Emma Bryce @emmaanne.bsky.social · 24/07/2025"We thought that the taboo was so firm that no one ever would even dare think of using anti-personnel mines," one source told me. "Much like chemical weapons or biological weapons.” 020
Emma Bryce @emmaanne.bsky.social · 24/07/2025I usually cover environmental policy, but here's my first piece on global disarmament — and how one celebrated disarmament treaty that has protected countless civilian lives is now under threat. 120
Emma Bryce @emmaanne.bsky.social · 24/07/2025Why did the CEO of one of the world's largest demining charities The HALO Trust defend a shipment of banned landmines from the US to Ukraine? spoileralerts.substack.com/p/questionab...spoileralerts.substack.comQuestionable incentivesWhy is the CEO of the world’s largest demining organisation defending banned landmines? 120
Reposted by Emma BryceMagnus Løvold @magnuslovold.bsky.social · 23/07/2025The story — written by journalist @emmaanne.bsky.social — raises tough questions about the perverse incentives at play in mine action. Emma reached out @thehalotrust.bsky.social for comment. They declined. Read the full story: spoileralerts.substack.com/p/questionab...spoileralerts.substack.comQuestionable incentivesWhy is the CEO of the world’s largest demining organisation defending banned landmines? 022
Reposted by Emma BryceMagnus Løvold @magnuslovold.bsky.social · 23/07/2025Why is the CEO of the world’s largest de-mining NGO defending landmines? James Cowan of @thehalotrust.bsky.social has publicly supported the shipment of anti-personnel mines to Ukraine — even suggesting the Mine Ban Treaty should be revised 🧵 101
Emma Bryce @emmaanne.bsky.social · 04/04/2025The UN Human Rights Council has just officially recognised plastic pollution as a threat to human rights. Here's a look at how plastic disproportionately affects Indigenous Peoples - and how they're fighting back dialogue.earth/en/pollution... @dialogueearth.bsky.socialdialogue.earthIndigenous Peoples fight to be heard at plastics treaty talksThough disproportionately affected by plastic pollution, Indigenous Peoples are struggling to shape a global treaty on it 04917
Reposted by Emma BryceDialogue Earth @dialogueearth.bsky.social · 25/03/2025✊ "We were completely being ignored. We were saying: ‘Chair, we need just two minutes. Chair, Indigenous Peoples are also here!’" – Prem Singh Tharu, Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact Indigenous Peoples fight to be heard at plastics treaty talks. ✍️ @emmaanne.bsky.social loom.ly/7ACy-Toloom.lyIndigenous Peoples fight to be heard at plastics treaty talksThough disproportionately affected by plastic pollution, Indigenous Peoples are struggling to shape a global treaty on it 052
Reposted by Emma BryceJoseph Winters @jbwinters.bsky.social · 03/02/2025Super proud of this co-publication with @emdashsanders.bsky.social at ExxonKnews, about the DOE's unusual relationship with plastics industry lobbying groups. @gristnews.bsky.social grist.org/accountabili...grist.org‘Plastics are awesome’: Inside the Energy Department’s partnership with the plastics industryCritics argue that the agency’s work with a lobbying group is a conflict of interest. 13815
Emma Bryce @emmaanne.bsky.social · 17/01/2025I, for one, chuckled in delight at this title, Alex! 100
Emma Bryce @emmaanne.bsky.social · 17/01/2025"Plastic, he added, is undeniably useful. But it comes with a clear risk. One day, if fire strikes, 'it will burn faster, and it will burn hotter.' The advantages will turn to threats." www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...theatlantic.comWhat Happens When a Plastic City BurnsMost modern couches are basically blocks of gasoline. 042
Reposted by Emma BryceDaniel Cressey @dpcressey.bsky.social · 18/12/2024Lovely to wrap up the year (nearly) by publishing this piece from @oliveheffernan.bsky.social on @dialogueearth.bsky.social dialogue.earth/en/ocean/exp...dialogue.earthExplainer: Why ocean temperatures are a growing concernCleaner global shipping, El Niño and a subsea volcano have all been implicated, as scientists rush to understand record-breaking ocean heat 063
Emma Bryce @emmaanne.bsky.social · 18/12/2024I don't think we talk nearly enough about the quiet wonders of #peat and what it does for our planet - or how frightening it is when it catches fire! Thanks to TED Ed for featuring this video, with beautiful animation by Ivana Volda, and expert insight from Guillermo Rein youtu.be/brdrOzVgZX0?...youtu.beHow are these fires burning underground? - Emma BryceYouTube video by TED-Ed 040
