Environmental groups say bosses should ‘hang their heads in shame’ as firm bows to pressure from shareholders to cut costs
Unilever is to scale back its environmental and social aims, provoking critics to say its board should “hang their heads in shame”.
The consumer goods company behind brands ranging from Dove beauty products to Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream was seen as perhaps the foremost proponent of corporate ethics – particularly under the tenure of its Dutch former boss Paul Polman.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
04/19/2024 - 09:20
Superfund law requires industries responsible for PFOA and PFOS contamination in water or soil to pay for cleanup
The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday designated two forever chemicals that have been used in cookware, carpets and firefighting foams as hazardous substances, an action intended to ensure quicker cleanup of the toxic compounds and require industries and others responsible for contamination to pay for their removal.
Designation as a hazardous substance under the Superfund law does not ban the chemicals, known as PFOA and PFOS. But it requires that release of the chemicals into soil or water be reported to federal, state or tribal officials if it meets or exceeds certain levels. The EPA then may require cleanups to protect public health and recover costs that can reach tens of millions of dollars.
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04/19/2024 - 08:05
Environmentalists celebrate new rules but Alaska politicians call it an ‘illegal’ attack on state’s livelihood and predict lawsuits
The Biden administration said on Friday it will restrict new oil and gas leasing on 13m acres (5.3m hectares) of a federal petroleum reserve in Alaska to help protect wildlife such as caribou and polar bears as the Arctic continues to warm.
The decision – part of an ongoing, years-long fight over whether and how to develop the vast oil resources in the state – finalizes protections first proposed last year as the Biden administration prepared to approve the controversial Willow oil project.
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04/19/2024 - 06:39
Research into release of ‘forever chemicals’ raises concerns about contamination and human exposure along world’s coastlines
Ocean waves crashing on the world’s shores emit more PFAS into the air than the world’s industrial polluters, new research has found, raising concerns about environmental contamination and human exposure along coastlines.
The study measured levels of PFAS released from the bubbles that burst when waves crash, spraying aerosols into the air. It found sea spray levels were hundreds of thousands times higher than levels in the water.
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04/19/2024 - 06:00
Exclusive: Study released at Cop28 misused research to underestimate impact of cutting meat eating, say academics
A flagship UN report on livestock emissions is facing calls for retraction from two key experts it cited who say that the paper “seriously distorted” their work.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) misused their research to underestimate the potential of reduced meat intake to cut agricultural emissions, according to a letter sent to the FAO by the two academics, which the Guardian has seen.
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04/19/2024 - 05:00
State revealed as America’s overwhelming emitter of sulfuryl fluoride, used by $4.2bn pest-control industry to kill termites
Levels of a potent greenhouse gas are quietly spiking in the atmosphere and increasingly worrying environmental groups that say its use needs to be reined in if the US is to avoid climate catastrophe.
Furthermore, recent research has found the vast majority of the little-known gas, known as sulfuryl fluoride, is attributable to a state typically known for its climate-forward policies: California.
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04/19/2024 - 05:00
Estimated 2,548 barrels of carbon dioxide leaked from Exxon pipeline in Louisiana on 3 April, triggering alarm among residents
A major leak of CO2 from an ExxonMobil pipeline in Louisiana exposes dangerous safety gaps that should halt the planned multibillion-dollar carbon capture industry, environmental advocates say.
An estimated 2,548 barrels of carbon dioxide (CO2) leaked from the Exxon pipeline in Sulphur in Calcasieu parish on 3 April, triggering an emergency response and alarm among residents who live in close proximity to scores of polluting pipelines, petrochemical and fossil fuel facilities.
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04/19/2024 - 02:00
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
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04/19/2024 - 01:28
Exclusive: India seeking to use approach of UK election as bargaining chip and any exemption would be controversial
India is demanding an exemption from the UK’s planned carbon tax as part of negotiations aiming to finalise a free trade deal before the UK election.
India’s negotiating team have spent this week in London in a surprise set of talks to try to overcome the remaining hurdles to an agreement.
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04/19/2024 - 01:00
More than 50% of the planet’s species live in the earth below our feet, but only a fraction have been identified – so far
Read more: No birdsong, no water in the creek, no beating wings: how a haven for nature fell silent
The sound of an earthworm is a distinctive rasping and scrunching. Ants sound like the soothing patter of rain. A passing, tunnelling vole makes a noise like a squeaky dog’s toy repeatedly being chewed.
On a spring day at Rothamsted Research, an agricultural research institution in Hertfordshire, singing skylarks and the M1 motorway are competing for the airways. But the attention here is on the soundscapes underfoot: a rich ecosystem with its own alien sounds. More than half of the planet’s species live in the soil, and we are just starting to tune into what they are up to. Beetle larvae, millipedes, centipedes and woodlice have other sound signatures, and scientists are trying to decipher which sounds come from which creatures.
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