Environment news

• ‘Profit is being prioritised over climate action’ – British fashion is falling behind on sustainability

  28-08-2024 19:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A new report claims that fewer than 4% of London fashion week designers have published emissions reduction targets, compared with 44% of all UK companies. Why is the industry so slow to reform?In just over a fortnight, some of the UK’s biggest fashion brands will showcase their new collections at London fashion week. Organised by the British Fashion Council (BFC), it’s always an exciting moment, bringing together some of the country’s top creative talent. But it also highlights
  
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• Revealed: US airlines lobbied EU over its plan to monitor plane emissions

  28-08-2024 18:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Lobbyists from Airlines for America argued against European Commission draft rules to report cocktail of pollutants, freedom of information requests showUS airlines lobbied against plans to monitor the damage wrought by planet-heating pollutants pumped out of planes in a previously undisclosed meeting with the European Commission, the Guardian can reveal.Lobbyists from Airlines for America and some of its member companies met representatives of the European Commission’s climate team in May
  
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• ‘The last wild places’: the Venice show about Earth’s spiralling salt marsh crisis

  28-08-2024 17:14 via theguardian.com
  They are eco marvels but they are fast disappearing. Sophie Hunter explains why she is using film, music, a few tonnes of salt and a reimagined wife of Lot to sound the alarmEerie, desolate wastes in old novels, salt marshes are still seen as flat, grey and inhospitable landscapes today. Rainforests, meadows, oceans and even peatlands have their celebrity champions. But now there is someone to speak up for the magnificence of the tidal marsh: Sophie Hunter, theatre-maker and opera director, hope
  
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• Without new gas, the Australian warns, an ‘energy crisis’ is nigh – but is the scary rhetoric justified? | Temperature Check

  28-08-2024 17:00 via theguardian.com
  The country needs more gas in the short term because of our sluggish transition to renewables – but at worst the shortfall may lead to some rationingFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe gas industry has been unleashing a firehose of rhetoric over concerns Australia could suffer a shortage of gas.In a series of articles in the Australian newspaper under the banner “Gas Crisis”, industry figures and t
  
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• Without new gas, the Australian warns, an ‘energy crisis’ is nigh – but is the scary rhetoric justified?

  28-08-2024 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Australia needs more gas in the short term because of our sluggish transition to renewables – but at worst the shortfall may lead to some rationingGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe gas industry has been unleashing a firehose of rhetoric in recent days over concerns Australia could suffer a shortage of gas.In a series of articles in the Australian newspaper under the banner “Gas Crisis”, industry figures and the Coalition’s energy spokesman, Te
  
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• This bird came back from extinction - now scientists in an aircraft are teaching it to migrate

  28-08-2024 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Extinct in central Europe for 300 years, 36 northern bald ibis are following an ultralight aircraft on their long-forgotten migration route from Austria to SpainThe northern bald ibis was extinct in central Europe for 300 years. Now, it has returned – and scientist “foster parents” aboard a tiny plane are teaching the birds to fly their long-forgotten migration routes.Thirty-six of these endangered birds are now following an ultralight aircraft 1,740 miles (2,800km ) from Austr
  
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• This bird came back from extinction - now scientists in a glider are teaching it to migrate

  28-08-2024 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Extinct in central Europe for 300 years, 36 northern bald ibis are following an ultralight aircraft on their long-forgotten migration route from Austria to SpainThe northern bald ibis was extinct in central Europe for 300 years. Now, it has returned – and scientist “foster parents” aboard a tiny plane are teaching the birds to fly their long-forgotten migration routes.Thirty-six of these endangered birds are now following an ultralight aircraft 1,740 miles (2,800km ) from Austr
  
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• This man saved his town from deadly floodwaters. So why did the US government try to stop him?

  28-08-2024 16:00 via theguardian.com
  Windell Curole built a vast levee to protect his district from disappearing into the ocean – despite federal resistance to his plan. Had he listened to officials, he says, ‘we wouldn’t have a community’On 29 August 2021, as Hurricane Ida made landfall on Louisiana’s Gulf coast, 69-year-old Windell Curole sought refuge with others at the three-story Lady of the Sea hospital in Galliano, located 90 minutes south-west of New Orleans.As Curole looked out the window, wat
  
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• ‘Don’t be scared of beans’: how readers are handling US grocery inflation

  28-08-2024 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Food prices have increased 22% in last four years and people are feeling the pinch. Readers share their strategies to copeBack in 2019, $100 worth of groceries may have lasted a week for a household of two. Today, that same $100 will probably only buy enough groceries to stretch for a couple of days.In the last four years, food prices have increased a whopping 22%, and consumers are feeling the pinch. Continue reading...
  
