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by Graham Long on (#14J12)
New Forest, Hampshire Nearly 60 species are depicted on the garage doors, a 10-year record of New Forest wildlifeThe rutted track to Peter’s garage doesn’t look as though it leads anywhere special. But over the past 10 years this friend of mine has been using his garage doors to record the wildlife in his garden and in the forest through which he began to lead walking parties when he retired to the area.Although a skilled draughtsman he was not an experienced painter. On the advice of a nearby artist he experimented with acrylics, hoping that they would survive the rigours of the English weather. Today, the doors are covered with pictures that make them a unique account of both local wildlife and one man’s talent with paint and brush. Continue reading...
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| Updated | 2026-06-14 06:15 |
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by Michael Slezak on (#14GPT)
Bleaching events triggered by CO2 emissions will make oceans acidic and hostile for coral growth, new studies sayCoral will become deformed and increasingly fall victim to outbreaks of herpes-like viruses as humans continue to pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to two new studies.Combined, the two effects suggest coral reefs will have trouble recovering from bleaching events, like the the world is currently experiencing. Continue reading...
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by Steven Morris on (#14GKC)
Stop the Cull finds number of herds with TB outbreak, in Dorset cull zone and at its edge, increased after badger killing beganThe government’s controversial badger cull has led to a rise in the number of cases of tuberculosis found in cattle in one of the programme’s key geographical areas, say animal rights activists.Rather than the number of cases of bovine TB falling among herds in and on the edge of the badger killing area in Dorset, they have been increasing, it was claimed. The campaign group Stop the Cull suggests this was due to “perturbationâ€, referring to the way culling may disrupt badger social groups, leading probably to more widespread roaming (including migration into cull areas), and consequently the disease spreading. Continue reading...
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by Jessica Glenza in New York on (#14GE8)
Exclusive: Testing regime in US’s third most populous city raises significant concerns about conflict of interest in producing data to confirm tap water’s safetyNew evidence suggests that the way US water is tested for lead is vulnerable to conflicts of interest that raise questions about data confirming tap water’s safety. The new evidence could cast further doubt on already controversial testing methods highlighted following the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan. A Guardian investigation has discovered that in the US’s third most populous city the testing regime for lead involves using its own employees’ homes. Continue reading...
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by Environment editor on (#14GAN)
The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox Continue reading...
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by Sarah Davison on (#14G6D)
The sled dog race from Alaska to Canada is gruelling to say the least, but self-described ‘Quest addicts’ return year after year to test their limitsThe toughest sled dog race in the world didn’t disappoint in 2016. Blizzards, stranded mushers, charging bull moose – all featured on the 33rd annual Yukon Quest international sled dog race, an event that is more extreme wilderness challenge than competition.“We were looking for the toughest sled dog race in the world, and this year we found it,†said Rob Cooke, an ex-Royal Navy British-Canadian who finished on Thursday despite nearly pulling out halfway through. Continue reading...
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by Arthur Neslen on (#14G1R)
Tailpipe emissions of black carbon from diesel engines may be up to 50% higher than previously thought, according to new researchDiesel engines may be doing nothing to slow global warming despite being the backbone of Europe’s policy to reduce car emissions, a new report claims.Tailpipe emissions of sooty ‘black carbon’ could be as much as 25-50% higher than the EU estimates for cars made before 2005, says the paper by Professor Erckard Helmers of Triers University.
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by Reuters on (#14FZT)
Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, announces she will step down in July after successful Paris climate agreement to cut emissionsThe UN’s climate chief said on Friday she will step down in July, at the end of a six-year term, and praised governments for reaching a 195-nation deal in Paris in December to shift the world economy from fossil fuels to cleaner energies.Christiana Figueres, a 59-year-old Costa Rican, said she would not accept any extension of her term as head of the Bonn-based UN Climate Change Secretariat after what she called the historic Paris Agreement. Continue reading...
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by Dana Nuccitelli on (#14FRE)
As usual, cherry picking and misrepresentations are used to oppose climate policies
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by Guardian Staff on (#14FN6)
White-handed gibbons, whistling ducks and wild pigs foraging in the backstreets of Hong Kong are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...
