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Draft Motion for a Resolution prepared for the EU Parliamentary Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, March 2016
Draft Motion prepared by Rapporteurs Pavel Poc (Socialists and Democrats Group), Kateřina Konečná on behalf of the European United Left and Nordic Green Left group, Bas Eickhout of the Greens / European Free Alliance Group, Piernicola Pedicini of the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy Group, Mark Demesmaeker, Sirpa Pietikäinen and Frédérique Ries. This draft Motion was carried forward for the vote in a Parliamentary Plenary Session in April 2016.
Changing temperatures may be behind change in behaviour, which experts fear threatens three species’ survival
Penguins in Antarctica have radically shifted their breeding season, apparently as a response to climate change, research has found.
Dramatic shifts in behaviour were revealed by a decade-long study led by Penguin Watch at the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University, with some penguins’ breeding period moving forward by more than three weeks.
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Exclusive: Campaigners claim changes will let companies ‘off the hook’, as government prepares to unveil new white paper for water industry
Water companies could be let off fines for polluting the environment under changes announced in the government’s new white paper.
The environment secretary, Emma Reynolds, hailed the changes as “once-in-a-generation reforms” featuring “tough oversight, real accountability and no more excuses”.
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Studies detecting microplastics throughout human bodies have made for alarming reading in recent years. But last week, the Guardian’s environment editor, Damian Carrington, reported on major doubts among a group of scientists about how some of this research has been conducted.
Damian tells Ian Sample how he first heard about the concerns, why the scientists think the discoveries are probably the result of contamination and false positives, and where it leaves the field. He also reflects on how we should now think about our exposure to microplastics
Clips: Vox, Detroit Local 4
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Intense rainfall has caused the water to go murky in some areas, making them attractive spots for fish and sharks to feed
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Four people have been attacked by sharks in New South Wales in 48 hours, including three incidents at Sydney beaches.
Any shark bite incident is traumatic and Sydney swimmers have been warned to stay out of the water.
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Buxton, Derbyshire: Others are taller, wider, older, but our varied stock of willows have a generosity that sets them apart
Usually in this country when we think about important trees, we focus on height, girth, age, visual impact – in short, their material properties. Few therefore would probably name willow as a number one British species.
Willows often have no central trunk as in our archetypal tree model, and few specimens are more than 7 metres tall. Yet there is a sphere in which willows are pre‑eminent: more invertebrates live on them (452 species) than any other trees, including oaks, their closest contenders (423). In his glorious guide Trees of Britain and Ireland, Jon Stokes points out that 160 lichens thrive on willows too.
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Trust had $254m invested in companies such as Chevron, BP and Shell in 2024, a nine-year record, analysis shows
The Gates Foundation Trust holds hundreds of millions of dollars in fossil fuel extractors despite Bill Gates’ claims of divestment made in 2019.
End-of-year filings reveal that in 2024 the trust invested $254m in companies that extract fossil fuels such as Chevron, BP and Shell. This was a nine-year record and up 21% from 2016, Guardian analysis found. Adjusting for inflation, it was the highest amount since 2019.
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Study links rapid growth of ocean macroalgae to global heating and nutrient pollution
Scientists have warned of a potential “regime shift” in the oceans, as the rapid growth of huge mats of seaweed appears to be driven by global heating and excessive enrichment of waters from farming runoff and other pollutants.
Over the past two decades, seaweed blooms have expanded by a staggering 13.4% a year in the tropical Atlantic and western Pacific, with the most dramatic increases occurring after 2008, according to researchers at the University of South Florida.
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A return to nuclear power is at the heart of Japan’s energy policy but, in the wake of the 2011 disaster, residents’ fears about tsunamis, earthquakes and evacuation plans remain
The activity around the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant is reaching its peak: workers remove earth to expand the width of a main road, while lorries arrive at its heavily guarded entrance. A long perimeter fence is lined with countless coils of razor wire, and in a layby, a police patrol car monitors visitors to the beach – one of the few locations with a clear view of the reactors, framed by a snowy Mount Yoneyama.
When all seven of its reactors are working, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa generates 8.2 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power millions of households. Occupying 4.2 sq km of land in Niigata prefecture on the Japan Sea coast, it is the biggest nuclear power plant in the world.
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There are so many koalas in some places that food is the issue – while elsewhere populations are threatened by habitat loss. And there are no easy fixes
On French Island in Victoria’s Western Port Bay, koalas are dropping from trees. Eucalypts have been eaten bare by the marsupials, with local reports of some found starving and dead. Multiple koalas – usually solitary animals – can often be seen on a single gum.
