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A history of McDonald's polystyrene clamshell burger box, from Jon Huntsman's invention through the 1980s waste crisis, McDonald's failed McRecycle campaign, and its 1990 decision to drop the container after pressure from environmental groups and the Environmental Defense Fund.
An environmental lake scientist examines why the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool's $16 million renovation was predictably doomed — the 18-inch-deep, stagnant pool has had algae since 1922, and the 2026 changes (dark blue paint, no-bid contracts, chemical treatment before species ID) made a known chronic problem worse.
The treatment-before-identification sequence is the sharpest critique: hydrogen peroxide applied before species confirmation can lyse cyanobacteria cells, simultaneously spiking toxin concentrations and destroying the morphological evidence needed to identify what was in the water — leaving both the duck deaths and the public health question unresolvable.