EU Copernicus report shows surface air temperatures from June to August were 2.5C above decadal average
The scorching heat that persistently baked western Europe this summer was the worst on record, a report has found, with more than half the continent seared by “very strong” heat stress that felt hotter than 38C.
Surface air temperatures in western Europe from June to August were 2.5C above the recent decadal average, according to an update from the EU’s Copernicus climate monitoring service on Friday, while milder but still deadly heat across the rest of the continent made the summer Europe’s third hottest on record.
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This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world
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Tebay, Cumbria: I’ve had a stroke of luck with applying for government funding, but some bad vet results are overshadowing things once more
Last week was an important one as the government’s sustainable farming incentive opened for this year. Thankfully, I was working on my laptop when the email came through, so I submitted an application for us to become an organic farm. Others were not so lucky – the funding ran out after a few hours, and WhatsApp became a catalogue of despair among farmers who missed out and now don’t know how their farm businesses will survive. It’s clear that the government needs to provide more money to support sustainable farming.
Meanwhile, it’s been a difficult period since June as we’ve been “shut down” with TB. We’ve been waiting to test again so we can hopefully sell our bullocks, bull and breeding heifers. The wait has been extended because of my son’s wedding, and we had to find a new vet after our previous vet stopped taking farm animals as it was uneconomical for them. I’ve been unable to sleep. Another shutdown would again impact us financially.
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‘Day-to-day’ symptom of harmful emissions, which in turn can disrupt sleep, can be overlooked, say researchers
New research has found that increased air pollution is associated with more night-time coughing, leading to disturbed sleep.
Most air pollution research looks at symptoms that are severe enough for people to seek medical help, but day-to-day symptoms can be overlooked. Prof Cecilia Mascolo, who led the study from the University of Cambridge, said: “I come from an area in Italy with very high pollution and I am very aware of its not-talked-about effects.”
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Gieß den Kiez app shows trees in critical need of watering and can be adopted by other heat-stressed cities around the world
Amanda Gläser-Bligh sometimes attracts puzzled looks when she goes to water the eight-year-old street tree she has adopted outside her door in Charlottenburg, Berlin.
“I named her Linda the linden,” she says. “Berliners are not always known for being super friendly but most people react really positively when they find out what I’m doing.”
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In a region of Nigeria blighted by decades of pollution, Martha Agbani and her team are not just replanting trees but regaining ownership of their lost lands and livelihoods
A toxic landscape was familiar to Martha Agbani when she was growing up – the smell of crude oil in the air, rivers running black and trees dying on the banks. In Ogoniland, in Nigeria’s oil-exploited Niger delta, Agbani saw the spills rot away the mangrove forests and destroy the livelihoods of communities around her.
Now, she is training women to plant them back – one fragile green shoot at a time.
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After five years of work, 5,750 panels of toughened glass will help keep hundred of plants safe from Scottish winters – but more work needs to be done
In the early autumn sunlight, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s extensive plant collection appears safe in their glass enclosures. But danger lurks from above for the tropical ferns, cycads and rare alpine heathers.
Soon the September sunshine will give way to the storms and gales of the Scottish winter, which can bring hundreds of glass panels crashing to the greenhouse floor on the windiest days. Nobody is allowed inside when the wind is above 30mph.
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Porfirio Garcés is one of the ‘Jerico 11’, who face kidnapping charges after opposing a copper mine. Now, with a far-right president prioritising extraction, their fight has become more urgent
In the rural hamlet of Palo Cabildo in Colombia’s western Andes, 87-year-old farmer Porfirio Garcés tends to his anthuriums in the garden of his small house. He talks with passion about his vinyl record collection, which ranges from classical to pop music, but his main interest now lies elsewhere: his homeland, to which he feels a deep connection – and his desire to protect it.
Numerous water sources originate in the area, supplying not only Jericó, where Garcés lives, but also several neighbouring towns in the Antioquia region. A sign with a clear message hangs on the main porch of his property: “Yes to water.”
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Gavin Newsom says Trump is a ‘gift’ to the climate cause for dispelling notions of fossil fuel energy security
Of all the epithets hurled at Donald Trump since he became US president, perhaps the most unusual was delivered last week – that he is, in fact, some sort of environmentalist.
Trump is the “greatest gift” to the environmental movement, argued Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, due to the fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran.
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Multinational tea companies still occupy ancestral highlands of communities displaced during British colonial era
For British colonialists, the fertile and cool uplands of central Kenya were the “White Highlands”, to be reserved exclusively for European settlers. Local communities were forced from the land, which was turned into plantations for tea and other crops.
In recent decades, descendants of the displaced have fought to reclaim their ancestral land, some of which is now occupied by multinational tea companies and other large corporations.