Reposted by Emma BryceDr Winnie Courtene-Jones (Plastic pollution scientist) @winniecj.bsky.social · 15/12/2024I spoke to BBC Radio Wales' Science Cafe about Christmas waste, listen: 🗓️ 17th December ⏰ 18.30 📍 BBC radio Wales Or on demand : www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... @bangoruniversity.bsky.social #Christmas #plasticwaste #plasticpollutionbbc.co.ukBBC Radio Wales - Science Cafe, Christmas WasteAdam Walton explores the environmental impact of Christmas. 0156
Reposted by Emma BryceMagnus Løvold @magnuslovold.bsky.social · 13/12/2024When the history of the #PlasticsTreaty process is written, #INC5 in Busan 🇰🇷 will be remembered as the point where the large majority of countries in favour of a strong treaty discovered their capacity for collective action medium.com/points-of-or...medium.comM for MajorityBUSAN, MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2024: Ambassador Luis Vayas had until the very last moment been unwilling to consider requests for extension… 0106
Emma Bryce @emmaanne.bsky.social · 13/12/2024Thanks to @dpcressey.bsky.social and @dialogueearth.bsky.social for regularly making space for coverage on this fraught and fascinating topic, and @gridarendal.bsky.social for the funding to report from Busan! 030
Emma Bryce @emmaanne.bsky.social · 13/12/2024The Busan talks were a disappointment for many. Yet some feel that they marked a turning point on the road to an ambitious global treaty. It's a mixed picture, but it's not over. And looking out to 2025, I wonder where all that optimism, energy, and raw emotion will take the process. 110
Emma Bryce @emmaanne.bsky.social · 13/12/2024That collective hope also means that for those who have now dedicated years to the process, the lows feel really low - as one negotiator explained to me in Busan, beginning to cry as he contemplated returning to his island nation, whose shores are often awash with plastic, without a treaty in hand. 100
Emma Bryce @emmaanne.bsky.social · 13/12/2024When countries first officially agreed to write a plastics treaty in 2022, I spoke with people who said they had literally wept with joy as that gavel came down! 100
Emma Bryce @emmaanne.bsky.social · 13/12/2024The talks reached a stalemate and were not agreed by the December deadline, so the process will continue in 2025. It's been described as a 'failure'. But something that doesn't always get its due is the enormous optimism that is required to propel these multilateral processes into existence. 100
Emma Bryce @emmaanne.bsky.social · 13/12/2024Late to post, but still thinking about the INC-5 plastics treaty talks in Busan, where 100+ countries stood up to support an ambitious agreement to tackle the escalating quantities of plastic that enter our lives each day dialogue.earth/en/pollution... @dialogueearth.bsky.socialdialogue.earthINC-5: ‘dark arts’, filibusters, and the final meeting that wasn’tPlastic treaty stalls despite 100 nations pushing for deal, as lobbyists outnumber larger delegations and negotiations spill over into ‘INC-5.2’ 183
Reposted by Emma BryceLaura Mercier @lauramercier.bsky.social · 02/12/2024 #PlasticsTreaty: La communauté internationale quitte aujourd'hui Busan sans l’accord qu’elle était venue y chercher. Si la majorité en faveur d’un traité ambitieux repart renforcée, elle se heurte à la ferme opposition d’une minorité de pays. Partie remise en 2025. www.contexte.com/article/envi...contexte.comÀ Busan, l’échec des négociations sur le traité plastiques promis deux ans plus tôt - ContexteAprès sept jours de pourparlers, la communauté internationale a quitté la Corée du Sud, ce 2 décembre, sans l’accord qu’elle s’était engagée à conclure avant la fin de l’année 2024. Si la majorité en ... 086
Emma Bryce @emmaanne.bsky.social · 30/11/2024"There’s a great lot of countries that want to see the betterment of this planet.” Fiji's Sivendra Michael on the 100+ nations who now want curbs on plastic production to be included in a global #plasticstreaty being debated in Busan www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...google.comHope of breakthrough at international plastic treaty talks after two-year deadlock‘Important shift’ made in global attempts to address plastic pollution though final treaty text yet to be agreed 042
