Category Archives: Environment

Net gains: how India trawlers’ plastic catch is helping to rebuild roads

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The waste caught by fishing boats used to be thrown back into the sea but in Kerala it is now turned into black gold

For years, plastic caught by fishing communities on the Kollam coast in India’s southern state of Kerala was thrown back into the water, damaging aquatic ecosystems and killing fish.

But fishers are spearheading an innovative initiative to clean up the ocean – along with their daily hauls of fish, they pull in and collect the waste that gets enmeshed in their nets.

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Seaspiracy: Netflix documentary accused of misrepresentation by participants

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NGOs and experts quoted in film say it contains ‘misleading’ claims, erroneous statistics and out-of-context interviews

A Netflix documentary about the impact of commercial fishing has attracted celebrity endorsements and plaudits from fans with its damning picture of the harm the industry does to ocean life. But NGOs, sustainability labels and experts quoted in Seaspiracy have accused the film-makers of making “misleading claims”, using out-of-context interviews and erroneous statistics.

Seaspiracy, made by the team behind the award-winning 2014 film Cowspiracy, which was backed by Leonardo DiCaprio, pours doubt on the idea of sustainable fishing, shines a spotlight on the aquaculture industry and introduces the notion of “blood shrimp”, seafood tainted with slave labour and human rights abuses.

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We sampled tap water across the US – and found arsenic, lead and toxic chemicals

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In a nine-month investigation by the Guardian and Consumer Reports we found forever chemicals, arsenic and lead in samples taken across the US

In Connecticut, a condo had lead in its drinking water at levels more than double what the federal government deems acceptable. At a church in North Carolina, the water was contaminated with extremely high levels of potentially toxic PFAS chemicals ( a group of compounds found in hundreds of household products). The water flowing into a Texas home had both – and concerning amounts of arsenic too.

All three were among locations that had water tested as part of a nine-month investigation by Consumer Reports (CR) and the Guardian into the US’s drinking water.

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John Barilaro attacks Turnbull over ‘war on Coalition’ and says NSW ‘firmly committed’ to coal

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NSW deputy premier says ‘there will be no moratorium on coal in the Upper Hunter or anywhere else in the state’

The New South Wales deputy premier, John Barilaro, has rejected Malcolm Turnbull’s call for a moratorium on new coalmines in the state and demanded the former prime minister “set aside his war on the Coalition”.

Turnbull said on Wednesday he believed coalmine proposals and approvals in the state’s upper Hunter Valley were “out of control”.

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Urgent policies needed to steer countries to net zero, says IEA chief

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Economies are gearing up for return to fossil fuel use instead of forging green recovery, warns Fatih Birol

New energy policies are urgently needed to put countries on the path to net zero greenhouse gas emissions, the world’s leading energy economist has warned, as economies are rapidly gearing up for a return to fossil fuel use instead of forging a green recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Most of the world’s biggest economies now have long-term goals of reaching net zero by mid-century, but few have the policies required to meet those goals, said Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA).

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Green investing ‘is definitely not going to work’, says ex-BlackRock executive

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Tariq Fancy once oversaw the start of the biggest effort to turn Wall Street ‘green’ – but now believes the climate crisis can never be solved by today’s free markets

From his desk in midtown Manhattan Tariq Fancy once oversaw the beginning of arguably the biggest, most ambitious, effort ever to turn Wall Street “green”. Now, as environmentally friendly investing grows at an exponential rate, Fancy has come to a stark conclusion: “This is definitely not going to work.”

As the former chief investment officer for sustainable investing at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, Fancy was charged with embedding environmental, social and governance (ESG) corporate policies across the investment giant’s portfolio.

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Trapped in gloves, tangled in masks: Covid PPE killing animals, report finds

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Mask and gloves protect people but harm animals from penguins to dogs when discarded, researchers say

The masks and gloves protecting people from coronavirus are proving a deadly threat to wildlife when thrown away, a report has found.

A fish trapped in the finger of a rubber glove in the Netherlands, a penguin in Brazil with a mask in its stomach and a fox in the UK entangled in a mask were among the victims.

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Fancy a deep red? The rise of underwater wineries

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After bottles were recovered in top shape from a first world war shipwreck, winemakers have started to exploit the sea’s cool, dark environment

Slipping into the chilly waters of the Baltic sea, the divers descended more than 60 metres to where the masts of the Jönköping lay strewn across the seabed. They glided past the wounds left when the Swedish schooner was sunk by a German U-boat in 1916 to home in on the rare treasure they had come for: thousands of bottles of 1907 Heidsieck champagne.

