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MP calls for ban on ‘biobeads’ at sewage works after devastating Camber Sands spillage

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Thursday, December 11, 2025

The use of tiny, toxic plastic beads at sewage works should be banned nationwide, an MP and wildlife experts have said after a devastating spill at an internationally important nature reserve.Hundreds of millions of “biobeads” washed up on Camber Sands beach in East Sussex last month, after a failure at a Southern Water sewage treatment works caused a catastrophic spill. This caused distress and alarm for local residents and conservationists, as not only are the beads unsightly, but they pose a deadly threat to wildlife.Scientists at Kings’ College London tested the beads and found they contained heavy metals including lead and arsenic.The local Labour MP, Helena Dollimore, is on Thursday launching a campaign with the Wildlife Trusts to get the use of these beads banned for good. There is no record held by the government or the regulator of how many water plants use these beads, the condition of the containers holding them, or the risk posed to the beaches near where they are kept.Campaigners will gather at Rye harbour nature reserve, an internationally important habitat for rare wading birds, to call for the beads to be banned.Research by the Guardian found at least 15 treatment works using these beads, all situated around the south and south-west coast of England. These plants are older, mostly built in the 1990s and early 2000s. They use billions of floating plastic beads to create layers of biofilm, bacteria that purify water, which are separated from the environment by a mesh screen. Recent technological advances mean that water can now be purified using electric currents, and using fixed surfaces made of ceramic or concrete. There are similar but more costly products made of glass, which is less harmful to the environment.Dollimore, who is the Labour and Co-operative MP for Hastings, Rye, said: “A month ago I wasn’t aware that these plastic beads were used in local wastewater plants until 320m washed up on our beaches and nature reserve, causing an environmental catastrophe. The use of beads is an outdated technology and better modern methods exist. So why are water companies still using them in coastal plants – the very place they could do most damage? We’re calling for them to bin the beads.”A spade-full of biobeads collected on Camber Sands. Photograph: Anna McGrath/The GuardianThese beads contain a high number of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which have been linked to cancer. They often contain toxins including lead, antimony and bromine. Once in the sea, they attract algae, making them smell like food to sea creatures, which then ingest them and can be poisoned.The local Wildlife Trust has been struggling to deal with the spillage. Conservationists have been working tirelessly to remove the beads, which has been difficult as they are embedded in fragile habitats including the saltmarsh and in the shingle. The trust said it would be ordering autopsies of dead birds found, to see if the beads were a cause of death. The nature reserve is loved by birds such as Wigeon ducks because of the plentiful seeds found in the muddy flats; but these are identical in size to the bio-beads, so it is likely they will be ingested.Henri Brocklebank, director of conservation at the Sussex Wildlife Trust, said: “Rye harbour nature reserve is internationally important for its birds, with species travelling thousands of miles to feed and breed here. Bio-beads are small and buoyant, not dissimilar to many of the food items these birds are searching for. The impact of bioplastics accumulating in the digestive systems is well documented, but the effects of any contaminants that could be released in the acidic gut systems of these birds are far less understood. The removal of the bio-beads from the environment is paramount, but I fear that our grandchildren will still be finding them in years to come.“There is only one way to guarantee that we never have a spill of bio-beads again. That is to stop our wastewater treatment works from using them. They are an old and redundant technology and we must see their use ended swiftly.”Water minister Emma Hardy has written to water companies to find out the extent of their use of beads. The Environment Agency continues to investigate Southern Water after the spillage on Camber Sands.Southern Water apologised for the spill and said it was unable to comment on third-party testing.Defra has been contacted for comment.

Exclusive: Use of toxic plastic beads in treatment works is unnecessary and outdated say conservationists after hundreds of millions wash up on beachThe use of tiny, toxic plastic beads at sewage works should be banned nationwide, an MP and wildlife experts have said after a devastating spill at an internationally important nature reserve.Hundreds of millions of “biobeads” washed up on Camber Sands beach in East Sussex last month, after a failure at a Southern Water sewage treatment works caused a catastrophic spill. This caused distress and alarm for local residents and conservationists, as not only are the beads unsightly, but they pose a deadly threat to wildlife. Continue reading...

The use of tiny, toxic plastic beads at sewage works should be banned nationwide, an MP and wildlife experts have said after a devastating spill at an internationally important nature reserve.

Hundreds of millions of “biobeads” washed up on Camber Sands beach in East Sussex last month, after a failure at a Southern Water sewage treatment works caused a catastrophic spill. This caused distress and alarm for local residents and conservationists, as not only are the beads unsightly, but they pose a deadly threat to wildlife.

Scientists at Kings’ College London tested the beads and found they contained heavy metals including lead and arsenic.

