Plastic pollution is an increasingly serious problem in the Arctic, where it exerts a damaging effect on the ecosystem already struggling under climate change. Luckily, it’s not only the amount of mismanaged plastic waste that has been on the rise over the last few decades. It’s also the amount of…
Much can be said about our project fieldwork but not that we ever travelled light. Why? Because, apart from some extra clothes, which were to protect us against the fickle Arctic weather, we also had to carry: flare guns and rifles in case of a not-that-pleasant encounter with a polar…
So we’ve made it to Norway. Put up in pretty comfy rooms on the 12th floor of a quarantine hotel in the centre of Oslo, we’re just starting the third day of a mandatory 10-day quarantine.We arrived in Oslo on Saturday and – armed with negative COVID test results, vaccination…
Seas and oceans have served humanity as rubbish dumps for hundreds of years, but initially it wasn’t much of a problem. As recently as at the end of the 18th century, there were merely 1.5 billion of us and the majority of rubbish we generated was made of natural materials,…
It’s been two months since – after four weeks of grappling with beach litter, bad weather and our own weaknesses – we reached the end of this year’s round of fieldwork, conducted as part of Sørkapp Marine Litter Cleanup project. Much against our better judgement, we did not immediately go…
Plastic is such an obvious element of today’s world that hardly anyone wonders what it actually is and why the negative consequences of its overuse can now be felt even in the most remote corners of the globe. Let us therefore shed some much needed light on the issue. Plastic…
This spring, Sørkapp Marine Litter Cleanup project received the patronage of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Poland. Despite the fact that the Embassy does not normally offer its patronage to initiatives carried out outside Polish borders, an exception was made in our case. The reason behind this exceptional treatment was…
The issue of marine litter may be approached in a number of ways. The widest recognition is usually given to initiatives focusing on prevention, such as raising the awareness of dangers involved in excessive use of plastic or searching for environmentally-friendly alternatives. There is also much talk about improving existing…
A project is much like a baby. Before we got down to work, the idea seemed brilliant, the required amount of effort and commitment – reasonable, and the expected feeling of satisfaction from a job well done – irresistibly tempting. The project was fun to conceive, the months of waiting…
If strolling along litter-strewn European beaches you ever console yourself with the thought of the far north – the last stronghold of wilderness, where beaches do not as yet look like rubbish dumps – you’re in for a bit of a disappointment. The Arctic is drowning in litter. Examples of…