20 h. ago At least 45,000 sites in Wales could be contaminated with toxic waste, study says

Campaigners say only 82 sites have been fully examined and classified as contaminated, so scale of threat not knownResearch from Friends of the Earth Cymru has found that at least 45,000 sites across Wales could be contaminated with toxic waste but have never been adequately inspected, leaving communities and wildlife vulnerable to a potential environmental crisis.Despite Wales’s extensive industrial history, Tuesday’s publication found that due to a lack of funding and oversight, only 82 sites across the country have ever been fully examined and classified as contaminated, meaning the actual scale of the threat is unknown. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago UK’s largest lake faces environmental crisis as rescue plans stall

Toxic algae cases in Northern Ireland’s Lough Neagh have tripled since last year, as local fishers’ incomes plummetThe UK’s largest lake, Lough Neagh, is on course to record its worst year of potentially toxic algal blooms to date, as rescue plans remain deadlocked.As a ban on eel-fishing in the lake is extended yet again, with local fishers’ incomes falling by 60% since 2023, there have so far this year been 139 detections of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) growths recorded at the lough and its surrounding watercourses, according to a government pollution tracker. This is more than treble the number for the same point in 2024 (45). The data covers the 400 sq km freshwater lough, its tributaries, and smaller peripheral bodies of water, including Portmore Lough and Lough Gullion. Continue reading...

Events

9 d. ago Don’t let Donald Trump undermine your faith in the climate fight | Gina McCarthy

The president’s fossil-fuel obsession can’t stop global progress, writes the former Environmental Protection Agency headOver the past decade, the United States has turned technologies into tools that strengthened our economy, delivered good-paying union jobs, cleaned up our air and water, conserved our precious natural resources, and saved families money all across our country. Yet now the country is choosing to cede that leadership, letting China dominate and control the clean-energy market across the world. It’s no surprise that people are scratching their heads, wondering what happened.Our president is obsessed with fossil fuels. He wants to resuscitate what everyone knows is a dying coal sector while turning a blind eye to the health, environmental, and economic downsides of the climate crisis. Coupled with inconsistent threats of increased tariffs against virtually all our allies, he has isolated the US and amplified threats to global security.Gina McCarthy is the managing co-c...

Politics

9 d. ago Environmental crisis at Lough Neagh ‘has become a political problem’

Lough Neagh Partnership chief Gerry Darby has urged action after describing the lough as the worst he has ever seen.

Politics

2 w. ago Action needed on plastic additives linked to sperm decline, experts warn

Amid collapse of global pollution treaty, scientists highlight environmental factors causing fertility crisisAction must be taken to curb the use of plastic additives linked to plummeting sperm counts, a leading reproductive scientist has warned, as splits over chemical regulation contributed to the collapse of a crucial treaty on plastic pollution.Across the world, sperm counts have been declining at a rate of about 1% a year for the past 50 years, and human fertility has been diminishing at a similar rate, studies have shown. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Climate crisis harming world heritage painted houses in Burkina Faso, say residents

Tiébélé’s wavy-walled houses covered in geometric lines showing signs of disintegration amid erratic weatherA world heritage site that was once a famous tourist destination is suffering from signs of disintegration, as climate change affects weather patterns.The wavy-walled houses covered with singular geometric lines of the Royal Court of Tiébélé in Burkina Faso, established in the 16th century, are recognisable all over the world. The paintings represent the thoughts, culture, and religion of the Kassena people, literally written on the walls. Continue reading...

Society

2 w. ago ‘No country is safe’: deadly Nordic heatwave supercharged by climate crisis, scientists say

Historically cool nations saw hospitals overheating and surge in drownings, wildfires and toxic algal bloomsThe prolonged Nordic heatwave in July was supercharged by the climate crisis and shows “no country is safe from climate change”, scientists say.Norway, Sweden and Finland have historically cool climates but were hit by soaring temperatures, including a record run of 22 days above 30C (86C) in Finland. Sweden endured 10 straight days of “tropical nights”, when temperatures did not fall below 20C (68F). Continue reading...

Events

4 w. ago The Guardian view on plastic pollution: global action is desperately needed to deal with this scourge | Editorial

Delegates at UN treaty talks must not allow negotiations to be derailed again by fossil fuel interestsPlastic pollution has reached the most remote and inaccessible parts of our beleaguered planet. It has been found in Greenland’s ice cap, near the summit of Mount Everest, and in the deepest depths of the western Pacific Ocean. Nature programmes have sounded the alarm over a human-made crisis that has become an environmental scourge and a serious threat to our health. Yet global production of plastics is on course to triple to more than a billion tonnes a year by 2060, after increasing by more than 200 times over the past 75 years.This gloomy backdrop should inject a sense of urgency into UN-convened talks in Switzerland this week, aimed at agreeing a binding global plastics treaty. In 2022, when 173 countries committed to work towards such an accord, there was widespread relief that at last a multilateral route was to be taken towards solving a quintessentially global problem. Sadl...

Economics

4 w. ago World in $1.5tn ‘plastics crisis’ hitting health from infancy to old age, report warns

Plastic production has increased more than 200 times since 1950 and hits health at every stage from extraction to disposal, says review in the LancetPlastics are a “grave, growing and under-recognised danger” to human and planetary health, a new expert review has warned. The world is in a “plastics crisis”, it concluded, which is causing disease and death from infancy to old age and is responsible for at least $1.5tn (£1.1tn) a year in health-related damages.The driver of the crisis is a huge acceleration of plastic production, which has increased by more than 200 times since 1950 and is set to almost triple again to more than a billion tonnes a year by 2060. While plastic has many important uses, the most rapid increase has been in the production of single-use plastics, such as drinks bottles and fast-food containers. Continue reading...

Events