Researchers find extreme heat four times more likely than at turn of millennium and urge reduction in fossil fuels
The deadly heatwave that scorched large swaths of Mexico, Central America and the southern US in recent weeks was made 35 times more likely due to human-induced global heating, according to research by leading climate scientists from World Weather Attribution (WWA).
Tens of millions of people have endured dangerous daytime and nighttime temperatures as a heat dome engulfed Mexico, and the large, lingering zone of high pressure stretched north to Texas, Arizona and Nevada and south over Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
06/20/2024 - 02:00
06/20/2024 - 00:00
Only two countries provide fair amount to compensate lower-income nations for biodiversity loss, with most paying less than half what they should, says ODI
The UK, Canada, New Zealand, Italy and Spain are among the rich countries contributing less than half their fair share of nature finance to poor countries, a new report has found.
Developed nations have agreed to collectively contribute a minimum of $20bn annually for nature restoration in low and middle-income countries by 2025. This money is in addition to the $100bn agreed for climate finance.
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06/19/2024 - 20:16
Environmentalists hail decision to end practice in five years but aquaculture industry warns of 6,000 jobs at risk
Canada will ban open-net pen salmon farming in British Columbia coastal waters in five years, the government has announced, a decision that has been welcomed by environmental groups but opposed by the aquaculture industry.
The Liberal government made the decision in 2019 to transition to closed containment technologies to protect declining wild Pacific salmon populations.
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06/19/2024 - 20:00
Peter Dutton says renewable energy is too expensive – and unveils a plan to switch to nuclear, which the CSIRO says will cost 50% more than wind or solar
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Whenever Australians think about the rising cost of living, the Coalition wants them to link any pain in their wallets to the rollout of renewable energy and the government’s climate targets.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, this week described the government’s “renewables-only policy” as a “wrecking ball through the Australian economy” and said families “know it because it’s harder in their own budgets”.
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06/19/2024 - 13:35
Some areas of the Amazon rainforest are more resilient to drought than others, new research shows. But if not managed carefully, we could 'threaten the integrity of the whole system,' researchers say.
06/19/2024 - 12:42
Interior department says dams killed off salmon, inundated villages and burial grounds, and spirited away tribes’ wealth
The US government, in a report published on Tuesday, acknowledged for the first time the harms that federal dams have inflicted on Native American tribes in the US Pacific north-west.
The report by the interior department details the “historic, ongoing and cumulative impacts of federal Columbia River dams on Columbia River Basin Tribes”, including how dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers have devastated salmon runs, inundated villages and burial grounds, and deprived tribal members of the ability to exercise traditional ways of life.
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06/19/2024 - 09:37
Two people have been arrested after Just Stop Oil activists sprayed orange powder paint over Stonehenge. Members of the public tried to stop the incident and a visitor managed to wrestle a spray can from one of the protesters. According to Wiltshire police, two people have been arrested. The prime minister condemned the incident, saying: 'This is a disgraceful act of vandalism to one of the UK's and the world's oldest and most important monuments.'. Just Stop Oil says it took the action to demand the incoming government sign up to a legally binding treaty to phase out fossil fuels by 2030
Stonehenge sprayed in orange powder paint by Just Stop Oil activists
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06/19/2024 - 09:04
The photographer Tamsyn Warde explores spaces in which children play in Hampshire, UK, examining how and where they play and where play belongs in their lives. Spontaneous play is child-led and sparked by their own imaginations and interests – and this kind of play evolves naturally when children have the opportunity, requiring time that is not dictated by an adult timetable, and freedom of an appropriate space close to home
How a school made sure pupils had time to play
Analysis: green space could be even better for young brains than we realised
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06/19/2024 - 09:00
New York’s Choy Commons builds supply chain of heirloom vegetables while reviving an agricultural legacy
Every Wednesday afternoon, seniors, community groups and restaurants across Manhattan Chinatown receive boxes of freshly grown Asian heirloom vegetables – it could be cabbage, Thai basil, bitter melon, chili peppers, okra or green stem cauliflower, depending on the season. The produce was grown by a small group of Asian American farmers upstate who are on a mission to make these staples more affordable and accessible for their own communities.
“I want our food to go to people who would really love it, but would not have access to it without money,” said Amanda Wong, a 34-year-old farmer and co-owner of Star Route Farm in Charlotteville, New York. She’s part of a collective of Asian American farmers in the Hudson Valley region known as Choy Commons, which grows ancestral foods and then works with mutual aid groups to distribute them, often for free, among the Asian American community.
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06/19/2024 - 05:00
An ecopark that treats injured wild animals from all over Argentina and the largest biobank in South America has the support of the public and conservationists
A mara, stretched out under the shade of a huge ombu tree, greets you at the entrance to the Buenos Aires Eco-park. It’s just one of dozens of the hare-like rodents that roam the grounds of the former city zoo.
Today, only a few “legacy animals” remain in Buenos Aires, those hard to relocate due to their age. These include two hippos, which wallow in a new enclosure; a pair of geriatric giraffes; two aged elephants, which have regular podiatry sessions; and an arthritic camel, which receives acupuncture and magnet therapy five times a week.
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