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Amid fears the wreck will be more accessible to explorers – and new species – as the climate warms, conservationists want to create the region’s first underwater protected area
The harsh temperatures, treacherous currents and shifting pack ice of the Antarctic’s Weddell Sea, which crushed and sank his ship, Endurance, in 1915, led Ernest Shackleton to describe it as the “worst portion of the worst sea in the world”.
For more than a century, the inhospitable conditions, which present a challenge even for modern icebreaker ships, helped to protect the lost wreck, which was discovered in 2022, its structure still largely intact.
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Rebalance Earth is investing in Broughton Sanctuary to generate financial, environmental and social returns
From a high point on the hill, the North Yorkshire landscape unrolls below. The moorland above gives way to grassland, trees and then pasture, divided by the region’s traditional dry stone walls.
The view may be idyllic, but it belies the condition of parts of this land, belonging to the sprawling 1,100 hectare (2,500-acre) Broughton Sanctuary estate, near Skipton.
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Activists are challenging colonial-era law and demanding ‘free, legal, unfettered, forever rights’ to use beaches
Campaigners in Jamaica are heading to court next week to try to prevent the government from cutting off access to more of their beaches.
They argue that ceding their shorelines to big hotel chains enriches private investors and benefits tourists and outsiders while depriving Jamaicans who depend on the sea for their livelihoods, leisure and health.
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Ballaugh, Isle of Man: As I discover, spotting one of these marsupials isn’t hard. The problem is how to manage them
Walking through Ballaugh Curraghs, a marshland in the north of the island, I’m taking part in a favourite island pastime: spotting red-necked wallabies. Creeping through the stands of willows, I soon see a grey shape with beady eyes and pricked up ears watching me, unafraid. Another appears and I check for the ultimate sighting … a joey poking out from a pouch, but without success. It’s a rare sight even here.
These marsupials have changed this area beyond recognition. They arrived in the 1960s after a few escaped from a nearby wildlife park, and even by 2006 their footprint was light enough that the “curraghs” were declared a wetland site of international importance. Today, though, it would struggle to qualify, as so many key species have been eaten or disturbed by the 800 or so wallabies that now dominate.
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Exclusive: Fighting Dirty taking legal action against government over proposal it says could import weaker standards
An environmental campaign group is taking legal action against the government over proposals that it claims could fast-track chemical hazard classifications from other countries with lower standards into UK law.
Fighting Dirty claims proposals to change the classification and labelling of potentially hazardous chemicals could result in the UK weakening standards on cancer-causing substances.
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Photosynthesis does not always result in wood growth, a key factor in carbon dioxide sequestration
Trees may not be able to store as much planet-heating carbon as hoped, a study suggests, with researchers finding photosynthesis does not always lead to wood growth.
Scientists studied 137 sites across the US and found trees stopped growing months before the point in the year at which photosynthesis stopped.
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ExclusiveA vast area of the Bellingshausen Sea should be covered by sea ice by now, with one expert calling the loss of ice ‘depressing’
Antarctica’s west coast is missing an area of winter sea ice the size of France, sparking concerns for threatened penguins other marine life and global sea levels.
One expert said the loss of ice in the Bellingshausen Sea was “depressing” and the failure of ice to form could have intensified a heatwave over the continent’s peninsula last week that saw daytime temperatures peak at 15.4C which is more than 20C above average.
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Activists argue business model is ‘plantation tourism’ designed to benefit elite and disadvantage most Jamaicans
Devon Taylor remembers when the Mammee Bay shoreline in St Ann, Jamaica, was filled with children frolicking in the ocean after school, fishers haggling with locals over the price of their daily catch and craft vendors carving souvenirs under almond trees.
“I grew up on Mammee Bay,” Taylor says. He recalls fetching seawater in bottles for his grandmother when she was no longer able to go to the beach, learning to swim in the shallows, and watching generations of fishers cast their nets. “That beach raised us. It fed us.”
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It could top 90F in several cities hosting World Cup games – and workers could pay the price with their health
As the World Cup kicks off, labor advocates and scholars warn that the workers making the tournament possible could face serious heat-related risks.
“It’s going to be extremely hot, and you just cannot leave people unprotected or you’re going to deal with a lot of injuries,” said Jonathan Alingu, co-executive director of Central Florida Jobs With Justice, which has been calling for worker protections at the Miami games. “Or, God forbid, something even worse.”
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Failure to clear up rotting, rat-infested site is a key issue for local people as they weigh up politicians’ promises
A mountain of rubbish sits behind a metal fence in the village of Bickershaw, where it has remained for more than 20 months. For many residents, it is a physical manifestation of the north-south divide as well as a rotting, rat-infested symbol of a broken system in which organised criminal gangs make millions while communities endure the toxic impact of their trade.
The 25,000 tonnes of household and trade rubbish is one of the largest toxic waste dumps in the country. Unlike many illegal dumps that appear in woodlands, by rivers and on farmland, this one is in the heart of a residential street, right next to a primary school.
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