Environment news

• Burning rubbish to create energy could end landfills. But some worry where Australia’s new path is leading

  28-09-2024 22:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Some conservationists believe the ‘incineration industry’ is trying to gain a foothold in Australia and say the trend will end up damaging the environmentAustralia’s first major waste-to-energy power plant has begun accepting rubbish, marking the start of a contentious nationwide shift towards burning household refuse to generate electricity.At least 10 developments are under way across the country, sparking concern from some conservationists who argue the trend will be environ
  
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• An 'abomination' of a sub – and the boss convinced Titan was safe

  28-09-2024 18:39 via bbc.com
  
  A damning picture emerges from a public hearing into the failure of Oceangate’s Titan submersible.
  
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• Brazil’s ‘Paradise’ on fire: ‘The forest is burning. Animals are burning. Trees are burning. Everything’s burning’

  28-09-2024 16:16 via theguardian.com
  
  Along the Madeira river basin, in the Amazon, locals blame climate change and human greed for the wildfires“All of that up there is Paradise,” said Maria Moraes de Souza, gesturing to the string of villages among which she lives along one of the Amazon’s most important waterways.But lately life in this supposedly Arcadian community has taken a toxic turn, as the River Madeira’s waters have fallen to their lowest level since the 1960s and the skies overhead have filled wit
  
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• Brazil’s ‘Paradise’ on fire: ‘The forest is burning. Animals are burning. Everything’s burning’

  28-09-2024 16:16 via theguardian.com
  
  Along the Madeira river basin, in the Amazon, locals blame climate change and human greed for the wildfires“All of that up there is Paradise,” said Maria Moraes de Souza, gesturing to the string of villages among which she lives along one of the Amazon’s most important waterways.But lately life in this supposedly Arcadian community has taken a toxic turn, as the River Madeira’s waters have fallen to their lowest level since the 1960s and the skies overhead have filled wit
  
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• On my radar: Daisy Johnson’s cultural highlights

  28-09-2024 16:00 via theguardian.com
  The trailblazing novelist on the joys of coastal bakeries, writers’ habits and an online boat-tracking mapBorn in Devon in 1990, Daisy Johnson studied English literature at Lancaster University and received a master’s degree in creative writing from Oxford. After winning the 2016 Harper’s Bazaar short story prize she published the collection Fen, which took the 2017 Edge Hill short story prize. Her 2018 debut novel, Everything Under, made her the youngest author to be shortlist
  
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• Could pawpaw, the US-native fruit, become the new kiwi or mango?

  28-09-2024 16:00 via theguardian.com
  Pawpaw, a tree fruit that can help farmers and the environment, stays resilient in face of a climate crisisAbout five years ago, Matt Feyerabend, co-owner of an Arkansas ice-cream business, wanted to explore new flavors and use more native fruits, so while delivering a batch of product to a restaurant in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, he asked if anyone knew a grower of pawpaws, a tree fruit native to the United States with a flavor described as a mix between a mango and a banana.A server said her fa
  
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• Cows help farms capture more carbon in soil, study shows

  28-09-2024 15:07 via theguardian.com
  
  Research also reveals that a mixture of arable crops and cattle helps improve the biodiversity of the landCows may belch methane into the atmosphere at alarming rates, but new data shows they may play an important role in renewing farm soil.Research by the Soil Association Exchange shows that farms with a mixture of arable crops and livestock have about a third more carbon stored within their soil than those with only arable crops, thanks to the animals’ manure. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘You can’t build muscle as a vegan’ – and 13 other plant-based myths, busted

  28-09-2024 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Veganism: boring and expensive but always the most ethical choice, right? Wrong, say our experts, who tackle misconceptions about plant-based eatingFALSE
  While plenty of vegan athletes and bodybuilders share their diets online, some elite sports people find they need to add animal products to their previously strict plant-based regimes. Venus Williams calls herself a “chegan” (cheating vegan) and Novak Djokovic reportedly started eating fish to help his muscles recover after elbow su
  
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• ‘We don’t think about energy bills any more’: how a heat pump changed a couple’s lives

  28-09-2024 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Living in an energy-efficient zero-carbon home with an air source heat pump has cut energy bills drasticallyAre heat pumps the future or just a lot of hot air?This Monday, it will be two years since Julian and Juliette Rayner moved into their new zero-carbon home on a development about 20 minutes drive from Bristol.The property boasts a range of new technologies that makes it highly energy-efficient and enable the couple to generate their own electricity and live a greener lifestyle. Continue re
  
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• ‘It’s hugely moving’: sea turtle nests in Greece reach record numbers

  28-09-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Conservationists celebrate as efforts to save the Caretta caretta sea turtle, which has existed for 100m years, pay offAfter nearly a quarter of a century observing one of the world’s most famous sea turtle nesting grounds, Charikleia Minotou is convinced of one thing: nature, she says, has a way of “sending messages”.Along the sandy shores of Sekania, on the Ionian island of Zakynthos, what she has seen both this year and last, has been beyond her wildest dreams. The beach, lo
  
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• ‘It’s hugely moving’: record numbers of sea turtle nests recorded in Greece

  28-09-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Conservationists celebrate as efforts to save the Caretta caretta sea turtle, which has existed for 100m years, pay offAfter nearly a quarter of a century observing one of the world’s most famous sea turtle nesting grounds, Charikleia Minotou is convinced of one thing: nature, she says, has a way of “sending messages”.Along the sandy shores of Sekania, on the Ionian island of Zakynthos, what she has seen both this year and last, has been beyond her wildest dreams. The beach, lo
  
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• Are heat pumps the future or just a lot of hot air?

  28-09-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  After 250,000 installations across the UK, we look at the devices central to Labour’s vision of a ‘home upgrade revolution’Heating the UK’s 28m homes creates almost a fifth of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, so after decades of relying on gas and oil boilers, households will need to break their addiction to fossil fuels if the government hopes to meet its climate targets.For most homes, the alternative to traditional heating systems is likely to be an electr
  
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• UK climate envoy to keep role at charity whose founders invest in fossil fuels

  28-09-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Supporters rally to Rachel Kyte after criticism of appointment over link to investment firm Quadrature CapitalThe UK’s new climate envoy will retain her role on the board of a charity whose founders made a multimillion-pound donation to the Labour party and have investments in fossil fuels, the Guardian has learned.Rachel Kyte, the former World Bank climate chief who was announced as the UK’s special representative on climate this week, is on the climate advisory board of Quadrature
  
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• Country diary: The annual spectacular of noisy, feathered visitors | Rob Schofield

  28-09-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Sefton, Southport: As the days lengthen, thousands of honking pink-footed geese arrive in England’s north-west from Greenland, Iceland and NorwayThe echoing screech of swifts hurtling between the houses is a distant memory. Some swallows and martins have hung around, wittering away on telephone wires over the Cheshire Lines, or hunting flies above the salt marsh north of Southport’s defunct pier. Our summer visitors have largely flown, but autumn has its magic. The recent h
  
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• Penguin chicks survive tearaway iceberg

  28-09-2024 01:56 via bbc.com
  
  For months a huge iceberg blocked the path of hundreds of penguin chicks but somehow they survived.
  
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