Environment news

• Three Mile Island nuclear reactor to restart to power Microsoft AI operations

  20-09-2024 19:59 via theguardian.com
  
  Pennsylvania plant was site of most serious nuclear meltdown and radiation leak in US history in 1979A nuclear reactor at the notorious Three Mile Island site in Pennsylvania is to be activated for the first time in five years after its owners, Constellation Energy, struck a deal to provide power to Microsoft’s proliferating artificial intelligence operations.The plant was the location of the most serious nuclear meltdown and radiation leak in US history, in March 1979 when the loss of wat
  
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• Greenpeace activists who scaled Sunak’s roof cleared by judge

  20-09-2024 19:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Four protesters against North Sea oil and gas licences have charges of criminal damage thrown outFour Greenpeace activists who staged a “no new oil” protest on the roof of Rishi Sunak’s North Yorkshire manor house have had charges of criminal damage thrown out.The activists said “justice and common sense” had prevailed after a judge on Friday ruled the evidence against them was “tenuous” and they had no case to answer. Continue reading...
  
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• Budding market: hopes of a revival in UK cut-flower production

  20-09-2024 15:00 via theguardian.com
  British growers are taking a increasing share of sales long dominated by imports by focussing on green credentialsFrom the tip of Cornwall to the far reaches of Scotland, the shoots of resurgence in the British cut-flower market are raising hopes of a fledgling return to home-produced fragrant flowers becoming a bigger part of the £1bn industry in the UK.UK flower production bloomed to £179m last year, according to figures from Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, up f
  
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• How mudlarking on the Thames unlocks London’s secret riches

  20-09-2024 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  As the Museum of London announces a mudlarking exhibition, mudlarker Lara Maiklem says combing the foreshore can transport you back in timeEarlier this week, Lara Maiklem climbed down to the foreshore of the River Thames at low tide to spend several hours gently scrabbling at its surface in pursuit of a 20-year obsession.Known on social media as the London Mudlark and the author of three books on larking, Maiklem is at the forefront of a growing number of people spending their spare time combing
  
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• People rescued from rooftops as flooding hits northern Italy – video

  20-09-2024 13:10 via theguardian.com
  
  Firefighters have been rescuing people stranded on their balconies and rooftops after Storm Boris triggered flooding and landslides in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. Two people were reported missing in Traversara, a hamlet in Ravenna province, and about 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. Storm Boris has battered parts of Italy after causing havoc in eastern and central EuropeTwo missing and 1,000 evacuated as Storm Boris devastates northern Italy Continue reading.
  
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• One year of Guardian Europe: different stories through a new lens

  20-09-2024 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  On 20 September 2023, the Guardian launched a new digital edition for a continent in the grip of dramatic political and social change. This is what we’ve learned so far – and how you can help us do moreSupport the GuardianA year ago today we launched Guardian Europe, a new digital edition of the Guardian to help bring journalism about the world to Europe and journalism about Europe to the world.It has been a dramatic year for the continent, with moments of intense political peril, fr
  
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• ‘It’s guerrilla warfare’: Brazil fire teams fight Amazon blazes – and the arsonists who start them

  20-09-2024 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Firefighters and police in Rondônia battle fires intensified by both the climate crisis and a criminal assault on the rainforestThe occupants of the vinyl-coated military tents at this remote jungle camp in Brazil’s wild west compare the hellscape surrounding them to catastrophes old and new: the extinction of the dinosaurs, the bombardment of Gaza, the obliteration of Hiroshima during the second world war.“It’s as if a nuclear bomb has gone off. There’s no forest.
  
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• Week in wildlife in pictures: Hampshire beaver babies, bubbly lizards and a shopaholic koala

  20-09-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• Fish! Do they have feelings? Now everyone wants to know about the emotional lives of fish! | First Dog on the Moon

  20-09-2024 08:34 via theguardian.com
  
  Do fish feel despair or longing? Do they yearn for a simpler time?Sign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are publishedGet all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints Continue reading...
  
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• Wildfires ravaging northern Portugal – in pictures

  20-09-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Since last week, wildfires have been raging in central and northern Portugal. At least seven people have died and 50 have been injured. More than 5,000 firefighters have been mobilised to battle the blazes Continue reading...
  
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• UK’s first ever bison bridges under construction in Kent woodland

  20-09-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Four bridges will allow herds to pass beneath public footpaths while visitors may catch glimpse of bison from aboveWhen Europe’s heaviest land mammals were introduced into a woodland on the edge of Canterbury, it was hoped they would flourish and make space for other wildlife.But the European bison have been so successful in West Blean and Thornden Woods that more space must be made for them – in the form of Britain’s first ever bison bridges. Continue reading...
  
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• Knowing polluting impact of home fires could modify behaviour, study finds

  20-09-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Voluntary regulations for burning wood and coal to heat homes could help tackle impact on air pollutionWhile traffic and industry have been the focus of air pollution controls for the past two decades, the old issue of pollution from home heating has crept up again.Wood- and coal-burning homes in the UK now produce more particle air pollution than the vehicles on our roads. Industry figures show that about 200,000 new stoves were sold in 2022. Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: A mission to help gardening’s invertebrate collateral damage | Phil Gates

  20-09-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Crook, County Durham: Until they began to appear under the bin lid in early autumn, I’d never noticed these colourful arachnidsTomorrow is garden-waste bin collection day, so I’m on a rescue mission. Among those accumulated prunings and dead twigs, too tough to compost, there will be some accidental captives, gardening’s inevitable invertebrate collateral damage.When I lift the lid, a seven-spot ladybird and two earwigs, on the rim of the bin and momentarily dazzled by sun
  
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• ‘You basically have free hot water’: how Cyprus became a world leader in solar heating

  20-09-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The country, which has more 300 days of sunshine a year, has embraced rooftop systems that harness the sun’s energyThe Thriamvos company truck pulls up at noon outside the four-storey building in the heart of Nicosia.It’s the third rooftop installation of a solar-powered water heating system that Petros Mihali and his assistant, Soteris, have made in the Cypriot capital since their working day began at 7am. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘It’s a warning’: UK nature chief sounds alarm over ecosystem collapse as butterfly numbers halve

  20-09-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  In a Guardian interview, Tony Juniper says housebuilding plans could be an opportunity to create ‘wild belts’ around cities to help habitat and species recoveryThe collapse in British butterfly populations is a “warning from nature” about the resilience of the UK’s ecosystems, says England’s nature chief, raising concerns about threats to national food security as the planet continues to heat.Tony Juniper, the chair of Natural England, says new data showing a
  
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