Gleanings of the Week Ending September 5, 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.

08/24/2026 The Washington Post Leaked memo shows how U.S. aims to weaken global limits on plastic pollution – Depressing and sad for so many reasons.

08/25/2026 Inside Climate News The Biggest Carbon Polluters Are to Blame for Half of U.S. Western Water Lost to Climate Change - Dozens of states and cities across the U.S. have sued large oil and gas companies for environmental damages associated with emissions from their products. This study supports plaintiffs’ position in those cases as they seek to put a price tag on climate change for fossil fuel companies.

08/26/2028 Yale Environment 360 Access to Urban Woodlands Linked with Lower Use of Antidepressants - A study from Scotland found that living near an accessible urban woodland significantly lowered the likelihood of being prescribed antidepressants. A host of prior studies have found that living near green spaces can reduce stress, improve moods, and lower the risk of developing anxiety or depression. Some research has even found that exposure to nature can help reduce violent crime. Considering the well-documented benefits of living near green spaces, the World Health Organization recommends urban planners establish at least 1 acre of green space within 1,000 feet of every home.

08/26/2026 Smithsonian Magazine See 16 Stunning Animal Images from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards - The 62nd Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, developed and produced by the Natural History Museum in London.

08/26/2026 NWF Blog U.S. Workers Deserve Protection from Extreme Heat - Comprehensive heat rules that protect all workers require shade, paid rest, and cold water along with a written heat stress prevention plan that includes science-based temperature triggers, annual training, acclimatization, retaliation protection and emergency response procedures. America’s workforce keeps our country moving—delivering mail, teaching our children, constructing new buildings, maintaining infrastructure, and more.

08/26/2026 The Conversation Tiny house villages are increasingly responding to the homeless crisis in America’s fast‑growing cities - The proliferation of tiny house villages across the U.S. is occurring at a time when many cities are attracting new residents and investment, while struggling to provide housing that remains accessible to all.

08/23/2026 Science Daily Scientists left this farm field alone. Thousands of orchids appeared - An abandoned farm field became a flourishing wildflower meadow within little more than a decade, with plant diversity doubling and thousands of orchids appearing naturally. Aside from a traditional annual hay cut, the field was largely allowed to recover without intervention. The discovery suggests that simply giving nature time to recover could be a powerful and inexpensive tool for restoring biodiversity.

08/24/2026 Smithsonian Magazine ‘Only One of Its Kind’ Jellyfish Museum Astounds Visitors with Awe-Inspiring Displays of Sea Nettles Safely Behind Glass - The Florida-based museum opened in the spring and was founded by two aquarium experts who fled the Russia-Ukraine war.

08/26/2026 Clean Technica Photovoltaic Windows Have Been Heating Water in a Bucharest Apartment for Two Years - Solar electricity produced over several hours during the day is converted directly into heat and stored as hot water for use later. There is no photovoltaic battery and no solar inverter between the photovoltaic glazing and the heating element. The PV side operates off-grid and does not inject electricity into the public grid. When solar energy is insufficient, the controller switches the same water heater to the normal AC grid after sunset so that it can reach the thermostat setpoint.

8/27/2026 Yale Environment 360 A Hard-Won Rule to Cut Chemical Plant Pollution Is Being Unraveled - For decades, regulations on emissions of hazardous chemicals such as benzene, ethylene oxide, and vinyl chloride have been weaker than restrictions on more common pollutants, such as those emitted by vehicles. Toughening requirements on six different pollutants at more than 200 petrochemical plants, it was one of a slate of regulations enacted beginning in 2024 on air toxics, each covering a specific industry, from steelmaking to tire manufacturing. Recently, the EPA has invited companies to request exemptions from hazardous pollutant regulations. Also - an online data tool created to give communities located near petrochemical plants information about their operations, including their accident history, emergency response plans, and the chemicals they handle has been removed.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 22, 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.

07/30/2026 Project Drawdown Is climate change unfolding faster and fiercer than scientists expected?  - Climate change is driving unprecedented extreme weather around the world, from catastrophic floods and prolonged droughts to blistering heat waves and raging wildfires. While these events are unprecedented, they were not unpredicted and largely align with what scientists have been warning about for decades. Climate science tells us that things will get worse as long as humans keep emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But the science also shows us that a better future is still within reach.

08/07/2026 Smart Cities Dive For local governments, full benefits of ROAD to Housing Act could take years - The bipartisan legislation promises sweeping regulatory reforms and funding incentives designed to increase housing development.  Of the 124 implementation actions detailed in the bill, HUD is responsible for 88, or 71%.L ocal governments can begin assessing what regulatory changes — such as updating zoning, building codes and permitting policies — they will need to enact to take advantage of federal funding once it becomes attainable.

08/09/2026 Cool Green Science Bug Highway: The Hidden Paths Used by Insects - Many important pollinators have home ranges no larger than 400 or 500 meters. Some are even smaller. So, in order for them to survive, they must find something to eat within their home range, the distance they’re willing to stray from their nests. And that means every window box, every garden, every bit of green space could be what some insects need to survive.

08/10/2026 Our World in Data 138 million children are in child labor. What does this actually mean? - Child labor is work that is done by a child and is likely to be harmful. This general principle was first codified in international legal conventions more than a century ago, and a series of them in the 20th century made its scope more precise, linking harms to work that endangers children’s “health, safety, or morals” or work that interferes with their schooling. It spans children working in exploitative and dangerous conditions, as well as children who are counted not because of the conditions they work in, but because they are too young to be working at all, even if that means helping on a family farm for only a few hours a day.

08/05/2026 NASA The Paradox of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park - The coastal dune system in Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in northeastern Brazil is among the most surreal landscapes on Earth: rows of sparkling white quartz dunes, some rising 30 meters (100 feet), soar over a mosaic of blue and green freshwater lagoons.

08/11/2026 My Modern Met Mini Wildlife Portraits Made with Plastic Toys and Other Materials That Threaten Real Animals Today – Look at the pictures and watch the 6-minute video about how they were created.

