Environment news

• ‘It’s like looking at ghosts’: inside the Australian Museum’s extinction cabinets

  12-07-2024 17:00
  When people encounter the cabinets cataloguing the mammals wiped out since colonisation, they often cry. But what is the most useful way to grieve the destruction of a species?Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastAt the far end of one of the mammal rooms in the maze of offices and labs behind the Australian Museum in Sydney stand two anonymous grey metal cabinets. Although there is nothing to distinguish th
  
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• Experts worry about long-term damage after enormous chemical fire at Derrimut

  12-07-2024 17:00
  Residents warned to stay away from waterways as concerns are raised about health and environment impactsGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastOne resident described it as something out of Die Hard.Drum barrels shot into the air from the enormous chemical fire at Derrimut in Melbourne’s west on Wednesday.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Continue reading...
  
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• National Trust celebrates birth of baby beaver one year after reintroduction

  12-07-2024 16:14
  
  Four animals released in Wallington estate in Northumberland last year have transformed the landscapeThe first beavers in Northumberland for more than 400 years have been stupendously busy. There are new dam systems, as well as canals and burrows, new wildlife-rich wetlands and, thrillingly, a baby beaver.Whether it is male or female remains to be seen. “Beavers don’t have external genitalia,” said Heather Devey, an expert. “They are really hard to sex. It’s really
  
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• Contempt, gagging and UN intervention: inside the UK’s wildest climate trial

  12-07-2024 16:00
  
  Prosecution of five Just Stop Oil activists over M25 protest led to chaotic scenes in court and concerns about ‘judicial persecution’As part of his role as UN rapporteur for environmental defenders, Michel Forst has been watching proceedings against climate activists at courts across Europe.But he may not have seen anything like what unfolded at Southwark crown court in London over the past two and a half weeks, where five Just Stop Oil activists were convicted for conspiring to caus
  
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• Floods fuelled 19% drop in income from farming in England in 2023

  12-07-2024 14:49
  Low yields combined with low prices for some crops also led to a 13% drop in farm output compared with 2022Income from farming in England plummeted by 19% last year after floods meant harvesting many crops was impossible.Farmers have called for more support from the government as the climate breaks down, meaning agricultural businesses are no longer able to count on mild UK weather and increasingly face drought and floods. Continue reading...
  
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• Mexico’s love affair with Pemex: will its bid to save the fallen oil giant block the shift to clean energy?

  12-07-2024 12:00
  
  Once providing half of Mexico’s revenue, the debt-laden state oil firm has been in decline for years. But government efforts to revive it in pursuit of energy self-sufficiency is stalling the drive for renewablesRead more: Latin America forges ahead on new oil frontierThe coastline of Tabasco, a waterlogged and oil-rich state on the Gulf of Mexico, is a tangle of mangroves and pipelines belonging to Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the state-owned hydrocarbons company. Its new $17bn (&p
  
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• Week in wildlife – in pictures: a rare blue frog, a cheeky heron and climbing bears

  12-07-2024 09:00
  
  The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• Heatwave tourism in Death Valley – in pictures

  12-07-2024 08:00
  Hundreds of Europeans touring the American west and adventurers from around the US are being drawn to Death Valley national park, even though the desolate region known as one of Earth’s hottest places is being punished by a dangerous heatwave, which was blamed for a motorcyclist’s recent death Continue reading...
  
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• Weather tracker: Hurricane Beryl causes further havoc across Texas

  12-07-2024 07:00
  
  High winds and heavy rainfall have moved inland towards Houston and other cities, with at least eight reported deadAt the start of this week, Hurricane Beryl crashed on to the shore of the Texas coastline. Sweeping across the coast, Beryl brought sustained winds of 80mph to coastal settlements in Texas, creating a deadly storm surge reaching 4-7ft (1.2m to 2.1m) in places and wreaking havoc in local areas, before moving inland towards Houston and other big cities.Heavy rainfall was also recorded
  
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• Lower air pollution may help preserve older people’s independence – study

  12-07-2024 07:00
  Researchers estimate 730,000 people a year in the US lose their ability to live independently due to traffic pollutionReducing air pollution may help elderly people to live independent lives for longer, research has found.Dr Boya Zhang, of the University of Michigan, who is one of the authors of the study, said: “Air pollution is linked to worse health – more lung disease, more heart disease, shorter life expectancies and more likelihood of dementia. Knowing that air pollution increa
  
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• As British butterflies head north, scientists ask public to help track migration

  12-07-2024 07:00
  With up to 80% of butterflies in decline, people are being asked to spend 15 minutes to record number and type witnessedScientists are calling on the public to help track how British butterflies are moving north as the climate heats up.Examining 50 years of data, researchers from the wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation, which runs the annual Big Butterfly Count, have identified a clear northerly shift among many species, including the familiar garden favourites the comma, peacock and holly b
  
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• Titanic mission to map wreck in greatest-ever detail

  12-07-2024 06:51 via bbc.com
  
  A new expedition aims to document the world's most famous shipwreck in unprecedented detail.
  
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• Country diary: A plague among the ash trees | Mary Montague

  12-07-2024 06:30
  Ederney, County Fermanagh: Twelve years of the dieback fungus is an existential threat to Northern Ireland’s ash. The unthinkable is fast becoming unavoidableDriving along this country road, John’s voice is a metronome: “That’s gone. That’s gone. And that one.”From the passenger seat, I stare out at the blur of trees. A few are visibly affected by ash dieback, Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, the fungal disease that is an existential threat to the UK and Ireland&
  
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• Rural domestic abuse convictions still 'woeful'

  12-07-2024 03:42 via bbc.com
  
  The BBC finds reports of domestic abuse in the countryside have gone up but convictions remain low.
  
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