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Natural climate variation is most likely reason as global heating due to fossil fuel burning has continued
The melting of sea ice in the Arctic has slowed dramatically in the past 20 years, scientists have reported, with no statistically significant decline in its extent since 2005.
The finding is surprising, the researchers say, given that carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning have continued to rise and trap ever more heat over that time.
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Only 28 countries have submitted carbon-cutting proposals to the UN, with some of the biggest emitters yet to produce plans
Brazil has issued an urgent call for all countries to come forward with strengthened national plans on the climate, in a last-ditch attempt to meet a key September deadline.
Only 28 countries have so far submitted carbon-cutting proposals to the UN, with some of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases – including China and the EU – still to produce their plans.
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With the number of very hot days rising as well as average temperatures, more and more animals are vulnerable. But while some species can adapt, others are seeing huge population declines
The residents of Tecolutilla, Mexico, knew the heatwave was bad when they heard the thuds. One by one, the town’s howler monkeys, overcome with dehydration and exhaustion, were falling from the trees like apples, their limp bodies smacking the ground as temperatures sizzled past 43C (110F) in spring last year.
Those that survived were given ice and intravenous drips by rescuers. At least 83 of the primates were found dead in the state of Tabasco, though local veterinarians estimated hundreds throughout the region probably perished.
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Triggerplants in particular live up to their name with a rapid response when touch-sensitive stamen are nudged
Flowers are surprisingly touchy, especially their male parts, the stamens, with hundreds of plant species performing touch-sensitive stamen movements that can be endlessly repeated. Insects visiting Berberis and Mahonia flowers to feed on nectar get slapped by stamens that bend over and smother pollen on to the insect’s face or tongue. This unwelcome intrusion scares the insect into making only a short visit, so the flower avoids wasting its nectar and pollen. The insect then finds another flower where it brushes the pollen off on receptive female organs and cross-pollinates the flower.
An insect landing on the flowers of the orchid Catasetum gets a violent reception – whacked by a pair of sticky pollen bags shooting out at such great speed the insect gets knocked out of the flower with the pollen bags glued to its body.
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The scourges of picnics have arrived early and in greater numbers amid ideal conditions for colonies to thrive
If dodging swooping gulls trying to steal your chips wasn’t already enough, you might be spending your bank holiday trying to keep wasps away from your ice cream too.
Britain is in the middle of a wasp boom. Not only have they arrived earlier than expected, but there are more of them than in recent summers. Experts say 2025 is an excellent year for them.
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Vobster Quay, Somerset: We’re fortunate to get a glimpse of a white-clawed crayfish, a nocturnal animal whose numbers are dwindling fast
When night falls over a drowned quarry, hope crawls out of despair. The human swimmers who play by day here, sploshing back and forth under sheer limestone walls, will not see it. Teams of wetsuited divers will not either, and they have other priorities. These divers go deep, sinking 25 metres to the rock bottom, where wheelhouse wrecks of boats are metal boxes to discover and day becomes darkness, lit fitfully by torch beams.
Standing in the sunlit uplands of a grass bank, looking down through clear blue-green water to submerged stone outcrops, our impossible quest is to see nocturnal creatures of cracks and cavities. This giant pool is a small sanctuary for breeding native white-clawed crayfish, hand-width crustaceans which have been all but wiped out by invaders in a changed water world outside. Our guides call this place an ark, in a determined belief that, one day, white-claws will reclaim a future beyond.
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Experts say undermining green protections and research funding is against the principles of economics
Three leading US economists are urging their peers around the world to push back against Donald Trump’s attack on environmental laws.
In what amounts to a call to action to economists, the trio say rollback of environmental regulations is “inconsistent or antithetical” to fundamental principles of economics over how to allocate the world’s limited resources for the greatest possible value to society.
Withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.
Eliminating consideration in federal policy of the well-established effects of climate breakdown on public welfare.
Executive orders to “drill baby drill” giving priority to fossil fuel energy production.
Ending research funding on environment and climate and the collection of environmental data.
Reducing investments and regulations designed to tackle lead and forever chemicals in drinking water.
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After three years of negotiating, talks over a global plastics treaty came to an end in Geneva last week with no agreement in place. So why has it been so difficult to get countries to agree to cut plastic production? Madeleine Finlay hears from Karen McVeigh, a senior reporter for Guardian Seascapes, about a particularly damaging form of plastic pollution causing devastation off the coast of Kerala, and where we go now that countries have failed to reach a deal
Clips: Fox News, BBC, 7News Australia, France 24, DW News, CNA
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Herring gulls and kittiwakes have learned the easiest meal comes from robbing humans rather than at sea
In a flurry of wings, the predator was off with its prize: a steaming pasty snatched from the hands of a day tripper from Birmingham. “What do you want me to do about it?” her unsympathetic husband said. “I can’t fly.”
Such a scene has become an almost daily spectacle on the Scarborough seafront, said Amy Watson, a supervisor at the Fishpan restaurant, where hungry herring gulls lurk for their quarry.
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Canada’s response to the extreme weather threat is being upended as the traditional epicentre of the blazes shifts as the climate warms
Road closures, evacuations, travel chaos and stern warnings from officials have become fixtures of Canada’s wildfire season. But as the country goes through its second-worst burn on record, the blazes come with a twist: few are coming from the western provinces, the traditional centre of destruction.
Instead, the worst of the fires have been concentrated in the prairie provinces and the Atlantic region, with bone-dry conditions upending how Canada responds to a threat that is only likely to grow as the climate warms.
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Charity: Official