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by James Murray for Business Green, part of the Guard on (#14ZQ0)
Tech billionaire predicts innovation will deliver the clean energy the world desperately needs, but only if young people, businesses, and governments step up to the plate, reports Business GreenBill Gates has predicted researchers will “discover a clean energy breakthrough that will save our planet and power our world†within the next 15 years.In their annual open letter, Bill and Melinda Gates provide an update on their plans to stimulate innovation in technologies for tackling climate change, energy poverty, and gender inequality. Continue reading...
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Environment | The Guardian
| Link | https://www.theguardian.com/us/environment |
| Feed | http://feeds.theguardian.com/theguardian/environment/rss |
| Copyright | Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2025 |
| Updated | 2025-07-23 06:30 |
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by Ed King for Climate Home, part of the Guardian Env on (#14ZMQ)
The UN wants an official with ‘high professional standing and an intimate knowledge of the issues’ to replace Christiana Figueres when she leaves in July. Climate Home looks at the potential candidatesThere’s a well-paid vacancy at the United Nations going at the moment.
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by Graham Readfearn on (#14ZG9)
The Argo array of ocean floats supported by 31 countries has ‘revolutionised’ our understanding of the oceans but its future is uncertainRight now, roughly a kilometre below the surface of an ocean near you, a yellow cylinder about the size of a golf bag is taking measurements of the temperature and saltiness of the water.Every couple of days, the float will drop deeper – down to two kilometres – and then rise to the surface to transmit its data, before disappearing back into the depths to do the whole thing again. Continue reading...
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by Danni Paffard on (#14ZB1)
As she prepares for sentencing, one of the third runway protesters says breaking the law will have been worthwhileWho owns sensible trousers that aren’t navy blue or black? In an effort to better distinguish between the guards and the guarded, the prison dress code has ruled out most of my wardrobe. I’m left staring at a sizeable collection of brightly coloured leggings and weighing them against advice from sites like “first time in prison dot com†to “keep your head downâ€.After a short trial, the so-called Heathrow 13, of which I am one, were found guilty of aggravated trespass and being “unlawfully airside†at the airport for protesting against re-emerging plans to build a third runway at Heathrow. Our sentencing is on Wednesday, and we’ve been told to “expect custodialsâ€. Continue reading...
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by Adam Vaughan on (#14Z5Q)
Number of tankers taking water to and from drilling sites would increase hourly levels of nitrogen oxide emissions by as much as 30%, says researchThe traffic generated by fracking in the UK would increase air pollution substantially at a local level at the busiest times, according to a study about the potential impact of lorry traffic.The research found that the number of tankers taking water to and from drilling sites would increase hourly levels of nitrogen oxide emissions (NOx) by as much as 30%. Continue reading...
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by David Frayne on (#14ZH5)
We live in a profoundly work-centred world; if automation is to benefit us we need to ask big critical questions about the purpose and value of our jobs
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by Matthew Green on (#14Z26)
Illegal fishing controlled by organised crime is a growing menace, offering big rewards for low risk. But the seaborne raiders have a new force to contend with. An army of amateur sleuths are spending their holidays fighting backOn 2 August, a flotilla of white-hulled fishing boats assembled in Sant’Agata di Militello, a port in northern Sicily, in the late afternoon sun. As a brass band played, a holiday crowd gathered along the quay. A float bearing a statue of the Virgin Mary, crowned with a halo of gold and decorated with white flowers, was loaded onto one of the craft. With the priest and the brass band on board, the vessel, decked out in palm fronds, puttered out into the bay. As the Madonna was borne over the waves in the annual ritual to bless the sea’s harvest, onlookers crowded onto the other boats, which began to follow in the vessel’s wake, their lights winking on in the dusk.While the crowd’s eyes were fixed on the Madonna, a clean-cut, compactly-built man with neat blond hair joined the melee and crossed a gangplank onto one of the boats. As the skipper cast off, his craft now filled with revellers, the blond man slipped below deck, unseen. The stowaway, a Dutchman named Wietse van der Werf, was a former ship’s engineer and knew his way around boats. He soon found what he was looking for: an orange nylon driftnet neatly folded under a tarpaulin. Known as “curtains of death†for the indiscriminate destruction they visit on whales, seabirds, dolphins and sharks, such nets – which can be 20km long and the height of a 10-storey building – are subject to strict international controls. As guests on deck watched fireworks bursting above the bay, Van der Werf filmed the driftnet on his phone. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham on (#14Z25)
Activists will be sentenced on Wednesday and have been warned of likelihood of jail time despite support of leading politiciansThe 13 activists who chained themselves to Heathrow’s northern runway are likely to become the first climate change protesters to be jailed in the UK when they are sentenced on Wednesday morning, despite the support of prominent politicians.
