Robot fish that "eat" microplastics may one day help to clean up the world's polluted oceans, says a team of Chinese scientists from Sichuan University in southwest China.

Soft to the touch and measuring just 1.3 centimetres in size, these cute robots have the ability to suck up microplastics in shallow water. The team behind the innovation hopes they will be able to collect waste in deeper water and simultaneously provide information to analyse marine pollution in real-time.

Despite over 70% of the world’s surface being covered by water, marine conservation remains a highly underserved area of conservation—due largely to a lack of funding from relevant global bodies—and one which has suffered from decades of irresponsible waste management. We hope that innovations like this can help to reverse some of the adverse effects and restore our waterways to what they once were!

Speaking of oceans, efforts to clean up the emblematic and infamous “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” reached an impressive yet sobering milestone this week, with 100,000kg of plastic removed to-date.

The ocean area, also known as the Pacific Trash Vortex, spans waters from the West Coast of North America to Japan, and is a collection of what’s called “marine debris”—essentially litter that ends up in oceans, seas, and other large bodies of water.

The Ocean Cleanup uses computer modelling to predict where large concentrations of rubbish will accumulate, and skims it from the sea using giant booms. The nonprofit deploys similar technology at river mouths to stop plastic entering oceans in the first place.

Brazil’s Supreme Court has become the first in the world to recognise the Paris Agreement as a human rights treaty—a move with potentially significant implications for national and international law.

The ruling now puts the global agreement higher than Brazil’s own national law, and was the culmination of a lawsuit filed two years ago against the Brazilian federal government by four political parties: the Workers’ Party, Socialism and Liberty Party, Brazilian Socialist Party and Sustainability Network.

The claimants pointed out that the climate fund (Fundo Clima) set up in 2009 as part of Brazil’s national climate policy plan was inoperative in 2019; annual plans had not been prepared and money had not been disbursed to support projects that mitigate climate change.

Brazil’s presidential election is rapidly approaching, and incumbent Bolsonero’s opponent, Lula De Silva, is a strong proponent of combating climate change in comparison to Bolsonero’s more pro-capitalist and, if we’re frank, pro-deforestation stance.

The environmental future of Brazil looks anything but secure, however this ruling at least proposes a positive way forward for climate policy in a historically dismissive part of the world.