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Biodiversity losses are growing, the IUCN reports as summit opens, but green turtle’s recovery ‘reminds us conservation works’
More than half of all bird species are in decline, according to a new global assessment, with deforestation driving sharp falls in populations across the planet.
On the eve of a key biodiversity summit in the UAE, scientists have issued a fresh warning about the health of bird populations, with 61% of assessed species now recording declines in their numbers.
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Struggling fishers in Hastings say the industry is dying after a deal giving away access to its waters made a tough job impossible
A small flotilla of gaily coloured fishing boats line the shingle beach at Hastings, East Sussex. Behind them are the bulldozers that shunt them into the waves and beyond, in neat rows, are black wooden fishermen’s huts and fish stalls, where on a good day teenage daughters, wives and retired skippers sell some of the day’s catch.
This is the Stade, a Saxon word for “landing place” from where wooden boats have set off since before William the Conqueror arrived in 1066.
Peter White outside his shed. He has been fishing for 52 years
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Prince of Wales’s decision welcomed as a means of drawing attention to the event and galvanising talks
The Prince of Wales will attend the crunch Cop30 UN climate summit in Brazil next month, the Guardian has learned, but whether the prime minister will go is still to be decided.
Prince William will present the Earthshot prize, a global environmental award and attend the meeting of representatives of more than 190 governments in Belém.
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Wye Valley, Herefordshire: There’s a sense of deep history to events like this, where mesmerising horses and precision ploughing fall under the judges’ eye
While Storm Amy whiplashes the trees, a sense of calm at the 181st Wormside Annual Ploughing Match. The fields are gently busy with horses and tractors, working at a steady pace, all competing in categories from hand-trip reversible ploughing and two-wheeled garden tractors to a fascinating heritage technique called the high-cut method. Entrants come from near and far, including Cornwall and the Isle of Sheppey in Kent (a 4am start for them).
I watch the high-cut contest. This method of ploughing was developed in the mid 1800s to prevent seeds being scavenged by birds, back when seed was broadcast by hand. The tractor creates a deep groove, with the furrows looking like wedges of cheese. Metal boats drag behind, polishing the sides so the seed falls in the furrow; the farmer then returns to bury the seed with a harrow or a horse pulling a bush.
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The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
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Exclusive: Government failure to close loophole allows 600,000 tonnes to be shipped abroad each year
A plastic recycling industry potentially worth £2bn and 5,000 jobs is dying in the UK because of government failure to close a loophole that allows 600,000 tonnes of plastic waste to be exported each year.
The Guardian can reveal that in the past two years 21 plastic recycling and processing factories across the UK have shut down due to the scale of exports, the cheap price of virgin plastic and an influx of cheap plastic from Asia, according to data gathered by industry insiders.
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Report by joint intelligence committee delayed, with concerns expressed that it may not be published
The UK’s national security is under severe threat from the climate crisis and the looming collapse of vital natural ecosystems, with food shortages and economic disaster potentially just years away, a powerful report by the UK’s intelligence chiefs is due to warn.
However, the report, which was supposed to launch on Thursday at a landmark event in London, has been delayed, and concerns have been expressed to the Guardian that it may have been blocked by number 10.
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Only 15 of 100 MPs surveyed knew of IPCC report that CO2 needs to peak this year to keep global heating to 1.5C
The people you hope would be best informed about the imminent threat of climate breakdown would be members of parliament. After all, droughts and storms affecting their constituents have been a recurring news item. The need to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 requires an informed debate among parties.
The key question on which the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, in 2022, reached hard-won scientific consensus was when CO2 emissions need to peak for a realistic chance of keeping global temperature increases below 1.5C, the target set by the 2015 Paris agreement as too dangerous to exceed. The answer, given great prominence in the report and the media coverage of it, was this year, 2025.
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A project to restore coastal wetland leads to astonishing discoveries of a host of life: seeds and plant scraps, as well as water fleas, worms, larvae and plankton
When Shelby Riskin was handed disk-shaped samples of century-old soil from Toronto’s waterfront, the ecosystem ecologist was hopeful she might find trace evidence of plants – cattails, bulrushes, water lilies and irises – that had once populated a long-destroyed wetland.
But when she and a graduate student peered through a microscope, they watched in astonishment as a brown wormlike creature greedily munching through green clumps of algae as if more than 130 years hadn’t passed since its last meal.
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Test pulses from lightning impulse generators can be used to ensure lightning protection is functioning properly
Lightning protection is mandatory for schools, high-rise blocks of flats, churches and factories in the UK. It is also essential for electrical equipment, the testing of which may involve using a portable lightning generator.
A lightning inspector’s annual check is mainly visual confirmation that lightning rods are intact, the necessary connections are in place and nothing has been damaged by lightning in the previous year. Inspectors check that surge protectors, which prevent lightning from overloading a building’s electrical circuits, are in place and working. Inspection may also involve physical testing, such as measuring the conductivity of lightning rods.
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