The findings come from the first assessment of how long it could take groundwater to react to the impacts of climate change in different parts of the world. The regions most “sensitive” to changes in climate include humid and wet areas, such as the Amazon, Indonesia and parts of central Africa, the research shows. In…
Environmental risks continue to dominate the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Risks Perception Survey, accounting for three of the top five risks by likelihood and four by impact. Extreme weather topped the list, but there is mounting concern about environmental policy failure, with failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation being the second major risk in…
An alliance of global companies from the plastics and consumer goods value chain today launched a new organization to advance solutions to eliminate plastic waste in the environment, especially in the ocean. The cross value chain Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), currently made up of nearly thirty member companies, has committed over $1.0 billion…
The best available evidence suggests that microplastics and nanoplastics do not pose a widespread risk to humans or the environment, except in small pockets. But that evidence is limited, and the situation could change if pollution continues at the current rate. This is the verdict of a group of experts, nominated by academies across Europe,…
C3S and CAMS are services of the European Union’s Earth observation programme Copernicus and are implemented by ECMWF. Their data provide the first complete, global picture of 2018 temperatures and CO2 levels. The results are in line with previous projections from WMO and the Global Carbon Project (GCP) for 2018. The temperature dataset of the…
While there is no silver-bullet solution to the toxic tide of plastic surging into our oceans, recycling must form part of the answer. The problem, many experts say, is that current processes are not fit for purpose. The world produces around 300 million tons of plastic waste each year. To date, only 9 per cent…
An international law enforcement operation against maritime pollution has revealed hundreds of violations and exposed serious cases of contamination worldwide. Codenamed 30 Days at Sea, the month-long (October 2018) operation saw some 276 law enforcement and environmental agencies across 58 countries detect more than 500 offences, including illegal discharges of oil and garbage from vessels,…
