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Exclusive: Defra warned three years ago of farmland contamination by water firms’ sewage-derived product
Government ministers have ignored Environment Agency pleas to tighten rules on the use of sludge fertiliser for three years, despite the regulator having said that water company attitudes towards the substance are “akin to fly-tipping on to agricultural land”, it can be revealed.
Sludge, sometimes referred to as biosolids, is a byproduct of the sewage treatment process that is sold by water companies to farmers as a low-cost fertiliser.
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Thousands of people are killed each year by floods – and climate breakdown is making them more likely
Deluges of water are washing away people, homes and livelihoods as extreme rains make rivers burst their banks and high seas help send storm tides surging over coastal walls. How dangerous is flooding – and what can we do to keep ourselves safe?
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Research in Chile suggests climate crisis makes eruptions more likely and explosive, and warns of Antarctica risk
The melting of glaciers and ice caps by the climate crisis could unleash a barrage of explosive volcanic eruptions, a study suggests.
The loss of ice releases the pressure on underground magma chambers and makes eruptions more likely. This process has been seen in Iceland, an unusual island that sits on a mid-ocean tectonic plate boundary. But the research in Chile is one of the first studies to show a surge in volcanism on a continent in the past, after the last ice age ended.
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The seaside resort has become a byword for coastal deprivation but its youth say there’s a world of creativity bubbling under the surface
Michael knows exactly how he feels about his home town of Blackpool. “It’s just brilliant,” he says. Walking along the beachfront past people soaking up the sunshine on benches and kids playing in the sand overlooked by Blackpool Tower, he throws out his arms with a huge grin.
“For me, it has been an amazing place to grow up. I don’t understand why anyone would talk down their home town. If you feel shit about your town, you’re going to feel shit about yourself, right?”
Michael in the Sea Life aquarium, where he works part-time
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Experts scrambling to understand losses in hives across the country are finally identifying the culprits. And the damage to farmed bees is a sign of trouble for wild bees too
Bret Adee is one of the largest beekeepers in the US, with 2 billion bees across 55,000 hives. The business has been in his family since the 1930s, and sends truckloads of bees across the country from South Dakota, pollinating crops such as almonds, onions, watermelons and cucumbers.
Last December, his bees were wintering in California when the weather turned cold. Bees grouped on top of hives trying to keep warm. “Every time I went out to the beehive there were less and less,” says Adee. “Then a week later, there’d be more dead ones to pick up … every week there is attrition, just continually going down.”
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Kelso, Roxburghshire:It’s rare I hear this delightful bunting at home, but here in the Borders their numbers suggest farmers are doing the right things
Staying still and attentive are thought to be essential to appreciate nature. Whereas I, cycling west on quiet lanes outside Kelso, was neither. Somewhere to my left was the Tweed. Somewhere further left lay the Cheviot Hills. Far to my right were the Lammermuirs. Between these ranges lies some of the best arable land in the Borders, land worth fighting for, and with castles to prove it. None of this was on my mind. I was too blissed out on the cool air of early morning meeting my face at just the right speed.
Then something began to percolate. A sound chipping away at my inattention. I knew that sound, that insistent one-tone crescendo, the “little bit of bread” of a yellowhammer, with its final cheesy payoff. It’s a song that, unlike many others, extends deep into summer. Yet there was something unusual about it, something I couldn’t immediately place. Then the penny dropped. I was covering a kilometre every four or five minutes, but at no stage for a considerable time had I stopped hearing a yellowhammer.
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Diquat is banned in the UK, EU, China and other countries. The US has resisted calls to regulate it
The herbicide ingredient used to replace glyphosate in Roundup and other weedkiller products can kill gut bacteria and damage organs in multiple ways, new research shows.
The ingredient, diquat, is widely employed in the US as a weedkiller in vineyards and orchards, and is increasingly sprayed elsewhere as the use of controversial herbicide substances such as glyphosate and paraquat drops in the US.
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Agriculture is woven into Ukrainian culture, but daily attacks, a loss of workers and land contamination are tearing the industry apart
In a field outside the eastern Ukraine city of Sumy, Mykola Mondrayev, 55, is moving the wreckage of a Russian drone. A pickup truck stands nearby, mounted with a gun, the only defence against the deadly unmanned aerial devices.
Three days a week, Mondrayev serves with a territorial defence unit. The other days he works his fields.
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Sludge used as fertiliser on farmland contains harmful chemicals that scientists suspect are entering food chain
For decades, sewage sludge has been quietly spread across Britain’s farmland, marketed as a nutrient-rich fertiliser. But insiders and scientists warn that hidden within it is a mix of household and industrial chemicals such as Pfas (“forever chemicals”), pharmaceuticals, pesticides, hormone-damaging chemicals and microplastics, threatening the long-term health of the land.
Every year, 768,000 tonnes of this byproduct of wastewater treatment is spread over 150,000 hectares of agricultural land in England. The practice is banned in some countries, such as Switzerland, but in the UK it continues with little scrutiny and has become a covert route for dumping toxic industrial waste, experts say.
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The administration has wiped over $2.7bn in climate grants, hitting underserved communities across the US the hardest
This story was originally published by Floodlight
Acre by acre, the village of Kipnuk is falling into the river.
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