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Ambitious climate action to improve global air quality could save up to 1.32 million lives per year by 2040, according to a new study. The research, led by Cardiff University, shows how developing countries rely heavily on international cooperation to see these benefits, because much of their pollution originates outside their borders. The first-of-its-kind study analyzed these cross-border pollution "exchanges" for nearly every country—168 in total.

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Last week, President Donald Trump announced the United States would temporarily increase the amount of beef the nation imports from Argentina — by 80,000 more metric tons this calendar year.

In an executive order, the president stated these beef imports would not be subject to tariffs, and that he came to the decision after discussion with Brooke Rollins, U.S. agricultural secretary. The White House described the move as part of its push to lower beef prices at the grocery store for American consumers. But almost as soon as the trade deal was announced, Trump was met with backlash from key allies and constituents, including ranchers who say that buying more beef from Argentina hurts U.S. producers.

“The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and its members cannot stand behind the President while he undercuts the future of family farmers and ranchers by importing Argentinian beef in an attempt to influence prices,” Colin Woodall, head of the trade group, said in a statement. Deb Fischer, a Republican Senator from Nebraska, also stated that the trade deal “sideline[s]” cattle ranchers in the U.S.

Trade groups, lawmakers, and economists agree that the increased imports from Argentina are unlikely to lower the record-high beef prices in the U.S. That’s partly because Americans already consume so much beef, according to David Ortega, professor in the Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics department at Michigan State University.

“The added volume is rather small relative to what Americans consume each year, under 1% of total supply,” Ortega said in an email, adding that this “probably won’t move retail prices much.”

But regardless of how unpopular the trade deal is, it almost certainly will spell trouble for the environment, especially in Latin America.

“I don’t see how Argentina can meet its climate commitments by expanding its beef production for the United States,” said Stephanie Feldstein, the population and sustainability director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Raising cattle — a ruminant that emits methane as part of its digestive process — for human consumption has a huge climate footprint, both in terms of land use and greenhouse gas emissions. Whether the additional cattle Trump is seeking are raised in North or South America will still lead to more methane and other emissions in the atmosphere. “By importing Argentina’s beef to the US, this administration is exporting its disregard for the climate crisis,” said Feldstein.

Around the world, climate change has scrambled the economics of growing food and raising livestock. In Argentina and the U.S. alike, cattle ranches have been hit hard by unprecedented droughts and rising temperatures. These factors, along with producers facing higher prices for inputs like fertilizer, labor, and machinery have caused the U.S. supply of cattle to plummet to a 70-year low.

Javier Milei, the far-right Argentinian president, spoke highly of the trade deal, saying it signaled the nation’s trustworthiness as a trade partner. But boosting beef production in Argentina to meet Trump’s new quota will force ranchers in the Latin American country to make difficult decisions.

A herd of cattle stand at their stockyard before a cattle auction in Argentina. Tobias Skarlovnik / Getty Images

Currently, Argentina devotes a tremendous amount of land to raising cattle in pasture-based systems. Unlike the confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, found in the U.S. and other parts of the world, these pasture-based systems allow cattle to graze on a variety of grasses until the “finishing” stage, when they are fed corn- and soy-based feed before they are slaughtered.

Even despite the role it plays in deforestation, raising cattle on pasture is often considered to be a more sustainable practice than feed lots. But Silvia Secchi, natural resource economist and professor at the University of Iowa, pointed out that how you measure sustainability depends on how you define it — and when it comes to beef, both pasture-based and CAFO systems come with drawbacks for the planet.

CAFOs, which are also referred to as factory farms due to how little space livestock are afforded, pollute nearby air and waterways; local communities will often report manure and fertilizer runoff, as well as noxious odors. These feeding operations are terrible for both the farmed animals and the laborers who work there. However, CAFOs are sometimes touted as climate-efficient — in essence, because the livestock have such short lifespans before slaughter that they emit less methane relative to cattle who live longer grazing on pasture.

In essence, producing more beef means choosing between two flawed systems, noted Secchi. “To me, the only answer is, we need to eat less beef,” she said.

The evolving trade relations between the U.S. and Argentina demonstrates some uncomfortable truths about animal agriculture, and our food systems more broadly. First, it shows how farming and ranching are industries that are both on the frontlines of the climate crisis, and contributors to it.

