EarthBeat Weekly: Boston College doctor, a leading voice on public health, speaks out on plastic

Boston College doctor, a leading voice on public health, speaks out on plastic   EarthBeat Weekly Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change December 13, 2024   A girl plays with a toy found in a plastic recycling factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 8, 2019. (CNS/Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain) Last week in this space, we updated you on the state of negotiations on a potential international treaty to address the global problem of plastic pollution. Those talks in Busan, South Korea, were expected to be the final round in producing a draft. But disagreements remained on key issues — namely, plastic production — and the session adjourned without a deal and with plans to reconvene sometime in 2025. Watching those negotiations closely was Dr. Philip Landrigan, an epidemiologist, pediatrician and director of the Global Observatory on Planetary Health at Boston College. Landrigan is seen as a foremost expert on public health, with a special emphasis on children's environmental health. His research, over a five-decade career, has examined the health impacts of lead poisoning, pesticides and toxic chemicals. In each case, his studies helped spur federal policies and legislation to address each hazard. Now, Landrigan is focused on plastics. "The central point here is that plastic harms health at every stage of its life cycle," he told EarthBeat in an interview after the Busan plastic treaty negotiations concluded. Landrigan speaks from a position of authority. In 2023, he was lead author on the first-ever report that looked comprehensively at the ways that plastics harm public health across the products' full life cycle. Published in the Annals of Global Health, the 251-page report concluded "It is now clear that current patterns of plastic production, use, and disposal are not sustainable and are responsible for significant harms to human health, the environment, and the economy as well as for deep societal injustices." Landrigan and the co-authors found that driving worsening harms is the accelerating increase in global plastic production — more than half the 6 billion tons of plastic ever created has been produced since 2002, and the 400 million tons produced annually today is expected to triple by 2060. A main driver is single-use plastic, which makes up 40% of all present-day plastic production. Single-use plastics present an area where Catholic institutions, especially hospitals, have an opportunity to become leaders in reducing unnecessary plastics, Landrigan said. He also suggested that Pope Francis could make a significant contribution by offering a follow-up statement to Laudato Si' that specifically highlights how "the uncontrolled exponential growth in the production of plastic has become a powerful driver of the trashing of the Earth." Plastic pollution is a moral and social justice issue, Landrigan told me, because its harms fall disproportionately on poor and vulnerable communities, and in particular children. "Plastic use causes harm because when people, especially children, are using plastics, toxic chemicals leach out of the plastics, get into them and cause disease and death," he said. "And when it is disposed, and ends up in the form of plastic waste, plastic harms health because when that stuff is burned it releases toxics in the environment, it exposes kids to toxic plastic waste." These public health realities are ones that Landrigan says are critical for negotiators to put at the forefront of their next round of talks for a plastic treaty, whenever that may be. "They need to bear in mind that they're not just dealing with a technical issue of plastic waste on beaches or plastic in the bodies of sea birds and whales. They're talking about children's health, and there's a profoundly moral dimension of this. And they have to bear this in mind as they negotiate the treaty." Read the full interview: For Boston College public health expert, a treaty on plastics is a matter of morality     What else is new on EarthBeat:   At Vatican Christmas tree lighting, Pope Francis calls attention to sustainability by Claire Giangravé, Religion News Service Assuring the crowd of the sustainable harvesting of the tree, the pope compared the rings in the 98-foot-tall tree to the generations of believers gathering around the single image of Jesus. Read more here »   Pope Francis urges global death penalty abolition, foreign debt relief by Christopher White Pope Francis on Dec. 12 called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty, the alleviation of foreign debt and the creation of a new global fund to eradicate hunger and combat climate change.  