Experts cast doubt on conclusion of government-funded study of factory emitting forever chemicals near Blackpool
Concerns have been raised about the conclusions drawn by a government-funded study that looked at rates of kidney cancer in the vicinity of a factory using forever chemicals near Blackpool.
Pfoa, which is a known carcinogenic forever chemical that was globally banned in 2020, was emitted from the AGC Chemicals Europe factory in Thornton-Cleveleys, a town north of Blackpool, between the 1950s and 2012. During this period, approximately 49 tonnes of Pfoa were emitted into the air. The factory, which AGC Chemicals Europe bought in 1999, stopped using Pfoa in 2012.
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Move to dismantle $368m sea observatory initiative faced opposition from experts and lawmakers
The Donald Trump administration has reversed its decision to dismantle a $368m deep-sea observation system following an outcry from lawmakers and ocean experts.
On Thursday, the National Science Foundation announced that it would halt plans to dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative, stating: “effective immediately, [it] will not proceed with further removal or descoping of equipment from the remaining arrays and will continue operations including planned maintenance”.
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Expansion could also hit access to housing, education, healthcare, open spaces and transport, analysis says
Construction of a third runway at Heathrow is likely to have significant adverse effects on the health and wellbeing of up to 3 million people living nearby, an official report has said, as the government launched the next stage of its rapid airport expansion plan.
An analysis for the Department for Transport (DfT) has found that expanding London’s hub airport could have “major adverse” impacts on the health of the most local population.
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In this week’s newsletter: The melting of the Arctic’s summer sea ice is the most visible upshot of the climate crisis. Refreezing it might be a long shot – but do drastic times call for drastic measures?
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Speeding across rapidly melting Arctic ice on a snowmobile gave me a vivid feel for its beauty and fragility. The brilliant white landscape gleamed ahead, while the sky blue pools of meltwater jetted up on to my boots.
When I visited Cambridge Bay in northern Canada at the start of this month, the melt season had hit with brutal speed: temperatures were 5-10C above normal, kickstarting the melting almost overnight.
Why farmers see Colombia’s knife-edge election as a battle for the Amazon’s future
Jamaica’s beach access crisis: ‘We shouldn’t be forced to fight for what is already ours’
‘The Antarctic is the last frontier’: the quest to save Shackleton’s Endurance
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Scientists are examining how ‘blood rain’ affects soil microbiome, with Portuguese vineyards a particular focus
Dust events, when thousands of tonnes of fine sand whipped up from the Sahara are dumped over Europe, are becoming more intense. These sometimes produce “blood rain” that leaves visible red streaks, and while generally harmless, the dust is not sterile but brings a freight of microorganisms.
One big concern is how imported microbes may affect the soil microbiome and impact agricultural fertility and crop yield. Southern Portugal lies along one of the main deposition routes for Saharan dust, and the effect on vineyards in particular is a growing concern. A team from the University of Lisbon carried out genomic mapping of microbes in dust samples from 2022’s Storm Celia.
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The warming caused by climate breakdown in the landlocked east Asian country is transforming its fragile ecosystem
As the climate crisis accelerates, Mongolia is warming rapidly, transforming the country’s cryosphere, including some of the most southerly permafrost landscapes in the northern hemisphere.
Although rarely associated with the Arctic, Mongolia has a remarkably cold climate. Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital city in the world, and a substantial portion of the country lies within the Arctic Ocean drainage basin. As a result, many of the physical and ecological processes occurring here resemble those found at much higher latitudes.
People in Khövsgöl province say they have observed an increase in the number of arrivals of migratory birds from China in recent years, consuming large quantities of fish in the region’s lakes. In northern Mongolia, communities closely tied to fishing, herding and tourism are witnessing the visible transformation of fragile freshwater ecosystems shaped by climate breakdown and the changing cryosphere.
Historical surveys conducted in the 1970s suggested that nearly 63% of Mongolia was underlain by permafrost. Today, estimates indicate that only 26% to 29% remains. Unlike the ice-rich permafrost of Siberia, Canada or Alaska, much of Mongolia’s permafrost is relatively warm, thin and dry, making it particularly sensitive to rising temperatures. Climate change is the primary reason for this decline, although local pressures such as overgrazing can further accelerate thaw by removing the vegetation that insulates the ground – Nikolay Shiklomanov, a professor in the department of geography and environment at George Washington University
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Veteran campaigner Robin Hanbury-Tenison is raising money for a research station near his home in Cornwall
Pedalling on water for more than a hundred miles in a heatwave, pushed back by east winds and having to navigate 31 locks would be a challenge for anybody. But when that body is 90 years old, with a bad knee, failing balance and malfunctioning arms and shoulders, it’s a herculean feat.
Rainforest campaigner Robin Hanbury-Tenison, 90, is pedalling 104 miles down the River Thames from Oxford to Richmond on a water-bike to raise money for a unique research station which is being built to study Britain’s temperate rainforest.
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As demand soars, the country’s mangrove forests and the livelihoods of shellfish gatherers are under threat from encroaching farms and unchecked pollution
At low tide, Johana Carolina Cruz Potes steps into the mudflats around Isla Costa Rica, in Ecuador’s Jambelí Archipelago. Holding a bucket and a short metal hook, she probes the tangled roots of a mangrove patch, searching for conchanegra, black-shelled cockles, buried beneath the sludge.
Cruz Potes has done this work since she was nine, when she first followed her father into the mud. But earning a living from shellfish gathering – often the only income for families here – has become harder as grounds shrink and catches decline.
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A prospecting company’s search for gold has the town of Lone Pine and Indigenous leaders on edge, as the Trump administration greenlights new projects across the American west
Lone Pine, population 1,882, lies along a stretch of California highway framed by the vast Inyo mountains and a sweeping desert landscape of sagebrush and dunes.
It’s the type of small town tourists drive through en route to Death Valley; where hikers get a motel room between Pacific Crest Trail treks. But amid the quiet downtown strip of bars and shops, there are signs of a battle brewing under the town’s sleepy surface.
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More than half of Ayetoro – a Christian utopia founded in the 1940s – has been lost to the ocean, and its remaining people are running out of options
In the early hours of 15 February 2019, the Atlantic Ocean came for Arowo Victoria’s livelihood. The 60-year-old retired midwife was asleep when neighbours began banging on her door, shouting that the sea had started covering buildings along the nearby coastline.
By the time she got to her small shop, she discovered that the Atlantic had already swept it away, destroying the business she had built with borrowed money after retirement.
Continue reading...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.
Patients on the trial have not needed medication to manage their condition.
People tell BBC Your Voice the rising cost of private dentistry is putting them in a difficult position.
The decision for the one-off vaccine programme follows the unprecedented outbreak in Kent this year.
Manufacturer Novo Nordisk says a daily tablet of the drug could be more convenient for some people than weekly injections.
New data reveals sheer scale of patients in England being treated in unsafe and undignified make-shift areas.
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.