Across the globe, vast swathes of land are being left to be reclaimed by nature. To see what could be coming, look to BulgariaAbandonment, when it came, crept in from the outskirts. Homes at the edge of town were first to go, then the peripheral grocery stores. It moved inward, slow but inexorable. The petrol station closed, and creeper vines climbed the pumps, amassing on the roof until it buckled under the strain. It swallowed the outer bus shelters, the pharmacies, the cinema, the cafe. The school shut down.Today, one of the last institutions sustaining human occupation in Tyurkmen, a village in central Bulgaria, is the post office. Dimitrinka Dimcheva, a 56-year-old post officer, still keeps it open two days a week, bringing in packages of goods that local shops no longer exist to sell. Once a thriving town of more than 1,200, Tyurkmen is now home to fewer than 200 people. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Stellantis executive's recent comments to investors undermine claim Luton closure was down to emission mandate

Exclusive: National landscapes' chiefs say environment secretary has given no budget assurances and they are to expect cutsProposed cuts to England's most beautiful landscapes pose an existential threat", the managers of the National Landscapes Association have warned.These 46 regions, including the Chilterns, the Cotswolds, the Wye Valley and the north Pennines, used to be known as areas of outstanding natural beauty but were renamed this year as national landscapes". They cover 15% of England, including 20% of the coastline. Continue reading...

Source of Philadelphia's drinking water sees salt line pushed closer to city by drought and sea level riseSalty ocean water is creeping up the Delaware River, the source for much of the drinking water for Philadelphia and millions of others, brought on by drought conditions and sea level rise, and prompting officials to tap reservoirs to push the un-potable tide back downstream.Officials say drinking water is not imminently at risk, but they are monitoring the effects of the drought on the river and studying options for the future in case further droughts sap the area, amid the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Fossil fuel and chemical industry representatives outnumber those of the EU or host country South KoreaRecord numbers of plastic industry lobbyists are attending global talks that are the last chance to hammer out a treaty to cut plastic pollution around the world.The key issue at the conference will be whether caps on global plastic production will be included in the final UN treaty. Lobbyists and leading national producers are furiously arguing against any attempt to restrain the amount that can be produced, leaving the talks on a knife-edge. Continue reading...

Loyalists selected for important roles have offered staunch support to fossil fuels and downplayed climate crisisDonald Trump's cabinet picks have been eclectic and often controversial but a unifying theme is emerging, experts say, with the US president-elect's nominees offering staunch support to fossil fuels and either downplaying or denying the climate crisis caused by the burning of these fuels.Trump ran on promises to eviscerate green new scam" climate policies and to drill, baby, drill" for more oil and gas, and his choices to run the major organs of the US government echo such sentiments, particularly his picks relating to the environment, with Lee Zeldin chosen as the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Chris Wright as energy secretary and Doug Burgum as interior secretary. Continue reading...

We've cared for our farm through war, pandemic and money worries. The inheritance tax row shows how little the government respects that

Hundreds of climate protesters joined a rally in Canberra on Wednesday - days after a protest in Newcastle

Another vast tourist resort project promising jobs and prosperity. But critics say such developments imperil the pristine environments they advertise

Ed Miliband argues the UK should race towards becoming a clean energy superpower', but costs to the consumer shouldn't be ignoredThe government's plan to decarbonise the UK's electricity system by 2030 is a vast undertaking. Energy companies will throw 40bn-plus annually at the effort, backed by financing that ultimately affects consumers' bills. So it is extraordinary that no official body seems able to answer this question: will it cost more to complete the job by 2030 rather than by the old 2035 timetable? Is it more expensive to go faster?That is not to dispute the necessity of generating electricity from clean domestic sources, an ambition shared widely across the political spectrum for reasons of security of supply and climate emergency. But the pace of decarbonisation can clearly also affect the cost for consumers, a point Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, tends to skip over too breezily when he argues that security, sustainability and affordability are now perfectly aligned. Continue reading...

Research reflects rising optimism about country's green transition as it takes leading position on climate actionNearly half of experts surveyed by a climate thinktank believe China's carbon dioxide emissions have already peaked, or will do so in 2025, reflecting increasing optimism about the country's green transition at a time when it is being called on to take a leading position on global climate action.According to a report published on Tuesday by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a research organisation, 44% of climate experts from academia and industry believe that China's CO emissions will peak, at the latest, in 2025. In last year's survey, only 21% of experts gave the same response. Continue reading...

