Environment news

• Will clothes companies do the right thing to reduce microfiber pollution?

  13-05-2017 15:00
  
  Synthetic fibers are polluting the world’s oceans – but a new report shows how apparel companies have been far too slow to respond. Can they change their ways?Over the past few years, evidence has been mounting that synthetic textiles such as polyester and acrylic, which make up much of our clothing, are a major source of pollution in the world’s oceans. That’s because washing those clothes causes tiny plastic fibers to shed and travel through wastewater treatment plants
  
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• Where have all the insects gone? | Hugh Warwick

  13-05-2017 12:30
  
  While news focuses on elections or the economy, the bigger picture is that our world is being tragically and massively denuded of non-human forms of lifeThere is a scene at the end of the film Gangs of New York when Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio are deep in a vicious fight for honour and territory. As the camera pulls up and away it becomes apparent how very small and insignificant the squabble is. The city is being bombarded from the sea.That is how I feel we are treating the looming e
  
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• Sweet-scented scurvy-grass is a spring tonic in every sense

  13-05-2017 06:30
  
  South Uist The bitter leaves of this hardy little plant once provided a welcome dose of vitamin C after a hard winterScurvy-grass is usually found in coastal regions, where its high tolerance of saline conditions enables it to flourish where other plants fail to thrive. It is an early flowerer and will grow abundantly on steep cliffs, sometimes forming sizeable, rather untidy clumps of stemmed white flowers.
  There is something endearing about this unassuming yet resilient plant, whose presence h
  
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