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Shell reported a malfunction April 25, and the company was later issued a notice of violation. Residents are still looking for answers.

• A new report from the Mining Observatory finds that key mining states in Brazil are highly exposed to climate risks, water insecurity and environmental degradation.
• Mining for transition minerals can in some cases exacerbate the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and local communities in the states of Pará, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Bahia.
• Researchers told Mongabay that without better socioenvironmental safeguards, the expansion of transition minerals mining represents a “major” threat to these communities’ way of life and the preservation of ecosystems.
• The report urged governments and companies to implement stronger policy frameworks, climate adaptation strategies, robust oversight and better mechanisms to involve rights-holders in key decisions.

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archived (Wayback Machine)

In April this year, Mozambican President Daniel Chapo announced the launch of a national petrochemical city project in Mavanza village in Vilankulo district of Inhambane province. The coastline of Inhambane province, or the Inhambane seascape, is a globally important area that conservation groups have previously urged the government of Mozambique to protect for its threatened marine mammals, seabirds and sharks.

The $2 billion petrochemical city project, expected be completed by 2028, will be built by the Hong Kong-based Phoenix International Group, Chapo said at the launch. The project will include thermal power stations, refineries, maritime terminals, units to produce polymers and fertilizers and residential areas with schools and hospitals, Chapo said.

“The fact that a quarter of the way through the 21st century a ‘national petrochemical city’ is being planned in a globally significant and highly sensitive area for biodiversity is shocking enough,” Tim Davenport, Africa director of the nonprofit Re:wild, told Mongabay by email. “But a development of this magnitude … demonstrates abject short-termism, a failure to understand the true value of nature, and a grave disregard for some of the region’s most disadvantaged communities.”

The Inhambane seascape is globally recognized as a critical area for conservation. The seascape includes islands of the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park and the Vilanculos Coastal Wildlife Sanctuary, home to more than 2,000 species of fish and several threatened species of sharks, rays, skates, sawfish and sea turtles. The Bazaruto Archipelago also hosts the last known viable population of dugong (Dugong dugon) in East Africa, with only a few hundred left.

In October 2024, Re:wild and several international conservation organizations published an open letter in response to a slew of mining projects planned along the Inhambane seascape. The organizations noted that according to the government’s mining cadastral map portal, more than 70% of the Inhambane coastline had been marked for some form of mining. In their letter, the organizations urged Mozambique’s political leaders to protect the seascape and to invest in projects that benefit the local communities, “instead of allowing foreign corporations to unsustainably extract Mozambique’s natural resources and irreversibly destroy Inhambane’s environment.”

At the launch of the national petrochemical city, Chapo said the industries will maintain high international environmental standards. However, Davenport said he’s skeptical environmental standards will be met given the previous track record of foreign companies on Mozambique’s coasts.

In 2024, the Mozambican anti-corruption NGO, the Public Integrity Center, accused a Chinese-owned company, Haiyu Mining, of environmental transgressions along the coast of Angoche district, “despite initial promises just like these,” Davenport said. “It is impossible to see how an industrial plant of this size — financed by an external nation with huge leverage over Mozambique — will have anything other than calamitous environmental impacts locally and regionally. Anyone, not least Mozambicans, who has any concern for nature, biodiversity or social justice should be deeply concerned by this project.”

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In Morovis, a town in the center of Puerto Rico’s main island, lies the Las Cabachuelas nature reserve, a green labyrinth of approximately 1,950 acres. This place — known for its numerous caves — holds pre-colonial stories, rock art and petroglyphs, plants studied by paleobotanists, unique Caribbean fauna, and many other stories of what life was like in Puerto Rico before Spanish colonization and subsequent industrialization.

These stories can be heard on one of the many tours offered by the Cabachuelas Project of the Cabachuelas Workers Cooperative, a community-based cooperative co-founded by Morovis residents in 2018 to protect and manage the land where the nature reserve is located. Today, the cooperative has positioned itself as an alternative and effective model that contributes to conserving the natural environment and the mountain area’s sustainable economic development.

Las Cabachuelas is an area of high ecological value, with a large number of trees that help sequester carbon dioxide and preserve the island’s biodiversity. Today, it serves as an ecotourism area that supports eight people employed by the Cabachuelas Project and the cooperative. These people also help residents and visitors of Puerto Rico learn about the natural and cultural heritage of the archipelago, thanks to their ecotours and various social development and service works.

Paper in Nature Climate Change journal reveals major role wealthy emitters play in driving climate extremes

Exposure to either wildfire smoke or extreme heat poses a significant threat to health. When they occur together, it may amplify the health risks of exposure.

For the last week, Indigenous leaders from around the world have converged in New York for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, or UNPFII. It’s the largest global gathering of Indigenous peoples, and the forum provides space for participants to bring their issues to international authorities, often when their own governments have refused to take action. This year’s forum focuses on how U.N. member states have, or have not, protected the rights of Indigenous peoples, and conversations range from the environmental effects of extractive industries to climate change and violence against women.