Second, it reflects the toll that meeting the rising demand for animal protein has on critical ecosystems. In addition to its impact on ranchers, drought in Argentina has also slashed soybean production. Feldstein added that this has forced Argentinian farmers to import soybeans from Brazil, where such production is a driver of deforestation, particularly in the Cerrado, a savannah heralded for its biodiversity.

These knock-on effects have implications for the planet as a whole, as areas like the Cerrado are major carbon sinks.

As the Trump administration and MAHA leaders gear up to promote even higher animal protein consumption in the U.S., Feldstein agrees with Secchi’s assessment that consumers should strive, actually, to do the opposite. “There is no form of beef production that can be considered sustainable at our current consumption levels,” she said.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Trump’s beef trade deal is a lose-lose gamble that won’t lower prices on Feb 12, 2026.

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Bertrand Degat, vineyard manager for French zero-alcohol wine producer French Bloom, winces visibly when recalling some of the criticism and snobbery he has encountered from his contemporaries.

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President Donald Trump is poised Thursday to revoke a landmark scientific finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health by driving climate change—a determination that underpins US regulations aimed at curbing planet-warming pollution.

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Two new studies have identified an alarming connection between exposure to wildfire smoke during pregnancy and autism in young children. The unprecedented findings suggest the neurological consequences of breathing smoke are more profound than previously thought.

The research builds on a robust body of evidence that shows wildfire smoke is supremely unhealthy — about 10 times worse than inhaling car exhaust and other pollution emitted by burning fossil fuels. The ultra-fine particles that trees and vegetation release during combustion penetrate deep into the lungs and bloodstream, exacerbating preexisting conditions like asthma and, recent studies suggest, damaging internal organs.

In recent years, researchers have also begun to suspect that conflagrations like the one that leveled swaths of Los Angeles County last year impact neurological health, but the effects of smoke on the brain are comparatively poorly understood. Two new studies shed light on the complicated web of genetic and environmental factors that contribute to autism spectrum disorder, building on previous research that found connections between the developmental disability and exposure to air pollution in general.

The first study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Technology, analyzed data on more than 200,000 children born in southern California between 2006 and 2014. It found that those born to mothers exposed to 10 or more days of smoke in their third trimester had a 23 percent greater risk of being diagnosed with autism by age 5. Pregnant women who endured between six and 10 days saw a 12 percent higher risk of such a diagnosis in their kids.

Notably, the study found that average wildfire smoke concentration across the entire pregnancy or individual trimesters had no material effect on autism diagnoses. What did make a difference was the number of days a person in their third trimester inhaled the pollutant. Even one day of exposure had an effect.

“The more you get exposed the worse it is,” said David Luglio, a postdoctoral fellow at Tulane University and the lead author of the study. “But we can’t necessarily answer why that is the case.” Luglio said he hopes future research will help untangle why prolonged inhalation made such a big difference. Future studies may also help refine these results by incorporating information on how much time the subjects spent outside during fires and whether they wore masks that help filter particulate matter.

The second study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Environment International, examined a much bigger sample — some 8.5 million births in California between 2001 and 2019. It, too, found a link between wildfire smoke exposure and autism diagnoses, though its different methodology yielded more nuanced results. When researchers looked at average smoke exposure across all births, the association was relatively weak. But among women who experienced intense smoke episodes — particularly those in the top 10th percentile of exposure — the link was substantially stronger. And it was strongest in people who live in where population centers meet undeveloped land and are not exposed to very high levels of general air pollution normally.

In women in the highest percentile of wildfire smoke exposure who otherwise lived in areas with relatively little background air pollution — such as car exhaust and urban smog — the odds of having a child diagnosed with autism were 50 percent higher than among those with lower wildfire smoke exposure. The researchers adjusted their analyses for non-wildfire related sources of air pollution.

“It’s a really huge study,” Rebecca Schmidt, a professor of public health at University of California Davis and the paper’s lead author, said, referring to the many millions of records her team analyzed. The earlier study was also quite large, she said, a sign that both findings are well-founded. “There’s more evidence when there’s replication of similar findings,” she said.

Autism spectrum disorder affects one in 31 8-year-olds in the United States. The extent to which the neurological condition, which researchers widely agree is largely determined by genetics, may also be influenced by environmental factors remains an active area of research. In recent years, as wildfires have burned with more severity and frequency in some parts of the world, researchers have been considering their impact on the disorder.

