Illegal drugs have a BIG environmental impact
Here's your Ours to Save newsletter for the week beginning 12th July.
🌏 Thanks for signing up to support small, purpose-driven media. Next Tuesday, we’ll hear from a former wildfire fighter, a specialist on marine life and climate impact in the Caribbean, and Ecosia’s Head of Tree Planting. 🌏
Illegal drug production is taking a toll on nature in Belgium and The Netherlands 💊
Most are aware of the large-scale environmental and humanitarian impact of cocaine production in South America. But in Europe, secret drug labs are dumping waste and causing irreparable damage.
Drug waste is being dumped across Belgium and The Netherlands. Gangs are coercing farmers and discharging waste within manure pits, with altered manure then being spread on agricultural fields as fertiliser.
As chemical waste is harder to detect in water, its discharge is also now occurring within public sewer systems. This was first discovered when two wastewater treatment plants collapsed because of high quantities of drug waste in their water.
We need to talk about climate repair: interview with Sir David King 🔬
Formerly the UK government’s Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir David King has been appointed Chair of the newly-launched Climate Crisis Advisory Group.
"We have lost Arctic sea ice at unprecedented rates, with terrifying potential consequences for global warming due to the loss of albedo."
"Transition to net zero simply cannot happen fast enough to save the ice, so we need to find ways to protect it until we can reduce greenhouse gas levels back to safe concentrations. These techniques could include marine cloud brightening, for example, and ice thickening."
An ocean conservation alliance is forming on Mexico’s shores 🦈
Up and down the Yucatan Peninsula – mere miles from the patch of ocean that was recently set ablaze – organisations are coming together in the name of marine biodiversity.
Separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, the Yucatan Peninsula is perhaps best known for its Cancun high-rise resorts, and the Mayan archeological sites of Tulum and Chichen Itza.
But the quieter beaches of this vast coastal region are home to some of the most progressive ocean conservation work currently taking place in Mexico.