By Teresa Tomassoni, Inside Climate News A new report warns fossil fuel developments in the Coral Triangle pose increased risks for ecological disaster in the ocean. Coast guard members clean up an oil slick that washed ashore from the sunken oil tanker Princess Empress on March 8, 2023 in Pola, …
‘Unprecedented risk’ to life on Earth: Scientists call for halt on ‘mirror life’ microbe research
By Ian Sample, The Guardian Experts warn that mirror bacteria, constructed from mirror images of molecules found in nature, could put humans, animals and plants at risk of lethal infections. The DNA of all living organisms is made from ‘right-handed’ nucleotides, while proteins, the building blocks of cells, are made …
As the US yields on climate leadership, China rises to fill the void
By Umair Irfan, Vox This year’s most important climate meeting just ended. What did it accomplish? Activists demonstrate for climate finance for the Global South at the COP29 Climate Conference on November 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. Sean Gallup/Getty Images The COP29 conference — the latest round of international climate change …
A surprise solar boom reveals a fatal flaw in our climate change projections
By Noah Gordon and Daevan Mangalmurti, Vox Solar is surging, but so is humanity’s energy appetite. We need better models. Solar panels installed on the roof of buildings at Skardu in Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan region. AFP via Getty Images When the satellites zoomed in, you could see the panels gleaming from space. …
In the Dry Colorado River Delta, the Future of These Green Oases Hangs in the Balance
By Alex Hager, Inside Climate News Restoration sites provide critical habitat for migrating birds where the river no longer flows, but the conservationists behind them worry that political tensions could threaten their survival. The Colorado River flows through El Chausse, a restoration site in northwestern Mexico, on Oct. 26. Environmentalists …
As Countries Reel From a Dizzying Climate Summit, All Eyes Turn to Plastic Negotiations
By Kiley Price, Inside Climate News Countries are convened in South Korea to finalize a global treaty for curbing plastic pollution. Protesters stood outside the venue for the fifth session of the global plastic negotiations in Busan, South Korea, on November 25, 2024. Credit: ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images The …
Drugs, hormones and excrement: the polluting pig mega-farms supplying pork to the world
By Patricio Eleisegui and Patrick Greenfield, The Guardian Pig mega-farms operated by Kekén in Opichén, in Mexico’s Yucatán region, where locals are concerned about the environmental impact. Photograph: Héctor Vivas/Getty Images Mexico is a leading international pork producer, but Yucatán residents say the waste oozing from hundreds of enormous hog farms …
Why is it still so hard to breathe in India and Pakistan?
By Umair Irfan, Vox The world’s worst air pollution is getting worse, but there are concrete ways to fix it. Commuters step out in a foggy winter morning amid rising air pollution, on November 19, 2024 on the outskirts of Delhi in India. Sunil Ghosh/Hindustan Times via Getty Images India and …
Inside the ‘anti-COP’: A summit for climate activists who are fed up
Fast Company Activists rallied around a shared feeling of exclusion from the formal COP process and concerns that the solutions that come out of it are harming their communities. Pedestrian walk in front of the venue for COP 29 Summit in Baku on November 10, 2024, on the eve of …
‘People do not want to believe it is true’: the photographer capturing the vanishing of glaciers
By Helena Horton, The Guardian Christian Åslund was shocked at the difference between what he saw in 2002 and what confronted him this summer. Standing in blinding sunlight on an archipelago above the Arctic Circle, the photographer Christian Åslund looked in shock at a glacier he had last visited in …