Latest Stories from Jessica
Could yeast be the answer to beating plastic pollution?
In recent years, scientists have experimented with using special fungi and unique bacteria to help break down the pesky plastics polluting our planet. Now, they’ve discovered a new weapon for their arsenal: yeast. Plastics may have served humans well in countless different scenarios over the last few decades, but their durability has resulted in us facing an environmental nightmare. One type of plastic – polyolefin – is of particular concern....
British consumers continue to shop sustainably despite inflation
Despite feeling the toughest financial pinch in over 40 years, research reveals the British public is still willing to pay a bit more for ethically sourced and sustainably made products. Life is getting expensive these days. Around the world, inflation is causing the price of even the most basic items – such as bread, eggs, and milk – to skyrocket at rates not seen in over four decades. In times like this,...
Copenhagen introduces ban on exotic skins at Fashion Week
Just two years after it prohibited animal fur, Copenhagen has announced exotic animal skins and feathers will also be banned from its fashion week runways. Shows full of animal feathers and skins at fashion week? Groundbreaking. That’s the stance organisers of Copenhagen Fashion Week have taken as of late, announcing a ban on collections featuring exotic skins and feathers that will begin next year. This move has cemented Copenhagen as a...
Botswana threatens to send tens of thousands of elephants to Europe
Both the UK and Germany have received threats from Botswana as the two nations contemplate implementing stricter limits on poaching and the import of hunting trophies. Nothing quite like waking up to threats of being sent 20,000 African elephants, eh? In what is a hilariously unfolding saga to those on the outside, Botswana’s president has once again threatened to send a large portion of its local elephant population to Europe. He first...
This beauty company sells discounted cosmetics destined for landfill
Each year in the UK, around 90 million beauty products are discarded before they even hit store shelves. One women-owned retailer is selling them for a fraction of the price online with the ultimate goal of cutting down on cosmetic waste. Beauty companies may have concealed their wasteful practices for many decades, but the truth has finally come to light… and it’s not pretty. The industry is notorious for contributing massively...
Al Jazeera to be imminently banned from broadcasting in Israel
Netanyahu has announced an immediate ban on the Middle Eastern news company from operating in Israel. The US expressed concern, as Al Jazeera’s journalists have been some of the only officials able to broadcast from the ground. On Monday, Israeli parliamentarians voted in favour of a new law which allows government leaders to shut down any broadcaster it deems a ‘threat to national security’. It seems that President Benjamin Netanyahu’s...
Reforesting with the wrong trees could be worsening the climate crisis
Tree planting has been heralded as a saving grace in the face of a warming planet, but projects that use the wrong plant species are contributing further to the climate crisis and worsening biodiversity loss. By now, we are all aware of just how vital trees are to our planet’s ecology. They clean and cool the air we breathe, stand as homes for wild animals, and absorb natural and...
A Michelin-star restaurant will open in outer space by next year
Inside a NASA complex on Cape Canaveral in Florida, the mission to make luxury space travel available to the public is well on its way. ‘The public’ being those in the highest tax bracket, of course. Ever since Jeff Bezos yeeted himself into the stratosphere a couple of years back, we all knew luxury space tourism was inevitable - but how many of us could’ve predicted it would be possible...
Is microdosing at work about to become the new norm?
For most of recent history, people have viewed drugs as dangerous and counterproductive to humanity’s success. With some of the world’s most successful people admitting to microdosing at work, could that change? For years, there have been whispers of employees of Silicon Valley taking psychedelics to come up with new features for our favourite bits of technology including smartphones, tablets, and computers. Even Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, attributed...
Swedish retailer bans children from buying anti-ageing skincare
In a bid to protect young people from being influenced by beauty trends online, a popular pharmacy in Sweden has decided to ban under 16s from purchasing anti-ageing skincare products. While the societal pressure to be perfect has never been more intense, no natural human process has been vilified in recent times quite like ageing. Across the internet, beauty gurus and unqualified content creators are constantly sharing endless (and often...