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by Guardian Staff on (#14FA3)
People unwittingly picking up non-wooden and brightly-coloured boxes that could make baby birds more conspicuous to predators, says charityA trend for brightly-coloured and inappropriate nest boxes endangers young birds, the RSPB warned on Friday.The charity said it had received a rise in reports from the public over the past five years of wacky and ornamental boxes that put style over substance, such as ones in the shape of windmills and caravans. Continue reading...
by The Ends Report, part of the Guardian Environment on (#14F7S)
Eight river basin management plans will be inadequate to meet EU water pollution targets by 2021, says the ENDS ReportThe Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affaris (Defra) has approved eight river basin management plans (RBMPs) setting out strategies to improve water quality in England.The final plans, published on Thursday, show that most rivers, lakes and coastal and groundwaters will not meet legally binding EU water pollution targets by 2021 – six years after the initial deadline. Some will not even meet them by 2027. Continue reading...
by Daimen Hardie on (#14F68)
A group of young Canadians decided to go and restore a tiny tropical island’s lost forests. Here’s what happened nextEight years ago, when my friends and I started an international development organisation we were by all accounts completely unqualified. We were in our early twenties and had little or no formal training or experience. Most of us were tree-planting as a way of paying for university when one of our fellow planters, Jeff Schnurr, came back from a trip to a tiny tropical island named Pemba, just off the coast of Tanzania. He regaled us with tales of how he’d met Mbarouk Omar, the man who now heads up our local sister NGO, and had sketched out with him a dream to restore the island’s lost forests. He now wanted to know: would we go out there and help?Fast-forward eight years and our NGO, Community Forests International, has helped to plant more than 1.5m trees across Pemba. Our movement has also blossomed from rural farmers managing low-tech nurseries into community-scale solar microgrids and regenerative agriculture. Pemba is becoming a place to watch for lessons in frontline climate change adaptation. And in the grand scheme of things, we’ve had next to nothing to do with it. Continue reading...
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by Agence France-Presse in Nairobi on (#14F4B)
Nairobi residents warned not to confront two lionesses that strayed from national park into highly populated areasWildlife rangers are searching for two lions which escaped from Nairobi’s national park and wandered into highly populated areas of the Kenyan capital.Kenya Wildlife Service issued an appeal “for help to get two lionesses that strayed from the Nairobi national parkâ€. Armed rangers and KWS vets carrying dart guns scoured bush and agricultural land near Kibera, one of Africa’s largest slums. “Lions are dangerous wild animals. Avoid provoking the lions by confronting them,†said a KWS spokesman, Paul Udoto. Continue reading...
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by Reuters on (#14EZM)
Maker Daimler says allegations unfounded, as Hagens Berman files suit claiming Mercedes Clean Diesel vehicles emit illegal levels of pollutionAn owner of a Mercedes BlueTEC diesel car filed a class-action lawsuit in the United States, accusing the carmaker of knowingly programming its Clean Diesel vehicles to emit illegally high levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx), according to law firm Hagens Berman.Shares in Mercedes maker Daimler were down 3% at €62.82 (£48.75) at the bottom of Germany’s blue-chip index by 08.26am on Friday after news of the class-action lawsuit filed by Hagens Berman, which also has a lead role in class-action suits against Volkswagen. Continue reading...
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by Australian Associated Press on (#14EBZ)
Hernan Coria says endangered dolphin was one of many which had washed up dead on Santa Teresita beach before crowd started taking selfies with itOne of the tourists who handed around a dolphin on an Argentinian beach claims it had died before people started taking selfies with it.Footage appeared to show the small dolphin being scooped up and taken to land where it was surrounded by a gawking crowd. Reports said it quickly overheated and died when it was paraded along the beach so holidaymakers could take photos. Continue reading...
