Ann Davis

Jul 1, 2024 | sciencenews.org | Ann Davis

On a banana plantation in rural Australia, a second-generation farming family spreads crushed volcanic rock between rows of ripening fruit. Eight thousand kilometers away, two young men in central India dust the same type of rock powder onto their dry-season rice paddy, while across the ocean, a farmer in Kenya sprinkles the powder by hand onto his potato plants.

May 5, 2024 | countercurrents.org | Rachel Bustamante |Pratap Antony |Countercurrents Collective |Ann Davis

As the fourth negotiating session on the United Nations plastics treaty comes to a close, pressing questions loom: Will world leaders finalize a robust agreement by the end of this year that effectively halts plastic pollution at its source?

Jan 12, 2024 | countercurrents.org | Countercurrents Collective |Ann Davis |Mayuna Jeenu |Partha Pratim Ray

Chemicals leaching from plastics are leaving Americans notably sicker and poorer, according to  a new study found. By contributing to the development of chronic disease and death, a group of hormone-disruptive plastic chemicals is costing the U.S. health care system billions — over $249 billion in 2018 alone, according to findings published on Thursday in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

Dec 21, 2023 | countercurrents.org | Ann Davis |Bharat Dogra |Mayuna Jeenu |Michael T. Klare

Chemists are manipulating carbon dioxide to make clothing, mattresses, shoes, and more. It’s morning, and you wake up on a comfortable foam mattress made partly from greenhouse gas. You pull on a T-shirt and sneakers manufactured using carbon dioxide pulled from factory emissions. After a good run, you stop for a cup of joe and guiltlessly toss the plastic cup in the trash, confident it will fully biodegrade into harmless organic materials.