The local Labour MP, Helena Dollimore, is on Thursday launching a campaign with the Wildlife Trusts to get the use of these beads banned for good. There is no record held by the government or the regulator of how many water plants use these beads, the condition of the containers holding them, or the risk posed to the beaches near where they are kept.

Campaigners will gather at Rye harbour nature reserve, an internationally important habitat for rare wading birds, to call for the beads to be banned.

Research by the Guardian found at least 15 treatment works using these beads, all situated around the south and south-west coast of England. These plants are older, mostly built in the 1990s and early 2000s. They use billions of floating plastic beads to create layers of biofilm, bacteria that purify water, which are separated from the environment by a mesh screen. Recent technological advances mean that water can now be purified using electric currents, and using fixed surfaces made of ceramic or concrete. There are similar but more costly products made of glass, which is less harmful to the environment.

Dollimore, who is the Labour and Co-operative MP for Hastings, Rye, said: “A month ago I wasn’t aware that these plastic beads were used in local wastewater plants until 320m washed up on our beaches and nature reserve, causing an environmental catastrophe. The use of beads is an outdated technology and better modern methods exist. So why are water companies still using them in coastal plants – the very place they could do most damage? We’re calling for them to bin the beads.”

A spade-full of biobeads collected on Camber Sands. Photograph: Anna McGrath/The Guardian

These beads contain a high number of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which have been linked to cancer. They often contain toxins including lead, antimony and bromine. Once in the sea, they attract algae, making them smell like food to sea creatures, which then ingest them and can be poisoned.

The local Wildlife Trust has been struggling to deal with the spillage. Conservationists have been working tirelessly to remove the beads, which has been difficult as they are embedded in fragile habitats including the saltmarsh and in the shingle. The trust said it would be ordering autopsies of dead birds found, to see if the beads were a cause of death. The nature reserve is loved by birds such as Wigeon ducks because of the plentiful seeds found in the muddy flats; but these are identical in size to the bio-beads, so it is likely they will be ingested.

Henri Brocklebank, director of conservation at the Sussex Wildlife Trust, said: “Rye harbour nature reserve is internationally important for its birds, with species travelling thousands of miles to feed and breed here. Bio-beads are small and buoyant, not dissimilar to many of the food items these birds are searching for. The impact of bioplastics accumulating in the digestive systems is well documented, but the effects of any contaminants that could be released in the acidic gut systems of these birds are far less understood. The removal of the bio-beads from the environment is paramount, but I fear that our grandchildren will still be finding them in years to come.

“There is only one way to guarantee that we never have a spill of bio-beads again. That is to stop our wastewater treatment works from using them. They are an old and redundant technology and we must see their use ended swiftly.”

Water minister Emma Hardy has written to water companies to find out the extent of their use of beads. The Environment Agency continues to investigate Southern Water after the spillage on Camber Sands.

Southern Water apologised for the spill and said it was unable to comment on third-party testing.

Defra has been contacted for comment.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

Related News

Spandrels of the Sea: From Evolution’s Byproducts to Blueprints for Equity and Representation in Ocean Conservation

Unintended consequences can become indispensable — in architecture and in efforts to preserve life on Earth. The post Spandrels of the Sea: From Evolution’s Byproducts to Blueprints for Equity and Representation in Ocean Conservation appeared first on The Revelator.

