Nature, Environment, Climate Change, Ecology

The complete guide to cooking oils and how they affect your health

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0500

From seed oils to olive oil, we now have an overwhelming choice of what to cook with. Here’s how they all stack up, according to the scientific evidence

Degradation of land is threat to human life, Saudi government says

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 10:30:18 -0500

Deputy environment minister calls for urgent action as Riyadh prepares for global summit on issue next month

The degradation of the world’s soils and landscapes is threatening human life, and must be addressed as a matter of urgency, the government of Saudi Arabia has said.

Neglect of the land is wiping trillions of dollars from global economies, hampering agricultural production, disrupting water supplies, threatening children with poor nutrition, and destroying vital ecosystems, according to the country’s deputy environment minister.

Farmers prepare 'militant' action over tractor tax threatening to destroy rural Britain

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 10:15:00 -0500

A protest has been planned for 19 November when angry farmers are set to descend on London.

Climate crisis leaves European farmers vulnerable to far right, say campaigners

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 10:00:16 -0500

Populist groups capitalising on costly environmental policies that affect farmers by offering them support

What are farmers in the EU required to do to protect the environment?

The painful impacts of the climate crisis and globalisation have left farmers in Europe marginalised and vulnerable to populist politicians, warn anti-racism campaigners and academics.

They argue that if the transition to a low-carbon economy is not properly funded, planned and equitable, it risks fuelling a resurgence of the far right across the continent.

Edinburgh activists target SUVs in solidarity with Spain’s flood victims

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 09:09:11 -0500

Tyre Extinguishers group stencils ‘These cars kill Valencians’ on 4x4s in city to highlight SUVs’ role in climate crisis

Climate activists in Scotland have carried out a series of actions against SUV cars, saying they are acting in solidarity with the victims of the Valencia floods.

The Tyre Extinguishers have called on their supporters to take actions against SUV cars in their areas, after members of the group in Edinburgh stencilled the sides of targeted vehicles on Sunday night with the words: “These cars kill Valencians.”

We are all leeches now, trying to work out what is walking towards us | Helen Sullivan

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 09:00:14 -0500

One sucker is precariously attached to some flimsy reality – a wet leaf, a slippery rock – the other one pointed at the future

Imagine if your Wikipedia page described you as a “segmented or parasitic worm” with “two head segments” and “suckers at both ends”. You might turn to the Bible, instead – here is the Book of Proverbs on leeches: “The horseleech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.”

The daughters are the leech’s words (though some interpret the daughters as the suckers): “Give, give.” Within this damp, humid, leech-infested jungle is the surprisingly sweet idea of the words you say as daughters you have given birth to.

Use simple vegetable as fishing bait to get 'perfect catch' every time

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 07:33:00 -0500

Thousands of people fish across the UK, but they might have more success by using a simple method. So have you tried it yet?

Why did so many die in Spain? Because Europe still hasn't accepted the realities of extreme weather | Friederike Otto

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 06:48:54 -0500

Severe flooding is, unfortunately, inevitable. What isn’t inevitable is how ready we are, from early warning systems to emergency services

Friederike Otto is a climatologist and co-founder of World Weather Attribution

At the time of writing, the death toll has risen to 214. Battered cars and other debris are piled up in the streets, large swaths of Valencia remain underwater, and Spain is in mourning. On Sunday, anger erupted as the king and queen of Spain were pelted with mud and other objects by protesters. Why were so many lives lost in a flood that was well forecasted in a wealthy country?

From the global north’s vantage point, the climate crisis, caused by the burning of coal, oil and gas, has long been seen as a distant threat, affecting poor people in the global south. This misconception has perpetuated a false sense of security.

COP29: Clashes over cash are set to dominate the climate conference

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 05:50:55 -0500

The focus is on finance at the UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, this month, but countries are a long way from any kind of consensus

Decontamination of landfill waste leads to increase in toxic chemicals, says study

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 04:36:55 -0500

Exclusive: Researchers find treatment plants designed to clean up leachate liquid waste boost levels of banned PFAS

Processes intended to decontaminate noxious liquid landfill waste before it enters rivers and sewers have been found to increase the levels of some of the worst toxic chemicals, a study has shown.

