Nature, Environment, Climate Change, Ecology

‘Unprecedented’ flooding in parts of Wales as Storm Bert batters Britain

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 10:21:42 -0500

Rhondda Cynon Taf council declares emergency as rising waters affect south Wales towns and rest centres are set up

Heavy rain and thawing snow are combining to bring flooding across the UK as Storm Bert continues to batter the country, with a major incident declared in south Wales.

Rhondda Cynon Taf county borough council declared an emergency as flood waters rose in towns across the region. Rising waters are affecting towns including Pontypridd, Ebbw Vale and Aberdare.

Cop29 climate finance deal criticised as ‘travesty of justice’ and ‘stage-managed’

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 10:13:41 -0500

Some countries say deal should not have been done and is ‘abysmally poor’ compared with what is needed

The climate finance deal agreed at Cop29 is a “travesty of justice” that should not have been adopted, some countries’ negotiators have said.

The climate conference came to a dramatic close early on Sunday morning when negotiators struck an agreement to triple the flow of climate finance to poorer countries.

Developing countries condemn 'insufficient' Cop29 deal – video

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 08:36:06 -0500

Rich and poor countries concluded a trillion-dollar deal on the climate crisis in the early hours of Sunday morning, after marathon talks and days of bitter recriminations ended in what campaigners said was a 'betrayal'.

Cop29 agrees $1.3tn climate finance deal but campaigners brand it a ‘betrayal’

Yes, there is a lot of greenwashing, but Cop summits are our best chance of averting climate breakdown

The silver lining at a disappointing Cop29? It showed climate progress can survive Trump 2.0 | Geoffrey Lean

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 08:31:16 -0500

Away from the brutal main negotiations, there were important strides forward. The science can – and must – rise above politics

The resolutions reached at Cop29 on tackling the climate crisis, in the early hours of Sunday morning, are gravely disappointing but much better than nothing. And “nothing” was almost the result of this climate conference in Baku. This was one of the most difficult of the 29 Cops I have followed.

The deal falls a long way short of hopes at the start of the climate summit, and even further behind what the world urgently needs. But coming after negotiations that frequently teetered on the very edge of collapse, the result does keep climate talks alive despite Donald Trump’s second coming, and has laid the first ever international foundation, however weak, on which the world could finally construct a system of financing poor countries’ transition away from fossil fuels.

Cop29 climate finance deal likely to be followed by equally bitter battles

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 07:46:00 -0500

Rich countries still need convincing that giving money to poorer nations is very much in their interests too

It was only on the last scheduled day of two weeks of negotiations at the UN Cop29 climate summit that developed countries put a financial commitment on the table for the first time.

In reality, this offer took not just two weeks of talks to prepare, but nine years – since article 9 of the Paris agreement in 2015 made it clear that the rich industrialised world would be obliged to supply cash to developing countries to help them tackle the climate crisis.

Flat-cap Clarkson only wants his nose in the trough | Stewart Lee

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 05:00:09 -0500

The broadcaster thinks if he fires up his farming fanbase they can shield him from his obligation to contribute his fair share to society

I read Andrew Michael Hurley’s new novel, Barrowbeck, in preparation for co-hosting Tales of the Weird, a timely event on the folk horror genre at the British Library earlier this month. I’m not the most informed commentator on this literary subset by any means, but I am, after Mark Gatiss, one of the most famous, and so I am often asked to pontificate about it. That’s the way the world works, I’m afraid. That’s why Hugh Dennis and David Baddiel are presenting a new show for Channel 4 about cycling across France, instead of the cyclist who cycled across France earlier this year and won the Tour de France cycling race, whoever he was.

Barrowbeck follows the fortunes of a Yorkshire hamlet, from an itinerant tribe making a pact with their gods 2,000 years ago, in which they promise to honour the land, to the near future of 2041. There, climate change has seen that same land flooded, some inhabitants holding on in hope as a cycle of life that stretched back millennia indisputably ends, as it will for all of us, sooner, it seems, rather than later. And these are the doomed lands our wealthiest farmers are taking to the streets to inherit (at half the inheritance tax anyone else would pay).