Conservation isn’t always about grand designs. Sometimes the most powerful tools are byproducts of other work — unintended consequences that become indispensable. Think of the spaces that emerge between a dome and its arches. No one designs these triangles. They simply arise, an inevitable feature of the structure. Yet in the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, the Alhambra in Spain, or the Taj Mahal in India, these spaces are decorated with lavish mosaics of gold and glass, or with paintings and iconography so beautiful that they become the focal point of the entire building. They’re what biologists Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin called spandrels. Spandrel at La Mezquita de Córdoba, Andalucía, Spain. Photo: Brent Miller (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) In 1979 Gould and Lewontin borrowed this architectural term to challenge the idea that every biological trait is a perfect adaptation honed by natural selection. In their essay, “The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm,” they argued that some traits arise as inevitable byproducts of structure or developmental constraints. Eventually these spandrels may be repurposed with a new function. Once you understand the idea, you can’t help but see spandrels everywhere. Not just in cathedrals, but in our own systems. Conservation, like nature, generates byproducts. Some fade into obscurity. Others, once decorated with meaning, become indispensable to our work. The Spandrel in Evolutionary Biology: Origin and Reasoning The mid-20th century was dominated by what Gould and Lewontin called the adaptationist programme: the assumption that every trait must be adaptive, shaped directly by natural selection. If birds had red plumage, it must confer advantage. If humans had chins, they must aid chewing or sexual display. The tiny arms of a Tyrannosaurus rex must have served a purpose. Gould and Lewontin resisted this Panglossian optimism, named for Voltaire’s Dr. Pangloss, who insisted, in a jab at the philosophy of Gottfried Leibniz, that all features exist in “the best of all possible worlds.” They urged scientists to consider whether traits might simply be incidental byproducts of other evolutionary processes. When domes meet arches, the leftover triangular spandrels are unavoidable. In the same way, some traits in organisms show up simply because of limits in embryonic development, links between traits, or even random chance. Later these features may be put to use in a process known as “exaptation,” a term introduced by Gould and paleontologist Elizabeth Vrba in 1982. Classic examples of biological spandrels abound. Male nipples, for instance, persist as a feature retained from our shared embryology with females. The famously tiny arms of T. rex may have shrunk as an unintended consequence of its skull and jaw enlarging over evolutionary time. Human cognition itself, manifested in art, religion, and music, may be a by-product of neural circuits originally evolved for language and pattern recognition. Even the panda’s so-called “thumb,” a modified wrist bone, began as a structural constraint before being coopted into a remarkably effective bamboo-stripping tool. Together these cases reveal how traits that emerge incidentally can be repurposed — “decorated,” as Gould might say — into vital adaptations. From Biology to Conservation: The Ocean’s Decorated Spandrels If spandrels remind us to look for unintended byproducts in organisms, the metaphor helps us analyze our own conservation practice. Ocean conservation produces spandrels too: outcomes not deliberately designed but emerging from structural constraints, cultural forces, or institutional habits. Some fade away. Others are decorated — infused with meaning until they become central to our storytelling, fundraising, and advocacy. Just as San Marco’s spandrels hold shimmering mosaics, conservation’s byproducts often bear the weight of public engagement. Decorated Conservation Spandrels Charismatic megafauna: Fascination with whales, dolphins, and turtles wasn’t engineered. It arose culturally through storytelling, religion, aquariums and documentaries. Conservationists later took advantage of that, making these species ambassadors for bycatch reform, fisheries policy, and climate resilience. Citizen science: Born from scarcity, it began as a stopgap for limited funding and capacity. Today it empowers stewardship, ownership, and participatory democracy. Conservation tourism: Shark dives and manta snorkeling began as commercial novelties. Reframed, they became conservation tools, turning spectacle into empathy and tourists into donors. Ocean days and hashtags: UN “international days” were bureaucratic spandrels. Activists decorated them into rituals for fundraising, awareness, and norm-building. #OceanOptimism: Emerging from burnout and doom fatigue, #oceanoptimism wasn’t a designed strategy. But once decorated, it reframed narratives, energized practitioners, and invited new communities into ocean care. Hunting for Spandrels: A Framework for Practice Conservation often produces unexpected side effects: some trivial, some troublesome, some surprisingly useful. Instead of ignoring or lamenting these byproducts, we can deliberately scan for them and ask: What hidden opportunities might they hold? That’s the heart of what I call “spandrel hunting.” Here’s a practical way to do it: Identify the byproducts: Notice the extra things our work generates, from viral memes to volunteer enthusiasm to funder metrics. Diagnose spandrelness: Ask whether these features arose by design or simply as incidental outcomes. Scan for coopt potential: Explore how unintended products can be repurposed into advocacy or engagement tools. Watch for self-defeating spandrels: Stay alert to “false friends” like paper parks, plastics-only campaigns, or other distractions that undermine deeper goals. Institutionalize the scan: Build spandrel-hunting into evaluations, retrospectives, and funding cycles so it becomes routine practice. In this way conservation can reframe failure