Koalas were first introduced to French Island from the mainland in the 1880s, a move that protected the species from extinction in the decades they were extensively hunted for their pelts. In the absence of predators and diseases such as chlamydia, the population thrived.
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Pioneering scheme hopes species that thrived for thousands of years in Irish waters can do so again
The dinghy slowed to a stop at a long line of black bobbing baskets and David Lawlor reached out to inspect the first one.
Inside lay 60 oysters, all with their shells closed, shielding the life within. “They look great,” beamed Lawlor. So did their neighbours in the next basket and the ones after that, all down the line of 300 baskets, totalling 18,000 oysters.
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Astma je jedna od najčešćih kroničnih bolesti na svijetu, koja pogađa preko 500 milijuna ljudi. Egzacerbacije astme - poznate kao napadi astme - glavni su uzrok morbiditeta bolesti i troškova zdravstvene zaštite. Unatoč prevalenciji astme, kliničarima trenutno nedostaju pouzdani biomarkeri za utvrđivanje koji su pacijenti s visokim rizikom od budućih napadaja. Trenutne metode često ne uspijevaju razlikovati stabilne pacijente od onih sklonih teškim egzacerbacijama.
Jednostavan test krvi može pomoći u otkrivanju raka kod pacijenata s nespecifičnim simptomima poput umora, boli ili gubitka tjelesne težine, tvrdi nova studija provedena u Švedskoj. Korištenjem proteomike, metode za analizu proteina velikih razmjera, izmjerene su razine 1.463 različita proteina u plazmi. Zatim su znanstvenici identificirali specifičnu kombinaciju proteina, poznatu kao proteinski potpis, koja bi se mogla povezati s dijagnozom raka.
Izgleda da, osobe koje su nakon COVID-19 iskusile neurokognitivne poteškoće - poput glavobolja, vrtoglavice, poremećaja ravnoteže, promjena okusa/mirisa i moždane magle - imaju značajan porast proteina tau u krvnoj plazmi, koji se nalazi u živcima, a posebno u mozgu. Prekomjerne razine tau proteina povezane su s neurodegenerativnim bolestima i nalaze se kod mnogih pacijenata s Alzheimerovom bolešću.
Sveobuhvatan pregled gotovo 130 studija pokazuje do sada najjače dokaze da su perfluoroalkilne i polifluoroalkilne tvari (PFAS) povezane s gestacijskim dijabetesom, a istovremeno naglašava nesigurnost oko drugih ishoda dijabetesa i potrebu za prospektivnijim istraživanjima.
Izgleda da pravilno pripremljeni proizvodi od bambusa mogu ponuditi nekoliko zdravstvenih prednosti, uključujući poboljšane probavne, antioksidativne i metaboličke ishode, pokazao je pregled više studija. Ovi učinci vjerojatno su povezani s bogatim sadržajem dijetalnih vlakana, bioaktivnih spojeva i mikronutrijenata u bambusu.
Desetljeća duga studija pokazuje kako obrasci u cirkulirajućim metabolitima, oblikovani genima i načinom života, mogu identificirati ljude s visokim rizikom od dijabetesa tipa 2 mnogo prije pojave simptoma.
Američki znanstvenici s University of Virginia School of Medicine otkrili su kako popularna ketogena dijeta s niskim udjelom ugljikohidrata štiti od epileptičnih napadaja i moguće neurodegenerativnih bolesti poput Alzheimerove i Parkinsonove bolesti.
Rezultati nove studije pokazuju da promjene metilacije DNK specifične za dob u spermi u područjima kontrole otiska mogu doprinijeti riziku od poremećaja iz autističnog spektra kod potomstva. Smatra se, da su ovi rezultati relevantni jer su dijagnoze autizma porasle dok mnogi muškarci kasnije u životu postaju očevi.
Od svih vrsta raka dojke, trostruko negativni rak dojke (TNBC) je najagresivniji i nedostaju mu specifične terapije. TNBC također ima veću vjerojatnost metastaziranja, odnosno putovanja kroz krvotok kako bi se proširio na druge organe, što uzrokuje većinu smrtnih slučajeva povezanih s rakom dojke svake godine. Do sada je praćenje cirkulirajućih tumorskih stanica (CTC), snažnog pokazatelja metastaza raka, bilo izazovno jer postoji vrlo malo markera koji specifično identificiraju te stanice.
Prema rezultatima novog istraživanja, eksperimentalno cjepivo protiv raka, NOUS-209, sigurno stimulira imunološki sustav da cilja prekancerozne i kancerogene stanice kod osoba s Lynchovim sindromom (LS).
