China's plan to build its way out of the pandemic is pushing its carbon emissions to record highs, new research has found. The country's CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and cement production grew 14.5% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the previous year, according to a Thursday report from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). That's the fastest rate of growth in more than a decade, lead analyst Lauri Myllyvirta wrote.

The smell of hog feces was overwhelming, Elsie Herring said...

As China's coal-reliant economy has boomed, so, too, have its emissions.

Researchers examined the guts of freshwater fish preserved in museum collections; they found that fish have been swallowing microplastics since the 1950s and that the concentration of microplastics in their guts has increased over time.

A new study from North Carolina State University found that, on average, voters and local leaders showed greater concern about plastic and other garbage in the ocean after watching kids’ presentations.

Every fall more than half of the coho salmon that return to Puget Sound’s urban streams die before they can spawn. In some streams, all of them die. But scientists didn’t know why.

Some 8,300 million metric tons of plastics have been manufactured since production exploded in the 1950s, with more than 75 percent ending up as waste and 15 million metric tons reaching oceans every year. Plastic waste fragments into increasingly smaller but environmentally persistent "microplastics," with potentially harmful effects on the health of people, wildlife and ecosystems.

Engineers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are developing a tool that could autonomously scan the earth's waterways to separate and identify tiny plastic shards and other pollutants that are notoriously difficult to track.

The considerable use of personal protective equipment (PPE) in health and social care services in England during the first six months of the pandemic added an additional 1% to the carbon burden, a new analysis suggests.

New Zealand's dramatic and pristine landscape has been a magnet for tourists and Hollywood directors. But the country is facing a growing pollution crisis.

Even though it’s now illegal for most countries to accept all but the purest forms of plastic scrap from the United States, there’s nothing that prevents the United States from sending the waste. The main reason: The United States is one of the few countries in the world that didn’t ratify the global ban.

A group of teenagers, living in some of London's most polluted communities, are posting roadsigns highlighting the disproportionate impact air pollution has on people of color. The campaign, organized by Choked Up, a group made up of self-described "Black & brown teens," has posted signs throughout the city which warn "breathing kills" and "pollution zone," The Guardian reported.

The countdown is on until South Australia's single-use plastics ban begins to roll out, with business owners preparing for the change next week.

Wearing blue hard hats, white hazmat suits and respirator masks, workers carted away bags of debris on a recent morning from a sprawling and now-defunct oil refinery once operated by Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES).

Leading cardiovascular organisations have called for urgent action to reduce air pollution, which they identified as a key risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and a major contributor to global disease burden.

Clean air, cheaper energy and responding to climate change all have the same solution — and Americans are ready.

Long-lived banned industrial chemicals may be threatening the fertility of male porpoises living off the UK. Polychlorinated byphenyls (PCBs) were phased out decades ago, but can build up in whales, dolphins and porpoises. Scientists say harbour porpoises exposed to PCBs had shrunken testicles, suggesting an effect on sperm count and fertility.

The UK has been accused of failing to honour its promise to curb shipments of plastic waste to developing countries, after it emerged Britain’s new post-Brexit regulations are less stringent than those imposed by the EU. From 1 January, shipments of unsorted plastic waste from the EU to non-OECD countries were banned.

A coalition of 50 countries has committed to protect almost a third of the planet by 2030 to halt the destruction of the natural world and slow extinctions of wildlife. The High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People, which includes the UK and countries from six continents, made the pledge to protect at least 30% of the planet’s land and oceans before the One Planet summit in Paris on Monday, hosted by the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

What’s for dinner? Lego sushi, credit card burgers, or a well-done piece of PVC pipe? These examples may sound extreme, but can easily represent over time the cumulative amount of microscopic pieces of plastic people consume every day.