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by Christine Smith on (#14ECP)
South Uist: Everything white catches my eye – distant gulls, the flash of a wader’s belly – but there’s no sign of the gyrfalconThere have been several reports of a gyrfalcon on the island. A resident of the far north and the largest of the falcons, it’s a rare winter vagrant to the UK with only a few being recorded each year … and a bird I’d dearly like to see. It’s a couple of days now since there has been word of it, but this morning is the first opportunity I’ve had to go and look for it and there’s always a chance that it might reappear.So special and so valuable were these birds held to be in medieval times that flying one was the preserve of kings and they were sometimes given as gifts from one royal house to another. There are even recorded instances of gyrfalcons being demanded as part of the ransom for captured royalty. Most prized of all was the white gyrfalcon and it is one of these that has turned up locally. Continue reading...
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by Helen Davidson on (#14E8Y)
Fundraising campaign to help northern New South Wales family pay for Kathryn Sullivan’s funeral raises more than $3,000 in 24 hoursAustralians have donated more than $3,000 to help pay funeral costs for a six-year-old girl who died after she was bitten by a brown snake.
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by Guardian Staff on (#14E1H)
Cricket legend Shane Warne had to put his head into a tank full of snakes during a challenge on I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here, and was in for a nasty surprise. A previous challenge involving rats apparently made him almost irresistible to the snakes. The vision cuts out just as the anaconda strikes, but fortunately for Warne, anaconda are not venomous. The snake bite comes days after the cricketer questioned Darwinism on Monday’s episode, offering his own explanation: ‘Basically I’m saying, aliens. We started from aliens’ Continue reading...
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by Gabrielle Chan on (#14ASF)
Company applies only to extend exploration licence, raising further doubts over the mine, proposed for rich farming land on Liverpool PlainsChinese-state owned Shenhua company has applied for an extension to its exploration licence as doubts grow over the future of the $1.2bn mega-coalmine on the Liverpool Plains.The Shenhua exploration licence, which was granted for $300m in 2008 by disgraced former NSW Labor resources minister Ian Macdonald, was due to expire this month. Continue reading...
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by Michael Slezak on (#14DQE)
Groups including Wilderness Society, Humane Society and Total Environment Centre say NSW process is ‘skewed towards radicals in the National party’Conservation groups have stormed out of consultations with the NSW government over an overhaul of land-clearing laws they say have been a sham and will fast-track bushland destruction in the state.The move could reignite one the biggest environmental battles in New South Wales in recent years. Continue reading...
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by Michael Slezak on (#14DPD)
Company wins the right to move 262 koalas and destroy their habitat if $1.2bn Watermark coalmine in New South Wales goes aheadThe proposed $1.2bn Shenhua coalmine in New South Wales has been given the go-ahead to destroy the habitat of 262 koalas, which will be moved to another location if the mine goes ahead.The decision was handed down by the NSW land and environment court on Friday in a case brought by local environment group Upper Mooki Landcare against Shenhua Watermark Coal and the NSW Minister for Planning. Continue reading...
by Guardian Staff on (#14DNC)
Beachgoers in Argentina picked up and passed around an endangered Franciscana dolphin, which can be seen being plucked out of the water before being petted by beachgoers. Other images showed people taking selfies with the dolphin Continue reading...
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by Oliver Milman on (#14DDN)
Plaintiffs cite city’s ‘negligence’ and say ‘elevated and unsafe’ levels of lead have contaminated water supply for years due to risky construction projectsChicago residents have filed a class-action lawsuit against the city over the safety of its drinking water, claiming that “elevated and unsafe†levels of lead have contaminated their water supply for years due to risky construction projects.The lawsuit, filed on Thursday at the circuit court of Cook County, Illinois, claims that the city of Chicago has known for years that lead has seeped into drinking water due to street work, water meter installations or plumbing repairs, but failed to warn residents about the risk of lead in their water. Continue reading...
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by Mark Tran on (#14CVN)
Franciscana dolphin at Argentinian beach was one of fewer than 30,000 and is considered a threatened speciesThe Wildlife Foundation in Argentina has urged people to return beached dolphins to the sea as soon as possible, after a dolphin died having been passed around so that beachgoers could take photos with it.
