A recent study of ocean water around Great Britain showed that microscopic plastics are building up on the coastline and inside plankton, the tiny water-dwelling organisms at the bottom of the food chain.
Though the study was conducted across the Atlantic, it offers a wake-up call for Americans as well.
A plastic-heavy lifestyle, while convenient, is not without consequences.
As human-made garbage floats down waterways into the sea, it breaks down into tiny plastic bits that may be ingested by plankton.
If these tiny plastics work their way up the food chain through birds and fish, it's possible that plastic buildup could eventually appear in foods that humans consume. That's not an appealing prospect.
Keeping plastic garbage from blowing into waterways is one solution. But a better solution is to produce less needless waste.
- The Democrat and
Chronicle, Rochester
The "jobless" recovery is likely over. Typically, job creation has always followed high consumer confidence, robust spending and low interest rates. But historically high worker productivity has allowed companies to do more with fewer workers. And for the first time outsourcing, or the shift of jobs from America to foreign nations, has begun to include traditional white collar jobs.
But a surge of job creation since July 2003 should take some of the edge off the overblown rhetoric we've been hearing. It should end some of the noise about China's perceived defiance, about corporate America's unpatriotic outsourcing and about the virtues of protectionism.
What's important in this global economy is competitiveness.
The candidates for president and South Carolina candidates for U.S. Senate should be discussing how best to create the jobs of tomorrow.
-The Greenville (S.C.) News
A plastic-heavy lifestyle, while convenient, is not without consequences.
As human-made garbage floats down waterways into the sea, it breaks down into tiny plastic bits that may be ingested by plankton.
If these tiny plastics work their way up the food chain through birds and fish, it's possible that plastic buildup could eventually appear in foods that humans consume. That's not an appealing prospect.
Keeping plastic garbage from blowing into waterways is one solution. But a better solution is to produce less needless waste.
- The Democrat and
Chronicle, Rochester
The "jobless" recovery is likely over. Typically, job creation has always followed high consumer confidence, robust spending and low interest rates. But historically high worker productivity has allowed companies to do more with fewer workers. And for the first time outsourcing, or the shift of jobs from America to foreign nations, has begun to include traditional white collar jobs.
But a surge of job creation since July 2003 should take some of the edge off the overblown rhetoric we've been hearing. It should end some of the noise about China's perceived defiance, about corporate America's unpatriotic outsourcing and about the virtues of protectionism.
What's important in this global economy is competitiveness.
The candidates for president and South Carolina candidates for U.S. Senate should be discussing how best to create the jobs of tomorrow.
-The Greenville (S.C.) News
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