and side effects into raw material for innovation — irritants that can be polished into mosaics. Case Study: Sharks, Spectacle, and the Spandrels of Charisma For much of the 20th century, sharks were cultural villains. The movie Jaws and its imitators spurred fear and culls. No strategist would have proposed sharks as conservation icons. And yet spandrels emerged. Discovery Channel’s Shark Week (1988) was a ratings ploy, not a conservation platform. Its lurid fearmongering carved sharks into public consciousness. Simultaneously, coastal fishers turned to tourism as economies shifted. Shark diving in the Bahamas, South Africa, Fiji, and Palau revealed living sharks’ economic value: millions annually, far surpassing fishing revenue. Conservationists decorated these spandrels. NGOs injected science into Shark Week narratives. Operators partnered with researchers, blending spectacle with tagging and data collection. Even Jaws author Peter Benchley recanted, becoming a shark advocate. But the risks remain. Sensationalist media still perpetuate myths. Some tourism practices alter shark behavior. And the megafauna focus risks neglecting less telegenic species. The shark spandrel offers several lessons. First, visibility matters, even when it begins in a negative light, as with the fear stoked by Jaws and early Shark Week spectacles. Second, economic pivots, such as the rise of shark tourism, can transform these unintended byproducts into powerful conservation assets. Third, cultural narratives can be “hacked” to shift public perception, turning once-vilified predators into ambassadors for ocean health. Finally, there’s a caution: Over-decorating a spandrel can mislead or distract, as sensationalism sometimes overshadows science or diverts attention from less charismatic but equally threatened species. Future Spandrels: Byproducts as Pathways to Justice and Representation The spandrels of tomorrow won’t just be about memes or metrics. They’ll also emerge in the spaces where conservation bumps into questions of justice, representation, and whose stories are told. The future spandrel landscape is rich with opportunities to elevate Indigenous stewardship, amplify BIPOC and LGBTQ voices, and redirect cultural byproducts into tools for equity as well as ecology. Ocean plastic cleanups: Photogenic and headline-friendly, but often narrow and sometimes scientifically shaky. They can, however, be reframed as on-ramps into bigger justice debates about petrochemicals, environmental racism, and the frontline communities most hurt by waste and toxic industries. Hashtag and meme culture: Algorithmic byproducts that can be harnessed as equity pivots, amplifying hashtags like #BlackInOceanScience, #IndigenousKnowledge, #LandBack, #BlackBirders, or #QueerInScience alongside micro-actions and entry-level engagement. Funder metrics: Donor-driven and often ill-fitting, but when redirected to track inclusion (Black-led organizations, Indigenous stewardship roles, community participation), they can make funder logic itself a lever for equity. Doom fatigue: Burnout as a psychological spandrel. When acknowledged and reframed, it can open the door to movements like #OceanOptimism that decorate despair with agency. Highlight how communities of color and Indigenous groups have practiced resilience under centuries of ecological and cultural stress. 30×30 proliferation: Risks creating “paper parks,” but even shallow commitments can normalize the idea of large-scale protection and provide political footholds for deeper action. Coopt 30×30 momentum to emphasize Indigenous-led MPAs and community tenure rights, reframing the spandrel of empty targets into footholds for lasting sovereignty and equity. Conservation tourism shifts: Once sold as selfies and thrills, now reframed as ambassador programs that foreground Native guides, local narratives, and traditional ecological knowledge ensuring visitors learn whose waters they’re in and whose stories they’re hearing. Blue economy buzzword: Vague and overused, but politically potent. The “blue economy” can be hacked to prioritize equity and sovereignty, Indigenous tenure, small-scale fishers, and coastal communities too often sidelined in ocean development schemes. Influencer science: Deliberately cultivate and platform Black, Brown, and Indigenous scientists as digital ambassadors on TikTok, Instagram, and beyond. Invest in training, partnerships, and amplification so that the algorithmic by-product of “influencer science” broadens whose faces and voices represent ocean knowledge. By treating these cultural and institutional byproducts not as noise but as raw material, conservation can reroute attention and energy toward hidden representation gaps, making equity and inclusion inseparable from innovation and impact. Final Thought: Decorating Our Own Spandrels The genius of Gould and Lewontin’s spandrel metaphor was not to deny adaptation but to guard against easy narratives. In evolution not every trait is adaptive. In conservation not every tool was designed. But accidents can be opportunities. Side effects can become strategies. Byproducts can become mosaics. Many of our most powerful tools (charismatic species, citizen science, Shark Week) began as spandrels, emerging as a result of cultural and economic factors and only later becoming central to the work we do to save our ocean. The ocean’s future may depend on our ability to keep scanning for these spandrels: to notice the byproducts of our work, ask what might be coopted, and decorate them into mosaics of resilience. If we decorate tomorrow’s spandrels with justice and inclusion, the mosaics we leave will reflect not only resilience, but whose voices and visions truly belong in the ocean’s future. Our basilica of conservation is still under construction. The dome rises. The arches stand. The spandrels are waiting. Previously in The Revelator: Incredible Journeys: Migratory Sharks on the Move The post Spandrels of the Sea: From Evolution’s Byproducts to Blueprints for Equity and Representation in Ocean Conservation appeared first on The Revelator.