Stewart Lee tours Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf next year, with a Royal Festival Hall run in July. He is also a guest of all-female Fall karaoke act the Fallen Women, at the Lexington, London on 28 December

World will be ‘unable to cope’ with volume of plastic waste in 10 years, warns expert

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 04:00:07 -0500

Countries must curb production now and tackle plastic’s full life cycle, says Norwegian minister Anne Beathe Tvinnereim ahead of key UN talks this week

The world will be “unable to cope” with the sheer volume of plastic waste a decade from now unless countries agree to curbs on production, the co-chair of a coalition of key countries has warned ahead of crunch talks on curbing global plastic pollution.

Speaking before the final, critical round of UN talks on the first global treaty to end plastic waste, in Busan, South Korea, this week, Norway’s minister for international development, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, acknowledged the split that had developed between plastic-producing countries and others. She represents more than 60 “high ambition” nations, led by Rwanda and Norway, who want plastic pollution tackled over its full life cycle. Crucially, this means clamping down heavily on production.

Yes, there is a lot of greenwashing, but Cop summits are our best chance of averting climate breakdown | Ashish Ghadiali

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 03:00:06 -0500

Despite its imperfections the process of tackling the climate crisis will not be derailed, even in the face of US backtracking

It was never an indication of great things to come when the chief executive of Cop29, Elnur Soltanov, was filmed attempting to broker gas and oil deals for Azerbaijan in the slipstream of the past fortnight’s UN climate summit in Baku.

More than 1,700 fossil fuel lobbyists have been operating in and around Cop29, outnumbering delegates from the 10 most climate-vulnerable countries combined. Many, including Greta Thunberg, now argue that the UN climate process has been entirely hijacked by corporate interests, reduced to a global stage for greenwash.

Camper woken up by 'terrifying' noise in middle of night – where it came from was worse

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 03:00:00 -0500

Luke Nichols, known as Outdoor Boys on YouTube, has shared a number of his wild camping adventures online - and his most recent clip was one of the scariest.

The climate crisis and all the evil in the world drives me to despair

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 01:00:02 -0500

The world will continue to be absurd, but you, with all your passion, can still make your corner of it more bearable

The question I am finding it ever more difficult to be in this nasty world. Everything that I cherish is being destroyed and there is nowhere to go to find solace. I’ve always loved nature – but when I go for a walk now, I see every ash tree dying, I hear the loss of birdsong, I see how few insects there are. When I read the news, I just cannot comprehend how cruel humans are able to be, racism, misogyny, religious hate, cruelty to animals… The list is endless.

I work in climate change and am having to pretend every day that there is still a chance we can prevent catastrophic climate change. I find it ever harder to be around people who don’t get just how bad things are. I don’t have kids and am single. I can’t talk to my family about it because they are rightwing, wealthy climate sceptics. They patronise me (despite the fact I’m nearly 60 and a chief executive).

Three million stray dogs in Morocco face horrific slaughter if FIFA bid succeeds

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 14:56:00 -0500

Animal welfare campaigners in the UK are urging FIFA to put stipulations into their acceptance of the bid.

Migrating birds are bringing disease carrying-ticks to Britain due to climate change

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 13:20:00 -0500

Scientists fear this could lead to an increase in Lyme disease, which causes flu-like symptoms and can make people very sick.

‘I couldn’t admit I was afraid’: biologist Tina Morris on her fight to save the bald eagle

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 09:00:44 -0500

America’s majestic national bird was close to extinction when Tina Morris, a young researcher, was asked to help bring three chicks to adulthood. First, she had to conquer a fear of heights

It was a daunting task, with little likelihood of success. An adventurous but anxious graduate researcher without any experience of looking after birds was dispatched to the wilds of upstate New York to become a human eagle mother: feeding, teaching – and keeping alive – three helpless eagle chicks.

Tina Morris was to camp alone beside their artificial nest, find them food, track them when they began to fly, keep them away from danger and rescue them if they got into trouble. If they survived to adulthood, northwest America would begin to be repopulated with its national bird, the bald eagle, a majestic, much-loved raptor that had been driven to the brink of extinction by the 1960s.

