Next government urged to have a proper plan for food security, as UK’s climate becomes more unpredictable
UK fruit and vegetable production has plummeted as farms have been hit by extreme weather.
The country suffered the wettest 18 months since records began across the 2023-24 growing year, leaving soil waterlogged and some farms totally underwater. The impact on harvests has been disastrous. Data from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs shows that year-on-year vegetable yields decreased by 4.9% to 2.2m tonnes in 2023, and the production volumes of fruit decreased by 12% to 585,000 tonnes.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/03/2024 - 06:28
07/03/2024 - 06:21
Homes flattened, apocalyptic scenes and at least four dead as St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada try to recover
This should have been a week of celebration in the Caribbean country of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). The annual Vincy Mas carnival, which attracts thousands of tourists, had advertised a packed schedule of costume parades, soca competitions, and beauty pageants.
Instead, the Vincentian population is reeling from what the country’s prime minister has described as the “utter devastation” wrought by Hurricane Beryl, which ravaged the multi-island country and its eastern Caribbean neighbour Grenada.
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07/03/2024 - 06:00
Analysis shows hippos get all four feet off the ground at once up to 15% of the time when at full pelt
It takes a scientific mind to see the grunting hulk of a hippopotamus and wonder whether, given sufficient motivation, such an improbable beast might ever become airborne.
And so to researchers at the Royal Veterinary College in North Mymms, Hertfordshire, whose painstaking examination of footage of the creatures revealed that when the hefty herbivores reach top speed they do indeed take off.
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07/03/2024 - 05:00
The ex-president is ranting about low water pressure and attacking mundane rules and technologies – and Republicans in Congress are now following his lead
When Donald Trump embarked upon a lengthy complaint at a recent rally about how long it takes to wash his “beautiful luxuriant hair” due to his shower’s low water pressure, he highlighted the expanding assault he and Republicans are launching against even the most obscure environmental policies – a push that’s starting to influence voters.
In his bid to return to the White House, Trump has branded Joe Biden’s attempt to advance electric cars in the US “lunacy”, claiming such vehicles do not work in the cold and that their supporters should “rot in hell”. He’s called offshore wind turbines “horrible”, falsely linking them to the death of whales, while promising to scrap incentives for both wind and electric cars.
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07/03/2024 - 01:00
Experts believe songbird is suffering from Usutu virus, first detected in UK in 2020
Beloved by Shakespeare and the Beatles, the blackbird and its sweet song have captured the imagination of Britons for centuries.
But now the songbird is facing decline, and the British public has been asked to contribute to a survey by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) to find out why.
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07/02/2024 - 18:43
The fire at Anglo American’s Grosvenor coalmine in Moranbah broke out after methane ignited
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Conservation groups say a fire that has been burning since Saturday at an underground coalmine is Queensland is an “environmental disaster” that highlights the risks of methane gas to workers, community health and the climate.
The fire at Anglo American’s Grosvenor coalmine in Moranbah broke out after methane ignited on the longwall coalface. It was still burning on Tuesday.
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07/02/2024 - 15:20
Tech giant’s goal of reducing climate footprint at risk as it grows increasingly reliant on energy-hungry data centres
Google’s goal of reducing its climate footprint is in jeopardy as it relies on more and more energy-hungry data centres to power its new artificial intelligence products. The tech giant revealed Tuesday that its greenhouse gas emissions have climbed 48% over the past five years.
Google said electricity consumption by data centres and supply chain emissions were the primary cause of the increase. It also revealed in its annual environmental report that its emissions in 2023 had risen 13% compared with the previous year, hitting 14.3m metric tons.
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07/02/2024 - 12:55
Scientists have taken on the daunting challenge of mapping all the chemicals around us. They take inventory of the available science and conclude that currently a real pro-active chemical management is not feasible. To really get a grip on the vast and expanding chemical universe, they advocate the use of machine learning and AI, complementing existing strategies for detecting and identifying all molecules we are exposed to.
07/02/2024 - 11:00
The season to tap trees is now earlier and longer, but new processes and generations are helping the industry thrive
On a warm May Monday, more than three dozen high school students took to the forest behind a former dairy barn at Vermont State University in Randolph.
In teams of four, they ran blue plastic tubing from tree to tree, racing to connect the tubes across three trees in 30 minutes. One student leaned back and pulled it taut with his body weight while another secured tube to tree. Quickly, they dashed to the next in what appears to be a twisted tug-of-war.
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07/02/2024 - 10:55
Technical difficulties blamed for new blow to firm’s sustainable energy plans
Shell has paused the construction of one of Europe’s largest biofuel plants which was expected to convert waste into green jet fuel and biodiesel by the end of the decade.
The oil company said on Tuesday it would “temporarily pause” work on one of its biggest energy transition projects to address the technical difficulties that have delayed its progress so far.
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