The environmental harm caused by this shapeshifting, underregulated industry must be tackledLocal pushback against cruise ships in the world's top tourist destinations is nothing new. More than three years ago, these vast vessels were barred from Venice's lagoon on grounds of the risk they posed to the city's historic buildings. This summer, cruise ships in Amsterdam and Barcelona were targeted by protesters, on grounds of chemical pollution but also as part of a wider movement against overtourism (as the negative impacts of huge influxes of visitors have become known). But - as revealed this week in a series of Guardian articles, The real cost of cruises - the environmental and social impact of this fast-growing industry goes way beyond individual cities, and requires action on a global scale.The carbon emissions of a cruise are roughly double that of the equivalent flights plus a hotel stay. The industry is also responsible for a vast quantity of waste discharged directly into the sea, as well as high levels of toxic air pollution in the ports where ships are docked - usually with their engines running. Once seen as the exclusive pursuit of a minority of wealthy retired people, these holidays are now mainstream, with vast floating resorts designed and marketed for families and young adults. The largest ships have up to 20 floors and room for several thousand people.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

In this excerpt from his book Consider the Turkey, philosopher Peter Singer explains how the birds bred for maximum breast meat suffer from health problemsThe United States is the world's largest turkey producer and the largest exporter of turkey products. Its residents also consume an ever-increasing amount of these birds. In 1970, Americans ate just over 8lbs (3.6kg) per person annually; by 2021, the National Turkey Federation reports that figure had nearly doubled to more than 15lbs.That demand and modern breeding have transformed turkeys. They've been bred to put on weight quickly, and at slaughter, the average turkey today weighs almost twice as much as turkeys did in 1960. The contrast with the rate of growth of wild turkeys is even greater. At four months old, a male wild turkey will weigh no more than 8lbs, whereas at the same age, a male turkey selectively bred for meat will weigh 41lbs. Continue reading...

Scheme to fund activities such as hedge-planting paused owing to budget constraints, sources sayGrants promised to farmers in England for planting hedges and cleaning up waterways have been frozen by the government.The capital grants scheme, which was opened by the government to allow farmers to invest in infrastructure such as slurry storage so animal excrement does not go into rivers, has been abruptly paused. Farmers have said this will make it difficult for them to run their businesses in an environmentally friendly way. Continue reading...

Departmental analysis includes contentious measurements, but climate minister says government is cleaning up after decade of denial, delay, dysfunction and utter neglect'

It is only a matter of time before a mountainside is brought down. We need climate adaptation help - and we need it now

River water quality distinctly worse than that of coastal bathing sites, results from tests for harmful bacteria foundWater quality has been designated as poor in a record number of bathing areas this year after 16 rivers were included in summer testing for harmful bacteria, figures reveal.The push to clean up England's rivers has led to an increase in demand for bathing water status at river locations across the country. Rivers suffer from water company sewage pollution and agricultural pollution, and the results show river water quality is distinctly worse than that of coastal bathing sites. The results come after sewage pollution into rivers by water companies reached record levels last year. Continue reading...

A new generation is taking to the ocean in growing numbers - and fears over the environmental impact of cruise ships appear not to be denting their popularity

Survival International says Hongana Manyawa in Indonesia are at risk but mining company says the people in voluntary' contact with workersUncontacted hunter-gatherers in Indonesia are facing a severe and immediate threat of genocide" because of mining for minerals on their lands for use in electric vehicles, a report claims.In their own language, the Indigenous Hongana Manyawa people, of Halmahera island, call themselves the people of the forest". But their forest home is being destroyed in a rush for nickel, a crucial component in rechargeable batteries, campaigners say. Continue reading...

UK energy secretary played key role in $300bn deal for developing countries, branded a betrayal' by critics

Operations at a cold war lab exposed at least 1,073 people to radiation. Risks to the nearby communities persistExposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point is a special report by the San Francisco Public Press, an independent non-profit news organization focused on accountability, equity and the environment.In September 1956, Cpl Eldridge Jones found himself atop a sunbaked roof at an old army camp about an hour outside San Francisco, shoveling radioactive dirt. Continue reading...

