Environment / Pollution

Update from Britain by Frances Rankin.

As Covid-19 spread across the world, greenhouse-gas emissions plummeted, thanks to a reduction in human activity. But meanwhile, writes Amy Hall, some of the world’s most polluting companies and industries have been using the pandemic to maintain and even ramp up their environmentally ruinous activities.

Agricultural air pollution seems to be a tough nut to crack. Amy Hall explores the air-pollution problem down on the farm.

India’s air pollution crisis affects millions, and not just in Delhi. Aruna Chandrasekhar meets people forced to live, and resist, at Mumbai’s toxic perimeter.

Community journalists from the northeast of England on the impact of air pollution on their lives.

Dirty air is not an impossible problem. Beth Gardiner assesses some places cleaning up their act.

Dirty air in Nigeria takes a huge toll on lives and livelihoods. But civil society is not short of ideas for change, as Michael Simire finds out.

Dana Drugmand explains how the powerful car industry has continually blocked change to keep us hooked.

How many die?, Air inequality, Noxious journeys, and Cleanest vs dirtiest.

Links for campaigning and more reading on air pollution/air quality.

Covid-19 has shown us that swift action on global health is possible, even if it still falls short. What could we achieve, asks Amy Hall, if we took an urgent approach to air pollution, another widespread killer?

In talks about trade, something vital is omitted: the environment.

Around the world, 15 million people – including children – have little choice but to earn a living from the waste polluting their surroundings. They often work in dangerous conditions, risking their health, sometimes their lives; and are usually relegated to the bottom of the social pecking order, struggling to improve their working conditions.

Dinyar Godrej explains why the packing industry loves shunting the blame on individual consumers.

Last year, China announced a ban on imports of ‘foreign garbage’. The result? Western stockpiles of used paper and plastic have reached crisis proportions. Adam Liebman on why we need a less rosy notion of what actually happens to our recycling.

How much; disposal; food; plastic; electronic waste; the facts and figures.

The dirt on waste. Dinyar Godrej argues that the problems with our throwaway society add up to much more than the sum of individual actions.

New research suggests that low-carbon infrastructure is not only ethical, it also yields greater economic returns.

Violeta Santos Moura reports from Poland, where air pollution claims some 45,000 lives annually. The country’s reliance on coal is the main culprit but it’s an issue bound up in national pride and political manipulation.

Residents from a coastal village in the Gambia are suing a Chinese-owned fishmeal plant accused of pollution, writes Nosmot Gbadamosi.