Environment news

• Just Stop Oil protester, 78, released to home detention after fitting tag found

  31-01-2025 20:40 via theguardian.com
  
  Gaie Delap had prison term extended because contractors could not find wrist strap of right sizeA 78-year-old climate protester has been released on home detention curfew just a week after her prison term was extended because government contractors were unable to find the right-sized tag for her wrist.Gaie Delap, 78, a retired teacher and Just Stop Oil protester, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for her participation in a climate protest on the M25 in 2022 and was released last November unde
  
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• ‘Perfect rat storm’: urban rodent numbers soar as the climate heats, study finds

  31-01-2025 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Sharp rise in population in 11 of 16 cities expected to continue as rising temperatures make it easier for the animals to breed, say researchersRat numbers are soaring in cities as global temperatures warm, research shows.Washington DC, San Francisco, Toronto, New York City and Amsterdam had the greatest increase in these rodents, according to the study, which looked at data from 16 cities globally. Eleven of the cities showed “significant increasing trends in rat numbers”, said the
  
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• ‘We’d go absolutely nuts’: PM warned of Labour fight if he backs huge oilfield

  31-01-2025 18:59 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: MPs and ministers say they would oppose Starmer if he tries to approve Rosebank developmentSenior Labour figures are warning of a serious fight if Keir Starmer tries to give the go-ahead to a giant new oilfield off Shetland later this year.MPs and ministers have told the Guardian they are prepared to oppose the UK prime minister should he try and give final consent to the Rosebank development, which is Britain’s biggest untapped oilfield. Continue reading...
  
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• Britain’s favourite fish at risk of wipeout within decades, predicts report

  31-01-2025 15:58 via theguardian.com
  Brown trout unlikely to survive in most rivers at height of summer by 2080, says Environment AgencyIt has been native to Britain for thousands of years and was heralded as the national fish on the BBC’s Springwatch, but a government report suggests the brown trout risks being wiped out in large parts of England within decades.The first national temperature projections for English rivers by the Environment Agency forecasts that by 2080 the water will be too warm almost everywhere in England
  
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• Farmland in England to be reduced by more than 10% under government plans

  31-01-2025 15:08 via theguardian.com
  
  Grassland for rearing livestock faces largest reduction as part of effort to cut meat consumptionFarmland in England will be reduced by more than 10% by 2050 under government plans, with less meat produced and eaten by the country’s citizens.The environment secretary, Steve Reed, on Friday launched the government’s blueprint for land use change to balance the need to build infrastructure and meet nature and carbon targets. Continue reading...
  
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• Trump plots healthier America but deregulation likely to feature on menu

  31-01-2025 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  President’s cabinet picks suggest help for big companies and regulatory rollbacks will take precedence in food policyTrump will change the face of US food policy. These are the players to watchWhen Robert F Kennedy Jr. suspended his campaign for the presidency in August 2024, throwing his support behind Donald Trump, he promised to continue fighting to “make America healthy again”. Kennedy’s criticism of ultra-processed foods and big food companies became a central featur
  
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• More carrot, less stick: how meat-loving Danes were sold a plant-led world first

  31-01-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Scheme backed by €170m fund crucial to getting agreement from farmers, politicians and environmental groups“Plant-based foods are the future.” That is not a statement you would expect from a right-wing farming minister in a major meat-producing nation. Denmark produces more meat per capita than any other country in the world, with its 6 million people far outnumbered by its 30 million pigs, and it has a big dairy industry too. Yet this is how Jacob Jensen, from the Liberal party
  
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• ‘Insanely tasty green food’: how the meaty Danes embraced a world-first plant-based plan

  31-01-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Agreement between farmers, politicians and environmental groups led to a €170m action fund for plant based food“Plant-based foods are the future.” That is not a statement you would expect from a right-wing farming minister in a major meat-producing nation. Denmark produces more meat per capita than any other country in the world, with its 6 million people far outnumbered by its 30 million pigs, and it has a big dairy industry too. Yet this is how Jacob Jensen, from the Liberal p
  
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• Weather tracker: Elvis shakes Madagascar after Europe’s triple threat

  31-01-2025 11:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Low pressure strengthens to tropical cyclone status in Indian Ocean, while European windstorm season rages onA compact and stationary area of low pressure brought a sustained period of heavy rain to southern parts of Madagascar this week, with weather stations at Taolagnaro and Toliara recording five-day rainfall totals of 178mm and 196mm respectively, with a peak 24-hour total of 93mm at Toliara.This area of low pressure strengthened to tropical cyclone status on Tuesday and was given the name
  
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• Week in wildlife in pictures: a new shrew, itchy deer and tortoises on rafts

  31-01-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• I’m a Labour MP – but the government’s ‘growth’ mission reeks of panic | Clive Lewis

  31-01-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  The decision to expand Heathrow is just the latest evidence that my party is chasing policies that serve profit, not peopleChancellor Rachel Reeves’s recent “big growth agenda” speech wasn’t just the expression of a vision for the economy. It was also a warning shot to wavering Labour MPs. The message was blunt: get on board with the government’s economic strategy or step aside. Growth, we were told, is the non-negotiable mission.This was not a sudden shift but a re
  
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• From missing goats to health tips: how a female-run radio station is giving rural India a voice

  31-01-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  For nearly two decades, ‘General’ Narsamma and her team at Sangham Radio have honed their craft, learning every aspect of broadcasting, including fixing the radio mast and interview techniquesWords and photographs by Uday NarayananAs twilight settles over Sangareddy district in the southern Indian state of Telangana, the airwaves crackle to life. It is the voice of Masanagari Narsamma, a 45-year-old Dalit woman, who has spent the last two decades transforming the lives of women, farm
  
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• Butterflywatch: The tactics different species use to survive winter in Britain

  31-01-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Strategies vary from hibernating as adult butterflies to forming a chrysalis – or by not being in the country at allSurviving winter is the ultimate challenge for the 60 butterfly species that make their living in Britain.Different species use different tactics. The riskiest, and therefore chosen by the fewest, is to hibernate as adult butterflies. Only five species choose this path and they favour cryptic undersides – so they disappear from view when their wings are closed. Continue
  
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• Stick nation! Why do 3 million people – including me and my kids – love stick reviews?

  31-01-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The internet’s go-to gathering place for those who rate and revere sticks is big and growing fast. The appeal is simple ...The first stick was small, and shaped like a revolver.It was late summer 2023 and two friends, Boone Hogg and Logan Jugler, both 31, were on a late summer hike heading towards Delicate Arch, a 16m red rock formation in Utah’s Arches national park, when Jugler spotted it on the ground. He picked it up and began rating its attributes – colour, shape, flexibil
  
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• Farmers in bird flu 'panic' call for UK vaccine plan

  31-01-2025 01:48 via bbc.com
  
  Vaccinating poultry against bird flu is still not allowed in the UK despite a rise in farm outbreaks.
  
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