Zoo welcomes 11 Humboldt chicks, its highest number in a decade, with previous arrivals named after crisps
In previous years Chester zoo’s new penguin chicks have been named after crisps – Frazzle, Wotsit – and local football club owners – Ryan, Rob – but the names p … p … p … picked this year are notably less frivolous.
“We’ve decided to go with plants,” said Zoe Sweetman, the penguins and parrots team manager at the zoo. Two of the spikier new arrivals have been named Nettle and Thistle while two others with “colourful personalities” have been named Daffodil and Tulip.
Continue reading...
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/31/2024 - 03:10
EPA says proposal to keep Hunter Valley Operations mines going to 2050 would release almost 30m tonnes of CO2
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast
The New South Wales environment watchdog says a plan to extend the life of a Hunter Valley coal-mining complex to 2050 is the “largest coal-mining proposal ever put forward” in the state.
Plans by Yancoal and Glencore to keep its joint-venture Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) mines in the Upper Hunter region going would see almost 30m tonnes of CO2 released, the EPA said in a letter to the state’s planning department.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...
Week in wildlife – in pictures: playful baby lemurs, kingfisher tug-of-war and a beautiful bee-eater
05/31/2024 - 02:00
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
Continue reading...
05/31/2024 - 01:00
Negative scientific and press reports on the efficacy of carbon credit projects has led to a ‘direct pullback in buyer investment’
The market for carbon offsets shrank dramatically last year, falling from $1.9bn (£1.5bn) in 2022 to $723m in 2023, a new report has found. The drop came after a series of scientific and media reports found many offsetting schemes do nothing to mitigate the climate crisis and biodiversity loss.
The research by Ecosystem Marketplace, a nonprofit initiative that collects data about the carbon market from brokers and traders, found the market had shrunk 61%.
Continue reading...
05/31/2024 - 01:00
Campaigners suspect block on new applications for at least two years was imposed to limit burden on water firms
The government has suspended all applications for bathing water status in waterways, delaying the cleanup of rivers and coastal waters for at least two years.
River campaigners fear the block on new applications to create bathing water areas, which are regularly tested for water quality, has been introduced to stop water companies facing huge resource implications to tackle poor water quality in new bathing areas.
Continue reading...
05/31/2024 - 01:00
For many on Ghoramara, the general election is about the climate crisis and survival. The island, 150km south of Kolkata and named the ‘sinking island’ by the media, has lost nearly half its area to soil erosion in the past two decades and could disappear if a solution is not found.
As voters across India cast their ballots on issues ranging from the cost of living to jobs and religion, politicians trying to win votes in Ghoramara need to put the climate crisis to the fore as the island’s dwindling population fight to save their homes from the sea amid rising water levels and increasingly fierce storms
Continue reading...
05/31/2024 - 00:00
Meeting WHO guidelines would avoid many cases of diseases and save the NHS millions, research shows
A study has revealed that cleaning up the air in the West Midlands could prevent the early deaths of about 2,000 people a year.
If the region were to meet World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for air pollution, it could also avoid 2,000 new asthma cases, 770 new cases of heart disease, 170 new lung cancers and 650 strokes annually, the study found.
Continue reading...
05/30/2024 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 31 May 2024; doi:10.1038/s44183-024-00065-7
A traits-based approach to assess aquaculture’s contributions to food, climate change, and biodiversity goals
05/30/2024 - 17:21
Humans may be accelerating the rate at which organic matter decomposes in rivers and streams on a global scale, according to a new study. That could pose a threat to biodiversity in waterways around the world and increase the amount of carbon in Earth's atmosphere, potentially exacerbating climate change. The study is the first to combine a global experiment and predictive modeling to illustrate how human impacts to waterways may contribute to the global climate crisis.
05/30/2024 - 13:49
Festival bows to pressure from authors and activists over investment firm’s links to Israel and fossil fuel companies
The Edinburgh international book festival (EIBF) has announced the end of its 20-year partnership with Baillie Gifford. Last week the Hay literary festival also dropped its sponsorship from the investment management firm after a series of last-minute drop-outs.
The singer Charlotte Church, the comedian Nish Kumar and the politician Dawn Butler were among those due to appear at Hay who decided to boycott the festival because of Baillie Gifford’s links to Israel and fossil fuel companies. By the end of the festival’s second day, Hay’s organisers announced the sponsorship has been “suspended” for 2024.
Continue reading...
