Global push will triple toxic e-waste annually in 25 years, filling enough shipping containers to circle globe six times
The ongoing campaign to build thousands of massive datacenters for AI will create a “tsunami” of discarded electronics, putting the world on a course to triple its annual generation of toxic e-waste in the next 25 years, a new report projects.
The electronic trash AI generates in the next 25 years could fill enough shipping containers to encircle the globe six times, it said. Yet, says the report by the non-profit environmental group Basel Action Network (BAN), there is no plan to deal with that waste – which typically contains toxics like lead, mercury, cadmium and forever chemicals, as well as valuable metals that are challenging to reclaim.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
09/16/2026 - 06:00
09/16/2026 - 05:00
US grapples with federal firefighter shortage as crews say they’re spread thin and lack resources during unrelenting year of fire
Firefighters battling enormous wildfires in the United States say the federal government is failing them at a time when supercharged blazes have made their jobs exponentially more dangerous.
While the US continues to grapple with a critical shortage of federal firefighters – with especially large gaps in essential management positions – the Trump administration has increased pressure on firefighting forces to rapidly and aggressively contain the flames.
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09/16/2026 - 04:00
New owners apply for permission to extract oil in Horse Hill despite landmark ruling from supreme court in 2024
After years of trying to dig for oil in Surrey, the company behind the drilling project that was turned down in a landmark supreme court ruling has sold off the site for a fraction of the money it spent on it, and rebranded as a clean energy company.
Meanwhile, the new owners, who picked up the site for £1m, are applying, once again, for permission to dig.
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09/16/2026 - 00:00
Defenders of forests and rivers killed at rate of one every three days in 2025, with 85% of deaths in Latin America
Nature and land defenders were murdered at the rate of one every three days last year, prompting many communities to set up self-defence units, according to the latest annual death toll by the independent watchdog Global Witness.
Organised crime groups or professional killers were implicated in more than a third of the 124 killings of defenders in 2025 as narco-trafficking activities overlapped with intrusions into indigenous territories and environmental crime, such as illegal logging and wildcat gold mining.
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09/15/2026 - 23:00
Climate Change Committee says government cannot expand airport without requiring aviation industry to clean up its emissions
Heathrow airport should be allowed to expand only if airlines pay for the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the government’s climate advisers have said.
Building a third runway and new terminals, as some in government want to do, would breach the UK’s carbon budgets and make reaching net zero by 2050 impossible, on current policies, according to the Climate Change Committee.
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09/15/2026 - 16:30
Analysis of 29 studies highlights potentially heightened danger from small particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide
Air pollution is associated with an increased risk of suicide and suicidal thoughts, according to research.
Environmental pollution is known to be associated with poorer mental health but its role in suicide risk is less well understood. Scientists at Queen’s University Belfast examined whether air, noise, light, and water pollution could influence the risk of death by suicide and suicidal behaviours.
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09/15/2026 - 16:06
Connecticut plaintiffs say ‘forever chemicals’ in turnout gear increase risk of cancer by absorption and inhalation
A federal judge on Tuesday said more than 20 defendants including 3M, DuPont and Honeywell must face claims by Connecticut firefighters who said their protective gear was contaminated by toxic “forever chemicals” that increased their risk of cancer.
Lawyers for 13 firefighter union organizations and 12 individual firefighters said “turnout gear” that shields against extreme heat and flames leached the chemicals through absorption into skin, ingestion and inhalation. They have called the proposed class action the first to exclusively target firefighter gear containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or Pfas.
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09/15/2026 - 10:57
Critically endangered Bornean orangutans flee forests as staff at Cabang Panti work round the clock to stave off blaze
Wildfires in Indonesia are sweeping through a critical research site for Bornean orangutans and are now threatening a celebrated research camp, home to one of the world’s longest-running studies of wild apes.
In the past few days, the fires have burned within 200 metres of Rangkong research station, a satellite of Cabang Panti research station, which lies about four miles north in Gunung Palung national park.
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09/15/2026 - 10:39
More than 330,000 sea turtles arrived in southern Mexico in a mass nesting phenomenon known as an ‘arribada’.
The sixth arribada of the season, which began in March, brought thousands of turtles to the beach in less than 48 hours to lay their eggs, according to officials at La Escobilla beach sanctuary in Oaxaca, Mexico.
The olive ridley turtle plays a fundamental role in marine and coastal ecosystems by contributing nutrients to beach-dune systems and regulating populations of jellyfish and sponges, according to Mexico's federal attorney for environmental protection, but the climate crisis is now threatening their survival
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09/15/2026 - 10:00
Vibrant fields light up the landscape as an ideal growing season means crops are flowering earlier than usual in the south-west slopes and Riverina regions of New South Wales
Blankets of colour: Western Australia’s wildflower season bursts into life – in pictures
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