Articles by: Meena Miriam Yust

Warming Ocean Currents Affect Weather and Environment

Warming Ocean Currents Affect Weather and Environment

Co-Written by Meena Miriam Yust & Arshad M. Khan If one can imagine looking at our globe from the South Pole end, one can observe the ocean currents circulating water across the oceans. First one would notice a current all the way around the perimeter of the Antarctic.  A surface current circulates clockwise but there is also a deep undercurrent[Read More…]

by 01/01/2020 1 comment Climate Change
 Dying Wildlife on a Warming Planet

 Dying Wildlife on a Warming Planet

Co-Written by Meena Miriam Yust and Arshad M. Khan The emaciated polar bear, a sorry remnant of magnificence, raiding garbage cans in an iconic, even infamous photo, is one consequence of global warming.  As the September (2019) National Geographic cover story displays depressingly, Arctic ice collected over winter is sparser, thinner, and now disappears completely during summer in parts of Canada.  If[Read More…]

by 09/10/2019 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
The Threat To Life From Ocean Microplastics

The Threat To Life From Ocean Microplastics

Co-Written by Meena Miriam Yust and Arshad Khan When Chelsea Rochman at the University of Toronto and colleagues began their study on medakas (small Japanese rice paddy fish), they did not expect to find what they did. They first soaked ground-up polyethylene in San Diego Bay for three months and then fed it to these fish along with a laboratory diet.  They[Read More…]

by 18/08/2019 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Can Recycling Really Solve The Plastic Problem?

Can Recycling Really Solve The Plastic Problem?

Co-Written by Meena Miriam Yust and Arshad M. Khan The practice of recycling has everything to commend it:  On a finite planet, it conserves resources; it is meretricious allowing us, as it does, to pin a mental merit badge on our chests as we ready the assigned recycling bin once a week; and it is an activity that is all[Read More…]

The Perilous Migration of Birds through Cities

The Perilous Migration of Birds through Cities

  How many birds flying into buildings die, Thinking the glass reflection is the sky. —   with a nod to Kansas poet Madeleine Aaron Bird migration is a wondrous and majestic phenomenon.  One may witness flocks of colorful songbirds sweeping the skies, geese gliding in a V-shape of beautiful symmetry, or a great hawk soaring above and diving for prey[Read More…]

by 13/06/2019 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
 Dangerous Plastics Are a Threat to Us and Future Generations: Why a Legally Binding Treaty Cannot Be Postponed

 Dangerous Plastics Are a Threat to Us and Future Generations: Why a Legally Binding Treaty Cannot Be Postponed

Every day people make decisions about what to eat, sometimes opting for colorful fruits and veggies, sometimes finding the smell of bacon irresistible.  At the end of the day people are controlling their own health.  What is remarkable though, is the possibility that something one swallows today could have a lasting effect on future offspring – children, grandchildren, great grandchildren. [Read More…]

by 06/04/2019 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Who is Safe from Amazon? Worldwide Store Closings

Who is Safe from Amazon? Worldwide Store Closings

Amazon has reached the far corners of the earth… and the highest elevations.  Delivery men venture 11,562 feet up in the Himalayas to leave a package.  While the company may serve a useful purpose in remote regions, its phenomenal growth also reveals that no town is immune from its less desirable consequences.  The online retailer’s omnipresence has been all too apparent in[Read More…]

by 17/11/2018 1 comment Counter Solutions
How Genetics and Pollution Are Threatening Wild Dolphins

How Genetics and Pollution Are Threatening Wild Dolphins

  Dolphins are beautiful, highly intelligent and uncannily human in their interactions. Yet, they also have a language we humans cannot fully hear, and a culture that is in some ways similar to our own, and in others, a complete mystery. Like us, they have circles of friends and acquaintances, with different greetings for different individuals, as if by name.[Read More…]

The Perils of Plastic Pollution

The Perils of Plastic Pollution

Plastics are found in the products we use every day: the toys we give our children, the clothing we wear, the disposable cups we drink from, the automobiles we make, the straws we use, the list goes on.  Cheap and easy to make, plastic goods and plastic production have exploded in recent years.  Yet the junked cars, the used straws[Read More…]

by 29/09/2018 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Why Treaty Protection is Needed for Migratory Pollinators

Why Treaty Protection is Needed for Migratory Pollinators

Imagine a state of laws where murder is illegal if the victim is clad in a blue shirt, but legal if the victim is not wearing blue.  A system where robbery is illegal if the victim has white skin but legal if the victim has dark skin.  Such a system would be an outrage in human society.  But this is the system of[Read More…]

by 06/09/2018 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection