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Extreme weather has raised the significance of Cop17 talks starting this week on tackling drought and land degradation
As swathes of the northern hemisphere bake in what could be the hottest year on record, with wildfires blazing across North America and Europe and heatwaves afflicting millions across Asia, the UN’s bi-annual talks on desertification have assumed much greater importance – and have started attracting more money.
Work will begin this week on allocating more than $12bn (£8.9bn) to vulnerable countries to help them deal with drought and land degradation, when scores of countries gather in Mongolia for Cop17.
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With heatwaves now recognised as disasters, personal testimonies are key to a new project that looks to protect those living in the most cramped districts of India’s capital
Every summer evening, Gulshan follows the same routine. She washes the floor of her one-room home several times so it cools a little for her four children to sleep on. Last summer, the family saved enough to buy a desert cooler, which uses evaporation as a cheaper alternative to air conditioning.
The family uses the appliance cautiously to save on energy costs. But even when it is on, Gulshan, who does not use a surname, has to dampeneveryone’s clothes before sleeping. The 39-year-old and her children now have rashes and one has a skin infection from the wet cloth against their skin.
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Lisnabreeny, Co Down: There was little fanfare beforehand, but when the moment arrived, so did a group of strangers with a sense of occasion
“Eclipses be – predicted – / And Science bows them in –” wrote the poet Emily Dickinson. As last Wednesday’s solar eclipse was bowed in across my news apps, those lines resonated with me. Dickinson’s masterly use of dashes to suspend the word “predicted” mirrored my experience of the Met Office’s forecast, which kept me teetering between hope and dismayall day and for days before.
Ahead of the appointed time, we had scouted the hills for a commanding view of the western horizon, and to get a sense of it on an ordinary sunlit evening. There were swallows skimming over the stubble grass and rooks clamouring in the trees. At that stage, the few people I encountered were unaware that a deep partial eclipse was even going to happen.
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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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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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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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It said that was what I was due after I submitted a claim for £300 for energy exported through my solar panels
British Gas paid memore than £38,000 by mistake, then had no idea how to reclaim it. I receive quarterly feed-in tariff (Fit) payments for energy exported by my solar panels.
In May, I submitted a claim for £300, based on mymeter reading, and I received an email stating that I was due £38,611.59.
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Famous raptor helped livestream viewers in difficult moments, and inspired a conservation project at her lake home
The bald eagle Jackie made her home on the shore of southern California’s Big Bear Lake for most of her 14 years. But her death earlier this week drew international attention.
The Los Angeles Times described her as “arguably the world’s most famous bald eagle”. For years, millions of people tuned into a live stream of Jackie’s nest, watching her rear her eaglets, work out life with her mate, Shadow, and, perhaps most memorably, incubate her eggs while almost completely buried in snow.
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The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts
If consumer capitalism continues at its current rate, will we reach a point at which there is literally no space left on Earth for all the stuff that has been created? Alex Robinson, Alnwick, Northumberland
Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them to[email protected]. A selection will be published next Sunday.
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