The UK government announced plans Wednesday to end to the sale of plastic straws, drink stirrers and plastic-stemmed cotton swabs in England. “Single-use plastics are a scourge on our seas and lethal to our precious environment and wildlife so it is vital we act now,” Environment Secretary Michael Gove said. “We have already banned harmful […]
On Friday, the 170+ nations in the International Maritime Organization set the first-ever emissions target for the shipping industry and agreed to halve CO2 emissions by 2050, based on 2008 levels. The unprecedented deal was welcomed by activists as a first step towards meeting the Paris agreement targets. The IMO nations also began a process […]
Sweden inaugurated on Wednesday the first road of its kind that can recharge commercial and passenger car batteries while driving. The eRoadArlanda project consists of 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of electric rail installed on a public road outside Arlanda Airport. The innovation was funded by the Swedish Transport Administration and is part of the government’s […]
Could Monsanto’s six-decade presence in India be coming to a halt? On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court ruled that the biotech giant cannot claim patents for Bollgard and Bollgard II, its genetically modified cotton seeds, in the country. Citing India’s Patents Act of 1970, the court said that plant varieties and seeds cannot be patented, […]
New Zealand will no longer offer new permits for offshore oil and gas exploration, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Thursday. “The whole world is going in this direction,” Ardern said. “We all signed up to the Paris agreement that said we’re moving towards carbon-neutrality, and now we need to act on it.” The ban only […]
It’s no surprise that chemicals can get flushed into our water supply from the pills we take. But as the world’s population grows, the rampant consumption of pharmaceuticals has become an emerging threat to the world’s freshwater ecosystems, researchers said. The research, presented at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly on Tuesday, warns that if […]
Since revising its environmental policy last year, U.S. Bank financed more than $2 billion to companies building oil and gas pipelines, including an estimated $480 million to Energy Transfer Partners, new analysis released Thursday by Oil Change International concludes. U.S. Bank CEO Andrew Cecere won praise from indigenous rights and climate advocates in April 2017 […]
The world’s most powerful wind turbine was successfully installed Monday off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland. This is just the first of 11 turbines that will stand at Vattenfall’s future European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC), Scotland’s largest offshore wind test and demonstration facility. Incidentally, the project was at the center of a contentious legal […]
The environmental impact of the world’s plastic consumption is profound. Plastic trash and the tiny pieces that chip off it can be found everywhere—in oceans, marine life, land and our bodies, too. To help solve this planetary crisis, Nestlé pledged Tuesday to make all its plastic packaging 100 percent recyclable or reusable by 2025. The […]