Reposted by Emma BryceAnja Krieger @anjakrieger.bsky.social · 28/11/2024What’s going on at the #PlasticsTreaty talks? Slightly jetlagged, I got together with the one and only @magnuslovold.bsky.social for an update last night. Listen to where we stand midway at #INC5: m.soundcloud.com/plastisphere...m.soundcloud.comHow (Not) To Make a Plastics Treaty - Part V: Things Get CircularPlay How (Not) To Make a Plastics Treaty - Part V: Things Get Circular by Plastisphere Podcast on desktop and mobile. Play over 320 million tracks for free on SoundCloud. 092
Emma Bryce @emmaanne.bsky.social · 27/11/2024220 industry lobbyists here at the global #plasticstreaty talks in Busan, making it the largest delegation, outnumbering those of both Korea and the EU @cielorg.bsky.social www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...google.comPlastics lobbyists make up biggest group at vital UN treaty talksFossil fuel and chemical industry representatives outnumber those of the EU or host country South Korea 022
Reposted by Emma BryceAndrew MacAskill @macaskillaf.bsky.social · 22/11/2024Huge congrats to @karyna-mi.bsky.social for her paper published today in Science! She found that the hippocampus is really important for a key strategy we use to make decisions called hidden state inference! 🧪 🧠https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq5874 1/7science.orgHidden state inference requires abstract contextual representations in the ventral hippocampusThe ability to use subjective, latent contextual representations to influence decision-making is crucial for everyday life. The hippocampus is hypothesized to bind together otherwise abstract combinat... 31596116
Reposted by Emma BryceDialogue Earth @dialogueearth.bsky.social · 18/11/2024Next week in Busan, South Korea a final meeting on a treaty to curb plastic pollution starts. @emmaanne.bsky.social outlines what to look out for at INC-5 for Dialogue Earth. dialogue.earth/en/pollution...dialogue.earthINC-5: What to look out for at plastics treaty talks in BusanNations gather in South Korea this month for a final meeting on curbing plastic pollution. Who are the key players – and is a deal likely? 1136
Reposted by Emma BryceBarry Christianson @barrychristianson.com · 09/11/2024www.aljazeera.com/features/lon...aljazeera.comSouth African Indigenous people fight Big Oil to defend ancestors’ spiritsAs Shell hopes to begin oil exploration off the Eastern Cape coast, communities fight to protect their sacred waters. 042
Reposted by Emma BryceDamian Carrington @dpcarrington.bsky.social · 15/11/2024New - At least 123 oil & gas company bosses and staff were invited to #cop29 as “guests” by the Azerbaijan and given host country badges - i.e. the red carpet treatment, inc Aramco, Exxonmobil and BP CEOs Post by me www.theguardian.com/environment/...theguardian.comCop29 live: calls grow to ban fossil fuel lobbyists at summit as numbers soarUK Greens say climate measures ‘being derailed by the fossil fuel lobby’ and that Trump’s victory underlines the need to reform Cop 36226
Reposted by Emma BryceRob Ralston @policyrelevant.bsky.social · 13/11/2024with the final round of UN plastics treaty negotiations in two weeks, we have published a preprint paper on the risks and limits of 'plastic credits' as a solution to this planetary crisis @melaniebergma18.bsky.social @emmaanne.bsky.social @lisalsong.bsky.social zenodo.org/records/1411...zenodo.orgUnpacking plastic credits: Challenges to effective and just global plastics governanceAmid growing concerns over plastic pollution and ongoing efforts to develop a global plastics treaty, this paper critically examines plastic credits as a compensatory measure for addressing plastic po... 32811
Emma Bryce @emmaanne.bsky.social · 11/11/2024NDCs, Article 6 and finance: this is a very helpful guide on what to watch at #COP29 and the key terms to know www.theguardian.com/environment/...theguardian.comCop29 jargon buster: key terms for this year’s climate conference in AzerbaijanHere are some of the phrases that are likely to crop up over the coming days in Baku 030
Emma Bryce @emmaanne.bsky.social · 05/11/2024The world is working on a treaty to end global plastic pollution, and the final meeting is this month in Busan: here's my take on what to watch: dialogue.earth/en/pollution... @dialogueearth.bsky.socialdialogue.earthINC-5: What to look out for at plastics treaty talks in BusanNations gather in South Korea this month for a final meeting on curbing plastic pollution. Who are the key players – and is a deal likely? 052