Environment news

• Torrential rain brings deadly flooding to Spain – in pictures

  30-10-2024 20:52 via theguardian.com
  
  Downpours caused Spain’s deadliest flooding in decades. Floodwaters surged through cities, towns and villages, trapping people in their homes, sweeping up cars in their wake and causing significant damage Continue reading...
  
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• ‘We were trapped like rats’: Spain’s floods bring devastation and despair

  30-10-2024 17:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Residents describe impact of floods and downpours – with some places hit with a year’s worth of rain in just eight hoursSpanish flash floods – live updatesThe gratitude that greeted Tuesday’s dawn downpours was short-lived in Utiel. When the longed-for rains finally reached the town in the drought-stricken eastern Spanish region of Valencia, they were merciless in their abundance.“People were very happy at first because they’d been praying for rain as their la
  
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• Firefighters were elated after a federal bill provided them support for cancer. Then came ‘a slap in the face’

  30-10-2024 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A 2022 law gave wildland firefighters with ‘presumptive cancer coverage’, but the list of ailments left out a range of cancers affecting womenRiva Duncan was overjoyed when Congress in 2022 approved better support for federal wildland firefighters during their cancer battles. As a retired fire officer of the US Forest Service (USFS), Duncan had spent years fighting for the friends and colleagues who disproportionately fell ill.The 2022 law gave firefighters so-called “presumpti
  
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• ‘I can’t stop now’: Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ+ law forces climate activist into exile

  30-10-2024 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Already targeted for opposing the EACOP oil pipeline, claims that he was gay forced Nyombi Morris to flee When an anonymous caller threatened to rape and arrest Nyombi Morris if he did not stop “promoting homosexuality”, he knew he had to flee Uganda. The 26-year-old climate activist, who had become outspoken about LGBTQ+ rights after his sister was revealed as a lesbian and expelled from school last year, has faced a fierce backlash for his advocacy.And things only got worse after h
  
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• Ancient oak named after a band is UK Tree of the Year

  30-10-2024 09:05 via bbc.com
  
  The Skipinnish Oak in Lochaber is at least 400 years old.
  
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• A moment that changed me: My miscarriages were devastating – then an orca’s grief made me try again

  30-10-2024 07:55 via theguardian.com
  
  How can anyone cope with the loss of their pregnancies? When I watched Tahlequah the whale grieve her calf and go on to have another, it gave me unexpected hopeIt was winter 2018. I had just miscarried my twins. Technically, I had failed to miscarry them and had to have not one, not two, but three surgical procedures under general anaesthetic to “extract the retained products of conception”. Each time I ended up back in hospital with severe pains or heavy bleeding, the doctors would
  
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• A moment that changed me: My miscarriages were devastating – but an orca gave me comfort and hope

  30-10-2024 07:55 via theguardian.com
  
  How can anyone cope with the loss of their pregnancies? When I watched Tahlequah the whale grieve her calf and go on to have another, it felt like the omen I needed to try againIt was winter 2018. I had just miscarried my twins. Technically, I had failed to miscarry them and had to have not one, not two, but three surgical procedures under general anaesthetic to “extract the retained products of conception”. Each time I ended up back in hospital with severe pains or heavy bleeding, t
  
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• China declares success as its youngest astronauts reach space

  30-10-2024 07:16 via bbc.com
  
  The BBC’s Laura Bicker sees the Shenzhou 19 spacecraft take off in a record year of space exploration.
  
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• Butterflywatch: Gatekeepers spread north to take up residence in Scotland

  30-10-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Widespread in England, it joins other species to have expanded range in recent years due to climate changeIt may have been a fairly awful summer for butterflies but Scotland continues to enjoy some pleasant lepidopteran surprises, thanks to global heating.Its list of resident species increased by one this year when the gatekeeper, never officially recorded north of the border in the past century, was spotted in several locations. Meanwhile, the elusive white-letter hairstreak, which was only rec
  
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• The world needs $700bn a year to restore nature. But where is the money coming from?

  30-10-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Representatives from nearly 200 countriesatthe UN’s Cop16 summit in Colombia have yet to break the deadlock over who pays and how muchExperts agree that the world needs $700bn (£539bn) a year to restore nature – but no one knows where the money is going to come from, and anger is building about rich countries failing to pay their share. With representatives of nearly 200 countries gathered in Colombia for the UN Cop16 biodiversity summit, the question of who will fund conservat
  
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• Budget cuts mean farmers in England ‘must do more with less’

  30-10-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  UK ‘among most nature-depleted countries in the world’ warns environment secretaryFarmers and conservationists will have to “learn to do more with less” ahead of expected deep budget cuts to the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the environment secretary has said.Steve Reed said that Labour would continue to prioritise the restoration of the nature in England, but acknowledged that the chancellor’s budget would be “difficult”. Co
  
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• Record levels of heat-related deaths in 2023 due to climate crisis, report finds

  30-10-2024 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Almost half of global land area saw extreme drought for at least one month, according to Lancet CountdownHeat-related deaths, food insecurity and the spread of infectious diseases caused by the climate crisis have reached record levels, according to a landmark report.The Lancet Countdown’s ninth report on health and the climate breakdown reveals that people across the world face unprecedented threats to their health from the rapidly changing climate. Continue reading...
  
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