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Agents of Change in Environmental Justice Podcast: 2021 episodes

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Tuesday, April 9, 2024

The Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast features the stories, research and big ideas from past and present program fellows and other environmental justice leaders.Below are archived episodes from 2021. To see the most recent podcasts, click here or subscribe at iTunes or Spotify.Year in review Agents of Change in Environmental Justice · Year in reviewGavin Rienne Agents of Change in Environmental Justice · Gavin Rienne on children's health and natural disastersRead the transcript. Lariah Edwards Agents of Change in Environmental Justice · Lariah Edwards on hormone-altering chemicalsRead the transcript. Daniel Carrión Agents of Change in Environmental Justice · Daniel Carrión on the heat stroke or go broke dilemmaRead the transcript. Max Aung and Tracey Woodruff Agents of Change in Environmental Justice · Max Aung and Tracey Woodruff on shaping environmental chemical policyRead the transcript. Carlos GouldAgents of Change in Environmental Justice · Carlos Gould on global energy poverty and indoor air pollutionRead the transcript. Pallavi PantAgents of Change in Environmental Justice · Pallavi Pant on decolonizing global air pollution researchRead the transcript.Azmal HossanAgents of Change in Environmental Justice · Azmal Hossan on the sociology of climate crises in South AsiaRead the transcript. Tatiana Height Agents of Change in Environmental Justice · Tatiana Height on the importance of cultural perspectives in environmental educationRead the transcript. What Netflix's "The Chair" says about diversity in scienceAgents of Change in Environmental Justice · Ami and Yoshi discuss what Netflix's "The Chair" says about diversity in scienceDeniss Martinez Agents of Change in Environmental Justice · Deniss Martinez on Indigenous science and cultural fire practicesRead the transcript. MỹDzung ChuAgents of Change in Environmental Justice · MỹDzung Chu on healthy housing and social justiceRead the transcript. Brian Bienkowski Agents of Change in Environmental Justice · Brian Bienkowski on amplifying diverse voices through podcastingRead the transcript. Adrift in the diasporaAgents of Change in Environmental Justice · Adrift in the diasporaKartik Amarnath Agents of Change in Environmental Justice · Kartik Amarnath on community empowermentRead the transcript.Misbath DaoudaAgents of Change in Environmental Justice · Misbath Daouda on centering equity in energy transitionsRead the transcript.Regan PattersonAgents of Change in Environmental Justice · LISTEN: Regan Patterson on transportation justiceRead the transcript.Reginald Tucker-SeeleyAgents of Change in Environmental Justice · LISTEN: Reginald Tucker-Seeley on how racism is a threat to public healthRead the transcript. Jamaji Nwanaji-EnweremAgents of Change in Environmental Justice · LISTEN: Jamaji Nwanaji-Enwerem on healing with medicine, research, and policyRead the transcript. Shanna Swan and Annie Hoang Agents of Change in Environmental Justice · Fertility & Environmental Justice: A conversation with Shanna Swan and Annie HoangRead the transcript. Abrania MarreroAgents of Change in Environmental Health · Abrania Marrero on dietary colonialism in Puerto RicoRead the transcript. Veena SinglaAgents of Change in Environmental Health · Veena Singla on turning science into policyRead the transcript.April BallardAgents of Change in Environmental Health · April Ballard on the importance of empathy in public health researchRead the transcript.Yoshira Ornelas Van HorneEHN · Yoshira Ornelas Van Horne's trailblazing journey in environmental healthRead the transcript.Krystal VasquezEHN · Krystal Vasquez's push for disability inclusion in STEMRead the transcript. OreOluwa BadakiEHN · OreOluwa Badaki on intergenerational learning and food justiceRead the transcript. Brianna VanNoy Environmental Health News · Brianna VanNoy’s plan to integrate medicine and health justiceRead the transcript. Dana WilliamsonEnvironmental Health News · Dana Williamson on bringing communities to the forefront of environmental justice researchRead the transcript.

The Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast features the stories, research and big ideas from past and present program fellows and other environmental justice leaders.

Below are archived episodes from 2021. To see the most recent podcasts, click here or subscribe at iTunes or Spotify.

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The Surprising Link Between Bats Dying and Human Infant Mortality

A new study finds that when bats in U.S. counties were decimated by the deadly white-nose syndrome, human deaths followed closely behind

Healthy little brown bats in Mt. Aeolus cave in Vermont in 2012 Ann Froschauer / USFWS via Flickr under CC BY 2.0 Bats get a bad rap. Often, the flying mammals are associated with vampiric monsters or the threat of rabies. But ecologists have long known that bats play an important role in maintaining balance in ecosystems by eating insects that would otherwise get out of control. This week, a study published in the journal Science finds that the benefits of bats apply to humans, too. We shouldn’t fear the presence of bats, the research suggests, but their absence. “Bats are a fantastic example of a species that we like to keep a distance from, but are really impactful in terms of the role they play in ecosystems,” Eyal Frank, an environmental economist at the University of Chicago and author of the new study, tells the Washington Post’s Dino Grandoni. Frank found that in U.S. counties where bat populations have been decimated by white-nose syndrome, human infant mortality rates rose by about 8 percent. That equates to 1,334 infant deaths between 2006 and 2017 that Frank says are attributable to a loss of bats. The research began when Frank came across information about white-nose syndrome, a disease caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans. Introduced from Europe to the New York area around 2006, perhaps through contaminated hiking or caving gear, the fungus has since spread to at least 40 states. When it infects a colony of bats, their population can plummet or even get wiped out entirely. Frank realized that the well-documented spread of the fungus, and the resulting decline in bat populations, was an opportunity to quantify the impact of bats on their ecosystems and human lives. “Reading how this disease is spreading from county to county, decimating bat populations, made my economist senses go, ‘Oh, this is probably the best natural experiment you can have,’” Frank recalls to the New York Times’ Catrin Einhorn. “It’s the closest we’re going to get to just going out there into the wild and randomly manipulating bat population levels to see what happens at a large, meaningful spatial scale.” A little brown bat in Illinois shows visible symptoms of white-nose syndrome in 2013. University of Illinois / Steve Taylor via Flickr under CC BY 2.0 He compared the spread of white-nose syndrome to county-by-county data of infant mortality. The connection was stunning. Winifred Frick, chief scientist at Bat Conservation International who wasn’t involved in the research, tells Science’s Erik Stokstad that when she saw the study’s findings, her “jaw dropped.” Frank suggests the link is due to the positive impacts of bats’ diets. A single bat consumes up to 40 percent of its body weight in insects every night. In agricultural areas, this means that when bats disappear, farmers might use more insecticides on their fields. In counties with outbreaks of white-nose syndrome, farmers used 31 percent more of these toxic chemicals, on average, per the study. Putting more insecticides into the environment seems to be the cause of the increased infant deaths, Frank writes. To make sure his ideas stood up to scrutiny, Frank tells the Guardian’s Rebekah White that he spent a year “kicking the tires” and ruling out other possible causes of infant mortality, like the opioid epidemic, parental unemployment, genetically modified crops and even the weather. Nothing else fit, showing “compelling evidence … that farmers did respond to the decline in insect-eating bats, and that response had an adverse health impact on human infants,” he adds. Paul Ferraro, a sustainability scientist at Johns Hopkins University who was not involved in the research, tells Science that the study proposes a “pretty dramatic claim that’s going to get a lot of attention.” But, he adds, it’s the “most convincing evidence to date” that losses of a wild species can have huge impacts on the economy and human health. Bats, by eating potentially harmful insects, aren’t the only species with contributions to the environment that benefit humans—a phenomenon some scientists call “ecosystem services.” Frank found earlier this year that the loss of vultures in India led to the death of an extra 500,000 people on the subcontinent between 2000 and 2005. In a more positive example, researchers found that the reintroduction of wolves to Wisconsin reduced car crashes involving deer by 24 percent. The loss of such ecosystem services highlights the potential devastating impact of the extinction of species, which has been accelerating in recent years. But, Frank says, unexpected harms can appear even without a total extinction event, when only local ecosystems are diminished. “We often pay a lot of attention to global extinctions, where species completely disappear,” he tells the New York Times. “But we start experiencing loss and damages well before that.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Chemicals