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by Jessica Aldred on (#14C9H)
Action plan says endangered okapi will be lost without action to tackle illegal mining and armed conflict in protected central African forestsConservationists have called for urgent action to stop armed militia and illegal mining in protected central African forests from driving the elusive okapi to extinction.A 10-year plan to save the “forest giraffe†drawn up by a coalition of conservation groups and NGOs calls for government and international commitments to support key protected areas from armed militia involved in ivory poaching and illegal gold-mining activities. Continue reading...
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by Arthur Neslen on (#14C80)
Critics say central government guidance forbidding local authorities from divesting is financially risky, politically unacceptable and open to legal challenge
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by Letters on (#14C3J)
Your article “‘No evidence’ that EU’s illegal timber policy is working†(theguardian.com, 10 February) does not mention the huge challenge the EU timber regulation (EUTR) represents, nor the timber industry’s achievements in implementing it to date and wider commitment to eradicating illegal wood.The regulation entails every member state company that “first places†timber and other forest products on the EU market putting all suppliers through due diligence illegality risk assessment. Given that many suppliers are in countries with underdeveloped governance and infrastructure, this can be highly complex. Every EU country has also had to establish new structures for EUTR enforcement. So it’s small wonder that, after just three years, it remains a work in progress. But the timber industry acknowledges this and, notably via the European Timber Trade Federation (ETTF), is urging improved implementation. Continue reading...
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by Frances Perraudin and Adam Vaughan on (#14BJS)
Government failure to confirm funding for police unit responsible for investigating crimes against British wildlife condemnedChris Packham, the naturalist and TV presenter, has said it is “disgusting and disappointing†that the UK’s wildlife crime agency faces closure in six weeks unless the government renews its funding.The national wildlife crime unit (NWCU) was established in 2006 to investigate offences including rare-bird egg theft, deer poaching, the trade in endangered species, hare coursing, illegal taxidermy and cruelty to wild animals. Continue reading...
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by Hannah Gould on (#14BDA)
Join experts in the comments section of this page on Wednesday, 24 February, 1-2pm GMT to discuss the role of food companies in improving public healthObesity is “an exploding nightmare†according to a recent World Health Organisation report, and it’s swiftly rising up the political agenda.Associated with health complications including type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, strokes and cancer, it’s estimated that 600 million people globally are obese. In the UK, it’s predicted that obese will be the most common body type in less than twenty years. Already, it costs the NHS £6bn a year. Continue reading...
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by James Murray for BusinessGreen, part of the Guardi on (#14BBV)
Greenpeace publishes new report detailing how capital can close the gap on the rest of the country when it comes to solar power, reports BusinessGreenLondon could deliver a tenfold increase in solar power over the next 10 years, closing the gap which has seen the capital become the worst performing major city and region in the UK for solar adoption.That is the conclusion of a new report released today by campaign group Greenpeace, which is calling on all of the London Mayoral candidates to come forward with a detailed plan to boost the city’s flagging solar industry. Continue reading...
by Dave Hill on (#14B8B)
The capital’s official transport users’ representative has produced ten policy ideas for the next mayor
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by Adam Vaughan on (#14B6H)
Current climate event is still strong but it is too early to say whether it will be most powerful on record, says World Meteorological OrganisationThe El Niño that caused record temperatures, drought and floods over the last year has passed its peak strength but will continue to have humanitarian impacts for months to come, the UN has said.The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said the event, which plays havoc with weather systems around the world, was still strong and its impacts on communities in southern Africa, the Horn of Africa and Central America were becoming increasingly apparent. Continue reading...
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by Joseph Kibugu on (#14B5G)
Clean energy is a major campaign issue in this week’s Ugandan election. All the candidates are promising new projects, but how will these affect the locals?As Uganda’s general election looms this week, candidates have been courting the electorate with their plans to increase international investment and boost the country’s economic outlook. The country has fast become the destination of choice for land-hungry oil and agriculture industries, but in the latest election a new contender has emerged for Uganda’s sought after acreage: renewable energies.Related: Ugandan mayor: My district will be 100% renewable by 2020 Continue reading...
