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The site contains articles and information on topics related to health, the environment and animal welfare.
While the focus is on Hvar Island in Dalmatia, much of the information is relevant to the rest of Croatia, and some to Europe, the United States and the rest of the world.
The main language of the site is English, but articles in Croatian are being added as quickly as possible. Some of the Croatian articles are translations, some original. Book reviews are in the language of the publication being reviewed.
To see all the articles archived in each category, click on the category name which is given below the title of each article (Environment, Highlights, Notices etc).
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Temperatures expected to hit 40C in parts of the UK, as extreme heatwave spreads slowly eastwards, sparking warnings in Italy and the Netherlands
France records hottest day ever as 40 people drown across country
Tell us: how is the heatwave in the UK and across Europe affecting you?
Grahame Madge, a Met Office spokesperson, said the agency is forecasting 39C as a headline maximum temperature on Thursday in the UK, most likely for somewhere in London or the south-east.
“It is possible we could see temperatures higher than the 39C if the final values are at the upper end of our narrow range,” he said, according to the Press Association.
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Matriarchal groups in east and west exhibit distinct click patterns, used to form social structures
From “Howdy” to “G’day”, English – like other languages – is rich in dialects. Now researchers have found sperm whales on different sides of the Mediterranean show similar variations in their vocalisations.
Sperm whales communicate vocally using sequences of short clicks called codas. However, the rhythmic pattern of these clicks, known as the dialect, can differ between different matriarchal groups.
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UK regulator has increased its scrutiny of fashion retailers over potentially misleading environmental statements
Ads for Calvin Klein, Adidas and Uniqlo promoting “recycled” clothing and shoes have been banned by the UK watchdog after the advertisers were unable to prove their green claims.
Each of the fashion companies ran paid-for Google ads, with Adidas promoting “recycled running shoes”, Calvin Klein “recycled” tops for women, and Uniqlo advertised fleece coats and jackets made from “recycled materials”.
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Climate Change Committee chair Nigel Topping says U-turns damage investor confidence and disrupt businesses
Weakening the UK’s net zero policy would disrupt business and damage the economy, the UK’s chief climate adviser has warned.
Nigel Topping, chair of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), said: “The U-turns are really damaging to inward investor confidence. If we really want to grow the economy, then investing and getting good at building stuff is essential.”
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Horsey Island, Hamford Water, Essex: It’s the setting for one of Arthur Ransome’s wonderful books, and today it’s farmed by a single family with innovation and care
You need two permissions to access Horsey Island: one from the farmer, the second from the tide, which offers a four-hour window in every 12 when the causeway can be crossed. It takes me 20 minutes to pick my way over, wading the deeper sections where spindly marker posts show the way. It’s a disconcerting place to loiter. In places the mud either side is a foot higher than the track, and riddled with tiny creeks in which streamers of sea forsaken by the tide rush along invisible gradients. The whole expanse fizzes and trickles as air and water try to escape from the mud and heaps of bladderwrack.
The dreamlike quality is enhanced by a feeling I’ve been here before, which, in a way, I have. The island is the setting for Secret Water, part of Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series, which I loved as a child and revisited ad nauseam during a phase when my son read almost nothing else. It is here on the River Wade that two of the adventurous children are trapped by rising water and rescued by a marsh-wise local boy nicknamed the Mastodon, because of the enormous round tracks left by his “splatchers” – like snowshoes for traversing mud.
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Kemi Badenoch, who joined US anti-abortion activists and European far-right parties at ARC, described energy secretary as a ‘villain’
Britain’s net zero policies and the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, have come under fire at a conference of conservatives, rightwing populists and wealthy US backers linked to Donald Trump.
The energy policies pursued by the British government were described as a “tragic mistake” by Trump’s energy secretary, one of a number of officials from the US administration attending the event.
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Photographer Shane Hynan explores the tension between the central role peat bogs play in Irish life and their wider environmental impact
“You can read Ireland’s history in the boglands. They hold millennia in their layers,” says photographer Shane Hynan of his project, Beofhód (meaningBeneath in English).
The boglands, known as portachs in Irish, cover roughly 1.2m to 1.5m hectares or about 14% to 17% of the country’s total land area. The raised bogs of the Irish Midlands are made of peat that forms at a rate of 1mm a year (0.04in) in low-lying, poorly drained basins or former lakes. As the historical geographer Kevin Whelan observes in the Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape, “the bog has been etched as deeply into the human as into the physical record in Ireland – to an extent unrivalled elsewhere.”