The forum is an intergenerational space. Young people in attendance often work alongside elders and leaders to come up with solutions and address ongoing challenges. Grist interviewed seven Indigenous youth attending UNPFII this year hailing from Africa, the Pacific, North and South America, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Arctic.

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As government regulators focused on reigning in air pollution, companies were busy generating new sources of pollution, including plastics and PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals. PFAS, which stands for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a large group of compounds used, among other things, to make fabric stain-resistant and pans nonstick.

Over time, these modern-era substances — which famously take decades to millennia to degrade — have leached into the environment, reaching every corner of the planet, no matter how tall or deep. Microplastics, PFAS, and some other compounds, such as pesticides, are now so widespread that they’ve essentially become part of our biome, not unlike bacteria or fungi.

They’re so common, in fact, that they’re even found in the rain.

A number of studies, for example, have documented microplastics in rain falling all over the world — even in remote, unpopulated regions. For one 2020 analysis in the journal Science, researchers documented microplastics in rainwater that fell on several national parks and wilderness areas in the Western US. Most of the plastic bits were microfibers, such as those shed from polyester sweaters or carpeting on the floor of a car. The researchers estimated that more than 1,000 metric tons of plastic from the atmosphere fall on parks in the West each year, including both as rainfall and as dry dust. That’s equivalent to roughly 120 to 300 million plastic water bottles, according to the study.

archived (Wayback Machine)

archived (Wayback Machine)

Archive link: https://archive.is/4y4Mo

• Cambodian authorities have approved a new cement factory inside Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, despite a 2023 moratorium on new mining licenses, raising concerns about enforcement and conservation integrity.
• Factory developer KP Cement, a politically connected firm previously linked to deforestation, was awarded a 50-year lease on 99 hectares (245 acres) within the ostensibly protected sanctuary and is already clearing forest near a planned limestone mine.
• Local communities have expressed alarm over environmental degradation, health risks from limestone dust, and being excluded from decision-making, saying the development benefits only elites.
• The project reflects a broader pattern of politically tied companies exploiting Prey Lang’s resources despite its protected status, with critics accusing the government of favoring industry over conservation.

archived (Wayback Machine)

archived (Wayback Machine)

• Recently, Bangladesh successfully developed lotus silk — a biodegradable luxury fabric — using lotus stems, merging ancient tradition with modern sustainability science.
• Unlike conventional textiles, lotus silk is produced without water, chemicals or fossil fuels — making it one of the most eco-friendly fabrics in the world today.
• With high prices, lotus silk is attracting top fashion houses internationally, giving Bangladesh an opportunity to gain a premium place in the ethical fashion market.
• In some villages, lotus silk is creating new jobs for women who are now skilled in producing this high-value, global product; it’s reviving Bangladesh’s artisanal legacy.

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• In southeastern Brazil’s Jequitinhonha Valley, a region that is home to up to 85% of the country’s known lithium deposits, residents say the arrival of the mining company Sigma Lithium brought new community conflicts and issues with their water supply.
• Some researchers say decisions concerning where and how to mine, as well as the types of consultation practices companies use, result in different levels of impact, but that there’s no way governments can ensure corporate responsibility.
• Local communities in the Jequitinhonha Valley have a blueprint on how companies can improve relations and mitigate impacts.
• Sigma Lithium did not respond to Mongabay’s request for a comment, but its website states its mission is to support the growth of the electric vehicle industry as a producer of sustainable lithium.

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The European Commission’s new plan to overhaul the EU’s main chemical regulation, REACH, risks undoing two decades of progress in protecting people and nature from toxic substances.

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archived (Wayback Machine)

archived (Wayback Machine)

Humid heat is related to heat stress, occurring when environmental conditions overwhelm the body's ability to cool itself. Severe heat stress leads to an increase in the core body temperature of 3°C or more and can cause confusion, seizures, and loss of consciousness. If not treated promptly, severe heat stress can lead to muscle damage, major organ failure, and death.

Lead author of the study Dr. Lawrence Jackson, a Research Fellow in the School of Earth and Environment, said, "With climate change driving more frequent and intense humid heat events, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions, the risks to vulnerable populations and outdoor workers are increasing.

Co-author John Marsham, a Professor of Atmospheric Science in the School of Earth and Environment, added, "Our results focus on the daily timescale for these heat waves. An obvious next step would be to extend our analysis to hourly time scales which might allow us to work towards near real-time predictions with all the benefits that it would bring to vulnerable communities."

The study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58694-6

When the Vietnam War finally ended on April 30, 1975, it left behind a landscape scarred with environmental damage. Vast stretches of coastal mangroves, once housing rich stocks of fish and birds, lay in ruins. Forests that had boasted hundreds of species were reduced to dried-out fragments, overgrown with invasive grasses.

Fifty years later, Vietnam’s degraded ecosystems and dioxin-contaminated soils and waters still reflect the long-term ecological consequences of the war. Efforts to restore these damaged landscapes and even to assess the long-term harm have been limited.

Although the war spurred new international treaties aimed at protecting the environment during wartime, these efforts failed to compel post-war restoration for Vietnam. Current conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East show these laws and treaties still aren’t effective.

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