Rescuers including vets rush to save 12 survivors from 77-strong group lying on Sanday shore
Dozens of long-finned pilot whales have died after a 77-strong pod came ashore on an Orkney beach in what could be the biggest mass stranding in decades.
Twelve of the animals at Tresness beach, on the island of Sanday, were still alive, but according to rescuers from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), it was thought unlikely they could be saved.
Continue reading...Fire expected to burn for days as local residents warned to avoid nearby waterways
Residents in Melbourne’s west have been told to avoid lingering fumes and potentially contaminated runoff after a chemical factory fire sent toxic smoke billowing over the city.
Firefighters battled the blaze throughout the day and night after a large explosion at the Derrimut factory on Wednesday morning.
Continue reading...Ruling, based on constitutional rights for natural features like Quito’s Machángara River, appealed by government
A ruling described by activists as “historic,” a court in Ecuador has ruled that pollution has violated the rights of a river that runs through the country’s capital, Quito.
The city government appealed the ruling, which is based on an article of Ecuador’s constitution that recognizes the rights of natural features like the Machángara River.
Continue reading...Water companies have logged five sewage spills a day, every day, for a decade, analysis by the Observer shows
Water companies in England and Wales have averaged five serious sewage spills into rivers or seas every day over the past decade, the Observer can reveal.
Analysis of Environment Agency data has found that the 10 firms recorded 19,484 category 1-3 pollution incidents between 2013 and 2022, the most recent year recorded, an average of one every four and a half hours.
Continue reading...The contaminants have also recently been found in testes and semen amid concerns about falling male fertility
Microplastics have been discovered in penises for the first time, raising questions about a potential role in erectile dysfunction.
The revelation comes after the pollutants were recently detected in testes and semen. Male fertility has fallen in recent decades and more research on potential harm of microplastics to reproduction is imperative, say experts.
Continue reading...GOP-controlled committee thwarting distribution of $125m budgeted by legislature until polluter immunity approved
Wisconsin Republicans are withholding $125m designated for cleanup of widespread PFAS contamination in drinking water and have said they will only release the funds in exchange for immunity for polluters.
The move is part of a broader effort by Republicans in the state to steal power from the Democratic governor, Tony Evers, the funding’s supporters say, alleging such “political games” are putting residents’ health at risk.
Continue reading...Organisers expect 75% of identified bacterial pollution will be gone by the time the starting gun fires for the open water events
Beside a sign saying “No swimming”, Pierre Fuzeau defiantly pulled on his swimming cap, slipped into the green water of the Ourcq canal on Paris’s northern edge, and set off with a strong front-crawl.
The 66-year-old company director regularly joins his open-water swimming group for well-organised illegal dips, including in the River Seine, where swimming has been banned since 1923 largely as a result of the health risk from unclean water and bacteria from human waste.
Continue reading...Settlement for disaster that resulted in plumes of toxic chemicals in Ohio town includes funds for cleanup costs
The freight train company involved in a disastrous, pollution-spewing derailment in Ohio last year has agreed to a $310m settlement with the US government over the incident.
Norfolk Southern will pay a $15m civil penalty for violating clean water laws and pay hundreds of millions more in cleanup costs in the wake of the derailment, which occurred near the town of East Palestine in February last year.
Continue reading...Environmental Protection Agency says brownfield revitalization spending has quadrupled under Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $300m in new funding to clean up and redevelop 200 industrial sites across the country.
Speaking on Monday from what was once an oil station in south-west Philadelphia’s Kingsessing neighborhood, the EPA’s administrator, Michael Regan, said his agency would allocate $2m to transform the site – which officials say is contaminated with lead and semi-volatile organic compounds – into a waterfront bike trail and office buildings. “With this funding, Philadelphia will be able to work with this site and reconnect Kingsessing to the riverfront,” Regan said.
Continue reading...More than 100 homes damaged when tornado ripped off roofs, collapsed walls and sucked up debris in state’s south-west
Asbestos scattered over residential streets has prompted a “hazmat emergency” response in Western Australia’s south-west, with specialist crews urgently working to contain any possible exposure aftter a devastating tornado.
More than 100 homes were damaged when the tornado ripped off roofs, collapsed walls and sucked up debris into the sky at Bunbury on Friday afternoon.
Continue reading...Science Advances report also finds people of color and low-income residents in US disproportionately affected
Using a gas stove increases nitrogen dioxide exposure to levels that exceed public health recommendations, a new study shows. The report, published Friday in Science Advances, found that people of color and low-income residents in the US were disproportionately affected.
Indoor gas and propane appliances raise average concentrations of the harmful pollutant, also known as NO2, to 75% of the World Health Organization’s standard for indoor and outdoor exposure.
