"We thought that the taboo was so firm that no one ever would even dare think of using anti-personnel mines," one source told me. "Much like chemical weapons or biological weapons.”
I usually cover environmental policy, but here's my first piece on global disarmament — and how one celebrated disarmament treaty that has protected countless civilian lives is now under threat.
Why did the CEO of one of the world's largest demining charities The HALO Trust defend a shipment of banned landmines from the US to Ukraine? spoileralerts.substack.com/p/questionab...
The story — written by journalist @emmaanne.bsky.social — raises tough questions about the perverse incentives at play in mine action.
Emma reached out @thehalotrust.bsky.social for comment. They declined.
Read the full story: spoileralerts.substack.com/p/questionab...
Why is the CEO of the world’s largest de-mining NGO defending landmines?
James Cowan of @thehalotrust.bsky.social has publicly supported the shipment of anti-personnel mines to Ukraine — even suggesting the Mine Ban Treaty should be revised 🧵
The UN Human Rights Council has just officially recognised plastic pollution as a threat to human rights. Here's a look at how plastic disproportionately affects Indigenous Peoples - and how they're fighting back dialogue.earth/en/pollution... @dialogueearth.bsky.social
✊ "We were completely being ignored. We were saying: ‘Chair, we need just two minutes. Chair, Indigenous Peoples are also here!’"
– Prem Singh Tharu, Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact
Indigenous Peoples fight to be heard at plastics treaty talks.
✍️ @emmaanne.bsky.social
loom.ly/7ACy-To
Super proud of this co-publication with @emdashsanders.bsky.social at ExxonKnews, about the DOE's unusual relationship with plastics industry lobbying groups. @gristnews.bsky.social grist.org/accountabili...
I, for one, chuckled in delight at this title, Alex!
"Plastic, he added, is undeniably useful. But it comes with a clear risk. One day, if fire strikes, 'it will burn faster, and it will burn hotter.' The advantages will turn to threats." www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...
Lovely to wrap up the year (nearly) by publishing this piece from @oliveheffernan.bsky.social on @dialogueearth.bsky.social
dialogue.earth/en/ocean/exp...
I don't think we talk nearly enough about the quiet wonders of #peat and what it does for our planet - or how frightening it is when it catches fire! Thanks to TED Ed for featuring this video, with beautiful animation by Ivana Volda, and expert insight from Guillermo Rein youtu.be/brdrOzVgZX0?...
I spoke to BBC Radio Wales' Science Cafe about Christmas waste, listen:
🗓️ 17th December
⏰ 18.30
📍 BBC radio Wales
Or on demand : www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
@bangoruniversity.bsky.social
#Christmas #plasticwaste #plasticpollution
When the history of the #PlasticsTreaty process is written, #INC5 in Busan 🇰🇷 will be remembered as the point where the large majority of countries in favour of a strong treaty discovered their capacity for collective action medium.com/points-of-or...
Thanks to @dpcressey.bsky.social and @dialogueearth.bsky.social for regularly making space for coverage on this fraught and fascinating topic, and @gridarendal.bsky.social for the funding to report from Busan!
The Busan talks were a disappointment for many. Yet some feel that they marked a turning point on the road to an ambitious global treaty. It's a mixed picture, but it's not over. And looking out to 2025, I wonder where all that optimism, energy, and raw emotion will take the process.
That collective hope also means that for those who have now dedicated years to the process, the lows feel really low - as one negotiator explained to me in Busan, beginning to cry as he contemplated returning to his island nation, whose shores are often awash with plastic, without a treaty in hand.
When countries first officially agreed to write a plastics treaty in 2022, I spoke with people who said they had literally wept with joy as that gavel came down!
The talks reached a stalemate and were not agreed by the December deadline, so the process will continue in 2025. It's been described as a 'failure'. But something that doesn't always get its due is the enormous optimism that is required to propel these multilateral processes into existence.
Late to post, but still thinking about the INC-5 plastics treaty talks in Busan, where 100+ countries stood up to support an ambitious agreement to tackle the escalating quantities of plastic that enter our lives each day dialogue.earth/en/pollution... @dialogueearth.bsky.social
#PlasticsTreaty: La communauté internationale quitte aujourd'hui Busan sans l’accord qu’elle était venue y chercher. Si la majorité en faveur d’un traité ambitieux repart renforcée, elle se heurte à la ferme opposition d’une minorité de pays. Partie remise en 2025.
www.contexte.com/article/envi...
"There’s a great lot of countries that want to see the betterment of this planet.” Fiji's Sivendra Michael on the 100+ nations who now want curbs on plastic production to be included in a global #plasticstreaty being debated in Busan www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...
What’s going on at the #PlasticsTreaty talks? Slightly jetlagged, I got together with the one and only @magnuslovold.bsky.social for an update last night. Listen to where we stand midway at #INC5:
m.soundcloud.com/plastisphere...
220 industry lobbyists here at the global #plasticstreaty talks in Busan, making it the largest delegation, outnumbering those of both Korea and the EU @cielorg.bsky.social www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...
Huge congrats to @karyna-mi.bsky.social for her paper published today in Science! She found that the hippocampus is really important for a key strategy we use to make decisions called hidden state inference! 🧪 🧠https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq5874 1/7
Next week in Busan, South Korea a final meeting on a treaty to curb plastic pollution starts. @emmaanne.bsky.social outlines what to look out for at INC-5 for Dialogue Earth.
dialogue.earth/en/pollution...
New - At least 123 oil & gas company bosses and staff were invited to #cop29 as “guests” by the Azerbaijan and given host country badges - i.e. the red carpet treatment, inc
Aramco, Exxonmobil and BP CEOs
Post by me
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
with the final round of UN plastics treaty negotiations in two weeks, we have published a preprint paper on the risks and limits of 'plastic credits' as a solution to this planetary crisis
@melaniebergma18.bsky.social @emmaanne.bsky.social @lisalsong.bsky.social
zenodo.org/records/1411...
NDCs, Article 6 and finance: this is a very helpful guide on what to watch at #COP29 and the key terms to know www.theguardian.com/environment/...
