Dubbed the "Oscars of the Earth," the Earthshot Prizes recognize and reward innovative projects addressing climate change and other serious environmental problems. This year's Earthshot for "Build a Waste-Free World" was awarded to the London-based Notpla — a little wordplay of "not plastic" — whose mission is to replace single-use plastic with single-use seaweed. Winning the Earthshot award for environmental innovation — and more than $1 million — was "completely surreal," said co-founder Pierre Paslier. "We have to look at it as a war effort," he said, "because the scale of climate challenge is something that threatens the whole world all at once. It's in the air, it's in water, it's in our blood." According to the United Nations, we produce 400 million tons of plastic waste every year. Half of that's used just once, then thrown away, much of it to remain hundreds of years after we are gone. "It's very slowly fragmenting and releasing all of these other chemicals that are present in