Report says member states poured $1.34tn into their militaries last year – an increase of $126bn from 2022
As leaders from member countries gather to mark the 75th anniversary of Nato in Washington DC, researchers are warning that their military budgets are eroding the climate, producing an estimated 233m metric tonnes of greenhouse gas, more planet-heating pollution than some entire countries.
“Our research shows that military spending increases greenhouse gas emissions, diverts critical finance from climate action, and consolidates an arms trade that fuels instability during climate breakdown,” says a new report from three international research and advocacy groups, the UK’s Transnational Institute and Tipping Point North South, and the Netherlands’ Stop Wapenhandel.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/09/2024 - 04:00
07/09/2024 - 03:45
Incidents from sites and pipe network increased by 19 last year to 350 amid delays in investment, company says
Thames Water to tap investors for funds as it will run out of cash by next June
Sewage pollution from ageing Thames Water treatment works that have not been upgraded increased last year, causing the company to again fail to meet its legal targets, according to its financial report.
Across the Thames Water area, the number of incidents of pollution from treatment works and the pipe network increased to 350, compared with 331 in 2022. The rise was attributed to delays in investment to create more capacity at many of the company’s 400 ageing sewage treatment works. Chris Weston, Thames Water’s chief executive, said the works could not cope with a 40% increase in rainfall and exceptionally high levels of groundwater.
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07/09/2024 - 03:39
Wildlife authorities are hopeful about a new technique to identify which waterways have crocs without needing to sight them
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DNA testing could be the latest tool to help park rangers track down elusive crocodiles in tropical north Queensland.
Researchers from the University of Canberra have developed a technique that can detect minute amounts of a crocodile’s mitochondrial DNA in water samples.
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07/09/2024 - 02:00
Blackened trees, dead animals and scorched earth – early wildfires have already devastated Brazil’s Pantanal and local people worry they may lose the battle to save them
Perched atop blackened trees, howler monkeys survey the ashes around them. A flock of emus treads, disoriented, in search of water. The skeletons of alligators lie lifeless and charred.
The Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland and one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, is on fire. Huge stretches of land resemble the aftermath of a battle, with thick green shrubbery now a carpet of white ash, and chunks of debris falling from the sky.
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07/09/2024 - 01:47
Activists are convinced a wartime campaign of resistance is the only way to highlight the existing system’s failure to meet the moment
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As pro-Palestinian protesters sparked outrage scaling the roof of Parliament House last week, a few dozen activists at Newcastle were making an equally sharp point – mostly to less fanfare.
Over more than two weeks, campaigners under the Blockade Australia banner have been interrupting trains near the world’s biggest coal port. My colleague Jordyn Beazley reported that by Monday at least 500 train journeys had been cancelled and more than 30 people arrested.
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07/08/2024 - 18:17
Man, 53, and woman, 74, killed by fallen trees and third person drowns amid howling winds and torrential rain
Tropical Storm Beryl made landfall in south-east Texas on Monday with howling winds and torrential rains, causing the deaths of at least three people, closing oil ports, and knocking out power to more than 2.5 million homes and businesses.
Before making landfall in Texas, the storm had already carved a path through the Caribbean as a category 5 hurricane, where it killed 11 people. It continued on to Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula as a category 2, temporarily dropped in intensity to a tropical storm but again strengthened to a hurricane over the weekend.
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07/08/2024 - 14:00
Newly recovered DNA shows the predators share little genetic ancestry with domestic dogs and are descended from ancient animals from China
Scientists have for the first time recovered DNA from the remains of dingoes between 400 and 2,700 years old to find the predator’s population was well established across the Australian continent thousands of years ago.
According to the researchers, modern dingoes share little genetic ancestry with domestic dogs introduced into Australia from Europe but are instead descended from ancient dogs and wolves from China and the Tibetan plateau. Dingoes were closely related to modern New Guinea singing dogs, the research confirmed, with both sharing a common ancestor.
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07/08/2024 - 12:14
This live blog is closed.
Rachel Reeves has finished the speech, in which she confirmed a range of measures to speed up planning. I will post a full summary shortly.
She is now taking questions.
I have repeatedly warned that whoever won the general election would inherit the worst set of circumstances since the second world war.
What I have seen in the past 72 hours has only confirmed that. Our economy has been held back by decisions deferred and decisions ducked. Political self-interest put ahead of the national interest. A government that put party first and country second.
New Treasury analysis I requested over the weekend exposed the opportunities lost from this failure.
Had the UK economy grown at the average rate of OECD economies since 2010, it would have been over £140bn larger.
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07/08/2024 - 11:46
Government urged to enforce more stringent rules amid target to build 1.5m new homes this parliament
Labour must stand firm against special pleading from housebuilders, who are likely to argue against fitting out new homes to stringent green standards, experts have warned.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, laid out sweeping changes to the planning system on Monday in her first speech on reviving economic growth while pursuing the climate goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
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07/08/2024 - 11:07
Neonicotinoid was given emergency clearance under Conservative government in 2023 and 2024
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is being investigated by the environmental watchdog after Conservative ministers authorised a bee-killing pesticide that was banned by the EU.
The investigation into Defra was launched after the campaign group ClientEarth submitted a complaint to the Office for Environmental Protection, which was set up after Brexit to replace the EU’s framework for punishing environmental offences by governments in the bloc. On Monday, the OEP announced it would be investigating the emergency authorisation of a neonicotinoid pesticide in 2023 and 2024.
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