In the beginning it was just two friends trying to make a difference. Today, Pure Earth is one of the leading organizations working on pollution cleanup on a global scale. Here’s a look back at 20 years of pollution solutions improving lives, and how the work of Pure Earth staff and researchers in the field have helped to raise awareness and change the conversation about the need to address pollution — the largest environmental cause of death and disease in the world today.
In collaboration with the Costa Rican Ministry of the Environment, and Isla del Coco National Park Rangers, Sea Shepherd’s newest vessel The M/V White Holly has proven a worthy adversary against illegal fishing and marine plastic pollution on her first campaign.
Thanks to her tireless crew, The White Holly successfully loaded illegal fishing gear, marine debris, and waste from the precious Cocos Island World Heritage Site in Costa Rica. The massive and unrelenting load was no match for The Holly, a former US Coast Guard Buoy Tender. Her 10 ton crane lifted 34 tons of plastic and waste into her cargo hold and onto her decks, which was carried back to a mainland port. The collected plastics will be upcycled into apparel and sales will be contributed to future Sea Shepherd campaigns.
Undark and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting visited seven countries on five continents, rich and poor, north and south, to examine the impacts of fine particulate pollution, which kills more than four million people annually. See the full series at undark.org/breathtaking.
