-
An area nearly a third larger than India turned permanently arid in past three decades, research shows
An area of land nearly a third larger than India has turned from humid conditions to dryland – arid areas where agriculture is difficult – in the past three decades, research has found.
Drylands now make up 40% of all land on Earth, excluding Antarctica. Three-quarters of the world’s land suffered drier conditions in the past 30 years, which is likely to be permanent, according to the study by the UN Science Policy Interface, a body of scientists convened by the United Nations.
Continue reading...
-
Filter performs well in removing plastic pollution from water and Chinese researchers say it appears to be scalable
A sponge made of cotton and squid bone that has absorbed about 99.9% of microplastics in water samples in China could provide an elusive answer to ubiquitous microplastic pollution in water across the globe, a new report suggests.
Just as importantly, the filter’s production appears to be scalable, the University of Wuhan study authors said in the paper, which was peer-reviewed and published in the journal Science Advances. That would address a problem that has stymied the use of previous microplastic filtration systems that were successful in controlled settings, but could not be scaled up.
Continue reading...
-
Government should point to evidence of FSA licensing of additive, says chair of environment and climate change committee
The government must urgently reassure consumers that feed additives given to cattle to reduce methane emissions are harmless, and a vital tool in tackling the climate crisis, the chair of an influential parliamentary committee has warned.
Lady Sheehan, chair of the environment and climate change committee of the House of Lords, called on ministers to step up as a row has blown up over the prospective use of the additive Bovaer in British dairy herds supplying Arla, the dairy company.
Continue reading...
-
Tooting, London: The ferruginous duck at my local-ish pond is likely an escapee, meaning hardcore birders might not bother with it. But not I
A day of incipient winter, sun bright in sharp blue sky. Hat and gloves weather. Tooting Common pond is home to ducks and geese and swans (oh my!) – what a birding friend dismissively calls “the usual rubbish”. But for a few weeks now there has been a glamorous addition, a rarity, flown in from wherever to bestow a hint of the exotic on these everyday urban surroundings.
A ferruginous duck – “fudge duck” for short, the nickname felicitously combining abbreviation and a succinct description of the bird’s colour. Reports say that it’s a first-winter female “of unknown origin”. This is code for “probably escaped from a wildfowl collection but without a leg ring we can’t be certain”. Hardcore birders, valuing the truly wild above all else, might sniff at an escapee, but a bird is a bird. Besides, I have never seen a ferruginous duck, and while I wouldn’t usually make a special journey for a sighting, this is merely a short extension of my daily walk. It would be rude not to.
Continue reading...
-
Energy company’s deal with Japan’s Jera will allow it to focus on exploiting oil and gas assets
BP has agreed a deal worth up to £4.5bn to build offshore windfarms with Japan’s biggest power producer, in a shift that will allow it to gain some access to zero-carbon wind energy while focusing on fossil fuels.
The FTSE 100 company will create a 50-50 joint-venture with the Japanese power generator Jera to combine their offshore wind assets, the companies announced on Monday.
Continue reading...
-
Conservation groups join those who helped plant woodland in opposing expansion of bottling plant
Harrogate Spring Water, which is owned by the multinational Danone, is planning to cut down a wood planted by schoolchildren in order to expand its bottling factory in the North Yorkshire town.
Two primary schools, along with other local volunteers, helped to plant 450 trees in a project aimed at fighting climate breakdown organised by the Rotary Club of Harrogate almost 20 years ago.
Continue reading...
-
An alliance of political groups is harnessing real fears about the local impact of wind and solar farms – and using them to spruik nuclear power
The entrance is marked by an AI-generated image of a dead whale, floating among wind turbines. On the first floor of the East Maitland bowling club, dire warnings are being shared about how offshore wind may impact the Hunter region – alongside a feeling of not being consulted, of being steamrolled.
“Environment and energy forums” like this one in late November have been held up and down the east of Australia, aiming to build a resistance to the country’s renewable energy transition.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...
-
Researchers mapped brick kilns across India and used climate models to forecast the levels of heat stress workers face between now and 2050
- Photographs by Ishan Tankha
“I work with fire. But this has been the hottest ever, even for me,” says Harilal Rajput, squinting in the blazing midday sun. Rajput, 41, is a chief fire worker at a brick kiln near the town of Danapur on the outskirts of Patna, capital of the eastern state of Bihar. He is a migrant worker; his wife, a farmer, lives in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh with their three children.
It is almost 1pm on a June afternoon and neither Rajput nor the nine fire workers he supervises have had any food since the previous night. They will eat only when their eight-hour shift ends at about 4pm. His team, he says, is “running on water”.
Continue reading...
-
Investigation uncovers how chemicals like diquat, banned in the UK but legal to export, are causing health problems in the global south
Valdemar Postanovicz was at home after a day tending to his tobacco crop when his limbs seized up. “All of the right side of my body was paralysed. I couldn’t feel my foot and my hand. My mouth twisted to the right,” he says.
He feared it was a stroke. In fact, he was suffering symptoms of acute pesticide poisoning. Postanovicz, 45, had absorbed Reglone, a powerful herbicide based on the chemical diquat. “It was only one time in my life, but I felt so sick,” he says.
Continue reading...
-
Carbon-positive farming is a simple concept: remove carbon from the atmosphere and put it into the soil. How can it work for back yard gardens?
My vegetable garden is a jungle. The grass is waist-high, the weeds have consumed my gardening tools and representatives from all classes of the animal kingdom – possibly also a jabberwocky – are enjoying a comfortable existence in there, eating my salad greens and each other.
Letting things go feral seemed like a good idea. I had recently learned about carbon-positive agriculture, sometimes called carbon farming, and wanted to apply those principles on a smaller suburban scale in my Blue Mountains vegetable and fruit-growing endeavours. The goal: ever more luscious tomatoes, enormous zucchini, sweet raspberries and bushels of tart, juicy apples.
Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning
Continue reading...
Za dobrobit svih