‘It’s not drought - it’s looting’: the Spanish villages where people are forced to buy back their own drinking water

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 06:00:40 -0500

Spain is increasingly either parched or flooded – and one group is profiting from these extremes: the water-grabbing multinational companies forcing angry citizens to pay for it in bottles

After catastrophic floods engulfed Valencia last month, killing more than 200 people, it might seem counterintuitive to think about water shortages. But as the torrents of filthy water swept through towns and villages, people were left without electricity, food supplies – and drinking water. “It was brutal: cars, chunks of machinery, big stones, even dead bodies were swept along in the water. It gushed into the ground floor of buildings, into little shops, bakeries, hairdressers, the English school, bars: all were destroyed. This was climate change for real, climate change in capital letters,” says Josep de la Rubia of Valencia’s Ecologists in Action, describing the scene in the satellite towns south of the Valencian capital.

In the aftermath, hundreds of thousands of people were reliant on emergency tankers of water or donations of bottled water from citizen volunteers. Within a fortnight, the authorities had reconnected the tap water of 90% of the 850,000 people in affected areas, but all were advised to boil it before drinking it or to use bottled water. Across the region, 100 sewage treatment plants were damaged; in some areas, human waste seeped into flood waters, dead animals were swept into rivers and sodden rubbish and debris piled up. Valencia is on the brink of a sanitation crisis.

‘It looked as good as new’: readers share their tips for repairing household items

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 18:00:25 -0500

From YouTube video guides to sourcing parts, here are some ways to extend the life of your appliances and sentimental items

Change by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint
Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.com

One of the best ways we can reduce our household’s carbon footprint is to repair things instead of throwing them away. But it’s also a way of life for many people.

“Seems I’ve spent most of my life fixing stuff because I was brought up that way,” observes Phil, from Bedfordshire. “I look at everything that comes my way as potentially useful and more often than not, it is,” writes Richard, a designer from Essex.

Hunter-gatherers built a massive fish trap in Belize 4000 years ago

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 14:00:15 -0500

Earthen channels that span more than 640 kilometres show that pre-Mayan Mesoamericans built large-scale fish-trapping facilities earlier than previously thought

Meteorite crystals show evidence of hot water on ancient Mars

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 14:00:14 -0500

A rock that formed around 4.5 billion years ago on Mars before being blasted into space by a meteor strike and making its way to Earth contains telltale evidence that it was formed in the presence of hot water

Asheville restores drinking water 53 days after Hurricane Helene – but not all are ready to sip

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 12:23:26 -0500

Residents concerned as North Carolina city lifts boil advisory and scientists detect lead in water at area schools

When the western North Carolina town Swannanoa was battered by Hurricane Helene in September, two large trees crushed Stephen Knight’s home. His family of six was launched into a complicated web of survival: finding a temporary home, applying for disaster relief, filing insurance claims.

The new logistics of living included the daily search for food and water. Until earlier this week, most residents of this town east of Asheville had no drinkable tap water for 52 days. After the storm damaged infrastructure around the region, water had been partly restored in mid-October. It was good for flushing toilets but not safe for consumption. In some places, sediment left the water inky like black tea.

Risk algorithm used widely in US courts is harsher than human judges

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 11:00:34 -0500

When deciding whether to let people await trial at home or in jail, US judges can use a risk score algorithm. But it often makes harsher recommendations than humans do

Bacteria found in asteroid sample – but they're not from space

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 09:42:05 -0500

The unexpected discovery of microbial life in a piece of rock from an asteroid shows how hard it is to avoid contaminating samples brought back to Earth

Crushed rocks outpace giant fans in race to remove CO2 from air

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 06:00:26 -0500

New technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are growing in scale –though their effect on the climate remains negligible

Stunning Never Let Me Go stage version asks the big questions

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 05:50:40 -0500

Kazuo Ishiguro’s heartbreaking dystopian novel of young love and organ donation has been superbly adapted for the stage

Having a baby on Mars? You may be in for a difficult time

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 04:30:03 -0500

Kelly Weinersmith, co-author of A City on Mars, the latest pick for our New Scientist Book Club, and Cat Bohannon lay out the reasons why it might not be such a great idea to be pregnant on another planet

Majority of people believe their devices spy on them to serve up ads

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 04:00:51 -0500

There is no evidence that advertisers use covert recordings of conversations to target people with adverts, an accusation widely denied by the industry, and yet this belief persists

Look at the farmers’ protest, and then ask yourself: how will we ever make tax fairer amid such grumbling? | Polly Toynbee

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 03:00:09 -0500

Labour inherited a dire situation that needed desperate change – but powerful lobbies make any tax reform near-impossible

That was a state-of-the-nation image, those thousands of farmers in Whitehall protesting about inheritance tax (IHT). Their little inheritors on toy tractors could hardly have offered a better portrait of a Britain where even modest reforms of wildly irrational tax reliefs are near-impossible. The country loves Old MacDonald and detests IHT.

