the cold temperatures. 

“January” by Jan van de Velde. UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts,
Hammer Museum, Rudolf L. Baumfeld Bequest

The Dutch were able to prosper economically during the Little Ice Age, in part by providing goods and supplies to other countries. We can get a glimpse of their work amid freezing temperatures in “Winter Landscape,” an artwork by Nicolaes Molenaer. In the piece, people are depicted moving goods across ice, which must be very thick and frozen to hold the weight of horse-drawn carriages moving supplies. People in the drawing are bundled in coats and hats.

“Winter Landscape” by Nicolaes Molenaer. National Museum in Warsaw / Wilanów Palace / public domain

In “A Winter Scene” by Hendrik Meyer, there are displays of harsh winter and hard work, yet comfort and warmth. Snow is piled up on a roof and the surrounding landscape, and workers are chopping and hauling wood and transporting people in carriages. People have flushed cheeks, and a mother and child stand in the doorway of a home with smoke blowing out of the snowy chimney.

“A Winter Scene” by Hendrik Meyer. Getty Museum

On the opposite site of “A Winter Scene,” the exhibition includes another work by Hendrik Meyer titled “A Summer Scene.” Here, people are tending to animals and agricultural work. According to the Getty Center, details like animals in the shade, dogs drinking water, and women in their bare feet may indicate hot weather. In the far distance, the viewer can spot windmills.

“A Summer Scene” by Hendrik Meyer. Getty Museum

These are just a handful of works on display in the exhibition, but they collectively show a range of families and strangers who are both working hard for the community and indulging in leisure time and recreation, despite facing extreme weather.

“During a period of extended cold in the 17th century, a number of remarkable Dutch artists created a genre of paintings and drawings that capture the icy landscapes and extreme living conditions of climate gone awry,” Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the Getty Museum, said in a press release. “There are obvious resonances with the opposite extreme we face today in the rising temperatures across much of the globe.”

Looking to the Future

The old adage goes that history repeats itself, and while the current climate crisis often comes with unprecedented events, this art exhibition reveals some hope in how humans can work together to adapt to climate change.

During the Little Ice Age, the Dutch, as depicted in the artworks, became important purveyors of goods to other countries, dedicated themselves to hard work for community betterment, and even participated extensively in charitable acts, as explained by Anne McCants, a history professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They adapted so well that their advancements during the Little Ice Age led to the Dutch Golden Age.

Rather than be passive bystanders to the worst impacts of the climate crisis, humans today can and should collaborate to work on slowing climate change and undoing some of the damage we’ve done to the planet. Like the people of the past, we’ll need to work together and tap into innovation and ingenuity to overcome the struggles we face.

“Today’s global climate crisis is an ongoing issue affecting current and future generations, and often inspiring the work of contemporary artists. This exhibition offers a glimpse at how Dutch artists in 1600s presented such topics,” said Stephanie Schrader, curator of drawings at the Getty Museum. “Not only will it give visitors a better understanding of the past, but it will also provide an example of how adaptation is our only hope for the future.”

The post Museum Exhibit Draws Parallels Between ‘Little Ice Age’ Resiliency and Modern Climate Crisis appeared first on EcoWatch.

After the Vermont state legislature overrode a veto from Governor Phil Scott, Vermont has now become the second state in the U.S. to ban neonicotinoids, or neonics, a type of pesticide that is particularly harmful to bees. The ban comes at the start of Pollinator Week.

The bill was vetoed by Governor Scott on May 20, 2024, but the Vermont House of Representatives and Senate voted to override the governor’s veto on June 17.

“This bill unfairly targets dairy farmers reliant on corn crops and will harm farmers without achieving its goals for pollinators,” Governor Scott said of the bill. “For these reasons I cannot sign it into law.”

Neonics are common in insecticides for agricultural and lawncare use, but they are neurotoxic. These chemicals are harmful and even deadly to bees and other pollinators. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), neonics, which were first developed in the 1990s, are now the most common insecticide class in the U.S.

A study published in 2019 found that since the rise in the use of neonics, agriculture had become 48 times more toxic to insects by 2014. The study further determined that neonics made up about 99% of total acute oral toxicity loading of insecticides in 2014.

As NRDC explained, neonics are meant for targeted pesticide use but are often used more broadly, including for corn crops. The organization reported that each conventional corn seed has enough neonics in its coating to kill around 250,000 bees, plus these chemicals can leach into soil and groundwater.

Now, Vermont is minimizing the use of neonics by requiring agronomists to provide written exemptions, or a type of prescription as described by NRDC, in order to plant crop seeds coated with neonics. The state follows New York in establishing restrictions on neonics. As reported by the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, four other states (Arizona, Connecticut, Hawaii and Washington) have introduced legislation restricting neonics.

Vermont’s restrictions are similar to restrictions set in Québec, which were initially met with concerns over crop yields. However, the neonics restrictions in Canada brought the use of neonics for corn and soybean crops down to around 0.5%, leading to a decline in the amount of neonics contaminating waterways without any impact on crop yields, Times Union reported.

Following the overridden veto, the bill is slated to take effect beginning Jan. 1, 2029, VT Digger reported.