Related: Champagne found at sea turns out to be world's oldest vintage

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Global landmarks turn off the lights to mark annual Earth Hour

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This year’s event focuses on the link between harming the natural world and disease outbreaks like Covid-19

Cities around the world were turning off their lights on Saturday for Earth Hour, with this year’s event highlighting the link between the destruction of nature and increasing outbreaks of diseases like Covid-19.

In London, the Houses of Parliament, London Eye, Shard skyscraper and neon signs of Piccadilly Circus were among the landmarks flicking the switches.

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Climate talks will test Biden’s pledge to make global heating a priority

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Summit is designed to revive a US-convened forum of the world’s major economies that previous administrations had allowed to lapse

President Joe Biden is doubling down on his reset of his predecessor’s environmental policies by inviting Russian president Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping of China to the first big climate talks of his administration next month aimed at increasing cooperation to fight global heating.

The Leaders Summit on Climate talks, scheduled to be held virtually on 22 and 23 April, are an opportunity for the US to shape, hasten and deepen global efforts to cut climate-wrecking fossil fuel pollution, administration officials told the Associated Press.

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‘Reclaim These Streets’ and rubber duck rallies: human rights roundup – in pictures

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Coverage on recent struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Cardiff Bay to Thailand

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Protests at ‘inhumane’ export of live horses to Japan for food

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Activists seek ban on flying horses to Japan with thousands sent every year from Canada and France

Tens of thousands of horses are being subjected to long-haul flights, confined in crates with no food or water, to meet demand for horsemeat in Japan.

Since 2013, about 40,000 live horses have been flown to Japan from airports in western Canada. Under Canadian regulations, the journey can stretch up to 28 hours, during which the animals are allowed to go without food, water or rest.

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Joe Biden invites 40 world leaders to virtual summit on climate crisis

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Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin among invitees as US heralds return to forefront of climate fight

Joe Biden has invited 40 world leaders to a virtual summit on the climate crisis, the White House said in a statement on Friday.

Heads of state, including Xi Jinping of China and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, have been asked to attend the two-day meeting meant to mark Washington’s return to the front lines of the fight against human-caused climate change, after Donald Trump disengaged from the process.

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At least 20 livestock ships caught in Suez canal logjam

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Concerns for animals’ welfare if Ever Given blockage crisis is protracted


At least 20 of the boats delayed due to a stricken container ship in the Suez canal are carrying livestock, according to marine tracking data, raising concerns about the welfare of the animals if the logjam becomes protracted.

The 220,000-ton Ever Given is causing the longest closure of the Suez canal in decades with more than 200 ships estimated to be unable to pass, and incoming vessels diverting around southern Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.

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Russian conservationists hail rare sighting of Amur leopard with cubs

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Sighting in Primorye region said to show success of fight against poachers and steps to boost species population

Russian conservationists have hailed a rare sighting of an Amur leopard mother with three cubs in the far-eastern region of Primorye as proof of the efficiency of the country’s efforts to boost the population of the endangered species.

Scientists in a Russian national park in Primorye on the border with China obtained the images using a remote camera trap. The video footage shows the feline family standing on top of a hill in the Land of the Leopard national park.

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‘Bangladesh has come a long way’: people of Dhaka on half a century of independence

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A rickshaw rider, a domestic worker, a student and a photographer on how their lives have changed

Habibur Rahman, 48, rickshaw rider

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Diversify or risk unrest, oil producers warned in report

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As world shifts to green energy, Iraq and Nigeria among those vulnerable to ‘wave of instability’

Oil-dependent countries that are not preparing to adapt to the global shift away from fossil fuels risk their own stability, warns a new report.

Algeria, Iraq and Nigeria are the most vulnerable to “a slow-motion wave of political instability”, according to the risk analysts Verisk Maplecroft.

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‘Dimming the sun’: $100m geoengineering research programme proposed

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All options to fight climate crisis must be explored, says national academy, but critics fear side-effects

The US should establish a multimillion-dollar research programme on solar geoengineering, according to the country’s national science academy.

In a report it recommends funding of $100m (£73m) to $200m over five years to better understand the feasibility of interventions to dim the sun, the risk of harmful unintended consequences and how such technology could be governed in an ethical way.

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