Environment news

• Brazil's Bolsonaro would unleash a war on the environment | Fabiano Maisonnave

  09-10-2018 12:32 via theguardian.com
  Threats to the Amazon and its people and an end to the Paris agreement are among the grim promises of the far-right presidential hopeful, reports Climate HomeNo more Paris agreement. No more ministry of environment. A paved highway cutting through the Amazon.Not only that. Indigenous territories opened to mining. Relaxed environmental law enforcement and licensing. International NGOs, such as Greenpeace and WWF, banned from the country. A strong alliance with the beef lobby. Continue reading...
  
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• Eagles shifting flight paths to avoid Ukraine conflict, scientists find

  20-05-2024 17:48 via theguardian.com
  
  Vulnerable birds deviating from migratory routes by up to 155 miles, which could affect breedingEagles that have migratory routes through Ukraine have shifted their flight paths to avoid areas affected by the conflict, researchers have found.GPS data has revealed that greater spotted eagles not only made large detours after the invasion began, but also curtailed pitstops to rest and refuel, or avoided making them altogether. Continue reading...
  
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• Microplastics found in every human testicle in study

  20-05-2024 16:34 via theguardian.com
  
  Scientists say discovery may be linked to decades-long decline in sperm counts in men around the worldMicroplastics have been found in human testicles, with researchers saying the discovery might be linked to declining sperm counts in men.The scientists tested 23 human testes, as well as 47 testes from pet dogs. They found microplastic pollution in every sample. Continue reading...
  
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• I invented a pedal-powered home office. Now I exercise – and save energy – at my desk

  20-05-2024 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Read more from the DIY Climate Changers, a new series on everyday people’s creative solutions to the climate crisisJim Gregory, 59, loves to cycle. More than a decade before the work-from-home revolution, the Iowa business owner was grappling with a conundrum now faced by many: how to stay active while spending so much of his day at the computer.Jim wondered if he could combine the joy of cycling with a desire to reduce his energy consumption. Thus was born the PedalPC, a machine built fro
  
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• Fish deaths in England’s rivers rise tenfold in four years

  20-05-2024 15:08 via theguardian.com
  
  More than 216,000 fish died in 2022-2023, when England recorded a 54% increase in sewage spillsMass deaths of fish in England’s rivers have increased almost tenfold since 2020, with fears sewage pollution is exterminating life in the country’s waterways.Environment Agency (EA) data from the past four years shows an alarming rise in the number of fish deaths linked to sewage pollution, with figures escalating from 26,690 in 2020-2021 to 216,135 in 2023-2024. Continue reading...
  
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• Britain’s public parks are a green lifeline – stop fencing them off for the summer | Rebecca Tamás

  20-05-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  These spaces are crucial for our wellbeing, but cash-strapped councils are being forced to treat them as revenue earnersMy local green space, Brockwell Park in Brixton and Herne Hill, south London, is an oasis of calm in the busy city. Friends catch up in the walled garden, where wisteria trails over pillars and roses and bluebells explode from the earth. In the community garden, local people work together to grow vegetables and run sessions to connect nature-deprived children to the land.In the
  
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• The Bezos Earth fund has pumped billions into climate and nature projects. So why are experts uneasy?

  20-05-2024 09:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Jeff Bezos’s $10bn climate and biodiversity fund has garnered glittering prizes, but concerns have been voiced over the influence it can buy – and its interest in carbon offsetsLate last month, the coronation of Jeff Bezos and his partner Lauren Sánchez as environmental royalty was complete. At Conservation International’s glitzy annual gala in New York, with Harrison Ford, Jacinda Ardern and Shailene Woodley looking on, the couple were given the global visionary award f
  
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• ‘Free Bella’: campaigners fight to save lonely beluga whale from Seoul mall

  20-05-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Five years after her last companion died and the aquarium’s owner pledged to free her, Bella still languishes in a tiny tank amid shopsIn the heart of Seoul, amid the luxury shops at the foot of the world’s sixth-tallest skyscraper, a lone beluga whale named Bella swims aimlessly in a tiny, lifeless tank, where she has been trapped for a decade.Her plight is urgent, with campaigners racing to rescue her from the bare tank in a glitzy shopping centre in South Korea’s capital bef
  
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• Scotland’s vulnerable marine life not properly protected, campaigners warn

  20-05-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Scottish government accused of missing deadlines to take action on overfishing and effects of climate breakdownFragile and damaged marine life around Scotland’s coasts is not being properly protected because ministers in Edinburgh have broken their promises, environment campaigners have warned.Prominent charities including the Marine Conservation Society and the National Trust for Scotland accuse the Scottish government of repeatedly missing its deadlines to protect vulnerable marine life
  
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• Country diary: How extraordinary to see with an insect’s eye | Kate Blincoe

