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Environment Agency rates eight of nine companies as poor and needing improvement
England’s water company ratings have fallen to the lowest level on record after sewage pollution last year hit a new peak, with eight of nine water companies rated as poor and needing improvement by the Environment Agency.
The cumulative score of only 19 stars out of a possible 36 is the lowest since the regulator began auditing the companies using the star rating system in 2011.
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Use of wood-burning stoves and fires in homes is mostly unnecessary and their toxic pollution costs the NHS millions
The burning of wood and coal in homes contributes to almost 2,500 deaths a year in the UK, analysis has found. Stopping unnecessary burning would save the NHS more than £54m a year, the experts concluded.
Wood-burning stoves and open fires are one the biggest sources of small pollution particles, which cause heart and lung disease, and their use has risen in recent years. The report also links this toxic air pollution to 3,700 cases of diabetes and 1,500 cases of asthma a year, although the health impacts are likely to be underestimated.
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French multinational is ordered to remove its website messages about aiming for carbon neutrality
A French oil company engaged in “misleading commercial practices” about the scope of its environmental commitments, a court has ruled.
TotalEnergies, which this month said it aimed to “ramp up production of gas”, was found on Thursday to have probably misled consumers with claims about its climate policies. The civil court in Paris ordered the company to remove messages from its website that said it wanted to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and be a big player in the energy transition.
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From a red-throated loon landing on water, to good and bad hair days and an airborne squirrel, here is a selection of the finalists in this year’s Nikon Comedy Wildlife awards. A winner will be announced on 9 December
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Former European officers say spending on low-carbon power would make nations more resilient to threats from potential aggressors
Investment in renewable energy should be counted under defence expenditure, says a group of retired senior military personnel, because the climate crisis represents a threat to national security.
They have called for increased spending on low-carbon power as a way of making the UK and other European countries more resilient to threats from Russia and other potential aggressors.
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Private member’s bill backed by Chris Packham and Natalie Bennett would impose a duty of care on government and business
A radical proposal to change the legal status of nature will be launched today in the House of Lords, with the unveiling of the UK nature’s rights bill initiative.
The private member’s bill aims to legally enshrine the idea that there can be no lasting economic progress or social justice without respect for the natural world, and to change the legal status of nature from objects, property and resources to a legal subject with inherent rights.
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Exclusive: Promise to remove almost all fossil fuels from UK’s electricity supply by 2030 may be quietly abandoned over cost
Ministers are considering dropping one of their central green pledges in an effort to keep energy bills down, sources have told the Guardian.
Government insiders say Keir Starmer is prepared to miss his own target of removing almost all fossil fuels from the UK’s electricity supply by 2030 if doing so proves much more expensive than building gas power instead.
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Local non-profits and schools are helping students explore traditional practices paired with modern science to make food sovereignty a reality
The Blackfeet Nation is a remote and rugged landscape on the windswept plains of northern Montana. While rich in resources, the remote location and management by the federal government have made food access a challenge here.
Only four grocery stores serve the entire reservation. Fresh, healthy produce and meat options are often limited at these stores, and prices are higher than in neighboring communities, making access difficult for low–income families. Instead, highly processed foods, rich in sugars, carbohydrates and fat make up the bulk of the food choices.
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In 2005, the Guardian documented the births of 10 babies as a way to tell the story of millions across the continent. We caught up with three of them, finding hardship – and hope
Twenty years ago, the Guardian featured 10 newborn babies in countries across Africa, describing their births, their families and the environments they had been born into. We followed these babies at five-year intervals up to 2015 – the date the United Nations had set for achieving the millennium development goals – as a way to tell stories that might be those of millions of others across the continent as they worked to provide the best chance for their children.
Although some progress was made, the millennium development goals were not met by 2015 and that year UN member states adopted a new approach – the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with 17 goals for ending poverty and inequality, while also tackling the climate crisis. With five years to go, only 18% of those goalsare on track to be met.
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Boreas, whose icy winds herald winter, was regarded as saboteur of heroes and saviour of cities by ancient Greeks
The ancient Greeks personified the north wind as the god Boreas, and his chill breezes were a sign of the imminent arrival of winter. Boreas was depicted as a winged man in a billowing cloak holding a conch shell. He had a notoriously bad temper that produced violent storms, and he shipwrecked Odysseus and Hercules.
But in some cities, Boreas was a hero and saviour. When a Persian fleet threatened Athens in about 480BC, an oracle instructed the Athenians to pray to the winds. According to Herodotus, “from clear and windless weather” a storm blew up out of the north that lasted for three days. The storm was said to have destroyed virtually all the Persian ships, causing the invasion to fail.
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