Evidence over alarm. Research over anecdote.
The intersection of environment and human health — air, water, soil, chemicals, and climate.
494 articles
Env. HealthA chemical used in mosquito repellents may disorient bumblebees, stopping them from finding their way back to their nests, a recent study found. Researchers in Finland exposed 123 buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris), one of the most abundant bumblebee species in Europe, to a standard consumer mosquito repellent containing prallethrin, a type of pyrethroid insecticide. One […]
Env. HealthEarlier this month, state-owned oil company Petroecuador announced a new project involving “hydraulic fracturing” in an oil block in the Ecuadorian Amazon. As a result, some observers spoke out against the environmental risks of high-volume shale “fracking,” in which water and chemicals are injected at high pressures into the tight bedrock to release trapped oil […]
Europe has been hit by a searing heatwave, which has shattered temperature records across France,... The post Media reaction: UK and Europe’s ‘mind-boggling’ May heat and climate change appeared first on Carbon Brief .
In the icy waters of the Southern Ocean, whales and other marine mammals rely on krill to survive. But as the market for human dietary supplements and animal feeds booms, and climate change reduces krill populations, scientists worry there may not be enough to go around. Read more on E360 →
Env. HealthFor many Nigerian women, access to sanitary pads remains a challenge. Even those who can obtain them, the prevalence of single-use menstrual products creates problems of its own. They contain plastics and chemicals and are not eco-friendly generating large amounts of waste. After learning that many traditional sanitary pads used contain up to 90% plastic […]
Env. HealthIt’s “hairy,” bright orange or red and “exceptional” at camouflaging. Meet the hairy ghost pipefish, whose recent formal description demonstrates that even well-studied marine environments like the Great Barrier Reef still hold remarkable secrets for science. In a recent study, researchers shared the name of the ghost pipefish, Solenostomus snuffleupagus, for its “conspicuously shaggy appearance,” […]
Env. HealthThis is part 1 of a two-part series examining the U.S.’s efforts to begin deep-sea mining in federal waters. Part 1 explores the process behind proposed lease sales in U.S. federal waters and reactions to those plans. Part 2, to be published soon, will examine the regulations that would govern the industry. The U.S. agency […]
Env. HealthFor some it’s ‘the music of May’. For others, it’s an antisocial irritation. But wherever you stand, be careful – or you could fall foul of the law Name: Lawnmower hum. Age: Getting steadily louder since 1830. Continue reading...
Env. HealthCalaminarian grassland is a rare habitat where plants thrive in soils contaminated by heavy metals. But should these toxic meadows be protected or allowed to fade away? At first, the small purple flowers are hard to spot in the weak May sunshine. Slowly the drifts of delicate mountain pansies, along with the white rosettes of alpine pennycress, begin to jump out, scattered across an area little bigger than a football pitch, on the banks of the River Allen in Northumberland. This is a pocket of c
Env. HealthSupporters of deregulation want Europe to be more like the US. But that would serve only American interests In July 2024, a European Union law came into force requiring plastic bottle caps to remain attached to their bottles. The regulation was widely mocked by social-media jokesters and Silicon Valley billionaires alike. This, people said, was Brussels at its worst: bureaucrats micromanaging, treating citizens like children who couldn’t be trusted to recycle a cap. What went almost entirely unr
Env. HealthResearchers racing to document Oceania’s last tropical glaciers found the remaining ‘eternal snow’ in Indonesia’s West Papua region has lost almost all its ice Mapping the last glaciers in Oceania – in pictures An expedition to document the end days of the last tropical glaciers in Oceania has revealed sombre footage of “planetary destruction on fast-forward”. The once-mighty ice sheets on Puncak Jaya, a mountain surrounded by dense rainforests in West Papua, Indonesia, have survived beyond proj
Extreme heat is one of the most dangerous climate change risks in the United Kingdom, according to a new government-backed report that warned the nation is “built for a climate that no longer exists.”  Right after it came out, the U.K. recorded its hottest day on record for the month of May.  The temperature at […]
Env. HealthA copper mine in southern Peru that took decades to complete environmental assessments has been contaminating local watersheds with harmful metals, critics say. In its first few years of operation, the mine has allegedly endangered wildlife, threatened the local economy, and created health concerns in communities. Developers of the Quellaveco mine in Peru’s Moquegua department […]
Env. HealthJAKARTA — Authorities at Indonesia’s largest port seized hundreds of kilograms of the toxic heavy metal mercury in late April. The bust reflects the vast scale of illegal mining underway in forests across much of Southeast Asia amid record-high gold prices. “This mercury was to be shipped to the Philippines using manipulated customs documents, so […]
At a time when other public officials and the media are talking less about climate change, Sheldon Whitehouse remains fiercely outspoken. He delivered his 307th climate speech on the Senate floor this month and is pushing back against the recent trend of “climate hushing.” Read more on E360 →
The risk of snakebites is increasing across the world as reptiles shift their habitats to cope with rising temperatures and growing human pressures, a study of venomous snakes has found. Read more on E360 →