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Australski znanstvenici ispituju nove kombinacije antibiotika za liječenje uporne bakterijske vaginoze, nakon što su došli do važnog otkrića da se to stanje prenosi spolnim putem. Bakterijska vaginoza najčešće je vaginalno oboljenje kod žena reproduktivne dobi, a uzrokovano je gubitkom zdravih vaginalnih bakterija i prekomjernim rastom drugih bakterija, što narušava prirodnu ravnotežu vaginalnog mikrobioma.
Prema studiji Sveučilišta u Göteborgu, teška pneumokokna bolest koja zahtijeva hospitalizaciju, najčešće upala pluća, može biti znak prethodno neotkrivenog raka krvi i imunodeficijencije kod odraslih pacijenata.
Švedsko istraživanje pokezalo je da su nedonoščad rođena vrlo rano (ekstremno ili vrlo rano nedonoščad), koja su svakodnevno primala probiotike, imala niže stope nekrotizirajućeg enterokolitisa (NEC) i smrtnosti, dok je rizik od sepse ostao nepromijenjen.
Jedna od tri preživjele osobe od raka dojke iskusit će kognitivne probleme, koji mogu uključivati poteškoće s pažnjom, pamćenjem, brzinom obrade i drugim aspektima razmišljanja. Znanstvenici vjeruju da ovi problemi mogu nastati kombinacijom učinaka liječenja, upale, hormonalnih promjena, umora i stresa. Ovi problemi mogu potrajati i nakon liječenja i mogu utjecati na svakodnevne aktivnosti i kvalitetu života.
Niže temperature zraka mogu biti povezane s porastom tlaka tekućine unutar oka, što je glavni uzrok glaukoma, te bi to trebalo uzeti u obzir pri liječenju pacijenata s tim stanjem, sugeriraju rezultati novog istraživanja. Čini se da su osobe s težim oblikom glaukoma podložnije utjecaju temperature okoliša.
Djeca majki s depresijom imala su više stope određenih neurorazvojnih poremećaja poput poremećaja iz autističkog spektra ili poremećaja pažnje s hiperaktivnošću (ADHD), kao i poteškoća u učenju te emocionalnih, bihevioralnih ili socijalnih poteškoća, bez obzira na to jesu li tijekom trudnoće bila izložena antidepresivima, navodi se u novoj britanskoj studiji.
Čini se da mikroplastika može značajno narušiti funkciju fagocita u jetri, barem kod miševa, pokazuju rezultati nove studije. To zauzvrat remeti metabolizam tog vitalnog organa i povećava nakupljanje masti u njemu.
Veće varijacije krvnog tlaka povezane s većim rizikom od smrt, pokazala je studija u kojoj je sudjelovalo više od 57.000 ispitanika. Varijacije u nekim mjerama krvnog tlaka također su bile povezane s moždanim udarima.
Masna bolest jetre često je povezana s pretilošću, no sve veći broj ljudi s normalnom tjelesnom težinom razvija težak oblik stanja. Znanstvenici s Medicinskog fakulteta Duke-NUS sada su identificirali zaseban mehanizam u mišjem modelu koji bi mogao pomoći objasniti zašto: višak soli u prehrani može promijeniti metabolizam jetre i pokrenuti upalne putove povezane sa steatohepatitisom povezanim s metaboličkom disfunkcijom (MASH).
Znanstvenici otkrivaju kako promjene crijevnih mikroba uzrokovane vježbanjem mogu utjecati na oporavak i predlažu novi pristup "crijevne rehabilitacije" za osobe s ograničenim kapacitetom vježbanja.
Deep in the mountains of Palawan, Conservation International scientists are capturing what few people ever see: the secret lives of the Philippines’ rarest species.
At Maido — the Lima restaurant recently crowned the best in the world — one of the star dishes is paiche, a giant prehistoric river fish.Its journey to the table begins on a small family farm deep in Peru’s Amazon.
“Jane Goodall forever changed how people think about, interact with and care for the natural world,” said Daniela Raik, interim CEO of Conservation International.
Conservation International’s Neil Vora was selected for TIME’s Next 100 list — alongside other rising leaders reshaping culture, science and society.
Climate change is happening. And it’s placing the world’s reefs in peril. What can be done?
After decades of negotiation, the high seas treaty is finally reality. The historic agreement will pave the way to protect international waters which face numerous threats.
The Amazon rainforest, known for lush green canopies and an abundance of freshwater, is drying out — and deforestation is largely to blame.
The ocean is engine of all life on Earth, but human-driven climate change is pushing it past its limits. Here are five ways the ocean keeps our climate in check — and what can be done to help.
In a grueling and delicate dance, a team led by Conservation International removes a massive undersea killer.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. These pictures might be worth even more. An initiative featuring the work of some of the world’s best nature photographers raises money for environmental conservation.