Take a look in your closet. What do you see? Clothes you wear? Clothes you never wear? You’re probably not thinking that’s a lot of plastic. Plastic—polyester, acrylic, nylon, and other synthetic fibers—is about 60% of the material that makes up our clothes.
And it turns out those synthetic fabrics we’ve been comfortably wearing and using these last few decades are adding tons of microplastic fibers to the environment.
These tiny plastic particles—shed when we wear and launder our clothes, blankets, and household items—are showing up in drinking water (including the bottled kind), food, air, and even beer.
IonE Second Mondays: Minnesota’s Solar Opportunity. February 11, 2019, 3:45 PM - 4:45 PM, Free but registration required. Institute on the Environment, Learning and Environmental Sciences Building Atrium, 1954 Buford Avenue, Saint Paul, MN. The growth of solar is not only a shift in how we produce energy – it also has significant land use implications. How might we make it both an economic and an ecological win? Join a panel of Minnesota-based experts for a lively conversation about wide-ranging opportunities to maximize the benefits of solar farms, from providing pollinator habitat to improving soil and water quality. Learn why this innovation is vital for Minnesota’s clean-energy future, what’s already happening, and about the opportunities ahead. More information available here.
Minnesota Energy Efficiency Potential Study Public Forum by Center for Energy and Environment, Wednesday, February 13, 2019, 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM, Free but registration is required. Minneapolis Central Library, Pohlad Hall, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, MN 55401. Come learn about the results and recommendations of the recently completed Minnesota Statewide Energy Efficiency Potential Study. The forum will include discussion about what the results can tell us about the future of utility-driven energy efficiency in Minnesota. More information: https://bit.ly/2MQoeLd.
Weather to Climate: Our Changing World exhibit. February 2 - April 28, 2019, Bell Museum of Natural History, 2088 Larpenteur Ave W, St Paul, MN 55113. Ticket cost and information available at https://www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/admissions. Glaciers are vanishing, temperatures are rising, and Earth’s global climate is getting wetter as it warms. What will the changing climate mean for people, plants, and animals? And what can we do to help slow climate change? Weather to Climate: Our Changing World, developed by the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago, presents the fundamentals of weather and climate. With interactive and engaging content, the exhibition connects weather to the science behind global climate changes and how Earth’s various inhabitants will handle them. More information: https://bit.ly/2RHjEQ7.