08/10/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Spinal Deformities in Saber-Toothed Cat Fossils Reveal How the Now-Extinct Felines May Have Spent Their Final Days - Thousands of years ago, sticky tar pits in modern-day Los Angeles, California, became the graveyard for prehistoric felines struggling with deformities and disease. 3,722 vertebrae from at least 849 saber-toothed cats were examined. CT scans revealed a significant number of developmental abnormalities in the feline spines. The team identified 32 vertebrae with arches that hadn’t completely developed, 48 “block” vertebrae where bones had fused together and 226 “transitional” vertebrae that hadn’t formed correctly. Perhaps most notably, three vertebrae from different individuals contained enlarged holes that allowed nerves and blood vessels to thread through them. The holes’ sizes and smooth remodeled surfaces hint that the cats had spinal nerve tumors.

07/24/2026 Project Drawdown Reversing soil degradation 10% could feed 70 million more - Human-caused damage to soils is a limiting factor for food production on agricultural lands. Soil degradation can be slowed or reversed. Reversing degradation by 10% could make it possible to feed 70 million more people while also enhancing soils’ ability to pull greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and reducing pressure to turn forests into farmland.

08/11/2026 NASA Bountiful Roebuck Bay - Roebuck Bay's tidal range can reach a remarkable 9 meters (30 feet). Rising and falling tides repeatedly inundate and expose expansive mudflats, flood broad mangrove forests and salt marshes, and feed branching networks of tidal drainage channels. The bay's dramatic tidal and seasonal changes are striking from above, and they also support a bounty of life on the ground. The mangroves serve as nurseries for crustaceans and fish, and the mudflats teem with dozens of types of invertebrates, including snails, worms, crabs, clams, and cockles. Shells and snails can reach an abundance of 2,500 per square meter. The bay, one of the most important sites for migratory birds in Australia and a key stop on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, regularly hosts hundreds of thousands of birds, including plovers, godwits, and knots.

08/10/2026 BBC Future We're getting mealtimes wrong - here's the best time to have dinner - Aim to eat at regular times and eat fiber-rich carbohydrates such as whole grains, legumes (beans, peas and lentils) as well as fruit, earlier in the day when the body is better able to process them. In the evening, opt for a lighter meal, ideally one rich in protein….making lunch the largest meal.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 15, 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.

08/01/2026 Science Daily Scientists detect a sharp acceleration in global warming - After removing the effects of El Niño, volcanic eruptions, and solar cycles, researchers found that the planet has warmed at roughly 0.35°C per decade over the past ten years, compared with just under 0.2°C per decade from 1970 to 2015. The acceleration, which becomes visible around 2013 to 2015, appeared across five major global temperature datasets with more than 98% statistical certainty. Whether the acceleration continues will depend heavily on future carbon dioxide emissions from coal, oil, and natural gas.

07/28/2026 BBC Future The devil worm is the deepest-living animal. It's redefining life at its limits - Before the 1980s, most biologists didn't think that life existed more than 30cm (1ft) or so below the ground. The detection of deep-dwelling bacteria – and the 2011 discovery of the devil worm – represented a seismic shift in our understanding of the Earth's depths. The devil worm and its subterranean brethren may well be some of the most enduring kind of life on Earth. Studying the deep biosphere could help us better understand the conditions under which living things first came into existence, and even help inform searches for extraterrestrial life; if there is life on Mars, it's probably lurking under the surface. 

07/30/2026 Smithsonian Magazine A Man Unearthed a Mysterious Metal Object Sticking Straight Up from the Ground. It Turned Out to Be a 2,700-Year-Old Sword - Measuring nearly two feet long, the sword dates to between roughly 900 and 700 B.C.E., according to a statement from the Provincial Office for the Protection of Monuments (PUOZ). At that time, it was likely quite valuable. Experts think that it once featured a handle made from organic materials like wood or bone. The handle hasn’t survived, but the engraved patterns decorating the blade are still visible.

07/27/2026 Clean Technica This New Underground Energy Storage System Supports Wind and Solar Power - Flywheels are marking out space in the somewhat rarified world of long duration energy storage. Going by a benchmark set by the US Department of Energy, that means a capacity of at least 10 hours, though ideally long duration technology can stretch into multiple days and longer.

07/16/2026 Yale Environment 360 In Steel Country, the Fight for Clean Air Faces New Obstacles - A Japanese steel giant has pledged billions in new investment in Pennsylvania’s Monongahela River Valley, raising hopes that it would clean up pollution from its steel mills in the region. But documents show that its plans to ramp up production will worsen local air quality.

07/02/2026 Science Daily Eating less protein could slow aging - The findings suggest that protein guidance may be most effective when it takes both age and activity level into account, rather than applying the same recommendation to everyone.

07/26/2026 Clean Technica Every Day in Every Way, Attribution Science Is Getting Better & Better - The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, engineering, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. This week, the organization published a report that claims attribution science — which seeks to define the connection between human activity and alterations in the climate — has made great strides forward since the last report a decade ago. That report backs a growing body of scientific knowledge that could help governments hold oil, gas, and coal companies responsible for the damage caused by extreme weather.

7/19/2026 BBC Future Scientists are regrowing human teeth - A visit to the dentist could one day involve regrowing damaged teeth tissue or even an entire tooth, rather than repairing it with synthetic materials or yanking it out – an appealing prospect not only because of its novelty, but also because teeth play a greater role in health and well-being than many may realize.

07/17/2026 Yale Environment 360 Drained Under Soviet Rule, Aral Sea Has Become a Huge Source of Emissions - The Aral Sea sits between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and was once the fourth-largest inland body of water on Earth. For the past 60 years, though, humans have bled it nearly dry irrigating cotton crops, leaving behind a salty plain the size of Ireland. Its loss has long been seen as an ecological and humanitarian problem, but new research shows that it has also been a significant driver of climate change. When a lake dries up, stored carbon from organic matter on the floor of the old lake bed is released as the dust blows away.

07/16/2026 Science Daily New “living plastic” self-destructs in just 6 days without leaving microplastics - Researchers have created self-destructing living plastic that uses engineered bacteria to completely break itself down when activated. The material degrades in just six days without creating microplastics, offering a potential new solution for single-use plastic waste. (Note that this research was done in China with funding from Chinese government.)

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 1, 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.

07/22/2026 I’m Plastic Free 8 Plastic-Free School Supplies & Zero-Waste Tips for Students – Some good ideas for reducing plastics for the beginning of the school year.