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by Paul Evans on (#14Z0K)
Wenlock Edge In recent years these diving fish-hunters have become ubiquitous in freshwater lakes and riversThe cormorants of Moscow Island wait as if in ambush. Perched in the gaunt branches of alders on this tiny manmade island in the Mere at Ellesmere, they are reptilian gargoyles gathered with Hitchcockian intent, eyeing visitors with murderous disdain. They are, however, even less dangerous than the geese constantly pushing their luck with lakeside strollers for food.Time was when a colony of cormorants this far inland would be a rare sight, but in recent years these diving fish-hunters have become ubiquitous in freshwater lakes and rivers. The island was formed of road soil dumped on the ice during the freezing winter of 1812, when Napoleon was retreating from Moscow, but for all that they appear ancient and uncannily revenant, these cormorants are relative newcomers. Continue reading...
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by Hannah Gould on (#14YYM)
In a recent live chat, experts joined us online to take questions on how circular business models are taking root in healthcare. Here’s what they said
by Martin Farrer and Michael Slezak on (#14YFT)
AGL boss Andrew Vesey wants to bring the energy company into the future, with plans to digitise domestic electricity services and for at-home micro power plantsRelated: AGL boss: regardless of climate science, it's time to drop the 'emissions business' Continue reading...
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by Michael Slezak on (#14XWF)
Australia’s world heritage-listed reef is threatened by warmer waters that have killed off coral in Fiji but the full impact depends on the weatherThe third global coral bleaching event to be recorded is snaking its way around a warming globe, devastating reefs and now threatening the world-heritage listed Great Barrier Reef.This week it was announced the bleaching event, which began in 2014, is already the longest in history and could extend well into 2017. “We may be looking at a two- to two-and-a-half-year-long event. Some areas have already seen bleaching two years in a row,†says Mark Eakin, coordinator of the Coral Reef Watch program at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Continue reading...
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by Editorial on (#14XVW)
Obesity and alcohol command more attention, but floating poisons such as diesel fumes take just as heavy a toll. London under Boris Johnson illustrates how to fail this public health challengeEvery so often a statistic emerges to send shockwaves through the most innumerate skulls. One such figure, highlighted by the Royal College of Physicians in a report on Tuesday, is the annual toll of 40,000 premature deaths attributable to outdoor air pollution. It implies that the finger can be pointed at unclean air for about 8% of all of the half million or so deaths recorded in the UK every year, a far higher proportion than is usually blamed on alcohol or obesity, two public health problems that grab more attention. Factoring indoor pollution into the mix – familiar fiends such as secondhand tobacco smoke, and overlooked enemies like spray deodorants – only strengthens the link between the air we breathe and our last gasp.To acknowledge the importance of pollution should not amount to a counsel of despair. Britain led the world in dispelling the coal-caused smogs of the 1950s with the clean air acts, and a generation later called time on leaded petrol. Such progressive past steps have contributed to far longer average lives. With determination, the great culprits of our own time, nitrogen dioxide and diesel particulates, which between them contribute to wheezing, heart disease and cancer, might be tackled the same way. In many other European metropolises, and not least in German-speaking centres, which this week dominate the top flight in a global league table of good cities to live, all sorts of serious action is under way, ranging from pedestrianisation to outright bans on the dirtiest diesel cars. Continue reading...
