Coronavirus lockdown: What impact on the planet?

For more than half a century, humans have required all new drugs to be tested on animals. Today, ethical alternatives are emerging. But can they replace animal studies? The Down to Earth team takes a closer look.

The mother of a nine-year-old girl who died from acute respiratory failure in London after repeated asthma attacks says that without air pollution her daughter would "still be here" and that she hopes a coroner's inquest will conclude that it played a role in her death.

After having walked 880 km for two months between Marseille and Paris to collect thousands of masks thrown by the roadside, Englishman Edmund Platt and Frenchman Frédéric Munsch arrived in the French capital on Saturday. To help raise awareness of the problem further, the Franco-British duo teamed up with a street artist from Nice who exhibits masks under glass, displayed under street signs in Paris. And they are offering an "aperitif garbage collection" on Friday evening in front of City Hall (Hotel de Ville, Eds.).

Researchers say global carbon emissions dropped by an estimated 2.4 billion metric tons this year due to the coronavirus-induced lockdowns. They have also warned that the emissions may rebound once the pandemic ends.

Britain's Supreme Court has ruled that more than 40,000 people can make claims against the European energy giant following decades of oil spills in the Niger Delta region.

Israeli soldiers scramble to clean the Hof Hasharon beach after a massive tar contamination hit the country's Mediterranean shore.

Millions of plastic pellets from a container ship ablaze off Colombo have already washed up on beaches, along with other hazardous waste. The disaster threatens the lucrative fishing and tourism sectors.

The European Court of Justice said that German authorities did not take "appropriate measures" to limit air pollution caused by nitrogen dioxide.

South Korea is boosting efforts to recycle plastics in the country. At special centres, used PET bottles are recycled and transformed into products such as clothes, food containers, and cosmetic bottles.

But a series of new laws in effect since January 2020 aim to significantly reduce plastic pollution over five years by phasing out single-use plastic, encouraging research and development of plastic alternatives and improving waste management and recycling.

Five hospitals in the United Kingdom have installed new machines from a Cardiff-based company which melts items made of polypropylene, such as face masks, separating out impurities to make plastic blocks recycled into chairs, buckets or 3D-printed items.

A new playground prototype in central Warsaw uses algae which feast on pollutants and carbon dioxide to provide a bubble of clean oxygen in the city.