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Ultra-processed foods aren’t just making us sick.
They’re also driving health inequalities, displacing traditional diets and littering the planet with plastic waste.
These are just a few things we learned from a landmark study in The Lancet – so before you open that pack of breakfast cereal, be sure to read this newsletter first!
If you’ve ever had an mRNA vaccine or a vegan burger, you’ve probably encountered synthetic biology – an emerging field that offers incredible promise and pitfalls.
COP30 is a wrap – but where does it leave us? Here are 11 things we learned from the biggest climate event of 2025.
In case you missed it, we kept a live rolling blog throughout the conference, while our correspondent in Belém dug into Brazil’s oil drilling plans and how agriculture found its way onto the COP agenda.
Finance was a hot topic at COP30, but will rich countries live up to their promises? Here’s one way to ramp up climate finance (spoilers: bring in private investors).
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Do you ever check the ingredients in your food? Better get into the habit: The Lancet has some bad news about ultra-processed foods. Here are five things you need to know.
Deep in the Colombian Amazon, loggers, poachers and armed groups are running rampant. Here’s how Indigenous communities are protecting themselves.
Conservationists in DR Congo uncovered an oil palm plantation in a protected area – owned by the country’s ex-president. Then came the reprisals.
What can wildebeest teach us about sustainably managing grasslands? These Senegalese herders are testing out a controversial method, and the results are looking promising.
Is light pollution making the climate crisis worse? A new study finds that artificial light is making plants and animals release more carbon dioxide, but without increasing photosynthesis.
Ships don’t just spew pollutants and carbon. They also make way too much noise for marine animals to deal with.
Ever wondered how venomous animals avoid poisoning themselves? Here’s a fascinating history of animal toxins and how they’ve evolved.
Capybara cafes are exploding across Asia, but don’t ask them how they’re sourcing their animals.
Global heating will hit 2.3 to 2.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century – even if every country achieves its 2035 climate targets, according to UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report.
Separately, Climate Action Tracker puts that figure at 2.6 degrees, showing little improvement over the past four years.
At least 1,300 people have been killed in floods spanning South and Southeast Asia, with Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand suffering the worst casualties.
Iran is facing its worst drought in decades and could have to evacuate its capital, Tehran – home to 15 million people – if it doesn’t start raining soon.
In more positive news, the Antarctic ozone hole is continuing to heal, peaking at 30 percent smaller than it did in 2006.
Forever chemicals won’t be made forever: chemical giants BASF and Ecolab will phase out PFAS in the next few years before regulators start cracking down.
China now produces three-quarters of the world’s lithium-ion batteries. Here’s how the country became the world leader in electric vehicles.
Other countries are desperate to catch up, with the U.S., Canada, Russia and European countries all vying for control over critical minerals in the Arctic.
Even petrostates know the oil and gas game is up: Saudi Arabia is now hedging its bets on solar.
Now for a trip into renewable utopia: what could we do if we had unlimited cheap, clean energy?
Which countries blocked the roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels at COP30? The answer is more convoluted than you might think.
As we reported in our live coverage, China’s carbon emissions have been either flat or falling over the past 18 months.
While the rest of the world was in Belém, the U.S. was not only absent but actively rolling back various environmental protections and opening up new areas for oil and gas drilling.
Canada is also set to boost oil and gas production, while the European Union will further delay and water down its planned deforestation regulation after all.
Brazil’s Congress has largely reinstated a bill that will make it easier for large infrastructure projects to obtain environmental permits, overriding President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s vetoes.
Australia, which will lead negotiations at next year’s COP31 in Turkey, has passed a landmark bill to strengthen nature protection and increase scrutiny of large development projects.
Finally…
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