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Spiegel Online reports here: Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is rapidly losing its coral, to the point that UNESCO may soon place the natural wonder on its “in danger” list. Climate change is one culprit, but so is the country’s booming extraction industry. Environmentalists warn that time is running out for the reef.

How marine debris finds new life as your soap bottle. CNN’s Kyung Lah reports.

Radiating Remnants, Spiegel Online reports here: German journalists have discovered barrels of radioactive waste on the floor of the English Channel, just a handful of thousands dumped there decades ago. It was previously thought the material had dissipated. Now politicians are calling for the removal of the potentially harmful containers.

Spiegel Online reports here: China’s power plants and factories are spewing out toxic emissions and covering the country with smog and grime. For the new leadership, protecting the neglected environment has become a question of preserving its power.

BBC News reports here: The UK faces a Supreme Court case over failure to clean up city air in line with EU laws.

BBC News reports here: More than 140 countries at a UN meeting in Geneva agree on a set of legally binding global measures to curb mercury pollution.

BBC News reports here: Air pollution in the Chinese capital Beijing reaches levels judged as hazardous to health, with visibility down to a few hundred meters.

BBC News reports here: An increase in small-scale mining means developing nations face growing health and environmental risks from mercury exposure, a UN report warns.

Spiegel Online reports here: Polluted and virtually cut off from the restorative flow of other bodies of water, Europe’s Baltic Sea is slowly running out of oxygen. But one scientist hopes to artificially oxygenate it with pumps. Critics worry there could be unforeseen consequences.

The couple was preparing to bring home a daughter from Russia, but the country’s new adoption ban threatens their plans.