Environment news

• Water shortage fears as Labour’s first AI growth zone sited close to new reservoir

  13-01-2025 18:08 via theguardian.com
  
  First datacentre site proposed seven miles from Abingdon reservoir planned for water-stressed south-east EnglandLabour’s first artificial intelligence growth zone will be sited close to the UK’s first new reservoir in 30 years, sparking fears that the AI push will add to the “severe pressure” on water supplies in the area.Keir Starmer announced on Monday that he will hugely increase artificial intelligence capacity and reduce planning restrictions on companies that want t
  
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• Water shortage fears as Labour’s first AI growth zone sited next to new reservoir

  13-01-2025 17:04 via theguardian.com
  First datacentre site proposed seven miles from Abingdon reservoir planned for water-stressed south-east EnglandLabour’s first artificial intelligence growth zone will be sited next to the UK’s first new reservoir in 30 years, sparking fears that the AI push will add to the “severe pressure” on water supplies in the area.Keir Starmer announced on Monday that he will hugely increase artificial intelligence capacity and reduce planning restrictions on companies that want to
  
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• What is happening in Los Angeles is our future | Francine Prose

  13-01-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The news from California is clear, but we don’t want to see it. It’s too confounding, big, complex. But we can sense the dangerWhen I send anxious texts to friends in Los Angeles – friends who have been evacuated or who are waiting to leave , friends escaping a fire zone, wondering if their life’s work has been destroyed, worrying about the smoke’s effect on an asthmatic child – I always begin with the same three words:are you okay?But a continent away, watchi
  
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• ‘It’s ironic’: how climate crisis is driving Trump push on Greenland and Panama

  13-01-2025 16:40 via theguardian.com
  
  What the president-elect calls a ‘giant hoax’ is changing the strategic calculus in the Arctic and for the Panama canalDonald Trump’s desire to seize control of Greenland and the Panama canal is being shaped in part by a force that he has sought to deny even exists – the climate crisis.Last week, Trump ramped up his demands that the United States annex both Greenland and the Panama canal, refusing to rule out economic or even military interventions to take them and threat
  
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• ‘Have some guts’: Sarah Hanson-Young challenges Labor to keep its environmental promises

  13-01-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Greens senator sees climate crisis and environment as the ‘elephant in the room’ for 2025 electionFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Greens are demanding Labor put a moratorium on the destruction of koala habitat and overcome political opponents and mining interests to implement its full suite of promised environment protection laws, in an early attempt to position nature as a federal election issue.&ld
  
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• Just Stop Oil activists spray-paint ‘1.5 is dead’ on Charles Darwin’s grave

  13-01-2025 14:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Two women arrested on suspicion of criminal damage after protest at Westminster Abbey in LondonJust Stop Oil (JSO) supporters have spray-painted “1.5 is dead” on Charles Darwin’s grave after confirmation that last year was the first to breach the key global warming threshold.Two people used chalk paint on the naturalist’s grave in Westminster Abbey, London, at about 9.30am on Monday, the climate protest group said. Continue reading...
  
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• I was in despair about the environmental crisis. Then I volunteered to clean up my local park

  13-01-2025 12:00 via theguardian.com
  ‘Instead of sobbing in front of your computer screen,’ my counsellor said, ‘go out and do something’There’s a pesky crisp wrapper half-sunk in the mud under brambles. Each time I secure it within the jaws of my litter-picker, another piece tears off. I persist, until all the fragments of coloured foil are in my bin liner. Then I move on.I’m volunteering with a group at my local park. They perform a range of tasks, but today – my first time – we&rsq
  
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• UK faces broccoli and cauliflower shortage this spring

  13-01-2025 10:44 via theguardian.com
  
  Growers blame weather challenges in UK and Europe, which Met Office says will become more frequent with climate breakdown Broccoli, cauliflower and other brassicas may be in short supply this spring as the mild autumn and winter has caused the crops to come up early, growers have said.Any shortages will prolong the so-called “hungry gap”, which runs from April to early June, when very few crops are grown in the UK. Continue reading...
  
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• Mystery syndrome killing rainbow lorikeets and flying foxes leaves scientists baffled

  13-01-2025 08:04 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘The animals that don’t die need total nursing care,’ wildlife rescuer says, ahead of a potential spike in cases in coming weeksGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThousands of rainbow lorikeets and hundreds of flying foxes have been hospitalised in Queensland in the past year with a mysterious paralysis that can affect the animals’ ability to fly, swallow and even breathe.Lorikeet paralysis syndrome has struck birds in Queensland and New South Wale
  
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• Country diary: The northern lights have reached us, down in the valley | Susie White

  13-01-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Allendale, Northumberland: This part of Britain is blessed with many dark sky discovery sites, but the aurora is so intense tonight I only have to step outside my door to see itIt’s a calm, clear evening at last after two days of relentless wind and rain. When my son phones to tell me to look outside I’m hoping that I’ll see the northern lights. Piling on layers of warm clothes – the temperature is already dropping – I step out into the noisy dark; when the river is
  
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• Norway on track to be first to go all-electric

  13-01-2025 01:51 via bbc.com
  
  Nine in 10 new cars in the country are now battery-powered, and it aims to hit 100% later this year.
  
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• As the world burns, young Australians are feeling disbelief – and looking for answers | Anjali Sharma

  13-01-2025 01:25 via theguardian.com
  My generation feels trapped in a political system not built for us. Why wouldn’t we be disillusioned?I’m scrolling on TikTok after work when I get a text that would have sent 12-year-old Anjali into a spiral, a frenzy of extreme climate anxiety. The text is from a friend letting me know that it’s official – 2024 is the hottest year on record. Not just that, it’s the first year to exceed 1.5C of warming over preindustrial levels.The news comes as my entire feed is fl
  
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