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by Frances Perraudin on (#14X5X)
Emergency services say five others have been taken to hospital after a building collapsed at Didcot power station in Oxfordshire
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by Oliver Milman in New York on (#14XRJ)
Climate Central sounds ‘warning bells’ of human impact on rising sea levels with report that coastal flooding days have more than doubled in US since 1980sRising sea levels are putting increasing pressure on US coastal cities, with a new analysis showing that human-driven climate change is to blame for three-quarters of the coastal flooding events over the past decade.The Climate Central research shows that coastal flooding days have more than doubled in the US since the 1980s, the primary drivers of which have been the warming of the atmosphere and oceans. The findings are based on a separate study, released on Monday, that found the Earth’s seas are rising at a pace unseen in the past 2,800 years. Continue reading...
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by Dave Hill on (#14XQS)
The attractions of restricting large, dangerous vehicles in rush hours are clear, but road space management in the capital is rarely simple
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by Letters on (#14XKW)
The government’s plan to ban public bodies from boycotting companies they deem unethical is a step backwards when ethical considerations in procurement and commissioning are needed more than ever (Boycotts are vital to democracy. So that’s why the Tories will ban them, 18 February).It goes against the grain of the Social Value Act, which was tabled by a Conservative MP and requires public bodies to consider how the services they commission might create a positive social or environmental impact. Just three years after becoming law, it is creating a quiet revolution, and progressive public bodies are using it to tackle local problems and get more bang for the taxpayer’s buck. The government risks sending mixed messages to commissioning and procurement teams, who need an array of tools in their armoury to best support the local communities they serve.
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by Michael Slezak and Martin Farrer on (#14XFX)
The energy giant’s future direction is about financial risk, not what its leaders may think about the science of climate change, Andrew Vesey saysThe boss of Australia’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases says his company needs to be out of the “CO2 emissions business†regardless of what they think of the science of climate change, simply to manage the financial risk.
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by Oliver Milman in New York on (#14XFY)
The plan is to save a species that’s been wiped out in the state – but some residents fear the snakes, which are capable of swimming, will escape the islandA colony of venomous rattlesnakes is to be established on an uninhabited island in Massachusetts in a bid to save a species that has been virtually wiped out in the state.
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by Patrick Barkham on (#14XE7)
A new report says a wide range of household items act as pollutants in our homes. So, how can we improve the quality of the air we breathe?Lemon and pine air fresheners. Solvents seeping slowly from plastics, paints and furnishings. Composite wood furniture and fittings, household cleaning products and DIY sealants and fillers. Foam insulation, insecticides, scanners, joss sticks, open fires, deodorants, dust mites, mould and dander from dogs and cats.These are some of the bewildering range of apparently innocuous household objects – and animals – that may be killing us indoors, according to a new report from the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Heath. Continue reading...
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by Cynthia Cummis on (#14XE9)
The business community hasn’t done enough to help curb global warming. Now, companies can rely on science-based targets and data to help get results
by Ucilia Wang on (#14XCP)
What can business do to help keep global warming in check when new research shows that manmade carbon emissions will cause bigger and more disasters? Set more ambitious emission-reduction targets based on climate science. We explain what it all means
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by Agence France-Presse in Le Vigan on (#14X8V)
Footage appears to show sheep being thrown against barriers and workers Tasering livestock at organic slaughterhouseA French abattoir certified as organic has been closed pending an investigation after an animal rights group released a video purportedly showing the abuse of livestock.L214 published the four-minute video on its website, claiming to have secretly filmed it at the slaughterhouse in Le Vigan in the southern Gard region. Continue reading...
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by Madeleine Somerville on (#14X7V)
With homemade body products, including lotions and scrubs, you can avoid questionable chemicals and feel like a wizard at the same timeReducing the amount you consume is hands down the easiest way to reduce your environmental impact. Buying less means less packaging to dispose of, fewer products cluttering your home and fewer items destined for the landfill when they break or become obsolete.
