uvečaj veličinu pisma
In response to a request from Hvar's registered charity Dignitea, the EC has sent a full explanation of the regulations which should be applied to the proposed oil and gas drilling in the Adriatic.
Climate change committee finds move to renewable energy would also bring health, economic and security benefits
Achieving the UK’s net zero target by 2050 will cost less than a single oil shock and bring health and economic benefits while insulating the country against future costs, the government’s climate advisers have forecast.
Eliminating the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels by adopting renewable energy and green technologies, such as electric vehicles and heat pumps, would be the best and most cost-effective option for the future economy, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) found.
Continue reading...
Study shows animals hear very high frequencies, making it possible to design a deterrent to cut deaths
Hedgehogs have been discovered to hear high-frequency ultrasound, raising hopes that they could be deterred from dangerous roads with ultrasound repellers.
Vehicles are estimated to kill up to one in three hedgehogs, a big factor in the much-loved mammal’s drastic decline across Europe over recent decades.
Continue reading...
They will soon be looking for nest sites to begin the huge effort of raising their brood of between eight and 10 chicks
If there were an award for the most underrated British garden bird, the blue tit may well come out on top. Feisty and fascinating, this colourful little creature is so common and familiar that we often take it for granted.
This could be because of the blue tit’s ubiquity. In both the main garden bird surveys in the UK – the RSPB’s annual Big Garden Birdwatch and the long-running BTO Garden BirdWatch – the species is always in the top five. With roughly 3 million breeding pairs, blue tits are as common in urban and suburban gardens as they are in rural ones.
Continue reading...
Knightwood Inclosure, New Forest: I realise my knowledge of my favourite haunt is the size of the spidery-speck hanging in the heather
In soft sunlight the woodland wakes. Brimstone butterflies boast their presence, a raven pair rattle overhead, and the first scents of warming earth drift upwards. Spring shouts its arrival across Knightwood Inclosure, home of the New Forest’s girthiest tree, the Knightwood Oak. It falls on deaf ears though; knelt in mud, immersed in undergrowth, I’m mesmerised in micro.
In front of me, suspended on barely-there thread, hangs a speck of a spider. It was the disco-ball water droplets, clinging to its intricately woven web, that enticed me in. The spider is so small that my eyes and camera struggle to focus, flicking from a cream and tawny-coloured orb to a faded heather flower. When I do lock on, the abdominal markings gain clarity: inky black lines encasing two small spots.
Continue reading...
More than 100,000 people have tuned in to watch ‘kākāpō cam’, which captures a rare flightless bird sleeping, tidying her nest and fighting off intruders
On an island in New Zealand’s remote southern fjords, one of the world’s strangest and rarest parrots – the kākāpō – is caring for her tiny chick as fans from across the globe watch on.
Through the black and white lens of a hidden camera, a fluffy orb with a kazoo-like squeak jostles for food from its mother’s beak. The mother, Rakiura, is attentive – scooping her chick under her large green wings, fending off an intruding bird, and periodically tidying her nest.
Continue reading...
Rising temperatures making it hard even for young, healthy people to safely do normal physical tasks in many regions
Climate breakdown is shrinking the amount of time that people can safely go about their lives, according to a study that shows a third of the world’s population now resides in areas where heat severely limits activity.
Rising temperatures, driven by the continued burning of fossil fuels, are making it difficult even for many young, healthy adults to do basic physical activities, such as housework or walking up stairs during daylight hours at the height of the summer, the report warns.
Continue reading...
Monitors admit they are struggling to keep track of the environmental disasters arising from widening war
Israel’s bombing of Iran’s oil infrastructure will have major long-term environmental repercussions, experts have warned, as monitors admitted they were struggling to keep track of the environmental disasters arising from the widening war.
Even as Iranians filled the streets to mark the appointment of a new supreme leader, the Shahran oil depot north-east of Tehran and the Shahr-e fuel depot to its south continued to burn on Monday, two days after they were bombed by Israeli warplanes.
Continue reading...
Young people hope green light to build eco attraction’s northern outpost will change theirs and the town’s fortunes
In the Lancashire coastal town of Morecambe, there has been talk of Eden Project’s futuristic biomes being built beside the shoreline overlooking the bay for a decade.
But this summer, spades will finally break ground to make the project a reality, with the visitor attraction expected to open in less than two years.
Continue reading...
Family-run farms in El Salvador and Honduras face mounting losses, rising costs – and the need to adapt or be left behind
Read more of our Coffee crisis series here
On a steep hillside in western El Salvador, Oscar Leiva watches rainfall in December, a month that once marked the start of the dry season. During this harvest cycle, flowering came early and then stalled. A heatwave followed. What remains of the crop is uneven, lower in quality and more expensive to produce than the last.
For Leiva and his family, coffee has never been just a crop. His mother, Esperanza Marinero, remembers when the rains arrived on schedule and the harvest could be planned months in advance. Today, the calendar no longer holds. Decisions about pruning, fertilising and hiring labour feel like educated guesses. Each mistake carries a cost the family cannot afford.
Continue reading...
Britain’s toads have begun their spring migration, putting them at even greater risk than usual. Here’s how – and why – we should look after them
There’s a touch of old magic about toads, those shapeshifters of myth, superstition and folklore. Charismatic creatures with the pleasing Latin binomial bufo bufo, common toads have astonishing copper- or gold-coloured eyes and rugged, textured skin. “People say they look warty, which I’ve always thought is a bit unfair,” says Dr Silviu Petrovan, a conservationist and toad population researcher.
More prosaically, toads are great for your garden. “We say toads are a gardener’s best friend, because they eat all the pests,” says Jenny Tse-Leon, the head of conservation and impact at the British amphibian charity Froglife. Their spring migration is a dramatic event, during which hundreds of thousands of animals travel back to their ancestral breeding ponds. “Like the wildebeest of the Serengeti,” says Tse-Leon. “They’re just a lot smaller than wildebeest.” The males “piggyback” on potential partners: “You see them riding on the female’s back to get a lift to the pond.”
Continue reading...
Sve veći broj istraživanja sugerira da crijevni mikrobiom može utjecati na hormonalne i metaboličke poremećaje koji se javljaju kod sindroma policističnih jajnika (PCOS). Znanstvenici sada predlažu da bi postbiotici, bioaktivni spojevi koje proizvode mikrobi, jednog dana mogli nadopuniti postojeće tretmane vraćanjem mikrobne ravnoteže i poboljšanjem metaboličkog zdravlja.
Varijacije imunoma (imunoloških stanica i funkcija) usko su povezane s ljudskim zdravljem. Različite izloženosti, uključujući vanjsko okruženje i osobni način života, važni su čimbenici koji utječu na imunološki sustav. Sada je nova studija pokazala da su san i prehrana dominantne izloženosti koje utječu na imunom.
Jedna sesija tjelovježbe može potaknuti poticaj neuronske aktivnosti u moždanim mrežama koje su temelj učenja i pamćenja, tvrdi nova studija. Naime, snimke su pokazale povećanu stopu valova koji potječu iz hipokampusa i povezuju se s kortikalnim regijama mozga za koje se zna da su uključene u učenje i pamćenje.
Analiza koju su vodili znanstvenici Mass General Brigham otkrila je sporije starenje kod starijih osoba nakon dvije godine svakodnevnog uzimanja multivitamina, s većim koristima za one koji su započeli ispitivanje s ubrzanom biološkom dobi.
Žene s određenim kardiometaboličkim faktorima rizika, uključujući dijabetes tipa 2 i visoki opseg struka, suočavaju se s većim povećanjem rizika od fibroze jetre nego muškarci s istim faktorima rizika, pokazala je nova studija.
Žene koje imaju komplikacije u trudnoći, poput preeklampsije, prijevremenog poroda, mrtvorođenčeta ili rađanja djeteta koje je malo za gestacijsku dob, mogu se suočiti s povećanim rizikom od kardiovaskularnih bolesti kasnije u životu, pokazala je nova studija. Jednako tako, za one koje prijavljuju visoku razinu stresa tijekom i nakon trudnoće, postoji povećani rizik od visokog krvnog tlaka, čak i godinama nakon poroda.
Opće je poznato da dojenje utječe na zdravlje i majke i djeteta, ali temeljna biologija koja dovodi do tih učinaka nije dovoljno proučena. No, nedavno objavljene studije pokazuju da T-stanice - bijele krvne stanice koje igraju ključnu ulogu u imunološkom sustavu - oblikuju imunološki sustav djeteta, podržavaju zdrave crijevne bakterije i smanjuju rizik od raka dojke za majke te da laktacija nije samo nutritivni proces, već je imunološki regulirano stanje s trajnim posljedicama za zdravlje majke i dojenčeta.
Pušenje marihuane (kanabis), te konzumacija kokaina ili amfetamina, mogu povećati rizik od moždanog udara, čak i ako se radi o mlađoj odrasloj osobi, pokazala je analiza 32 studije. Konzumacija kokaina i amfetamina može udvostručiti ili utrostručiti rizik od moždanog udara za bilo koju odraslu osobu. Marihuana također povećava rizik od moždanog udara, ali u manjoj mjeri.
U novom istraživanju znanstvenici su otkrili potencijalno novu strategiju za borbu protiv Alzheimerove bolesti i Parkinsonove bolesti, stanja koja su povezana s toksičnim nakupljanjem nakupina proteina tau i alfa sinukleina u mozgu. Naime, tubulin, gradivni blok mikrotubula, može spriječiti stvaranje toksičnih nakupina tau i alfa sinukleina i umjesto toga ih usmjeriti u njihove normalne, zdrave uloge.
Japanski znanstvenici otkrili su ključni mehanizam koji omogućuje širenje raka želuca u udaljene organe. Njihova studija pokazuje da stanice raka stimuliraju Wnt signalizaciju u okolnim stromalnim fibroblastima kako bi proizvodile hijaluronan, stvarajući podržavajuće mikrookruženje koje potiče metastaze.