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by Guardian Staff on (#14AVA)
Footage taken by 7news reporter Teegan Dolling shows tumbleweed called hairy panic taking over the Victorian rural town of Wangaratta on Thursday, as homes are engulfed by the fast-growing weed. Local media reported that the tumbleweed has been around for a couple of years, but the dry conditions have made this summer the worst Continue reading...
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by Godfrey Mutizwa in Mafeteng on (#14ATA)
Recent downpours have greened Lesotho’s valleys, camouflaging a crisis caused by two years of inadequate rain that is spreading malnutrition and diseaseFor 14-year-old Hopolang Staka, Lesotho’s worst drought in more than four decades means fewer meals, a daily two-hour trek for water and an education postponed.At the family’s small holding in Mafeteng, 70km south of the capital Maseru, Hopolang, an Aids orphan, supplements the 350 maloti (£15) monthly child support grant from the government with income from herding neighbours’ cattle. He dropped out of school last year because his street hawking brothers couldn’t afford the fees.
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by Elle Hunt on (#14ARX)
Dry grass piles up around homes in Wangaratta, north-east Victoria – at times reportedly reaching roof heightResidents of a rural Australian city are frustrated by a fast-growing tumbleweed called hairy panic that is piling up outside their houses, covering lawns and blocking doors and windows.Hairy panic is piling up outside several homes in Wangaratta in north-east Victoria – at times reportedly reaching roof height – forcing residents to clear it several times a day. About 20 residences on Bella Way, a new development hard against the fringe of farmland, have been particularly affected, with the grass blowing over from neighbouring fields. Continue reading...
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by Phil Gates on (#14AFQ)
Backstone Bank, Weardale On the ground, on fallen trunks and limbs, the first signs of life were forcing their way through the skeletons of last summer’s leavesI felt the sting of ice on my face just before I reached the shelter of the wood. The squall appeared as a sullen grey mist as it swept down the fell, engulfing grazing sheep before it roared through the tree canopy overhead. A blizzard of tiny hailstones hissed as they bounced across the layer of dead leaves around my feet.Seeking refuge on the lee side of an oak, I leaned against its trunk. It pushed hard against my back as it bent beneath a swaying crown that clattered against neighbours’ branches. There can be few more exhilarating ways to experience a gale than to feel its elemental force transmitted down through an ancient tree’s trunk and into your own body. Continue reading...
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by Michael Slezak on (#14ABB)
Senate inquiry told debris a ‘critical problem’ – as it emerges the government has the power to instantly ban controversial microbeads from productsPlastic pollution in the marine environment is a “critical problem†for global ecosystems and for human health as microscopic pieces of waste enter the food chain, an Australian Senate inquiry has been told.The warning came as Guardian Australia learned the federal health minister has the power to instantly ban controversial plastic microbeads from products like soap and toothpaste without any new legislation, according to official parliamentary advice. Continue reading...
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by Joshua Robertson on (#14A97)
Chinese state-owned company has NSW government approval for $1.2bn open cut mine on Liverpool Plains, but falling coal price has raised questions over its viability, according to reportsFederal government sources have reportedly cast doubt on the future of a contentious coal project in north-west New South Wales proposed by a Chinese state-owned company, according to the ABC.Shenhua is yet to apply for a mining lease for its $1.2bn open cut Watermark coalmine on the Liverpool Plains despite having development approval from the state government. Continue reading...
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by Agencies on (#14A24)
The report notes that the Plains All American Pipeline spill in May was greater than previously estimated, dumping more than 140,000 gallons of crudeFederal regulators say corrosion on the outside of an oil pipeline was the cause of a major crude spill on the Santa Barbara coast last year.
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by Mark Brown Arts correspondent on (#149X4)
Fracked! Or: Please Don’t Use the F-Word, by Alistair Beaton, to debut as part of final season at Chichester Festival theatreAnne Reid and James Bolam are to star as unlikely anti-fracking campaigners in a new stage play by the political satirist Alistair Beaton.Fracked! Or: Please Don’t Use the F-Word was announced on Thursday as part of the final season at Chichester Festival theatre under the leadership of Jonathan Church and Alan Finch. Continue reading...
