Environment news

• ‘It was a trap’: flood alert came too late for residents of Paiporta, Spain

  31-10-2024 20:56 via theguardian.com
  
  In the town where at least 62 have died, survivors are left with their grief and anger at the lack of official warning of the devastation on its wayAs public buildings across Spain lowered flags to half-mast to mark the first of three days of national mourning, Letícia Cardona Teruel set off with her husband and eight-year-old daughter – their rucksacks packed to the brim – to walk the seven kilometres to Valencia.About 36 hours earlier on Tuesday, they had watched as rivers o
  
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• Alaska governor gives $1m in state funds to Indigenous group backing oil drilling

  31-10-2024 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat is a backer of the controversial Willow oil drilling projectThe administration of Alaska’s Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, awarded at least $1m in state funds to a group claiming to represent a consensus of Indigenous support for new Arctic oil drilling, new research shows.The group, called Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat (VAI), had just months earlier communicated with the governor’s office on ways to counter other Alaska Native groups oppos
  
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• Alaska governor awards $1m in state funds to Indigenous group backing oil drilling

  31-10-2024 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat is a backer of the controversial Willow oil drilling projectThe administration of Alaska’s Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, awarded at least $1m in state funds to a group claiming to represent a consensus of Indigenous support for new Arctic oil drilling, new research shows.The group, called Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat (VAI), had just months earlier communicated with the governor’s office on ways to counter other Alaska Native groups oppos
  
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• Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah’s mother to receive settlement over death linked to air pollution

  31-10-2024 16:57 via theguardian.com
  
  UK government offers undisclosed sum in compensation to Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah for daughter’s untimely deathThe mother of a nine-year-old girl who became the first person in the UK to have air pollution cited on their death certificate will receive an undisclosed settlement from the government in compensation for her daughter’s untimely death.Settling a legal case, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Department for Transport and the Department of H
  
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• Essex car park to be test case for legislation to protect landscapes

  31-10-2024 16:23 via theguardian.com
  
  Campaigners say car park extension at Manningtree station inhibits access to Dedham Vale and threatens habitatsA commuter car park in Essex is to be one of the first test cases of whether the government will enforce new legislation aimed at protecting national parks and landscapes in England.Dedham Vale is a designated “national landscape” on the border of Essex and Suffolk, home to increasingly rare species including hazel dormice and hedgehogs. Within it is Manningtree station, whe
  
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• Rats trained to sniff out smuggled rhino horn and pangolin scales

  31-10-2024 16:09 via theguardian.com
  African giant pouched rats trained to alert their handlers when they find illegally trafficked wildlife productsRats could be the latest weapon deployed in the fight against endangered wildlife trafficking, according to a study of rodents trained to sniff out pangolin scales, rhino horns, elephant tusks and hardwood.Researchers trained eight African giant pouched rats to sniff out the contraband, even when it was hidden among items commonly used to hide trafficked goods, including peanuts, leave
  
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• Green farming budget freeze 'will hit nature work'

  31-10-2024 14:47 via bbc.com
  
  Environmental groups warn that next year's farm payments budget will not be enough to protect nature.
  
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• Never-ending story: rare flower gatherers of Diamantina

  31-10-2024 14:20 via theguardian.com
  
  Gatherers of a rare Brazilian flower find their way of life – and incomes – are under threat. Ana Caroline de Lima, recipient of the Joan Wakelin Bursary, explains whyIn the heart of Minas Gerais, Brazil, lies Diamantina, a city where tradition merges with the vibrant tapestry of nature. Every weekend its main square is transformed by a mesmerising display of flowers, making it appear like a garden in bloom.Diamantina’s main square. Continue reading...
  
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• Concerned about your data use? Here is the carbon footprint of an average day of emails, WhatsApps and more

  31-10-2024 13:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Vast datacentres are being built worldwide, amid growing concerns about the environmental costs. So should we all be considering a data diet – if not complete digital sobriety?Nearly 20 years ago, the British mathematician Clive Humby coined a snappy phrase that has turned into a platitude: “data is the new oil”. He wasn’t wrong. We have an insatiable appetite for data, we can’t stop generating it, and, just like oil, it’s turning out to be bad news for the en
  
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• ‘Cloud-milking’: the zero-energy technique keeping young trees alive

  31-10-2024 13:02 via theguardian.com
  The project that began in the Canary Islands mimics the way leaves capture water droplets from fog in order to produce waterThey call it cloud milking, a zero-energy technique to extract water from fog that is revolutionising the recovery of forests devastated by fire and drought.The idea began as a pilot project in the Canary Islands. The plan was to exploit the moisture-laden “sea of clouds” that hangs over the region in order to aid reforestation, and has since been extended to se
  
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• ‘Not just a museum’: Kenya’s seed bank offers unexpected lifeline for farmers

  31-10-2024 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Set up to conserve traditional seeds, the Genetic Resources Research Institute is now helping smallholders diversify with crops resilient to the rapid changes in climateOn a winding road in the densely forested Kikuyu highlands of south-central Kenya lies a nondescript government building: the Genetic Resources Research Institute. Opened in 1988, during the country’s “green revolution”, this little-known national gene bank was set up to hold and conserve seeds from the traditio
  
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• I’m obsessed with whale poop: ‘It can be neon green, bright red – or even sparkle’

  31-10-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  It may be colourful but if it gets on your clothes you have to throw them away, says biologist Dr Joe Roman, who can’t get enough of the stuff, which is vital to support ocean biodiversityI first encountered whale poop 30 years ago while I was working on a right whale research project. On one of my first days on the water, in the Bay of Fundy, in eastern Canada, we came upon a feeding male right whale with mud on its head – or bonnet – a sign that it had been feeding at the bot
  
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• Alarm grows over ‘disturbing’ lack of progress to save nature at Cop16

  31-10-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Fears raised that biodiversity summit not addressing countries’ failure to meet a single target to stem destruction of natural worldGovernments risk another decade of failure on biodiversity loss, due to the slow implementation of an international agreement to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems, experts have warned.Less than two years ago, the world reached a historic agreement at the Cop15 summit in Montreal to stop the human-caused destruction of life on our planet. The dea
  
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• Country diary: Signs of when this ghost river was alive | Ollie Southall

  31-10-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex: Standing in a surprise bog, I spot water mint and pinch-plant, reminders of this vale’s marshy pastBetween the village I live in, which is built along a low sandstone ridge, and where the land rises again to form the chalk scarp of the South Downs, there is a lowland vale. It is a damp region of rough grazing and ancient woods, of mist and shoe-stealing mud.Often I cross it in a hurry, heading south to Wolstonbury Hill, a nearby summit giving views to Brig
  
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• Love motels and gridlocked talks: all the news from Cop16 – podcast

  31-10-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Biodiversity correspondent Phoebe Weston takes Madeleine Finlay through the news from the UN Cop16 biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia. Countries are wrangling over funding to protect nature and who should profit from the natural resources of the world’s least developed nationsFollow all the news from Cop 16 Continue reading...
  
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• Deadliest weather made worse by climate change - scientists

  31-10-2024 05:27 via bbc.com
  
  Human-caused climate change made recent extreme weather events more intense and more likely, new analysis finds.
  
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