Crispin Dowler

Great reporting on our findings in the Times today by @adamvaughan.bsky.social
bsky.app/profile/adam...

NEW from me: Pesticides that are banned in the EU because of links to health risks like infertility are still in 'major' use in Britain

Now they could be banned here under a planned deal with the EU, but the pesticide lobby is fighting back

Full list here:

unearthed.greenpeace.org/2026/02/18/e...

COP30’s agriculture showcase sponsored by agribiz interests linked to deforestation and anti-conservation lobbying Sponsors of the sustainable agriculture pavilion at COP30 will include pesticides giant Bayer, alleged by campaigners to be driving “massive deforestation” on the continent, and a branch of Brazil’s l...

NEW: The "Agrizone" at COP30 is supposed to be a showcase for sustainable agriculture 🌳

But its sponsors are powerful agribusiness interests linked to deforestation and anti-conservation lobbying who have paid for visibility and "image gain"

Read more 👇:

Meanwhile, new polling shows that the prospect of a local fracking site is wildly unpopular with "Reform-curious" Labour voters

bsky.app/profile/unea...

Map shows constituencies in England and Wales where fracking licences were issued before the current ban. It highlights 34 in the north west, Yorkshire and the east midlands where Reform came first or second in the 2024 election.

Reform's promise of a fracking bonanza if they win power could cost them in the north. Smart bit of mapping from
@zdboren.bsky.social
and
@richasyal.bsky.social
shows dozens of the constituencies most likely to be fracked are prime Reform targets

unearthed.greenpeace.org/2025/09/05/r...

Meanwhile, new polling shows that the prospect of a local fracking site is wildly unpopular with "Reform-curious" Labour voters

bsky.app/profile/unea...

The way water companies use farmland as the dumping ground for sewage sludge is building up massive risks for nature and our food system

Neither the industry nor our politicians have wanted to bear the cost of fixing this problem, so they've left it in the long grass

But they know that can't last

Secret report details toxic chemicals in sewage used as fertiliser at English farms The Environment Agency found sewage sludge destined for English fields was contaminated with microplastics, weedkiller, and “persistent organic pollutants”

People are worried that this could be harming farmland, ever since Unearthed uncovered a secret Environment Agency (EA) report showing that this sludge contained a cocktail of toxic contaminants like microplastics and ‘forever chemicals’ 3/6

A recent investigation by @greenpeaceuk.bsky.social has exposed that if new regulations come into force to stop this reckless sludge spreading, water companies will be left with millions of tonnes of waste without a home.

And their plan? To make you, the public, pay for the clean-up. Again. 😡

Warning over 'dirty secret' of toxic chemicals on farmers fields Campaigners say that farmers' fields are being contaminated by chemicals and microplastics in sewage sludge.

A real crisis has finally made it from the shadows into the light - what to do with all the sewage sludge we produce if you can't spread it on land anymore? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Open statement by leading environmentalists demands government action over “toxic cocktail of chemicals” spread on British farmland | Fighting Dirty In the UK, we have a dirty secret that’s recently been brought into the light. Sewage sludge, we now know, contains far more than just human waste. Not only does a wide range of synthetic chemicals po...

We've just released a joint statement with some incredible NGOs and individuals calling on the Environment Minister to give a steer to the Environment Agency to update the testing and regulating regime of sewage sludge. Full statement here or read on in this 🧵 fightingdirty.org/open-stateme...

Unearthed obtained an internal Environment Agency briefing which warned that farmers could stop accepting sewage sludge on their land due to rising concern about contaminants

It says this would have "very serious consequences" as water companies have no "Plan B" for the sludge they produce

‘No Plan B’: Water companies fear pollution crackdown will stop them spreading sewage sludge on farmland

Amazing new investigation from @ellieodonnell.bsky.social and @zdboren.bsky.social

Water companies are scared the govt is about to crack down on agricultural river pollution, because it could stop them dumping millions of tonnes of sewage sludge on farmland

unearthed.greenpeace.org/2025/06/09/s...

Sharp investigative work here by @richasyal.bsky.social

JBS is likely to fail to deliver on its Amazon deforestation promise, ranchers say

🐄 JBS, the world’s biggest meat company, says it’s cleaning up its supply chain in the Amazon by the end of this year. 🌳

We spoke to 30+ ranchers and industry leaders. The vast majority said JBS will miss its target: it’s “humanly impossible”, said one.
unearthed.greenpeace.org/2025/04/17/j...