Conservation

Extinction

Exposure to PFAS 'Forever Chemicals' in Pregnancy Could Boost Long-Term Obesity Risk

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterFRIDAY, Sept. 6, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- PFAS “forever chemicals” could cause pregnant women to experience...

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterFRIDAY, Sept. 6, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- PFAS “forever chemicals” could cause pregnant women to experience long-term weight gain, increasing their risk of obesity in middle age, a new study warns.These women also carried more body fat at age 50, potentially making them more susceptible to obesity and heart problems later in life, researchers found.“Our study supports the idea that pregnancy may be a sensitive period of PFAS exposure as it may be associated with long-term weight gain and subsequent adverse cardio-metabolic health outcomes in women,” said lead investigator Jordan Burdeau, a graduate research assistant with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.“Our findings may improve understanding of the effects of PFAS on cardio-metabolic health during pregnancy, which in turn may improve early prevention or detection of adverse cardio-metabolic health outcomes in women,” Burdeau added in a journal news release.Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) can be found in 99% of Americans, according to the Environmental Working Group.There are thousands of different PFAS chemicals, the Environmental Protection Agency says. They can be found in drinking water as well as a wide range of consumer products including paper fast food wrappers, Teflon cookware, stain-resistant furniture and clothing, and cosmetics and personal care products.They are called “forever chemicals” because PFAS doesn’t break down in the environment or in the human body. Instead, levels of the chemicals build up in the body over time.These chemicals are known to disrupt hormones in humans. Studies have previously linked PFAS to decreased fertility in women, developmental effects in children, reduced immune response and increased risk of some cancers, the EPA says.For this study, researchers studied nearly 550 pregnant women in their early 30s. They compared the women’s’ PFAS blood levels during pregnancy with their weight and heart health at age 50.The study’s results jibe with earlier research linking PFAS to higher cholesterol levels and obesity, according to the EPA.“It’s important to try to limit your PFAS exposure as it could reduce your risk of health issues later in life,” Burdeau said.The Environmental Protection Agency has more on PFAS.SOURCE: The Endocrine Society, news release, Sept. 5, 2024Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Chemicals

Health

Water

New filtration material could remove long-lasting chemicals from water

Membranes based on natural silk and cellulose can remove many contaminants, including “forever chemicals” and heavy metals.

