Pharmaceuticals that people globally rely on for daily health — including antibiotics, antidepressants and painkillers — are entering ecosystems via wastewater, posing poorly understood risks. Once there, aquatic insects can…
JAKARTA — When old mattresses and broken chairs are dumped by the roadside in his neighborhood, Erwinsyah faces a choice: leave them there and risk accidents, or set them on…
Burning plastic waste for household fuel, or to manage household waste, may be far more prevalent in poor urban areas in developing countries than previously thought, raising serious environmental pollution…
BIRGUNJ, Nepal — When 38-year-old Pradeep Kumar Bishwokarma was growing up in Ramgadhawa, a neighborhood in southern Nepal’s industrial town of Birgunj, he would jump into the Sirsiya River to…
A burnout pushed one woman to build a new, nature-friendly career in one of the rainforest’s most deforested cities.
SEKADAU, Indonesia — Children’s laughter skimmed over water the color of mud as mothers wrung laundry over banks where the Sekadau joins the Kapuas, the longest river in Indonesia. Local…
Earlier this year, a spate of deaths in Florida caused by Vibrio vulnificus, known as the flesh-eating bacteria, made headlines. Infections of this kind are troublingly on the rise as…
As the world desperately searches for a way out of its global climate change and plastic pollution crises, nations are increasingly turning to burning municipal waste to make fuel as…
When U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly in late 2025 and dismissed climate change as a “con job”, the scientific community reacted with alarm. Months earlier,…
As the sliver of a new moon shines over Kāneʻohe Bay, Oʻahu, millions of tiny orbs ascend from a reef and swirl in the water column. These spheres are bundles…
The Norwegian government has granted permission for the construction and operation of the Nussir copper mine in Hammerfest, a municipality on the northwestern coast of the island of Kvaløya, in…
SERANG, Indonesia — The rain had just passed over Nambo Udik, a village in Cikande, Serang, Banten. The air hung heavy and damp, and puddles lingered in the muddy yard…
A recent study has found “alarming” levels of toxic chemicals in free-range eggs around the globe. The finding is based on more than a decade of analyses of eggs on…
CAPE MACLEAR, Malawi — On a clear August morning, three scuba divers disappeared under the waters of Lake Malawi. Above them, serenity: The clear water rippled gently, spick-and-span Cape Maclear…
Tony Pritzker approaches environmental philanthropy like a patient strategist. A scion of one of America’s best-known business families, he has spent decades moving between boardrooms, laboratories, and community meetings, applying…
Each year since 2021, Pia Reveco and her husband have set sail from Puerto Montt to spend the Chilean summers navigating Patagonia aboard their sailboat. Last year, they traveled along…
When Saabira Chaudhuri began covering consumer-goods companies for The Wall Street Journal, she thought she was writing about marketing campaigns, product launches, and quarterly results. What she found instead was…
Manaus, in the state of Amazonas, is one of the top generators of solid waste among Brazil’s state capitals, with an average of 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of garbage per…
JAKARTA — Thirteen organizations and businesses have launched the Indonesian Reuse Association, or AGUNI, a coalition dedicated to building a sustainable reuse system to curb the country’s worsening waste crisis.…
A 54-day monitoring by Indonesia’s largest environmental group around a waste-to-energy plant in East Java revealed frequent air quality levels breaching World Health Organization safety limits, raising concerns for public…
GENEVA — Delegates, experts, and stakeholders from 184 countries and 619 organizations are determined to finalize the treaty on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. They made this clear…
NAIROBI — Mountains of waste stretch as far as the eye can see, smoking in places, giving off an acrid stench that stings the eyes and catches in the throat.…
Haryanto surveys a sandy patch the size of roughly half a soccer field. Overlooked by a 40-meter (130-foot) lighthouse, the clearing is a stone’s throw from the Pacific Ocean, where…
The skies overhead are already teeming with satellites. But their orbiting numbers will skyrocket in the near future as the commercial and international space race takes off. Three projects alone…
When Tiwonge Mzumara-Gawa was a child, her mother sent her to market with a basket woven from grasses. “But now we don't do that,” she says, because plastic has taken…
Kataragama, SRI LANKA — For centuries, barefoot pilgrims have walked through the arid jungles and lush forests of Sri Lanka’s east and south, following a sacred route to a fabled…
Three communities in Papua New Guinea are waiting for the country’s Supreme Court to decide whether their concerns about the dumping of mine waste in the sea near their homes…
Major streets of Yaoundé, the political capital of Cameroon, have turned into open sewers. Every day, hundreds of cubic meters of liquid waste — enough to fill more than an…
SUKOHARJO, Indonesia — Sarmi recalls the unusual blight that fell over Gupit village around 2017, when doves and finches appeared to vanish from the sky. “With pollution that acrid and…
JAKARTA — A deadly landslide in an Indonesian industrial park has reignited concerns over poor safety and environmental standards in the country’s booming nickel sector, a key supplier of battery…
UGGUBSENI and ISBERYALA, Guna Yala, Panama — “Our ancestors fought for this land,” says Jair Goporas, 21. He leans forwards into the dim glow of a bare bulb, his eyes…
JAKARTA — With the Islamic month of Ramadan now over, a familiar sight has returned to the streets of daytime Jakarta: street vendors serving up chicken porridge, and everyone from…