07/22/2026 Clean Technica It’s Time to Adopt a New Mindset About the Planet - The author suggests: Begin with the Billionaires. Oil companies must clean up their pollution. Chemicals need to be reined in, not excused. Accountability for climate change. Returning rivers, streams, and the oceans. Vote!

07/21/2026 BBC Future A stranding in Ireland sheds new light on the long, slow, ice-cold life of a deep-sea shark – Some species factoids: The Greenland shark, the longest living vertebrate on the planet, can live for around 400 years; Greenland sharks are among the world's biggest sharks, measuring up to 5m (16ft); Greenland sharks are slow-swimming, solitary scavengers and predators. The post documents the study of a Greenland shark carcass that washed up on an Ireland beach in April.

07/21/2026 Yale Environment 360 Long Presumed Dead, a Thriving Coral Reef Is Discovered in West Africa – A paragraph in a 1960s report…and then no investigation again until recently. Researchers have classified the site as a mesophotic coral ecosystem (MCE). Such systems are light-dependent communities existing at the lower limits of reef-building corals. At more than 175 feet below the surface, the coral garden they discovered appears patchily scattered on a rocky substrate.

07/20/2026 Cool Green Science The Bird That Needs Fire: What Bachman’s Sparrow Can Teach Us About Restoration - Long before most people spot one, a Bachman’s Sparrow announces itself from a patch of native grasses, delivering one of the first songs of the season. Small and easily overlooked, it has become one of the most important indicators of whether longleaf pine forest ecosystems are functioning as they should.

07/17/2026 Science Daily Tiny plastics in drinking water may be making dangerous bacteria stronger - New research suggests nanoplastics can actually help harmful bacteria survive by strengthening the slimy biofilms they form inside water systems. These tougher biofilms become more resistant to disinfectants, making them harder to remove and potentially increasing public health risks.

07/17/2026 Smithsonian Magazine These 16 Splendid Aerial Views Capture Wildlife from Above, Revealing the Beauty and Mystery of Nature - A selection of the photos that spotlight animals from a new perspective – from the Second International Aerial Photographer of the Year contest.

07/15/2026 My Modern Met Tennessee Introduces Anti-AI Seal Supporting Photographers Taking Real Photos of the State - Tennessee tourism has been booming, breaking new records in recent years for the Volunteer State. In 2024, they brought in 147 million visitors and $31.7 billion. This was the fourth consecutive year to break the record in tourist spending, which has surged 36.6% since 2018, more than double the national average. It is important to the state that “what you see is what you get.”

07/23/2026 Science Daily Goodbye, cavities? New gel could regrow tooth enamel - Inspired by the proteins that guide enamel formation in infancy, the gel fills microscopic cracks and draws calcium and phosphate from saliva to grow a new mineral layer that closely matches healthy enamel. After the gel is placed on a tooth, it forms a thin but durable coating that penetrates the tooth's surface and fills small cracks, pores, and other damaged areas. This coating then acts as a framework for rebuilding the mineral structure of enamel. When applied to exposed dentine, the gel can grow an enamel like mineral layer over the surface. This could help reduce tooth sensitivity while also creating a stronger surface for dental restorations to bond to.

07/23/2026 The Prairie Ecologist Those bugs are eating my flowers! What do I do? - If a species is reducing the resilience of a site - mitigate that. Stepping back to put that scene in context with the broader area usually helps answer the question about whether or what to do anything about it. After all, one of the benefits of facilitating ecological resilience is that it gives prairies the ability to adapt and absorb impacts, including Japanese beetles shredding some plants here and there.

Sustaining Elder Care – July 2026

I made the trip down to Texas and back without taking any pictures. The garden around the Texas welcome center was mulch beds and woody plants (nothing blooming)…even the cone flowers that had been there last month had been removed. The pond near my hotel had no egrets or great blue herons as it had occasionally in the past; trash (plastic) had blown into the pond, and the wind dad swept it into two floating mats.  Both places were a disappointment.

Fortunately, there were some good moments with my dad.

He was asleep when I got there and I didn’t wake him immediately. I could tell he was not soundly asleep because he would move his legs to cause his chair to rock. I talked to him during one of the times he moved and he did wake up. He almost immediately commented that it was very bright outside when he looked toward me (based on where he heard me); there was a window beside me looking out to a bright sunny day. It is a small thing…but magnified since my sisters and I have been thinking that he might be blind. We now think he can see light which helps keep his circadian rhythm going even if it isn’t helpful for him to move around with his walker without running into things he can’t see.

The next morning, I got to the memory care facility when he had almost finished breakfast and was drinking his coffee. I noticed there was some orange juice and realized that he didn’t know it was there! I asked if he wanted it and handed it to him….and he drank the whole thing without stopping! My sisters and I always are concerned that he might be slightly dehydrated because he doesn’t feel thirsty. This time he looked like he did feel thirsty….or he simply really liked the taste of orange juice.

Next – he acquiesced to going for a walk. I opted to do it inside since the day was already heating up. I guided the walker and reassured him that I wouldn’t let him run into anything. He started out very slow but seemed to move easier as he got warmed up….nothing like his rapid walk that I remember from when I was growing up or when he walked in his neighborhood up until about 5 years ago. But – he is still moving with the help of his walker.

We relaxed a bit back in his room – him dozing off almost immediately….and I left for the drive back to Missouri.

Plastics Crisis – Presentation to Master Gardeners

June is a popular month for conferences this year. The Missouri Master Gardener conference was this weekend, and I did an hour-long presentation on Plastics/Microplastics on Saturday!

The ‘room’ was a curtained off corner of a ballroom! I arrived early since I was using my own Mac for the slideshow and I wanted to make sure it connected with the AV system in the room. The connection was easy (HDMI) but the set up was awkward with a table for the laptop against the same wall as the screen. I managed.

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There were twelve people in the audience….they all seemed to be very engaged and the 20 minutes I had reserved for questions and discussion was filled with great interactions and afterward I got 2 master naturalists requests (one wanting to get on the core training contact list and another wanted to transition from another chapter to the Springfield one)….and then there was person that wants to write an article about my topic for a Missouri journal.  It was an hour well spent! It occurred to me that the charts I prepared for this talk will just be a baseline that I will tweak for all my subsequent presentations; there is new information coming out all the time and I will always add charts to focus on the aspects of microplastics that would be of most interest to the particular audience (in this case it was gardeners).

