Pollution

"Google’s emissions rose 13 percent last year despite the tech giant’s goals to become net-zero by the end of the decade as artificial intelligence (AI) drives an increase in energy consumption."

"The world’s biggest banks and investors are continuing to funnel billions of dollars to carbon-intensive industrial livestock companies, undermining their own pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions and fueling an ongoing boom in meat and milk production that threatens global climate goals."

"Azerbaijan, host of this year's United Nations COP29 climate summit, will upgrade its national emissions-cutting target ahead of the November event, a senior official said on Tuesday."

"Flowing down the Mississippi River, the excess fertilizer that washes off vast swaths of farmland fuels a persistent “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico and threatens drinking water supplies upstream. Yet despite more than a quarter-century of federal effort and billions spent on potential solutions, experts say the watershed is “not even close” to its targets for fixing the problem."

"The oil industry withdrew its $40 million campaign to kill a historic law to protect neighborhoods from oil drilling’s toxic effects, but is threatening to challenge the measure in court."

"Companies have spent decades obstructing efforts to take on the plastics crisis and may have breached a host of US laws, a new report argues."

"The Environment Agency is refusing to provide campaigners with details of potential conflicts of interests with water companies held by its directors across England."

"The putrid smell of burning garbage wafts for miles from the landfill on the outskirts of Jammu in a potentially toxic miasma fed by the plastics, industrial, medical and other waste generated by a city of some 740,000 people. But a handful of waste pickers ignore both the fumes and suffocating heat to sort through the rubbish, seeking anything they can sell to earn at best the equivalent of $4 a day."