Mirella Miettinen

Are you assessing environmental risks of biocides? 🐝 Introducing the B-risk tool, designed to evaluate biocide risks to bees. This adaptation of EFSA’s original tool for plant protection products supports compliance with ECHA’s 2024 Bee Guidance. 🐝Access to B-risk tool - https://fcld.ly/brisktool

Ghost recycling: how Big Oil re-brands and sells fossil fuel as green plastic Saudi Aramco, one of the world’s top corporate greenhouse gas emitters, supplies fossil-based plastics to global brands that sell them as “recycled.” Loopholes in industry-backed rules let these brand...

"Industry and oil-producing countries push chemical recycling [pyrolysis] to preserve plastic growth and fossil profits,” Lee Bell, technical and policy adviser at the NGO International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) told Voxeurop:
voxeurop.eu/en/ghost-rec...

Pollination as a matter of national security In these turbulent times it’s hard to know where to focus one’s gaze. Do we concentrate on Ukraine? Greenland? Venezuela? Sudan? China? Russia? The Middle East? The rise of the far righ…

A new UK government report warns that global #biodiversity loss threatens food security, economic stability, and geopolitical order. In my latest blog post I ask whether pollination should now be considered a #nationalsecurity issue:
jeffollerton.co.uk/2026/01/26/p...

@butterfly-project.bsky.social

Soil sand content is a driving force in structuring bee communities We conducted a carefully designed observational study across three soil sand content categories using Dalea purpurea that attracts a wide range of bee species and grows in different soil types. Soil...

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A recent study by Chase et al. @royentsoc.bsky.social provides compelling evidence that soil properties — specifically sand content — can strongly shape bee communities.

It challenges the widespread assumption that flowers alone determine where bees live and thrive.

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/icad...

Neonicotinoids not only disrupt ecosystems, they also form a overlooked source of reactive nitrogen that perturbs global nitrogen cycling, amplifies atmospheric oxidative capacity, and influences climate dynamics.

#neonicotinoids

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲?
BeeLife is concerned about the recent vote in the European Parliament enabling/approving the raise of the allowed level of #acetamiprid residues in #honey

The vanishing pharmacy: How climate change is reshaping traditional medicine Gyatso Bista remembers the sacks of kutki. As a child learning to become a healer in Nepal’s kingdom of Lo Manthang, Bista would watch as heaps of the bitter-tasting herb, prized for treating fever,…

Climate change is putting medicinal plants at risk, threatening health care for the 80% of people who rely on traditional medicine.

Heat, habitat loss and extreme weather are altering plant chemistry, while communities fight back through conservation and knowledge-sharing.

Picture of baobab trees.

Baobab trees provide fruit, fibre, medicine and shelter for people & wildlife. Their survival depends on pollination by bats & moths. While these trees can cope with a wide range of environmental & climatic conditions, bats and moths may be more susceptible.

📰 https://ow.ly/1J6250XponU

Finland must accelerate efforts towards a circular economy of plastics. How can this be done? 
Read more:
Report: The state of plastics circularity in Finland 2025 - Review and evaluation of PlastLIFE SIP phase 1 (helda.fi): hdl.handle.net/10138/604241
Press release: www.sttinfo.fi/tiedote/7164...
 

An Ecology Letters article explores urban #pollinator interventions across Europe. It is accompanied by an infographic on five intervention types designed to reach citizens and decision-makers.

Learn more: www.safeguard.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de/News/ViewNew...

Crossing silos: how changes in EU chemicals policy and legislation are reflected in its pharmaceutical policy and legislation The European Union (EU) has introduced several changes to its chemicals policy and legislation with an ambition to transform society greener. This study examined selected changes introduced in EU c...

Changes to EU chemical legislation grant exemptions for human and vet medicines, but the sector is not entirely exempt from the new rules. If the changes threaten to undermine the desired goals in the health sector, the responses may even hinder green transformation. doi.org/10.1080/2052...

Towards pollinator-friendly policy and practices #Safeguard policy brief "The topic of pollinators is characterised by different (including opposing) views which are subject to unequal access to policymaking, with a few largely advantaged views gaining political leverage" zenodo.org/records/1490...