IFS suggests gifts of land before a certain date could be tax-free so that elderly farmers would not be caught outMinisters should give farmers an inheritance tax holiday for the next few years, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said as it warned that government changes to agricultural taxes risked treating some landowners unfairly.Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, announced in her budget last month that farmers with a business worth more than 1m could be subjected to 20% inheritance tax, prompting a tractor protest outside parliament. Continue reading...

Experts say financial movements mean poor nations will in effect get billions less in value from 300bn pledgeA failure to factor in inflation means the $300bn (240bn) climate finance deal agreed at Cop29 is not the tripling of pledges that has been claimed, economists have said.The international talks in Baku were pulled back from the brink of collapse early on Sunday morning when negotiators struck an agreement in which rich countries promised to raise $300bn a year by 2035. On paper, this is a tripling of the previous climate finance target of $100bn a year by 2020, and has been trumpeted as such by the UN and others. Continue reading...

Britain wanted much better outcomes on many issues, but seeing the ambition at the conference gives me hope for the futureThe climate crisis is all around us. And the world is not moving nearly fast enough. In that context, the Cop process for climate negotiations feels frustratingly slow. Yet it is the best mechanism for multilateral action we have, so we have to use it to do everything we can to speed up action.The UK went to Cop29 determined to play its part in a successful negotiation because it is in our national interest. As the prime minister said in Baku earlier this month, there is no national security without climate security. That is so clear from the effects of Storm Bert over the past couple of days. If we do not act, we can expect more and more of these extreme and devastating outcomes.Ed Milband is secretary of state for energy security and net zeroDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

My negotiating team tried in vain to push up support for the global south. Lessons must be learned before the next summit in Brazil

After spending most of his life on commercial vessels, Guillaume Picard is now fighting to keep these vast liners out of the French port of Marseille

Mexico is a leading international pork producer, but Yucatan residents say the waste oozing from hundreds of enormous hog farms is destroying the environmentThe stink of excrement was the first thing the residents of Sitilpech noticed when the farm opened in 2017. It hung over the colourful one-storey homes and kitchen gardens in the Maya town in Yucatan, and has never left. Next, the trees stopped bearing fruit, their leaves instead covered with black spots. Then, the water from the vast, porous aquifer emerged from the well with a horrible, overwhelming stench.Before, we used that water for everything: for cooking, for drinking, for bathing. Now we can't even give it to animals. Today, we have to give the chickens purified water because otherwise they get diarrhoea," says one resident. The radishes grow thin and the coriander often turns yellow. This has always been a quiet town, where life was very good until that farm started," they say. Continue reading...

Female almost the length of a shipping container was found dead on a drumline in August, primary industries department has revealed

Growing infestations along the Logan river pose very high risk' of spreading downstream, Invasive Species Council says

The stakes are high for donors at next month's IDA summit in Seoul, but not investing in development means more instability globallyMultilateralism is under attack. A toxic brew of multiplying conflicts, worsening climate impact, new pandemics and spiralling debt has brought the system to its knees, appearing almost incapable of properly addressing these converging crises. Adding the unknowns of a Trump administration into the mix will do little to allay concerns.My own critiques of the current multilateral system are well documented, but I do not subscribe to the view that it has no future. What's needed is a total reboot. Continue reading...

