Use of wastewater treatment plant effluent containing Pfas threatens wildlife, food and drinking water, advocates say
Many of the nation’s wetlands are being filled with toxic Pfas “forever chemicals” as wastewater treatment plant effluent tainted with the compounds is increasingly used to restore swampland and other waters. The practice threatens wildlife, food and drinking water sources, environmental advocates warn.
Effluent is the liquid discharged by wastewater treatment plants after it “disinfects” sewage in the nation’s sewer system. The treatment process largely kills pathogens and the water is high in nutrients that help plants grow, so on one level it is beneficial to struggling ecosystems.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/18/2025 - 06:00
07/18/2025 - 05:52
Exclusive: Letter signed by 59 MPs criticises party’s deputy leader after his warning to energy firms over new contracts
UK politics live – latest updates
A group of nearly 60 Labour MPs has written to Richard Tice challenging the Reform UK deputy leader’s pledge to rip up green energy contracts if his party wins power and questioning if he appreciated the impact this could have on the economy.
Led by Polly Billington, the East Thanet MP, and signed by 58 others who have sustainable energy projects in their constituencies, the letter said Tice appeared to have “under-appreciated the growth potential of the green transition” when he wrote to eight leading energy firms warning that to bid for new contracts carried “significant” risk.
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07/18/2025 - 04:07
Current list of 24 invitees to next month’s economic reform summit includes only one environmental representative
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Environmentalists fear they are being shut out of the economic debate after peak nature groups were overlooked for invites to Jim Chalmers’ reform roundtable.
The current list of 24 invitees to next month’s summit features only one representative from the environment movement: former Treasury secretary Ken Henry, in his capacity as chair of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation.
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07/18/2025 - 03:27
Environment Agency records 75 serious incidents among total of 2,800, with Thames Water being worst offender
Serious pollution incidents by water companies were up 60% last year compared with the year before, data has revealed.
These incidents are the most environmentally damaging and indicate that the sewage spill or other pollution incident has a serious, extensive or persistent impact on the environment, people or property. They could, for example, result in mass fish deaths in rivers.
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07/18/2025 - 03:23
Rules to prevent ‘enormous waste’ of fuel are seen as weak and poorly enforced and firms have little incentive to stop
The fossil fuel industry pumped an extra 389m tonnes of carbon pollution into the atmosphere last year by needlessly flaring gas, a World Bank report has found, in an “enormous waste” of fuel that heats the planet by about as much as the country of France.
Flaring is a way to get rid of gases such as methane that arise when pumping oil out of the ground. While it can sometimes keep workers safe by relieving buildups of pressure, the practice is routine in many countries because it is often cheaper to burn gas than to capture, transport, process and sell it.
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07/18/2025 - 01:00
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
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07/18/2025 - 00:00
The bulk of global greenhouse gas emissions come from countries that are not democratic, and many big oil and gas exporters are also authoritarian
The big emitters: which countries are holding back climate action and why?
When it comes to the climate crisis, how do you negotiate with an autocracy?
It is the case today, and it is almost certain to remain so for the dwindling number of years in which we can hope to stave off the worst of climate breakdown, that the bulk of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from countries that are not democratic. Add to that, many of the major suppliers of oil and gas – the Gulf petrostates for instance, plus Russia, Venezuela and a few others – are likewise authoritarian.
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07/17/2025 - 19:00
The Kangaroo Island assassin spider’s only known home is in the north-west of the island off the coast of South Australia, where it hides out in moist clumps of leaf litter. As parts of Kangaroo Island – still recovering from the black summer bushfires – suffer through near-record drought, scientists say an invasive plant root disease is drying out the Jurassic-era spider's habitat even further
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07/17/2025 - 18:01
Big Butterfly Count asks volunteers to spend 15 minutes in local green space with big recovery expected after 2024’s dramatic decline
People are being urged to help measure the scale of Britain’s butterfly bounceback after last summer’s dramatic decline with this year’s launch of the world’s biggest insect survey.
The Big Butterfly Count asks volunteers to spend 15 minutes in a local green space counting the butterflies and day-flying moths they see. Results of the survey, which takes place from 18 July to 10 August, can be logged on the Butterfly Conservation charity’s website or via its free app.
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07/17/2025 - 12:53
Indigenous groups had offered to rehome grizzly nicknamed Tex who was killed without authorization
The journey of Tex, a young grizzly bear that gripped public attention in Canada after swimming to a tiny populated island, came to a violent end this week after he was shot and killed without authorization, despite plans by Indigenous groups to relocate him.
The four-year-old bear’s landfall on 25 May on Texada Island, a tiny island off the west coast, set off a controversy between differing interpretations of how to treat wild predators. Its shooting on Tuesday has advocates calling for the British Columbia government to act faster when it comes to working with First Nations on environmental stewardship.
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