Rising demand for exotic pets is pushing many gibbon species to extinction, with their strong family bonds making them especially vulnerable to the brutal trade
It is a cool morning in Thailand’s hilly north, and a wildlife officer sits on the veranda of Omkoi wildlife sanctuary’s office. On her lap is a wide-eyed infant primate dressed in baby clothes. Not unlike a human baby, he kicks and waves excitedly. Most of his dark skin is covered in dense white fur, except for his face and the palms of his hands.
“We call him Chokdee,” the officer says. “It means ‘good luck’.”
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/18/2026 - 05:00
Energy security comes from using local, renewable resources to power, heat and cool communities, as Ukraine is doing
Donald Trump’s unjustified war on Iran and the resulting global fuel crisis is a continuing reminder that true energy security and independence will continue to elude us so long as we remain dependent on fossil fuels.
Whether it’s wars over oil and gas resource access or attacks on fossil fuel power plants and energy grids, this reliance on finite resources only worsens a country’s threat profile. News this month of Russia’s deadly attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Russian drones swarming Ukrainian power stations, and Kyiv running out of time to prepare for another winter of attacks on its energy grid illustrates this urgency.
The US representative Lloyd Doggett serves Texas’s 37th district in the House of Representatives and is a member of the Ukraine caucus and the House sustainable energy and environment coalition. Michael Shank PhD is adjunct faculty at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs, and at George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution
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05/17/2026 - 23:00
Requests for gas connections by operators amount to more than 15 terawatt hours per year, endangering climate targets
More than 100 new datacentres in the UK plan to burn gas to generate electricity, some potentially doing so permanently.
British officials say this is an inevitable consequence of a years-long wait to connect to the National Grid, and raises an “interesting question” about the UK’s climate targets.
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05/17/2026 - 21:24
One must ask why Labor is so comfortable continuing to ignore the wishes of the vast majority of voters
Anthony Albanese’s government swept to power in 2022 and, among many promises made to voters, it firmly committed to end a decade of environmental neglect. Four years later, the federal budget – as well as the newly passed national environmental law reforms – make it abundantly clear that it is failing to deliver on that promise.
This failure is more than just political; it is existential for this country’s remarkable, unique and increasingly imperilled wildlife and ecosystems.
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05/17/2026 - 16:10
Tim Walz, the state’s governor, calls blazes ‘unpredictable and fast-moving’ as dry, windy weather fuels them
Minnesota’s national guard has been activated to help battle wildfires burning in the northern part of the state after the department of natural resources requested additional support.
Governor Tim Walz authorized the deployment by issuing an executive order that declared a peacetime emergency.
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05/17/2026 - 09:56
Humpback stranded on sandbank was unlikely to survive, experts had said, recommending it be left to die in peace
The German authorities have defended their decision to allow a risky rescue attempt of a stranded whale to go ahead, despite experts warning it was “inadvisable” because the animal was hurt and unlikely to survive.
The saga of the whale, known as Timmy, had gripped Germany since the beached humpback was spotted stranded on Timmendorfer beach, a sandbank in shallow waters near the coast, nearly two months ago.
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05/17/2026 - 08:00
China is dominating the energy transition with astonishing result, while fossil fuel fascists in the US try to turn back the clock
“Farewell,” the flag-waving Chinese children chanted to Donald Trump as he strolled along the red carpet back to Air Force One at the end of his summit with Xi Jinping in Beijing.
The US leader claimed he was leaving with a cluster of “fantastic” trade deals to sell US oil, jets and soya beans to China. That has not been confirmed by his smiling host, but one thing was crystal clear from the two days of meetings: the global balance of power is shifting, from the declining petrostate in the west to the rising electrostate in the east.
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05/17/2026 - 07:00
After record losses last year, beekeepers report a warm winter has led to bees ‘waking up earlier’ this year
After a series of record-breaking US heatwaves, the 2026 bee swarm season in North America has started 17 days earlier than last year, pushing beekeepers to adapt to a rapidly shifting season while raising new questions about how honeybees are responding to the climate crisis.
According to a new report published by Swarmed, a tracking network of more than 10,000 beekeepers, focused on safe and ethical honeybee relocation, this year’s unusually early swarm season follows several years of record colony declines worldwide.
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05/17/2026 - 05:00
The 2022 World Cup failed to deliver on its environmental promises. From air travel emissions to heat-related dangers, the 2026 edition will be even worse
Soccer fans are increasingly watching preparations for the 2026 World Cup through their fingers. The most popular sporting event on the planet is awash in controversy, whether it’s the eye-watering ticket prices, the question of Iran’s participation while the president of one of the host countries threatens war crimes against it, or the role that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement may or may not play in policing the event. And yet, lost in the political pyrotechnics is a fiasco that carries as much long-term peril as any: the tournament’s staggering contribution to runaway climate change.
The 2026 World Cup is not only the most politically combustible tournament in modern history, but it is also on track to be the “most polluting” World Cup ever, with total greenhouse gas emissions hitting nearly two times the historical average. Scientists conservatively project that the tournament will generate around 9m tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Air travel comprises approximately 7.7m tons of this carbon budget, and more than four times that of the average for tournaments held between 2010 and 2022. The researchers note that the worst-case upper estimate for air transport is about 13.7m tons of CO2. That may sound bad, but that’s just because World Cup emissions have never been worse.
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05/17/2026 - 03:00
Despite the ban on disposables, waste professionals say the mountain of discarded devices is a £1bn-a-year issue
It is 2pm and Ana, 47, has just started the afternoon shift at the Suez recycling plant near Birmingham city centre, standing beneath a sign reading “Non-ferrous sorting station” with a bucket of vapes in front of her. Sorting and dismantling them is part of her job as a site operative.
Recycling them is not simple. Each bucket holds between 40 and 50 devices, and over the course of a shift, she gets through about half a bucket. Using a hammer, she has to smash each vape open, pry out the batteries and separate each component into a different container.
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