Air Pollution

Ozone

• “By 2020, gas-powered leaf blowers, lawn mowers, and similar equipment in the state could produce more ozone pollution than all the millions of cars in California combined.” according to Princeton

Food Waste

A staggering percentage of food is wasted. First we waste resources on farms and in fisheries where inefficent foods are grown, wasting more space, water, and nutrients than we'd have to spend for nutritious and eco-friendly alternatives. We dump around 1/3rd of fish back into the ocean where they die, and give a third of the remaining catch to livestock even though scientists say 90% of that amount would be more efficiently used if fed straight to humans. 

There is waste throughout the production line, in shipping, and again in shops and restaurants. After food makes it into our homes, we forget about it, or it may be wasted due to improper planning, power cuts, or other unforeseen problems. 

Some of the resources can be recaptured via composting, but reducing waste from the farm all the way to our fridges and tables will have a bigger impact than composting. Composting only slightly reduces the amount of green house gases produced compared to food waste that is thrown in landfills.

Manmade Chemicals

Synthetic materials can serve many useful functions, but they generally don't break down naturally, meaning they are now building up in the environment, our food chains, and our bodies. Legislation is probably the best way to handle them, but you can click the buttons in this section to learn how to avoid using or buying them, and even learn how to help remove them from the environment.

Technology

• Light Bulbs

Resources

International

• DeSmog’s Agribusiness Database "find a record of companies and organisations’ current messaging on climate change, lobbying around climate action, and histories of climate science denial."

• DeSmog’s Climate Disinformation Database "browse our extensive research on the individuals and organizations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming."

Europe

UK

• DeSmog’s Air Pollution Lobbying Database "find out about organisations opposing or seeking to weaken planned air quality measures in the UK’s most polluted cities, including Clean Air Zones and London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone."

North America

USA

• DeSmog’s Koch Network Database "browse our extensive research on the individuals and organizations linked to Charles Koch or other members of the Koch family, Koch Industries, and related entities."

Organizations

International

• Climate Defenders "is a multigenerational and multiracial action home rising up against the oil industry destroying our planet and our communities.
  
  For generations, oil CEOs and the bank executives that finance them have prioritized profits over the well-being of our planet and its people. They pollute our air, poison our water, and dump toxins into our neighborhoods.

As Climate Defenders, we are fighting to end the fossil fuel industry and build a new future with good jobs, clean water, safe air, and a better future for our families. Join us!"

• DeSmog "was founded in January 2006 to clear the PR pollution that is clouding the science and solutions to climate change. Our team quickly became the world’s number one source for accurate, fact-based information regarding global warming misinformation campaigns.
  
  DeSmog continues to expand our focus to other areas where misinformation has eroded public understanding and political action to address critical societal challenges, such as meeting the world’s energy needs, confronting environmental racism, and ensuring a just transition to a sustainable economic paradigm.
  
  Through hard-hitting investigative journalism, in-depth research, and collaborations with other investigative outlets, DeSmog works tirelessly to provide climate accountability and serve as an antidote to science denial and disinformation. Supported by science and dedicated to equity, our team is helping to clear the way for clean energy solutions, environmental justice, and the preservation of democracy.
  
  Now a global organization, with reporters and researchers spanning North and South America, the UK, Europe, Africa, and beyond, the DeSmog team works to expose corporate misinformation from major fossil fuel interests, including the likes of ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, and others with a documented history of undermining climate science and action. We conduct original research and reporting on a range of issues in the broader energy policy dialogue. In many cases, we find the same tactics, and many of the same people, that DeSmog first began exposing in our early research into the climate denial industry, are now sitting alongside a new breed of lobbyist, downplaying potential solutions to climate change, and promoting questionable “silver-bullet” solutions.
  
  Our research databases provide vital information on over 800 organizations and individuals responsible for spreading misinformation on a range of energy and science topics. We first started reporting on Koch Industries’ funding of climate denial in 2007, and continue to track Koch-linked groups and operatives in our Koch Network Database. In 2020, we added two new databases — the Air Pollution Lobbying Database and Agribusiness Database — showing how vested interests are working to slow action across multiple sectors."