Local villagers in western India have been forced to live with a mining waste site on the edge of town. What happens when you wake up one day and the giant mound of industrial waste has imploded?
Tag: environment
Locals in the coastal Argentine district of Trelew say a fish processing plant has turned a nearby lake into a cesspit that left its waters pink this past summer, and now the situation has grown darker.
Fishing nets, industry and other human-caused dumping are poisoning Russia’s Lake Baikal, the world’s largest, deepest (and oldest) lake. Bigger than all the North American Great Lakes combined, it’s at risk after 25 million years of life.
Algae could bring solutions to major challenges such as carbon sequestration and world hunger, provided we succeed in building an industrial sector.
CERVERE — It hasn’t rained in two months. The corn has not grown. Six out of ten hectares of this plain field are completely parched. “It’s late now,” says Giovanni Bedino, running his dark fingers through the dry leaves of the corn. The farmer, now 59, has been working the land since he was 15. […]
After years of letting overnight rail travel fade into oblivion, France and other European countries are rushing to reverse course. Doing so will be easier said than done, however.
Not your (hippy) Grandma’s dumpster diving…
NEW DELHI — I had never given thought to the provenance of funeral wood, until news reports revealed in late April that officials in Delhi had begun receiving requests to chop trees in city parks amidst the colossal surge in COVID deaths. It was a jolting statement to encounter, for it forced me to reframe a life-giver into a death-enabler in ominously stripped, urgent terms. Wood, of course, had been used for cremation since ancient times, but to think of it as coming from our very midst instead of some sequestered supply-area bore a sting of abrasiveness. Would our public […]
Five Questions for the former Hollywood actress, turned environmental activist on how a simple (and modest) change in eating habits can have planetary impact.
In remote — sometimes unmapped — regions of China, thousands of computers are ‘mining’ bitcoin, the queen of virtual currencies. The country may boast all the right conditions to dominate the cryptocurrency market today, but will its mining boom last?
While the pandemic has restricted people’s movement, climate change will increasingly do the opposite as populations move from the worst to less affected zones.
Can nature save capitalism? Biomimicry is thought-provoking because it provides many sources of inspiration to calibrate production models to nature, and thus continue to grow while respecting our environment.
Plastic pollution has contaminated our oceans to the point where a new ecological niche of anthropic origin has been coined: the ‘plastisphere’. The bacteria that proliferate there could lead to the next health crisis.
The concept of smart cities is a kind of received wisdom among planners and technologists, but our digital world of today is not sustainable.
Soup cans don’t grow on trees. Of course some of the ingredients inside them do, as well as in the ground and on plants and vines. But by the time all those natural products reach your stomach, too often they’ve undergone processing, been transported hundreds (or thousands) of miles and generally bear little resemblance to […]
PARIS — It was touted last spring as the silver lining of the coronavirus crisis: the lockdowns and travel bans might wind up being a boon for the environment. Air pollution numbers were down, urban birds could be heard chirping and photos circulated of blue skies above some of the typically smoggiest cities in the […]
Chinese-backed projects are bringing irreperable damage to the Mekong, the largest freshwater fish source in the world feeding millions of people living along its banks.
With July recorded as the driest month since 1959 in France, farmers — who make up half of water consumption in the country — face a problematic water shortage. The agricultural world is now working on solutions to better manage this precious resource.
SÃO PAULO — One of the world’s most important biodiversity regions is experiencing the worst drought and the worst series of wildfires in decades. Yes, the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland area, in western Brazil, is burning. So far this year, fires have scorched more than 1.2 million hectares of land, about eight times […]
Although the coronavirus pandemic is dominating global politics, Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg and her peers are hoping to turn their activism into tangible policy change.
Unless we question the socio-economic structures associated with the production of waste and waste management, we’ll never dig out of the waste crisis.
COURMAYEUR — When the alarm sounded last year, it was because the ice on the Mont Blanc, on the border between Italy and France, was moving too quickly. Its front had broken away from the rest of the ice lobe, separated by a huge crack, and descended three meters per day. Experts feared that 250 […]
The Amazon jungle provides benefits that extend well beyond the river basin itself. It stands to reason, therefore, that countries like Colombia be paid to protect it.
Synthetic meat is on the rise— and this shouldn’t just be big news for vegans. Philosophers and activists agree that closing slaughterhouses is vital for our animals, our planet and ourselves.
There are important lessons to be learned from how the world mobilized to contain the novel coronavirus.
In normal times, we might be writing this month about the annual momentum gathering for the Plastic Free July challenge. Launched in 2011 by the Australia-based Plastic Free Foundation, the idea is simple: refusing single-use plastics, from bags to packaging, for 31 days. But in 2020, that simple desire to go fully plastic-free for at […]
Viruses spread, mutate and then become deadly because humans destroy the areas where wild animals live. We must learn from this, once the coronavirus pandemic is contained.
The facility’s peculiar focus may seem a bit funny at first. But as visitors are quick to discover, having access to hygienic toilets is no laughing matter, especially in India.
Environmentalists and beer companies have common cause to oppose new tax rules that may reduce the level of recycling.
-OpEd- BOGOTÁ — Is there a relation between women and the environment? Is it necessary to view environmental policies through female eyes? Is there is a difference in the male and female relationship to the matter? The response to all these is a definite “yes.” Around the world, women are the most interactive with natural […]
Careful cultivation of the Amazon’s curative fruits and plants could be far more profitable than destructive practices like soy or livestock farming.
The government recently gave foreigners the go-ahead to visit 137 peaks in four states, paving the way for a potential flood of visitors to the world’s tallest mountain range.
There are plenty of reasons for pessimism. But we also need to keep trying — and hoping — for ways to cooperate across continents.
It’s easy to fault Jair Bolsonaro for his apparent indifference to the unfolding environmental disaster in Brazil. But there’s plenty of blame to go around.
Air travel is booming despite the current climate debate. But vacationers have to rethink their summer breaks — not only for the environment, but also for the sake of people.
A new study shows Germany must look for other ways to convince automobile buyers to switch to electric cars. Shall we say: quota?
Overproduction has become a blight not just to the planet, but to profitability itself. It’s time for economics to revise its idea of the cost-benefit relationship.
Instead of perpetuating an established propensity toward ‘asymmetrical’ trade ties, Mexico can boost relations with China with an eye on environmentally-friendly opportunities.
The recent EU election results show that younger voters in particular are sick and tired of slow-motion climate policies.
In the Balkans, developers are rushing to install hydroelectric plants on Europe’s last untapped river systems. Activists — including an unlikely group of Bosnian villagers — are fighting back.