Marcos Orellana, a special rapporteur, found lax environmental standards and lack of oversight allowed pollution to accumulate
Mexico is facing a “toxic crisis” and has become a “garbage sink” for the US, exposing Mexican communities to dangerous pollution, a UN expert has warned.
In an interview with the Guardian and Quinto Elemento Lab, an investigative outlet, Marcos Orellana, an environmental specialist, said pollutants ranging from imported waste to dangerous pesticides are affecting people’s right to live healthy lives.
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04/07/2026 - 05:00
04/07/2026 - 05:00
Eighty-five countries have sought a roadmap to phasing out fossil fuels. A conference this month offers hope they could unite
This article is published as part of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now
The Iran war is also a climate war. Beyond its terrible human costs, the war’s disruptions of oil, gas, fertilizer and other shipments is another reminder of the risks inherent in basing the world economy on fossil fuels. The war’s jets, missiles and aircraft carriers, and the tankers, refineries and buildings they blow up, represent millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions that further imperil a climate system that is already “very close” to a point of no return, scientists say, after which runaway global warming could not be stopped. Nevertheless, petrostate leaders around the world continue doing their utmost to stave off a desperately needed course correction.
Now, a little noticed ray of hope may be peeking over the horizon.
Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope are co-founders of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now
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04/06/2026 - 16:24
Two fatalities reported in southern California so far, with warmer spring bringing reptiles out on trails earlier
A sixth person has been bitten by a rattlesnake in southern California’s Ventura county in just under a month, two-thirds of the number of people bitten in all of 2025.
Andrew Dowd, a Ventura county fire department spokesperson, said paramedics responded to a call on Sunday for a man who had been bitten by a rattlesnake. The victim said he had been bitten near California State University Channel Islands.
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04/06/2026 - 15:53
Jackie and Shadow’s eaglets emerged from eggs on Easter weekend in Big Bear Valley as watched by thousands online
Over Easter weekend, thousands of people tuned in to celebrate something spectacular unfolding 145 feet up a pine tree in southern California’s San Bernardino national forest – the hatchings of two bald eagle chicks.
Two eaglets were born to Jackie and Shadow, the southern California pair that have become avian celebrities thanks to the webcam that has livestreamed their activities since 2018.
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04/06/2026 - 11:29
Man had to be airlifted out of mountain in north Phoenix by rescue teams and was transported to hospital
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A hiker was taken to a hospital in critical condition after bees stung him more than 100 times on an Arizona mountain trail over the Easter weekend – an emergency which required the help of a helicopter crew.
The man reported “over 100 stings” had left him “unable to continue his descent” from the summit of Lookout Mountain Preserve in north Phoenix at about 10am on Saturday, the local fire department said in a statement.
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04/06/2026 - 10:00
Conservationists say move could push species closer to extinction and clearer environmental rules are needed instead
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Conservationists and scientists have warned a mining lobby proposal to use artificial intelligence to speed up national environmental approvals could generate “robodebt-style” failures, putting threatened species at further risk.
The Minerals Council of Australia has asked the government to spend $13m to trial the use of AI to help companies prepare applications and help the federal government make decisions.
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04/06/2026 - 07:20
Leaders say automated mowers’ blades threaten nocturnal animals as studies highlight risks to wildlife
German mayors have called for a nationwide ban on night-time use of robot lawnmowers to protect hedgehogs and other small nocturnal animals from being killed or maimed in the dark.
Recent studies have highlighted the threat lawnmower blades pose to wildlife active between dusk and dawn, prompting growing calls for regulation. Hedgehogs also tend to curl into a ball when threatened rather than running away, making them harder for a robot mower’s sensors to detect.
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04/06/2026 - 06:00
New legislation comes amid push from big oil, as critics warn polluters’ profits prioritized over Americans’ health
Utah has made it nearly impossible for residents to hold fossil fuel companies legally accountable for climate damages in a move one advocacy group described as putting “profits for the biggest polluters over communities”, with other states expected to follow suit.
The new state legislation comes as part of a push from big oil and its political allies – including groups tied to rightwing impresario Leonard Leo – for legal immunity in red statehouses and Congress, with a goal of winning state and federal legal immunity similar to the liability waiver granted to the firearms industry in 2005.
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04/06/2026 - 04:22
Oliver Tokic-Bensley, 16, says he had been in the water mere minutes when a shark bit his foot
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A teenage surfer bitten by a shark at a South Australian beach has described how he “flicked it off” and “legged it back to shore”.
Oliver Tokic-Bensley, 16, was bitten on his foot while surfing on Good Friday near his family beach house at Middleton, 80km south of Adelaide.
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04/06/2026 - 04:00
As a child, Dominique Bikaba, was displaced by a new national park in the DRC. Now he is helping to secure land for wildlife and Indigenous groups against the backdrop of ongoing fighting
Mist hangs low over the forested slopes of Kahuzi-Biega national park, where the canopy still shelters one of the last strongholds of the eastern lowland, or Grauer’s, gorilla. It is a landscape of immense biological wealth and equally immense political fragility. For 54-year-old Dominique Bikaba, it was once home.
His family was among those displaced when their ancestral land was incorporated into the park in the 1970s. The protected area, in the lowlands of South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), harbours elephants and a remarkable range of wildlife, but it is best known as the principal home of the Grauer’s gorilla, the largest subspecies of primates, known to grow up to 250kg (39st) in weight. It is one of five great ape species found in the DRC’s vast forests, including mountain gorillas, which are also found in other parts of the Great Lakes region, such as Rwanda and Uganda.
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