Environment news

• Average Briton causes 23 times more CO2 on Christmas Day, study reveals

  24-12-2024 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Campaigners say consumption such as travel, gifts and food are destroying planet and the meaning of ChristmasWhether out of poverty or virtue, many of us spend much of the year reining in our appetites to save our pennies and our health. But at Christmas many of us put our worries aside and go wild in an orgy of lavish gifting, extensive travel and a gluttonous feeding frenzy.This carnival of consumption has a cost: not just to our wallets and our waistlines, but also to the climate. Continue re
  
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• Single-use plastic will soon be banned in Nigeria – but is the country ready?

  24-12-2024 15:00 via theguardian.com
  With restrictions due next month, food vendors are still using such plastics and some traders have not heard of banLabake Ajiboye-Richard, the founder of a Lagos-based sustainability consultancy, was driving in Nigeria’s most populous city earlier this month when she saw someone throwing rubbish out of their car window.“I was so shocked to see that in 2024,” she said. “If you’re throwing something on the road, what are you doing in your home? What are you doing in y
  
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• ‘We need to be prepared’: China adapts to era of extreme flooding

  24-12-2024 13:05 via theguardian.com
  While some residents take to building houses in trees, officials recognise need for national response to climate disastersEvery summer, Dongting Hu, China’s second-largest freshwater lake, swells in size as flood water from the Yangtze River flows into its borders. Dams and dikes are erected around the lake’s edges to protect against flooding. But this year, not for the first time, they were overwhelmed.For three days in early July, more than 800 rescue workers in Hunan province scra
  
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• Spacecraft attempts closest-ever approach to Sun

  24-12-2024 12:25 via bbc.com
  
  The hope is the probe could help us to better understand how the Sun works.
  
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• Shropshire Wildlife Trust raising funds to buy 50-hectare nature-rich site

  24-12-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Betchcott Hill has glorious views across the county and a mix of habitats home to curlew, cuckoo and lapwingOne of the most scenic and nature-rich spots in western England could be protected for ever in a boost for the curlew, cuckoo, lapwing and snipe that nest there.Betchcott Hill has views across much of the county and its mix of grassland, wet flushes, woodland and heath sings with the calls of endangered birds in spring. Continue reading...
  
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• Shropshire Wildlife Trust raising funds to buy 50-acre nature-rich site

  24-12-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Betchcott Hill has glorious views across the county and a mix of habitats home to curlew, cuckoo and lapwingOne of the most scenic and nature-rich spots in western England could be protected for ever in a boost for the curlew, cuckoo, lapwing and snipe that nest there.Betchcott Hill has views across much of the county and its mix of grassland, wet flushes, woodland and heath sings with the calls of endangered birds in spring. Continue reading...
  
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• Skiing, wool baubles, ice-cream: how Antarctic scientists celebrate Christmas

  24-12-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  From the Flask glacier to King George Island, intrepid researchers expect good cheer, snow and penguinsMany of us will not get a white Christmas this year, but a group of scientists are guaranteed one while carrying out research on the Antarctic peninsula.While ice and good cheer are expected, their yuletide activities will be very different from those back home. Dr Kate Winter, of Northumbria University, and colleagues will be deploying instruments on Flask glacier to study the way that meltwat
  
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• Brazil’s mysterious ‘man of the hole’ is dead. Should his land remain protected?

  24-12-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  The death of Tanaru, the last member of an uncontacted group in the Amazon, raises questions about ethnic cleansing of Indigenous people, justice and the future of ancestral landsRead more in this seriesFor at least 26 years a man known as Tanaru lived alone in a small forest in the south-western Brazilian Amazon, moving around his territory, building several houses, planting crops and hunting. He also dug large, mysterious holes inside his homes.When a team from the National Indigenous Peoples
  
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• The best of the long read in 2024

  24-12-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Our 20 favourite pieces of in-depth reporting, essays and profiles from the yearNicholas Saunders was a counterculture pioneer with an endless stream of quixotic schemes and a yearning to spread knowledge – but his true legacy is a total remaking of the way Britain eatsSign up to the long read weekly email here, and find our podcasts hereShow your support for the Guardian’s open, independent journalism in 2024 and beyond, including the long read Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: The moon is as high as it can ever get here | Amy-Jane Beer

  24-12-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Aldro, North Yorkshire: The ‘major lunar standstill’ only happens every 18.6 years, and once upon a time it would have been an unavoidable eventThere’s a place a short drive from home where I’m often drawn to watch the sunset. It’s been special for thousands of years – a high point on a pre-Roman trade route and a gateway to the chalklands of the Yorkshire wolds. The area is thick with prehistoric archaeology, including mounds, cursuses and earthworks.Her
  
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• Dissecting the world’s rarest whale – in pictures

  24-12-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Conservationists and scientists in New Zealand were astonished to find the world’s rarest whale washed ashore in South Island in July. As only the seventh spade-toothed whale identified, and with none ever seen alive, this month saw the first dissection of a complete specimen Continue reading...
  
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• Northern Lights: The aurora that dazzled us in 2024

  24-12-2024 04:20 via bbc.com
  
  There has been lots of aurora activity seen in the UK this year and there is likely to be even more in the coming year.
  
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