Oceans Awash in Plastic Waste
An estimated 11 million metric tons of plastic enter oceans each year, according to the U.S. State Department—and some of it accumulates in highly visible ways. Şebnem Coşkun / Anadolu / Getty Turkish free diver Şahika Ercümen dives amid plastic waste on the Ortaköy coastline to raise awareness of plastic pollution in the oceans, and to observe the conditions in the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 27, 2020. Nhac Nguyen / AFP / Getty A Vietnamese woman gathers shells in a coastal forest littered with plastic waste that stuck in branches after it was washed up by the rising tide, in Thanh Hoa province, about 150 kilometers south of Hanoi, Vietnam, on May 18, 2018. Nina Gomes recovers a discarded plastic bag from ocean waters near the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on March 19, 2024. Bags of plastic waste and garbage recovered from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are unloaded at the Port of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, on July 23, 2024. The Ocean Cleanup is a nonprofit organization founded in 2013 that develops and deploys technologies to rid the world's oceans of plastic. A plastic ball floats in the Strait of Gibraltar, about 6.8 miles (11 kilometers) away from the nearest shore, near Barbate, Spain, on July 31, 2018. Bhushan Koyande / Hindustan Times / Getty Children walk through tons of plastic waste on a shallow shoreline near Badhwar Park in Mumbai, India, on June 4, 2025. Raşid Necati Aslim / Anadolu / Getty A giant 11-meter-long whale sculpture called Whale on the Wharf , made of recycled plastic waste, is placed in London's Canary Wharf area on April 15, 2025, to draw attention to plastic pollution in the oceans. In this photo taken on October 22, 2019, plastic and other debris sit on a beach on Midway Atoll in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. According to a study released in 2020, more than a million tons a year of America's plastic trash isn't ending up where it should. The equivalent of as many as 1,300 plastic grocery bags per person is landing in places such as oceans and roadways. In this photo from October 22, 2019, small pieces of plastic waste are shown in the decomposed carcass of a seabird on a beach on Midway Atoll. In one of the most remote places on Earth, Midway Atoll is a wildlife sanctuary that should be a safe haven for seabirds and other marine animals. Instead, creatures here struggle to survive as their bellies fill with plastic from faraway places. Josep Lago / AFP via Getty This photo taken on January 12, 2024, shows plastic nurdles at La Pineda beach in Tarragona, Spain. Cem Ozdel / Anadolu / Getty Modou Fall, a Senegalese environmental activist also known as 'Plastic Man,' is raising awareness about environmental pollution with his costume made of hundreds of plastic bags. He's shown here in Dakar, Senegal, on March 27, 2025. The 55-year-old Plastic Man organizes discussions and various events to educate the public about environmental pollution and climate change. Wearing his plastic outfit and carrying a note on his chest reading Africa is not a trash can , he walks the streets and beaches of Dakar to highlight the impact of plastic use on the environment. Olivier Morin / AFP / Getty This photo shows several dead herring trapped in a plastic packaging net on May 3, 2023, near Pietarsaari, Finland, as the late spring's sea ice was melting slowly. Benson Ibeabuchi / AFP / Getty A view of a canal that empties into Lagos Lagoon, clogged with rigid foam and single-use plastic, at Obalende in Lagos, Nigeria, on January 23, 2024. Agung Parameswara / Getty Small pieces of plastic that washed ashore on Kedonganan Beach and were collected in Kedonganan, Bali, Indonesia, shown on February 2, 2021. In Bali, known for its beaches and sunsets, the northwest monsoon brings vast amounts of plastic waste to its world-famous shores. Volunteers from a nongovernmental organization hold hands after cleaning the São Conrado beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 8, 2023, as part of World Oceans Day. Tahsin Ceylan / Anadolu / Getty Divers from the Turkish Underwater Sports Federation and Kas Underwater Association team carry out underwater cleaning operations off the coast of Antalya's Kas district on May 4, 2025. During the sea-cleaning operation, a large variety of items such as cellphones, plastic chairs, plates, forks, hats, glass, and plastic bottles were removed. Mladen Antonov / AFP / Getty A wave carrying plastic waste and other rubbish washes up on a beach in Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand on January 19, 2021. Li Xinjun / Xinhua / Getty Primary-school students clean up garbage at Binhai Park in Rongcheng City, in east China's Shandong Province, on June 4, 2025.
