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Pollution killed 12.6 million people worldwide in 2012, with environmental risks causing about a quarter of all deaths worldwide, according to new World Health Organization data. "These impacts are being felt today, worldwide, most severely in developing countries but also in this country," says environmental health expert Frederica Perera.

Nearly every piece of plastic still exists on Earth, regardless of whether it's been recycled, broken down into microscopic bits or discarded in the ocean. And the world keeps producing more of the material -- creating 288 million metric tons of it in 2012. About 4.8 to 12.7 million metric tons of it end up in the oceans in 2010, according to a new estimate published in the journal Science.

Waitrose has joined Tesco as the latest UK retailer to take seafood giant John West to task over its fishing practices, threatening to remove its canned tuna from store shelves if it does not follow through on its promise to improve. The decision will pile pressure on the embattled tuna company following last week's announcement by Tesco that John West would be banned if it continued using harmful fishing practices.

Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have surged past an important threshold and may not dip below it for "many generations." The 400 parts per million benchmark was broken globally for the first time in recorded history in 2015. But according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), 2016 will likely be the first full year to exceed the mark.

Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is present at 400 parts per million for the first time ever -- a level that's 44% greater than CO2 levels prior to the Industrial Revolution, says a World Meteorological Organization report. Improvements in the near future could reduce CO2 levels by the 2060s, says WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

Greenpeace has ended a five-year truce with one of the world's largest paper companies, accusing it of cutting down tropical forests in Indonesia during the entire time the two were cooperating on conservation.