The US military is responsible not only for killing and maiming people all around the world, and not only for pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at levels far above any other institution, but also for polluting water and soil wherever they go, leaving death, disease, and destruction in their wake.
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PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a class of nearly 15,000 fluorinated chemicals used since the 1950s to make clothing and food containers oil- and water-repellent. They’re also used in firefighting foam. These chemicals do not break down over time, and have contaminated everything from drinking water to food. Research has linked them to cancer, heart and liver problems, developmental issues, and other ailments.

In the 1960s, the Defense Department worked with 3M, one of the largest manufacturers of PFAS chemicals, to develop a foam called AFFF that can extinguish high-temperature fires. By the 1970s, every military base, Navy ship, civilian airport, and fire station regularly used AFFF.

In the decades that followed, millions of gallons flowed into the environment. According to the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, 710 U.S. military sites have known or suspected PFAS contamination. Internal studies and memos show that not long after 3M and the Navy patented the foam in 1966, 3M learned that its PFAS products accumulated in the body and could harm animal test subjects.

Today, the EPA considers it unsafe to be exposed to virtually any amount of PFOA and PFOS, two of the most harmful substances under the PFAS umbrella.
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FULL STORY -- https://grist.org/accountability/us-military-bases-teem-with-pfas-theres-still-no-firm-plan-to-clean-them-up/

#Science #Environment

For the last two years, activists and anti-plastic campaigners have pinned their hopes on an effort made by the United Nations to negotiate an effective international treaty aimed at reducing the tremendous global amounts of plastic production, use, and quick disposal.

It's not over yet, but the outcome of that process is not looking good...
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Campaigners are blaming developed countries for capitulating at the last minute to pressure from fossil fuel and industry lobbyists, and slowing progress towards the first global treaty to cut plastic waste.

Delegates concluded talks in Ottawa, Canada this week with no agreement on a proposal for global reductions in the $712 billion plastic production industry by 2040 to address twin issues of plastic waste and huge carbon emissions.

Two years on from a historic agreement in Nairobi to forge a global treaty to cut plastic waste, delegates said countries were just wasting time. A proposal from Peru and Rwanda to address for the first time the scale of plastic production in order cut waste was supported by 29 countries including Australia, Denmark, Nigeria, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Nigeria, who signed a declaration calling on all delegates to ensure plastic production was addressed.

The US and UK did not support the proposal to cut plastic production.

David Azoulay of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) said while a handful of countries had taken a stand to keep ambitious proposals alive, most countries accepted a compromise at the last minute that played into the hands of petrostates and industry influences.

“From the beginning of negotiations, we have known that we need to cut plastic production to adopt a treaty that lives up to the promise envisioned two years ago,” he said. “But when the time came to go beyond issuing empty declarations and support an effective program, we saw the same developed member states who claim to be leading towards a world free from plastic pollution, abandon all pretence as soon as the biggest polluters look sideways at them.”

The US was singled out for criticism for blocking talks on cutting plastic production.

“The United States needs to stop pretending to be a leader and own the failure it has created here,” said Carroll Muffett, president of CIEL. “When the world’s biggest exporter of oil and gas, and one of the biggest architects of the plastic expansion, says that it will ignore plastic production at the expense of the health, rights, and lives of its own people, the world listens.”

He said that despite signalling at the G7 summit this month that it would commit to reduce plastic production, the US failed in Ottawa to follow through on its promises.
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More oil and more gas. More plastic. More waste. More pollution. All we ever get is more Business As Usual. That's what the United States of America stands for.

FULL STORY -- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/30/developed-countries-accused-bowing-lobbyists-plastic-pollution-talks

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Pollution #BusinessAsUsual