Env. HealthMining giant’s backsliding on climate commitments due to ‘weakness’ of policy, Kate Chaney says Adam Morton: Big Mining gets a $4bn tax break to use fossil fuel. It’s a strange way to tackle emissions Read more from the BHP files investigation here Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Australia’s climate change minister, Chris Bowen, says he has made it “crystal clear” that he expects industrial polluters including BHP to reduce their onsite emissions after leaked documen
Env. HealthThe background was right for the announcement of the bad news. Fish swam in a wall-sized tank that framed a table of scientists and environmentalists in the auditorium of the Pantanal Biopark, the world’s largest freshwater public aquarium, in the Brazilian city of Campo Grande. They’d gathered for the launch of a report on the […]
Env. HealthExclusive: Cache of internal documents leaked to the Guardian and the ABC’s Four Corners show multinational has war-gamed ways to massively delay decarbonisation Revealed: the internal BHP memo that slammed the brakes on world’s biggest miner’s climate push Read more from the BHP files investigation here Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The world’s biggest miner has halted or delayed projects to cut vast amounts of emissions and has quietly war-gamed options to push m
Env. HealthExclusive: Mining giant says technology is not yet advanced enough to run a fully electrified fleet but experts say it is hooked on federal fuel tax credits Revealed: the internal BHP memo that slammed the brakes on world’s biggest miner’s climate push Read more from the BHP files investigation here Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast BHP has continued to spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying diesel trucks in the Pilbara despite internal documents suggesting it wo
Env. HealthGiven the scale of its contribution to global heating, the world’s biggest miner has a duty to invest heavily in solutions that could have a global impact Revealed: the internal BHP memo that slammed the brakes on world’s biggest miner’s climate push Read more from the BHP files investigation here Sign up for Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here The revelation that BHP cancelled and delayed commitments to act on the climate crisis should be a wake-up call. It matters in its own right: mi
Env. HealthExclusive: BHP once dubbed climate change an ‘existential’ threat. But leaked documents show it has backtracked on decarbonisation at a vast network of mines Read more from the BHP files investigation here In the middle of 2019, London was sweltering through a heatwave. Temperature records tumbled. Frail, ill and elderly people died in their hundreds. Continue reading...
Env. HealthNour Haydar speaks with Christopher Knaus about the BHP files – the cache of internal documents leaked to the Guardian and the ABC’s Four Corners – which show that the world’s biggest miner has war-gamed ways to massively delay decarbonisation Additional audio in this episode was sourced by Financial Times Live Read more: Continue reading...
Env. HealthThe world’s biggest miner has halted or delayed projects to cut vast amounts of emissions and has quietly war-gamed options to stall major climate investments in its Western Australian iron ore operations into the next two decades, according to documents leaked to the Guardian and ABC’s Four Corners. In a statement, BHP said its progress towards net zero emissions was dependent on technological shifts in trucks, trains and dozers, which were not yet ready to be deployed. Revealed: the internal B
Env. HealthExclusive: Jimblebar processing facility would have produced higher quality iron ore sought by steelmakers around the world – themselves under pressure to curb pollution World’s biggest miner BHP backtracks on climate action with key projects put on ice, leaked documents reveal Read more from the BHP files investigation here Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast BHP quietly dumped plans for an iron ore processing facility that would have cut emissions drastically, despite
Env. HealthOn May 11 and 12, 2026, the Africa Forward Summit took place in Nairobi, with several heads of state from across the continent and beyond attending. Thousands of political, economic and civil society actors also gathered in the Kenyan capital to discuss potential investments, particularly in the fields of energy transition and international financial assistance. […]
INDIANTOWN, Fla.—Carroll McAllister frets over the prospect of a hyperscale data center opening next to the grassy expanse where she grew up, in a shack her father built. Now 87, McAllister is a tiny but sturdy woman with a bob of blonde hair. She fondly recalls running wild on the land in her youth with […]
Env. HealthCharter to be adopted along river’s entire catchment from Cambrian mountains to Chepstow and Bristol Channel The entire catchment of the River Wye has been formally recognised as a living ecosystem with intrinsic rights in a charter, a UK first that campaigners hope will help save the highly polluted river. The charter was celebrated at a community event at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival on Sunday. It includes the right to flow, to biodiversity, to be free from pollution, to be supported by a
The warning signs were years in the making. And yet, regulators failed to heed the writing on the wall, according to Dean Naujoks.   An investigator with the Potomac Riverkeeper Network, Naujoks spent three years documenting what he calls a systemic failure that culminated in dual environmental catastrophes now threatening the health of the entire Potomac […]
Env. HealthCOLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s marine research efforts have benefited in a rare instance where geopolitical unrest owing to the ongoing conflict in West Asia created an unexpected scientific opportunity. A United Nations-flagged Norwegian research vessel Fridtjof Nansen was redirected to Sri Lankan waters after security concerns forced the cancellation of a planned survey in Oman, […]