The Yucatan Times reports that seven countries in the Caribbean region—Jamaica, Belize, Barbados, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Bahamas—will ban the use of single-use plastic from January 1, 2020. Starting January 1st, 2020, single-use plastics and polystyrene will be banned in seven Caribbean countries, with the main objective of preventing ocean pollution […]
via Seven Caribbean countries will ban the use of plastics in the year 2020 — Repeating Islands
A report by Daphne Ewing-Chow for Forbes. In 2016, global plastic waste amounted to some 242 million metric tons. Of this, 137 million tonnes (or more than 57%) originated in East Asia, the Pacific, Europe, Central Asia and North America, much of which made its way into the ocean. In 2015, the Journal of Science surveyed […]
via Caribbean Islands Are The Biggest Plastic Polluters Per Capita In The World — Repeating Islands
Maria Bakkalapulo (The Guardian) writes about the effects of climate change, natural disasters, and looming “sand wars.” The sun is out, as usual, in the town of Surfside. Less than 10 miles north of Miami’s world-famous South Beach, just a square mile in size with a population near 6,000, it’s a typically prosperous American seaside community. […]
via ‘Sand wars’: the battle to replenish Florida’s beaches amid climate crisis — Repeating Islands
“Ravenous wild goats ruled this island for over a century. Now, it’s being reborn.” Michael Hingston (National Geographic, Science) writes about Redonda—an island belonging to Antigua—and its recovery process after the removal on invasive species. He writes, “The rocky island of Redonda, once stripped of its flora and fauna by invasive species, makes an astonishingly […]
For the past couple of months our little family has been getting grounded in the Central American gem of Nicaragua. We can’t lay claim to a wholly spiritual grounding at this point (unless you count Flor De Cana, the national liquid spirit that comes to us regularly at sunset). What we are doing is staying […]
The full title of this article from BES Reporter is “Next Stop: Aruba via Bonaire for all-female ocean plastic pollution research crew as part of Circumnavigation.” On November 30, S.V. TravelEdge set sail from Antigua to Aruba via Bonaire with the Red Ensign Group on Leg 4 of their eXXpedition Round the World—a two-year scientific research mission […]
Caribbean Intelligence summarizes some of the conference outcomes and other ways the region is finding to tackle sargassum. A very interesting article that briefly explains how representatives from various Caribbean and South American are looking at how to tackle sargassum: Sargassum is the brown seaweed, which has been turning up on some Caribbean coastlines, smothering […]
Prensa Latina reports that twelve Caribbean nations whose beaches are invaded by tons of sargassum seaweed have agreed to seek international economic support to fight a problem affecting at least nineteen nations. The meeting, held in Quintana Roo, gathered Ministers of Environment and Tourism of 12 countries affected by the assault of sargassum seaweed on […]
via Caribbean Nations Fight Sargassum Seaweed on Beaches — Repeating Islands
The article “Local experts, international organizations discuss marine pollution, a blue economy” (Dominican Today) says that representatives of international agencies that comprise the Donors Roundtable chaired by the World Bank had a dialogue on the necessity to address marine pollution through policies to control the use of plastic in the Dominican Republic. The conversations included […]
via Dominican Republic: Conversations on marine pollution, a blue economy — Repeating Islands
Paige McCartney (The Nassau Guardian) quotes a recently released World Bank report on marine litter concentration in the Caribbean: The marine litter concentration in The Bahamas and the rest of the Caribbean is nearly three times the global average. The world average for litter concentration stands at 573 pieces of plastic or waste items per […]
via Marine litter concentration in Caribbean triple world average — Repeating Islands
