Environment news

• Earth’s ‘vital signs’ show humanity’s future in balance, say climate experts

  08-10-2024 16:08 via theguardian.com
  
  Record emissions, temperatures and population mean more scientists are looking into possibility of societal collapse, report saysMany of the Earth’s “vital signs” have hit record extremes, indicating that “the future of humanity hangs in the balance”, a group of the world’s most senior climate experts has said.More and more scientists are now looking into the possibility of societal collapse, said the report, which assessed 35 vital signs in 2023 and found tha
  
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• Surviving the summer on Queensland’s remote cattle properties: ‘We never give up on fires’

  08-10-2024 16:00 via theguardian.com
  Queensland is facing an increased risk of fire this summer but in regional areas firefighting is a job for volunteersSign up for the Rural Network email newsletterJoin the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the communityIn the southern states, the bushfire advice on days of extreme or catastrophic fire danger is to evacuate early or have a plan to fall back to a community place of safety. But in the Arcadia Valley, 650km north-west of Brisbane in remote central Queensland, the respons
  
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• Picnicking on Dartmoor is trespassing, landowner’s lawyers tell court

  08-10-2024 15:03 via theguardian.com
  
  Alexander Darwall, owner of Blachford estate in national park, is challenging the right to wild camping Picnicking on Dartmoor is trespassing, according to the lawyers for a landowner who is challenging the right to wild camping on the moors.The public should have no right to undertake any activities other than walking or horse riding in the Dartmoor national park without landowner permission, Timothy Morshead KC told a supreme court hearing on Tuesday. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘It was a challenge to film both sides’: the struggle to portray Kenya’s age-old land dispute

  08-10-2024 13:08 via theguardian.com
  From dodging bullets to sleeping on goat skins, film-makers Peter Murimi and Daphne Matziaraki faced unique challenges when documenting the conflict between white farmers and Indigenous herdersThe Laikipia plateau in Kenya is a wildlife conservation haven, and a popular safari destination featuring all the big five animals of Africa. As yet, a simmering local conflict between the Indigenous pastoralist communities and long-established white farmers has remained largely unnoticed by the internati
  
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• 'Godfather of AI' shares Nobel Physics Prize

  08-10-2024 11:52 via bbc.com
  
  Two scientists share the Nobel Prize for Physics for their work on machine learning.
  
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• UK may approve bee-killing pesticide despite election promise to ban it

  08-10-2024 09:37 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: Environment groups urge government to stick to its promises and refuse pesticide applicationUK ministers are considering allowing the use of a bee-killing pesticide next year despite promising during the election to ban it.Neonicotinoids are banned in the EU because they are toxic to bees but have been authorised for use every year in the UK since 2021. Continue reading...
  
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• Water firms told to cut customer bills over poor performance

  08-10-2024 08:02 via bbc.com
  
  Water companies must reduce customers' bills over poor performance but it will have a small impact.
  
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• My pilgrimage to the vanishing Sphinx snow patch

  08-10-2024 07:16 via bbc.com
  
  The Sphinx, a patch of snow thought to be the longest-lasting in the UK, has melted for the fourth consecutive year.
  
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• Britons urged to dig out unwanted electricals to tackle copper shortage

  08-10-2024 07:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Items such as cables and old tech could contain £266m worth of metal vital for decarbonisation drive, study findsScientists have called for people to go “urban mining” after a study revealed that old cables, phone chargers and other unused electrical goods thrown away or stored in cupboards or drawers could stave off a looming shortage of copper.The research found that in the UK there are approximately 823m unused or broken tech items hiding in “drawers of doom” con
  
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• Tiny parasitic wasp helps save one of world’s rarest birds from extinction

  08-10-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Wasps released on Nightingale Island have protected Wilkins’ bunting by halting spread of mould-causing insectsA tiny parasitic wasp has given a lifeline to one of the world’s rarest bird species by killing off an invasive insect that was threatening its survival.The Wilkins’ bunting lives on Nightingale Island, part of the Tristan da Cunha group; the world’s most remote inhabited archipelago. It eats the fruit of the Phylica arborea, the island’s only native tree.
  
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• Country diary: Only plants with extreme strategies survive this hostile terrain | Ed Douglas

  08-10-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Aladağlar, Turkey: One thorny wild almond that pierced my boot might have been arrested for carrying an offensive weaponIhsan Macar sold his flock of sheep a decade ago but keeps a simple hut high on the Yedigöller plateau, in the heart of Anatolia’s Aladağlar mountains. Though his animals no longer graze these sparse grasslands, he likes to spend a few weeks here each summer. It keeps him rooted in the pattern of his life.Yedigöller translates as “seven lakes&rdq
  
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• Country diary: Looking out to where farming began 8,000 years ago | Ed Douglas

  08-10-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Aladağlar, Turkey: It was from the plains beyond that the Anatolians brought their practices to Europe – their descendants built monuments near to my homeIhsan Macar sold his flock of sheep a decade ago but keeps a simple hut high on the Yedigöller plateau, in the heart of Anatolia’s Aladağlar mountains. Though his animals no longer graze these sparse grasslands, he likes to spend a few weeks here each summer. It keeps him rooted in the pattern of his life.Yedigöl
  
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• The scandal of food waste and how we can stop it

  08-10-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Every informed observer agrees that food waste and loss must be reduced if we are to feed all humans. What’s stopping us?In traditional societies, little to no food goes to waste. Every edible part of an animal or plant is utilised. Researchers found that the members of a Maasai cattle herding community in northern Tanzania were outraged at the thought of intentionally wasting food, calling those who would do so “lunatics”. Some even said it was worse than killing a person, bec
  
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• Lab-grown meat could be sold in UK in next few years, says food regulator

  08-10-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Food Standards Agency says applications for cultivated steak, chicken and foie gras have already been submittedCell-cultivated meat could be on sale in the UK within a few years, the food regulator has said, with applications for lab-grown steak, beef, chicken and foie gras already submitted, while another 15 applications are expected in the next two years.The Food Standards Agency (FSA) was awarded £1.6m of government funding on Tuesday to develop an efficient safety assessment process fo
  
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