At the same time, public interest in autism and its causes has mounted since the late 1990s, when the esteemed British medical journal The Lancet published what was later found to be a fraudulent paper that claimed to find a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. Robert F Kennedy Jr, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and one of the world’s most prominent vaccine skeptics, has long championed that theory. Under his leadership, the agency has radically remade the childhood immunization schedule, stacked an expert vaccine safety panel with his skeptics, and wound down mRNA vaccine development, among other moves that public health experts say undermine confidence in vaccines and threaten disease elimination status.

There is no credible evidence that vaccines cause autism. Even the two studies on autism and wildfire smoke do not indicate that wildfire smoke specifically causesautism. Credible experts who study the disorder, including the authors of these studies, agree that a diagnosis is very likely the result of several factors working in tandem.

“All we can point out is this association in the third trimester,” Guglio said. “It takes other people down the line to investigate those pathways more directly.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Growing evidence points to link between autism and wildfire smoke on Feb 12, 2026.

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On the sloping shoreline of the Greek Aegean island of Milos, a vast construction site has left a gaping wound into the island's trademark volcanic rock.

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China's emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide were "flat or falling" in 2025, analysis showed Thursday, but progress remains fragile and it is not yet clear that emissions have peaked.

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The Earth is warming more rapidly than before, and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more intense. While global warming is mainly driven by carbon dioxide emissions, it is also influenced by air pollution. But by how much? Europe's leading scientists on aerosol and clouds have now joined forces to uncover a dominant source of uncertainty in climate science.

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This is the second of two stories about the potential impact of Cambodia’s planned Funan Techo Canal. Read part one, about consequences for coastal communities and wildlife, here. TAKEO, Cambodia — Thet Chanton finally finished construction on his new home along the banks of the Prek Bassac (Bassac creek) in Prey Sambor village, a small farming community in Cambodia’s southern province of Takeo. That was in June 2024. Just five months later, when Mongabay first interviewed Chanton in November 2024, he said local authorities had already told him his house would need to be demolished. “We had a meeting with the village chief, but there were commune, district and provincial authorities there too,” Chanton said. “They told us that Prek Bassac will be studied to become part of the Funan Techo Canal.” The canal is a controversial new waterway the Cambodian government is planning to link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand. It will cut a 180-kilometer (112-mile) trench through farms, wetlands and homes in Kandal, Takeo, Kampot and Kep provinces as it goes. Chanton’s household is one of 400 the government estimates will lose their houses to the mega-project’s construction. The same estimates suggest that, in total, 2,305 households consisting of 11,525 people will be directly impacted in some way by the Funan Techo Canal. “We spent about $20,000 to build this house, but we did that with a $10,000 microfinance loan,” said Chanton, who owned a small rice farm around his newly built home when Mongabay met…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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On Feb 4, the U.S. hosted the Critical Minerals Ministerial, a summit bringing together delegations from more than 50 countries, including seven African countries, with the aim of securing access to the critical minerals used in everything from electric vehicles to semiconductors. Among the countries attending the summit was Guinea, a West African nation rich in bauxite and iron deposits. Its delegation, represented by the minister of mines, Bouna Sylla, signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. on Feb. 5. Morocco also signed an MoU with the U.S. at the summit, joining a handful of other African countries that have done so in recent months. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda signed partnership agreements with the U.S. in December. The deals marked an acceleration in U.S. efforts to gain access to and exploit critical minerals, an industry dominated by China. According to the International Energy Agency, in 2024, most of the global processing of copper, lithium, cobalt, graphite and rare earth minerals was done by China. Without naming China, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a press meeting on Feb 4, that the critical minerals supply is  “heavily concentrated in the hands of one country. And that lends itself to, at worst-case scenario, being used as a tool of leverage in geopolitics.” He added: “I think there’s a growing global recognition that we need to have supply chains for critical minerals that are reliable and diverse across the world.” Photographers capture the group of ministers…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Many people feel anxious about climate change and other trends in the world around us. However, there are constructive ways to cope with one's emotions. In step with the incorporation of the word "klimatångest" (climate anxiety) in the Swedish vocabulary, more and more researchers have become interested in the concept. One of them is Marlis Wullenkord, associate senior lecturer in environmental psychology at Lund University.

