by All photographs by Annika Hammerschlag for Anadolu on (#6HAZA)
Fishing nets abandoned or lost in the sea - known as ghost nets' or ghost gear' - have been called the most deadly form of marine plastic debris'. Dolphins, fish, whales, seabirds and turtles become entangled and die slow, painful deaths. But divers in Dakar are working to remove the threat Continue reading...
Exclusive: We need to listen to the scientists. Excessive pesticide use is killing our bees,' say company heads in letter to ministerThe UK government should stop ignoring the science and block a bee-killing pesticide from being used, business leaders have said.The neonicotinoid pesticide Cruiser SB is used on sugar beet and is highly toxic to bees. It is banned in the EU but the UK has provisionally agreed to its emergency use every year since leaving the bloc. In 2017, the then environment secretary, Michael Gove, promised to use Brexit to ban all neonicotinoids. Continue reading...
Conservationists call for more action after reptiles, fish and birds added to list, including 10 species deemed critically endangeredSeventeen species, including two birds, two fish, several reptiles and the Lord Howe earthworm, have been added to Australia's list of threatened species.The sooty shearwater, known for its long-distance journeys, has been listed as vulnerable, while the red-tailed tropicbird, which breeds on Christmas Island, has been listed as endangered. Continue reading...
Outrage in Colaton Raleigh after trees felled by government agency without consulting communityNot much happens in the sleepy village of Colaton Raleigh, where almost half of the residents are retired. So local walkers were horrified when they woke up one morning to an act of environmental vandalism" that left behind the maimed stumps of 100 ancient beech trees.Residents in the east Devon community are grieving the loss of the beloved trees, which were located in a special conservation area and site of special scientific interest, home to lots of local plants and animals, after they were felled by a government agency without consulting the community or council. Continue reading...
Cloud seeding improves air quality in city of Lahore but experts say practice is not a sustainable solutionArtificial rain has been used in an attempt to lower pollution levels in Lahore, Pakistan.The capital city of the eastern province of Punjab, near the Indian border, has some of the worst air quality in the world and has become extremely polluted because of a growing population of more than 13 million people. Continue reading...
Utilities give rewards to house builders to install and promote gas appliances in homes - and enlist celebrity chefs to extoll the fossil fuelDozens of US gas utilities, serving more than 35 million customers, offer builders and contractors incentives to keep fossil fuels in buildings, the Guardian has found.Washington state's NW Natural offers builders $2,000 for each new single-family home they equip with gas appliances, while Texas's Corpus Christi Gas offers $1,000. And in Minnesota, CenterPoint Energy participates in a program that offers paid vacations to builders who outfit homes with gas. Continue reading...
Unexplored caves can be scary, home to crocodiles, huge eels or tarantulas, but we can also find incredible new life in thereThere is no darkness like being in a cave. I love turning off my headlamp to experience that. It probably sounds horrifying and disconcerting, but caves also have a peaceful quality to them - at least for me. It's like Earth giving me a little hug. I'm weirdly calm when I'm in a cave.As a professor and curator of fishes at Louisiana State University, I explore hidden corners of the world and find new species, which means going to places few people have been before. Continue reading...
Shadow energy minister Ted O'Brien says report examines costs through an investment lens rather than a consumer lens, but Chris Bowen says nuclear crusade not viable
Blue Marine Foundation is challenging government for ignoring scientific advice on limits and giving a green light to overfishingThe UK government's decision to set catch limits for fish populations above those recommended by scientific advice is to be challenged in the courts by marine conservationists who accuse ministers of breaking their own post-Brexit rules.The legal challenge, expected to start in January, will argue that the government is illegally squandering" a public asset and going against laws aimed at improving sustainable fishing. Continue reading...
Indigenous campaigners, human rights defenders and climate activists say they are being silenced by fear of reprisalsIncidents of harassment, surveillance, threats and intimidation are creating a climate of fear at UN events including the recent Cop28 climate conference in Dubai, experts have said.Indigenous campaigners, human rights defenders and environmental activists say they are increasingly afraid to speak out on urgent issues because of concerns about reprisals from governments or fossil fuel industries. Continue reading...
Phenomenon whereby moisture condenses around particles of pollution was noticed near Heathrow in JanuaryA rare phenomenon known as industrial snowfall" appears to have occurred near Heathrow airport earlier this year, according to a study.Satellite imagery shows three large, white bands on the ground in parts of Surrey despite relatively dry conditions in the area at the time. The snow, which was recorded on 23 January, was distributed near industrial facilities south-east of Heathrow airport. Continue reading...