This is a symbol of the great malaise those same contrary voters feel about the profound unfairness in this most unequal of countries. Few think it’s OK for the top 1% to own almost a quarter of all wealth, or the top 0.1% to take about 60 times more income than their population share, while we are living through the greatest decline in living standards since records began.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Week in wildlife in pictures: a naughty weasel, guard bees and a Sopranos bear

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 03:00:09 -0500

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

What to know about creatine, the gym supplement with wide benefits

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 02:00:31 -0500

Creatine is commonly associated with athletes and bodybuilders, but the popular supplement seems to have broad benefits on everything from ageing to brain function

Holding a grudge – is it a petty character flaw or a desire for justice in an unjust world? | First Dog on the Moon

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 01:08:23 -0500

Who better to ask than corvids

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Common chemical in drinking water hasn't been tested for safety

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 16:47:30 -0500

Chloramine is used as a disinfectant in drinking water systems from the US to Australia. Research now shows it breaks down into a compound that may have negative health impacts

Worm-like fossil is the oldest ancestor of spiders and crustaceans

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 14:41:50 -0500

Arthropods belong to an evolutionary branch – the ecdysozoa – that contains about half of all animal species, and the earliest fossil evidence of the group dates back 550 million years

Fewer than 7% of global hotspots for whale-ship collisions have protection measures in place

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 14:11:10 -0500

A new study has quantified the risk for whale-ship collisions worldwide for four geographically widespread ocean giants that are threatened by shipping: blue, fin, humpback and sperm whales. Researchers report that global shipping traffic overlaps with about 92% of these whale species' ranges. Only about 7% of areas at highest risk for whale-ship collisions have any measures in place to protect whales from this threat. These measures include speed reductions, both mandatory and voluntary, for ships crossing waters that overlap with whale migration or feeding areas.

Chimpanzees seem to get more technologically advanced through culture

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 14:00:26 -0500

Groups of wild chimpanzees with more complex tool-using behaviours tend to be genetically linked, providing evidence for cumulative culture in other apes

Brainwave experiment shows minke whales have ultrasonic hearing

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 14:00:25 -0500

In the first hearing test of live baleen whales, the animals detected much higher frequency sounds than expected, forcing researchers to reconsider how these mammals respond to predators – and humans

World's thinnest spaghetti won't please gourmands but may heal wounds

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 12:30:04 -0500

Spaghetti strands that are 200 times thinner than a human hair could be woven into bandages to help prevent infections

Environmental impacts of plastics: Moving beyond the perspective on waste

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 11:58:00 -0500

The fact that plastics pollute the environment and generate problems has been well-researched in many areas. However, there is little information on the impacts of plastics on climate and biodiversity. Researchers have analyzed the impacts of plastics on the three planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution. They are calling for plastics regulations that account for the multifaceted impacts of plastics in these three crises.

Design and imagination as essential tools during the climate crisis

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 11:56:35 -0500

Researchers advocate the use of imagination in tackling the climate crisis. They focus specifically on urbanizing river deltas, which are of great social and economic importance and highly vulnerable to climate change.

A sliver of lab-grown wood has been made from stem cells

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 10:30:14 -0500

Growing wood directly from stem cells could offer an alternative to cutting threatened hardwood trees, but it isn't clear if it has same properties as actual wood

AI of the Tiger | WILD HOPE

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 09:49:23 -0500

In Madhya Pradesh, renowned as India’s “tiger state,” a team installs AI-integrated camera traps to reduce conflict and safeguard lives in a vital wildlife corridor home to 2 million people – and 300 wild tigers that have caused an increasing number of problems for locals.

The post AI of the Tiger | WILD HOPE appeared first on Nature.

