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Results chime with earlier review indicating almost every cell in the body may be affected by dirty air

The number of health problems linked to air pollution could be far higher than previously thought, according to research suggesting hospital admissions for conditions ranging from heart failure to urinary tract infections increase as air becomes dirtier.

Air pollution has already been associated with a number of conditions, from strokes to brain cancer, miscarriage and mental health problems.

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California regulator ARB granted more than 253,000 new offset credits across two protocols this week as issuances stayed low, while the agency reduced the invalidation period on nearly 1 mln credits, according to data released Wednesday.

Mexico published cap levels and sectoral breakdowns for the first two years of its pilot cap-and-trade programme on Wednesday, allowing the long-awaited trial phase to begin next year.

The moors are being protected as a playground for the shooting class, says Catherine Francis

The Moorland Association’s Amanda Anderson (Letters, 26 November) has nowhere to hide among the heather, like the grouse her association protects for the purpose of shooting. Her plea for moor burning is spin: her association is a protective body for the shooting class, and the moors must be protected as their playground. But the moors need trees, shrubs and more ecological variety, not huge fires, autumn closures and the desert-like emptiness that comes with preserving a monoculture for the rich to satisfy their bloodlust.

I live among this and my feeling as I walk or run on the moors is of fear, not wild freedom. The moor burning is horrific every year, the shooting establishment and landowners seem ever more powerful, and the pseudo-green spin is deeply sinister.
Catherine Francis
Burley in Wharfedale, West Yorkshire

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Australia's capital cities have collectively lost 30% of their stored water over the last six years. But this loss is not evenly distributed across the country. Ian Wright, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science, Western Sydney University Jason Reynolds, Research Lecturer in Geochemistry, Western Sydney University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Irreversible climatic changes could be triggered in a few decades say some scientists but not everyone agrees.

Group of leading climate scientists warn that tipping points that could cause irreversible and rapid global warming are already 'active'.

The post Tipping points leading to ‘Hothouse Earth’ already “active”, scientists warn appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Warning of ‘existential threat to civilisation’ as impacts lead to cascade of unstoppable events

The world may already have crossed a series of climate tipping points, according to a stark warning from scientists. This risk is “an existential threat to civilisation”, they say, meaning “we are in a state of planetary emergency”.

Tipping points are reached when particular impacts of global heating become unstoppable, such as the runaway loss of ice sheets or forests. In the past, extreme heating of 5C was thought necessary to pass tipping points, but the latest evidence suggests this could happen between 1C and 2C.

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Decision may prompt those detained in October protests to sue for wrongful arrest

More than 100 Extinction Rebellion protesters have had charges against them dropped after the ban forbidding protest in London last month was ruled unlawful.

The Crown Prosecution Service decision will affect about 105 cases immediately, mostly those involving defendants facing trial for allegedly breaching section 14 of the 1986 Public Order Act.

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None of the 14 carbon credit standards that have applied for eligibility under the UN’s global CORSIA aviation offsetting scheme meet the criteria set out by governments, while some of the candidates may not even be considered offset programmes.

Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen vowed to provide rapid but just climate ambition on Wednesday after the EU Parliament gave final approval for her new five-year European Commission to take office from Dec. 1.

EUA prices climbed back towards €25 on Wednesday, rising amid supportive technical signals, an pause in new supply, and the confirmation of a new European Commission promising greater climate ambition.

China’s Hubei province on Wednesday sold three quarters of the 2 million CO2 allowances on offer to ETS participants at an average price 2% below secondary market prices, pushing just over half a million permits on to Friday’s sale open to everyone.

A woman who records sightings of the unusual rodents found hotspots for them in East and West Sussex.

The restoration of the Flow Country peatlands has created a vital carbon sink and a thriving habitat for a range of species

The bog at Forsinard stretches to the horizon, a vast mosaic of greens and browns. The tallest plants here grow only ankle high, but even so, walking requires careful attention. Hummocks covered in heather (Calluna vulgaris) or cotton grass (Eriophorum spp.) offer lumpy but secure footing. Soggy patches of sphagnum moss are less predictable.

These bogs, in northern Scotland’s Flow Country, are deceptive in more ways than one. Beneath the moss and the heather and the sedge lies one of the planet’s largest surviving expanses of peat – a nutrient-poor, carbon-dense mass of partly decayed organic matter. But here lies the peatland’s hidden strength: a prodigious ability to lock away carbon, making it an important resource in the fight against climate change.

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Only 9% of plastics get recycled, and significant reductions will require systemic change – but there are easy tips for individuals to cut back

As plastics corporations ramp up production, they are also promoting a failing recycling system.

Just 9% of plastics get recycled. Traditional plastics are made from extracted oil and gas, and they contribute to the rising temperatures behind the climate crisis.

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WaterNSW briefing to New South Wales cabinet said Sydney’s storages could be at ‘emergency levels’ by next May

The New South Wales government was advised six months ago that Sydney’s water storage levels could be at “emergency levels” by May next year unless it started planning immediately.

A cabinet-in-confidence document prepared by state-owned agency WaterNSW warns that storage levels could fall to 40% by Christmas and were likely to reach what are considered emergency levels – about 35% and declining – by mid-next year if the coming summer is hot and dry.

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All those emails we send to be polite could be having more of an environmental impact than we realise.

China on Wednesday said EU talk about imposing border adjustment taxes on nations failing to act on climate change would “seriously undermine” the international process to fight global warming.

After some doubts, it seems Britain will now play its part in the big European Space Agency council.