  20-05-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: Algae is red, nettles are blue – this is all perfectly normal for creatures who, unlike humans, can see biofluorescenceIt was a long time coming, but spring is here at the farm. The swallows are back, the annual bluebell open day completed, and the infertile but broody goose is tending her surrogate goslings.Now, as night falls, I gather with a group of people for a walk with a difference. We’re handed ultraviolet torches. I switch mine on and I’m su
  
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• The Guardian view on net zero: a bank-led green transition won’t work for Britain | Editorial

  19-05-2024 18:30 via theguardian.com
  
  A state industrial strategy is needed to reduce carbon output, produce cleaner growth and redistribute jobs around the UKTheresa May and Boris Johnson both argued for levelling up and for a state-supported green transition undergirded by an industrial strategy. Neither delivered and their successor, Rishi Sunak, has repudiated their legacy as prime minister. He looks to the City to deliver growth, with banks determining the rate of investment to meet the challenge of the climate emergency. This
  
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• Wealthy residents of Chicago may live 30 years longer than poorer ones. Can a new mayor help close the gap?

  19-05-2024 18:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Brandon Johnson promised to tackle the city’s legacy of environmental racism, with communities of color facing disproportionate climate risks On the campaign trail, Brandon Johnson often talked about the asthma he suffered growing up just west of Chicago, connecting it to industrial pollution.“For too long our communities have been seen as dumping grounds for waste and materials that no one seems to know what to do with,” the then mayoral candidate said at an event in the major
  
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• Can Chicago’s mayor tackle environmental racism in one of the most segregated US cities?

  19-05-2024 18:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Brandon Johnson promised to address the city’s longstanding inequities – advocates want to make the most of the momentOn the campaign trail, Brandon Johnson often talked about the asthma he suffered growing up just west of Chicago, connecting it to industrial pollution.“For too long our communities have been seen as dumping grounds for waste and materials that no one seems to know what to do with,” the then mayoral candidate said at an event in the majority-Hispanic neigh
  
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• Ships in some UK port cities create more air pollution than cars

  19-05-2024 17:33 via theguardian.com
  
  Milford Haven, Southampton and Immingham top the list for emissions of gases and particulatesShips calling at the UK’s most-polluted ports produce more nitrogen oxides than all the cars registered in the same cities or regions, analysis has shown.A report from Transport & Environment (T&E) said that ships were continuing to discharge huge quantities of air pollutants at ports, with Milford Haven, Southampton and Immingham topping the list for emissions of harmful sulphur oxides and
  
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• Why are bodies of water so calming?

  19-05-2024 15:01 via theguardian.com
  
  The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsWhy are bodies of water so calming? In my experience, this is true whether they are placid or tempestuous. Mary Vogel, VancouverPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to [email protected]. A selection will be published next Sunday. Continue reading...
  
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• Young pigeon fanciers: meet the new kids on the flock

  19-05-2024 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Pigeons are friendly, acrobatic and affordable, and these days they are winning the hearts of more and more youthful pigeoneersWhen Boris the fantail arrived in Callum Percy’s life in 2020, the 29-year-old trainee teacher was immediately smitten. Boris had been discovered by a family friend in a dishevelled state after what looked like a run-in with a sparrow hawk, its blond-white tail as fluffy as a cumulus cloud.
  “We called him Boris after the prime minister as his feathers were al
  
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• UK rail faces fight to stay on track as climate crisis erodes routes

  19-05-2024 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Britain’s railways are spending billions on bolstering the tracks against geological movements caused by extreme weather. But technology and new infrastructure will not save every serviceUnder the chalk cliffs east of Folkestone sits the Warren, a coastal wilderness largely owned by the railway, hosting a nature trail for walkers, as well as the Victorian rail line that runs on to Dover.It is also, problematically for Network Rail, an active landslide. “Our monitoring here,” sa
  
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• Vampire finches and deadly tree snakes: how birds went worldwide – and their battles for survival

  19-05-2024 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A new exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London includes ‘tragic’ tales of species wiped out from their natural habitatsDouglas Russell, a senior curator at London’s Natural History Museum, was examining a collection of nests gathered on the island of Guam when he made an unsettling discovery.“The nests had been picked up more than 100 years ago, and I was curating them with the aim of adding them to the museum’s main collection. They turned out to be one o
  
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• Eats shoots and leaves: the problems with pests

  19-05-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The flowers are blooming and everyone’s loving the first signs of warmer weather in the garden, especially the birds and slugsGardening ups and downs! One warmer May morning I arrive with seeds for sowing but find something’s eaten all but one of the baby pea plants. I feel almost tearful, and fear for the survivor.I sow more seed and scatter the soil with organic slug pellets, guilt fighting anger. The climbing French beans haven’t yet raised their heads. Does everything seem
  
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• Burnouts and boggings: the idyllic Queensland island ‘hammered’ by four-wheel-drives

