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Plastic production has doubled in 20 years… and it’s gearing up to double again

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  Plastic production has doubled in 20 years… and it’s gearing up to double again If you ever needed proof that humans can commit to a long-term relationship, look no further than our devotion to plastic. We’ve doubled global plastic production over the last 20 years, and many projections suggest we’re on track to do it again. That isn’t just “a bit more packaging”. That’s a full-speed industrial snowball: more extraction, more manufacturing, more waste, more microplastics, more emissions — and more cost pushed onto councils, communities, beaches, rivers, and ultimately… us. Why is plastic still rising when we all “know better”? Because plastic is cheap for the producer , not cheap for society. Packaging and convenience still dominate: “single-use” is basically the business model. Petrochemicals are a growth engine for fossil fuel companies as other oil uses face pressure; petrochemicals are widely highlighted as a major driver of future oil demand growth. Recycling ...
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Water in the Desert: pulling drinking water out of “nothing” (with chemistry doing the heavy lifting)

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  Water in the Desert: pulling drinking water out of “nothing” (with chemistry doing the heavy lifting) If you’ve ever stood in a desert and thought, “Lovely view. Shame about the whole ‘no water’ situation,” you’re not alone. The air does contain water vapour — even when it feels bone-dry — but grabbing it efficiently has always been the tricky bit. Enter Prof Omar Yaghi (University of California, Berkeley), the 2025 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, recognised for pioneering metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) — super-porous, molecular “scaffolds” built using reticular chemistry . In plain English: you design a material like LEGO at the molecular level, choosing the bits and connectors so it ends up full of tiny, tunable pores that can selectively trap molecules. So how does it harvest water? Yaghi’s approach uses these engineered porous materials to adsorb moisture from air (think: water sticking to internal surfaces), then release it when gently warmed. His company Atoco say...
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Atmospheric CO₂ hits 430 ppm: the “number on the dashboard” keeps creeping up

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  Atmospheric CO₂ hits 430 ppm: the “number on the dashboard” keeps creeping up If you want a single number that tells you how our planet’s “engine” is running, atmospheric CO₂ is it. And this week, the Mauna Loa Observatory readings nudged around 430 parts per million (ppm) — with NOAA reporting daily averages in mid-February 2026 that include 430.47 ppm (and other days hovering just under 430). First, a quick translation: ppm means how many CO₂ molecules there are per million molecules of dry air . So yes, it’s a trace gas — and yes, it still matters enormously. Now for the bit that always trips people up: CO₂ doesn’t rise in a straight line day-by-day. It does the classic “sawtooth” pattern (the Keeling Curve) because the Northern Hemisphere breathes in and out through the seasons — plants draw CO₂ down in spring/summer and it rises again in autumn/winter. NOAA’s charts show how those daily numbers roll up into weekly and monthly trends using “background” air (i.e., not ri...
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When the Weather Goes Bonkers, Why Are We “Unbolting” the Rules?

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  When the Weather Goes Bonkers, Why Are We “Unbolting” the Rules? The climate is doing that thing where it politely taps us on the shoulder… with a flying wheelie bin. Floods, heatwaves, droughts, storms — pick your flavour of “extreme”, and the menu keeps expanding. And yet, at the exact moment nature is demonstrating why guardrails matter, the voices calling for environmental rules to be rolled back have somehow become louder, better funded, and more influential. Part of it is timing. When budgets are tight and people are fed up with delays, “cut red tape” sounds like a miracle cure. Housing targets? Infrastructure? Farming competitiveness? All real pressures. In the UK, planning reform and “regulatory burden” have become headline priorities, with government openly focused on reducing complexity and speeding decisions. But here’s the catch: environmental rules often get blamed for problems that are actually caused by under-resourced regulators, muddled processes, or years of...
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Food recycling — compost bin or local recycling?

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  Food recycling — compost bin or local recycling? Food waste is the most avoidable thing in the bin… and somehow the most determined to go slimy by Tuesday. So if you’ve got peelings, tea bags, leftovers and a suspicious half-cucumber, what’s greener: chucking it in your home compost bin, or using your council’s food-waste recycling? The best answer is: both — but for different types of food waste. Option A: Home composting (the “turn it into black gold” route) Best for: Raw fruit and veg peelings Egg shells Tea bags / coffee grounds (check the bag material) Cardboard/paper “browns” (torn up) Garden waste (grass, leaves, prunings) Why it’s good You keep nutrients at home and improve your soil. You cut the weight (and smell) in your general bin. It’s genuinely one of the simplest “circular economy” wins. WRAP and Recycle Now both push home composting as a practical waste-prevention step. The catch (literally): pests Most standard home compost ...
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Mud, Misery, and the Mighty Wellie: how UK farmers are coping with the very wet weather

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  Mud, Misery, and the Mighty Wellie: how UK farmers are coping with the very wet weather If your garden currently resembles a duck sanctuary, spare a thought for the people trying to earn a living on soil that’s behaving like a sponge in a bath. The Met Office has been pretty clear: this winter has felt exceptionally wet in many parts of the UK, with repeated spells of rain and very few proper dry breaks. Some weather stations have logged runs of around 40 consecutive wet days since late December. What “very wet” actually does to a farm (beyond ruining everyone’s trousers) 1) You can’t work land you can’t get on. Waterlogged fields mean tractors sink, ruts form, and soil gets compacted (which makes drainage and yields worse later). That delays ploughing, drilling, planting, fertiliser applications, and spraying—basically, the whole “growing food” bit. Scottish crop advisers have noted that field work has been “frustratingly delayed” by waterlogged soils this month. 2) Crop...
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Electric cars vs petrol cars: is the EV really cleaner from cradle to grave?

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  Electric cars vs petrol cars: is the EV really cleaner from cradle to grave? An electric car is almost always better for climate pollution over its lifetime in the UK — but it’s not “zero impact”, and some of the pollution simply moves (from the tailpipe to the supply chain and the power station). Let’s take the whole “cradle-to-grave” journey: making the parts, building the car, driving it, and end-of-life . 1) Making the car: EVs start with a bigger “carbon backpack” EVs are usually more polluting to manufacture than petrol/diesel cars because the battery is energy-intensive to produce. A recent EU life-cycle analysis found BEVs had ~40% higher production emissions than petrol cars (mainly the battery). So yes — if you only look at the factory gate, critics get a point. But… 2) Driving the car: in the UK, EVs win fast on emissions Once you start driving, the maths flips — because EVs are much more energy-efficient, and the UK grid is far cleaner than burning petr...
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