The world has looked to offsetting schemes to protect forests, fund conservation and fight the climate crisis - but many fail to fulfil their promises. Here are five ways to keep our forests standingKeeping the world's remaining forests standing is one of the most important environmental challenges of the 21st century. Humanity will not limit global heating to safe levels or stem the ongoing loss of wildlife without them. From the boreal forest that stretches around northern Europe, Siberia and Canada, to the Amazon, Earth's forests are some of the most biodiverse places on the planet, home to species found nowhere else.Yet all too often, forests are worth more money dead than alive - despite promises from global leaders to halt deforestation. Their exploitation has pushed many plants, animals and fungi to the brink of extinction, while slowly degrading their ability to generate rainfall, sequester carbon and cool the planet. Continue reading...
Regulators approve rules to let agencies recycle wastewater into drinking water for homes, schools and businessesWhen a toilet is flushed in California, the water can end up in a lot of places: an ice-skating rink in Ontario, ski slopes around Lake Tahoe, farmland in the central valley.And - coming soon - kitchen faucets. Continue reading...
Washington, Oregon and California have stringent laws to combat fossil fuel, but the approval of GTN Xpress could upend thatConstruction could start before the new year on a gas pipeline expansion through the Pacific north-west that state officials say will undermine the region's renewable transition and further fuel climate emergencies.The region is suffering from annual wildfires, deadly heat domes and drought. Lawmakers in Washington, Oregon and California have passed some of the country's most stringent laws to move away from fossil fuels, but they say the federal commission that greenlit the project threatens to undermine that progress. Continue reading...
Move aims to protect millions of old-growth trees, which are better at storing carbon, but its outcome depends on 2024 electionJoe Biden's administration on Tuesday announced a new proposal aimed at banning logging in old-growth forests, a move meant to protect millions of trees that play a key role in fighting the climate crisis.The proposal comes from an executive order signed by the president on Earth Day in 2022 that directed the US Forest Service and the land management bureau to conduct an inventory of old-growth and mature forest groves as well as to develop policies that protect them. Continue reading...
Marlena Fontes co-founded Climate Families NYC with six other mothers to create a space for families to take actionNew Yorker Marlena Fontes was working as a labor organizer and newly pregnant with her first child when a conversation with a co-worker about the climate crisis stirred something in her that would change her life.It was 2018 and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had recently released a report warning that world leaders had only until 2030 to make the sort of dramatic emission cuts that would prevent mass harm around the globe. Continue reading...
Eruption comes a month after nearly 4,000 inhabitants of the fishing town of Grindavik were evacuated when the area was hit by a 'seismic swarm' of more than 1,000 earthquakes in 24 hours.The Reykjanes peninsula in recent years has seen several eruptions in unpopulated areas, but the latest outbreak could pose a risk to Grindavik, authorities say.
Data also shows only one prosecution and follow-ups on one-third of 10,000 complaints made since January 2022There has been just one prosecution and three fines handed out for people using banned wood-burning stoves in England, data has revealed.Despite more than 10,000 complaints about wood being burned in populated areas since January 2022, local councils have not been enforcing the government's tough new restrictions" on stoves. Two-thirds of these complaints were not followed up, and only a handful led to any action. Continue reading...
South African court dismisses huge class-action lawsuit over toxic legacy of mining at Broken Hill in Zambia between 1925 and 1974A South African court has thrown out a case brought against the multinational mining company Anglo American on behalf of 140,000 Zambian women and children, who allege they have suffered lead poisoning from one of its mines.The lawsuit, one of Africa's largest class-action cases, was filed in October 2020, accused Anglo American of negligence over its alleged failure to prevent widespread lead poisoning in the Zambian town of Kabwe, where its South African subsidiary is alleged to have played a key role in running a large mine from 1925 until 1974. Continue reading...
It was supposed to be a run-of-the-mill category two - but flooded streets and cut-off communities show an intensity that nobody saw comingA lifelong resident of Machans Beach, just outside Cairns, Euan Williams had seen plenty of cyclones before. Once ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper passed over the community on Wednesday last week as a category-two storm, that confirmed it. It wouldn't amount to much.Being locals, a cat two's sort of like a run of the mill cyclone," he said. Continue reading...
