Criminal gangs who use slave labour are often involved in deforestation or pollution.
Stephane Bidouze/shutterstock
Saving the world’s forests and oceans means putting an end to slavery run by criminal gangs.
Research on animals like the Black Sparrowhawk, using biomarkers, can help map how urbanisation affects animals.
David Berliner/ Flickr
Urbanisation exposes wildlife to new man-made stresses which affect species in a variety of ways.
Moo-ve along: livestock are one of many threats to Australian freshwater ecosystems.
Mick Stanic/Flickr
Freshwater covers only 0.5% of the Earth’s surface but is home to 10% of the world’s lifeforms.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hits the street with cleaners to promote Swachh Bharat.
EPA
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to bring 1.5 million toilets to the 600 million Indians without access by 2019. If he fails that could prove dangerous in an election year.
Australians are some of the worst wasters in the developed world.
Waste image from www.shutterstock.com
Australia still rests too heavily on its luck, and not enough on its brains.
These backpacked pigeons are patrolling London’s skies.
Pigeon Air Patrol
This low-cost way of monitoring air quality is appealing, but there needs to be acknowledgement of their weaknesses as well as strengths.
Lead can linger in bones.
X-ray via www.shutterstock.com.
Lead might not be in paint or gasoline anymore, but since it doesn’t break down in the home or the environment it remains a problem throughout the U.S.
Lead exposure is more common than you think.
CDC/Dawn Arlotta
Children exposed to lead are at elevated risk for learning delays and academic issues.
A Japanese fish found in Washington after hitching a ride in a boat sent across the Pacific Ocean by the 2011 tsunami.
Allen Pleus
The 2011 Japan tsunami illustrates how more marine creatures are crossing the oceans than ever before - and not all of them are friendly travellers.
Pregnant women in three Australian cities are not told that lead exposure during pregnancy is linked to miscarriage and early delivery.
Flickr/Luca Montanari
Parents in three Australian states are being given misleading advice about the dangers of lead to babies and small children – including failing to warn pregnant women about miscarriage risks.
wallyg/Flickr
Conflicting evidence means it’s tough to tell whether trees helping to clear the air, or if green is not as good as we thought.
Nutrient runoff is one of the major contributors to crown-of-thorns outbreaks.
Crown-of-thorns image from www.shutterstock.com
Despite 15 years of concerted action by the Australian and Queensland governments the health of the reef is not improving and in fact may be continuing to deteriorate.
When researchers combined two industrial waste products they created a material that could clean up mercury.
Ashton Claridge/Flinders University
Could orange peel help clean up the oceans?
Global scrutiny has pummelled VW shares.
REUTERS/Axel Schmidt
The market reaction to the VW emissions scandal is just like that of a jilted lover.
Open-air irrigation: so last century.
Bidge/Wikimedia Commons
A government for the 21st century needs to work out how we can grow our food, manufacture goods and dispose of waste without making such a huge mess.
Traffic is one of the major sources of pollution worldwide, particularly in Asia’s packed cities.
EPA/Diego Azubel/AAP
Outdoor air pollution causes 3.3 million premature deaths a year, mainly in Asia. And without policies to cut particulate pollution from traffic, industry and home biofuels, the deaths could double by 2050.
More than thirty chemicals can go down the drain from products we use everyday.
Soap image from www.shutterstock.com
The simple act of shampooing and conditioning our hair, even with green products, results in more than 30 chemicals being washed into our sewers.
Hold your breath.
Ng Han Guan/AP/Press Association Images
The poor air quality at major sporting events can have a damaging affect on athletes’ performance and health.
Lots of these: settling ponds precipitate iron oxide and other suspended materials from the Red and Bonita mines near the Gold King Mine.
Eric Vance/EPA
Newly released data show how the hundreds of abandoned mines in the western US discharge the same volume as the Gold King Mine spill every two days.
Reuters/CDIC
Sodium cyanide has a particularly unpleasant reputation but if officials act fast they should be able to limit its damaging effects.