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As this year’s invertebrate of the year competition launches, we join scientists studying last year’s winner
Witek Morek is closely inspecting an old brick-and-flint wall on the Cambridgeshire campus of the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
“We are going to use a very advanced tool designed by bioengineers and evolved over millions of years – the human hand – and grab some moss, and put it in an envelope,” he says.
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Public health authority says 2,025 excess deaths probably an underestimate and that it expects toll to rise further
The number of deaths recorded in France surged by nearly 30% during the hottest week of the record-breaking heatwave that scorched much of Europe last month, the public health authority has said, adding that it expected the toll to rise further.
Public Health France said on Friday there had been “an increase of 29.1%, corresponding to 2,025 additional deaths compared with the previous week”. It said the figure was probably an underestimate and “mortality will rise further”.
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Guardian recreates audio landscape of past filled by loud morning symphony before 73m wild birds were lost
Imagine a deafening abundance of birdsong so loud it wakes your children at dawn; the chirrup of house sparrows, the chattering of starlings, the melody of the wren, and the clear high-pitched flute of blackbirds saturating the garden, reverberating around your local park, dominating your neighbourhood from early morning to evening twilight.
So loud is the song of the thrush that the naturalist and ornithologist WH Hudson wrote in 1919 that he was grateful when observing one that it was perched on a tree at a distance from his home, “so that when I woke at half past three or four o’clock, the shrill indefatigable voice came in at the open window, softened by distance and washed by the dewy atmosphere to greater purity”.
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Hitchin, Hertfordshire: The broad-bodied chaser is often the first to arrive at a new pond, and sure enough, I spot an exuvia clinging to a leaf blade
The hole in the nest box on our house wall is all mouth. A sparrow chick on the cusp of fledging has thrust its head out, beak open, displaying an orange gape ringed with a creamy-yellow flange. It’s an unmissable prompt for the parents: Insert Invertebrates Here.
I’m watching the spuggies from behind the pond, where I’m perfectly positioned to see the aftermath of another emergence. At the top of a bur-reed, the hollow legs of a dragonfly exuvia (the shed larval casing) grip the leaf blade, while a split in the cuticle shows where the adult has pushed through its exoskeleton.
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Participant-led YPS scheme creates green projects while providing summer jobs in country with high youth unemployment
Oona Verveld and Clara Vikberg have just secured their first paid summer jobs. While their peers are mostly limited to entry-level positions in retail or fast-food restaurants, the 18-year-olds are some of the first among their generation to have landed a new type of role: young planetary stewards.
“Someone came up with the simple idea that, since young people clearly need jobs, why not create them?” says My Sellberg, the project manager and programme lead for regenerative development at Upplandsbygd, a non-profit based north of Stockholm. “The strongest objective was to inspire hope for the future among our young residents.”
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In one area 76% of fishing boats were followed, with baby dolphins learning the technique from their parents
Bottlenose dolphins in the Adriatic are increasingly following trawlers to scavenge for food, with baby dolphins learning the technique from their parents, a study has found.
“These days the easiest way to find [bottlenose dolphins] is to look for trawlers,” said Giovanni Bearzi, a co-author of the study and the president of Dolphin Biology and Conservation in Italy. “Many of them are followed by the dolphins that go to forage and scavenge in their wake.
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In this week’s newsletter: Activists are accusing the government of privatising the coastline to support the country’s thriving tourism industry, at the expense of locals
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Every year, millions of visitors from across the globevisit Jamaica to enjoy its gorgeous beaches, fuelling a multibillion dollar tourism industry. But, in recent years, its picture-perfect coastlines have become a battleground for access after successive governmentsprivatised its shorelines to support the country’s thriving all-inclusive hotel industry.
The complex row, which has seen protesters clashing with police and campaigners tearing down barriers around privatised properties, is now playing out in the country’s courts. We take a closer look at each side’s case, and what’s at stake.
European heatwave is worst ever and impossible without climate crisis, scientists say
A sad inevitability’: after decades of climate warnings, why is Europe so unprepared for rising heat?
‘But we’re just 1% of emissions’: do smaller countries’ climate efforts matter?
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Shifting demands and political ideology have left the industry vulnerable to global competition from cheap Chinese cars
Earlier this month, an intriguing new Detroit-based electric vehicle startup hit the market – Slate Auto, a Jeff Bezos-backed venture offering something US buyers rarely see these days – a pick up truck billed as “affordable”.
Its base price is $24,950, making it one of the lowest-cost autos in the US market and close to half the price of the average new vehicle. But as the US contends with sharply rising auto costs, even Slate may be getting left behind in the global electric vehicle (EV) transition. The global EV industry is entering a golden age powered by cheap Chinese cars that can be bought for as little as $10,000.
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Kitchen scraps and garden waste can be a valuable resource. But some communities are forgoing the Fogo bin and collecting their own compost
Change by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint
Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.com
There is a rising stink around rubbish removal in Australia. Councils around the country are looking for ways to divert more organic waste away from landfill.
Australians generate about 14.6m tonnes of organic waste each year – mostly garden clippings, food scraps and timber. About half of it is collected from households in kerbside bins.
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Sound of thunder varies depending on distance of listener from lightning as atmosphere muffles and absorbs sound
A bolt of lightning heats the air almost instantly to as high as 30,000C, causing explosive expansion and a supersonic shock wave that becomes thunder. What that thunder sounds like to a listener depends largely on where they are.
Nearby lightning produces a distinctive snap or crack, or a startling explosive boom. Large, complex lightning with multiple segments generates a peal of thunder, a series of booms of different pitches as the sound from each of the segments reaches you in turn.
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