The next generation of wildlife photographers are showcased in the RSPCA Young Photographer awards 2023. Here's a selection of the winning entries, capturing the natural world around them Continue reading...
by Ben Smee, Emily Wind, Andrew Messenger and Henry B on (#6H795)
Rain is finally easing, but emergency alerts remain for parts of the state's far north, with communities from Cooktown to Innisfail cut off by record flood waters
On the steep slope of a glacier jutting through the Hunza valley in Pakistan's mountainous far north, Tariq Jamil measures the ice's movement and takes photos. Later, he creates a report that includes data from sensors and another camera installed near the Shisper glacier to update his village an hour's hike downstream. His mission: to mobilise his community of 200 families in Hassanabad, in the Karakoram mountains, to fight for a future for their village and way of life, increasingly under threat from unstable lakes formed by melting glacier ice Continue reading...
As Colombia announces it will host the next biodiversity meeting, there is cautious optimism about the progress made since Cop15Governments risk another decade of failure on nature loss if they do not implement a landmark agreement in full, the UN's acting biodiversity chief has warned, 12 months after the deal was struck.As anticipation begins for the next summit - which was confirmed last week to be hosted by Colombia - the legacy and implementation of the last, historic agreement remains uncertain. Continue reading...
Animals fight for survival in far north Queensland after ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper brings days of heavy rains, saturating parts of the region. The rain is forecast to continue over the next 24 hours, with some areas already hit with more than a metre and water levels expected to break 1977 recordsSubscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTube
Roughly a third of global greenhouse gas emissions are due to food systems, but Cop had avoided agreements until nowFood systems - what we eat; how we grow, ship and cook it; and how we dispose of (and sometimes waste) it - are responsible for roughly a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. But for the better part of three decades, the final agreements that emerge from the UN's yearly climate summits have left out the impact food systems have on our climate.That changed this year in Dubai. The conference opened with a declaration on sustainable agriculture signed by more than 130 countries. For the first time ever, it featured a whole day devoted to food and agriculture and saw a food systems road map laid out by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Perhaps most strikingly, the final agreement document that was revealed at the end of the conference acknowledged sustainable agriculture as a part of responding appropriately to climate change. Continue reading...
Footage emerging from far north Queensland shows flooded homes, bridges and roads - and an animal being rescued from the Barron River, north of Cairns. One resident, Bazz Goes, documents his walk across the Barron Bridge in Karunda, noting that the water is at the level of the bridge, normally high above the river. 'The police and SES [state emergency service] are over here, and people are actually doing a cow rescue,' Goes says. Authorities on Sunday afternoon warned residents to expect continuous heavy rainfall for at least another day in what they called a 'life-threatening event'
UK lender is a major European funder of oil and gas projects and university has said it does not want to back fossil fuel expansionCambridge University could cut ties with Barclays after more than 200 years over the bank's refusal to stop financing new oil and gas projects, according to the Financial Times.It reported that Cambridge is looking for an institution with robust climate policies to manage several hundred million pounds" in cash and money market funds - a mandate expected to cover more than 200m in assets and generate about 10m in fees a year. Continue reading...
The UN summit's deal heralds the end of coal, oil and gas. The real test is whether producers back it up with action Get our morning and afternoon news emails,free app or daily news podcastFrom the start, Cop28 appeared beyond the reach of satire. About 100,000 politicians, diplomats, lobbyists, business people, investors, activists, scientists, policy wonks and journalists from across the globe registered for a two-week climate summit hosted by an authoritarian oil state in a city, Dubai, known for skyscrapers and extravagant, energy-hungry consumerism.The president of the summit, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, is the chief executive of the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, which is planning a US$150bn oil and gas expansion. The United Arab Emirates is also investing in renewables - its Noor Energy 1 concentrated solar thermal plant is bigger than 6,000 football fields - but a more prominent sight in central Dubai is the world's biggest gas-fired power plant.Sign up for Guardian Australia's free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Continue reading...
Roy Scholten has been interested in birds ever since he can remember. In his 50 Birds series, the Netherlands-based artist and printmaker has created handmade prints of local species including pied flycatchers, skylarks and blue-headed wagtails. Each print is made using Lego letterpress, combining individual building blocks into stamps to recreate the birds' shapes and patterns, a technique perfected over the past decade by his frequent collaborator, the artist Martijn van der Blom. Birds are daily reminders of the richness of our natural surroundings. They can fly! How cool is that!" says Scholten. Sadly most species are in decline, which makes it all the more worthwhile to really look and appreciate them."