Diane Wilson recognized Exxon’s playbook – and showed how local people can take on even the most entrenched industries
When ExxonMobil announced it would “slow the pace of development” on a $10bn plastics plant along the Texas Gulf coast, the company blamed market conditions. But it wasn’t just the market applying pressure; it was a 77-year-old shrimper named Diane Wilson who refused to stay silent. Her fight exposes big oil’s latest survival plan: ramping up oil and gas production to create plastic.
I first met Wilson back in 2019 while tracking her historic lawsuit against Formosa Plastics, the Taiwanese petrochemical giant accused of dumping toxic plastic waste throughout coastal Texas. Billions of tiny plastic pellets were contaminating waterways, shorelines and even the soil itself.
Shilpi Chhotray is the co-founder and president of Counterstream Media and Host of A People’s Climate for the Nation
Continue reading...
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/14/2025 - 08:00
11/14/2025 - 07:00
Disease outbreaks from South America to Europe have been worsened by rising global temperatures, experts say
Surging cases of yellow fever and dengue in South America highlight the growing assault on people’s health from the climate crisis, with infectious diseases spread by mosquitoes and deadly heat also now pushing into temperate regions such as Europe, experts have warned at the Cop30 climate summit.
There have been 356 cases of yellow fever in South America and 152 deaths so far this year, largely in the Amazon region, according to Pan American Health Organization figures. Apart from a large spike in 2017 and 2018, this is the largest number of yellow fever cases for any year in the continent, bar one, since 1960.
Continue reading...
11/14/2025 - 06:33
About 600,000 people seeking compensation a decade on from disaster that killed 19 and devastated villages
The global mining company BHP Group has been found liable for the deadly 2015 collapse of a Brazilian dam, in a landmark ruling that could pave the way for a multibillion-dollar payout.
The high court in London on Friday ruled that BHP was responsible for the collapse of the Fundão dam in Mariana 10 years ago, which led to the country’s worst environmental disaster.
Continue reading...
11/14/2025 - 03:00
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
Continue reading...
11/14/2025 - 02:19
Ex-politicians and candidates warn the decision will likely cause a loss of votes from younger people
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
At least three former Liberal MPs have derided the opposition’s decision to dump net zero by 2050 as an “existential crisis” and “another nail in the coffin” that will guarantee electoral irrelevance for the foreseeable future.
Guardian Australia spoke to the former politicians and previous Liberal party candidates, who say any hopes of reclaiming inner-city and suburban seats at the next election have been dashed as a result of the move.
Continue reading...
11/14/2025 - 02:00
Radio host uses chart songs that didn’t quite make top spot to highlight issue of Windermere pollution
If you Sit Down and wonder why Britain’s streams, rivers and lakes are so filthy, you’re probably Holding Out for a Hero to halt this Scandalous discharge of sewage.
Step forward the Lake District Radio DJ Lee Durrant, who will go Radio Ga Ga with a 24-hour live broadcasting marathon on Friday, playing songs that peaked at No 2 in the charts to highlight the ongoing stench of not quite Golden Brown “number twos” floating downstream.
Continue reading...
11/14/2025 - 02:00
Investigation by Guardian and Carbon Brief finds just a fifth of funds to fight global heating went to poorest 44 countries
Cop30: click here for full Guardian coverage of climate talks in Brazil
China and wealthy petrostates including Saudi Arabia and UAE are among countries receiving large sums of climate finance, according to an analysis.
The Guardian and Carbon Brief analysed previously unreported submissions to the UN, along with data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), that show how billions of dollars of public money is being committed to the fight against global heating.
Continue reading...
11/14/2025 - 00:59
Former ACCC chair condemns proposed exemption allowing minister to approve projects that don’t comply with law
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
The former competition watchdog chief Graeme Samuel says the government should axe its proposal to allow the environment minister to make decisions in breach of national laws if it is deemed in the “national interest”.
Samuel, who led a 2020 review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, also argued a loophole that effectively exempts native forest logging from the laws “shouldn’t be there”.
Continue reading...
11/14/2025 - 00:48
It certainly sounds like fun until you walk under a tree and…
Sign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are published
Get all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints
Continue reading...
11/14/2025 - 00:00
From deforestation to emissions trading, vital policies are being watered down in the name of ‘competitiveness’. But Europe is shooting itself in the foot
Climate action has long been a flagship European policy. As negotiators gather in Brazil for Cop30, however, Europe’s leadership risks faltering. Things were very different a decade ago in Paris, when a landmark deal to limit global heating to 1.5C was achieved at Cop21. That agreement relied on an understanding between the US and China – one that would be difficult to replicate today. Its ambition was elevated by Europe acting in concert with a broad coalition of global south countries.
The Paris climate agreement paved the way for the European Green Deal in 2019, which enshrined into law the ambition of climate neutrality in the EU by 2050 and introduced the world’s first comprehensive plan to achieve it, featuring a robust set of pricing, regulatory and funding measures.
Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist
Continue reading...