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Atlantic
5 hours ago
- Atlantic
Oceans Awash in Plastic Waste
An estimated 11 million metric tons of plastic enter oceans each year, according to the U.S. State Department—and some of it accumulates in highly visible ways. Şebnem Coşkun / Anadolu / Getty Turkish free diver Şahika Ercümen dives amid plastic waste on the Ortaköy coastline to raise awareness of plastic pollution in the oceans, and to observe the conditions in the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 27, 2020. Nhac Nguyen / AFP / Getty A Vietnamese woman gathers shells in a coastal forest littered with plastic waste that stuck in branches after it was washed up by the rising tide, in Thanh Hoa province, about 150 kilometers south of Hanoi, Vietnam, on May 18, 2018. Nina Gomes recovers a discarded plastic bag from ocean waters near the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on March 19, 2024. Bags of plastic waste and garbage recovered from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are unloaded at the Port of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, on July 23, 2024. The Ocean Cleanup is a nonprofit organization founded in 2013 that develops and deploys technologies to rid the world's oceans of plastic. A plastic ball floats in the Strait of Gibraltar, about 6.8 miles (11 kilometers) away from the nearest shore, near Barbate, Spain, on July 31, 2018. Bhushan Koyande / Hindustan Times / Getty Children walk through tons of plastic waste on a shallow shoreline near Badhwar Park in Mumbai, India, on June 4, 2025. Raşid Necati Aslim / Anadolu / Getty A giant 11-meter-long whale sculpture called Whale on the Wharf , made of recycled plastic waste, is placed in London's Canary Wharf area on April 15, 2025, to draw attention to plastic pollution in the oceans. In this photo taken on October 22, 2019, plastic and other debris sit on a beach on Midway Atoll in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. According to a study released in 2020, more than a million tons a year of America's plastic trash isn't ending up where it should. The equivalent of as many as 1,300 plastic grocery bags per person is landing in places such as oceans and roadways. In this photo from October 22, 2019, small pieces of plastic waste are shown in the decomposed carcass of a seabird on a beach on Midway Atoll. In one of the most remote places on Earth, Midway Atoll is a wildlife sanctuary that should be a safe haven for seabirds and other marine animals. Instead, creatures here struggle to survive as their bellies fill with plastic from faraway places. Josep Lago / AFP via Getty This photo taken on January 12, 2024, shows plastic nurdles at La Pineda beach in Tarragona, Spain. Cem Ozdel / Anadolu / Getty Modou Fall, a Senegalese environmental activist also known as 'Plastic Man,' is raising awareness about environmental pollution with his costume made of hundreds of plastic bags. He's shown here in Dakar, Senegal, on March 27, 2025. The 55-year-old Plastic Man organizes discussions and various events to educate the public about environmental pollution and climate change. Wearing his plastic outfit and carrying a note on his chest reading Africa is not a trash can , he walks the streets and beaches of Dakar to highlight the impact of plastic use on the environment. Olivier Morin / AFP / Getty This photo shows several dead herring trapped in a plastic packaging net on May 3, 2023, near Pietarsaari, Finland, as the late spring's sea ice was melting slowly. Benson Ibeabuchi / AFP / Getty A view of a canal that empties into Lagos Lagoon, clogged with rigid foam and single-use plastic, at Obalende in Lagos, Nigeria, on January 23, 2024. Agung Parameswara / Getty Small pieces of plastic that washed ashore on Kedonganan Beach and were collected in Kedonganan, Bali, Indonesia, shown on February 2, 2021. In Bali, known for its beaches and sunsets, the northwest monsoon brings vast amounts of plastic waste to its world-famous shores. Volunteers from a nongovernmental organization hold hands after cleaning the São Conrado beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 8, 2023, as part of World Oceans Day. Tahsin Ceylan / Anadolu / Getty Divers from the Turkish Underwater Sports Federation and Kas Underwater Association team carry out underwater cleaning operations off the coast of Antalya's Kas district on May 4, 2025. During the sea-cleaning operation, a large variety of items such as cellphones, plastic chairs, plates, forks, hats, glass, and plastic bottles were removed. Mladen Antonov / AFP / Getty A wave carrying plastic waste and other rubbish washes up on a beach in Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand on January 19, 2021. Li Xinjun / Xinhua / Getty Primary-school students clean up garbage at Binhai Park in Rongcheng City, in east China's Shandong Province, on June 4, 2025.
