What on Earth?

Cultivating Plastics – how the use of agriplastics sows the seeds of pollution in farming

The plastics used in agricultural production – commonly called agriplastics – account for only 3.5 per cent of the plastic used around the world each year, but they directly pollute the human food chain and harm the wider environment.

As EIA releases the first of a new series of reports on the problems with agriplastics, EIA Ocean Campaigner Lauren Weir joins Senior Press & Communications Officer Paul Newman to talk about its findings.

• Read the Cultivating Plastics report
• Find out more

Methane madness – why the EU must tackle harmful emissions from its energy imports

The European Union has ambitious plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 per cent by 2030 – but one major problem is its reluctance to address the huge amount of harmful methane released into the planet’s warming atmosphere from the its imports of coal, gas and oil.

In this episode, EIA Climate Campaigner Kim O’Dowd joins Senior Press and Communications Officer Paul Newman to talk about the findings of our latest report, Hidden Harm, and what the EU should be doing about the situation.

• Find out more about the Hidden Harm report:
  https://eia-international.org/news/hidden-methane-emissions-from-the-eus-fossil-fuel-imports-undermine-its-climate-ambitions/
• Read the report:
  https://eia-international.org/report/hidden-harm/

How we’re using artificial intelligence to help tackle the illegal trade in tigers

In partnership with the UK’s Alan Turing Institute, EIA is currently working on an ambitious project to create a database of tiger stripe patterns – as individual as human finger prints – to help identify and trace animals in the wild and in illegal trade.

In this latest episode, EIA Senior Press & Communications Officer Paul Newman is joined by Shaun Buckley, a Data Scientist at the Turing Institute, to talk about the project and the challenges of developing this new cutting-edge tool.

What can we expect from the opening negotiations for the world’s first Global Plastics Treaty?

In March this year, the United Nations Environment Assembly agreed to forge ahead with a new Global Plastics Treaty and next week sees work start in earnest to get the detail in place to address the fast-rising threat of plastics pollution.

In this episode, EIA Ocean Campaign Leader Christina Dixon and Ocean Campaigner Jacob Kean-Hammerson talk about why work on this treaty is so important and what to expect from the negotiations.

CITES meetings are a big deal in the environmental calendar, but just what is it and what does it do?

One of the biggest dates in the environmental calendar is happening in November when the 19th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora – aka CITES – opens in Panama City. But just what is CITES?

Justin Gosling, the Senior Project Coordinator for EIA's Securing Criminal Justice projects in West and Central Africa talks with EIA Senior Press & Communications Officer Paul Newman about the Convention, how it came about, what it does and – just as importantly – what it doesn’t do.

International Ozone Day - What’s next for the Montreal Protocol as it marks its 35th anniversary?

On 16 September, the United Nations marks the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer – and for EIA’s Climate team, it’s an opportunity to look back at the Montreal Protocol as it marks its 35^th anniversary and to consider its role in addressing present and future challenges to the planet.

 

In this episode, EIA Climate Campaigner Sophie Geoghegan talks to Senior Press & Communications Officer Paul Newman about the impact of the Protocol – the most successful international environmental agreement ever – and why it remains so vital for all our futures.

International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies - the problems with methane

Today (7 September) is the UN International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies and Climate Campaigner Kim O’Dowd talks about the dangerous impacts of methane pollution on climate change as well as on human health and what EIA is doing about it.

Fighting for the forests - documenting a partnership forged to take on environmental crime

This episode, EIA Forests Team Leader Faith Doherty and Kaoem Telapak’s Mardi Minangsari talk with Senior Press & Communications Officer Paul Newman about the reasons for embarking on a major documentary project, the obstacles overcome and the special relationship that has been built between both organisations over two decades of campaigning.

Ban it and keep on banning it … the high cost to elephants of restarting legal ivory trade

Last week, Zimbabwe hosted what it called an ‘Elephant Summit’ for itself and several other African nations – including Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia – with the aim of restarting the legal international trade in ivory and selling off their stockpiled elephant tusks.

And in sharp juxtaposition to this potentially lethal movie, the UK Ivory Act is due to come into effect next week, banning virtually all trade in ivory in the country.

In this episode, EIA Senior Wildlife Campaigner Lindsey Smith and Wildlife Campaigner Rachel Mackenna take a look at these latest developments affecting elephant conservation and consider likely next steps.

Will a new national strategy to tackle environmental crime tame Nigeria’s Wild West?

In this edition, special guest Wilson Ogoke, Wildlife Policy Coordinator with the Africa Nature Investors Foundation, talks with EIA Wildlife campaigners Philip Rekret and Justin Gosling about the country’s new environmental crime strategy and how effective it may prove to be.