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by Staff and agencies on (#149H4)
Southern California Gas Company has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from a ruptured well in LA County that leaked for weeksSouthern California Gas Company pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to misdemeanor criminal charges stemming from a weeks-long leak of gas from a storage well that spewed record amounts of global warming pollution and led to the relocation of thousands of nearby residents.The utility’s attorneys entered the pleas in Los Angeles County superior court in suburban Santa Clarita. Continue reading...
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by Ed Pilkington in New York on (#149G2)
Automaker tells watchdog it will not take part this year in the American Legislative Exchange Council, which fights environmental regulationsFord has cut ties with the controversial lobby group Alec, joining a roster of big corporations that have distanced themselves from the rightwing network that promotes policies at the state level to counter environmental regulations.The car giant confirmed to the watchdog the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) that it had ended its membership. A company spokesman said that “we will not be participating in Alec in 2016â€. Continue reading...
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by Letters on (#1494H)
We are about to make a definitive and generational decision on our continuing membership of Europe (Four EU states shun Cameron benefits plan, 17 February). If there were to be two referendums, the first on the principle of remaining in the EU, and the second on the basis of the extent to which “agreements†have been honoured, and promises made reality, then David Cameron’s negotiations make sense. As it is, to hold a referendum on the basis of his negotiations is to offer a pig in a poke. Much more honest to base the referendum on Europe as it is now.If this means that we start recognising the massive advantages of embracing Europe wholeheartedly, so much the better. The Europeans often seem far more in line with British values than our own government does, for example on human rights. The electorate needs promises and commitments, but not those gained by Cameron, which only confuse the issue. We need to know that a vote to remain will galvanise our own government to take a full and less querulous part in Europe. Sadly, David Cameron cannot promise even that much.
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by Ryan Felton in Detroit on (#148WW)
Study of 500 of the nation’s largest community water systems found that Flint residents paid $864 a year for water service – roughly double the US averageDespite having to deal with the effects of lead-contaminated water for nearly two years, Flint residents paid the highest water bills in the US, according to a study released Tuesday.The study, conducted by Washington DC-based public interest group Food & Water Watch, reviewed 500 of the nation’s largest community water systems and found Flint residents paid $864 annually for water service – roughly double the US average. Continue reading...
by Robbie Blackhall-Miles on (#148HF)
There’s more to this award-winning photograph than a stunning scene full of flowersThis is the winner of the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition. It was entered under the wildflower landscapes category and there is no doubt that it is an incredible photograph.The judges quite rightly praised it highly: Continue reading...
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by Reuters on (#148HD)
British luxury car brand and LeEco consumer electronics firm to develop car based on Aston Martin Rapide S modelAston Martin is setting up a venture with the Chinese consumer electronics group LeEco to jointly develop the British luxury car brand’s first electric vehicle.
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by John Vidal in Mbalavala on (#147YS)
As southern Africa grapples with devastating drought, maize fields lie empty, the soil is like sand and water must be shared between cattle and peopleIt rained in Mbalavala two weeks ago. The clouds built up from the south, a shower cleared the dusty air, but then, cruelly, it stopped after an hour. For a moment, the 120 families who live in the southern Mozambican village thought their two-year drought was ending.But that was it. Since then there has been no hint of rain and the chances of planting crops this year in Mbalavala diminish every day as El Niño, the natural weather phenomenon that upturns normal weather patterns every few years in southern Africa, reaches its peak and Mozambique comes to the end of another dry rainy season. Continue reading...
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by Bobby Magill for Climate Central, part of the Guar on (#147VN)
Harvard study shows 30% rise across the country since 2002 with peaks coinciding with shale oil and gas boom, reports Climate CentralThere was a huge global spike in one of the most potent greenhouse gases driving climate change over the last decade, and the U.S. may be the biggest culprit, according a new Harvard University study.The United States alone could be responsible for between 30-60% of the global growth in human-caused atmospheric methane emissions since 2002 because of a 30% spike in methane emissions across the country, the study says. Continue reading...
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