Landfills are well known to be a main source of PFAS forever chemicals – or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – but the new study shows that the treatment plants designed to clean up the liquid waste can instead boost the levels of banned PFAS such as PFOA and PFOS, in some cases by as much as 1,335%.

Gridlock: why it can take 11 years to connect solar farms to the UK network

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 01:00:06 -0500

Companies are waiting up to 14 years for connections, leading some to revise net zero targets

On the south bank of the Mersey, Britain’s first factory dedicated to manufacturing electric vehicles may one day be powered exclusively by wind and solar farms.

Stellantis, the European carmaker that owns the Ellesmere Port site, has begun work to fit four megawatts (MW) of solar power capacity across 500 sq metres (5,400 sq ft) of its rooftop space, enough to power the equivalent of 8,000 homes.

‘Two sides of the same coin’: governments stress links between climate and nature collapse

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 01:00:05 -0500

Representatives at the Cop16 summit in Colombia negotiated against a backdrop of extreme weather and ecosystem collapse

As world leaders gathered in Colombia this week, they also watched for news from home, where many of the headlines carried the catastrophic consequences of ecological breakdown. Across the Amazon rainforest and Brazil’s enormous wetlands, relentless fires had burned more than 22m hectares (55m acres). In Spain, the death toll in communities devastated by flooding passed 200. In the boreal forests that span Siberia, Scandinavia, Alaska and Canada, countries were recording alarming signs that their carbon sinks were collapsing under a combined weight of drought, tree death and logging. As Canada’s wildfire season crept to a close, scientists calculated it was the second worst in two decades – behind only last year’s burn, which released more carbon than some of the world’s largest emitting countries.

In global negotiations, climate and nature move along two independent tracks, and for years were broadly treated as distinct challenges. But as negotiations closed at the Cop16 biodiversity summit in Cali on Saturday, ministers from around the world underscored the crucial importance of nature to limiting damage from global heating, and vice versa – emphasising that climate and biodiversity could no longer be treated as independent issues if either crisis was to be resolved. Countries agreed a text on links between the climate and nature, but failed to include language on a phase out of fossil fuels.

‘After three days we found her alive’: the ‘miracle’ rescues after Spanish floods

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 13:39:36 -0500

Media reported stories of survivors including the woman trapped in her car in a flooded underpass for 72 hours

Her car was among the scores that were swept up in Spain’s deadly floods, tossed about by the mud-coloured waters that surged on to streets. But after 72 hours spent trapped in an underpass, the woman was hailed as one of the lucky ones.

“After three days, we found someone alive in their car,” Martín Pérez, the head of Valencia’s civil protection service, told volunteers on Saturday. The announcement prompted hearty applause.

Young Lionness Learns to Hunt Giraffes

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 10:00:00 -0500

As a young lioness rekindles with her aunt, she is taught how to hunt giraffes -- a skill mastered by the lioness' mother.

The post Young Lionness Learns to Hunt Giraffes appeared first on Nature.

My mother nursed a life-affirming 25-year grudge. Hard as I try, I don’t have the attention span | Zoe Williams

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 07:39:22 -0500

It turns out long-held resentments exist even in the animal kingdom. Does that mean they hold an evolutionary advantage?

The best thing that happened to me during the whole of the pandemic was a story on the internet. An Oregon resident, furloughed, saw on a daytime nature documentary that, if you fed crows, they would bring you small gifts. Curious, they tried it, and were delighted to find themselves in effective possession of a 15-strong crow family – but then things took a dark turn. The crows became an army, fiercely protective of their leader’s property. If neighbours came near, the crows would dive-bomb them. “To be clear,” the person wrote on Reddit, “they’re not aggressive 100% of the time. If just the neighbours are out [on their own porch], they are friendly, normal crows. They only get aggressive when someone gets close to me or my property.”

