Reference Shelf: Pollution

Islands of plastic waste, chemicals from everyday products and prescription drugs, and farm animal waste are all contributing to the destruction of our environment and climate change. Such issues, and the difficulty of solving them, are the subject of this Reference Shelf. Radical plans to artificially cool Earth's climate and to use ocean currents to correct plastic sea pollution are discussed, as well as the difficulty of enforcing environmental protection laws. The impact of China's recent decision to stop buying U.S. recycling is also explored, as are controversial particulate air tests run on humans.