  18-05-2024 22:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Is it ‘just some bad eggs’ or do authorities need to impose restrictions to protect Bribie Island’s wildlife and restore peace?Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastJacqui Fitzgerald bought her home in the seaside village of Woorim two years ago, seeking a peaceful lifestyle.She soon discovered it would be anything but. Fitzgerald is on the frontline of Bribie Island’s rapid growth in tourism. Her home borders the entrance to the nationa
  
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• ‘Clean water is a basic right’: protesters against sewage in seas and rivers gather across the UK

  18-05-2024 19:16 via theguardian.com
  
  Surfers and families vent their frustration with water companies after more news of poisoned drinking water and polluted lakes“Cut the crap” and “Fishes not faeces” read some of the many colourful slogans at Gyllyngvase Beach in Falmouth where hundreds of protesters gathered on Saturday to demand action over the scourge of sewage pollution in British waterways.Wearing fancy dress and waving inflated plastic poops, they paddled into the bay on surfboards, kayaks and standu
  
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• Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ ubiquitous in Great Lakes basin, study finds

  18-05-2024 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  PFAS chemicals present in air, rain, atmosphere and water in basin, which holds nearly 95% of US freshwaterToxic PFAS “forever chemicals” are ubiquitous in the Great Lakes basin’s air, rain, atmosphere and water, new peer-reviewed research shows.The first-of-its-kind, comprehensive picture of PFAS levels for the basin, which holds nearly 95% of the nation’s freshwater, also reveals that precipitation is probably a major contributor to the lakes’ contamination. Conti
  
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• Glamping on the go: a wild ride through Cumbria in a camper truck

  18-05-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  TV presenter and naturalist Steve Backshall finds a camper truck the ideal way to give children an outdoors experience in untamed parts of northern EnglandCamping trips with a young family can be thoroughly challenging, especially in the UK, when the weather often skips from sunshine to deluge in the blink of an eye. My extra challenge is that my wife, Helen, can’t join us for our Easter break (she’s away training for her fourth Olympic Games – reasonable excuse). My three kids
  
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• Country diary: The air is rich with post-dawn birdsong | Jennifer Jones

  18-05-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Halewood Park Triangle, Liverpool: Formed by train lines past and present, this suburban spot is rich with natureEarly on a calm May morning I am in a triangle: an isosceles triangle to be precise, with two equal sides and a shorter base. This is Halewood Park Triangle, south Merseyside: a wedgeland. The Triangle was forged by 19th-century developments in the railways, its base marking the main Liverpool-Manchester line, while the east and west arms were branch lines carrying passengers and frei
  
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• Martin Rowson on climate change, and the price of olive oil – cartoon

  17-05-2024 17:10 via theguardian.com
  
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• Think before you click – and three other ways to reduce your digital carbon footprint | Koren Helbig

  17-05-2024 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The invisible downside to our online lives is the data stored at giant energy-guzzling datacentres It’s been called “the largest coal-powered machine on Earth” – and most of us use it countless times a day.The internet and its associated digital industry are estimated to produce about the same emissions annually as aviation. But we barely think about pollution while snapping 16 duplicate photos of our pets, which are immediately uploaded to the cloud. Continue reading...
  
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• A kangaroo, a possum and a bushrat walk into a burrow: research finds wombat homes are the supermarkets of the forest

  17-05-2024 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Scientist discovers a cast of recurring characters using burrows in the aftermath of bushfire, after sifting through more than 700,000 imagesFirst came a picture of an inquisitive red-necked wallaby, then an image of a bare-nosed wombat, followed by a couple of shots of the wombat’s burrow with nothing else in the frame.By the time research scientist Grant Linley had looked through a further 746,670 images, he had seen 48 different species visiting the 28 wombat burrows that he had trained
  
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• Cop29 at a crossroads in Azerbaijan with focus on climate finance

  17-05-2024 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Fossil-fuel dependent country hopes to provide bridge between wealthy global north and poor south at November gatheringOil is inescapable in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The smell of it greets the visitor on arrival and from the shores of the Caspian Sea on which the city is built the tankers are eternally visible. Flares from refineries near the centre light up the night sky, and you do not have to travel far to see fields of “nodding donkeys”, small piston pump oil wells about
  
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• High levels of weedkiller found in more than half sperm samples, study finds

  17-05-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Glyphosate found in samples from French infertility clinic raising questions about controversial chemical’s impact on fertilityMore than 55% of sperm samples from a French infertility clinic contained high levels of glyphosate, the world’s most common weedkiller, raising further questions about the chemical’s impact on reproductive health and overall safety, a new study found.The new research also found evidence of impacts on DNA and a correlation between glyphosate levels and
  
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• High levels of weedkiller found in more than half of sperm samples, study finds

  17-05-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Glyphosate found in samples from French infertility clinic raising questions about controversial chemical’s impact on fertilityMore than 55% of sperm samples from a French infertility clinic contained high levels of glyphosate, the world’s most common weedkiller, raising further questions about the chemical’s impact on reproductive health and overall safety, a new study found.The new research also found evidence of impacts on DNA and a correlation between glyphosate levels and
  
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