It’s been a big year of environmental news and our first full calendar year online.
To celebrate the year coming to an end, here’s META’s month-by-month guide to 12 of our favourite stories from 2018.
January
Bulldozers moved in to help make way for the expansion of a giant coal mine. It wasn’t good news, but if a picture paints a thousand words, this was the story of a dirty industry’s destructive nature…
German ‘cathedral’ bulldozed to make way for expanding coal mine
February
What’s a sponge city? You’ll have to click this one to find out!
March
Pressure had been growing on national governments for failing to meet EU requirements for safe air. By March the European Commission had lost patience.
‘Toxic Bloc’ countries will face court for failure to clean up air
April
Plastic pollution was a hot topic throughout the year. In April we made a splash with giant artworks on beaches across Europe. Which was your favourite?
May
This story, first broken on meta, went on to make front page news in Poland when it emerged the reason for the giant jump in emissions was huge under-reporting of toxic pollution over many years…
June
Environmental advocates in Brussels know they are fighting well-resourced corporate lobbyists, but the extent of the investment here even surprised us…
REVEALED: Industry spending millions to avoid cancer warning labels
July
As people across Europe started to set off for their summer holidays we learnt that physical interventions in Europe’s rivers had become a bigger threat than pollutants.
Dams and dykes beat pollution to top list of threats to rivers and lakes
August
New EU rules put an end to wasteful light bulbs. Here, EEB’s Mauro Anastasio explains the good news.
September
The self-declared winner of “headline of the year” was claimed for this piece about international bat night.
October
A shocking story broken on META about the prevalence of dangerous chemicals in Europe.
November
Green groups celebrated a major victory after oil exploration was finally halted of the Portuguese coast.
Decemeber
Christmas came early in the battle against the plastic dragon as the EU signed-off new rules on single-use products.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading META in 2018 as much as we’ve enjoyed writing it. Don’t forget to sign-up to receive our weekly newsletter so you’ll never miss a story again!
