World Environment Day 2025 puts plastic crisis under global spotlight
As the world marks Environment Day on June 5, environmental groups are renewing calls to 'Beat Plastic Pollution,' a global theme repeated for 2025 amid rising concerns over plastics' health and environmental impacts.
EARTHDAY.ORG, the organisation behind April's Earth Day campaigns, is urging individuals, communities, and policymakers to take decisive action. Their 2025 theme, Our Power, Our Planet, focuses on grassroots strength in the face of sluggish international negotiations.
Despite hopes that this year would see the finalisation of the UN Global Plastics Treaty, talks in Busan failed to reach consensus, forcing a sixth round of negotiations (INC5.2) later this year in Switzerland. Countries including Saudi Arabia, Russia and China have resisted proposals to limit plastic production and toxic chemicals.
'Delays now mean more harm for both the planet and human health,' said EARTHDAY.ORG in a statement.
The Rio Sucio or "Dirty River", where one branch is colored yellow/brown by the minerals it carries from the Irazu Volcano, is seen mixing with the clear waters filtered by the tropical rainforest in the Braullio Carrillo National Park, 50 km (31 miles) east of San Jose, June 5, 2012. REUTERS/Juan Carlos Ulate
Plastic's invisible toll
According to the organisation's data, more than 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced annually, half of which is single-use. Much of it never reaches landfills, instead polluting ecosystems and entering food and water sources.
EARTHDAY.ORG's 2023 Babies vs Plastics report and its follow-up campaigns have linked plastic chemicals to cancer, infertility, developmental disorders, and even dementia. Recycling, once a hopeful solution, is now under scrutiny for spreading microplastics and being mostly ineffective.
Ram Singh (L) and his relatives, dressed in traditional Hindu saffron-coloured clothes walk on a garbage-strewn beach against the backdrop of monsoon clouds on World Environment Day in Mumbai, June 5, 2012. According to the United Nations Environment Programme website, World Environment Day is celebrated annually on June 5 to raise global awareness and motivate action for environmental protection. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash
Local cleanups, global impact
Despite slow progress at the diplomatic level, organisers are championing local action through the Great Global Cleanup. In 2025, over 4,000 cleanup events have removed more than 7 million pounds of waste globally.
Activists also urge public support for the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act and the Global Plastics Petition, aimed at pressuring lawmakers to adopt stricter controls.
'Change doesn't have to wait on governments,' the group said, calling back to the grassroots success of the first Earth Day in 1970, which led to key US environmental laws.
Boats are docked at the polluted Amatitlan Lake, 30 km (18 miles) south of Guatemala City June 5, 2012. REUTERS/William Gularte
A call to act, not wait
While World Environment Day is annual, the group stressed that its goals require constant, year-round effort. 'This is a fight for our health, our planet, and our future,' said EARTHDAY.ORG.
A dead tortoise is seen near the shores of Lake Xolotlan, also known as Lake Managua, which has an area of approximately 1000 sq km and has been receiving raw sewage from Managua's one million residents since 1920, in Managua June 5, 2012. REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas
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Express Tribune
6 days ago
- Express Tribune
IA crash probe suggests deliberate fuel cut-off
A view shows the rear of an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane following its crash, in Ahmedabad, India, June 12. At least 30 people were killed when an Air India plane bound for London with 242 people on board crashed minutes after taking off from India's western city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, with the toll expected to climb. Photo: Reuters Indian aviation experts believe that fuel supply to any aircraft could not be shut automatically or because of any power failure, as the investigation into India Airlines flight 171 crash points to a cut-off in the fuel supply to the engines. Last month, the London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner had barely left the runway at Ahmedabad airport when it hurtled back to earth. Everyone on board was killed, except for one passenger. A preliminary report has found that the aircraft had reached an airspeed of 180 knots when both engines' fuel switches were "transitioned from Run to Cutoff position one after another with a time gap of 1 second. "It has to be done manually. It cannot be done automatically or due to a power failure because the fuel selectors, they are not the sliding type," Captain Mohan Ranganathan, an aviation safty consultant, told India's NDTV. "They will always be in a slot. You have to pull them out and move them up or down." When asked whether it was deliberate, and why would any pilot do that in the extremely critical phase of the flight, Ranganathan said that he had heard that the captain of the ill-fated flight had "some medical history".
