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Figures show domestic flower growers are expanding their market share, as the government gives sector official recognition
British flower farmers have long resembled David faced with their own particular Goliath – the imported flower industry. More than 80% of cut flowers bought by UK consumers are shipped or flown in. However, recent figures show domestic growers are expanding their market share.
Chloë Dunnett, the founder of Sitopia Farm, a London-based organic farm growing food and flowers, says: “Our flower sales are up 65% for the year and turnover is increasing year on year as the public and florists look for flowers that are seasonal, environmentally friendly and hyperlocal – consumer power can be very effective.”
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The US, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia – some of the highest oil-producing nations and major greenhouse gas emitters – opposed the measure
The UN has voted 141-8 to adopt a resolution backing a world court opinion that countries have a legal obligation to address climate change, with the US – which is the world’s biggest historical emitter – among the small group opposing it.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said Wednesday’s general assembly vote, in which 28 countries abstained, underscored that governments are responsible for protecting citizens from the “escalating climate crisis”.
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Phenomenon, often seen around Britain’s coast at this time of year, is caused by a combination of algae and weather
At this time of year a sinister-looking substance can often be sighted around Britain’s coast: a frothy foam piled up along the shoreline or appearing in long ribbons offshore. People sometimes assume this foam is the result of pollution or sewage dumping. In fact it is a common natural phenomenon produced by a combination of algae and weather.
Sea algae start to grow in April as conditions warm. The most common sort, phaeocystis, is not toxic and forms part of the marine food chain. When the algal bloom dies it leaves a brown scum of organic material with surfactant properties, which, like soap, lowers the surface tension of the water.
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Willington, County Durham: On a fine May morning, there’s no better time to look at the stunning array of ways that bees and flowers have co-evolved to interact
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a wild flower in possession of a fortune in nectar and pollen, must be in want of a pollinator,” Jane Austen might have written, had she been a botanist. All along this former railway line, on a sunny May morning, there are thousands of newly opened flowers laden with such inducements, vying for the attention of foraging bumblebees. And none delivers its pollen with such deception and violence as broom (Cytisus scoparius).
A large bumblebee arrives, settles briefly, finds no nectar and departs, leaving a deranged tangle of stamens protruding from the petals. What happened? Poking my finger into an intact flower, to mimic the visitor, there’s an explosion of pollen as 10 stamens and a coiled stigma, confined in the boat-shaped keel petal, break free. Simultaneously, they deliver and collect pollen, with a gut-punch to the insect’s furry abdomen. Bumblebees don’t seem to mind; the trap has been tripped in almost every flower on this bush.
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This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world
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Environmental activists lock themselves to pesticide barrels in protest outside Syngenta headquarters
More than 40 people, including Greenpeace UK’s programme director, Amy Cameron, have been arrested after a protest outside pesticide company Syngenta’s Yorkshire headquarters.
A number of the activists locked themselves on to 15 blue pesticide barrels outside the headquarters, blocking the gates and leading to the temporary closure of the local A62. Activists had transformed a roundabout outside the front entrance into a giant hazard symbol carrying the message “Syngenta poisons nature” with an arrow pointing directly at the building. The action took place on World Bee day.
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Global study finds wrappers, bottles and lids on shorelines of 93% of countries analysed as UN talks to tackle issue in turmoil
Plastic food wrappers, bottles, lids and caps are by far the most common items of litter found on the world’s shorelines, a study has found.
Researchers looked at data from more than 5,300 surveys of coastal litter to produce the first global analysis of its kind. They found the data in 355 existing studies on the subject.
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In the country’s north, mining has ravaged Indigenous lands and lives for decades. Is history repeating itself as renewable energy schemes arrive on their doorstep?
In the heart of the dry tropical forest, Maria Elena Aguilar Uriana walks past towering cacti, her ancestors’ graves, and patterned clothes blowing in the wind. Her brow is furrowed, her hands fixed on her hips. She points to a former watering hole, now nothing but dust.
“Our children are malnourished and dying,” she says. “It’s all because of the mining. It has destroyed our landscape, our homes, our lives.”
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As conflict in Iran sends prices soaring, fossil fuel companies are seeing extraordinary gains – but the crisis may also accelerate the shift towards clean energy
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A friend of mine was recently left in tears after filling up the car she relies on to drive to work. Thanks to the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, prices at the pumps have soared. She wasn’t sure how her family was going to make it to the next paycheck.
It is a personal story and a distressing one, but the big picture is truly obscene. Fossil fuel companies are raking in monstrous, unearned war profits taken from the pockets of people like you, me, my friend, and any of us who fills up a vehicle or pays an energy bill.
UK ‘built for climate that no longer exists’ and needs urgent changes to survive global heating, report warns
Rainforests pushed to breaking point by new demands for resources, report says
‘Should we leave them to die?’ The battle over how to save orangutans from the curse of palm oil
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One way to pay for wildlife conservation is to allow the rich to bag a few animals for high prices. But critics see this approach as an exercise in neocolonialism
Written and read by Cal Flyn
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