Eddie and Con footing turf for domestic use, Knockirr Bog, County Kildare, 2022.
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Researchers assessed likelihood gas was produced during creation of Alps, Pyrenees and Baetic mountains
Hydrogen gas is anticipated to play a central role in phasing out fossil fuels, particularly in industries that are proving more challenging to decarbonise, such as chemical production, shipping and steelmaking. But producing hydrogen synthetically is energy intensive and costly. In order for the hydrogen economy to take off, we need to find reliable natural sources of this gas. Could it be hidden in the mountains?
Researchers used plate tectonic simulations to investigate the Pyrenees, Alps and Baetic mountain ranges to assess if their mountain-building processes were likely to have resulted in hydrogen being produced and stored. Their findings, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, showed that the Alps and Pyrenees could be strong natural hydrogen exploration sites.
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As hot weather becomes more common, companies and homeowners are coming up with innovative ways to keep properties cool
When graphic designer Marc Alabaster had a new set of glass doors installed at his West Sussex home eight years ago, he soon realised how they magnified the heat of the afternoon sun.
“The kitchen was 40-plus degrees,” he said. Then he went on holiday to Spain and saw an apartment building wrapped in louvre-like rows of angled fins or blades that shaded the external walls against the sun.
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The cost of the traditional takeaway has doubled since 2019, and more outlets are trying to tempt customers with cheaper options such as coley, pollack and hake
In late April, visitors to Harbour Lights in Falmouth, Cornwall, may have raised an eyebrow. The fish and chip shop was in the midst of a “cod-free week”, its owners having removed cod from its menu entirely.
It was the second time owner Pete Fraser had undertaken the experiment, 15 years after the first. He also removed cod from his shops in Penzance and Helston, replacing it with coley, pollack, hake and hoki. The result was very different. “Some of the feedback we had, which certainly wasn’t what we got when we ran it years ago, is ‘Can you repeat this?’ Before, it was like, ‘Have you guys lost your head’?”
Continue reading...Sitting for prolonged periods is associated with health complications – but you can counteract the risks of a sedentary life.
The immunotherpay can give children and adults three extra years before they need to use insulin.
Dr Hilary Cass says she is "absolutely convinced that more children will be harmed if we don't do the trial than if we do."
The presenter shared his "aggressive" cancer diagnosis on an episode of Clarkson's Farm earlier this week.
Gender-questioning children will have to be at least 11 years old to take part in a clinical trial of puberty-blocking drugs.
Temperatures are set to rise over the next few days, and children can be especially vulnerable - so read on for tips to protect them.
A new study finds that hundreds of lives have been saved since school-age girls were offered the HPV jab in 2008.
How a very special hairdressing salon in Lowestoft is cutting it when it comes to neurodivergence.
Many women are buying less effective pain medication for period cramps, supermarket data suggests.
The walkout had been due to start at 07:00 BST on Monday and last until Friday.
Deep in the mountains of Palawan, Conservation International scientists are capturing what few people ever see: the secret lives of the Philippines’ rarest species.
At Maido — the Lima restaurant recently crowned the best in the world — one of the star dishes is paiche, a giant prehistoric river fish.Its journey to the table begins on a small family farm deep in Peru’s Amazon.
“Jane Goodall forever changed how people think about, interact with and care for the natural world,” said Daniela Raik, interim CEO of Conservation International.
Conservation International’s Neil Vora was selected for TIME’s Next 100 list — alongside other rising leaders reshaping culture, science and society.
Climate change is happening. And it’s placing the world’s reefs in peril. What can be done?
After decades of negotiation, the high seas treaty is finally reality. The historic agreement will pave the way to protect international waters which face numerous threats.
The Amazon rainforest, known for lush green canopies and an abundance of freshwater, is drying out — and deforestation is largely to blame.
The ocean is engine of all life on Earth, but human-driven climate change is pushing it past its limits. Here are five ways the ocean keeps our climate in check — and what can be done to help.
In a grueling and delicate dance, a team led by Conservation International removes a massive undersea killer.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. These pictures might be worth even more. An initiative featuring the work of some of the world’s best nature photographers raises money for environmental conservation.
