
But there are alternatives....


But there are alternatives....

Exclusive: Rising flood risks driven by climate change could release chemicals from ageing sites – posing threats to ecosystems
Thousands of landfills across the UK and Europe sit in floodplains, posing a potential threat to drinking water and conservation areas if toxic waste is released into rivers, soils and ecosystems, it can be revealed.
The findings are the result of the first continent-wide mapping of landfills, conducted by the Guardian, Watershed Investigations and Investigate Europe.
Disclaimer: This dataset may contain duplicate records. Duplicates can arise from multiple data sources, repeated entries, or variations in data collection processes. While efforts have been made to identify and reduce duplication, some records may remain.
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In Indonesia, 3.2 million people have been affected by the floods, while 2,600 have been injured and 472 people remain missing
The death toll from flooding and landslides across Indonesia’s Sumatra island has risen to 631, the country’s disaster agency said, as one million people were evacuated from high-risk areas.
Heavy monsoon rains and tropical cyclones have devastated parts of Asia this week, including Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Southern Thailand, killing more than 1,160 people across the region, destroying infrastructure and inundating towns.
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Exclusive: Pollution targets set out alongside nature recovery projects to allay concerns over housebuilding
Wood-burning stoves are likely to face tighter restrictions in England under new pollution targets set as part of an updated environmental plan released by ministers on Monday.
Speaking to the Guardian before the publication of the updated environmental improvement plan (EIP), the environment secretary, Emma Reynolds, said it would boost nature recovery in a number of areas, replacing an EIP under the last government she said was “not credible”.
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EU’s Copernicus monitoring service hails ‘reassuring sign’ of progress observed this year in hole’s size and duration
The hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic this year was the smallest and shortest-lived since 2019, according to European space scientists, who described the finding as a “reassuring sign” of the layer’s recovery.
The yearly gap in what scientists have called “planetary sunscreen” reached a maximum area of 21m sq km (8.1m sq miles) over the southern hemisphere in September – well below the maximum of 26m sq km reached in 2023 – and shrank in size until coming to an early close on Monday, data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (Cams) shows.
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River Action says use of issuance tied to environmental benefits is ‘corporate greenwash on steroids’
Water companies have issued a fifth of the UK’s “green bonds” since 2017, despite a consistently poor record of sewage pollution during that time, research has shown.
Privately owned water companies in England have together issued £10.5bn in bonds tied to projects that offer “environmental benefits”, according to analysis of financial market data by Unearthed, which is part of Greenpeace UK.
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Blakeney Point, Norfolk: The old steamer, called Yankee, has long been abandoned on the shingle, dwindling in the elements. I take the four-mile walk to visit
There are thrushes on the wind today. A redwing has just landed in the veil of shrubby seablite between the tidal ooze of Blakeney Pit and the shingle where I’m standing. Exhausted by its crossing from Scandinavia, this handsome bird sits in a seablite’s wind-torn tips and lets me watch. Mottle-chested, creamy-browed, it is exquisite.
I have made the four-mile, shingle-crunching pilgrimage from Cley to near the end of Blakeney Point to visit my great-great-grandfather. To visit his memory, at least. He was Martin Fountain Page, co-owner of Page and Turner, last of the River Glaven shipping companies in 700 years of documented navigation here. Beneath the doormat in the north porch of Blakeney Church lies a slab of polished stone, engraved to his eternal memory, generous benefactor of the village as he was.
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Labour knows it needs to win over the ‘sea wall’ cohort of coastal voters in the next election. But as anger over inequality grows, time is running out
It is a lovely sunny autumn day in Ramsgate on Britain’s Kent coast, and quintessential seaside chippy Peter’s Fish Factory is doing a roaring lunchtime trade. Across the road, at the entrance to the town’s pier, local MP and chair of the newly reformed coastal parliamentary Labour party (PLP), Polly Billington, is having her photo taken.
In between shots she shows us the community art project that adorns the fence along the entrance to the pier. It is made up of pictures, drawn primarily by local children and young people, of the 65 little ships that set sail earlier this year from Ramsgate to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuation.
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Exclusive: Swedish carmakers push to retain target as Germany lobbies to help its own industry by softening cutoff date
As the battle lines harden amid Germany’s intensifying pressure on the European Commission to scrap the 2035 ban on production of new petrol and diesel cars, two Swedish car companies, Volvo and Polestar, are leading the campaign to persuade Brussels to stick to the date.
They argue such a move is a desperate attempt to paper over the cracks in the German car industry, adding that it will not just prolong take up of electric vehicles but inadvertently hand the advantage to China.
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From Thailand to Indonesia, torrential flooding has carried away people’s possessions and homes, upending entire communities
Aminah Ali, 63, was at home in the Pidie Jaya district of Indonesia’s Aceh province when the rains started at midnight on Wednesday. The waters rose gradually. It seemed like the usual flooding that happens during monsoon season, but then came a loud roar of water: her village was suddenly inundated.
With help from her son, she managed to clamber on to her rooftop, where she waited for 24 hours. Flood waters, 3 metres high, stretched into the distance. “I saw many houses being swept away,” she said.
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Short boat ride from Cop30 host, Afro-descendant residents of Menino Jesus say their voices are not being heard
Walk through the conference centre where the recent UN climate talks were held and representations of Indigenous people and culture were everywhere, from the spear-carrying, fiery-headed Cop30 mascot Curupira to huge mural-sized photos of people navigating the Amazon in dugout canoes and the many protests demanding dialogue outside.
Yet a short boat ride down the river from Belém, into the forest itself, takes you to another forest-dwelling community also fighting for further recognition within the Cop process. The quilombola community of Menino Jesus has existed for six generations. Quilombolas are the descendants of former enslaved people who fled into the forest as a site of refuge. Over hundreds of years, they established a unique way of life separate from mainstream Brazilian society, living in harmony with nature as fugitives protected by the jungle.
Continue reading...Walkout in England begins on 17 December and will be 14th strike in pay dispute.
Too few people who could benefit from so-called "skinny jabs" are able to access them, says WHO.
The deal follows threats of tariffs as high as 100% on branded drug imports.
The service says calls increased by 20% in the past week, fuelled illnesses such as the flu.
Meg Draper was enjoying the social side of student life - within weeks she had died from meningitis.
It recommends that only men with a confirmed genetic risk of prostate cancer should be screened for the disease.
Russell T Davies says misinformation about the virus made him "despair".
More than 200 patients suffered harm, including unnecessary mastectomies, the BBC has been told.
Sharon Price from Newcastle-under-Lyme says she was glad to avoid the need for surgery.
Brain scans on thousands of people reveal the dramatic shifts the brain goes through between birth and death.
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.