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When a small Swedish town discovered their drinking water contained extremely high levels of Pfas, they had no idea what it would mean for their health and their children’s future
If Agneta Bruno closes her eyes, the soapy smell takes her back to childhood. Cycling home to the barracks where she lived with her father, an air force major, she would whiz through patches of snowy-white foam near the entrance of the base. The foam resembled the bubbles you get in the bathtub, just thicker. “I had to lift my feet up to avoid getting wet,” Bruno told me.
Aqueous film-forming foam (Afff) is a miracle of firefighting: it’s highly effective in putting out flammable liquid fires, such as those caused by jet fuel spills. Chemicals in the foam create a stable blanket over liquid fuel, trapping the flammable vapours and extinguishing the fire. At the air force base in Bruno’s home town of Kallinge in Sweden, firefighters were trained to douse flames using the foam. New recruits came every few weeks, so the training sessions were pretty constant. Afterwards, the foam would soak away into the sandy soil and disappear.
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Breaching threshold would ramp up catastrophic weather events, further increasing human suffering
The planet’s remaining carbon budget to meet the international target of 1.5C has just two years left at the current rate of emissions, scientists have warned, showing how deep into the climate crisis the world has fallen.
Breaching the target would ramp up the extreme weather already devastating communities around the world. It would also require carbon dioxide to be sucked from the atmosphere in future to restore the stable climate in which the whole of civilisation developed over the past 10,000 years.
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Volatile weather patterns may be altering taste of juniper berries – a key botanical in the spirit – scientists say
The flavour of a gin and tonic may be impacted by climate change, scientists have found.
Volatile weather patterns, made more likely by climate breakdown, could change the taste of juniper berries, which are the key botanical that give gin its distinctive taste.
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Garments thrown out by consumers from Next, George, M&S and others found in or near conservation areas
Clothes discarded by UK consumers and shipped to Ghana have been found in a huge rubbish dump in protected wetlands, an investigation has found.
Reporters for Unearthed working with Greenpeace Africa found garments from Next in the dump and other sites, and items from George at Asda and Marks & Spencer washed up nearby.
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Species already threatened by Usutu virus finding it difficult to extract worms from sun-hardened soil
Few, if any, British garden birds are as well-known or well-loved as the blackbird. Yet a combination of warmer, drier springs and a mosquito-borne disease in the UK – both the result of the climate crisis – have put this member of the thrush family under threat.
Like many other common and familiar species, blackbirds evolved in woods and forests but then learned to take advantage of the plentiful food and suitable nesting sites in urban, suburban and rural gardens. They often feed on lawns, using their powerful bill to probe for earthworms and other invertebrates beneath the surface of the soil.
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West Norwood, London: Let not the relentlessness of this bird’s call detract from its intricacies. Today, I even get a close view
Up the hill, right at the fire station, cut through the housing estate, cross the road, into the wood. And relax. A regular short walk to the nearest green patch in our little corner of south London, the muggy June warmth amplified by suburban tarmac and concrete.
The little wood offers shady respite, and there is added uplift in the form of two repeated syllables from a nearby oak puncturing the early afternoon peace. Chiff. Chaff. Chiff. Chaff. Chiff. Chaff. It’s a chiffchaff.
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Production of staple crops projected to fall by as much as 120 calories per person per day for every 1C of heating
Some of our critical staple crops could suffer “substantial” production losses due to climate breakdown, a study has found, even if farmers adapt to worsening weather.
Maize, soy, rice, wheat, cassava and sorghum yields are projected to fall by as much as 120 calories per person per day for every 1C the planet heats up, according to new research in Nature, with average daily losses that could add up to the equivalent of not having breakfast.
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More than 120 years after billions of the trees were wiped out, blight-proof seeds are being planted
It was in New York City that a mysterious fungus was first spotted on an American chestnut, a blight that was to rapidly sweep across the eastern US, wiping out billions of the cherished trees. Now, 120 years later, there is fresh hope of a comeback for chestnuts, spurred not only by scientists but also eager New Yorkers planting blight-proof seeds in their back yards and local parks.
The American chestnut was once found in vast numbers from Maine to Mississippi and known as the redwoods of the east due to its prodigious size. But 4bn trees were killed off in the first half of last century by a blight introduced from Asia to which it had little defense, spread by spores carried by the wind, rain and animals.
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In a world of stress and social media, birding offers something completely different. And it is now easier than ever to get to know your chaffinch from your chiffchaff
I’m assured this is a big deal: on the far side of a field in Thetford, separated from me by a gate, there is a stone-curlew.
Jon Carter, from the British Trust for Ornithology, patiently directs my binoculars up, down and past patches of grass until my gaze lands on an austere-looking, long-legged brown bird. “Quite a rare bird,” Carter says, pleased. “Very much a bird of the Breckland.”
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Since 1999, Armando López Pocol and his team of volunteers have bucked the trend for deforestation, regenerating the landscape of the highlands with their Chico Mendes project
Armando López Pocol is showing off some of the thousands of trees he has planted in Pachaj, his village in the highlands of western Guatemala, when he suddenly halts his white pickup truck. Alongside an American volunteer, Lyndon Hauge, he gazes out over a charred field. Clouds of smoke are still billowing from the ground.
As he walks through the ash-covered field, his optimistic speech turns to sadness and he pauses in silence to take in the barren landscape.
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