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• Lego plans to make half the plastic in bricks from renewable materials by 2026

  28-08-2024 14:26 via theguardian.com
  
  Toymaker hopes to bring down oil-based plastic it uses by paying up to 70% more for certified renewable resin to encourage productionLego plans to make half the plastic in its bricks from renewable or recycled material rather than fossil fuels by 2026, in its latest effort to ensure it toys are more environmentally friendly.The Danish company, which last year ditched efforts to make bricks entirely from recycled bottles because of cost and production issues, currently makes 22% of its colourful
  
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• ‘Beaver-bombing’: unauthorised rodent releases on the rise in English rivers

  28-08-2024 13:05 via theguardian.com
  Experts say trend is because of failure by successive governments to approve releases despite promises“Beaver bombing”, covertly releasing beavers into the countryside, is increasing in England because successive governments have not fulfilled promises to permit some planned wild releases, conservationists are warning.Beavers now live freely on river systems across swaths of southern England, and conservationists are calling on Labour to allow official releases of free-living beavers
  
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• Harris administration would rein in toxic PFAS chemicals, advocates say

  28-08-2024 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Records of Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz instill hope that progress under Biden could be extendedPublic health advocates are optimistic that a Kamala Harris win in the November presidential election in the US would lead to further regulation of PFAS toxic “forever chemicals”, on which the Biden administration has already taken unprecedented regulatory action.In part that is based on past actions. Last year, Harris’s running mate, the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, sign
  
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• Conservationists warn of unauthorised releases of beavers into English rivers

  28-08-2024 10:40 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘Beaver bombing’ increasing because of failure by successive governments to approve releases, say experts“Beaver bombing”, covertly releasing beavers into the countryside, is increasing in England because successive governments have not fulfilled promises to permit some planned wild releases, conservationists are warning.Beavers now live freely on river systems across swaths of southern England, and conservationists are calling on Labour to allow official releases of free
  
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• SpaceX delays first private spacewalk mission

  28-08-2024 09:22 via bbc.com
  
  Elon Musk's company said it would be delayed "due to unfavourable weather forecasted" in the capsule's splashdown areas.
  
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• The people working to help Scotland's bats bounce back

  28-08-2024 07:18 via bbc.com
  
  Beth Bridge is working to create the conditions which will let these endangered mammals thrive again.
  
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• Dear ministers, I’m a climate crisis campaigner: nationalise me right now | George Monbiot

  28-08-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Why have politicians outsourced the most important issue of our time to private agencies and individuals? We can’t do it all - this way lies disasterThere are several services and assets I would like to see nationalised. But at the top of my list is neither water, nor trains, nor development land, much as I’d like to see them brought under national or local public ownership. Above all, I want to see the nationalisation of my own business: environmental persuasion. I love my job. But
  
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• Country diary: A plucky band of riders wade into the waves | Cal Flyn

  28-08-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Kirkwall, Orkney: The Riding of the Marches is a revived tradition that clatters through the streets to the golden sands of Scapa beachAugust is the highlight of the agricultural calendar in Orkney. Many parishes and outlying islands host their summer shows before the county show in the capital, Kirkwall, rounds off the festivities in a grand finale, where the very glossiest cows, curliest-horned rams and fanciest ducks vie for champion titles.The county show is a major local event – many
  
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• Poorer people bear brunt of extreme heat in Europe, say Spanish researchers

  28-08-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Madrid study finds people from below-average income groups more likely to die in heatwavesScorching temperatures across Europe have killed tens of thousands of people in recent years. But as fatalities rise, researchers are finding that one group is disproportionately bearing the brunt of extreme heat: those living in poverty.“It’s common sense,” said Julio Díaz Jiménez, an investigative professor at Madrid’s Carlos III health institute. “A heatwave is
  
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• Let’s be like Paris and ban pesticides in cities, say UK campaigners

  28-08-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  More than 150 councillors join 15,000 members of the public calling for urban areas to be free of the chemicalsThe UK should copy Paris and ban pesticides in urban areas, campaigners and local councils have said.Drawing attention to how the capital city of France still looked pristine while hosting the Olympics, the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) has said the same can be true of UK towns and cities. Continue reading...
  
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• New peregrine falcon takes a meal and nurses egg atop Melbourne skyscraper – video

  28-08-2024 03:18 via theguardian.com
  
  The cameras that made the falcons a social media phenomenon are rolling again for a new breeding season, capturing a new female falcon incubating an egg atop Melbourne's Collins Street skyscraper. There are high hopes for this season after last year’s eggs were unable to hatch after the female stopped incubating, likely due to a territorial disputeNew peregrine in town: female falcon becomes latest to nest atop Melbourne skyscraper Continue reading...
  
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