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Plastic production has doubled over the last 20 years – and will likely double again. For author Beth Gardiner, metal water bottles and canvas tote bags are not the solution. So what is?
Like many of us who are mindful of our plastic consumption, Beth Gardiner would take her own bags to the supermarket and be annoyed whenever she forgot to do so. Out without her refillable bottle, she would avoid buying bottled water. “Here I am, in my own little life, worrying about that and trying to use less plastic,” she says. Then she read an article in this newspaper, just over eight years ago, and discovered that fossil fuel companies had ploughed more than $180bn (£130bn) into plastic plants in the US since 2010. “It was a kick in the teeth,” says Gardiner. “You’re telling me that while I am beating myself up because I forgot to bring my water bottle, all these huge oil companies are pouring billions …” She looks appalled. “It was just such a shock.”
Two months before that piece was published, a photograph of a seahorse clinging to a plastic cotton bud had gone viral; two years before that England followed Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and introduced a charge for carrier bags. “I was one of so many people who were trying to use less plastic – and it just felt like such a moment of revelation: these companies are, on the contrary, increasing production and wanting to push [plastic use] up and up.” Then, says Gardiner, as she started researching her book Plastic Inc: Big Oil, Big Money and the Plan to Trash our Future, “it only becomes more shocking.”
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Report says common agricultural policy provides ‘unfair’ levels of support to unhealthy, meat-heavy diets
Beef and lamb receive 580 times more in EU subsidies than legumes, a report has found, despite scientists urging people to get more of their protein from less harmful sources.
Analysis by the charity Foodrise found the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) provides “unfair” levels of support to meat-heavy diets that doctors consider unhealthy and climate scientists consider environmentally destructive.
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Wet fields drive away rodents, leaving barn owls without much prey, but gulls of all kinds are attracted by the water
The Somerset Levels flood regularly – but this year, after very heavy winter rains, the fields and moors are overflowing with water. So what effect does this have on wintering birds?
Like most extreme weather events, there are winners and losers. Huge flocks of gulls are gathering in the flooded fields to feed, with scarcer Mediterranean and little gulls joining the regular black-headed, herring and common varieties. These have attracted a white-tailed eagle from the Isle of Wight reintroduction project, although it does not appear to have caught any victims yet.
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While most hybrids are said to use one to two litres of fuel per 100km, a study claims they need six litres on average
Plug-in hybrid electric cars (PHEVs) use much more fuel on the road than officially stated by their manufacturers, a large-scale analysis of about a million vehicles of this type has shown.
The Fraunhofer Institute carried out what is thought to be the most comprehensive study of its kind to date, using the data transmitted wirelessly by PHEVs from a variety of manufacturers while they were on the road.
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Extinction Rebellion says some members have been visited by agents claiming to be FBI amid Trump’s threats toward liberal groups
Environmental group Extinction Rebellion said on Wednesday it was under federal US investigation and that some of its members had been visited by FBI agents, including from the agency’s taskforce on extremism, in the last year.
Asked for comment, the FBI said it could neither confirm nor deny conducting specific investigations, citing justice department policy.
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22 February 2001: How the Guardian first covered the national crisis that unfolded as a result of the virus that spreads like wildfire
An outbreak of the highly infectious animal transmitted foot-and-mouth disease in the UK was one of the worst in the world. Roughly 6 million cattle, sheep, and pigs were culled, and mass funeral pyres became a striking image of the British countryside. Rural communities were shut off, tourism devastated, and movement across the countryside severely restricted. The crisis was so serious that the 2001 UK general election had to be postponed.
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Forth River, Ligoniel, north Belfast:A riverfly monitoring survey involves rapt focus on these tiny creatures, whose presence is an indicator of water health
I wish I’d worn kneepads. Butthen I hadn’t imagined that a riverfly monitoring survey would require this much genuflection. Like the followers of an undine creed, we kneel on the riverbank, bent over the Forth’s secrets. What is her message? How do we understand it?
With me are Patricia Deeney and Geoff Newell, conservation officers from Belfast Hills Partnership (BHP), an environmental charity, and we’re in a wooded glen below Wolf Hill, close to the former mill village of Ligoniel. Like many community groups and angling clubs, BHP uses the riverfly survey (a citizen science protocol) to monitor local rivers.
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Abandoned beaches, public health warning signs and seagulls eating human waste are now features of the popular coastline in New Zealand
A tide of anger is rising in New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, as the city’s toilets continue to flush directly into the ocean more than two weeks after the catastrophic collapse of its wastewater treatment plant.
Millions of litres of raw and partially screened sewage have been pouring into pristine reefs and a marine reserve along the south coast daily since 4 February, prompting a national inquiry, as the authorities struggle to get the decimated plant operational.
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Government has taken first serious steps to crack down on dangerous driving but pace of change is frustrating campaigners
The first time Lucian Mîndruță crashed his car, he swerved to avoid a village dog and hit another vehicle. The second time, he missed a right-of-way sign and was struck by a car at a junction. The third time, ice sent him skidding off the road and into two trees. Crashes four to eight, he said, were bumper-scratches in traffic too minor to mention.