Water contamination by the chemicals used in today’s technology is a rapidly growing problem globally. A recent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control found that 98 percent of people tested had detectable levels of PFAS, a family of particularly long-lasting compounds also known as “forever chemicals,” in their bloodstream.A new filtration material developed by researchers at MIT might provide a nature-based solution to this stubborn contamination issue. The material, based on natural silk and cellulose, can remove a wide variety of these persistent chemicals as well as heavy metals. And, its antimicrobial properties can help keep the filters from fouling.The findings are described in the journal ACS Nano, in a paper by MIT postdoc Yilin Zhang, professor of civil and environmental engineering Benedetto Marelli, and four others from MIT.PFAS chemicals are present in a wide range of products, including cosmetics, food packaging, water-resistant clothing, firefighting foams, and antistick coating for cookware. A recent study identified 57,000 sites contaminated by these chemicals in the U.S. alone. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that PFAS remediation will cost $1.5 billion per year, in order to meet new regulations that call for limiting the compound to less than 7 parts per trillion in drinking water.Contamination by PFAS and similar compounds “is actually a very big deal, and current solutions may only partially resolve this problem very efficiently or economically,” Zhang says. “That’s why we came up with this protein and cellulose-based, fully natural solution,” he says.“We came to the project by chance,” Marelli notes. The initial technology that made the filtration material possible was developed by his group for a completely unrelated purpose — as a way to make a labelling system to counter the spread of counterfeit seeds, which are often of inferior quality. His team devised a way of processing silk proteins into uniform nanoscale crystals, or “nanofibrils,” through an environmentally benign, water-based drop-casting method at room temperature.Zhang suggested that their new nanofibrillar material might be effective at filtering contaminants, but initial attempts with the silk nanofibrils alone didn’t work. The team decided to try adding another material: cellulose, which is abundantly available and can be obtained from agricultural wood pulp waste. The researchers used a self-assembly method in which the silk fibroin protein is suspended in water and then templated into nanofibrils by inserting “seeds” of cellulose nanocrystals. This causes the previously disordered silk molecules to line up together along the seeds, forming the basis of a hybrid material with distinct new properties.By integrating cellulose into the silk-based fibrils that could be formed into a thin membrane, and then tuning the electrical charge of the cellulose, the researchers produced a material that was highly effective at removing contaminants in lab tests.The electrical charge of the cellulose, they found, also gave it strong antimicrobial properties. This is a significant advantage, since one of the primary causes of failure in filtration membranes is fouling by bacteria and fungi. The antimicrobial properties of this material should greatly reduce that fouling issue, the researchers say.“These materials can really compete with the current standard materials in water filtration when it comes to extracting metal ions and these emerging contaminants, and they can also outperform some of them currently,” Marelli says. In lab tests, the materials were able to extract orders of magnitude more of the contaminants from water than the currently used standard materials, activated carbon or granular activated carbon.While the new work serves as a proof of principle, Marelli says, the team plans to continue working on improving the material, especially in terms of durability and availability of source materials. While the silk proteins used can be available as a byproduct of the silk textile industry, if this material were to be scaled up to address the global needs for water filtration, the supply might be insufficient. Also, alternative protein materials may turn out to perform the same function at lower cost.Initially, the material would likely be used as a point-of-use filter, something that could be attached to a kitchen faucet, Zhang says. Eventually, it could be scaled up to provide filtration for municipal water supplies, but only after testing demonstrates that this would not pose any risk of introducing any contamination into the water supply. But one big advantage of the material, he says, is that both the silk and the cellulose constituents are considered food-grade substances, so any contamination is unlikely.“Most of the normal materials available today are focusing on one class of contaminants or solving single problems,” Zhang says. “I think we are among the first to address all of these simultaneously.”“What I love about this approach is that it is using only naturally grown materials like silk and cellulose to fight pollution,” says Hannes Schniepp, professor of applied science at the College of William and Mary, who was not associated with this work. “In competing approaches, synthetic materials are used — which usually require only more chemistry to fight some of the adverse outcomes that chemistry has produced. [This work] breaks this cycle! ... If this can be mass-produced in an economically viable way, this could really have a major impact.”The research team included MIT postdocs Hui Sun and Meng Li, graduate student Maxwell Kalinowski, and recent graduate Yunteng Cao PhD ’22, now a postdoc at Yale University. The work was supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the U.S. National Science Foundation, and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology.

Chemicals

Water

Nature

What’s in your protein powders?