America’s BFF | WILD HOPE

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 09:41:58 -0500

Black-footed ferrets, North America’s only native ferret, still depend on humans for survival. That’s why a dedicated team has engineered new and innovative tools to help them make it in the wild.

The post America’s BFF | WILD HOPE appeared first on Nature.

We've taken a photo of a star in another galaxy for the first time

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 08:00:12 -0500

Using four telescopes linked together, astronomers have captured an astonishing image of a huge star more than 160,000 light years away

'It is a shame': Starmer laments lack of Tory support for climate measures – video

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 06:42:06 -0500

The prime minister, Keir Starmer, has hit out at the lack of Conservative support for climate targets and said it shows 'just how far the party has fallen'. 'It’s a shame,' he said. 'When Cop was in Scotland, there was a real unity across the house about the importance of tackling one of the most central issues of our time,' Starmer said in Commons after returning from the G20 and Cop29

Cop29 live - latest updates

Nectar-loving Ethiopian wolves may be the first carnivore pollinators

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 05:17:58 -0500

Endangered Ethiopian wolves feed on the nectar of red hot poker plants, and may transport pollen from flower to flower as they do so

‘The land is tearing itself apart’: life on a collapsing Arctic isle

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 02:00:42 -0500

On Qikiqtaruk, off Canada, researchers at the frontier of climate change are seeing its rich ecology slide into the sea as the melting permafrost leaves little behind

Last summer, the western Arctic was uncomfortably hot. Smoke from Canada’s wildfires hung thick in the air, and swarms of mosquitoes searched for exposed skin. It was a maddening combination that left researchers on Qikiqtaruk, an island off the north coast of the Yukon, desperate for relief.

And so on a late July afternoon, a team of Canadian scientists dived into the Beaufort Sea, bobbing and splashing in a sheltered bay for nearly two hours. Later, as they lay sprawled on a beach, huge chunks of the island they were studying slid into the ocean.

Cougar Crossing | WILD HOPE

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 18:53:55 -0500

Los Angeles is well known for its celebrities, so when the fearless cougar P-22 gained fame for making its home in the midst of the city, he inspired an effort to build the world’s largest wildlife crossing and helped spark a national campaign to support crossings and corridors everywhere.

The post Cougar Crossing | WILD HOPE appeared first on Nature.

Guano Gold | WILD HOPE

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 17:37:06 -0500

Economic growth and wildlife conservation often run in conflict, but Mozambican scientist Cesária Huo hopes to support a new fully sustainable and economically viable model for harvesting a potent natural resource: bat guano.

The post Guano Gold | WILD HOPE appeared first on Nature.

Jaguar Passage | WILD HOPE

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 17:34:09 -0500

Jaguar populations are falling worldwide, but the big cats are thriving in Belize, where one-third of the Central American country is protected habitat — but even this paradise isn’t perfect.

The post Jaguar Passage | WILD HOPE appeared first on Nature.

One Golden Chance | WILD HOPE

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 17:33:43 -0500

The golden lion tamarin stands as a beacon of hope and survival in the face of extinction after an outbreak of yellow fever led to a loss of nearly a third of their wild population.

The post One Golden Chance | WILD HOPE appeared first on Nature.

Pangolin Protectors | WILD HOPE

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 16:33:54 -0500

Pangolins are amazing, bizarre, adorable creatures, but due to the demand for their scales on the illegal market, they’re also the most trafficked animal in the world. In order to turn the tide, wildlife veterinarian Elias Mubobo knows the solution rests in the hands of the local community — many of whom have never seen a pangolin in the wild.

The post Pangolin Protectors | WILD HOPE appeared first on Nature.

Rebuilding a Forest | WILD HOPE

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 16:30:26 -0500

In Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, Mauricio Ruiz has turned his love for nature into action by working with the community to reforest a critical stretch of the nation’s most endangered forest, and by using drones to help him reach his goal of planting 15 million new trees.

The post Rebuilding a Forest | WILD HOPE appeared first on Nature.

Robotic pigeon reveals how birds fly without a vertical tail fin

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 14:00:43 -0500

A flying robot uses its bird-like tail to maintain stability in flight – a technique that could enable more aerodynamic aircraft designs that use less fuel