It’s such a lovely phrase, “friendly, normal crows”; it’s just a pity that it’s an oxymoron. Crows are the most prodigious grudge-holders, which a professor of wildlife at Washington University, John Marzluff, discovered by capturing seven of the birds while wearing an ogre mask in 2006. A full 17 years later, crows were still regularly attacking him. Even if you were to query the ethics of his original experiment, you’d have to admit that he paid a high price. How such a thing is possible when the lifespan of a crow is only 12 years is this: not only can they hold a grudge, they can also pass it on to one another. Originally, even birds that witnessed the ogre-trap attacked Marzluff, then over time they transmitted the hostility to their offspring, creating a multigenerational grudge.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

Cop16 ends in disarray and indecision despite biodiversity breakthroughs

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 01:00:37 -0500

Conservation summit agrees global levy on drugs from nature’s genetics and stronger indigenous representation, but developing nations furious at unmet funding promises

A global summit on halting the destruction of nature ended in disarray on Saturday, with some breakthroughs but key issues left unresolved.

Governments have been meeting in Cali, Colombia, for the first time since a 2022 deal to stop the human-caused destruction of life on Earth. Countries hoped to make progress during the two-week summit on crucial targets such as protecting 30% of the Earth for nature and reforming parts of the global financial system that damage the environment.

Silver lining? Why an Australian startup is betting on a copper solar boom

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 19:00:28 -0400

SunDrive hopes its copper-based solar cell can reach commercial scale in partnership with global panel producer Trina

If an Australian startup gets its way, the silver lining in the global solar boom will become a copper one – before reserves of the material run out.

SunDrive Solar, backed by investors including Malcolm Turnbull and the billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, is hoping its copper-based solar cell can reach commercial scale through a partnership with Trina Solar, one of the world’s biggest panel producers.

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Chris Bowen on Trump, science and coal: ‘We’re living climate change. What we’re trying to do is avoid the worst of it’

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 15:00:23 -0400

The climate change minister is ‘disturbed’ by rising temperatures and increasingly unnatural natural disasters – but that’s what gets him out of bed every day

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In Spain, more than 200 people have been killed after the deadliest floods in the country’s modern history. Australia is heating faster than the global average, meaning more extreme heat events, longer fire seasons, increasingly intense heavy rain and sea level rise. And globally, this year is highly likely to be the hottest on record, beating the current title holder, 2023. For some, this escalating scientific evidence can be alarming. But the person in charge of Australia’s response to the climate crisis says that is not a word he would choose.

“If alarm implies concern, sure. But alarm implying surprise? No,” says Chris Bowen, the country’s climate change and energy minister.

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‘You have to disguise your human form’: how sea eagles are being returned to Severn estuary after 150 years

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 08:00:15 -0400

Use of bird hand-puppets to rear young among innovative methods unveiled as part of project to restore species

Sea eagles were last seen soaring over the shimmering mud flats and brackish tidal waters of the Severn estuary more than 150 years ago. Now wildlife charities have unveiled innovative plans to bring the raptor back to the estuary, which flows into the Bristol Channel between south-west England and south Wales, by 2026.

“Sea eagles used to be common in these regions. But they were wiped out through human persecution,” says Sophie-lee Williams, the founder of Eagle Reintroduction Wales, which is leading the project. “We strongly believe we have a moral duty to restore this lost native species to these landscapes.”

Bird flu was found in a US pig – does that raise the risk for humans?

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 16:21:36 -0400

A bird flu virus that has been circulating in dairy cattle for months has now been found in a pig in the US for the first time, raising the risk of the virus evolving to become more dangerous to people

We've seen particles that are massless only when moving one direction

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 16:08:49 -0400

Inside a hunk of a material called a semimetal, scientists have uncovered signatures of bizarre particles that sometimes move like they have no mass, but at other times move just like a very massive particle

Viruses may help store vast amounts of carbon in soil

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 16:00:35 -0400

Soil is full of an uncountable number of viruses, and scientists are only beginning to understand just how substantial their role in the carbon cycle may be

More resources needed to protect birds in Germany

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 14:43:58 -0400

Researchers developed citizen science platforms as a new data source to evaluate the effectiveness of the 742 protected areas for birds across Germany. This research shows that although these areas are well placed, their effectiveness varies greatly.

The Guardian view on climate-linked disasters: Spain’s tragedy will not be the last | Editorial

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 14:30:52 -0400

More than 200 deaths and widespread destruction in Valencia are the latest sign of danger in a warming world

The death toll from floods in Spain’s Valencia region has topped 200. A huge clean-up is under way amid desperate conditions, with severe weather warnings still in place. The storms which caused this devastation – with roads turned into muddy rivers, thousands of homes deluged and cars swept into piles – were unprecedented. The gota fría, or “cold drop”, is a regular occurrence when cold autumnal air moves over the warm Mediterranean, causing dense clouds to form. But this rain, according to the Spanish weather service, was 10 times stronger than a normal downpour.