In today's newsletter: The view from Azerbaijan is of disappointingly low direct finance guarantees to the developing world, although it is less bad than nothing' Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. Cop29 in Baku finally finished at 5.31am local time yesterday, more than 35 hours after it was due to conclude - and the extra time did not lead to a triumphant outcome.On the biggest issue under discussion, the transfer of climate finance from the developed to the developing world, the headline figure in the agreement was $1.3tn (1tn) by 2035. But that masked much smaller commitments in direct finance, mostly in the form of grants and low-interest loans, which amounted to only $300bn. Nor is the outcome an injustice whose impact is limited to the global South, of course: if the money isn't there to support a green energy transition in developing economies, temperatures will rise all over the world.UK weather | Storm Bert is expected to cause further disruption on Monday after torrential downpours caused devastating" flooding over the weekend and a major incident in Wales. At least five people have died in England and Wales since the storm hit.Economy | A defiant Rachel Reeves will rebuke critics of her tax-raising budget on Monday, telling disgruntled business leaders at the Confederation of British Industry that they have offered no alternatives". CBI director-general Rain Newton-Smith will meanwhile accuse Reeves of jeopardising economic growth, saying: Tax rises like this must never again be simply done to business."Britons detained abroad | Families of prominent British prisoners detained abroad have urged the foreign secretary to deliver on pledges to help secure their release with signs of growing resistance from diplomats. There are fears that they are resisting a plan to appoint a special envoy on those detained abroad without a fair trial lest it affect trade deals.Middle East | A Guardian investigation has found that Israel used a US munition to target and kill three journalists and wound three more in a 25 October attack in south Lebanon which legal experts have called a potential war crime.Europe | A little-known, far-right populist took the lead in Romania's presidential election on Sunday, and will probably face leftist prime minister Marcel Ciolacu in a runoff in two weeks, an outcome that has rocked the country's political landscape. Calin Georgescu led the polls with about 22% of the vote after nearly 93% of votes were counted.The money could come not just in the form of the grants and very low-interest loans that developing countries need, but ... from a wide variety of sources, public and private, bilateral and multilateral and alternative sources". Money will be mobilised" rather than provided - a nice distinction that allows for the inclusion of private sector co-investing to be counted alongside public money from government budgets and development banks. Continue reading...

Nearly all observers believe Chris Bowen is strongly committed to action. Most agree that can't be said for his partyCop29 in Baku has concluded but its outcome is disappointing - in many dimensions. Its decisions on finance - agreeing that the developed world would provide US$300bn a year by 2035 - come nowhere close to what's needed. Ultimately, it may even be poisonous because of its lack of ambition and muddled scope - it does not even cover loss and damage.Baku saw little sense of urgency or increased climate action, despite the universal message from scientific studies, including the Climate Action Tracker. Our global update this year found that in the last three years there's been virtually no improvement in either action on the ground, nor ambition to take action in the future. And this is despite a series of seemingly never-ending, global warming-linked deadly catastrophes unfolding around the world. Continue reading...

A rushed final text in Baku strains trust between nations, as inadequate climate finance commitments leave vulnerable countries calling for justiceThe hasty imposition of a deal at the UN climate conference, Cop29, in Azerbaijan, over the objections of poorer nations has fractured global trust and undermined recent progress. This was supposed to be the finance Cop" when two dozen industrialised countries - including the US, Europe and Canada - promised to pay developing nations for the damage caused by their rise. Instead, developing nations - led by a group including India, Nigeria and Bolivia - say this weekend's agreement for $300bn a year in 2035 is too little, too late. Worse, rich-world governments will be able to escape their obligations by being able to rely on cash from private companies and international lenders.Independent experts say the developing world, excluding China, would need $1.3tn a year by 2035 to fund its green transition and keep temperature rises in line with the Paris agreement. The climate finance target, pushed through by the Azerbaijani chair, is described by poor nations as a death sentence for those already drowning under rising seas and facing devastating costs.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Some countries say deal should not have been done and is abysmally poor' compared with what is neededThe climate finance deal agreed at Cop29 is a travesty of justice" that should not have been adopted, some countries' negotiators have said.The climate conference came to a dramatic close early on Sunday morning when negotiators struck an agreement to triple the flow of climate finance to poorer countries. Continue reading...

Away from the brutal main negotiations, there were important strides forward. The science can - and must - rise above politicsThe resolutions reached at Cop29 on tackling the climate crisis, in the early hours of Sunday morning, are gravely disappointing but much better than nothing. And nothing" was almost the result of this climate conference in Baku. This was one of the most difficult of the 29 Cops I have followed.The deal falls a long way short of hopes at the start of the climate summit, and even further behind what the world urgently needs. But coming after negotiations that frequently teetered on the very edge of collapse, the result does keep climate talks alive despite Donald Trump's second coming, and has laid the first ever international foundation, however weak, on which the world could finally construct a system of financing poor countries' transition away from fossil fuels. Continue reading...