The only handout I had was my ‘reduce your microplastic exposure’ mind map and several people picked one up as the presentation time ended. I had put some blank paper in with the mind map pages too…and am glad I did – since that is how I got contact info for follow-up!

This is my first hour long presentation in a long time. I did a few shorter ones in Maryland, but they were usually associated with a hike (searching for skunk cabbage is one I remember) or an activity (creating Zentangle tiles).  It was a skill that I used frequently during my career…but that frequency ended 14 years ago. Based on the way I felt during the presentation and reaction from the audience, it is a skill I have easily refreshed.

Plastics Crisis – Forever Plastics (poem)

Ronald Carson’s Forever Plastics poem is worth a look…I keep coming back to read it again to help shift my perspective…to enable better communication about the looming ramifications of our current (and projected) plastics usage.

 He says: “In this poem, I wanted plastics to speak in the first-person plural, tracing the path from postwar convenience to biological saturation, where the environment is no longer outside us but lodged within us.”

 The last stanza sums is up:

We are the heirloom you did not ask for, 
the inheritance that cannot be refused, 
the future fossil of your present, 
already here.

 See the whole poem here.

Plastics Crisis – 10 Visions

A lot of work now to reduce plastics is ‘baby steps’ because we must start somewhere. We need some successes to encourage more people to care about the impact of plastics on ourselves and all living things on our planet – to get the ball rolling to push back on the laissez-faire approach toward the plastic producers that seems to be the status quo around the world. We know that it is an uphill effort and will take a lot more people becoming alarmed/getting involved.

I’ve been thinking recently about what I would like to see beyond ‘baby steps’…and have picked 10 ‘visions’ to share in this week’s Plastic Crisis post.

1. Plastic-Free labeling on food/cosmetic packaging is common – and plastic-free products are widely available. Remaining plastic packaging is required to be free of toxic chemicals particularly endocrine disrupting chemicals.

2. Tea bags, cans, and snack wrappers don’t contain plastic and there are no single-use plastic shopping bags.

3. Plastic bottles for food and cosmetics are phased out…replaced with glass or distributed in dry form and packaged in paper/cardboard.

4. Biodegradable tires have been developed – created without toxic biproducts and recycled at the end of life into new tires. Fragments from tire wear biodegrade in the environment.

5. Plastic producers are paying for plastic waste disposal (using less toxic methods than available in 2025…i.e. not releasing toxic chemicals into the air, water, soil…so no landfill or burning, etc.)

6. Mining of landfill material from high plastic times is beginning to reduce the ‘time bomb’ toxicity of the plastic era.

7. Synthetic carpets and plastic/vinyl flooring are replaced with biodegradable materials.

8. Water treatment plants filter out most microplastics …and technology is being developed to reduce nano-plastic particles as well.   

9. The perception of plastic is ‘toxic’ rather than ‘clean/sterile’ as it was historically.

10. Chemicals are considered toxic to humans until proven safe. There will be no more ‘forever’ chemicals that are new and heavily used….and then discovered to be toxic.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 23, 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.

05/10/26 Poets.org Forever Plastics – A poem by Ronald Carson. He says “In this poem, I wanted plastics to speak in the first-person plural, tracing the path from postwar convenience to biological saturation, where the environment is no longer outside us but lodged within us.”

04/22/2026 The New York Times You Paid to Have Old Clothes Recycled. Here’s What That Really Means. - Collection services offer convenience, but most garments are shredded into low-grade stuffing or sent abroad to an uncertain fate. The most important thing, experts and environmental activists say, is to buy less in the first place. It’s easier to deal with clothes responsibly if there are fewer of them to begin with.

05/7/2026 Super Age Life Expectancy Gains Are Slowing. Your Choices Are More Important Than Ever - The future of longevity will most likely be shaped less by sweeping public health revolutions and more by targeted, personalized strategies: slowing biological aging, optimizing midlife health, and extending the years we remain active, engaged, and independent.

05/12/2026 Planetizen 16% of roads that received federal funds remain in poor condition - State DOTs are spending most of that money on highway expansions instead of repair and maintenance work. And "Because increasingly lax reporting standards conceal broken roads from public view, and DOTs routinely mis-categorize expensive expansion projects as simple 'maintenance' or lump them into a mysterious 'other' category, Transportation for America suspects the national highway network is actually even more drastically overbuilt than it appears on paper."

05/11/2026 I’m Plastic Free How to Reduce Microplastics Exposure: The Ultimate Guide & Checklist - This guide breaks down exactly how microplastics enter your system, and provides a practical, but very thorough, science-backed checklist to reduce your exposure across your home, diet, and daily habits.

05/12/2026 BBC 'Fatbergs' are taking over city sewers - scientists are fighting back - Reeking coagulations of grease and debris are clotting sewers around the world on a colossal scale. Cities are deploying new technologies to control this modern menace. New York City – where 40% of sewer backups are due to grease – spends around $18.8m annually degreasing and removing blockages from the sewers beneath its streets. 

5/12/2026 National Parks Traveler Musings About the Parks | Things I Worry About – A list from Kurt Rapanshek. He ends the post this way: “Without question, there are many, many things that are uplifting about exploring the National Park System. But if the Park Service truly is going to preserve these places and their natural resources for future generations, it really needs a lot more help from Congress and presidential administrations.”

5/11/2026 Smithsonian Magazine See 15 Stunning Images That Won the German Society for Nature Photography’s Annual Contest – Beautiful and thought-provoking images.

05/06/2026 YaleEnvironment360 Airborne Microplastics May Be Warming the Planet - Tiny particles of plastic amassing in the atmosphere may be intensifying warming. Darker bits of plastic are absorbing heat. And even though lighter particles are reflecting sunlight, with a cooling influence, in the aggregate microplastics are having a warming effect. The warming impact is tiny, far less than the impact of carbon dioxide emissions, and only a fraction of the impact of soot. The microplastic emissions produced globally each year have roughly the same warming effect as running 200 coal power plants for that year….but more study is needed

05/04/2026 CNN The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a plastic trash nightmare. It could also be part of a much bigger, hidden problem - The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a significant source of airborne microplastics and nanoplastics, but there are many other places where tiny plastic particles can be whipped up into the skies, including from landfills, roadside litter and car tires. Colored plastics, especially red, yellow, blue and black, absorbed around 75 times more light than pristine, non-pigmented plastics.