Extreme weather in Spain, and the rest of southern Europe, is more commonly understood to mean dangerous heat, drought and wildfires. The regional government is under attack regarding the lack of sufficient warnings and there is no doubt that the severity of these floods came as a terrible shock.

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There may be a cosmic speed limit on how fast anything can grow

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 10:28:25 -0400

Alan Turing's theories about computation seem to have a startling consequence, placing hard limits on how fast or slow any physical process in the universe can grow

World's largest tree is also among the oldest living organisms

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 10:14:22 -0400

DNA analysis suggests Pando, a quaking aspen in Utah with thousands of stems connected by their roots, is between 16,000 and 81,000 years old

Baby Squirrels vs. Deadly Crows

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 10:00:45 -0400

As the baby squirrels grow and start to venture outside their den, the growing colony draws the attention of hungry crows. The tiny kits must quickly learn about the dangers of these deadly birds.

The post Baby Squirrels vs. Deadly Crows appeared first on Nature.

The clean-up begins after devastating floods in Valencia – in pictures

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 09:39:51 -0400

More than 200 people have died in Valencia and neighbouring provinces after floods hit the east of Spain. According to the country’s national weather agency, Valencia received a year’s-worth of rain on 29 October, causing flash floods that destroyed homes and swept away vehicles

One in 20 new Wikipedia pages seem to be written with the help of AI

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 08:55:43 -0400

Just under 5 per cent of the Wikipedia pages in English that have been published since ChatGPT's release seem to include AI-written content

A second US exit could ‘cripple’ the Paris climate agreement, warns UN chief

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 07:00:44 -0400

António Guterres says treaty will endure but urges US to remain amid reports that Trump plans to withdraw from the climate negotiating framework entirely

The world needs the US to remain in the international climate process to avoid a “crippled” Paris agreement, the UN secretary general has warned, amid fears that Donald Trump would take the country out of the accord for a second time.

António Guterres said the landmark 2015 agreement to limit global heating would endure if the US withdrew once again, but compared the prospective departure to losing a limb or organ.

Cloud-inspired material can bend light around corners

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 06:00:21 -0400

Light can be directed and steered around bends using a method similar to the way clouds scatter photons, which could lead to advances in medical imaging, cooling systems and even nuclear reactors

The best new science fiction books of November 2024

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 05:00:16 -0400

From Harlan Ellison to Haruki Murakami, via an intergalactic cooking competition, this month has plenty of science fictional treats on offer

Week in wildlife in pictures: roving parrots, rabid seals and a prickly pest

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 03:00:39 -0400

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

Jacaranda season in Sydney – in pictures

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 20:24:33 -0400

Sydney’s jacaranda trees are in full bloom, blanketing the city in purple and attracting crowds of people trying to capture that perfect frame

Data centres may soon burn as much extra gas as California uses daily

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 17:00:32 -0400

In support of their AI ambitions, tech companies are rapidly expanding US data centres, and this growth is on track to significantly increase US gas demand by 2030

Filming Transylvania’s Elusive Wildlife

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 14:31:16 -0400

Learn about the personal passion and stories that went into the creation of "Dracula’s Hidden Kingdom," as Irish director John Murray sets out to reveal the natural wonders of Transylvania. To reveal Transylvania's creatures' intimate lives, the production company teamed up with filmmakers from Romania and set about filming and setting camera traps across the region.

The post Filming Transylvania’s Elusive Wildlife appeared first on Nature.

War-era sugar rationing boosted health of UK people conceived in 1940s

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 14:00:30 -0400

People conceived during the UK's 1940s and 50s sugar rationing have a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure than those conceived after rationing ended

Lakes are losing winter ice cover at an astonishing rate

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 13:00:55 -0400

Fewer lakes are freezing over each winter compared with past years, posing environmental and economic consequences around the world

Biodiversity law that forces builders to compensate for nature loss could be twice as effective, experts claim

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 12:41:29 -0400

Recent rules that require all new building and road projects in England to address and offset their impact on nature are excellent in principle but flawed in their implementation, leading environmental economists argue. In a new study experts criticize the implementation of the Biodiversity Net Gain policy which forces the majority of off-setting to occur within or near development sites rather than where it might most benefit biodiversity. Targeting offsets to locations best for biodiversity was found to double the conservation gains.

