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How harmful are microplastics to human health?
Microplastics have been found throughout the human body -- including inside lungs, blood and brains -- and while it is not yet clear how harmful they are to our health, some researchers are sounding the alarm.
Who should get paid for nature's sequenced genes?
Much of the vanilla that flavors our ice cream today is artificial, derived from the genetic signature of a plant that hundreds of years ago was known only to an Indigenous Mexican tribe.
Nature destruction an 'existential crisis' for humans, says UN chief
Humanity faces an "existential crisis" caused by its rapacious destruction of life-sustaining nature, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned delegates Tuesday at a biodiversity summit in Colombia.
Nature destruction an 'existential crisis' says UN chief
Humanity faces an "existential crisis" caused by its rapacious destruction of life-sustaining nature, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned delegates Tuesday at a major biodiversity summit in Colombia.
World's first green energy island sails into cost storm
At a shipyard on the North Sea, workers in luminiscent vests are building dozens of massive, hollow concrete boulders, each the size of an apartment block.
The growing scourge of plastic pollution: in numbers
Nations could agree in December on a world-first treaty to reduce the amount of plastic leaking into the environment which, if nothing is done, is forecast to triple by 2060.
Big guns descend on Cali for final push in UN biodiversity talks
Heads of state, ministers and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres arrive in Cali Tuesday hoping to add impetus to grinding talks on ways to save nature from human destruction.
COP16 chair hails biodiversity attaining 'equal footing' with climate crisis
The world's biggest nature protection conference, under way in Cali, has placed biodiversity loss "on an equal footing" with the climate emergency, the meeting's Colombian president told AFP in an interview Monday.
Mowed down by cars, European hedgehog numbers shrinking
The Western European hedgehog -- the prickly, nocturnal critter people love to encounter in the garden -- is in decline, mowed down by cars as its shrinking habitat forces it to move ever closer to humans.
One in three tree species at risk of extinction: report
More than one in three species of trees are at risk of extinction worldwide, threatening life as we know it on Earth, according to a report published Monday.
Ship with suspected toxic waste returns to Albania
A ship carrying hundreds of tonnes of possibly toxic industrial waste returned to Albania's largest seaport of Durres on Monday, months after setting sail to dispose of the material in Thailand.
Cali's love motels adapt to host UN summit delegates
Aggrey Rwetsiba, a Ugandan delegate to the UN's biodiversity summit in Colombia, finds himself in unusual accommodations: a motel normally destined for trysts, with rooms featuring sex swings and stripper poles.
UN biodiversity summit making 'very good progress': officials
Crunch UN talks on ways to "halt and reverse" species loss by 2030 have made "very good progress," officials said Friday, as the summit in Colombia marked its halfway point.
G20 affirms commitment to transition from fossil fuels
G20 leaders affirmed their commitment to shifting away from fossil fuels after talks this week in Washington, according to a ministerial statement released Friday.
Covid lessons learned? UN summit mulls plan for healthy planet, and humans
The Covid-19 and Ebola outbreaks brought into stark relief the harms that can come to humans if we interfere too much with nature, placing ourselves in contact with animals carrying unknown pathogens.
UK climate strategy ruled lawful in landmark court case
A man whose home had to be demolished because of coastal erosion lost a landmark legal claim on Friday against the UK government that accused it of failing to meet obligations to protect citizens from the effects of climate change.
Smog in Pakistan megacity ends outdoor play for schoolkids
Schoolchildren in Pakistan's second-largest city of Lahore have been banned from outdoor exercise until January because of hazardous smog levels, officials said Friday.
Huge US lithium mine gets govt approval: company
An enormous lithium mine in the Nevada desert has been granted final government approval, the company that has the concession said Thursday, in a project it predicts will quadruple US production of a mineral critical to the renewable energy revolution.
World already 'paying terrible price' for climate inaction: Guterres
Humanity is 'paying a terrible price' for inaction on global warming, with time running out to correct the course and avoid climate disaster, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Thursday.
More than a million Indians flee as cyclone approaches
At least 1.1 million people on India's eastern coast are fleeing to storm shelters inland, hours before a powerful cyclone is expected to hammer the low-lying region, ministers said Thursday.
European leaders meet to re-energise offshore wind power
The countries bordering the North Sea meet in Denmark on Thursday to seal commitments to boost offshore wind power, a sector that is suffering from stiff competition from China.
COP16 president hopeful of 'major announcements' soon
The Colombian host and president of the UN's COP16 biodiversity summit said Wednesday she expected "major announcements" soon regarding negotiations to increase funding and political commitment against the destruction of nature.
Chair of global plastics talks pledges deal next month
A global treaty to curb plastic pollution will be secured at a summit in South Korea next month, the chair of the talks pledged Wednesday, although he cautioned there were still complex disputes and the time frame was a "big challenge".
From Colombia's jungle to the world's fish tanks
Every day, local fishermen visit Ernesto Rojas to sell him small, colorful fish plucked from rivers in the Colombian jungle that end up in aquariums around the world.
Miners, farmers protest COP16 host Colombia's nature protection plans
Thousands of miners and small-scale farmers protested Tuesday in Colombia against plans by the government, currently hosting a UN biodiversity summit, to declare protected zones in areas where they make their livelihoods.
In South Africa, water shortages are the new reality
Joyce Lakela runs a nursery in Tembisa, a Johannesburg township, but these days she spends most of her time trying to find water.
UN biodiversity summit hears appeals for action, money to save nature
The world's biggest nature protection conference opened in Colombia on Monday with calls for urgent action and financing to reverse humankind's rapacious destruction of biodiversity.
UN biodiversity summit opens in Colombia with calls for action, finance
The world's biggest nature protection conference opened in Colombia on Monday with its president calling for urgent action and financing to reverse humankind's rapacious destruction of biodiversity.
London trial probes 2015 Brazil mine disaster
A trial to determine whether Australian mining giant BHP is liable for one of Brazil's worst environmental disasters opened Monday in London, potentially triggering billions of dollars in compensation to be shared among hundreds of thousands of people.
UN biodiversity summit opens with call for 'significant' funding
The world's biggest nature protection conference opens in Colombia Monday with the United Nations chief calling for countries to "convert words into action" and fatten a fund seeking to address biodiversity loss.
Fungi finding: mushroom hunters seek new species and recognition
You can't walk very far through a forest in this part of the United States without stumbling upon a mushroom, an eruption from a vast fungal kingdom that all life depends on, but about which we know very little.
UN chief seeks 'significant' funding at summit to save nature
UN chief Antonio Guterres on Sunday urged "significant investment" in a fund created to safeguard Earth's biodiversity as he addressed delegates to the world's biggest nature protection conference in Cali, Colombia.