Planetary health News

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A child at work collecting e-waste in the Agbogbloshie dump in Ghana.

Can two Amazons survive? Invisible e-waste is poisoning the world

Gerry McGovern, Sue Branford 3 Dec 2025
Workers at BRAC's plastic project sort out single-use plastics.

New ventures set out to tackle the plastic choking Bangladesh’s ECAs

Abu Siddique 2 Dec 2025
A forest fire in Acre, the westernmost state of the Brazilian Amazon. Image courtesy of Victor Moriyama/Clean Air Fund.

Soot: The super-pollutant choking a burning Earth, in photos

Shanna Hanbury 20 Nov 2025
A turtle consumes a plastic bag.

Lethal dose of plastic for seabirds and marine animals ‘much smaller than expected’

Elizabeth Claire Alberts 19 Nov 2025
By fusing satellite, drone and ground-based data with AI-powered analytics, Earth observation systems now provide meter-scale insights (or finer) for key human-driven environmental impacts.

Report identifies 10 emerging tech solutions to enhance planetary health

Julian Reingold 4 Nov 2025
Students in Afghanistan walk to school in a sand storm during a drought in 2019.

Supercharged dust storms are exposing millions to deadly air pollution

Mongabay.com 28 Oct 2025

Nepal seeks World Bank loan to fight air pollution despite hefty taxes to do so

Abhaya Raj Joshi 17 Oct 2025
American Avocet. Image by Michael Barry via Pixabay (Pixabay Content License).

Bird-watching for nature connection & social justice

Mike DiGirolamo 7 Oct 2025
Palm civet in a wildlife farm in Dong Nai Province, Viet Nam. Image courtesy of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

New global guidelines needed to rein in the wildlife pet trade (commentary)

Elizabeth Bennett 7 Oct 2025
A giant dust storm approaches the metro area of Phoenix, Arizona, Aug. 25, 2025.

Climate change is messing with global wind speeds, impacting planetary health

Sean Mowbray 3 Oct 2025

Every stage of fossil fuel life cycle harms people & the environment: Report

Bobby Bascomb 26 Sep 2025
Waorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo with elders and community leaders.

Protecting Indigenous Amazon lands may also protect public health, study says

Constance Malleret 19 Sep 2025
A protestor sums up INC-5.2’s failure with the slogan: “Consensus kills ambition.”

As plastics treaty talks break down, are there paths to a breakthrough?

Charles Pekow 29 Aug 2025
Waste burning in the Maldives. Open burning of plastic is a cheap way of reducing waste volume, but the practice is rife with health and environmental risks.

Global South bears growing burden of health threats from plastic burning

Mongabay.com 25 Aug 2025
Elephants are one of the species that have bounced back after Namibia’s independence in 1990.

Climate change tests the resilience of people and desert-adapted wildlife in Namibia

Petro Kotzé 21 Aug 2025
A woman collects plastic and other waste for recycling in South Africa. Less than 10% is recycled worldwide, with the rest remaining in the environment.

UN plastic treaty negotiations end in failure, again

Bobby Bascomb 15 Aug 2025

PFAS ‘forever’ chemicals found in 98% of US waters tested

Bobby Bascomb 14 Aug 2025

As climate change burdens grow, community mental health alarm bells ring

Petro Kotzé 14 Aug 2025
Banner image of smoggy air in Dakar, Senegal, by Issiaga via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Study links long-term exposure to air pollution with increased dementia risk

Kristine Sabillo 5 Aug 2025
Plastic washed up on a beach in Barcelona.

As UN plastic treaty talks face possible deadlock, what are the ways forward?

Tosca Ballerini 31 Jul 2025
Food served on areca leaf and other biodegradable tableware.

Bangladesh turns to nature for biodegradable plates to replace plastic ones

Mongabay.com 18 Jul 2025

The world’s children suffer brunt of wildfire smoke health impacts

Anna Dulisse 14 Jul 2025
Banner image of buildings in New York, U.S., by Dietmar Rabich via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

104 companies linked to 20% of global environmental conflicts, study finds

Kristine Sabillo 30 Jun 2025
California Wildfires in August 2018.

Climate futures: What’s ahead for our world beyond 1.5°C of warming?

Claire Asher 12 Jun 2025
Students in Afghanistan walk to school in a sand storm during a drought in 2019.

Climate futures: World leaders’ failure to act is pushing Earth past 1.5°C

Claire Asher 11 Jun 2025
White rhyolite spires on the shores of Jodogahama Beach in Miyako, Japan. Iwate prefecture. These spires are estimated to be around 45 million years old, and form a natural version of a Japanese garden. This beach is part of the Sanriku Fukkō National Park. It was incorporated into this national park as a reconstruction effort following the Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011. Photo by Mike DiGirolamo/Mongabay.

Kim Stanley Robinson on how his novel ‘Ministry for the Future’ holds lessons for the present

Mike DiGirolamo 3 Jun 2025
Areca leaves and plates.

With areca leaves and rice bran, Bangladesh replaces single-use plastic tableware

Abu Siddique 30 May 2025
Student volunteers with trash collected during the 2024 Himalayan Cleanup campaign. Image courtesy of The Himalayan Cleanup.

F&B packaging fuels growing plastic waste crisis in Indian Himalayas: Report

Shreya Dasgupta 20 May 2025
Water flowing at a wastewater treatment facility in Manila. Image by Danilo Pinzon/World Bank via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

Antibiotic pollution widespread in world’s rivers, study finds

Shreya Dasgupta 15 May 2025
Blackwater oxbow lake in the Amazon. Image by Rhett Butler for Mongabay.

Why WHO’s pandemic prevention draft agreement takes a nature-centric, One Health approach (commentary)

Chris Walzer / Susan Lieberman / Christine Franklin 13 May 2025
Plastic pellets found on a beach in New Zealand.

New EU plastic pellet rules greeted with caution

Alex Shaw 22 Apr 2025

Invasive water hyacinths are effective at removing microplastics, study finds

Bobby Bascomb 14 Apr 2025

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