Newsweek
a day ago
- Newsweek
Gen Z Parents Not Reading to Children Alarms Experts
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Literacy rates are declining, screen time is increasing, and experts are sounding the alarm on the death of parents reading to their children. Though it is critical for their cognitive development, there has been a significant drop in parents, particularly those from younger generations such as Gen Z, reading to their children, and fewer are doing so for pleasure. As the alarm sounds on what could be a burgeoning literacy crisis, Newsweek spoke to the experts to find out more. Reading Time Down, Screen Time Up Recent research and data have shown there is a clear pattern among young children and the media that they are consuming: reading is on the decline, and screen time is on the up. Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty/Canva On average, children aged 8 to 12 spend between four and six hours watching and using screens each day, and teenagers can spend up to nine hours on screens, according to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Screen Time and Children In 1984, the first year that data is available for, 35 percent of 13-year-olds reported that they were reading for fun "almost everyday." By 2023, this figure had dropped to 14 percent, as per the NAEP. NAEP Long-Term Trends: Student Experiences A recent survey from HarperCollins UK found that there is a pronounced disinterest in reading aloud for younger parents. Less than half of parents of children up to 13 years old describe reading aloud to kids as being "fun," for them; and 29 percent of children aged 5 to 13 think that reading is more "a subject to learn," than "a fun thing to do." Only 32 percent of 5- to 10-year-olds will frequently choose to read from enjoyment, which is down from 55 percent back in 2012. Literacy rates in the U.S. appear to be decreasing, dropping nearly 10 points since 2017. In December, data released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) showed that 28 percent of adults in the U.S. ranked at the lowest levels of literacy, compared to 19 percent in 2017 Why Is It Important To Read to Children? "There are so many advantages to reading together with your child," Hugh Rabagliati, a psychology professor at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, told Newsweek. "Books help kids to learn new concepts and ideas; they encourage kids to engage in discussion; and they prepare kids for reading, through attending to wordplay and vocabulary." Carmel Houston-Price, professor of language and cognitive development at the University of Reading in England, told Newsweek over email: "For young children, it's 'book-sharing' rather than 'reading' that best supports their development, as 'sharing' implies that the child and parent are not just reading the printed pages but are actively engaging with the book and each other; turning the pages, repeating the lines, talking about the pictures, relating the story to the child's own experiences. "Babies and toddlers often show interest in looking at books before their first birthday, particularly books with textures, flaps or rhymes that catch their attention, precisely because these types of books allow the type of exploration and interaction with the adult that is beneficial to children's learning," Houston-Price said. She added: "Book-sharing also supports children's early language development, both in terms of the vocabulary used in the book and children's skill in answering questions and telling stories." Stock photo: A person reads at the Rice University Library on April 26, 2022 in Houston, Texas. Stock photo: A person reads at the Rice University Library on April 26, 2022 in Houston, Maryanne Wolf, the director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice and professor-in-residence at the University of California, told Newsweek over email: "Few realize the multiple linguistic, cognitive, social-emotional, and neurological contributions made by the simple act of reading daily to one's young child---beginning from the first moments they can sit upon a lap. "Not only does the baby begin to associate reading with the emotions of love and protection, the language and cognitive circuits of the young brain are learning the sounds (phonemes) of their language, the meanings of first words, the slow appreciation of what books convey," Wolf added. What Is the Impact of Not Reading to Children? Not reading to children, then, will see a loss of these benefits. Houston-Price said that, without the opportunity to share books with parents, all these benefits are "likely to be lost." Wolf, meanwhile, said: "The loss of this opportunity by parents will ineluctably affect the acquisition of reading by their children in ways and the delight we want every child to experience when learning to read." Stock photo: A student in the library reads a book on February 2, 2022 in New York City. Stock photo: A student in the library reads a book on February 2, 2022 in New York B. Neuman, professor of Childhood Education and Literacy Development at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, told Newsweek