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When marine biologists first discovered plastic particles fouling the ocean’s surface in 1972, they measured about 3,500 particles per square kilometer in the North Atlantic Ocean’s Sargasso Sea. In an analysis of samples taken from the same region between 1986 and 2008, reported in the journal Science, researchers found an average of 20,328 particles per square kilometer, with a peak concentration of 580,000 particles per square kilometer in 1997. And in August, in a study published in Food Additives & Contaminants, Iranian researchers reported finding microplastics in the flesh of all five seafood species they analyzed. When the Iranian researchers examined that question in fish, crabs, and prawns taken from Persian Gulf fishmongers in their August study, they found no evidence that microplastics from crustaceans concentrated in the flesh of the fish that ate them.

The yearslong effort by criminal justice activists and victim advocates to obtain clemency for Brown, who killed a man soliciting her for sex, finally came to fruition Monday, when Gov. Bill Haslam ordered Brown be released on August 7. Activists and others reacted to the news of her clemency on social media: Over the past few weeks, more people have rallied around Cyntoia's case and I think that's really terrific. With God’s help, I am committed to live the rest of my life helping others, especially young people,” she said. The push for Brown’s release has been especially intense in the past few weeks as Haslam’s governorship comes to a close; fellow Republican Bill Lee assumes office January 19.

The Louisiana bill, which recently advanced out of a state Senate committee and will now head for a floor vote, would prevent these warrants from being used against survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. It is most cruel way to try to entice testimony from someone,” New Orleans City Councilwoman Helena Moreno, a supporter of the legislation, told senators in a hearing on Tuesday, according to the Times-Picayune. State Sen. JP Morrell, a Democrat from New Orleans, sponsored the bill after a watchdog group pointed out that the city’s district attorney temporarily jailed at least two women in 2016 who had survived rape and domestic violence. This tool is very, very necessary for us to use on rare occasions,” Charles Ballay, head of the Louisiana District Attorneys Association, told senators of material witness warrants in the committee hearing this week. The group estimates that out of 750,000 cases from 2012 to 2017, roughly 150 material witness warrants were approved by judges in Louisiana, and that few of those were against sexual assault or domestic violence victims.

Last October, scientists convened by the United Nations issued a dire warning: Unless carbon emissions fall by about 45 percent by 2030, we will face a world of climate chaos—more frequent droughts and floods, decimated coral reefs, and cities swamped by rising seas. If US consumers cut back their meat habit by about 40 percent, as recommended by the World Health Organization, to just under six ounces a day per person, they’d be doing their part to slash global food-related emissions by nearly a third. In January, a report by 37 scientists (including Springmann) representing 16 countries and a major medical journal, titled the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet and Health, upped the ante: It argued that American-style meat consumption not only helps drive climate change, but also contributes to the burden of chronic diet-related disease. He urges them to “move away from talking about what’s missing,” noting a Stanford study showed one of the university’s student canteens sold 41 percent more vegetables when it used “indulgent” language (“sweet sizzlin’ green beans and crispy shallots”) rather than “healthy restrictive” words (“light ’n’ low-carb green beans and shallots”).