Natural environment

Delegates began to share their concrete visions on what they believe the future plastic treaty could look like at the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-1).

Negotiators meet in Uruguay to map out global plastics treaty

Environment

With a 2024 completion deadline that was voted on in March, the future treaty aims to reduce plastics pollution on a global scale. Organizers plan to mitigate the costs and effects of plastic production as a whole and engage workers’ concerns within the industry.

Old growth Douglas fir trees stand along the Salmon river Trail on the Mt. Hood National Forest

1 in 6 trees in the US threatened with extinction

Environment
People gather at a playground amid water shortages in Monterrey, Mexico.

In the north of Mexico, water cuts to cope with shortages hit poor communities hardest 

Environment
Amid a multitude of trails with trees that reach dozens of feet overhead, conservationists with Casa del Agua lead tours and tell stories about the forests planted over three decades.

Conservationists focus on community reforestation efforts to save Mexico’s wetlands

Environment
Residents of the Accra suburb of Alajo patch up a road after severe flooding destroyed it.

‘Everything is destroyed’: Extreme flooding in Ghana tests climate resilience

Climate Change
Anuja Bali asks a family in Pashan, Pune about their consumption of liquid petroleum gas.

India’s Warrior Moms tackle indoor air pollution — ‘the silent killer’ 

Energy

Many households in India use a clay stove fueled by firewood, coal, cow dung, or even dry leaves, paper or plastic — which all emit excessive, harmful smoke. Poor women and children bear the brunt of this insidious indoor pollution. 

A Uniper energy company coal-fired power plant and a BP refinery are seen beside a wind generator in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Jan. 16, 2020. 

Did the world ‘build back better’ since the start of the pandemic? Not so much. 

Environment

Two years into the pandemic, stimulus money around the world has largely fallen short in transforming the energy economy. 

Jennifer Lawrence attends the world premiere of "Don't Look Up" at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Sunday, Dec. 5, 2021, in New York.

‘Don’t Look Up’ exposes the absurdity — and consequences — of climate change denial

Climate Change

“Don’t Look Up,” Adam McKay’s latest feature film, uses humor and the metaphor of an impending, Earth-obliterating comet to satirize the ideological denial of climate change.

Plumes of smoke rise in the vicinity of Lake Steffen caused by a wildfire, near Rio Villegas, Argentina, Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2021.

Fire and climate change are altering Patagonia’s ecosystems

Climate Change

Wildfires have been raging in Patagonia, on the tip of South America, where until recently fires were rare — an unwelcome sign of things to come, scientists say.

In this Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016 file photo, a man guides a raft through a polluted canal littered with plastic bags and other garbage in Mumbai, India.

YouTube influencers work to stem the flow of trash to the seas

Environment

The world’s oceans are in trouble, and plastic is a huge part of it. A group of YouTube influencers is now helping to slow the estimated 20 billion pounds of plastic that get dumped into the ocean each year.