Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Syngenta denies keeping relevant data from the EPA as paraquat stays in the US market despite global bans Sweden started ringing the alarm bell more than 20 years ago, calling for a ban on the weedkilling chemical paraquat in 2004. One by one, dozens of other countries did the same as evidence of paraquat risks to human health mounted. Even the Chinese government, which owns the longtime paraquat maker Syngenta, halted domestic use of the pesticide a decade ago after conducting its own studies on paraquat safety and finding troubling results. In the US, two states – Vermont and California – have recently also banned paraquat, citing risks that include an association between paraquat and Parkinson’s disease shown in years of scientific research. And California regulators announced in August that paraquat makers voluntarily agreed to stop selling the chemical after the state identified health concerns in connection with its use in new research. Several federal lawmakers have pushed for a nationwide ban. Continue reading...

After years of illegal mass flytipping in Gospić, fed-up residents decided to take matters into their own hands “Gospić is our home,” Željka Šikić shouted to a crowd of 40,000 people outside the Croatian parliament earlier this month. The slogan is the name of a campaign she helped to set up to protest against the illegal dumping of waste in Gospić, a town in the mountainous Lika region of central Croatia. Between 2022 and 2024, waste was illegally abandoned at several sites in the town. At one of the biggest, just 50 metres from Šikić’s home, an estimated 35,000 tonnes of waste, some of it hazardous, was dumped and buried. Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: The People’s Emergency Briefing delivers a stark warning about ​o​ur future in a warming world. ​B​ut sharing difficult truths collectively​ shows us that there is still hope to be found Good morning. Here we are, stumbling into an oddly warm autumn and with the aftermath of a ceaselessly dry summer all around us in our parched parks and fire-ravaged forests. With the change in season, the headlines are no less gruelling. At the start of the week, more than 450,000 people are predicted to die from an unprecedented El Niño over the next six months. At the end of the week, a report by UK intelligence chiefs reveals the extent to which the collapse of natural systems threatens security and defence around the world – a report which, as the Guardian revealed, was suppressed under former prime minister Keir Starmer’s leadership. Meanwhile, as Hettie has written about in a previous newsletter, right-leaning climate sceptics continue to seed doubt about the glaring reality wherever they may. UN general assembly | Benjamin Netanyahu delivered an inflammatory address to the United Nations, decrying what he said was a global anti-Jewish conspiracy and swatting aside criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza. UK news | Far-right agitator and anti-migrant activist Daniel Thomas has been arrested after he filmed himself appearing to slash the side of a dinghy while a rescuer was onboard. Iran | Iran says it has told Trump it is willing to open the strait of Hormuz in six days, and to start talks on its nuclear program the day after, so long as the US lifts sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, ends the war on all fronts – including in Lebanon – and releases some frozen assets. Ukraine | Ukrainian refugees fear they could be left homeless after the government quietly axed 70% of funding for hosts of the Homes for Ukraine scheme, reducing monthly “thank you” payments. World news | Xi Jinping has called for extensive cooperation with Washington to avoid the “Thucydides trap” that could put the US and China on a military collision course amid rising tensions over AI, trade and Taiwan. Continue reading...

Democrats must show links of climate shocks to ‘kitchen table’ issues, California governor says It’s a mistake for Democratic politicians not to talk about climate change, and the reason they don’t is “because they don’t know how to talk about it”, the California governor, Gavin Newsom, said on Wednesday in an interview with the Guardian and the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now. Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting and New York Climate Week, Newsom also predicted that the midterm elections in November would bring “the end of Donald Trump’s presidency as we know it”. To prevent Trump from stealing those elections, voters must turn out in such overwhelming numbers that he “couldn’t possibly contest” the outcome. If the US president nevertheless declares a national emergency or otherwise attempts to invalidate the results, Newsom said, then “we the people have to step up. The courts have to intervene. Congress has to do its job and stand up for the rule of law.” Continue reading...