The U.S. Forest Service plans to auction off trees in the Deschutes, Wallowa-Whitman and Umatilla national forests by the end of the month.

The particles are in our blood, brains and guts – and scientists are only beginning to learn what they do Microplastics have been found almost everywhere: in blood, placentas, lungs – even the human brain. One study estimated our cerebral organs alone may contain 5g of the stuff, or roughly a teaspoon. If true, plastic isn’t just wrapped around our food or woven into our clothes: it is lodged deep inside us. Now, researchers suspect these particles may also be meddling with our gut microbes. When Dr Christian Pacher-Deutsch at the University of Graz in Austria exposed gut bacteria from five healthy volunteers to five common microplastics, the bacterial populations shifted – along with the chemicals they produced. Some of these changes mirrored patterns linked to depression and colorectal cancer. Continue reading...

Hello Americans on Mastodon, I know we don't feel like there's much to celebrate this July 4th. It's been a rough several years. So I want to talk about how we're making history right now.