05/10/2026 Science Daily Antarctica is melting from below and scientists say it’s worse than expected - Deep beneath floating ice shelves, long channels carved into the ice appear to trap warmer ocean water, dramatically speeding up melting from below. Even regions of East Antarctica once considered relatively stable may be far more vulnerable than scientists realized. Researchers warn that current climate models may be missing this dangerous process entirely, meaning future sea level rise could be underestimated.

Plastics Crisis – Show-me Less Plastic in Rolla

The Show-me Less Plastic project held a workshop in Rolla. That’s close enough to where I live for me to be there and talk about how we formed a Beyond Plastics local group in Springfield.

The workshop was held on a Saturday in a conference room off the entry of the Phelps County Courthouse; it worked well on a Saturday since the building was otherwise closed.

The workshop proceeded with a Plastics Overview – similar info as I remember from last August with updated graphics; I took a few pictures from my seat toward the back of the room.

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Lunch was plastic free! Rolla has a caterer that does a great job…has stainless steel serving pieces (and great food too)! The lunch for the recent event in Springfield was not plastic free although the team reduced the plastic by providing stainless cutlery and plates.

After lunch we talked about forming a group to work on plastic reduction activities….and I contributed my 10 minutes about our adventure forming Beyond Plastics Ozarks. The rest of the agenda included activities about youth programming, examples of engagement and outreach (tabling, presentations, screenings) …then breakout sessions on getting started, a simulation exercise and then a discussion about next steps.

The audience was interested in the topic and included a councilmember…I am optimistic that there will be a Rolla group taking actions within their community to reduce plastics.

Plastics Crisis – Earth Day Music Festival

My second Earth Day Festival for 2026 was Springfield’s Earth Day Music Festival - a plastic-free, leave-no-waste sustainability-driven live music festival. For Beyond Plastics Ozarks, it was our first tabling event. Our goal was to talk to festival goers about reducing plastics in tangible ways…hand out donated reusable bags to those willing to use them rather than taking the store-provided single use plastic bags…and develop a list of people willing to join our efforts.

I started the day early since I was bringing the materials for the table: tables, banner, camp chairs, umbrella with weighted base (and extra weights), info sheets from Show-me Less Plastic, and a mind map I created for what individuals can start doing at home. I had started adding rocks to make sure papers did not blow away but, once I looked at the forecast and saw it was going to be very breezy, I added decorative bookends to the bins….and there were 55 donated bags of various sizes/colors to hand out. The collapsible wagon I had recently purchased from Costco held everything which meant I didn’t have to carry anything more than a few steps. I was at the venue early enough to park in a nearby garage so I simply loaded my wagon after I parked and walked across the street with it rather than unload at the curb before I parked the car.

Our assigned space was under a tree! I had an umbrella that I set up for a few hours but took it down after the wind got too gusty; the tree provided plenty of shade. Other than the wind gusts, the weather was perfect for the festival.

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The rocks and bookends worked great. After I got them arranged well, there were no papers blowing from our table. The indoor plants vendor next door was challenged to keep smaller plants on the shelves. They kept blowing off and landing in our booth! A booth further down that was doing a craft (nature stamps on cards) occasionally had cards flying.

I was at the table most of the time from about 9:30 to 6…setting up initially for the festival to open at 11…and packing up at 6 when the evening musicians were just setting up. I appreciated being able to leave before the crowds…just as I had arrived before the crowds.

It was a good first tabling – over 100 people stopped to talk and over 25 people indicated there were interested in learning more. Of course – this event being plastic free was probably a friendlier audience than we will find generally. I learned more about tabling on a windy day (bookends worked great…the umbrella did not)…and that the wagon was a great purchase for this type of event.

I did browse the other tables at mid-day…came home with a free smooth sumac to plant in a back corner of my yard. Lunch was 3 tacos in the compostable container from one of the food trucks. I refilled my water bottle at the water wagon a few times! Overall – a productive day for Beyond Plastics Ozarks…and enjoyable too with music and dancing just down the hill for our booth.

Ten Little Celebrations – April 2026

April was full of springtime happenings worth celebrating.

Native plants for my garden. I celebrated finding all the plants on my list at a native plant sale….and when I got all 28 of them planted.

Angel’s Diner. Celebrating finding a great place to stop for lunch on my way home from my monthly trips to Dallas….in McAlester OK.

Luna moths. 10 luna moths emerged from cocoons that had overwintered in my John Deere room. I celebrated every time one took off into the wild.

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Another red buckeye. My young red buckeye that made it through the winter was killed by several frosts as its buds were popping…so it was a day to celebrate when a Master Naturalist friend dug up a seedling from her yard for me.

Dandelion and violet leaves in my salads. It’s that time of year when I don’t need to buy leafy greens…there are so many that are available in my yard. I’m celebrating the bounty.

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Pawpaw and elderberry seedlings. I hadn’t anticipated how hard digging 10 holes for seedlings was going to be….so the biggest celebration of the day was when it was done!

Earth Day. I celebrated having 2 (very different) tabling gigs for Earth Day this year.

Scissor-tailed Flycather. Celebrating that they are back…I saw one in Oklahoma on my trip to Lewisville/Dallas this month.

Rhododendron blooming. Celebrating the big clusters of flowers.

Show-me less plastic events. 2 successful events….good interactions and learning experiences. Celebrating baby steps toward plastic reduction.

Plastics Crisis – Events in April

There seems to be a lot of plastic related activities on my calendar for April.

Beyond Plastics Ozarks will have a table at the Earth Day Music Fest in Springfield later in the month…lots of prep and logistics to work through between now and the event. Info sheets are the easy items …we are developing things to draw people to the table (maybe a plastic trash monster…maybe a big BYOB (standing for “Bring Your Own Bag”!) and then handing out reusable bags collected from various places or maybe having a ‘craft’ making a reusable bag from an old t-shirt).