Ten out of eleven popular protein powders recently tested have levels of toxic lead that would trigger a health warning in California, according to a new report from Mamavation.And that’s just the start of the problems.Partnering with EHN.org, the environmental wellness blog and community had 11 chocolate-flavored protein powders tested by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-certified lab. The testing included more than 40 PFAS types, more than 500 pesticides, lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury. While no products contained detectable mercury or arsenic, the testing found some protein powders contained cadmium, glyphosate, PFAS and phthalates. Only one of the products, Paleovalley 100% Grassfed Bone Broth Protein (chocolate flavor), tested free of all the contaminants tested.The testing found: 10 products had levels of lead that would require a warning in California under Prop. 65, the state’s law alerting consumers to harmful pollutants.Two products had levels of cadmium that would require a Prop. 65 warning.One product contained the pesticide glyphosate, despite being labeled organic.Six products contained PFAS chemicals.Seven products contained phthalates.The levels of lead, for instance, ranged from 0.78 parts per million (ppm) per serving to 1.78 ppm per serving — so all 10 products with lead exceeded the daily health threshold in California (.5 ppm of lead) that triggers a warning to consumers. While this falls below the Food and Drug Administration’s guidelines that heavy metals such as lead should not be in food supplements at more than 10 ppm, scientists agree there is no “safe” level of lead. In addition, the FDA does not evaluate the labeling and safety of dietary supplements such as protein powders, instead leaving it up to manufacturers. Mamavation's testing is not the first to find concerning compounds in protein powder. A 2018 investigation by the Clean Label Project tested 134 protein powders and found 70% contained lead, 74% contained cadmium and 55% contained bisphenol-A (BPA). The results are concerning as the contaminants are linked to myriad health issues. Lead and cadmium are linked to neurological impairment, lower IQ, cardiovascular problems, kidney and liver issues among other effects. Phthalates are linked to hormone disruption, fertility impacts, low birth weights, obesity, diabetes, some cancers, brain and behavioral problems, and other health issues. PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, contribute to cancer, reproductive and immune systems damages, elevated cholesterol and other health issues. And glyphosate is linked to cancer, reproductive problems, neurological diseases like ALS, endocrine disruption, and birth defects.“I’m very disappointed in the protein powder category. So many people, including pregnant women, rely heavily on protein powder every day,” Linda S. Birnbaum, scientist emeritus and former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and National Toxicology Program, scholar in residence at Duke University, and adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina and Yale University, told Mamavation.“Knowing what we know now about these premium brands, you can safely assume protein powders are potential sources of many contaminants like PFAS, lead, and phthalates,” she added.The testing included popular brands such as Vega, Truvani and Just Ingredients. For the full list of which protein powders contained toxics, check out the report at Mamavation.And check out the ongoing effort by Mamavation and EHN.org to identify PFAS in common consumer products. Follow our PFAS testing project with Mamavation at the series landing page.

Chemicals

Food

Health

Has a UC Berkeley chemistry lab discovered the holy grail of plastic recycling?

Has a UC Berkeley chemistry lab discovered the holy grail of plastic recycling? Maybe, but with a lot of caveats.

