Environment news

• Humans to push further into wildlife habitats across more than 50% of land by 2070 – study

  21-08-2024 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Sharing increasingly crowded spaces could result in greater risk of pandemics, human and animal conflicts and loss of nature, say researchersOver the next 50 years, people will push further into wildlife habitats across more than half the land on Earth, scientists have found, threatening biodiversity and increasing the chance of future pandemics.Humans have already transformed or occupied between 70% and 75% of the world’s land. Research published in Science Advances on Wednesday found the
  
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• The Guardian view on meat: we need to eat less of it | Editorial

  21-08-2024 19:25 via theguardian.com
  
  Beef, lamb and dairy products are the most carbon-intensive foods by far. More boldness around dietary changes is neededThe publication of a major study linking habitual eating of processed and red meat to a greater risk of type 2 diabetes is the latest very good reason to think hard about what we consume. Rising obesity rates, food poverty and concerns about the seemingly unstoppable rise of ultra-processed and junk food mean British eating habits are a longstanding source of widespread concern
  
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• One of UK’s largest and rarest spider species making a comeback, says RSPB

  21-08-2024 17:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Marsh restorations allowing populations of fen raft spider, which can be up to 7cm long, to recoverOne of the rarest and largest species of spider in the UK is said to be making a comeback on nature reserves.After facing near extinction over the last century, the UK’s population of fen raft spiders is steadily increasing, and numbers are at a record high this year, according to the conservation charity RSPB. Continue reading...
  
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• Ancient ocean of magma found on Moon south pole

  21-08-2024 17:13 via bbc.com
  
  The findings are from India's historic Chandrayaan-3 mission that landed on the Moon's south pole.
  
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• Microplastics are infiltrating brain tissue, studies show: ‘There’s nowhere left untouched’

  21-08-2024 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Twenty-four brain samples collected in early 2024 measured on average about 0.5% plastic by weightA growing body of scientific evidence shows that microplastics are accumulating in critical human organs, including the brain, leading researchers to call for more urgent actions to rein in plastic pollution.Studies have detected tiny shards and specks of plastics in human lungs, placentas, reproductive organs, livers, kidneys, knee and elbow joints, blood vessels and bone marrow. Continue reading..
  
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• Privatised water firms are imperilling our health and poisoning our rivers. Act now: flood the streets with rage | Feargal Sharkey

  21-08-2024 11:00 via theguardian.com
  It is time to say this privatisation zealotry has been a disaster. March with us and let ministers know – enough is enoughYou’ve been lied to, you’ve been misled, you’ve been extorted, you’ve been cheated, and you’ve been abused. For the last 35 years, you have been subject to nothing more than possibly the greatest organised ripoff perpetrated on the British people, and you have had little in return apart from greed, profiteering, financial engineering, polit
  
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• Privatised water firms are imperiling our health and poisoning our rivers. Act now: flood the streets with rage | Feargal Sharkey

  21-08-2024 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  It is time to say this privatisation zealotry has been a disaster. March with us and let ministers know – enough is enoughYou’ve been lied to, you’ve been misled, you’ve being extorted, you’ve been cheated, and you’ve been abused. For the last 35 years, you have been subject to nothing more than possibly the greatest organised ripoff perpetrated on the British people, and you have had little in return apart from greed, profiteering, financial engineering, poli
  
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• The livestock lobby is waging war on ‘lab-grown meat’. This is why we can’t let them win | George Monbiot

  21-08-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  These new proteins could be our best hope of averting catastrophe. But governments are trying to have them bannedFor many years, certain car manufacturers sought to obstruct the transition to electric vehicles. It’s not hard to see why: when you have invested heavily in an existing technology, you want to extract every last drop before disinvesting. But devious as in some cases these efforts were, they seem almost innocent in comparison with the concerted programme by a legacy industry and
  
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• Plantwatch: Why fig trees are an emblem of Sheffield’s industrial past

  21-08-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Born from seeds that came to the city in biscuits and passed into sewage, the fig is now the UK’s only protected alien plant speciesOn the banks of the River Don in Sheffield, within sight of the vast Meadowhall shopping centre, grow some highly exotic specimens – wild Mediterranean fig trees.In the days of heavy industry, fig biscuits were a favourite local delicacy. After they were eaten, the fig seeds passed through people’s digestive systems and ended up discharged as sewag
  
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• ‘You’ve got to reach people emotionally’: the UK energy head making the local case for clean power

  21-08-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Faced with community anxiety over building for the energy transition, Energy UK’s Emma Pinchbeck stresses the wins, near-term and farThe prospect of pylons, wind turbines and solar farms springing up across the countryside has upset a number of UK communities. But the head of Energy UK, Emma Pinchbeck, believes there is a way to decarbonise our electricity and sooth these tensions.Pinchbeck is tapped to be the next leader of the Climate Change Committee, and currently represents the indust
  
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• Sweden to kill 20% of its brown bears in annual hunt

  21-08-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Conservationists say the number of hunting licences granted is too high and condemn it as ‘pure trophy hunting’Sweden has issued licences to kill 20% of its brown bear population in the country’s annual bear hunt, which begins today, despite concerns from conservationists.Officials have granted licences for just under 500 brown bears to be culled by hunters. That equates to about 20% of the total population, according to official figures, and would bring the number of bears in
  
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• ‘I don’t want this landscape to change’: the UK energy head making the local case for clean power

  21-08-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Faced with community anxiety over building for the energy transition, Energy UK’s Emma Pinchbeck stresses the wins, near-term and farThe prospect of pylons, wind turbines and solar farms springing up across the countryside has upset a number of UK communities. But the head of Energy UK, Emma Pinchbeck, believes there is a way to decarbonise our electricity and sooth these tensions.Pinchbeck is tapped to be the next leader of the Climate Change Committee, and currently represents the indust
  
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• How paddleboarding conquered Britain: the delights and dangers of the nation’s fastest-growing sport

  21-08-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  It is calming and meditative – but more and more paddleboarders are needing to be rescued. Here is how to enjoy the water while staying safePamela Muirhead had been looking forward to her first paddleboarding session, but the enjoyment lasted all of seven minutes. “Then, pure terror,” she says. She had won a competition for a free session at Maidens beach in Ayrshire, and set off cautiously while her two teenage children and the instructor watched from the shore. After about fi
  
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• Badger cull may have increased bovine TB risk in neighbouring herds – study

  21-08-2024 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  England’s controversial eradication scheme may have caused higher rates of disease in surrounding areas, research showsEngland’s controversial badger cull may have increased the risk of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) among herds in neighbouring areas, according to new research.Researchers at the University of Oxford found that although badger culling reduced incidences of tuberculosis in the areas where it took place, in neighbouring areas the risk of the disease in cattle increased by al
  
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