There will also be a day with Stream Teams United at the state capitol to learn more of the legislative process and perhaps meet our state Representatives/Senators. I’ve never done anything like this before so it will be a learning experience. There are several plastic related bills that have been proposed in this session.

In early May we have an after school program for K-5 students at a smaller town school district northeast of Springfield. The educator that works with the Show-me Less Plastic project is helping with it. It should be a fun day for us and the students.

There is still a big challenge of getting more people actively engaged. There seem to be many people interested but we are yet not connecting with people that want to go beyond individual action at this point.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 28, 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.

3/23/2026 Washington Post What an oncologist wants you to know about environmental cancer risks - Given what we know about how microplastics can cause damage in the body, the increase in early onset colorectal cancer in the U.S. and the similarities in timing between the increase in cancer rates and the rapid increase in microplastics in the environment, many experts suspect that microplastics are a risk.

3/14/2026 BBC The strange deep-sea creatures that eat whales - Whales usually die far out to sea, scattered along their often vast migration paths. t first, the carcass may float as the gases inside make it swell up like a balloon. Then the whale sinks – through the sunlight, twilight and midnight zones – eventually reaching the darkness of the abyss, its final resting place. In death, the whale gives life, becoming an immense island of food.

3/16/2026 MSN Couples with infertility 'detox' from plastic to get pregnant in new Netflix doc. Does it work? - A new Netflix documentary called "The Plastic Detox" is a sobering look at all the ways that plastic harms our bodies and the planet — especially our reproductive health. Shanna Swan, Ph.D., a professor at Mount Sinai in New York City, is one of the prominent figures sounding the alarm on the effects of environmental pollutants on fertility. For the documentary, she worked with five couples who'd been struggling to get pregnant for years without a medical explanation. The goal? To reduce their exposure to plastics to see if they could conceive. In the end of the documentary, it's revealed three of the couples had gotten pregnant, and one was expecting again. The results were also published in a study in the journal Toxins on March 16.

3/20/2026 Yale Environment 360 In Mexican Forests, Monarch Butterflies Halt Their Decline - For the past quarter century, the future of monarch butterflies has looked dire, with these iconic American insects flitting toward extinction. Now, however, there is at least a small reason for hope: New data from WWF Mexico, a large conservation group, offers further evidence that the decline of eastern monarchs — the world’s largest population — has stopped, even as the insects face worsening threats across their range.

3/16/2026 Our World in Data Why cheap waste management is key to stopping plastic pollution – I was disappointed in this article. They completely miss the issue of food packaged and heated in plastic. Yes – that plastic packaging does not get loose in the environment but the microplastics (and chemicals) that leach into food gets into our bodies. And the leachate coming off lined landfills in countries with good waste management systems includes microplastics that the sewage treatment plants don’t take out before the liquid is released back into streams….and that will continue to happen for many years to come. And what happens when the liners of the landfills begin to break down and the leachate goes more directly into the environment. The answer in probably not cheap waste management…we need to be look at less waste – particularly less plastic waste.

2/17/2026 NASA Winds Whip Up Fires and Dust on the Southern Plains – This satellite image is from mid-February but I noticed smoke in the air as I drove on I-44 east of Tulsa last weekend! I don’t know if it was wildfires or controlled burns…but I was glad I had a portable air purifier in my car!

3/21/2026 I’m Plastic Free 9 Essential Ways to Reduce Plastic Waste on Your 2026 Travels – I would add a reusable bowl/plate for hotel breakfasts (along with cutlery…I take stainless steel cutlery since I have an extra set…and simply clean then to reuse…I have a tin that keeps them together).

3/18/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Cannibalistic Blue Crabs Are Eating Their Younger Peers in Part of the Chesapeake Bay - Young blue crabs find refuge from many predators in the mid-salinity waters of some spots along the Chesapeake Bay. But there, they face another threat: Getting eaten by their older peers.

3/16/2026 National Parks Traveler What It Takes to Clean a Yellowstone Hot Spring - Cleaning hot springs is hard work! Some remediations, like the Grand Prismatic Overlook trail spring, require shovels, strainers, and grabber tools. The cleaning of Solitary Geyser, however, required a hook with a 16-foot extendable handle to remove large objects within the interior parts of the pool and hand rakes to collect the hundreds of wood splinters that had been thrown into the splash basins around the pool margin.

3/13/2026 Science Daily Microplastics may be quietly damaging your brain and fueling Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s - Researchers identified five key biological pathways that may allow microplastics to harm the brain. These include activating immune cells, increasing oxidative stress, disrupting the blood-brain barrier, interfering with mitochondria, and damaging neurons. The review also describes how microplastics might contribute to specific neurodegenerative diseases. In Alzheimer's disease, they may promote the buildup of beta-amyloid and tau proteins. In Parkinson's disease, they could encourage aggregation of α-Synuclein and harm dopaminergic neurons. Additional studies are needed to confirm a direct causal link. Even so, the researchers recommend practical steps to reduce everyday exposure. We need to change our habits and use less plastic. Steer clear of plastic containers and plastic cutting boards, don't use the dryer, choose natural fibers instead of synthetic ones and eat less processed and packaged foods.

Plastic Crisis – The Plastic Detox

The Plastic Detox (trailer) is a documentary that was released by Netflix on March 16th. This documentary follows the research of Dr. Swan and other experts in the field, covering the impact on human development and showing how we can take matters into our own hands. It’s so easy for the microplastics conversation to be doom and gloom ---- this movie hints at a path forward…a hopeful component even while we acknowledge that there is a lot that needs to be done.

As a Missouri Master Naturalist, I am concerned of the degradation of the environment for wildlife (plants and animals) by plastics. The documentation of plastic impact on human health has a huge audience…and I am hopeful that some of the actions we take to detox for ourselves helps the larger environment as well.

The movie is well-timed for the outreach work the Beyond Plastics Ozarks (the local group of Beyond Plastics that I am part of) will be doing in the next few months! Many people will watch it on their own…and we might plan showing/discussion group sessions several times this year.

Plastic Crisis – Altered Purchasing

One way to have less plastic in the environment in the large term is to alter purchasing habits. I am noticing that I’ve applied what I’m learning about plastics to make some changes over the past few months…and I hope others will be thinking along the same lines. Our purchases are a signal to retailers; it would be great if enough people changed some of their purchasing habits enough for the retailers to take note and make some changes of their own!