Read more here »   In Bangladesh, Catholic agency cultivates a culture of growing native crops by Stephan Uttom Rozario With the aim to improve native crop farming capacity within villages, Caritas Bangladesh promotes ways for farmers to identify and save indigenous seeds as well as natural methods for cultivating them. Read more here »   Nuns provide hundreds of tube wells for safe drinking water in Bangladesh by Sumon Corraya The Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, Bangladesh, and the local Catholic Church are making a difference by addressing the persistent challenge of access to safe drinking water. Read more here »   Memo to God on the future of humanity by Thomas Reese, Religion News Service In an exclusive, RNS is publishing the leaked minutes of a heavenly committee on the future of humanity and the Earth, weighing in on global warming's progression, which if not stopped will have catastrophic consequences for the planet and its inhabitants. Read more here »   New, fully electric popemobile offers Pope Francis every comfort as Jubilee nears by Claire Giangravé, Religion News Service Vatican journalists were escorted inside the Vatican, passing through a parking lot with still-wrapped electric car charging stations, as the city-state continues in its effort to achieve zero emissions. Francis, sitting on his wheelchair, met with 15 members of the creative and directive team of Mercedes-Benz, which has been a key provider of popemobiles for the Vatican for almost 100 years, though this is the company’s first fully electric offering. Read more here »   Holy Trinity Sisters in Kenya regenerate barren landscape amid adversity by Catherine Ciingi In the challenging environment of Isiolo, Kenya, the Institute of the Holy Trinity Sisters are pursuing Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration in their venture toward self-sustainability and restoring the Earth. Read more here »   Latin American bishops launch campaign to protect human rights activists by Justin McLellan, Catholic News Service Three months after the murder of Juan López, a Honduran church worker and environmental activist whose death was publicly mourned by Pope Francis, the bishops of Latin America are raising awareness of attacks against those fighting for social justice in the continent. Read more here » What's happening in other climate news: The Geminids meteor shower peaks this week. Here's what to expect —Chandelis Duster for National Public Radio Arctic tundra shifts to source of climate pollution, according to new report card —Marianne Lavelle for Inside Climate News As teenagers, they protested Trump's climate policy. Now what? —Austyn Gaffney for The New York Times Lee Zeldin didn't ask to head EPA. Here’s why Trump picked him. —Maxine Joselow for the Washington Post 'Bioweapons' and cover-ups: The untruths behind RFK Jr.'s disease claims —Ariel Wittenberg for E&E News Federal court filings allege official committed perjury in lawsuit tied to Louisiana grain terminal —Jack Brook for the Associated Press Extreme heat is forcing farmers to work overnight, an adaptation that comes with a cost —Ayurella Horn-Muller for Grist Final Beat:   This week, National Catholic Reporter published an exclusive interview with former House speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Speaking with staff writer Camillo Barone, Pelosi addressed the 2024 election and the future for Democrats, as well as her Catholic faith, her new memoir and her appeal to the Vatican to resolve the Communion ban in her home San Francisco Archdiocese imposed by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone. Pelosi also touched briefly on the environment. It's a topic she's frequently connected with her faith, including by quoting Pope Francis as she led the House in passing the Inflation Reduction Act, which included more than $360 billion over 10 years in clean energy and climate initiatives. In response to a question about the efforts of a younger generation of Democrats pursuing key caucus and committee positions, Pelosi told Barone that "this future belongs to them." She delivered a similar message prior to the NCR interview, she said, during a meeting with college students. "I was saying to some students, university students, the same thing: the future belongs to you. You must take responsibility for it, and that could mean running for office, or at least supporting other people or the causes that you care about, like God's creation," Pelosi said. "This planet is God's creation. If we believe that, then we must minister to it. We must be good stewards of it. People are God's creation, all of them, and if we believe that, then we must meet [and] minister to their needs. We either have faith and act upon it, or we just use it as a convenience when we feel like it." Thanks for reading EarthBeat.      Brian Roewe Environment Correspondent National Catholic Reporter broewe@ncronline.org Instagram: @broewe_ncr     Featured Advertisers   Enjoy the timeless wisdom of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Subscribe today for unlimited access to 120 TV shows and 300 audio talks.   Advertisement