Conservation
Activism
Climate

Conservation’s Hot Topics of 2026: From Artificial Intelligence to Mirror Molecules

Forests, soil, plastic waste, war debris, and a darker ocean also appear on the annual ‘horizon scan’ addressing conservation priorities for the years ahead. The post Conservation’s Hot Topics of 2026: From Artificial Intelligence to Mirror Molecules appeared first on The Revelator.

The proliferation of artificial intelligence technologies, molecular manipulation, and literal sea changes are among the top issues a team of conservation experts anticipate will affect biodiversity in the year ahead and beyond, according to a study published this month in the scientific journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution. The study, the latest in a series of “horizon scan” papers written annually since 2009, brings together insights from more than two dozen experts from around the world. Led by Cambridge University ecologist William Sutherland, the team identified 15 technological advances and societal trends that conservation scientists, policymakers, and practitioners would do well to keep an eye on as they work to protect biodiversity in the months and years ahead. Tropical Forests Forever Incredibly rich biodiversity hot spots and unparalleled contributors to climate stability, intact tropical forests are top priorities in global conservation efforts. Protecting them, however, is a challenge, as economic pressures push for destruction. A new plan called out in the horizon scan aims to succeed where others have not. International partners led by Brazil are establishing a $125 billion Tropical Forests Forever Facility investment fund, whose income will be used to reward countries in the tropics that protect forests. Benefits over current strategies include providing more self-determination to affected nations, supporting protection efforts by local residents, and improving transparency and alignment with goals. Whether the fund will be effective, however, will depend on how the rules are set and enforced and who bears the risks and costs. Weight Loss = Biodiversity Win? Increased use of drugs that mimic a hormone known as GLP-1 helps people to suppress their appetites and reduce consumption of food, especially beef and highly processed items. This in turn stands to reduce demand for cropland and pastures — and with it, pressure to clear biodiversity-supporting habitat, use water for irrigation, and deploy biodiversity-harming agricultural chemicals. Though the impact is not yet measurable on a global scale, continued growth in adoption of these medications could carry positive implications for protecting intact ecosystems and even rewilding current crop and pasture lands. Slowing the Bloom The timing of flowering in plants is important for synchronizing pollen and egg production with the seasonal presence of pollinating insects. It also helps protect plant reproduction from adverse weather and align crop production with seasonal human needs. As climate changes, weather aberrations are disrupting the environmental signals and circumstances plants use to determine when to flower and potentially the ability to produce an abundance of seeds. Screening some 16,000 chemical compounds, scientists have discovered a few that slow the process of flowering in plants. If applied judiciously, the authors of the horizon scan write, these could help threatened species reproduce, maintain crop productivity in the face of climate disruption, and reduce weed competition with desired crops — all with potential benefits to biodiversity. Mining Meets Marine Microbes What will happen to ocean ecosystems if and when deep-sea mining becomes big business? No one knows for sure — but with contracts in place for exploratory work at more than 30 sites around the world, we may soon find out. Some 560 square miles, or 1.5 million square kilometers, of deep seafloor and ocean ridges have been targeted for possible extraction of minerals, posing threats to the microbes that thrive in these deep-sea ecosystems and potential trickle-up risks to other life forms above them. Scientists are recognizing the urgency of better understanding the poorly studied communities at the bottom of the sea and developing strategies to maintain their function as mining plans proceed. Micro AI Advances in hardware and software are making it possible to create miniature devices that can tap into artificial intelligence independent of the internet and electrical grids. These “tiny machine learning” (TinyML) technologies could benefit biodiversity by helping people monitor wildlife in remote places, assess soils, detect disease-transmitting organisms, scout for poachers, and more. On the downside, such technologies would likely be more restricted than networked systems in their ability to store data, limiting the ability to preserve information and use it for comparative purposes. Light-Powered Chips A much-publicized downside to artificial intelligence is the amount of energy, water, and materials it demands. New optical chip technologies, which use characteristics of light rather than electricity to transfer information, stand to enhance energy efficiency and processing speed, and optical neural network technologies can accelerate processing even more. Application of the technologies not only holds potential to reduce AI’s demand for energy and other resources, it also could facilitate conservation monitoring in remote locations. That said, the horizon scan authors caution that it’s not clear whether even substantial efficiency gains will outpace or even keep pace with increased use of AI sufficiently to mitigate its adverse environmental impacts. Digital Twins: Friend or Foe? Increasingly sophisticated information systems are making it possible to run highly detailed models of current and future conditions that incorporate predictions about human behavior as well as physical settings. This could bring conservation benefits by providing realistic scenarios of possible outcomes of different actions