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Climate crisis exposed people to extra six weeks of dangerous heat in 2024
Analysis shows fossil fuels are supercharging heatwaves, leaving millions prone to deadly temperatures
The climate crisis caused an additional six weeks of dangerously hot days in 2024 for the average person, supercharging the fatal impact of heatwaves around the world.
The effects of human-caused global heating were far worse for some people, an analysis by World Weather Attribution (WWA) and Climate Central has shown. Those in Caribbean and Pacific island states were the hardest hit. Many endured about 150 more days of dangerous heat than they would have done without global heating, almost half the year.
Continue reading...Charities to get £15m to save surplus farm food
National Trust warns UK's most precious heritage at risk from extreme weather
Labour backs plans for £15m fund to distribute surplus food from farms
Grant will go towards repackaging food that would go to waste and delivering it to shelters, food banks and charities
Labour ministers have backed plans for a £15m fund to redistribute food from farms that otherwise go to waste, particularly around Christmas.
Grants starting from £20,000 will be handed to the not-for-profit food redistribution sector in England to repackage farm food and deliver it to homeless shelters, food banks and charities.
Continue reading...National Trust records ‘alarming’ drop in insects and seabirds at its sites
Charity says unstable weather patterns caused by the climate crisis had a ‘devastating impact’ in 2024
There have been alarming declines this year in some insect species including bees, butterflies, moths and wasps, while many seabirds have also been “hammered” by unstable weather patterns caused by the climate emergency, a conservation charity has said.
In its annual report on the impact of the weather on flora and fauna, the National Trust highlights that numbers of bees and butterflies have “crashed” in some areas of the UK in 2024.
Continue reading...Dogs and cats get diabetes too. Here’s what to look out for and how to manage it
Sport produces mountains of high-tech waste. We are finding new ways to recycle it
UK public electric car chargers rose by a third in 2024 to more than 70,000
Number hits record level but rate of growth slows as installers face delays to government funding
The UK installed a record number of public electric car chargers in 2024, although the rate of growth slowed as installers contended with delays to government funding.
Numbers rose by more than a third to reach 73,421 by 20 December, according to Zapmap, whose data the government uses. The increase of 19,600 was nearly equivalent to the total number of chargers at the end of 2020.
Continue reading...‘The dead zone is real’: why US farmers are embracing wildflowers
Strips of native plants on as little as 10% of farmland can reduce soil erosion by up to 95%
Between two corn fields in central Iowa, Lee Tesdell walks through a corridor of native prairie grasses and wildflowers. Crickets trill as dickcissels, small brown birds with yellow chests, pop out of the dewy ground cover.
“There’s a lot of life out here, and it’s one of the reasons I like it, especially in these late summer days,” Tesdell said.
Continue reading...UK gambling with climate targets over carbon capture, say campaigners
Potential IPCC rule changes could award planned carbon savings from burning US wood pellets to the exporter, not the importer
The UK government is gambling with its own climate targets on claims that the Drax power plant will create “negative emissions” because new rules could hand the carbon savings to the US, campaigners say.
The owners of the North Yorkshire power plant have promised ministers that a key project to capture the carbon emissions created from burning biomass wood pellets imported from US forests will count as negative emissions in Britain’s carbon accounts.
Continue reading...Campaigners call for right to roam on edges of private farmland in England
Group says people in rural areas have to walk on roads without pavement, which can be very dangerous
Give people the right to walk around the edges of privately owned fields, say campaigners seeking to open up more paths in the British countryside.
Slow Ways, a group advocating for more access to the countryside, said people in rural areas often have to walk on roads that do not have pavements, which can be extremely dangerous.
Continue reading...UK churchyards are havens for rare wildlife, finds conservation charity
Caring for God’s Acre mapped out 20,000 cemeteries and recorded 10,000 species
Churchyards are vital havens for rare wildlife including dormice, bats and beetles, according to an extensive audit of burial grounds around the UK.
The conservation charity Caring for God’s Acre mapped out 20,325 cemeteries, with 800,000 wildlife records submitted and more than 10,800 species recorded.
Continue reading...Deadline to record forgotten footpaths to be scrapped
Indian Ocean tsunami: how survivors found love after Boxing Day disaster
A rise in the number of remarriages and a baby boom in the years since 2004 gave hope to survivors and helped them cope with the tragedy
It was Mahyuddin’s mother who had pestered him to go out on Sunday morning, 20 years ago. Dozens of relatives were visiting their small coastal village in Indonesia for a wedding party, but a powerful earthquake had struck just before 8am. Buildings in some areas had collapsed. He should go and check on his employer’s office to see if they needed help, his mother said.
As he drove into town, he found chaos and panic. The road was heavy with traffic: cars, motorbikes, trucks, all rushing in the same direction. People were running, shouting that water was coming.
Continue reading...Illegal trade booms in South Africa's 'super-strange looking' plants
Defra scraps England deadline to register thousands of miles of rights of way
Campaigners jubilant after government heeded warning 2031 cutoff would mean loss of precious footpaths
A deadline for registering historic rights of way is to be scrapped after a warning that the looming cutoff date could result in the loss of thousands of miles of footpaths.
The last government set a deadline of 2031 for all rights of way in England to be added to an official map, after abandoning a previous commitment to scrap the policy.
Continue reading...Bird flu kills 20 big cats at US animal sanctuary
EPA to formally review risks of vinyl chloride and other toxic chemicals
Evaluation could lead to limits or bans on substances commonly used in the production of plastic and rubber
The Environmental Protection Agency is launching a formal review of five highly toxic plastic chemicals, including vinyl chloride, the notorious compound at the center of the East Palestine, Ohio, train wreck fire.
The move could lead to strong limits or bans on the substances.
Continue reading...Stressed out trees helping charities restore valuable aspen forests
In a little understood quirk of nature foresters have been putting the aspen tree under duress to promote flowering
On a nature reserve deep in the Scottish Highlands there is a polytunnel which houses a small forest of slender grey aspen trees. It is known as the “torture chamber”.
The aspen is one of the UK’s scarcest but most valuable trees. And to produce the tiny, delicate aspen seeds being harvested by the charity Trees for Life, these 104 specimens are deliberately made to suffer.
Continue reading...Penguins and iceberg-watching: Marking Christmas in Antarctica
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