Bethany Jorgensen

• Cornell University

The UN international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution (UNEA resolution 5/14) aims to reduce plastics pollution. However, midstream and downstream assessments show that optimizing waste management, removal technologies, and improved circularity is not sufficient to curb plastics pollution in the short-, mid- or long-term. Therefore, w...

You will find here the supplemental materials of the article “Reducing plastic production: Economic loss or environmental gain?”. The supplemental materials explain how the graphs and the tables of the article were computed based on annual values and on an input-output macroeconomic model designed at the world scale.

We reviewed economic and environmental studies on global plastic pollution and we estimate the global cost of actions toward zero plastic pollution in all countries by 2040 to be US$ 18.3–158.4 trillion (cost of a 47% reduction of plastic production included). If no actions are undertaken, we estimate the cost of damages caused by plastic pollution...

Through the efforts shared in this chapter, we embrace the hypothesis that local representations of our changing climate offer a key angle for facing climate change. We describe the coconstruction processes of climate services in five sites across Europe: Bergen (Norway), Brest, Kerourien (France), Dordrecht (the Netherlands), Gulf of Morbihan (Fra...

Community gardens are collective projects in which participants collaborate to maintain a garden. They provide many biophysical and cultural ecosystem services, contributing to individual and community resilience and wellbeing. These benefits may be even more appreciated during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, since community garden...

Community gardens are collective projects in which participants collaborate to maintain a garden. They provide many biophysical and cultural ecosystem services, contributing to individual and community resilience and wellbeing. These benefits may be even more appreciated during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, since community garden...

Frontiers in Sustainability presents "The Sustainability Series" - a quarterly collection of specialized Research Topics aiming to address global sustainability challenges via open-source, high-quality peer-reviewed research articles. The Plastics Problem, our inaugural series, will focus on the following themes: (1) Investigating Socio-economic D...

Green economic growth led by technological solutions is often mentioned as a solution for mitigating plastic pollution. However, economic growth appears to be in contradiction to planetary boundaries. By developing two worldwide socioeconomic models, for forecasting inadequately managed plastic waste up to the year 2050 across 217 countries and ter...

Marine litter, the majority of which is plastic, is one of the most pressing global environmental challenges impacting the planet. One way coastal communities respond to this challenge is through the environmental stewardship practice of volunteer beach cleanups. Beyond providing temporarily cleaner local beaches, how might these beach cleanups hav...

Growing from the Zero Plastic campaign in Lanzarote, begun in 2009, the "Zero Plastic" working group was launched in May 2018 at the annual meeting for the World Network of Island and Coastal Biosphere Reserves (WNICBR) in Menorca. The Zero Plastic working group is an alliance between the WNICBR and the Marine Sciences For Society research network;...

The goal of this paper is to analyze how and with what results place-based climate service co-production may be enacted within a community for whom climate change is not a locally salient concern. Aiming to initiate a climate-centered dialogue, a hybrid team of scientists and artists collected local narratives within the Kerourien neighbourhood, in...

Green economic growth fed by technological solutions is often mentioned to mitigate plastic pollution. But economic growth appears to be in contradiction to planetary boundaries. By developing two worldwide socioeconomic models based on non-technological solutions, economic production, social, and policy data, we demonstrate the adverse ecological...

Building upon the stimulating work shared during MICRO 2016. Fate and Impact of Microplastics in Marine Ecosystems: From the Coastline to the Open Sea. We are delighted to share the MICRO 2018 abstracts: MICRO 2018 Fate and Impact of Microplastics: Knowledge, Actions and Solutions. The main topics are: Marine Ecosystems; Freshwater bodies; From...

e-isbn: 978-84-09-06477-9CC-BY-NC-SA

The Zero Plastic initiative started in 2008 as a collaborative effort between the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of Lanzarote and the network of researchers Marine Sciences For Society. From 2008-2013, we identified stakeholder needs, established good trust conditions, and assessed plastic pollution in participating communities. From there we moved to: C...

Description Fate and Impact of Microplastics in Marine Ecosystems: From the Coastline to the Open Sea brings together highlights from the conference proceedings for MICRO 2016: Fate and Impact of Microplastics in Marine Ecosystems: From the Coastline to the Open Sea. While the presence of microplastics in ecosystems has been reported in the scien...

Just as teachers strive to inspire a dedication to lifelong learning in their students, educators must also continue their own learning as professionals in order to keep pace with a changing world through updates in curriculum content and pedagogical practices. In Spain, Continuous Teacher Training (CTT) programs are in place to support teachers' i...

As the rate of plastic production increases globally, we see the problem of plastic debris in oceans and coastal zones also increasing, even in areas under rigorous environmental protection. Drawing from a case study situated within the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, this chapter shares the example of an ongoing, colla...

Today, many institutions of higher education struggle to maintain their social relevance and keep pace with increasing rates of change in their local and global contexts. The exploratory research presented in this thesis examines faculty leadership and change agency in institutions of higher education. The theory of action behind these two chapters...

Coastal Zones: Solutions for the 21st Century bridges the gap between national and international efforts and the local needs for actions in communities where coastal zone challenges are faced daily. The solution-oriented approach covers issues of coastal zone management as well as responses to natural disasters. This work provides ideas on how to f...

Coastal zones and the biosphere as a whole show signs of cumulative degradation due to the use and disposal of plastics. To better understand the manifestation of plastic pollution in the Atlantic Ocean, we partnered with local communities to determine the concentrations of micro-plastics in 125 beaches on three islands in the Canary Current: Lanza...