We may not see the full result for six more years, but Procter & Gamble made it official this week—the company will remove all deforestation from its palm oil supply. The Cincinnati, OH-based company announced a no-deforestation policy for its products, which include Head & Shoulders and Oil of Olay. While the policy calls for no deforestation in […]
Illegal logging drives deforestation in many countries, robbing national governments and local communities of valuable income and contributing to global biodiversity loss and climate change. Experts estimate that up to 10 percent—or about $7 billion—of the global wood supply is sourced illegally—meaning that the wood was harvested in violation of national laws or international agreements to […]
Crude oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster causes severe defects in the developing hearts of bluefin and yellowfin tunas, according to a new study by a team of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and academic scientists. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the 25th anniversary of the […]
Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) announced yesterday the release of a new report which highlights the global scale of killing and trade in whales in the twenty-first century. WDC demonstrates that consumption or utilization of whale and dolphin meat and by-products is not confined to just a few nations, as many people believe. Rather, killing and trade is […]
Yesterday, more than 500,000 signatures were delivered to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy, urging the nation’s top-ranking environmental leader to protect bees and other pollinators. The date marks the one-year anniversary of the lawsuit filed against EPA by beekeepers, food, and environmental groups, including Beyond Pesticides, over the continued allowance of two bee-toxic pesticides: clothianidin and thiamethoxam. […]
Last December the Australian Federal government gave the go-ahead to dredge and dump in the Great Barrier Reef. It did so despite strong, expert advice from the independent authority charged with protecting the reef that it was dangerous to the reef’s health. Graphic courtesy of Greenpeace Newly released internal documents clearly show that the Great Barrier Reef […]
The French agriculture ministry is prosecuting Emmanuel Giboulot, an organic winemaker, for failing to apply insecticide to his vines. The ministry wants insecticide to be sprayed to control the leafhopper Scaphoideus titanus—believed to be responsible for the spread of the grapevine disease—but Giboulot believes the pesticide is ineffective and damaging to pollinating insects such as bees, […]
A new study published in the journal Nature investigating two infectious diseases—deformed wing virus (DWV) and the fungal parasite Nosema ceranea—finds that they could be spreading from honey bees to bumblebees, dramatically shortening the lifespan of the wild bumblebees. The study gives credence to recent research demonstrating that pesticide use compromises immune system functioning, dramatically raising their susceptibility to diseases. […]
By Andy Rowell The fallout from the BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill continues. The oil giant is attempting to force the U.S. government to release evidence which BP says proves that the oil spill did much less damage than at first feared. According to the Financial Times, in filings to the U.S. court in New Orleans, […]