That Mîndruță escaped those collisions with his life – and without having taken anyone else’s – is not a given in Romania. Home to the deadliest roads in the EU, its poor infrastructure, weak law enforcement and aggressive driving culture led to 78 people per million dying in traffic in 2024. Almost half of the 1,500 annual fatalities are vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists.
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With Trump blocking Venezuelan oil imports and old power plants breaking down, the island – with Chinese help – is turning to solar and wind to bolster its fragile energy system
Intense heat hangs over the sugarcane fields near Cuba’s eastern coast. In the village of Herradura, a blond-maned horse rests under a palm tree after spending all Saturday in the fields with its owner, Roberto, who cultivates maize and beans.
Roberto was among those worst affected by Hurricane Melissa, which hit eastern Cuba – the country’s poorest region – late last year. The storm affected 3.5 million people, damaging or destroying 90,000 homes and 100,000 hectares of crops.
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Godinama se rastuće stope kratkovidnosti ili miopije uvelike pripisuju povećanom vremenu provedenom pred ekranom, posebno među djecom i mladim odraslima. No, novo istraživanje sugerira da bi priča mogla biti složenija, naime, kratkovidnost bi mogla biti manje uzrokovana samim ekranima, a više uobičajenom vizualnom navikom u zatvorenom prostoru: produljenim fokusom na krupni plan u okruženjima sa slabim osvjetljenjem, što ograničava količinu svjetlosti koja dopire do mrežnice.
Imunoterapija – koja aktivira vlastiti imunološki sustav tijela za ubijanje stanica raka – nije dobro djelovala protiv rijetkog i smrtonosnog raka jetre, no nova studija Cornell University otkriva da postojeći lijek odobren od strane Američke agencije za hranu i lijekove (FDA) može omogućiti imunoterapiji da se bori protiv raka kako je predviđeno, otvarajući vrata potencijalnom liječenju.
Pušenje majki tijekom trudnoće može biti povezano s višim krvnim tlakom i povećanim rizikom od hipertenzije kod djece, pokazuju rezultati nove studije. Krvni tlak koji je viši od normalnog u djetinjstvu, uključujući dijagnosticirani visoki krvni tlak, može povećati rizik od razvoja visokog krvnog tlaka kasnije u životu, što je glavni faktor rizika za srčane bolesti. Prethodne studije koje su ispitivale prenatalnu izloženost pušenju i krvni tlak u djetinjstvu dale su mješovite rezultate.
Ljudi s većom izloženošću onečišćenju zraka suočavaju se s većim rizikom od razvoja Alzheimerove bolesti, pokazuju rezultati nove studije. Alzheimerova bolest najčešći je oblik demencije, a pogađa oko 57 milijuna ljudi diljem svijeta. Izloženost onečišćenju zraka poznati je faktor rizika za Alzheimerovu bolest i za nekoliko uobičajenih kroničnih zdravstvenih stanja, poput hipertenzije, moždanog udara i depresije.
Istraživanje provedeno u Australiji sugerira da hrana prirodno bogata živim mikrobima može biti povezana s boljim metaboličkim zdravljem, nudeći novi uvid u prehranu, interakcije mikrobioma i rizik od kroničnih bolesti.
Osobe s upalnom bolešću crijeva (IBD) i prekanceroznim kolorektalnim lezijama imaju mnogo veću vjerojatnost da će razviti rak debelog crijeva, pokazuje nova studija. Naime, pokazalo se, da razina rizika od raka ovisi o početnom stupnju prekanceroznih lezija, poznatih kao displazija, što naglašava potrebu za redovitim praćenjem.
Određene crijevne bakterije kod dojenčadi mogu smanjiti rizik od razvoja alergija kasnije u djetinjstvu, tvrdi studija provedena u Švedskoj. Tijekom prvih nekoliko mjeseci, crijevna flora djeteta se brzo razvija. Ova studija je pratila djecu od rođenja do pete godine kako bi se vidjelo kako su rane bakterije povezane s alergijskim antitijelima (IgE) u krvi.
Rezultati istraživanja provedenog u SAD-u pokazali su da je veći unos ukupnog, prerađenog i neprerađenog crvenog mesa neovisno bio povezan s povećanim rizikom od dijabetesa. Povezanost je ostala prisutna i nakon što su uzeti u obzir indeks tjelesne mase (ITM) i ukupna kvaliteta prehrane.
Podaci velikih studija sugeriraju da obrasci prehrane s naglaskom na biljkama i određeni mikronutrijenti mogu biti povezani s nižim rizikom od raka dojke i poboljšanim preživljavanjem, ističući prehranu kao potencijalno promjenjiv faktor vrijedan daljnjeg istraživanja.
Terapija antibioticima gubi na učinkovitosti protiv niza uobičajenih bakterijskih patogena, uključujući E. coli, K. pneumoniae, Salmonelu i Acinetobacter, upozorava Svjetska zdravstvena organizacija. No, za bakteriju koja uzrokuje tuberkulozu, američki znanstvenici su osmislili potencijalno rješenje, promjenu kemijske strukture prirodno prisutnog peptida - gradivnog bloka proteina - kako bi ga učinili stabilnijim i učinkovitijim antimikrobnim sredstvom, a istovremeno smanjili potencijalnu toksičnost za ljudske stanice.