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A Brazilian federal court has sentenced a key financier to more than 22 years in prison. He was found guilty of leading an illegal mining operation in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, a huge protected area in the Amazon Rainforest that has been devastated by pollution, disease and deforestation. Rodrigo Martins de Mello, known as Rodrigo Cataratas, was convicted on charges of leading a criminal organization, money laundering, illegal mining on protected Indigenous land and other crimes. The mining severely degraded the Indigenous territory, causing disease and death for locals. The judge ordered Mello to pay more than 31.7 million reais ($6.1 million) in damages to the Yanomami people. “Justice must hold people accountable for the impacts and for the deaths of the Yanomami people, because we did nothing wrong,” Waihiri Hekurari Yanomami, the president of the Urihi Yanomami Association, told Mongabay in an audio message. “They are the ones who came and poisoned the children and the rivers. And until today, we are still paying a very, very high price. ” Illegal gold mining in the Yanomami territory surged more than 300% between 2018 and 2022, following the election of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro, who publicly supported mining on Indigenous land. Thousands of miners invaded Yanomami land, and with them came a 330% increase in deaths from malnutrition, mostly among young Indigenous children. A 2023 health survey found that almost 70% of the Yanomami people had mercury in their bodies. Mercury is commonly used to amalgamate gold. Miners also…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Geologists from St. Petersburg State University, as part of an international scientific team, have analyzed rock data from East Antarctica and determined that the magnetic anomaly in this region resulted from the convergence of continents and the birth of the supercontinent Rodinia approximately 1 billion years ago. The research is published in the journal Polar Science.

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A research team from the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has clarified how deposited nitrogen is retained in forest ecosystems and how this process contributes to carbon sequestration across China. The findings were published in Global Change Biology on January 30.

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The stunning Sierra Nevada red fox is one of the nation's rarest and most critically threatened mammals, with fewer than 50 believed to remain in the Sierra. And now, for the first time, a specimen has been successfully GPS-collared and released back into the region—marking a major victory for conservation efforts to protect the elusive vulpine.

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A multinational research team led by Professor Tong Zhang from the Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering at the University of Hong Kong (HKU Engineering), in collaboration with an international team, has developed a new framework to assess and track antimicrobial resistance (AMR) connectivity across human, animal, and environmental sectors. The study systematically examines the connectivity of AMR and proposes an assessment framework along with mitigation strategies.

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Pauly Denetclaw
ICT

In the United States, American Indian and Alaska Native populations have higher cancer incidence rates in comparison to other populations. They’re also up to three times more likely than White people to die from kidney, colon, liver, lung, stomach and cervical cancers, according to a 2025 report by the American Cancer Society.

American Indians and Alaska Natives have a higher prevalence of four risk factors that increase the risk of cancer. Healthy lifestyle changes and vaccines could help reduce risk. For others, it would be important to get tested for HPV and hepatitis C.

Cancer is a term used for multiple diseases, but is defined as the uncontrollable growth of genetically damaged cells. These damaged cells are immature and cannot perform their assigned role. They also create and grow tumors. Cancer cells can develop in any part of the body.

For example, stomach cells are assigned to break down food and absorb nutrients. Cancer cells in the stomach wouldn’t be able to perform any of these roles, it would create tumors that would hinder the stomach’s normal functioning and could influence healthy cells to provide nutrients for the tumors.

While cancer prevention is important, it cannot address family genetics, environmental factors, and systemic racism, which also impacts cancer rates in American Indian and Alaska Native people.

“You have environmental toxins from mining, you have illegal waste, agricultural runoffs, which I think in some ways are disproportionately affecting Native populations based on some of the data that I’ve read, and that can lead to downstream effects like cancer development,” said Dr. Christopher Chen, medical director of community practices at the City of Hope Cancer Center Phoenix.

While there is medical care for cancer when it does develop, Chen says the resources can be stretched thin and challenging.

“Indian Health Services is a great service, but just like any other government agency, it always faces funding and staffing issues,” Chen said. “These budgets and staffing issues limit access to care.”

Risk factors and cancer prevention

American Indian and Alaska Native people have a higher prevalence of some risk factors for cancer. They include obesity, regular use of commercial tobacco for non-ceremonial purposes, chronic hepatitis C, and a high prevalence of H. pylori which is a bacteria that causes ulcers and inflammation of the stomach lining, according to a 2025 American Cancer Society report.

Obesity increases the risk for 13 different types of cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They are cancers in the colon, rectum, female breast post-menopause, esophagus, uterus, gallbladder, upper stomach, kidneys, liver, ovaries, pancreas, thyroid, multiple myeloma and the tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord.

