Tire pollution consists of a toxic mix of microplastics and heavy metals that are shed into the air, soil, and water as tires wear down as they travel on roads. Over six million tons of rubber and particles are shed from tires globally every year.

Mangrove forests play a vital role in the health of our planet. They protect coastal regions by acting as natural barriers against storms, erosion, and flooding. Although they cover less than 1% of Earth’s surface, these coastal ecosystems also hold an estimated 15% of the carbon stored in ocean environments, much of it buried in the soils beneath their roots.

There is organized opposition to renewable energy. Most of it comes from the fossil fuel industry whose market share and business models are threatened by renewables. There is also opposition from conservative political groups, although that opposition doesn’t really have an ideological basis. And then there is NIMBYism: opposition to renewable energy because people don’t want any of it near where they live.

Microplastics have been found pretty much everywhere on Earth, from the highest mountain peaks to the deepest parts of the ocean. They have also been detected in rivers, lakes, wildlife, and even in the human body.

Rising sea levels around the world is one of the most visible consequences of human-caused climate change. As global temperatures rise, oceans absorb more heat and expand, while melting glaciers and ice sheets add even more water to the seas.

The Trump administration is trying very hard to prop up coal power in the US. The Department of Energy is keeping struggling coal plants on life support, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. The Department of the Interior is blocking wind and solar developments that involve public lands. But in spite of all this, coal power is fighting a losing battle.

The UN estimates that 2.2 billion people lack safely managed drinking water. Across the globe, over 300 million people rely on desalinated water for part or all of their daily needs. There are more than 22,000 desalination plants around the world. In the U.S., about 5 million people receive water from desalination, mostly in states like California and Florida.

Over the past 50 years, there have been a couple of significant efforts to move the U.S. towards the widespread adoption of clean energy such as solar power. The first, during last decades of the 20th century, was driven by values. The term “tree huggers” was used to describe the people who believed that protecting the environment was simply the right thing to do. But even after four decades of moral-based clean energy advocacy, only a tenth of one percent of U.S. electricity came from solar power.

Wild bees play a critical but often overlooked role in ecosystems, quietly pollinating both agricultural crops and native plants. While honeybees tend to get most of the attention, the vast majority of bee species live solitary lives, with many of them nesting underground in soil habitats that are both easy to miss and easy to destroy.

Solar power has been eating away at coal’s dominance in generating electricity for quite a while. While coal power is still the largest single source of electricity across the globe, most new generation capacity is coming from solar and wind. However, coal power is fighting back, and not in a good way.