Countries agree on how to create, trade and register credits to meet climate commitmentsIt was once among the most promising ways to funnel climate finance to vulnerable communities and nature conservation. The trading of carbon credits, each equal to a tonne of CO that has been reduced or removed from the atmosphere, was meant to target quick, cost-effective wins on climate and biodiversity. In 2022, demand soared as companies made environmental commitments using offsets, with the market surpassing $2bn (1.6bn) while experiencing exponential growth. But the excitement did not last.Two years later, many carbon markets organisations are clinging on for survival, with several firms losing millions of dollars a year and cutting jobs. Scandals about environmentally worthless credits, an FBI charge against a leading project developer for a $100m fraud, and a lack of clarity about where money from offsets went has caused their market value to plunge by more than half. Predictions that standing rainforests and other carbon-rich ecosystems would become multibillion-dollar assets have not yet come to pass. Continue reading...

The broadcaster thinks if he fires up his farming fanbase they can shield him from his obligation to contribute his fair share to societyI read Andrew Michael Hurley's new novel, Barrowbeck, in preparation for co-hosting Tales of the Weird, a timely event on the folk horror genre at the British Library earlier this month. I'm not the most informed commentator on this literary subset by any means, but I am, after Mark Gatiss, one of the most famous, and so I am often asked to pontificate about it. That's the way the world works, I'm afraid. That's why Hugh Dennis and David Baddiel are presenting a new show for Channel 4 about cycling across France, instead of the cyclist who cycled across France earlier this year and won the Tour de France cycling race, whoever he was.Barrowbeck follows the fortunes of a Yorkshire hamlet, from an itinerant tribe making a pact with their gods 2,000 years ago, in which they promise to honour the land, to the near future of 2041. There, climate change has seen that same land flooded, some inhabitants holding on in hope as a cycle of life that stretched back millennia indisputably ends, as it will for all of us, sooner, it seems, rather than later. And these are the doomed lands our wealthiest farmers are taking to the streets to inherit (at half the inheritance tax anyone else would pay).Stewart Lee tours Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf next year, with a Royal Festival Hall run in July. He is also a guest of all-female Fall karaoke act the Fallen Women, at the Lexington, London on 28 December Continue reading...

Countries must curb production now and tackle plastic's full life cycle, says Norwegian minister Anne Beathe Tvinnereim ahead of key UN talks this weekThe world will be unable to cope" with the sheer volume of plastic waste a decade from now unless countries agree to curbs on production, the co-chair of a coalition of key countries has warned ahead of crunch talks on curbing global plastic pollution.Speaking before the final, critical round of UN talks on the first global treaty to end plastic waste, in Busan, South Korea, this week, Norway's minister for international development, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, acknowledged the split that had developed between plastic-producing countries and others. She represents more than 60 high ambition" nations, led by Rwanda and Norway, who want plastic pollution tackled over its full life cycle. Crucially, this means clamping down heavily on production. Continue reading...

Despite its imperfections the process of tackling the climate crisis will not be derailed, even in the face of US backtrackingIt was never an indication of great things to come when the chief executive of Cop29, Elnur Soltanov, was filmed attempting to broker gas and oil deals for Azerbaijan in the slipstream of the past fortnight's UN climate summit in Baku.More than 1,700 fossil fuel lobbyists have been operating in and around Cop29, outnumbering delegates from the 10 most climate-vulnerable countries combined. Many, including Greta Thunberg, now argue that the UN climate process has been entirely hijacked by corporate interests, reduced to a global stage for greenwash.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

The deal was met with long applause, cheering, whistling and embraces but few are happy with itMarching in silence with their arms crossed high, activists from around the world protested the draft deal at the Cop29 venue last night.Pay up or shut up!" the campaign group Demand Climate Justice said in a post on social media. Continue reading...

Deep divisions remain after high-stakes talks end with agreement to help developing world shift to low-carbon economyRich and poor countries concluded a trillion-dollar deal on the climate crisis in the early hours of Sunday morning, after marathon talks and days of bitter recriminations ended in what campaigners said was a betrayal".The developing world will receive at least $1.3tn (1tn) a year in funds to help them shift to a low-carbon economy and cope with the impacts of extreme weather, by 2035. Continue reading...

