Gleanings of the Week Ending February 7, 2026
/The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
1/22/2026 I’m Plastic Free How Geography Impacts Plastic-Free Living - Many people want to reduce plastic, but simply don’t have the tools nearby. In larger cities, it’s often easier to find refill stores, farmers’ markets, and shops that sell loose produce, but the access varies widely between wealthier and lower-income city areas. Living in a city doesn’t guarantee sustainable options. here are a variety of factors that determine the amount of plastic used by consumers. These usually include their location, the system of commerce, and the accessibility of plastic products. Understanding how an area shapes shopping decisions will lead to people advocating for a change where it matters the most.
1/22/2026 Yale Environment 360 In Europe, Wind and Solar Power Overtakes Fossil Fuels - Last year, for the first time, wind and solar supplied more power than fossil fuels to the E.U. In parts of Europe, there are signs that increasingly cheap batteries are beginning to displace natural gas in the early evening, when power demand is high, but solar output is waning.
1/23/2025 Smithsonian Magazine United Nations Declares That the World Has Entered an Era of ‘Global Water Bankruptcy’ - Life around the world has been feeling the effects of climate change, land degradation, deforestation, pollution and the overuse of water. Ultimately, most regions are using too much of their renewable “income” of water from rivers and snowmelt and have emptied their “savings” in groundwater and other reservoirs, ushering in an era of “global water bankruptcy.” We cannot rebuild vanished glaciers or reinflate acutely compacted aquifers. But we can prevent further losses and redesign institutions to live within new hydrological limits.
1/21/2026 BBC Future How the nutritional benefits of foods change as you age - The two main nutrients we should focus on in old age are calcium and vitamin D. Eating enough quality protein is also really important as we age.
1/20/2026 ScienceDaily Stanford scientists found a way to regrow cartilage and stop arthritis - Scientists at Stanford Medicine have discovered a treatment that can reverse cartilage loss in aging joints and even prevent arthritis after knee injuries. By blocking a protein linked to aging, the therapy restored healthy, shock-absorbing cartilage in old mice and injured joints, dramatically improving movement and joint function. Human cartilage samples from knee replacement surgeries also began regenerating when exposed to the treatment. Human trials will be launched soon.
1/12/2026 The Daily Show Vitamin Plastic Water: Don’t Just Consume Microplastics, Enjoy Them! – Humor in a plastic world.
1/20/2026 NASA Explore North America’s Greenhouse Hub - In the Leamington (Ontario) area, growers cultivate vegetables and other crops within millions of square feet of greenhouse space. Commercial greenhouse operations began to gain a foothold in this area in the 1960s and 1970s as technology advanced and regional demand for fresh vegetables increased. Since then, the industry has continued to grow, securing Leamington’s reputation as the “greenhouse capital of North America.”
1/20/2026 NPR Polyester clothing has been causing a stir online. But how valid are the concerns? - Though polyester has been around for a while, in many cases, manufacturers have begun using polyester for items that natural fibers would be better suited for. For example, polyester is often found in summer clothes, even though the material traps heat. And people eventually dump clothes that are uncomfortable. Mounds of abandoned clothing are showing up on coastlines in countries like Ghana, India and Chile, Palladino said. Ghana, for example, has a large market for upcycling clothes. But many of the clothes it receives from the U.S. are of increasingly lower quality, so some purchasers dump them in lagoons and landfills, which end up in the oceans. Natural fibers clothing have cost you a little more, but you're going to have it longer.
1/19/2026 ArtNet The Forgotten Designer Who Created America’s First National Parks Posters - Dorothy Waugh was a pioneering Modernist designer who created the U.S. government’s first in-house National Parks poster campaign during the Great Depression, is the subject of her first-ever solo exhibition. After leaving the NPS, Waugh got a job at Knopf, founding and leading the publishing house’s Books for Young Adults Division. She also worked for 25 years as the head of public relations at the Montclair Public Library in New Jersey. In addition, Waugh was an educator, offering the first-ever course in typography at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art, now the Parsons School of Design. On top of all that, she moonlighted as journalist and poet, and even as a radio personality, with her own regional radio program. She also wrote and illustrated many books for children, as well as two scholarly tomes on the poet Emily Dickinson. The last of those was published when Waugh, who lived to be 99, was 94.
1/18/2026 Our World in Data How have crime rates in the United States changed over the last 50 years? - Several crimes fall within the category of violent crimes. In US statistics, this includes homicide (murder and non-negligent manslaughter), rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Violent crime rates increased during the 1980s, reaching a peak in the early 1990s at around 750 offenses per 100,000. Since then, rates have more than halved. Over the past three decades, rates have fluctuated slightly from year to year, but the overall trend has been downward.
