Environment news

• Grieving killer whale who carried calf’s body spotted again with dead baby

  02-01-2025 23:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Experts say sighting of orca in Puget Sound with second deceased calf is ‘devastating’ for ailing populationAn apparently grieving killer whale who swam more than 1,000 miles pushing the body of her dead newborn has lost another calf and is again carrying the body, a development researchers say is a “devastating” loss for the ailing population.The Washington state-based Center for Whale Research said the orca, known as Tahlequah, or J35, was spotted in the Puget Sound are
  
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• ‘Cannot stress enough how proud I am’: How Greater Manchester came together to tackle floods

  02-01-2025 18:02 via theguardian.com
  Emergency services turn focus to recovery efforts after major incident declared on New Year’s Day stood down“Some people say the way your year starts is how the year is going to be, so I’m expecting some adventures, I’ll be like Indiana Jones,” said Alina Abroutkouki.The 40-year-old interior designer spent the first night of the new year sleeping in Didsbury mosque, having been evacuated from her nearby home by boat hours earlier. Continue reading...
  
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• Early phase-out of full hybrid vehicles may be a political risk too far for UK ministers | Nils Pratley

  02-01-2025 17:52 via theguardian.com
  
  Pragmatism will win over purism, unless the government favours early closure for car manufacturersThe main timetable is set: no new petrol and diesel cars will be allowed to be sold in the UK after 2030, and sales of all new hybrids will be forbidden from 2035. But that phasing still leaves open the critical matter – for the automotive industry, and for a couple of manufacturers in particular – of which new hybrids will be allowed to be sold until the last day of 2034.Just the variet
  
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• UK electricity cleanest ever in 2024, with record 58% from low-carbon sources

  02-01-2025 15:43 via theguardian.com
  
  UK has more than halved amount of electricity generated from fossil fuels but gas still had largest share at 28%The UK’s electricity was the cleanest it has ever been in 2024, with wind and solar generation hitting all-time highs, according to a report.The analysis by Carbon Brief found that in the past decade the UK had more than halved electricity generated from coal and gas and doubled its output from renewables. Continue reading...
  
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• Australia’s flying foxes are ‘curious, gentle and intelligent’ – and often misunderstood

  02-01-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Endangered spectacled flying foxes and vulnerable grey-headed flying foxes are ‘astonishing’ animals but misinformation is rife One of the most spectacular sights at Adelaide’s Womadelaide music festival is not on the official lineup.As dusk approaches, thousands of grey-headed flying foxes begin chattering and stretching their wings as they prepare to ascend from their roosts in Botanic Park and set out in search of food. Continue reading...
  
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• Live ones go in paper bags, dead ones in the freezer: the volunteers saving birds that fly into windows

  02-01-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Across Toronto, a team sets out at dawn to rescue migrating birds that have collided with buildings, and keep a record of the thousands each year that don’t make itEvery morning at dawn, a dozen volunteers scour the streets of Toronto picking up small birds. Some days they will find hundreds of them, most already dead or dying. A few they are able to save. Live birds are put in brown paper bags and driven to wildlife recovery centres, while dead birds are put in a large freezer. If no one
  
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• ‘Extraordinary longevity’: great whales can live a lot longer than we thought – if we leave them alone

  02-01-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Bowhead whales may not be the only species that can live to 200 years old. Researchers have found that the industrial hunting of great whales has masked the ability of these underwater giants to also live to great agesIn Moby-Dick, Herman Melville’s epic novel of 1851, the author asks if whales would survive the remorseless human hunt. Yes, he says, as he foresees a future flooded world in which the whale would outlive us and “spout his frothed defiance to the skies”.Moby Dick
  
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• UK's biggest ever dinosaur footprint site unearthed

  02-01-2025 07:04 via bbc.com
  
  About 200 footprints made by dinosaurs 166 million years ago have been unearthed in a quarry in Oxfordshire.
  
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• Weatherwatch: 2025 likely to be another year of high temperatures

  02-01-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Despite Pacific Ocean moving into a La Niña phase, this year is forecast to be one of three warmest years on recordWhat kind of weather lies ahead in 2025? The Met Office’s global forecast suggests it will be one of the three warmest years on record, surpassed only by 2024 and 2023. This is despite the Pacific Ocean moving into a La Niña phase, which normally brings slightly cooler conditions.It will be confirmed officially in the coming days, but 2024 is expected to be the w
  
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• Fig and almond trees thriving in UK thanks to fewer frosts, RHS says

  02-01-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Society to retire plants no longer suited to UK’s changing climate after 14% fewer days of ground frost recordedFig and almond trees are thriving in Britain as a result of fewer frosts, the Royal Horticultural Society has said.The lack of frost, one of the effects of climate breakdown, means plants used to warmer climes have been doing well in RHS gardens. Almond trees from the Mediterranean were planted at Wisley in Surrey several years ago, and without frost this year have fruited well f
  
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• Country diary: A cliff that’s veiled with a silk curtain | Sara Hudston

  02-01-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Isle of Portland, Dorset: This chilly phenomenon, cold to the touch, brings to mind a sci-fi horror film that was shot hereThe frozen waterfall rippled down the cliff face in a silver-purple torrent, like Rapunzel hair. It was a mild, pearl-grey day, the temperature well above freezing, and it wasn’t ice that had arrested the flow but calcification.Decades of steady seepage had veiled the quarried limestone with a thin stalactite curtain. Cold and silky to the touch, its chilly oddness evo
  
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• Each year I insist we visit the same beach. Repetition tricks the mind into thinking a thing will last for ever | Jenny Sinclair

  02-01-2025 01:19 via theguardian.com
  I want to give my kids that overarching sense of a single summer going on all through childhood, a door to a memory they can open any timeMore summer essentialsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastYou never step into the same river twice. But you can step into the same ocean, or so it seems, each January when we take that first swim: ducking our heads under a wave to feel the rush of cold and the sting of salt, shaking like dogs when we emerge, washed clean of the year just
  
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