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Cut in electric vehicle sales targets could add millions of tonnes of CO2 to emissions in UK, say green campaigners
Andy Burnham has been criticised for moving to cut electric vehicle (EV) sales targets and accept North Sea drilling at a time of devastating wildfires caused by the climate emergency.
The prime minister for the first time acknowledged on Friday that the climate crisis was behind hundreds of wildfires that have ripped across the parts of the UK.
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Social media and Shazam-like birdsong apps drawing young people to hobby as they seek a gentler connection to the outside world
Sorry Elon, but they’re not your kind of tweets. Social media users are flocking to TikTok to join a burgeoning trend for birding videos as the hobby attracts a younger demographic.
With the internet ever more cluttered with polarising, shouty and AI content, evidence is emerging of Britons preferring a gentler, more melodic window on the world in the shape of footage of the nation’s feathered friends.
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The Guardian travelled 100 miles along the EU’s longest river, where some residents are struggling to secure drinking water
For centuries, the rock was seen as a warning. When it began to emerge from the Danube, beneath Gellért Hill in Budapest, it meant the river had fallen so low that floating mills could no longer operate, crops were probably failing, and hunger would almost certainly follow. That is why, in the Hungarian capital, where over time the boulder became little more than a legend, it was named Ínség-szikla – the Rock of Starvation.
Today, amid record-low water levels on the Danube, the rock has not only emerged from the water, but surfaced almost in its entirety, along with the sandy riverbed on which it rests, astonishing geologists and government scientists sent to examine it. And, much as the rock was said to warn, Hungary is now facing an unprecedented energy crisis that has forced the country to shut down all but one of its Danube-cooled nuclear reactors for the first time in 44 years.
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We learn what to fear and reject from those around us. But if disgust can be learned, it can also be unlearned
Vote for your favourite invertebrate of the year
It was the summer of 2021 and I was standing in Hyde Park, London, trying to persuade passing tourists to come bug hunting with me. I was working on a campaign to increase public appreciation of invertebrates and, while I adore bugs, this job was teaching me how differently other people see them.
A woman and her young daughter stopped to chat. Grateful for a few minutes of respite, the woman turned to her phone while the child followed me to a nearby log. We lifted it to reveal one of the largest earthworms I’ve ever seen.
Voting is open for invertebrate of the year and will close at midnight BST on Sunday 16 August; vote here
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South Queensferry, West Lothian: The Burryman procession is one of Scotland’s most remarkable customs – and a changing of the guard is about to occur
While the Edinburgh festival grabs the headlines, just 10 miles away, one of Scotland’s most remarkable traditions takes place every August – the Burryman procession.
In this, part of the Ferry Fair, a local volunteer is covered in thousands of hooked burdock seedheads, which are attached in dense patches like Velcro. He spends up to 10 hours perambulating a seven-mile route around town, accompanied by two attendants, pausing at some 20 stops to collect charitable donations and accepting a libation of unmeasured whisky through a straw. This year’s procession is especially significant, as the identity of the Burryman is changing.
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Delay to rainy season in forest already damaged by human-driven heating could trigger powerful ‘Godzilla’ El Niño
As a supercharged climate scorches Europe with wildfire and deluges Asia with floods, the Amazon is bracing for a drought that strikes fear into the hearts of forest defenders and food producers alike. But it should worry even more of us.
Scientists are predicting that the peak of El Niño will occur at the worst possible time for the world’s biggest tropical rainforest: the end of the dry season between October and December, when rivers are at their lowest and undergrowth is most likely to be tinder dry. This will be a period of extreme vulnerability for the forest, which plays a globally important role in stabilising the climate and irrigating crops.
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Marine conservationist says deliberate attack would be ‘act of extreme cruelty’ against endangered population
Spanish officials have launched an investigation after the matriarch of an orca pod known for jostling and ramming boats off the Iberian Peninsula was spotted with wounds suggesting she had been shot by a pellet gun.
On Friday, Spain’s environment ministry said Toñi, the oldest living member of the pod, had been seen swimming in the Strait of Gibraltar with markings on her dorsal fin that were “consistent with shots from a pellet gun”.
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Fire has always be part of life on the grasslands, but has grown worse due to rising temperatures and severe droughts. In response, people have turned to their nomadic heritage to help tackle the blazes
Sodnomjamts Damchaabadgar squats in a shallow, rocky depression, working quietly with his hands. Inches above the rim of the pit, the wind whips across the grasslands. But in the marginal shelter of the dig site the air remains calm – essential for delicate operations.
Damchaabadgar, a research fellow at the Institute of Archaeology at the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, has erected a ger, a traditional nomad’s tent, nearby, which serves as his sleeping quarters and a field station.
Two gers stand alone against the vast openness of the steppe in Eastern Mongolia. The ger – often called a yurt outside Mongolia – is a round dwelling designed to be assembled or disassembled in a matter of hours
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Converts describe a demanding form of capturing nature very close up that has grown in popularity in last few years
“I always just pray ‘please don’t fly away’,” says Dara Ojo. As a wildlife photographer, he can handle spending minutes, hours and sometimes days waiting for the shot, but insects are not always very cooperative.
Ojo is one of an increasing number of photographers turning their lenses towards something smaller: macro photography. This refers to photographing the natural world at an extremely close range, close enough to see the facets of a fly’s eye, or the geometry of a spider’s face.
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Experts say putrid stench shows overhaul of sewers is needed – like the one prompted by the Great Stink of 1858
London was “reeking with ineffable and intolerable horrors” after weeks of temperatures exceeding 30C and minimal rainfall. This was Disraeli’s description of the Great Stink of 1858, but something similarly disgusting has been happening this summer.
Once again, an exceptionally hot and dry spell has exposed the putrid stench of untreated human waste.
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