Rich countries resist increasing their contributions to poor countries that are bearing the brunt of global heatingTalks on a new trillion-dollar global deal to tackle the climate crisis dragged on late into Saturday night, as rich and poor countries fought over how much cash was needed, and who should pay.Rich countries want to offer only about $300bn out of the $1.3tn a year needed from their own coffers, with the rest to come from other sources including potential new taxes and private investors. Continue reading...

Forever chemicals' pose health threat to developing children and linked with preterm birth, shorter lactationHigher usage of personal care products among pregnant or nursing women leads to higher levels of toxic PFAS forever chemicals" in their blood and breast milk, new research shows, presenting a serious health threat to developing children.The new study helps connect the dots among previous papers that have found concerning levels of PFAS in personal care products, umbilical cord blood, breast milk and shown health risks for developing children. Continue reading...

Exclusive: News of changes to usually non-editable document risks placing climate summit in jeopardy'A Saudi Arabian delegate has been accused of directly making changes to an official Cop29 negotiating text, it can be revealed.Cop presidencies usually circulate negotiating texts as non-editable PDF documents to all countries simultaneously, and they are then discussed. Giving one party editing access risks placing this entire Cop in jeopardy", one expert said. Continue reading...

Targeted research must be launched urgently to save sea creatures and plant life, oceanography centre warnsBritain is facing a future of increasingly catastrophic marine heatwaves that could destroy shellfish colonies and fisheries and have devastating impacts on communities around the coast of the UK.That is the stark conclusion of a new report by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), based in Southampton, which is pressing for the launch of a targeted research programme as a matter of urgency to investigate how sudden temperature rises in coastal seawater could affect marine habitats and seafood production in the UK. Continue reading...

Among sweeping rightwing electoral victories across the globe, the big loser of the elections has been climate'An unprecedented year of elections around the world has underscored a sobering trend - in many countries the commitment to act on the climate crisis has either stalled or is eroding, even as disasters and record temperatures continue to mount.So far 2024, called the biggest election year in human history" by the United Nations with around half the world's population heading to the polls, there have been major wins for Donald Trump, the US president-elect who calls the climate crisis a big hoax"; the climate-skeptic right in European Union elections; and Vladimir Putin, who won another term and has endured sanctions to maintain Russia's robust oil and gas exports. Continue reading...

Fourth consecutive year that seals have bred at Orford Ness, where more than 130 pups were born last seasonThe first grey seal pup of the season has been born at a remote shingle spit that was once a cold war weapons-testing site.The birth at Orford Ness on the Suffolk coast marks the fourth consecutive year of seals breeding there, which began in 2021 after a reduction in visitor access because of the Covid pandemic. Continue reading...

EU and nations including the UK, US and Australia indicate they will make the increase in exchange for changes to a draft text, sources sayMajor rich countries at UN climate talks in Azerbaijan have agreed to lift a global financial offer to help developing nations tackle the climate crisis to $300bn a year, as ministers met through the night in a bid to salvage a deal.The Guardian understands the Azeri hosts brokered a lengthy closed-door meeting with a small group of ministers and delegation heads, including China, the EU, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, the UK, US and Australia, on key areas of dispute on climate finance and the transition away from fossil fuels. Continue reading...

Conservationists failed to capture elusive insects this summer, so Kristina Kenda offered to step inWhen British conservationists flew to Slovenia this summer hoping to catch enough singing cicadas to reintroduce the species to the New Forest, the grasshopper-sized insects proved impossible to locate, flying elusively at great height between trees.Now a 12-year-old girl has offered to save the Species Recovery Trust's reintroduction project. Kristina Kenda, the daughter of the Airbnb hosts who accommodated the trust's director, Dom Price, and conservation officer Holly Stanworth in the summer summer, will put out special nets to hopefully catch enough cicadas to re-establish a British population. Continue reading...

Talk grows of a walkout from poor countries in response to unacceptable' and insulting' finance proposalDeveloping countries were being urged by civil society groups to reject a bad deal" at the UN climate talks on Friday night, after rich nations refused to increase an insulting" offer of finance to help them tackle the climate crisis.The stage is set for a bitter row on Saturday over how much money poor countries should receive from the governments of the rich world, which have offered $250bn a year by 2035 to help the poor shift to a low-carbon economy and adapt to the impacts of extreme weather. Continue reading...