Continue reading...Welsh first minister urged to pay back £200,000 to firm whose owner was convicted of environmental crimes
There is growing anger and concern within the Labour party that the new Welsh first minister, Vaughan Gething, took £200,000 from a company whose owner was convicted of environmental crimes, with insiders warning it was critically undermining his authority and could cost the party votes at the general election.
Gething, who made history when he became the first black leader of a European country in March, is facing growing calls to pay the money back and order an independent inquiry into the donations, which helped him secure a narrow victory in the race to replace Mark Drakeford.
Continue reading...Government tells operators they must join cooperatives by Tuesday and gradually replace their vehicles with greener options
A three-day strike by drivers of jeepneys in the Philippines began on Monday as transport groups warned that thousands could be pushed off the roads by government modernisation plans.
The jeepney is the backbone of the Philippines’ transport system. The customised, privately-owned buses, which look like a cross between a Jeep and a van and are decorated in flamboyant colours, ply routes in neighbourhood streets and city centres, offering rides for as little as 13 pesos (23 US cents). They have featured in pop songs and films – Pope Francis even travelled through Manila in a jeepney-inspired popemobile.
Continue reading...Fujikawaguchiko town official says choice to erect huge barrier is ‘regrettable’ and last resort
A huge barrier to block views of Mount Fuji will be installed at a popular photo spot by Japanese authorities exasperated by crowds of badly behaved foreign tourists.
Construction of the mesh net – 2.5 metres (8ft) high and the length of a cricket pitch at 20 metres – will begin as early as next week, an official from Fujikawaguchiko town said on Friday.
Continue reading...Exclusive: 80% of Welsh dairy farms inspected, 69% of English ones, 60% in Scotland and 50% in Northern Ireland breaching regulations
The majority of UK dairy farms are breaking pollution rules, with vast amounts of cow manure being spilled into rivers.
When animal waste enters the river, it causes a buildup of the nutrients found in the effluent, such as nitrates and phosphates. These cause algal blooms, which deplete the waterway of oxygen and block sunlight, choking fish and other aquatic life.
Continue reading...Rules celebrated for reducing exposures, but experts say it’s not enough and will lead to ‘an endless game of Whac-a-Mole’
Strong new limits for some PFAS compounds in drinking water set by the US Environmental Protection Agency this week are being celebrated for how far they go in reducing exposures to the dangerous chemicals.
But public health advocates say the rules merely represent a first step that is limited in its impact on the broader PFAS crisis because they do not directly prevent more pollution or force the chemical industry to pay for cleanup.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed
A search will resume this morning for a woman who went missing while bushwalking at Belmore Falls in New South Wales.
Just after 1pm on Sunday, emergency services were called to Belmore Falls near Robertson after reports a woman had slipped and fallen down a cliff. An extensive search was initiated, but the 20-year-old was not located and the search was suspended at dusk.
We’ve got large multinationals in the supermarket ring who aren’t captured. So I’d like to see this expanded over time.
Woolworths, I think, makes a good point, and that is the code to be extended should be expanded to cover rivals Amazon, Costco and even Chemist Warehouse.
We’ll have more to say on that in coming weeks and months.
Continue reading...Mining company hit with accusation it contaminated waterways with harmful levels of uranium and lead
Rio Tinto is facing a likely lawsuit in an English court brought by the UK-based law firm Leigh Day on behalf of people living in villages near a mine in Madagascar.
In a letter of claim, a document that is an early step in a lawsuit, the villagers accuse Rio Tinto of contaminating the waterways and lakes that they use for domestic purposes with elevated and harmful levels of uranium and lead, which pose a serious risk to human health.
This story was published in partnership with The Intercept. The reporting for this investigation was supported by a grant from Journalists for Transparency, an initiative of Transparency International.
Continue reading...Environment groups say increased pollution levels means it would be ‘absurd and harmful’ to extend life of Eraring, which is due to close in August 2025
Mercury and particulate pollution from Australia’s largest coal-fired power station soared last year, prompting an environmental group to argue it would be “absurd and harmful” for the New South Wales government to extend its operations.
Origin Energy’s 2,880-megawatt Eraring power station, slated by the company to close in August 2025, reported mercury pollution jumped 130% in 2022-23 compared with the previous year, according to data from the national pollution inventory. The heavy metal permanently damages brains and kidneys, especially those of children.
Continue reading...Letters revealed under FoI laws show council asked environment secretary to investigate plan
The government has been accused of quietly shelving a delayed plan to restore the polluted River Wye after letters from the government show it is incomplete with no publication date in sight.
Letters revealed to the Guardian under freedom of information (FoI) laws show the then environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, told stakeholders in August that the government was “close to finalising” the plan to save the Wye and measures would be published within three months.
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