Express Tribune
13-07-2025
- Express Tribune
India releases report on deadly jet crash
A view shows the rear of an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane following its crash, in Ahmedabad, India, June 12. At least 30 people were killed when an Air India plane bound for London with 242 people on board crashed minutes after taking off from India's western city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, with the toll expected to climb. Photo: Reuters Fuel control switches to the engines of an Air India flight that crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 260 people, were moved from the "run" to the "cutoff" position moments before impact, a preliminary investigation report said on Saturday. The report, issued by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), did not offer any conclusions or apportion blame for the June 12 disaster, but indicated that one pilot asked the other why he cut off fuel, and the second pilot responded that he had not. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was headed from Ahmedabad in western India to London when it crashed, killing all but one of the 242 people on board as well as 19 people on the ground. In its 15-page report, the investigation bureau said that once the aircraft achieved its top recorded speed, "the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 01 sec". "In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff. The other pilot responded that he did not do so," it said. The aircraft quickly began to lose altitude. The switches then returned to the "RUN" position and the engines appeared to be gathering power, but "one of the pilots transmitted 'MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY'", the report said. Air traffic controllers asked the pilots what was wrong, but then saw the plane crashing and called emergency personnel to the scene. Civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu told reporters that investigators probed in a "mature, transparent" way. "This is a preliminary report. We want the final report to come in, so let us wait for it," he said. Earlier this week, specialist website The Air Current, citing multiple sources familiar with the probe, reported it had "narrowed its focus to the movement of the engine fuel switches", while noting that full analysis will "take months — if not longer". It added that "the focus of the investigators could change during that time". The Indian agency's report said the US Federal Aviation Administration had issued an information bulletin in 2018 about "the potential disengagement of the fuel control switch locking feature".
Express Tribune
09-07-2025
- Express Tribune
As crash preliminary report nears, Air India jet's fuel switches in focus
A tail of an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane that crashed is seen stuck on a building after the incident in Ahmedabad, India Listen to article A preliminary report into the deadly crash of an Air India jetliner in June is expected to be released by Friday, three sources with knowledge of the matter said, with one adding the probe had narrowed its focus to the movement of the plane's fuel control switches. The London-bound Boeing (BA.N) 787 Dreamliner, which started losing height after reaching an altitude of 650 feet, crashed moments after takeoff from Ahmedabad, India, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and the rest on the ground. The investigation into the Air India crash is focusing on the movement of the engine fuel control switches following an analysis of the 787's flight and voice data recorders, along with a simulation by Boeing of the aircraft's final moments, one of the sources said. The investigation has not raised any immediate concerns over mechanical failure, the source said, and there has been no bulletin to airlines recommending changes to 787 operations. Boeing declined to comment. Aviation industry publication The Air Current first reported the focus on the fuel switches that help power the plane's two engines. It was not clear what specific actions involving the fuel switches are being looked at by investigators. Sources told the Air Current that the available information on the black boxes could not rule in or out improper, inadvertent, or intentional actions that preceded or followed the apparent loss of thrust before the aircraft crashed. US aviation safety expert John Cox said a pilot would not be able to accidentally move the fuel switches that feed the engines. "You can't bump them and they move," he said. Cox added that if a switch were shut off, the effect would be almost immediate, cutting off engine power. Read: Regulators warned Air India Express about delay on Airbus engine fix Most air crashes are caused by multiple factors. The investigation is focusing at least partly on engine thrust, Reuters reported last month. While the report from Indian investigators could be made public on Friday, the three sources cautioned Reuters that plans could change and there was no clarity on how much information would be available in the document, which comes about 30 days after the June 12 tragedy. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, which is leading the probe under international rules, did not respond immediately to a request for comment outside normal business hours. Information release The probe has been dogged by questions over a lack of information, after investigators took about two weeks to download flight recorder data after the crash. The Indian government held only one press conference on the incident, and no questions were taken. However, India reversed course on an earlier decision reported by Reuters to prevent a UN aviation investigator from joining the probe, two senior sources said. A specialist from the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was granted observer status, following an unusual request by the agency to offer its support. ICAO declined to comment, adding in a statement that any public discussion of "cooperative arrangements" would require authorisation by the state. The crash is challenging the Tata Group's ambitious campaign to restore Air India's reputation and revamp its fleet, after taking the carrier over from the government in 2022. India is banking on a boom in aviation to support wider development goals, with New Delhi saying it wants India to be a job-creating global aviation hub along the lines of Dubai, which currently handles much of the country's international traffic. A panel of Indian lawmakers will review safety in the country's civil aviation sector and has invited several industry and government officials to answer questions on Wednesday, with topics set to include the recent plane crash.