Despite the planet’s growing plastic pollution crisis, petroleum-based polymers have become an integral part of modern life. They make cars and airplanes lighter and more energy efficient. They constitute a core material of modern medicine by helping to keep equipment sterile, deliver medicines and build prosthetics, among many other things. And they are a critical component of the wiring and hardware that underlies our technology-driven civilization.The trouble is, when they outlive their usefulness, they become waste and end up polluting our oceans, rivers, soils and bodies.But new research from a team of chemists at UC Berkeley suggests a glimmer of hope when it comes to the thorny problem of recycling plastics — one that may allow us to have our cake, and potentially take a very small bite, too. Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change, the environment, health and science. The group has devised a catalytic recycling process that breaks apart the chains of some of the more commonly used plastics — polyethylene and polypropylene — in such a way that the building blocks of those plastics can be used again. In some cases, with more than 90% efficiency.The catalysts required for the reaction — sodium or tungsten — are readily available and inexpensive, they say, and early tests show the process is likely scalable at industrial levels. It uses no water and has fewer energy requirements than other recycling methods — and is even more efficient than manufacturing new, or so-called virgin, plastics, the researchers say.“So by making one product or two products in very high yield and at much lower temperatures, we are using some energy, but significantly less energy than any other process that’s breaking down polyolefins or taking the petroleum resources and turning them into the monomers for polyolefins in the first place,” said John Hartwig, a UC Berkeley chemist who was a co-author of the study published recently in the journal Science.Polyolefins are a family of thermoplastics that include polyethylene — the material used to make single-use and “reusable” plastic bags — and polypropylene — the ubiquitous plastic that holds our yogurts and forms microwaveable dishes and car bumpers. Polyolefins are produced by combining small chain links, or monomers, of ethylene or propylene, which are typically obtained from oil and natural gas.Polyethylene and polypropylene account for the majority (57%) of all polymer resins produced, the study authors noted. They have proven a plague to the environment, and in microplastic form have been found in drinking water, beer and every organ in the human body, as well as blood, semen and breast milk.Hartwig and R.J. Conk, a graduate student who led the research, said they have not yet heard from the plastics, recycling or waste industries. They said they had been keeping their technology under wraps until publishing their paper and obtaining a patent on the process. A spokeswoman for the Plastics Industry Assn. declined to comment or provide an expert to review the paper.Hartwig said there are some caveats to the work. For instance, the plastic has to be sorted before the process can be applied. If the products are contaminated with other plastics, such as PVC or polystyrene, the outcome isn’t good.“We don’t have a way to bring those [plastics] back to monomer, and they also poison our catalyst,” said Hartwig. “So for us, and basically for everybody else, PVC is bad. It’s not able to be chemically recycled.”He said other contaminates — food waste, dyes, adhesives, etc. — could also potentially cause problems. However, the researchers are still early in the process.But plastic bags, such as the ones used to hold produce in supermarkets, offer promise as they are relatively clean and “nobody knows what to do with them.” He said plastic bags are problematic for material recovery facilities where they are known to gum up machinery. “There are places that do collect those bags. I don’t know what they do with them. Nobody wants them,” he said.But others are less sanguine.Neil Tangri, science and policy director at GAIA — an international environmental organization — said that while he was not a chemist or chemical engineer, and therefore couldn’t comment on the methods, he noted that there are broader “real world” issues that could prevent such a technology from taking off.“Plastic recycling is not something we do well ... we only get about 5% or 6% per year. So there’s a hunt for new technologies that will do better than that,” he said. “My basic warning is that going from small-batch analysis in the lab to functioning at scale with real-world conditions ... it’s a huge, huge leap. So it’s not like we’re going to see this move into commercial production in the next year or two.”He noted that while the reaction temperature cited was lower than that used in pyrolysis — the burning of plastic for fuel — or cracking — when plastics are made from virgin material — it still requires a lot of energy, and therefore potentially creates a fairly sizable carbon footprint. In addition, he said, 608 degrees — the reaction temperature cited — is the temperature “where dioxins like to form. So, that could be a challenge.” Dioxins are highly toxic byproducts of some industrial processes. But, Tangri said, even if you could solve all of those issues — as well as the sorting and contamination issues Hartwig cited — “it is so cheap to make virgin plastic that the collection, the sorting, the cleaning ... they were talking about ... all of those steps, the energy use, you just can’t sell your [recycled material] at a price that makes sense to justify all that .... And that’s not really the fault of the technical approach. It’s the realities of the economics of plastic these days.” It’s a point to which Lee Bell, technical and policy advisor for IPEN — a global environmental advocacy group — agrees.“What appears promising in the lab rarely translates to commercial scale success and high yields from mixed plastic waste,” he said. “Not only do they have to deal with the diabolical issue of unavoidable plastic contamination [because chemical additives are in all plastic] but also competing with cheap virgin plastic in the marketplace.“My view is that this is yet another lab experiment on plastic waste that will ultimately be thwarted by mixed plastic waste contamination and commercial realities,” he said. Newsletter Toward a more sustainable California Get Boiling Point, our newsletter exploring climate change, energy and the environment, and become part of the conversation — and the solution. 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Chemicals

Climate

Crisis

Suggested Viewing

We Trees

Ever wonder what trees think of us now that we have created a climate disaster? This 2-minute film answers that question. As Bill McKibben recently tweeted about the film, “Who speaks for trees? In this short and elegant video, the trees themselves.” It has been screened at Green Fest (Serbia), The Colorado Environmental Film Festival, The Wildlife Conservation Film Festival and Winner of Merit at the Nature Without Borders Film Festival.

