Environment news

• The Guardian view on Hurricane Milton and other disasters: extreme politics is worsening extreme weather | Editorial

  10-10-2024 19:36 via theguardian.com
  
  Climate change deniers such as Florida’s Ron DeSantis lament the impact of such events but won’t acknowledge the underlying problemThe preparations for Hurricane Milton were on a mammoth scale, as the clean-up will be. The storm thankfully lost some of its force before it slammed into Florida, making landfall on Wednesday night as a category 3 hurricane. But many more lives would surely have been lost without the massive evacuation and the deployment of thousands of national guard tr
  
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• Harvest in England the second worst on record because of wet weather

  10-10-2024 14:55 via theguardian.com
  
  Wheat haul in England estimated to be down by 21%, with Britain’s wine producers also hit hardEngland has suffered its second worst harvest on record – with fears growing for next year – after heavy rain last winter hit production of key crops including wheat and oats.The cold, damp weather, stretching from last autumn through this spring and early summer, has hit the rapidly developing UK wine industry particularly hard, with producers saying harvests are down by between 75% a
  
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• Hellish heat and primal fear: Croatian firefighters on frontline of climate crisis

  10-10-2024 13:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Firefighters are stoic about the risks they face but say climate change has affected every part of the jobA short drive and a world away from the tourist-thronged old town of Split, past retirees clambering out of cruise ships and bachelor parties stumbling into beachside bars, Ivan Sanader studied a smouldering hillside that stank of smoke.The night before, he had fought a fire that charred the slope and threatened to engulf a roadside restaurant. Now, the commander of a mobile firefighter cent
  
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• ME left me bedbound for nearly five years. A potted plant helped me rebuild my life

  10-10-2024 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Illness had robbed me of my health, my confidence and my joy. But when my mum brought me something to care for, I regained my sense of purposeThe life I loved came to an abrupt end when I was diagnosed with severe myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, in 1997. For years, my world revolved around bedpans, bed baths, wheelchairs and stairlifts. Then an unexpected gift began to revive a sense of joy I thought I had lost for ever.I grew up in a gardening-mad househo
  
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• Collapsing wildlife populations near ‘points of no return’, report warns

  10-10-2024 08:26 via theguardian.com
  As average population falls reach 95% in some regions, experts call for urgent action but insist ‘nature can recover’Global wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 73% in 50 years, a new scientific assessment has found, as humans continue to push ecosystems to the brink of collapse.Latin America and the Caribbean recorded the steepest average declines in recorded wildlife populations, with a 95% fall, according to the WWF and the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL)
  
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• Heatwaves are burning away memories of the ‘typical British summer’

  10-10-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  This year’s damp high season wasn’t terrible, just typical – but now we judge it against the scorching temperatures of the 2020sBy general consensus the British summer of 2024 was a bit rubbish – even though the numbers say it was about average. What is behind this clash of perceptions? The Met Office socio-meteorologist Helen Roberts says it is because recent hot summers have changed our expectations.“There have been multiple heatwaves in recent years, including th
  
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• Country diary: The rowans are out in force, lifting the autumnal gloom | Merryn Glover

  10-10-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Badenoch, Cairngorms: Graceful as a folk tale queen, they’re throwing out their arms, feathery green and bearing clusters of bright red berriesThe early October forest is at the turning point, that enchanted time of year when everything is changing form and colour. It havers, slipping backwards and forwards across the threshold between dark and light, the underworld of woodsy rot and the sky-song of geese, the realms of substance and spirit.Last night, the stars were fiercely bright and th
  
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• Country diary: The rowans are out in force, lifting the autumn gloom | Merryn Glover

  10-10-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Badenoch, Cairngorms: Graceful as a folk tale queen, they’re throwing out their arms, feathery green and bearing clusters of bright red berriesThe early October forest is at the turning point, that enchanted time of year when everything is changing form and colour. It havers, slipping backwards and forwards across the threshold between dark and light, the underworld of woodsy rot and the sky-song of geese, the realms of substance and spirit.Last night, the stars were fiercely bright and th
  
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• Country diary: A true giving tree, graceful as a folktale queen | Merryn Glover

  10-10-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Badenoch, Cairngorms: The rowan is thought to hold sway against the forces of darkness. In the autumnal gloom, her bright red berries certainly lighten the moodThe early October forest is at the turning point, that enchanted time of year when everything is changing form and colour. It havers, slipping backwards and forwards across the threshold between dark and light, the underworld of woodsy rot and the sky-song of geese, the realms of substance and spirit.Last night, the stars were fiercely br
  
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• On the climate crisis, housing and more, politicians avoid clarity because it demands action | Greg Jericho

  10-10-2024 04:50 via theguardian.com
  Our leaders may prefer complexity because it means they can defer taking action – but doing something about emissions reduction or slow wage growth is actually not that complexAfter spending any time analysing policy you quickly realise that politicians expend a supreme level of effort to avoid doing the obvious, and instead they do complex things that neither solve a problem nor appease their opponents.For politicians, the problem with clarity is that it demands action. Complexity provide
  
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• Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida – video

  10-10-2024 04:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Milton, which fluctuated in intensity as it approached Florida, was a category 3 hurricane as it made landfall.'It will continue to move across central Florida throughout the night and into the early morning hours,' said Florida governor Ron DeSantis.Hurricane Milton Continue reading...
  
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• Explorer Shackleton’s lost ship as never seen before

  10-10-2024 03:50 via bbc.com
  
  A new 3D scan shows Endurance exactly as it is 3,000m down in Antarctica’s icy waters.
  
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• Wildlife numbers fall by 73% in 50 years, global stocktake finds

  10-10-2024 02:26 via bbc.com
  
  Global wildlife populations have shrunk by an average of 73% in the past 50 years, data shows.
  
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• Foreign aid for fossil fuel projects quadrupled in a single year

  10-10-2024 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  With clean air projects receiving just 1% of aid, activists say nations ‘cannot continue polluting practices at expense of climate stability’Foreign aid for fossil fuel projects quadrupled in a single year, a report has found, rising ​​from $1.2bn in 2021 to $5.4bn in 2022.“This shocking increase in aid funding to fossil fuels is a wake-up call,” said Jane Burston, CEO of nonprofit the Clean Air Fund, which conducted the research. “The world cannot conti
  
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