Environment news

• ‘Frog saunas’ could save species from deadly fungal disease, study finds

  11-07-2024 21:00 via theguardian.com
  Australian scientists create brick refuges in greenhouses to help green and golden bell frogs survive infectionA “sauna” treatment for frogs has been used by researchers in Australia to successfully fight a deadly fungal disease that has devastated amphibians around the world, according to a new study.Scientists created refuges for the animals using painted masonry bricks inside greenhouses that they called “frog saunas”. They found that endangered Australian green and go
  
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• Large pod of pilot whales almost wiped out after stranding on Orkney beach

  11-07-2024 18:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Rescuers including vets rush to save 12 survivors from 77-strong group lying on Sanday shoreDozens of long-finned pilot whales have died after a 77-strong pod came ashore on an Orkney beach in what could be the biggest mass stranding in decades.Twelve of the animals at Tresness beach, on the island of Sanday, were still alive, but according to rescuers from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) , it was thought unlikely they could be saved. Continue reading...
  
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• Cumbria coalmine was unlawfully approved, government says

  11-07-2024 18:07 via theguardian.com
  
  Lawyers acting for minister say emissions of coal extracted from mine should have been taken into accountThe government has admitted that a proposed coalmine in Cumbria was approved unlawfully, as the carbon emissions of coal from the mine should have been taken into account in the planning decision.This follows a precedent set by a supreme court judgment last month, when Surrey county council’s decision to extend planning permission for an oil drilling well at Horse Hill, on the Weald, wa
  
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• How Sydney’s endless rain is ruining football seasons and breaking young hearts

  11-07-2024 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  As Saturday after Saturday gets wiped out by bad weather, clubs are drowning in a sea of unplayed fixturesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThe first thing Jamie Amendolia’s boys ask him when he picks them up from school every afternoon is the same: “Is training on? Is the game on? Has it been called off? Are we playing?”Both of his sons, Sebastian, 10, and Alexander, eight, play football at Enfield FC in Sydney’s inner west. They&rs
  
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• Row over rise in water bills as firms say it's not enough

  11-07-2024 16:24 via bbc.com
  
  Water firms have hit out at bill rises of £94 over the next five years after wanting bigger hikes.
  
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• Herring gull chicks would rather have fish than your chips, finds study

  11-07-2024 15:02 via theguardian.com
  Rescued chicks favour seafood, suggesting they turn to urban diet as adults from necessity rather than preferenceHerring gulls have wrecked many a seaside picnic, pouncing on unsuspecting people trying to enjoy a Cornish pasty, a sandwich or a bag of chips.But a study from the University of Exeter suggests gull chicks prefer seafood even after being raised on a diet of the sort of scraps found around humans. Continue reading...
  
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• BP-owned company is selling carbon credits on trees that aren’t in danger, analysis finds

  11-07-2024 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Satellite analysis looked at credits sold by Finite Carbon, which runs some of North America’s largest offset projectsThis story is co-published with SourceMaterial and FloodlightSome forest carbon offsets sold by the biggest offsetting company in the US offer little or no benefit to the climate, a satellite analysis has found. Continue reading...
  
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• Argentina’s future lies in the balance as vast oilfields poised for extraction

  11-07-2024 11:00 via theguardian.com
  If passed, a new bill would send the country headfirst into the Latin American oil rush and halt any meaningful energy transitionRead more: Latin America forges ahead on new oil frontierThe new bill that would allow the exploitation of vast oilfields will be, ecologists are certain, the nail in Argentina’s coffin. “We are facing the pinnacle of extractivism, the final adjustment of the screw so that Argentina is no longer a sovereign country over its territory,” says lawyer Enr
  
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• There’s a ‘trash revolution’ in New York – exciting for everyone but the rats

  11-07-2024 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  NYC has lagged behind the UK in waste disposal. But with wheelie bins replacing bin bags, we’re finally catching upLast year, 200 composting bins were rolled out in New York City, with a unit on every other corner you could open and close via an app. This was exciting for those of us who have hit an age when rubbish disposal is something we think about. For a while, my kids indulged me in my need to discuss composting – whether our bag would fit in the bin; how good the exercise made
  
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• In the footsteps of tigers: the all-women patrol team protecting Sumatra’s rainforest

  11-07-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The Leuser ecosystem is the only place in the world where tigers, elephants, orangutans and rhinos coexist in the wild, and Indigenous female rangers are at the heart of its protection“Guess what I found?” Darma Budi Pinem asks the women who have gathered round to see what he has in his hands. “My instincts tell me this is Opung’s faeces,” says Nayla Azmi as she studies the clump of hair, broken egg shells and bones.“Opung,” in Batak – Azmi’s
  
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• Country diary: The glory of a steaming pile of muck | Kate Blincoe

  11-07-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: It’s the engine room of the farm, both bringing life and killing it – and this one doesn’t even smellLike a magnificent volcano threatening to erupt, plumes of steam rise from the mountain in the farmyard. Every day, about a tonne of horse muck and bedding from the 20 or so stabled horses is added to the muck heap – a small car’s weight in manure.The heap is shaped and piled by the digger into its mountainous form, to encourage effective
  
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• ‘Everyone was paddling to get away’: seals with rabies alarm South Africa’s surfers

  11-07-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Seals have been biting people in the first big outbreak of the disease in marine mammals, writes Nick Dall in Cape TownIt’s happened to me dozens of times: I’m riding a wave when, out of the corner of my eye, I see a black shape coming up beneath me. Being in Cape Town – a great white shark hotspot – it’s hard not to assume the worst. But fear soon gives into relief when it becomes clear that I’m sharing the wave with a Cape fur seal. Sometimes, they get so cl
  
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• Debt, sewage and dividends: the rising tide of Thames Water’s troubles

  11-07-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  In the second part of our focus on the water industry, we chart the decline of one of the UK’s major utility companies, now on the brink of emergency renationalisationPart 1: How privatisation changed the water industryGovernment officials who tour Coppermills, a vast Thames Water treatment works in north-east London, are left under no illusions about the dire condition of Britain’s infrastructure.“It’s in a shocking state,” said one official who has visited the 196
  
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