The post Vermont Becomes Second State to Ban Bee-Killing Neonic Pesticides appeared first on EcoWatch.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has reported 161 sightings of whales last month, representing seven different whale species. The sightings, recorded on May 25, took place off the northeastern U.S. Coasts, near Martha’s Vineyard and southeast of Nantucket. According to NOAA, the sightings included an unusually high number of whale species, particularly endangered whales.

The sightings don’t necessarily mean there were 161 individual whales, since some may have been counted multiple times, The Associated Press reported. But the recorded whale sightings were still a positive sign, especially considering the high numbers of endangered species observed.

The researchers observed 93 sei whales, which are considered endangered under the Endangered Species Act. As stated on the NOAA website, sei whales experienced major declines in the 19th and 20th centuries, when around 300,000 of these whales were hunted. This was one of the highest recorded concentrations of sei whales, The Associated Press reported.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by NOAA Fisheries (@noaafisheries)

Teri Frady, chief of research communications for the Northeast Fisheries Science Center under NOAA, said that seeing so many whales in this area around this time of year is not unheard of, but the researchers did not expect to find such a large number in one area at once, especially with such a variety of species.

“It is not unusual that there are a lot of whales in the area this time of year. But since we do not survey every day, or in the same areas every time we fly, catching such a large aggregation with such a variety of species on one of our flights is the exception rather than the rule,” Frady explained, as reported by The Associated Press.

In addition to the sei whales, researchers noted three sightings of the North Atlantic right whale, another endangered species, humpback whales, fin whales, minke whales, sperm whales and the rare sightings of two orcas, which are not as common in this area. One orca was observed with a tuna in its mouth.

Gib Brogan, campaign director at Oceana, told The Associated Press that the area where the whales were observed is “increasingly important as year-round core habitat for North Atlantic right whales and other large whale species,” but that it remains a risky place for whales. Brogan noted the U.S. needs to finalize legal protections to minimize risks of vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglements, two of the biggest threats to whales in the region.

The sightings in May follow the rare observations of a gray whale off the northeastern U.S. in March by the New England Aquarium. New England Aquarium researchers observed a gray whale, a species that has been considered extinct in the Atlantic Ocean for more than two centuries, off the New England coast in an aerial survey. The rare gray whale sighting may be attributed to the species’ adaptation to climate change, scientists said.

The post Unusually Large Number of Whales Spotted, Including Multiple Endangered Species, off Northeast U.S. Coasts appeared first on EcoWatch.

In a new report, the nonprofit As You Sow has found that of 147 companies with recyclability targets, only 22 are on track to meet their goals. In total, the report reviewed 225 companies and their progress toward plastic-related goals, with about half of companies receiving an “F” score.

The 2024 Plastic Promises Scorecard has revealed a gap between the plastic waste reduction goals that companies set and the actual actions they are making toward meeting those goals. The report evaluated companies on a total score based on their ambitions and their actions toward goals related to six pillars: recyclability, reduction, recycled content, recovery, reusable and extended producer responsibility. Ambitions counted toward 30% of the total score, while the actual actions companies were taking made up 70% of the final score.

“Plastic Promises Scorecard uses a first-of-its-kind scoring system to evaluate not just what companies say they will do to act on the plastics crisis, but what they have actually accomplished,” Venky Kini, data lead and report partner, said in a press release. “We are pleased to present this tool for companies to evaluate their progress against their peers and identify opportunities for new action and ambition.” 

As Grist reported, even though many companies have goals to reduce their plastics, they are often using more plastic. According to the report, about 100 companies have pledges to use less virgin plastic, but rather than reducing their reliance on plastic, they have plans to swap virgin plastics for recycled plastics.

The findings showed that most of the companies in the report had targets to incorporate recycled content, but the same companies weren’t investing in recycling infrastructure to collect old packaging and recycle it. Only nine of the 225 companies had even set goals to create zero-waste packaging that could be reused or recycled indefinitely, rather than becoming waste.

According to a 2020 report titled Breaking the Plastic Wave, which was cited in the Plastic Promises Scorecard, existing plastic waste reduction pledges by companies and governments are far short of what is needed to prevent plastic pollution from building up in the environment. Breaking the Plastic Wave revealed that if companies and governments met their existing pledges, it would reduce the flow of plastic reaching the oceans by only 7% by 2040. Already, ocean plastic pollution is expected to triple by 2040 without interventions, reaching 29 million metric tons per year.

The latest Plastic Promises Scorecard did show some hope, though. It found that more companies were supportive of producer responsibility legislation, and As You Sow shared in a press release that shareholders for multiple companies, including Hershey and Amazon, were supportive of more sustainable packaging initiatives.

“Companies can use the recommendations and scoring methodology in the Plastic Promises Scorecard to prepare for a future where plastic packaging pollution is no longer an acceptable part of doing business,” said Kelly McBee, lead author of the report and circular economy manager at As You Sow. “This report is designed to be actionable and transparent, giving companies the tools and solutions they need to create a circular economy for plastic.”

The post Only 22 Companies Out of 147 Are on Track to Meet Their Plastic Waste Reduction Targets, Report Finds appeared first on EcoWatch.