I find myself looking much more closely when I shop….and skewing toward a no-plastic or less plastic option. I provide some examples and my rationale below.

For example – when I was looking for tea, I realized that there was a tin with loose tea on the shelf and I bought it. I’m still going to finish off the tea bags I have (paper…but could have plastic filaments or glue) but will stop buying other kinds of tea unless they somehow start certifying that they are plastic free.

Another example was a summer house dress. I checked the fiber content, and it was 100% cotton. I would not have purchased it otherwise! Yes – I still have a lot of synthetic fabrics in my closet that I will continue wearing until they are worn out– but I am buying clothes made with natural fiber fabric going forward.

There is sometimes a conflict between less plastic packaging and organic vegetables. One example from where I shop is bell peppers. The organic bell peppers come in plastic packaging. The non-organic peppers are offered either bulk (i.e. no plastic packaging) or in plastic packaging. Bell peppers are one of Consumer Reports’ 6 Fruits and Vegetables Loaded with Pesticides so I am opting for the organic ones even though they are in plastic packaging. This is a case where pesticide concern is high enough to skew toward organic. The organic bell peppers packaged in plastic packaging have probably not been exposed to heat…and I can remove the packaging as soon as I get them home. I still don’t like the packaging…and would prefer an option at the store for organic peppers without any packaging.

Some plastic packaging is more toxic – like Styrofoam. I buy frozen chicken breasts rather than fresh. Yes - they are in a plastic bag…but I’ve eliminated the Styrofoam tray and plastic wrap. I have no waste with the frozen and the bag has obviously never been exposed to heat. I thaw the chicken as I need it – in a glass container.

I will not buy plastic wrap again. I’ll use foil or parchment paper or a container with a lid rather than plastic wrap!

These are just a few examples….there will be many more I am sure. It would be easier if more of what I buy was offered in a non-plastic package!

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 14, 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.

2/25/2026 The Scientist Forever Chemicals May Accelerate Aging in Middle-Aged Men - The team detected the PFAS perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA) in 95 percent of the participants. PFNA and PFOSA, both invented in the middle of the 20th century, are still used widely today in consumer products designed to be stain-, grease-, and water-repellent. To reduce risk, individuals can try to limit their consumption of packaged foods and avoid microwaving fast-food containers. Looking ahead, we are actively modeling how PFAS interacts with other common pollutants, as we need to understand the cumulative health risks of these chemical mixtures

3/1/2026 BBC Can ‘friction-maxxing’ fix your focus? - While modern technology can streamline day-to-day life, making everything from dating to food delivery more efficient, it may come at a cost: early data suggests that our attention span may be shortening, critical thinking capabilities weakening, emotional intelligence fading, and spatial memory getting worse as we offload human tasks to our devices. Analogue hobbies such as crafting, gardening or reading – which involve friction as opposed to scrolling or streaming – can act as "active meditation", calming the mind and reducing stress. One 2024 study of more than 7,000 adults living in England found that those who engaged in crafting or the creative arts were more likely to report significantly higher life satisfaction, a greater sense that life is worthwhile and increased happiness. 

2/24/2025 The New York Times Plastic, Plastic Everywhere - Peak oil may be on the horizon. But peak plastic is nowhere in sight. In a new book, “Plastic Inc.,” the journalist Beth Gardiner digs into an industry that mostly flies below the radar but has huge impacts on human health, environmental pollution and global warming.

3/5/2026 Yale 360 Species Slowdown: Is Nature’s Ability to Self-Repair Stalling? - When scientists recently analyzed hundreds of studies of ecosystems, they were surprised to see a marked slowing in the rate of species turnover. If new species don’t replace old ones, they say, ecosystems may have less flexibility to respond to habitat loss and climate change.

2/28/2026 KCTV A ban on mini liquor bottle sales in five Kansas City neighborhoods officially introduced - Mayor Quinton Lucas and Councilwoman Melissa Robinson officially introduced an ordinance Thursday that would ban the sale of certain single-serve alcohol products in five Kansas City neighborhoods - — areas the city said have documented public safety concerns and recurring quality-of-life complaints from residents.

3/5/2026 The Conversation Choosing to buy organic food depends more on trust than taste - Organic labels work only when the system behind them is trusted. This has important implications at a time when food prices are rising and trust in public institutions is under pressure in many countries.

2/2/2026 Washington Post Baggies, retainers and more: 5 microplastics questions, answered - If you only have the bandwidth for a few battles, heating food in plastic is the bigger front. Most experts agree that ultra-processed foods are likely the biggest source overall in our diets. Food that comes packaged in plastic is obvious, but there are exposures during industrial processing that we don’t see. That’s one more reason to lean toward whole foods when you can.

3/4/2026 National Parks Traveler Study Finds Bird Populations Are In Decline As Panel Considers Weakening Key Act - Bird populations are in decline, with billions fewer birds are flying through North America compared to a decade ago, according to a study published in February 2026. The researchers found that about half of the 261 species analyzed showed significant declines from 1987 to 2021, and a quarter showed accelerating declines. The study points out that the declines are primarily because of high-intensity agriculture and warming temperatures. The findings come as a congressional panel is holding a hearing to consider weakening the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Extinction starts with declines like these, and birds are often the indicators that our environment is too toxic to support other life.

3/4/2026 Science Daily Millions with joint pain and osteoarthritis are missing the most powerful treatment - Despite affecting nearly 600 million people worldwide — and potentially a billion by 2050 — the most powerful treatment isn’t surgery or medication. It’s exercise.

2/26/2026 Canary Media Balcony solar is taking state legislatures by storm - Plug-in solar is already booming in Europe. As many as 4 million households in Germany have installed the systems, which people can order through Ikea. 28 states and D.C. are considering plug-in solar bills.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 07, 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.

2/20/2026 BBC How ultra-processed foods affect our gut microbiome - The additives added to processed food to keep it fresher for longer might be having an unexpected effect on the health of the microbes in our guts. Research carried out on both animals and humans appears to pinpoint a direct link between emulsifiers and ill health. One French study of more than 100,000 adults in 2024 found those who were more exposed to emulsifiers had a greater risk of type 2 diabetes. Another study of more than 90,000 adults found a potential link between emulsifiers and breast and prostate cancers.

