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Crispin Dowler

@crispindowler.bsky.social
423 followers 328 following 20 posts

Co-editor of Unearthed (unearthednews.bsky.social), the investigative journalism project from Greenpeace UK. Interested in environmental and climate justice, land use, food systems. unearthed.greenpeace.org/author/cri…

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Reposted by Crispin Dowler
George Greenwood @georgegreenwood.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Reform UK’s biggest donor owns a company contracted to supply fuel to aircraft from refineries that make extensive use of Russian oil, The Times can reveal. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
thetimes.com
Reform donor’s fuel company linked to Russia-supplied refinery
Christopher Harborne’s AML Global has contracts to supply aircraft fuel produced by an Indian refinery that regularly receives Russian crude oil
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Crispin Dowler @crispindowler.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Great work here from Richa
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Reposted by Crispin Dowler
Unearthed @unearthednews.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Breaking: Reform UK mega-donor Christopher Harborne’s jet fuel firm is contracted to refuel US military planes from refineries that use Russian oil New investigation from Unearthed and @datadesk.eco unearthed.greenpeace.org/2026/07/01/c...
unearthed.greenpeace.org
Revealed: Reform mega-donor’s jet fuel business linked to refineries using Russian oil
Christopher Harborne’s company AML Global is contracted to fill US military planes with fuel made by refineries that use Russian, Iranian, and Venezuelan crude
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Crispin Dowler @crispindowler.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
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...
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Unearthed @unearthednews.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
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 👇:
unearthed.greenpeace.org
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...
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Crispin Dowler @crispindowler.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
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...
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.
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Crispin Dowler @crispindowler.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
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
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Reposted by Crispin Dowler
Ellie O'Donnell @ellieodonnell.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
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
unearthed.greenpeace.org
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”
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Reposted by Crispin Dowler
River Action @riveractionuk.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
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. 😡
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Reposted by Crispin Dowler
Andrew Singer @oxonandrew.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
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...
bbc.co.uk
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.
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Reposted by Crispin Dowler
Fighting Dirty @fightingdirty.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
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...
fightingdirty.org
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...
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Crispin Dowler @crispindowler.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
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...
unearthed.greenpeace.org
‘No Plan B’: Water companies fear pollution crackdown will stop them spreading sewage sludge on farmland
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Crispin Dowler @crispindowler.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Sharp investigative work here by @richasyal.bsky.social
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Unearthed @unearthednews.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
🐄 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...
unearthed.greenpeace.org
JBS is likely to fail to deliver on its Amazon deforestation promise, ranchers say
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Lucy Jordan @lucyjordan.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
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?
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Unearthed @unearthednews.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
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. 🧵
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Reposted by Crispin Dowler
Unearthed @unearthednews.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
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 🚢
unearthed.greenpeace.org
Sanctioned nuclear icebreakers helped export gas from the Russian Arctic bought by Shell
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Crispin Dowler @crispindowler.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
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...
unearthed.greenpeace.org
‘Ultimate hypocrisy’: UK exported 8,500 tonnes of banned pesticides last year
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Reposted by Crispin Dowler
Adam Vaughan @adamvaughan.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
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
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Crispin Dowler @crispindowler.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
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...
apnews.com
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...
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Unearthed @unearthednews.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
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. 🧵👇
unearthed.greenpeace.org
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
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Reposted by Crispin Dowler
Unearthed @unearthednews.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
“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...
unearthed.greenpeace.org
‘Ultimate hypocrisy’: UK exported 8,500 tonnes of banned pesticides last year
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Reposted by Crispin Dowler
Lucy Jordan @lucyjordan.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
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...
unearthed.greenpeace.org
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.
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Reposted by Crispin Dowler
Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
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/...
theguardian.com
‘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
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Crispin Dowler @crispindowler.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
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
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Reposted by Crispin Dowler
Unearthed @unearthednews.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
New from UE: The UK is exporting thousands of tonnes of a toxic weedkiller called diquat, even though its use has been banned here for years. More than half goes to Brazil. We spoke to the Brazilian farmers poisoned with this dangerous export. unearthed.greenpeace.org/2024/12/08/b...
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Crispin Dowler @crispindowler.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
We've been tracing the impact of the UK's trade in banned pesticides We found a growing number of Brazilian farmers poisoned with a toxic weedkiller. And exports of enough banned bee-killing pesticides to spray the whole of England The story's out now unearthed.greenpeace.org/2024/12/08/u...
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Reposted by Crispin Dowler
Unearthed @unearthednews.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Super important news here: A historic agreement that has helped curb deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon for nearly twenty years is under threat from big agribusiness Weakening the soy moratorium could push the Amazon closer to a catastrophic tipping point www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Protection deal for Amazon rainforest in peril as big business turns up heat
Exclusive: With Brazil’s politicians, agribusiness organisations and global traders piling on the pressure, the highly successful 2006 Soy Moratorium is under threat
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Crispin Dowler @crispindowler.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Amazing scoop here from Reuters The FBI is investigating an Exxon public affairs consultant's links to a hack of environmental activists' emails Stolen docs are *still being used* by an Exxon-backed trade group to disrupt climate litigation against Exxon and others www.reuters.com/business/ene...
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Crispin Dowler @crispindowler.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
At the UN plastic treaty negotiations starting again today, the fight is between countries who want to curb plastic production, and big petrochemical producers, who say more recycling is enough This investigation casts light on what a more-recycling-only strategy means for the world
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Zach Boren @zdboren.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
it's day 1 of the final negotiations for a global plastics treaty and 2 US senators and an influential representative have called out Big Oil's tactics using mine and @emmahoward.bsky.social's investigation @whitehouse.senate.gov @edmarkey.bsky.social @repjayapal.bsky.social
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Emma Howard @emmahoward.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
Looking for environmental journos to follow on here? Find the rest of our team here ⬇️ go.bsky.app/GuvPnRP
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Damian Carrington @dpcarrington.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
Panama's lead negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey is *furious* with latest #COP29 texts "The $250bn offered by [rich] countries is a spit on the face of vulnerable nations. They offer crumbs while we bear the dead. Outrageous, evil and remorseless." Liveblog 👇 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Cop 29 live: call for $1.3tn in climate finance by 2035 in new draft text
Text ‘decides’ on $250bn for developing countries by 2035 and calls for nations to make additional contributions
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Lawrence Carter @lawrencecarter.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
REVEALED | Internal McKinsey forecasting found clients were set to bust global climate goals. "We are serving a client portfolio that is likely on the 3 to 5 degrees warming... this portfolio contains more than half of the world's worst polluters." www.theguardian.com/business/202...
theguardian.com
Revealed: McKinsey clients had ‘rising share of global emissions’, internal analysis shows
Consulting giant had said it engages with clients to help them transition to cleaner energy even as it knew they were in line to exceed climate targets
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Crispin Dowler @crispindowler.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Really great investigative work here from @emmahoward.bsky.social and @zdboren.bsky.social
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Unearthed @unearthednews.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
👋 Hello Bluesky! 👋 We're a team of environmental journalists backed by Greenpeace UK. We investigate fossil fuels, intensive farming, greenwash, and pollution. Catch up on our back catalogue here: unearthed.greenpeace.org
unearthed.greenpeace.org
Investigative journalism from Greenpeace UK
Environmental news and investigations brought to you by Unearthed, Greenpeace UK's award-winning, editorially-independent journalism team.
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