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Debate will decide on 40-year-old practice of throwing away edible fish to meet quotas.

from The Guardian

"Crucial negotiations in Brussels in the next few days will decide one of the thorniest European environmental issues of the past four decades – the wasteful practice of throwing millions of healthy fish back into the sea each year after they have been caught, because of the way the EU's quotas are managed.

"A ban on discards has gathered huge public backing since Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the chef and food writer, made it a personal campaign more than two years ago, highlighting the waste of the EU's rapidly dwindling fish stocks. He has gathered the support of the UK fisheries minister, Richard Benyon, who will fight for the ban in an EU meeting starting on Monday. …"

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Former UN secretary-general urges David Cameron to use Britain's G8 chairmanship to push for change.

from The Guardian

"Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary-general, is urging David Cameron to use Britain's chairmanship of the G8 to end some of the 'unconscionable' practices of companies exploiting Africa's vast reserves of natural resources.

"The prime minister has promised to put trade, transparency and tax at the top of the G8's agenda when he hosts the leaders of the world's major nations in Belfast next month.

"Annan said he would be sending him a copy of the annual Africa Progress Report, which shows how the economic benefits of extracting natural resources such as oil and iron ore often fail to flow through to the local population. …"

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Islanders must adapt as environmental impact of climate change affects centuries-old ways of life.

from The Guardian

"With islands and atolls scattered across the ocean, the small Pacific island states are among those most exposed to the effects of global warming: increasing acidity and rising sea level, more frequent natural disasters and damage to coral reefs. These micro-states, home to about 10 million people, are already paying for the environmental irresponsibility of the great powers.

"'Pacific islands are the victims of industrial countries unable to control their carbon dioxide emissions. The truth of the matter is that we have no option but to accept this and adapt,' says Dr Jimmie Rodgers, the head of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), a regional development organisation. At the initiative of France's Research on Development Institute (IRD) and New Caledonia University, 30 or so scientists from the Pacific basin spent a week at the end of April discussing the design of a sustainable development model suited to local conditions — in particular, pressure from the climate on ways of life that reach back several millennia.

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Dutch research reveals correlation between water polluted with imidacloprid and low numbers of aquatic insects

from The Guardian

"The world's most widely used insecticide is devastating dragonflies, snails and other water-based species, a groundbreaking Dutch study has revealed.

"On Monday, the insecticide and two others were banned for two years from use on some crops across the European Union, due to the risk posed to bees and other pollinators, on which many food crops rely.

"However, much tougher action in the form of a total worldwide ban is needed, according to the scientist who led the new study.

"'We are risking far too much to combat a few insect pests that might threaten agriculture,' said Dr Jeroen van der Sluijs at Utrecht University. 'This substance should be phased out internationally as soon as possible.' The pollution was so bad in some places that the ditch water in fields could have been used as an effective pesticide, he said.

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