Zinc Nacional will move ‘most polluting’ operations after joint investigation found heavy-metals pollution in area
Revealed: US hazardous waste is sent to Mexico – where a ‘toxic cocktail’ of pollution emerges
A factory processing US hazardous waste in Mexico has promised to relocate what authorities call its “most polluting” operations following a Guardian investigation.
The plant in the Monterrey metropolitan area recycles toxic steel dust sent by the US steel industry and recovers zinc, according to that reporting, which was produced in partnership with Quinto Elemento Lab, a Mexico investigative journalism unit. It revealed evidence of heavy-metals pollution in the surrounding neighborhoods.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/03/2025 - 10:00
05/03/2025 - 10:00
Exclusive: Treasury threat an example of ‘scare tactics’ to help force through private sector deal, sources suggest
Whitehall officials have been at loggerheads over the fate of Thames Water since the Treasury told the environment department that it would have to meet the cost of a multibillion pound temporary nationalisation.
Britain’s biggest water company recently came within days of running out of money. Thames is in a desperate race to find a buyer willing to inject cash, with the US private equity firm KKR in pole position.
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05/03/2025 - 10:00
A feasibility report using historical maps and ecological data is raising excitement: ‘It would be a slow process’
On the eve of the gold rush, California was teeming with grizzly bears – as many as 10,000 of them. They were so popular that the Bear Flag Republic – a short-lived attempt by a group of US settlers to break away from Mexico in 1846 – used the animals as their mascot; an image that still adorns California’s flag.
But by the mid-1920s, the bears were all gone. The last documented sighting of a grizzly bear in California was in the spring of 1924 in Sequoia national park, a lonesome bear wandering among the trees.
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05/03/2025 - 09:00
Two groups join forces for peer-reviewed research after key contributors on Congress-mandated report dismissed
Two major US scientific societies have announced they will join forces to produce peer-reviewed research on the climate crisis’s impact days after Donald Trump’s administration dismissed contributors to a key Congress-mandated report on climate crisis preparedness.
On Friday, the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) said that they will work together to produce over 29 peer-reviewed journals that will cover all aspects of climate change including observations, projections, impacts, risks and solutions.
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05/02/2025 - 15:43
Territory’s voluntary move comes as Trump administration makes good on pledge to end lawsuits against oil and gas
Puerto Rico has voluntarily dismissed its 2024 climate lawsuit against big oil, a Friday legal filing shows, just two days after the US justice department sued two states over planned litigation against oil companies for their role in the climate crisis.
Puerto Rico’s lawsuit, filed in July, alleged that the oil and gas giants had misled the public about the climate dangers associated with their products. It came as part of a wave of litigation filed by dozens of US states, cities and municipalities in recent years.
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05/02/2025 - 08:00
White House orders closure of USGS water science centers, which shares data with weather service for flood warnings
The Trump administration has ordered the closure of 25 scientific centers that monitor US waters for flooding and drought, and manage supply levels to ensure communities around the country don’t run out of water.
The United States Geological Service (USGS) water science centers’ employees and equipment track levels and quality in ground and surface water with thousands of gauges. The data it produces plays a critical role across the economy to protect human life, protect property, maintain water supplies and help clean up chemical or oil spills.
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05/02/2025 - 06:00
Tariff chaos hampers Trump’s pledge to ‘drill, baby, drill’, but analysis still shows surge in planet-heating emissions
‘A ruthless agenda’: charting 100 days of Trump’s onslaught on the environment
Donald Trump’s ambitions for the US to “drill, baby, drill” for more fossil fuels have ironically been hampered by the economic chaos unleashed by his own tariffs, but the US is still on track to increase oil and gas extraction, causing a surge in planet-heating emissions, a new analysis shows.
The US was already the world’s leading oil and gas power, producing more of the fossil fuels than any country in history during Joe Biden’s administration. But Trump has sought to escalate this further, declaring an “energy emergency” to open up more land and ocean for drilling and launching an unprecedented assault on environmental regulations in his first 100 days back in the White House.
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05/02/2025 - 06:00
Environmentalists worry that the post-Brexit legislation will allow the destruction of rare and fragile ecosystems
Walk along the gin-clear River Itchen in Hampshire and you might see otters, salmon, kingfishers and clouds of mayflies, all supported by the unique ecosystem of the chalk stream.
The UK has no tropical rainforests or tigers; its wildlife is arguably more modest in appearance. But its chalk streams are some of the rarest habitats in the world – there are only 200, and England boasts 85% of them. If you look properly, they are as biodiverse and beautiful as any rainforest.
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05/02/2025 - 05:15
Nature organisations say legislation would remove safeguards for nature and put protected sites at risk
Keir Starmer’s planning bill has been criticised by the environment watchdog, which has warned that the draft of the legislation would remove safeguards for nature and put protected sites at risk.
Currently, laws that protect habitats and nature are derived from EU legislation. Since the UK left the bloc, it has been able to weaken these laws that protect specific species and habitats.
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05/02/2025 - 05:15
Nature organisations say legislation would remove safeguards for nature and put protected sites at risk
Keir Starmer’s planning bill has been criticised by the environment watchdog, which has warned that the draft of the legislation would remove safeguards for nature and put protected sites at risk.
Currently, laws that protect habitats and nature are derived from EU legislation. Since the UK left the bloc, it has been able to weaken these laws that protect specific species and habitats.
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