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by Catherine Shoard on (#14X3W)
Any actor can look good on winning an Academy Award. The ones to admire react with poise in their moment of defeatWhen Cate Blanchett announced who’d won the best actor Oscar last year, Michael Keaton was already holding his speech. Hotly tipped for his turn in Birdman, he then had to tuck it under his armpit to in order to be able to applaud Eddie Redmayne, who was skipping to the stage.Contrary to recent reports, the Academy Awards, which take place again this Sunday night, do reward fantastic acting. Not necessarily via their prizes, but through their brutality. Imagine not eating for a week, dressing up to the nines, then being told someone else is definitely better than you in front of 40 million people. Imagine not cracking as the camera zooms in on your freshly slapped face. Keaton’s bright grin got an A for effort, extra points for whiplash – but a D for plausibility. Continue reading...
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by Suzanne Goldenberg in Las Vegas on (#14X3Y)
Companies struggle after state imposes highest charges yet on customers, driving firms out of the state and workers out of jobsThe conversation at SolarCity’s hollowed-out warehouse in Las Vegas felt like it came after a funeral, and in a sense it did, with workers cycling between sadness, disbelief and anger at the untimely death of the rooftop solar industry. Continue reading...
by Adam Vaughan on (#14X25)
Ministers insists bank’s green mission will be protected as they remove the clause that ensures it invests in renewable power and other green projectsThe bank set up by the government to to fund green infrastructure and cited frequently by David Cameron as evidence of the UK’s leadership on climate change will no longer be required by law to invest in green schemes, under moves put forward by ministers.
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by Rachel Harrison on (#14X0P)
Entertaining videos of chimpanzees and other primates raise questions about welfare, may drive a cruel pet-trade and can endanger conservation effortsLast week, a video featuring chimpanzees watching iPad magic tricks was shared across the internet, including by this newspaper – perhaps you’ve seen it. Maybe it made you laugh? Maybe you thought the chimpanzees appearing in it were cute? For primatologists, however, it probably brought to mind issues of welfare in captive apes, particularly those used in entertainment, the difficulty of funding conservation projects in the wild, and the unfortunate growth of a cruel primate pet-trade which undermines conservation efforts. Unfortunately, many people who view viral videos featuring primates are simply not aware of these issues.As a comparative psychologist (a psychologist who studies the behaviour and cognition of non-human animals), I frequently work with chimpanzees in zoos and sanctuaries. Research has shown that communities of wild chimpanzees have their own unique sets of commonly used behaviours (like nut-cracking or termite-fishing) that we call chimpanzee culture. By studying captive chimpanzees, I hope to find out more about how these traditions emerge and spread through groups of chimpanzees – simply put, how and why do chimpanzees learn from other chimpanzees? Continue reading...
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by Damien Gayle on (#14WZB)
Campaigners at Barton Moss in Salford tell researchers they were groped and threatened by Greater Manchester officersPolice at the Barton Moss anti-fracking camp near Manchester used “sexualised violence†to target female protesters, it is alleged.Protesters told academics from York and Liverpool John Moores universities that officers groped and pressed their groins up against women as they cleared demonstrations against test drilling at the site. Continue reading...
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by Arthur Neslen in Brussels on (#14WWC)
Trade chief told oil giant in secret talks that free trade deal could address its concerns over regulations restricting activities in developing countriesThe European Union’s trade commissioner told the multinational oil company ExxonMobil that a major free trade deal being negotiated with the US would help remove obstacles to fossil fuel development in Africa and South America, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.At a meeting in Brussels in October 2013, Karel de Gucht told the firm that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) could address its concerns about regulations in developing countries that restrict the company’s activities. Continue reading...
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by Rebecca Smithers on (#14WR5)
Data on British buying habits in 2015 reveals a move away from products such as sausages and bacon in favour of fish and poultryConsumers of organic food are avoiding processed and red meats in favour of fish and poultry, according to data on UK buying habits for 2015.
