The South American wetland, which falls within Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, would be vulnerable to biome loss and increased wildfires
‘Losing Noah’s Ark’: Brazil’s plan to turn the Pantanal into waterway threatens world’s biggest wetland
Dozens of scientists are sounding the alarm that carving a commercial waterway through the world’s largest wetlands could spell the “end of an entire biome”, and leave hundreds of thousands of hectares of land to be devastated by wildfires.
The Pantanal wetland – which falls within Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, covering an area almost half the size of Germany – is facing the proposed construction of a commercial waterway, as well as the expansion of industrial farming and spread of intense wildfires. A cohort of 40 scientists say the waterway development represents an existential threat to the ecosystem: reducing the floodplain, increasing the risk of fires and transforming the area into a landscape that could more easily be farmed.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
08/12/2024 - 01:00
08/12/2024 - 00:00
Weather-related claims hit £144m in second quarter of 2024 and total payouts rose by 5% to £1.4bn
Britain’s largest insurance firms have warned that the climate crisis has contributed to driving up insurance payouts to the highest level in seven years, after a sharp rise in damage to households and businesses from weather events.
Figures from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) show that the amount paid out in the three months to the end of June hit £1.4bn, a 5% increase on the first quarter of the year and the highest figure of any quarter since it started collecting the data in 2017.
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08/12/2024 - 00:00
A Thousand Thorns is a project by photographer Deepti Asthana documenting women’s changing aspirations in rural India through the story of two young female forest guards in Rajasthan’s Thar desert. Theirs is a scenario playing out in millions of homes – of the fight for equality and independence in a deeply patriarchal society
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08/11/2024 - 20:17
Coal and gas exports expected to remain roughly at current level until at least 2035 with 4.5% of emissions linked to Australia, report finds
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Australia’s coal and gas exports cause more climate damage than those from any other country bar Russia, according to a new study that argues the country is undermining a global agreement to transition away from fossil fuels.
The analysis, commissioned by the University of New South Wales’ Australian Human Rights Institute, found Australia was the third biggest fossil fuel exporter on an energy basis in 2021, trailing only Russia and the US.
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08/11/2024 - 04:00
Project to study all 11,000 species of butterflies and moths finds ‘two species in the act of being created from one’
The chalkhill blue has some surprising claims to fame. For a start, it is one of the UK’s most beautiful butterflies, as can be seen as they flutter above the grasslands of southern England in summer.
Then there is their close and unusual relationship with ants. Caterpillars of Lysandra coridon – found across Europe – exude a type of honeydew that is milked by ants and provides them with energy. In return, they are given protection in cells below ground especially created for them by the ants. Chalkhill blues thrive as a result, though their numbers are now coming under threat.
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08/10/2024 - 17:14
Controversial mining project is a political fault line in Balkan country over fears about environmental impacts
Thousands hit the streets in Serbia’s capital Belgrade Saturday to protest against the rebooting of a controversial lithium mine set to serve as a vital source to power Europe’s green energy transition.
Before the rally, two leading protest figures said they were briefly detained by security officials who warned that any moves to block roads during the protest would be viewed as illegal.
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08/10/2024 - 11:00
‘Two-tier policing’ claims are nonsense, but government is guilty of ‘two-tier sentencing’, says green energy boss Dale Vince
A Labour donor has called on the government to review a sentencing regime that led to a climate protester being given a longer prison sentence than a Southport rioter who punched a police officer in the face, as he derided what he called “two-tier sentencing”.
Dale Vince, the green energy entrepreneur who has given millions of pounds to Labour, said it was “absurd” that a Just Stop Oil protester received a five-year prison sentence for their role in conspiring to cause gridlock on the M25 while a man pleading guilty to violent disorder received a significantly shorter sentence.
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08/10/2024 - 06:00
Some areas see days of temperatures over 100F, drying plants and fueling wildfires as extreme heat creates deadly conditions
California experienced its hottest month on record in July as grueling heat baked the American west for weeks on end.
The state’s average temperature for the month was 81.7F (27.6C), according to the National Centers for Environmental Information, but some areas endured days of temperatures greater than 100F (about 38C). Several cities broke temperature records during a heatwave in early July – Palm Springs hit 124F on 5 July, while Redding in the state’s far north saw a high of 119F on 6 July.
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08/10/2024 - 06:00
As California sees increasingly devastating fires, Butte county residents lose their insurance – and homes
Kristy and Michael Daneau breathed a deep sigh of relief when they found the home for sale on a heavily wooded lane in northern California’s Butte county five years ago. Everything lined up.
The owner was looking to sell only to survivors of the Camp fire. A few months earlier, the couple and their four daughters had lost everything in the blaze, save for their four dogs. Kristy barely escaped the fast-moving flames.
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08/10/2024 - 03:15
The group says the logging in a state-owned forest in Queensland is taking place less than 3km from a high-density population group of endangered greater gliders. Conservation groups want swathes of St Mary state forest near Maryborough to be included in the Queensland government's proposed Greater Glider Forest park
• After 25 years, logging and bushfires, a greater glider has been spotted in Deongwar state forest
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