Month: November 2025

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil—The future of the Amazon rainforest is facing a serious threat as powerful agricultural interests and Brazilian politicians seek to overturn a key environmental policy, the Amazon Soy Moratorium (ASM), even as the COP30 UN climate conference debates global protection efforts. The ban, which has prohibited the sale of soya grown on land cleared in the Amazon biome after 2008, is widely recognized as a global success story for curbing deforestation. However, opponents are demanding Brazil's Supreme Court investigate whether the voluntary agreement constitutes anti-competitive behavior. Attack on the Soy Moratorium The ASM, first signed nearly two decades ago by environmental groups and major global food companies like Cargill and Bunge, effectively halted the ...

New Delhi, India—A critical study published in Nature Sustainability has issued a stark warning that several of India’s largest metropolitan areas, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru, are experiencing significant land subsidence a gradual sinking of the ground due to unsustainable groundwater extraction. Using eight years of satellite radar data, researchers found that the ground is compressing as water is pumped from underground layers faster than it can be naturally replenished. This process puts nearly 1.9 million people at risk in areas subsiding faster than four millimeters each year, with over 2,400 buildings already at high risk of structural damage. If current trends continue, projections show more than 23,000 buildings could face very high risk within the ...

Delhi has recorded its lowest average air quality index (AQI) for the November 1–15 period in three years, yet residents continued to inhale air that remained firmly in the “very poor” to “severe” category. This year’s average AQI of 349 is only marginally lower than 367 in 2024 and 376 in 2023, and barely above 345 in 2022 a shift too small to offer any real relief. Experts cautioned that this decline should not be mistaken for cleaner air. They attributed the lower readings to a combination of meteorological luck, a delayed surge in stubble burning due to flooding in Punjab, and an unusually early Diwali that took place before winter’s pollutant-trapping inversion layer could settle. In addition, irregularities in Delhi’s air monitoring network including missing values and suspicious ...

New Delhi, November 16: Greenpeace South Asia has released a damning investigation that could reshape global conversations on corporate responsibility at sea. The 128-page report, Below Deck: The Truth Beneath What You See (Mediterranean Shipping Company – MSC), draws on a decade’s worth of inspection records, port detentions, court filings and verified documentation, alleging a long-running pattern of safety failures and environmental neglect by the world’s largest container shipping line. The timing is significant. The report comes six months after the sinking of MSC ELSA 3, a Liberia-flagged vessel owned by MSC, off the Kerala coast. The wreck spilled oil and nearly 1,400 tonnes of plastic pellets into the Arabian Sea. Greenpeace argues this disaster was not an isolated accident but ...

The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has carried out the country’s first Plastic Waste Brand Audit, identifying major corporate contributors to the state’s non-recyclable plastic waste. The exercise, conducted across six major cities, marks a significant move towards strengthening accountability in plastic waste management. The audit was undertaken in Mohali, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Patiala and Bathinda to determine which brands generate the largest share of hard-to-recycle plastic waste. After analysing 11,810 plastic packets collected under multiple brand names, PPCB identified 14 companies including four multinational corporations responsible for around 59 per cent of the state’s non-recyclable waste. Of the 6,991 kilograms of municipal waste assessed, 613 kilograms we...

India’s public health is facing a serious threat from imported PVC resin containing dangerously high levels of carcinogenic chemicals, according to a new report by the Centre for Domestic Economy Policy Research (C-DEP.in). Released at IIT Delhi, the study warns that imports from China contain Residual Vinyl Chloride Monomer (RVCM) concentrations up to five times above globally accepted safety limits, posing potential long-term risks to consumers. The findings have renewed calls for strict quality enforcement under the Modi government Quality Control Order (QCO), introduced to regulate safety and industrial standards across sectors. The Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals had proposed the QCO for PVC resin in 2024, but implementation delays have pushed enforcement to an expected ...

A growing water crisis is unfolding across West Africa, with a new study by WaterAid and Tree Aid warning that millions are increasingly exposed to unsafe drinking water. The report From Roots to Rivers: How Deforestation Impacts Freshwater Access finds that 45 per cent of people across Ghana, Niger and Nigeria more than 122 million are now at risk, a rise of 20 million in just five years. Researchers link the trend directly to deforestation and the rapid loss of vegetation that supports freshwater systems. Forest loss destabilising freshwater systems The report explains that forests stabilise soil, filter pollutants and regulate rainfall, making them essential for protecting freshwater sources. Their destruction is disrupting these processes, threatening drinking water supplies, agr...

Archaeologists working in Theopetra Cave in central Greece have uncovered what may be the world’s oldest surviving human-made structure a stone wall more than 23,000 years old. Built during the Last Glacial Maximum, the wall predates the Egyptian pyramids by nearly 17,000 years and offers rare evidence of early architectural planning. A shelter built for survival Researchers believe Paleolithic humans constructed the wall to block freezing winds at the cave entrance, effectively creating a primitive insulation barrier. Its deliberate placement and use of clay suggest an early form of climate-responsive construction. Excavation leader Dr. Catherine Kyparissi-Apostolika used thermoluminescence dating to place the wall between 21,000 and 24,000 years old. A site with 130,000 years of...

The Amazon rainforest is approaching a critical tipping point, with escalating deforestation, wildfires, climate extremes and criminal activity putting the world’s largest rainforest at risk of irreversible collapse. The Amazon Assessment Report 2025 Connectivity of the Amazon for a Living Planet warns that without urgent intervention, the region’s ecological and social systems could break down. Forest loss and climate extremes pushing ecosystem to the brink Scientists say nearly a quarter of lowland forests, rivers and wetlands have already been affected by droughts, heatwaves and land degradation. The Amazon generates up to half of the world’s rainfall and holds nearly 20 per cent of global river freshwater, while storing carbon equivalent to 15–20 years of global emissions. Its de...

Iceland has officially declared the potential collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) as an existential threat, marking one of the strongest warnings yet over a key Earth-system tipping element. The highlights enormous influence AMOC has on Europe’s climate by bringing warm tropical waters into the North Atlantic and moderating winters across the region. Iceland climate minister, Johann Pall Johannsson, told that the weakening of AMOC is now considered “a direct threat to our national resilience and security”. It is the first time the country has formally placed a climate-related system before the National Security Council as a potential existential risk. Other North European governments, including climate and meteorological agencies, are now reassessing AM...