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by Associated Press in Cleveland on (#14WFG)
by Alison Moodie on (#14WFH)
The retailer’s popular e-waste program has turned into a cautionary tale for businesses navigating the challenges of the recycling economy
by Rosie Spinks on (#14WDM)
The rise of the de-cluttering icon, Ikea’s “peak stuff†comments – we have an overconsumption problem but simply chucking things out won’t solve it
by Matthew Wheeland on (#14W8R)
Businesses should heed new research that shows customers expect them to make money while doing something good for the world
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by Kaveh Madani and Ali Mirchi for Tehran Bureau on (#14W58)
Candidates and voters are talking about the environment like never before, dispelling notions that no-one other than a few enlightened members of the upper classes care about the issueAlongside his campaign ads, a candidate in Buin Zahra, Qazvin province, has offered voters seeds of native floral species to encourage stewardship and conservation. In the south-western city of Ahwaz, the cutting of two trees to make room for election banners provoked a backlash from activists and residents that prompted the campaign office to condemn those who had slashed the trees.
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by Press Association on (#14W3H)
Environment secretary says Brexit would be ‘leap into the dark’ and wrong choice for farmers at time of price volatility and global market uncertaintyIt would be “wrong to take a leap into the dark†and put food and farming exports worth £11bn at risk by leaving the European Union, environment secretary, Liz Truss, has said.Voting to stay in the EU referendum would allow the UK to push for reform in the food and farming sector, while giving British producers access to 500 million consumers, Truss said. Continue reading...
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by Reuters on (#14VZ3)
Country plans to ramp up maize imports from the US and Mexico amid the worst drought in a centurySouth Africa will relax some of its tough rules on genetically modified crops so it can ramp up maize imports from the United States and Mexico to avert a potential food crisis amid a severe drought, officials said.
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by Fiona Harvey on (#14VXX)
Report from UK Energy Research Centre warns of limitations of scope for gas expansion without carbon capture and storage technologyGas will have a severely limited role to play in the UK’s energy mix in the next two decades without the development of technology to capture and store carbon dioxide, a new report has found.The government has been proposing an expansion of gas use as a “bridging†technology that emits less carbon than coal, which ministers have said will be phased out as a power generation source by 2025. Continue reading...
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by Tolu Ogunlesi on (#14VXN)
Makoko is the perfect nightmare for the Lagos government – a slum in full view, spread out beneath the most travelled bridge in west Africa’s megalopolis. Yet this city on stilts, whose residents live under the constant threat of eviction, has much to teach“One bucket, one life,†says Ojo, puffing on a marijuana rollup. We have stopped by the Floating School, a two-storey solar-powered wooden structure that floats on the Lagos lagoon on a bed of plastic barrels. I ask him to explain what he means. It’s the young fisherman’s way of summing up the dangerous exertion that is his part-time vocation: sand dredging off the coast of Makoko, the world’s biggest floating city.
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by Frances Vaughan on (#14VWG)
Students waste nearly 800g of food a week, according to research – follow these tips to waste less food without letting your diet suffer
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by AFP on (#14VNX)
Greenpeace France warns that tropical forests could be lost to a palm oil bonanza that has already razed millions of hectares of south-east AsiaAfrica’s tropical forests are threatened by a palm oil bonanza that has already razed millions of old-growth hectares in south-east Asia, Greenpeace France warned on Tuesday.