Opinion: Green chemistry doesn’t need a federal boost. No, really The case for creating safer, cleaner, and more-efficient chemical processes has never been stronger

No matter who’s in the White House, the business case for green chemistry endures, with fewer liabilities, lower costs, safer workplaces, and happier investors. cen.acs.org/environment/... #chemsky 🧪

Is the #IPCC failing to fulfil its social contract?

A Model at its Limits: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change from the Inside

- IPCC faces an identity crisis

- persistent disconnect between scientific enterprise and
meaningful political action

www.cambridge.org/core/service...

Cover of the 2025 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: Climate change action offers a lifeline.

The 2025 @lancetcountdown.bsky.social report reveals climate change inaction is costing lives and livelihoods, and harming the economy.

During #COP30, explore recommendations for action: spkl.io/63324AbjGM #LancetClimate25

130+ organisations urge von der Leyen to strengthen enforcement of #EU #pesticide law.

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☕️ Your morning coffee depends on pollinators more than you might think.

Every day, the world savours more than 2 billion cups of coffee. Yet this daily ritual relies on a hidden workforce: pollinators. Bees, butterflies and countless others ensure that coffee blossoms fulfil their potential.

How Human Medicines Are Disrupting Aquatic Ecosystems More drugs are entering aquatic habitats. Scientists are teasing apart how they influence the behavior, reproduction, and biology of organisms that live there.

Thank you @katarinazimmer.bsky.social for interviewing me, along with many other experts, for this insightful piece "How Human Medicines Are Disrupting Aquatic Ecosystems" | ACS Central Science pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/....

This is so true for example in pollinator-related decision-making. Nyt only (honey) bees are relevant to be included and we need more research on the other #pollinators. Our @butterfly-project.bsky.social aims to fill this research gap. Regulation can and should support more holistic approach.

🦋 Amid the growing controversy over pesticide-heavy lily farming in the Netherlands, @jeroenvandersluijs.bsky.social sat down with @dvhn.nl for an in-depth interview. The conversation goes far beyond lilies – touching on wider environmental issues 🐛

👉 butterfly-europe.eu/interview-wi...

(1/2) Offcontinental locations 2/3: 📍Curaçao.
We will be teaming up with Carmabi.

Very little research has been done on pollinators in this region, so this is a great chance for us to gather valuable data and learn more about the diversity and importance of pollinators.

On mielenkiintoista seurata, millaisia havaintoja partnerit @butterfly-project.bsky.social hankkeessamme tekevät kaukaisimmilta tutkimuskohteiltamme, kuten Grönlannista. Mikä on pölyttäjien arvo yhteiskunnalle siellä? Ja mitkä lajit ovat tärkeimpiä pölyttäjiä?

(1/2) #LivingLabs focus on 📍 Southern Norway!

In Landøy, abandoned coastal heathlands are being restored after decades of neglect following the 1960s fisheries collapse. Restoration supports pollinators, carbon storage, and cultural heritage.

#ButterflyEUProject #PollinatorsMatter #SouthernNorway

♻️ A circular economy isn’t always a safe one.

New and #opanaccess: Joonas Alaranta & @mimiet.bsky.social examine how REACH & socio-economic analysis handle hazardous substances in recycled materials and how the SSbD framework could offer a more sustainable path.

Read here: doi.org/10.1111/reel...

This perspective "How pollinator decline could disrupt supply chains" is an important and refreshing, and also requires close communication with various stakeholders in the supply chains included in the @butterfly-project.bsky.social project. #biodiversity #environment #chemicals @cceel.bsky.social

Voiko energiapajun kasvatus hyödyttää myös pölyttäjiä? Yksi Butterfly-hankkeemme #LivingLabs tutkii bioenergian toimitusketjua pölyttäjäpalveluiden näkökulmasta. #biodiversiteetti #pölyttäjäkriisi #energiantuotanto

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.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Ystävämme saivat negatiivista palautetta, kun eivät leikkaa nurmikkoa lyhyeksi, vaan hoitavat pihaa luontoystävällisesti, suosien kotoisia villikukkia, pörriäisiä, perhosia ja muita pölyttäjiä.
Teimme heille kyltin, jossa luonnonmukaisen pihanhoidon perusteluja. #pölyttäjät @naattinet.bsky.social

Pohditko mikä siemenseos olisi paras pölyttäjien kannalta puutarhaasi tänä kesänä? Tutkittua tietoa löytyy tästä tuoreesta julkaisusta.