“The foods we eat impact the biome of the stomach environment, and it’s a risk for developing certain cancers. So how do we optimize, in a preventative setting, people’s diets?” Chen said. “But it ties back into socioeconomics. Sometimes you don’t have a choice of what you want to eat, and then what you’re able to eat.”

For those who don’t have easy access to grocery stores, buying frozen fruits and vegetables is one way to add more healthy foods, according to Dignity Health, a national nonprofit health care organization.  Dollar Tree, Dollar General and Family Dollar offer a limited selection of frozen produce. With high grocery prices, another way to lower food cost is buying produce that is in season or on sale. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a list of produce and when they are in season. Most grocery stores have a weekly advertisement that lists all of the on-sale produce and meats.

When looking at packaged foods, Dignity Health recommends looking at the nutritional label and selecting items that have under 600 mg of sodium, more commonly known as salt, and have less than 12 g of sugar per serving.

Moving the body and sleep are key, too.

“Having a healthier lifestyle and maintaining an active lifestyle, where people are exercising regularly,” Chen said. “Having regular meals — that’s something we almost never talk about. Good sleep hygiene. How many people are actually getting seven to eight hours of sleep every night?”

Lung cancer is the most common cancer in five of the six IHS regions.

“Among [American Indian and Alaska Native] people, who have the highest lung cancer rates, incidence has yet to decline in women, underscoring the need to redouble culturally sensitive, targeted tobacco-control efforts,” the American Cancer Society report stated.

For some tribal nations, smoking tobacco is part of cultural ceremonies or is used as an offering during prayer. When talking about lifestyle changes, it doesn’t include ceremonial, spiritual or cultural use of tobacco. Limiting the habitual use of commercial tobacco for recreational purposes is recommended.

“People know that smoking [cigarettes] is not good for you,” Chen said. “Currently there’s no big data sets for vaping, there’s no proof of harm yet. But you go back 40, 50 years, there wasn’t proof of harm yet for cigarettes. Right now, I worry about the younger population using vaping devices.”

Alaska Natives have a higher prevalence of the stomach cancer causing bacteria, H. pylori. It is a common stomach bacteria that more than half of the world’s population will contract at some point in their lives, according to the Mayo Clinic. It can be spread by sharing food or utensils with a person who has H. pylori. It can also be spread through tainted food and water. The infection can be treated with antibiotics. The signs and symptoms include stomach pain, bloating, gas and peptic ulcers.

Nationally, American Indian and Alaska Native people have the highest risk of chronic hepatitis C, which can lead to liver cancer. Hepatitis C is a virus that spreads through blood to blood contact. People that are at higher risk of contracting this virus should get tested. It can be treated with 12 weeks of antiviral medicines.

The more alcohol a person drinks the higher chance they will get liver cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. They recommend not drinking alcohol at all. People who choose to drink shouldn’t have more than one drink per day. Alcohol use has been linked to mouth, throat, liver, colon, breast and stomach cancer.

“The data I’ve read is that alcohol consumption rate is actually lower in Native populations, but the rate of heavy usage is higher,” Chen said. “There’s less people who drink, but the people who drink tend to drink heavier, and it’s the high consumption of alcohol that really puts patients at risk for developing issues in their liver and other health related issues down the road.”

HPV, cervical cancers

The risk of several cancers can be reduced by getting the HPV vaccine. There are two types of HPV, wart-causing, also known as, non-oncogenic, and cancer-causing, or oncogenic. It takes years, if not decades, for a person to develop cancer after being exposed to HPV.

Genital HPV is the most common sexually transmitted virus and it can cause cancers of the cervix, penis, anus and throat. The virus typically has no symptoms and will clear up on its own in around two years. Women and people assigned female at birth can get an HPV test which uses a similar procedure to a pap smear. Pap smears are recommended every three years and test for cervical cancer or cell changes that may turn into cancer.

The vast majority of cervical cancers are caused by HPV and almost all cervical cancers can be prevented by the HPV vaccine. Nearly 11,000 women and people with cervixes are diagnosed with cervical cancer caused by HPV every year and around 4,000 die from cervical cancer, according to the Center for Disease Control.

“A lot of cervical cancers originate from HPV infections,” Chen said. “If you can limit the infection rates by the adoption of HPV vaccines, down the road, you’ll have less HPV related cancers.”