that can then be used to guide decisions. On the flip side, the computational capacity required to produce them could bring adverse environmental impacts associated with increased use of energy and land. Such realistic prognostication could also adversely alter the behavior of financial markets and other real-life systems in unpredictable ways. Fiber Optic Drone Debris Thousands of miles of fiber optic cables litter the ground in the Russia-Ukraine conflict zone. Deposited when jettisoned from drones or by drones that crash, the cables — which aid in communication between controllers and devices — pose threats to wildlife through entanglement and chemical and microplastic contamination. And it’s not just Ukraine: As drones become more widely deployed for both war and peaceful pursuits, the prospect for harm spreads to new venues and new biodiversity hot spots. Efforts to produce biodegradable alternatives and/or clean up cables before they accumulate could help reduce the adverse effects on birds, mammals, and other life forms. Dry Land – Getting Drier Recent studies cited by the horizon scan revealed that the amount of moisture in the world’s soils — particularly in southern South America and central North America, Africa, and Asia — has been declining, likely due to climate change. Because organisms who live in or grow from soil depend on moisture for life, the change stands to destabilize ecosystems. The problem could interact with land use trends in complex ways — potentially worsening as climate mitigation efforts increase vegetation and/or encouraging additional land conversion to agriculture as reduced water availability worsens conditions for crops. To date this water loss is estimated to have caused the world’s oceans to rise more than a centimeter; it’s likely to only become more severe if today’s climate change trajectory continues. Messing With Soil Microbes A growing trend around the world involves injecting fungi that associate with plant roots into agricultural soils to boost crop health and productivity while minimizing use of harmful pesticides and fertilizers. However, the efficacy of this approach as currently practiced is suspect, and unintended consequences are unknown. Even as the practice grows, the jury is still out regarding implications for sustainable agriculture, soils, and ecosystem health. From Plastic Waste to Good Taste? The ubiquitous use of plastic has produced literal mountains and oceans of plastic waste — and there’s no end in sight as the durable material builds up faster than recycling opportunities arise. But a new opportunity to use it to help mitigate another environmental challenge could hold promise for reducing the threat of plastic to wildlife and their habitats. Researchers have discovered a way to feed one type of plastic, polyethylene terephthalate, to bacteria that in turn can be processed into a nutritious food for people or livestock. Bringing this innovation to scale and expanding it to encompass other plastics could reduce both plastic waste and pressure to clear biodiversity-rich lands for food production. Now You Seaweed, Now You Don’t Diverse species of macroalgae, aka seaweed, are linchpin elements of marine ecosystems around the world. They also face multiple threats, including climate change, overgrazing, commercial farming, and a lack of sustainable management. As a result, their overall extent, currently covering more area than coral reefs and coastal wetlands together, is expected to decline even as their range expands poleward. Insufficient attention to understanding and managing marine macroalgae, the horizon scan warns, bodes poorly for the future of these ecosystem superstars and the biodiversity they support. Darkness in the Depths Earth’s oceans are getting darker, and that could spell trouble for the creatures who call them home. Satellite data recently revealed that in 2003, light penetrated 21% farther beneath the surface of the water than it did in 2022. Possible causes for the decline include increased nutrient and particulate inputs and changes in water circulation, surface temperature, and sea ice. Although the implications for ocean ecosystems are unknown, scientists are concerned that the loss of light could alter the ability of phytoplankton to capture sunlight and so to serve as the food base for zooplankton, fish, and other marine creatures. All Eyes on the Southern Ocean What’s up with the Southern Ocean? For decades, surface waters were becoming less saline. But about a decade ago, satellite imaging began to show an increase in salinity, and no one knows why. The surprising shift may exacerbate polar ice melting and is expected to alter circulation of water in the oceans and the trajectory of climate change in unknown ways. These changes, the horizon scan warns, are likely to affect species, ecosystems, and the ability of people — particularly those of island nations — to adapt to climate change. Mirror Life Some biological molecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids, have “handedness” – they can exist in forms that are mirror images of each other. Life systems that have evolved to build, work with, and demolish molecules of one handedness may be unable to deal with the other, even though they are composed of the same kinds of atoms arranged in the same order. The ability to synthesize molecules — and potentially entire cells — that mirror natural ones offers both opportunity and threat. Such innovations could be exceptionally durable and help prevent adverse immune reactions. However, they could also interact with and potentially confound evolved biological processes, to the detriment of humans and ecosystems alike. Read about last year’s horizon scan, addressing threats such as PFAS chemicals, increased wood consumption, and water shortages — as well as several conservation opportunities. Republish this article for free! Read our reprint policy. The post Conservation’s Hot Topics of 2026: From Artificial Intelligence to Mirror Molecules appeared first on The Revelator.