I have been reporting on deforestation in Brazil for years.

Last year, along with @aliceross.bsky.social and Naira Hofmeister, I decided to dig into beef giant JBS’s flagship promise: to eliminate deforestation from its Amazon supply chain by the end of 2025.

So what’s actually changed?

This is a nuclear-powered icebreaker, operated by a state-owned Russian company called Atomflot.

Atomflot has been sanctioned by the EU, UK and US since 2023.

🧵

Sanctioned nuclear icebreakers helped export gas from the Russian Arctic bought by Shell

NEW INVESTIGATION
🚢 Companies including Shell and Total import millions of tonnes of gas a year to Europe from the Russian Arctic on specialised LNG tankers. Last winter, these shipments relied on a fleet of sanctioned icebreakers to cross Siberian waters 🚢

This is good news. But the UK is still exporting huge amounts of this *same* banned, bee-killing pesticide overseas

Last year the UK exported 374 tonnes of thiamethoxam to countries like Morocco and Ivory Coast. That's enough to spray the whole of England

unearthed.greenpeace.org/2024/12/08/u...

NEW

The UK has rejected an application by farmers to use a bee-killing pesticide on sugar beet in England

This is a big deal

For the past four years in a row, the last government approved emergency use of the neonicotinoid

Will likely delight conservationists, infuriate farmers

Secret report details toxic chemicals in sewage used as fertiliser at English farms The Environment Agency found sewage sludge destined for English fields was contaminated with microplastics, weedkiller, and “persistent organic pollutants”

The Environment Agency has known for years that sludge contains PFAS, as well as persistent organic pollutants and microplastics. But outdated laws mean water companies don't have to test sludge for any of these contaminants before it is spread on farmland.

unearthed.greenpeace.org/2020/02/04/s...

Chemicals in sewage sludge fertilizer pose cancer risk, EPA says Harmful chemicals in sewage sludge spread on pasture as fertilizer pose a risk to people who regularly consume milk, beef and other products from those farms, in some cases raising cancer risk “severa...

Yesterday, the EPA warned that toxic PFAS chemicals in the sewage sludge that is spread on US farmland as fertiliser may be causing cancer

The UK also spreads huge amounts of sludge on farms. Like the US, we know this sludge contains PFAS, but don't routinely test for it

apnews.com/article/sewa...

The best environmental journalism of 2024 The best environmental journalism of 2024 Some of the stories we wish we had written this year, selected by the Unearthed team

NEW on Unearthed: The best environmental journalism of 2024.

From across the media and the planet, including bold undercover investigations and powerful public interest science journalism, Unearthed reporters select the stories we wish we had written this year.

🧵👇

‘Ultimate hypocrisy’: UK exported 8,500 tonnes of banned pesticides last year

“Our government cannot continue to permit this kind of exploitation."

- Green Party MP @sianberry.bsky.social responds to Unearthed's new investigation, which found that companies exported 8,500 tonnes of banned pesticides from the UK last year

unearthed.greenpeace.org/2024/12/08/u...

Brazilian farmers poisoned by diquat, a banned pesticide exported from Britain Deaths are on the rise in Brazil from diquat, a weedkiller banned in the UK but still manufactured for export to countries with weaker regulations.

When his right side seized up after working the fields of his small-holding, Valdemar Postanovicz thought he was having a stroke.

He had absorbed Reglone, a powerful herbicide based on diquat - banned in the UK, but produced here and shipped to Brazil:

unearthed.greenpeace.org/2024/12/08/b...

‘My right side was paralysed, I was so sick’: the pesticide poisonings in Brazil that lead back to the UK Investigation uncovers how chemicals like diquat, banned in the UK but legal to export, are causing health problems in the global south

Last year, 8,489 tonnes of chemicals banned on British farms due to health and environmental concerns were sent abroad

Including a lot of diquat, replacement for paraquat, with bad health impacts

It hammers the land to produce commodity crops for export

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Yes, fully agree

The Rotterdam Convention is basically the only control that exists (at an international level) on the trade in banned chemicals

As we can see, it's had a limited effect