HPV also impacts men and people assigned male at birth. About 16,000 get diagnosed with cancers caused by HPV every year. There are no FDA-approved tests for HPV in people with a penis. They often don’t show any symptoms despite having the virus, and diagnosis can only be made based on visual examination of warts or lesions.

These are just a few of the ways to try and prevent cancer.

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All of the lawsuits cite the initial finding that the plane flew into icing conditions while overweight.

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Current global climate models (GCMs) support with high confidence the view that rising greenhouse gases and other anthropogenic forcings account for nearly all observed global surface warming—slightly above 1 °C—since the pre-industrial period (1850–1900). This is the conclusion presented in the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) published in 2021.

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Phosphorus is essential for plant growth and ecosystem productivity. In many natural forests, plants rely on soil microbes to release bioavailable phosphorus from organic matter. The PhoD gene, which encodes the key enzyme alkaline phosphatase, is a central marker for this microbial process. Its role in fertilized agricultural systems is well known, but its distribution and drivers in natural forest ecosystems have remained unclear.

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When severe weather strikes, the National Weather Service's (NWS) Office of Water Prediction (OWP) makes critical flood forecasts with the National Water Model. Despite improvements over time, the model's performance has plateaued in recent years, leaving researchers from the federal government, academia, and private industry searching for a better solution.

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When a cell divides, it performs a feat of microscopic choreography—duplicating its DNA and depositing it into two new cells. The spindle is the machinery behind that process: It latches onto chromosomes (where DNA is stored) and separates them so they can settle into their new homes. This tricky process can sometimes go wrong, causing infertility, genetic disorders, or cancer.

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A total of Twenty-nine international banks and export credit agencies have ruled out financing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Papua New Guinea, citing climate, environmental and human rights concerns. The project is led by French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies, which says the project will go on as planned, nonetheless.  Twelve financial institutions recently declined the project, including ING, KfW IPEX-Bank and Standard Bank have publicly ruled out financing the project along with major banks such as Crédit Agricole and BNP Paribas. In December 2025, six international NGOs filed a formal complaint about the project with the Equator Principles Association (EPA), a voluntary risk management framework used by financial institutions to assess environmental and social risks of potential infrastructure projects. The complaint raised concerns that the project failed to meet EPA standards. The proposed project is located in Papua New Guinea’s Gulf and Central provinces and has a potential export capacity of 5.6 million metric tons of liquified natural gas per year. The plan includes up to 11 wells, a processing plant and 320 kilometers (200 miles) of onshore and offshore pipeline. The project is expected to emit 220 million metric tons of CO2 annually — nearly the emissions of Spain. Conservationists are concerned that the infrastructure and potential pollution could devastate rare, local wildlife. The would-be project is located in a mountainous region, home to roughly 100 species that haven’t yet been studied by science, Antoine Bouhey from the France-based research and campaigning organization Reclaim Finance told…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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How do the different parts of an adult plant communicate with each other when it suffers an injury, is waterlogged, burnt or exposed to environmental stress? Today we can answer this question thanks to an innovative optical imaging system developed by the Università degli Studi di Milano (University of Milan) together with the Politecnico di Milano. The study is published in Science Advances.

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For decades, the global fisheries conservation community has rightly focused on the health of fish stocks, the integrity of management systems, and the long-term sustainability of ocean resources. But there is a fundamental truth we can no longer afford to sidestep: fisheries management that fails to protect the people working at sea is neither credible nor sustainable. Crew welfare starts with international law. In theory, the framework already exists. International maritime law, anchored in instruments such as the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), establishes the responsibilities of states over vessels flying their flag. Complementing this are labor-specific agreements like the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Work in Fishing Convention (C188), the Maritime Labour Convention, and safety instruments such as the Cape Town Agreement on fishing vessel safety. In practice, however, these protections remain uneven, weakly enforced, or entirely absent for too many fishing crews, particularly migrant workers deployed on distant-water fleets. Ratification gaps persist. Oversight mechanisms are diffuse and fragmented, and accountability too often disappears once a vessel leaves port. Under international law, flag states, those countries where a ship is registered and to whose jurisdiction it is subject, remain the primary authority responsible for ensuring the safety, welfare and labor conditions of crews on their vessels. This is not optional. It is a legal obligation that is explicit under UNCLOS Article 94, on duties of the flag state. Yet many flag states lack either the capacity or the political will to exercise effective control over labor…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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