Forests

Chemicals

Climate

Toxic Business

A documentary on the profits international chemical companies are gaining in Africa at cost of the health of small-scaled-farmers and consumers.International chemical companies sell high toxic agro-chemicals in Kenya, which are banned since long in Europe. They are banned because their ingredients cause cancer and have a major negative impact on the nature and environment. Anyhow – in developing countries like Kenya those toxic chemicals are sold without any regulations through small agro-shops all over the country. The small scaled farmers do believe in the promises of better and safer harvest those companies give. Today, the use of pesticides even inside the villages is already a daily business. Furthermore many of them already depend on hybrid seeds, old and resistant seeds supplants. Most of the consumers do not have the knowledge, how dangerous those agro-chemicals are: the WHO announced that annually 346.000 people die, caused by accidentally poisoning with those chemicals, 2/3 of them within developing countries.In the face of world food, industry is trying to push its way into the markets. On the contrary, statistics and alternative farming methods in East Africa show that it no longer needs chemicals and hybrid seeds to feed the world, but a general rethinking.

Agriculture

Chemicals

Business

Bag It

Bag It examines our society’s use and abuse of plastic. The theme of the film focuses on plastic as it relates to our society’s throw away mentality, our culture of convenience, and our over consumption of throwaway products and packaging—things that we use one time and then, without another thought, we throw them away. Bag It offers a candid view of the disturbing realities of our culture. And, it suggests concrete solutions to our plastic addiction. The film will raise public awareness on the many issues related to plastic and inspire change, both on the individual level and on the public policy level.

Chemicals

Waste

Culture

Lead in the Land

Lead in the Land is a documentary focusing on the harsh reality and far-reaching effects of lead poisoning, an invisible and insidious threat afflicting thousands of children in the United States. The film sheds light on the circumstances around lead poisoning, examining its causes, effects and potential solutions.

Chemicals

Social Justice

Health

The Story of Plastic

A searing expose uncovering the ugly truth behind the global plastic pollution crisis. Striking footage shot over three continents illustrates the ongoing catastrophe: fields full of garbage, veritable mountains of trash; rivers and seas clogged with waste; and skies choked with poisons from plastic production and recycling processes with no end in sight. Original animations, interviews with experts and activists, and never-before-filmed scenes reveal the disastrous consequences of the plastic flood around the world – and the global movement rising up in response.

Chemicals

Pollution

Crisis

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Agents of Change in Environmental Justice Podcast: 2021 episodes

Year in review

Gavin Rienne

Lariah Edwards

Daniel Carrión

Max Aung and Tracey Woodruff

Carlos Gould

Pallavi Pant

Azmal Hossan

Tatiana Height

What Netflix's "The Chair" says about diversity in science

Deniss Martinez

MỹDzung Chu

Brian Bienkowski

Adrift in the diaspora

Kartik Amarnath

Misbath Daouda

Regan Patterson

Reginald Tucker-Seeley

Jamaji Nwanaji-Enwerem

Shanna Swan and Annie Hoang

Abrania Marrero

Veena Singla

April Ballard

Yoshira Ornelas Van Horne

Krystal Vasquez

OreOluwa Badaki

Brianna VanNoy

Dana Williamson

Related News

The Surprising Link Between Bats Dying and Human Infant Mortality

Exposure to PFAS 'Forever Chemicals' in Pregnancy Could Boost Long-Term Obesity Risk

New filtration material could remove long-lasting chemicals from water

What’s in your protein powders?

Has a UC Berkeley chemistry lab discovered the holy grail of plastic recycling?

Suggested Viewing

We Trees

Toxic Business

Bag It

Lead in the Land

The Story of Plastic

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