that, in settings where families aren't reading aloud, and books aren't present, "more often than not, children do not experience lots of things." "The scholarly culture that surrounds them early on, helping them establish a reading habit, less ability to attend to a storybook reading in school contexts, a limited understanding of the purpose of reading—joy, information, imagination," Neuman said. "Given what we know about early learning impacting on children's later development," Houston-Price said, "we should be giving young children the very best start in life, which includes opportunities to share books." How Can Reading Be Reintegrated Into Daily Routines? So, what should parents be doing to help reintegrate reading? Neuman said, "Parents should limit children's use of digital media," and should "consider a routine of reading to children regularly." Other tips for parents include carrying "books with them wherever they go," as well as "spending time reading themselves," which, in turn, provides a "good model of reading enjoyment to children." And technology isn't necessarily the enemy here. Rabagliati told Newsweek: "There are also some great technological solutions, like screen-free Yoto Players. These provide some of the same benefits of reading aloud, but don't require the parents to become a human audiobook." Houston-Price said that parents should make sure there are "age-appropriate books around the house that children can access." She added: "Regular visits to a local library might help to ensure there is variety on offer, but remember that young children enjoy repetition much more than adults do, so be prepared to read the same book over and over again. "Look at a book for just a few minutes at a time with very young children, or for as long as they are keen to," Houston-Price said, adding: "There's no need to read a book cover to cover or to read every line." She also noted: "Many children enjoy the routine of a story at bedtime, so perhaps let your child choose a book and take a few minutes to have a cuddle and a read before bed."
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
New Geneo Mall food court's loaded mala bowls, pan-fried buns, $10 steak & more
A 5-minute walk through lush greenery from the main area of Geneo Mall brings you to a brightly-lit and minimalistic 10-stall food court — Hawkerlab — featuring a range of cuisines from Shanghainese to Western, to Vietnamese. This quiet food court at 7 Science Park Drive opened in 2024. However, there hasn't been much hoo-ha about it since, likely because most of their patrons are nearby office workers or tenants. By the time I visited at half past 1 on a Thursday, only a handful of people were still sitting around. The food court has a clean, uniform look with all-white chairs and marbled tables. Lots of natural light is let in through the large window panes along the side, adding to its cosy, serene dining experience away from the hustle and bustle of work. 'If it's out of the way, why should I eat here?' Trust me, Hawkerlab is unlike any regular food court, and after seeing the food selection, you'll know why. All Things Mala is one of the newest tenants in this food court, having shifted here in May 2025. Unlike the usual mala affair of picking out your ingredients from the displayed chiller, every bowl here has a fixed combination, most of which come in individual portions below S$10. We tried the Signature Mala Chicken Bowl (S$8.90) and Fiery Beef King Bowl (S$9.90), and both consisted of springy instant noodles (the best part of mala, always), packed with their respective proteins and a load of veggies. Crowning the bowl were strips of what the owner, Kuan Loong, described as 'yusheng crispies'. Kuan Loong shared that they 'cut down oil by a lot' when frying the mala xiang guo, so you can worry less about the calories. However, I would still highly recommend their Crispy Mochi Youtiao with Condensed Milk (S$3.50) for a sweet treat after. Sheng jian bao in Hawkerlab? Sign me up. OLD CHANG SHENG JIAN BAO 老张生煎 serves a range of authentic pan-fried buns and Chinese noodles, but customers say their Signature Pork Pan-fried bun (S$5.50 for 4pcs) is a must-get. This would easily be my go-to lunch fix if I worked in the area. Steak is one of those foods most people tend to reserve for special affairs, enjoying it as an occasional indulgence. But here at Western Food Shack by The Tea Party, you can get a Sirloin Beef Steak with a side of either Mash Potato + Coleslaw + Sweet Corn (S$10.90), or Aglio Olio Pasta (S$9.90). For this price, I'd be eating steak every day. Next time I'm here, I'd like to try the cai fan stall hilariously named '这个那个 (zhe ge na ge)' or This N That in English, poking fun at the way Singaporeans order their cai fan. (I'm guilty of this too) There's still a variety of warm beef pho, fusion salad bowls, and old-school ice cream left for you to come down and discover for yourself here at Hawkerlab. Revamped Ang Mo Kio kopitiam has fried meatball noodles, claypot unagi rice & traditional prawn mee The post New Geneo Mall food court's loaded mala bowls, pan-fried buns, $10 steak & more appeared first on