Conservation
Forests
Waste

Streets named after birds in Britain on rise as species’ populations plummet

RSPB says growing trend for honouring species that are in decline is not matched by action on conservationBritain’s street names are being inspired by skylarks, lapwings and starlings, even as bird populations decline.According to a report by the RSPB, names such as Skylark Lane and Swift Avenue are increasingly common. Using OS Open Names data from 2004 to 2024, the conservation charity found that road names featuring bird species had risen by 350% for skylarks, 156% for starlings and 104% for lapwings, despite populations of these having fallen in the wild. Continue reading...

Britain’s street names are being inspired by skylarks, lapwings and starlings, even as bird populations decline.According to a report by the RSPB, names such as Skylark Lane and Swift Avenue are increasingly common. Using OS Open Names data from 2004 to 2024, the conservation charity found that road names featuring bird species had risen by 350% for skylarks, 156% for starlings and 104% for lapwings, despite populations of these having fallen in the wild.Between 1970 and 2022 the UK lost 53% of its breeding skylarks, 62% of lapwings and 89% of nightingales. The RSPB’s chief executive, Beccy Speight, said the analysis “shows councils and developers are happy to name streets after the nature we love while efforts to prevent these birds disappearing from our skies remain woefully inadequate”.The 2023 State of Nature report called the UK “one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth”, and wild bird numbers have plummeted since the 1970s.The RSPB study also found that “meadow” in street names had risen by 34%, though wildflower meadows are down 97% since the 1930s.The RSPB called for the government to do more to support nature, with the planning and infrastructure bill for England entering its final stages. In October it reneged on backing an amendment to the bill calling for swift bricks to be installed in every new home. Swift road names have grown by 58%.The RSPB argued it was “possible and essential” to have a planning system that restores nature, and cited recent research by More in Common that found only 20% of Britons think environmental standards should be weakened to build more houses.Michael Warren, the author of The Cuckoo’s Lea, about the history of birds in British placenames, said: “We love a nature name and developers know it. But the trend for birds in new-build placenames masks the severe detachment many of us suffer from nature, while making it seem like everything is OK.”Warren said placenames once reflected ecological reality, but while “at best” pretty, the modern equivalent was a “deceiving, cheap and easy way to give the impression of addressing nature deprivation without actually doing that”.Speight said: “We deserve to enjoy the sounds of a nightingale in full song or swifts screaming overhead, rather than living in silent streets with ironic names.”skip past newsletter promotionThe planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essentialPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionDeborah Meaden, an RSPB ambassador, said: “In principle it’s fantastic to see local authorities and business recognising people’s love of nature on new developments, but we need to see tangible action to halt and reverse nature loss.”A spokesperson for the British Trust for Ornithology said its monitoring continued to find worrying declines in bird species. “Once familiar skylarks, nightingales and swifts are becoming less so, in all but name,” they said.

Conservation
Business
Nature

Oregon’s Wild Arts Festival gathers artists, authors and nature lovers for a weekend celebration

Festival goers can meet artists and attend author talks, and everyone can bid online for auction items, with all proceeds supporting wildlife conservation efforts.

People will be able to flit about and chirp with artists and authors at the 45th Wild Arts Festival, a popular Bird Alliance of Oregon fundraiser happening Dec. 6-7 in Hillsboro.The weekend festival, the Pacific Northwest’s premier show and sale of nature-related art and books, will be at the Wingspan Event Center, 801 N.E. 34th Ave. Adults ($13 admission) and kids, who attend for free, can see paintings, prints, sculptures, ceramics, fiber art and jewelry as well as glass and wood pieces by 65 artists. (Scroll through the gallery above to view some of the artists’ work.)Each piece for sale has nature or wildlife as a subject or the artist employs natural materials as a medium or the art promotes environmental sustainability, say organizers.Festival goers can meet 25 Northwest writers who specialize in nature, hiking or history, and hear short talks about their books presented between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. both days.Oregon State University anthropology professor David G. Lewis, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, will talk Saturday about his book, “Tribal Histories of the Willamette Valley.”Robert Michael Pyle, a lepidopterist and founder of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, will read Sunday from his 13th book, “Swimming With Snakes: Poetry and Prose.”LeeAnn Kriegh will sign copies of her 2025 field guides “The Nature of Portland” and “The Nature of Bend,” which identify more than 350 birds, wildflowers, trees and animals.People who cannot attend the fundraiser can bid on silent auction items at wildartsfestival.org/silent-auction. Celebrated floral artist Françoise Weeks is offering a three-hour lesson on designing a woodland landscape centerpiece or wreath in her Portland studio. Portland Audubon staff member and author Sarah Swanson is donating a half-day guided bird hike. Other experiences range from glamping at the Grand Canyon Sky Dome to wine tasting alongside Oregon vineyards. Binoculars and other outdoor gear were donated to the auction to support the nonprofit Bird Alliance of Oregon’s conservation work and family-friendly educational programs. If you go: The 45th Wild Arts Festival is 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, at the Wingspan Event & Conference Center, 801 N.E. 34th Ave., Hillsboro. The expo center is on the TriMet MAX Blue and Red Lines’ Hillsboro Airport/Fairgrounds stop and is served by bus lines 46 and 48. Admission, which includes parking, is $13 for adults (free for those under 18) and can be purchased at the door or in advance at wildartsfestival.org.If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Conservation
Nature
Education

Bears in the Backyard, Wolves at the Door: Greek Villages Have a Growing Predator Problem