A bizarre skeleton from a Roman grave has bones from eight people

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 10:51:08 -0400

Radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis have revealed that a complete skeleton found in a 2nd-century cemetery is made up of bones from many people spanning thousands of years – but we don’t know who assembled it or why

Spies can eavesdrop on phone calls by sensing vibrations with radar

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 09:52:43 -0400

An off-the-shelf millimetre wave sensor can pick out the tiny vibrations made by a smartphone's speaker, enabling an AI model to transcribe the conversation, even at a distance in a noisy room

Chimpanzees will never randomly type the complete works of Shakespeare

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 07:21:30 -0400

The Infinite Monkey Theorem states that illiterate primates could write great literature with enough time, but the amount of time needed is much longer than the lifespan of the universe

I’m obsessed with whale poop: ‘It can be neon green, bright red – or even sparkle’

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 04:00:12 -0400

It may be colourful but if it gets on your clothes you have to throw them away, says biologist Dr Joe Roman, who can’t get enough of the stuff, which is vital to support ocean biodiversity

I first encountered whale poop 30 years ago while I was working on a right whale research project. On one of my first days on the water, in the Bay of Fundy, in eastern Canada, we came upon a feeding male right whale with mud on its head – or bonnet – a sign that it had been feeding at the bottom of the bay. It had come up to breathe and rest.

Just before it dived in again, it released this enormous faecal plume.

Alarm grows over ‘disturbing’ lack of progress to save nature at Cop16

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 02:00:09 -0400

Fears raised that biodiversity summit not addressing countries’ failure to meet a single target to stem destruction of natural world

Governments risk another decade of failure on biodiversity loss, due to the slow implementation of an international agreement to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems, experts have warned.

Less than two years ago, the world reached a historic agreement at the Cop15 summit in Montreal to stop the human-caused destruction of life on our planet. The deal included targets to protect 30% of the planet for nature by the end of the decade (30x30), reform $500bn (then £410bn) of environmentally damaging subsidies, and begin restoring 30% of the planet’s degraded ecosystems.

Simple fix could make US census more accurate but just as private

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 18:00:41 -0400

The US Census Bureau processes data before publishing it in order to keep personal information private – but a new approach could maintain the same privacy while improving accuracy

How local governments can lead the way in decarbonizing the U.S.

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 17:20:41 -0400

The success of the $1 trillion that was recently invested by the U.S. federal government to mitigate climate climate change through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law largely depends on how well state and local governments spend the money, according to new a commentary.

Michelangelo's 'The Flood' seems to depict a woman with breast cancer

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 16:00:53 -0400

The Renaissance artist Michelangelo had carried out human dissections, which may have led him to include women with breast cancer in some of his pieces

Torrential rain brings deadly flooding to Spain – in pictures

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 15:52:25 -0400

Downpours caused Spain’s deadliest flooding in decades. Floodwaters surged through cities, towns and villages, trapping people in their homes, sweeping up cars in their wake and causing significant damage

COVID-19 pandemic worsened patient safety measures, study finds

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 15:38:52 -0400

A new study has found that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted patient safety indicators in U.S. hospitals. The study examined data from the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators to assess trends in nursing-sensitive quality indicators from 2019 to 2022. The prevention of these very distressing, uncomfortable conditions is considered to be under the nurse's purview and directly influenced by nursing care.

Three pathways to achieve global climate and sustainable development goals

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 15:06:55 -0400

Sustainable lifestyles, green-tech innovation, and government-led transformation each offer promising routes to make significant progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement, according to a new study. The team of researchers examined how these strategies could transform consumption and production across different sectors, identifying both benefits and trade-offs for enhancing human well-being within planetary boundaries. Contrary to the belief that the path to sustainable development is increasingly out of reach, the results show that humankind has a variety of pathways to depart from its current unsustainable trajectory.