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by Susie White on (#14V4G)
Allendale, Northumberland Sanicle was once an all-round herbal remedy, taken for wound healing, blood disorders, chest complaints and sore throatsHalf the wood at Allen Mills is a mixture of spruce, larch, sycamore and birch. Beneath lies a muddle of fallen branches and plants that jostle one another: bramble, dog’s mercury, ivy and ferns. The eastern end is a contrasting habitat. What grows here is mainly beech, giving the ground beneath a quite different feel. It is open and light and sparse of plants. Curling beech leaves lie crisply over years of rot. There are occasional clumps of woodrush, small clusters of celandines and sanicle, a plant that thrives in these less competitive conditions.In winter Sanicula europaea stands out against the burnt orange of the leaf litter and years of personal observation show it does not die back here. A woodland specialist, sanicle has glossy leaves with toothed edges and a tracery of pale raised veins. Despite the ground being dry under the beech trees, the plant finds enough moisture from water seeping down the steep bank towards the East Allen. When in flower, the sanicle here will only be 30cm high, though in the damp verges of the Lake District it reaches twice that, as do the examples I grow in my garden. Continue reading...
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by Reuters on (#14V0E)
Jungle covered in black sludge after a landslide caused the country’s main oil pipeline to rupture, polluting rivers relied on by eight native communitiesRuptures in Peru’s main oil pipeline have spilled 3,000 barrels of crude into the Amazon region, polluting two rivers that native villages rely on for water.National environmental regulator OEFA said the oil from the broken pipeline has poured into the Chiriaco and Morona rivers in northwestern Peru. Continue reading...
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by Associated Press on (#14TSG)
Higher temperatures as a result of industrialisation blamed for the acceleration, as scientists warn of potential for 131cm rise by year 2100Sea levels are rising several times faster than they have in the past 2,800 years, with the process accelerating because of manmade global warming, according to new studies.An international team of scientists examined two dozen locations across the globe to chart rising and falling seas over centuries and millennia. Continue reading...
by Joshua Robertson on (#14TQA)
Brisbane company Redback Technologies, backed by researchers from the University of Queensland, says it has cracked the formula for the most cost-effective solar storage system on the Australian marketIf Tesla’s Powerwall is the “Lamborghini†of the solar storage industry, a small Brisbane company backed by University of Queensland researchers says it has hit on the formula to deliver the “Toyotaâ€.Related: Australia 'could become world leader in solar home battery storage' Continue reading...
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by Guardian Staff on (#14SWM)
Noura Lifschitz uses her home in Tel Aviv to open Israel’s first shelter for fruit bats. The bats are seen cuddling with teddy bears and being fed by various volunteers who’ve helped Lifschitz set up her home as a sanctuary. Lifschitz says it’s her life mission to save bats and release them back to the wild Continue reading...
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by Patrick Barkham on (#14SG1)
John Clare’s ‘little hermit’ may be a hero of children’s literature, but adults happily use the cruellest methods to wipe out them outRecently I treated the neighbourhood chaffinches to a bag of RSPB sunflower seeds so tasty that my toddlers try to hang from the feeder to scoff the food.I bought it at the local garden centre, and next in the queue were a nice couple who were asking for “something to kill molesâ€. Between me and them, this perfectly illustrates our bizarrely polarised attitudes towards wild animals. Continue reading...
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by Frances Perraudin on (#14SAE)
Lib Dem leader, whose Cumbrian constituency was badly hit by December’s floods, says government’s failure to apply for funds is ‘utter betrayal of victims’The government has been accused of being too busy arguing about Europe instead of helping communities hit by flooding in the UK, after it emerged that it has only five days left to apply for a pot of at least £125m in EU funds to tackle natural disasters.The Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, whose constituency of Westmorland and Lonsdale was badly affected by December’s floods, said the government needed “to get its act together†before the 27 February deadline. Continue reading...
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by Oliver Milman on (#14S1A)
New paper finds that Americans who would otherwise die from lung cancer, heart attacks or respiratory diseases would be saved by reduction in air pollutionAmerica’s international climate obligations carry a significant public health benefit, with new research finding that about 295,000 premature deaths could be prevented in the country by 2030 if deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions are achieved.At a summit in Paris in December, 196 nations, including the US, agreed to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels in order to prevent the worst effects of climate change. The agreement, the first to demand all countries slash emissions, will require major emissions reductions given that the world has already warmed by 1C during the past century. Continue reading...
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