2/20/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Researchers Retrieve the Deepest-Ever Rock Core from Beneath Antarctica’s Ice. It Holds Clues About the Earth’s Past—and Future - The 748-foot-long sediment core contains a record of roughly the past 23 million years, including periods when the planet’s surface temperature was hotter than it is today.

2/20/2026 National Parks Traveler Tidal Basin Gets Hundreds of New Cherry Trees - Paid for by a generous donation from the nation of Japan, the trees represent the most recent chapter in this remarkable cultural exchange dating back to Japan's original gift of cherry trees in 1912.

2/19/2026 Science Daily New sodium ion battery stores twice the energy and desalinates seawater - Being able to use sodium vanadate hydrate in salt water is a really exciting discovery, as it shows sodium-ion batteries could do more than just store energy -- they could also help remove salt from water. In the long term, that means we might be able to design systems that use seawater as a completely safe, free and abundant electrolyte, while also producing fresh water as part of the process.

2/18/2026 The Guardian Hazardous substances found in all headphones tested by ToxFREE project - Bisphenol A (BPA) appeared in 98% of samples, and its substitute, bisphenol S (BPS), was found in more than three-quarters. Synthetic chemicals used to stiffen plastic, BPA and BPS mimic the action of estrogen inside organisms, causing a range of adverse effects including the feminization of males, early onset puberty in girls, and cancer. Previous studies have shown that bisphenols can migrate from synthetic materials into sweat, and that they can be absorbed through the skin. Given the prolonged skin contact associated with headphone use, dermal exposure represents a relevant pathway, and it is reasonable to assume that similar migration of BPA and its substitutes may occur from headphone components directly to the user’s skin.

2/17/2026 The Conversation Air pollution may directly contribute to Alzheimer’s disease – U.S. researchers tracked nearly 28 million older adults over six years nationwide. They found that those exposed to higher levels of fine particulate air pollution were more likely to develop Alzheimer’s. The US study used Medicare insurance claims to confirm Alzheimer’s diagnoses and area data by postcode for fine particle pollution levels. It also looked at other factors that could explain the link, such as the proportion of smokers or overweight people living in more or less polluted areas.

1/15/2026 Science Daily Scientists question the safety of BPA-free packaging - BPA-free is an incredibly misleading label. It usually means one bisphenol has been swapped for another, and there are more than 200 of them. Some may be just as harmful, or even worse. We need to test these compounds before they're widely adopted, not after.

2/11/2026 Archaeology Magazine What Caused Ancient People to Abandon a Fruitful Bison Hunting Site? - For around 700 years, Native people of the American Great Plains hunted bison at a site in central Montana that archaeologists call Bergstrom. Then, around 1,100 years ago, humans abandoned the site even though bison remained abundant in the area. Researchers discovered that drought caused the water supply to process the animals at the site dried up…forcing the hunters to move away.

2/23/2026 Planetizen California Seals 21 Urban Oil Wells in South LA After Decades of Activism – There are too many stories like this – why do we ever trust the oil companies to not walk way and leave a toxic mess? I’m glad the state is stepping in…but the companies that made money from the site over the years need to be held financially accountable.

2/23/2026 Science Daily Babies exposed to far more “forever chemicals” before birth than scientists knew - By using advanced chemical screening on umbilical cord blood, scientists detected 42 different PFAS compounds, including many that standard tests do not routinely check for. These long lasting chemicals are found in common products like nonstick cookware, food packaging, and stain resistant fabrics, and they can build up in the body over time. The study helps show that prenatal PFAS exposure is more complex and widespread than earlier studies suggested

Ten Little Celebrations – February 2026

I celebrated getting outdoors in February and a flurry of education related activities!

Melting snow. We had snow on the ground for the last week of January and into February. We all celebrated when it finally melted although it was pretty as long as one didn’t have to get out and about.

Cranberry orange relish. I used my last frozen cranberries to make cranberry orange relish – savored the flavor….and will miss it until the cranberries are in the stores again in the fall.

Ozark Witch Hazel blooming. My small Ozark Witch Hazel I planted last spring is blooming. It retained its leaves so the blooms were a little difficult to see.

Missouri fish and amphibian webinars. There were two webinars that were a pleasant surprise in February – they were very well done.

Salmon salad. I celebrated the flavors of salmon, pear, and cabbage with a lemon honey olive oil dressing – with a feisty lime blend of seasonings.

Training for master naturalists. I celebrated that the training plan for the new cohort of Missouri Master Naturalists in our area seems to be coming together. It looked daunting at first.

Macro and high key flower photography. I celebrated a winter photography project – a purchased bouquet on the windowsill in my office.

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Ecoregion maps of Missouri. Looking at maps from an out-of-print Atlas was interesting and I celebrated how great they will fit into a presentation for the master naturalist training next fall – the module I will be presenting.

Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield. I celebrated the longest hike of the month – interesting place for birds and habitats…and also thinking about history and the way it looked during the Civil War.

Plastics and human health webinar.  I heard a webinar on the same topic with the same speaker from a year ago – and realized that this topic is progressing rapidly. I celebrated that she’ll likely continue to present webinars and include new information.

Plastic Crisis: Creating a ‘Reduce your Microplastic Exposure’ Mind Map

One of the first mind maps I worked on after purchasing the MindNode app was about reducing microplastic exposure. It was a good way to collect my thoughts and learn the tool. I am gearing up for spring and early summer tabling and talks on plastics – feeling the need to get organized and hone the way I deliver the message!

The mind map is still a work in progress – I still don’t have anything about household cleaners or water filtering (for drinking and maybe for shower). The things I feel are the biggest issues (heat/plastic/food and synthetic textiles) are there, but they may get more detail over time. I haven’t figured out where to put ditching the plastic cutting board. My goal is to create one page mind maps on various perspectives of the plastics issue and either use them directly as conversation starters or translate them into other forms for presentation.

It feels good to be creating mind maps again and I like MindNode. Years ago – during my career (over 15 years ago) – I created a lot of mind maps using MindManager but it is now too expensive for individuals (and overly complex for what I need)!