Populations of brown bears and wolves are burgeoning in Greece, thanks to conservation efforts

LEVEA, Greece (AP) — It was a shocking sight for the farmer — three of his sheep lying dead on the ground, signs of their mauling unmistakable. The large paw prints in the earth left no doubt they had been killed by a bear, a once rare but now increasingly frequent visitor in this part of northwestern Greece. “It was a bear, a very big one, and they come often now. I wasn’t the only one, it struck elsewhere too,” said Anastasios Kasparidis, adding that another farmer had lost some chickens and pigs. He decided to move the rest of his small flock into a sheep pen near his house for protection. “Because in the end I wouldn’t have any sheep," Kasparidis said. "The bears would eat them all.”Environmentalists have welcomed the rebound of bear and wolf populations in Greece thanks to the protected species designation that banned them being hunted. But some farmers and residents of rural areas say they now fear for their livelihoods and, in some cases, their safety. They are calling for greater protection in a phenomenon playing out elsewhere in Europe, with some arguing conservation has gone too far and pushing to roll back restrictions.Brown bears, Greece’s largest predator, have made a remarkable comeback. Their numbers have increased roughly fourfold since the 1990s, said Dimitris Bakaloudis, a professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki who specializes in wildlife management and conservation.Up to an estimated 870 brown bears roam the forests of northern Greece, according to the most recent survey by Arcturos, an environmental organization set up in 1992 that provides a sanctuary for rescued bears and wolves.And it's not just bears. Wolves also have seen their numbers rise. While wolves could only be found as far south as central Greece in 2010, they have now spread to the outskirts of Athens and into the Peloponnese in southern Greece, Bakaloudis said.Their recovery has been sustained in part by the also increasing population of wild boars, which is unrelated to conservation efforts. Rather, a combination of a number of factors, including a reduction of hunting, milder winters and cross-breeding with domestic pigs have led them to reproduce at a faster rate, Bakaloudis explained. Viewed by many as pests that destroy crops, the sight of a dozen or more boars trotting along sidewalks or snuffling through backyards are no longer uncommon in many parts of Greece. Increasing human encounters The larger number of wild animals has also resulted in more contact with humans — the vast majority of whom are unfamiliar with how to behave during an encounter. Lack of familiarity has led to fear in some communities, particularly following a small number of serious incidents this year: a child bitten by a wolf, an elderly man injured by a bear in his yard, a hiker bitten by a bear and another hiker who died after falling into a ravine during a bear encounter.In Levea, a village of about 660 people surrounded by fields in northwestern Greece, several bear encounters were reported in October, while boars frequently roam through the village, said community president Tzefi Papadopoulou. The bears especially had frightened residents.“As soon as they heard a dog bark, they were ready to go out with the gun,” she said.It's similar in the nearby village of Valtonera, 170 kilometers west of Greece’s second largest city, Thessaloniki. “The village used to be without wild animals. In the past, a wolf would appear once in a while,” said Konstantinos Nikolaidis, community president. Now, wild boars, foxes, bears or wolves roam around or even inside the village, he noted.“This has caused concern among all residents. It’s now difficult for a person to walk around outside at night,” he said.The burgeoning wild boar population, meanwhile, has led to calls for the hunting season to be extended.Giorgos Panagiotidis, deputy mayor of the nearby small town of Amyntaio, said boars had been increasingly encroaching on houses. In May, he asked authorities for hunters to be allowed to shoot boars out of season to tackle the problem.It’s an issue that isn’t unique to Greece. In a victory of farmers over environmentalists, European Union lawmakers voted in May to reduce protections for wolves across the EU’s 27 member states. The movement even gained support from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whose pony Dolly was killed by a wolf three years ago.Experts note it isn't just the larger number of wild animals that has led to encroachment on urban areas. Many factors are at play, they say, from loss of habitat due to wildfires, to noise disturbances from wind turbines and recreational vehicles, and animals emboldened by dwindling human populations in villages. “There is of course fragmentation of the bears’ habitat, frequently there is drought, there’s a lack of food in the natural environment, there’s a desertification of villages which makes inhabited areas more attractive to bears, so they approach and find food,” said Panos Stefanou, communications officer at Arcturos.Measures to keep wolves and bears at bay have been developed and approved by scientists, said Bakaloudis, the Thessaloniki university professor, including using lights around property, proper disposal of trash and dead livestock and avoiding feeding strays. In exceptional circumstances more invasive methods are used, he said, such as in the case of the wolf attack on the child in northern Greece, where authorities decided to capture and remove the animal.With so many factors contributing to increasing encounters between wild animals and humans, Stefanou cautioned against overly simplistic solutions.“Killing the animals is not what will solve the problem,” he said. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Nov. 2025

Conservation
Animals
Forests

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