From decomposing waste to building coral reefs, invertebrates provide structure to ecosystems
Invertebrate of the year 2024: all hail Earth’s spineless heroes
Nominate your UK invertebrate species of the year
From the moon jellyfish to the humble garden snail, invertebrates play a central – and often invisible – role in shaping our world. Numbering in their millions, species of insects, arachnids, snails, crustaceans, corals, jellyfish, sponges and echinoderms are among the least understood animals on Earth, often overshadowed by their vertebrate cousins.
We asked scientists to tell us about how invertebrates shape our world and structure its ecosystems – and the unforeseen consequences of their disappearance.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
04/09/2024 - 10:00
04/09/2024 - 09:28
Environmental Protection Agency finalizes rule to strengthen protections for communities living near industrial sites
More than 200 of the US’s chemical plants will be mandated to reduce toxic emissions linked to cancer to and better protect communities from hazardous pollution, the Biden administration announced on Tuesday.
The long-awaited rule finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will strengthen protections for communities living near industrial sites, especially along the Gulf coast.
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04/09/2024 - 09:00
The city’s pioneering step fell flat after a long fight in court, but campaigners – and leading chefs – say they’re still going electric
Four years ago, Berkeley made history when it became the first city in the US to ban natural gas hookups in new buildings.
It was a natural step for the famously progressive California community, which was an early adopter of curbside recycling in the 1970s, banned styrofoam in 1988, and more recently led the charge to outlaw single-use packaging and plastics.
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04/09/2024 - 08:46
Kremlin official warns of more difficult days ahead after towns and cities overwhelmed by major rivers swollen by snowmelt
Russia and Kazakhstan have ordered more than 100,000 people to evacuate after swiftly melting snow swelled rivers beyond bursting point in the worst flooding in the area for at least 70 years.
The deluge of meltwater overwhelmed many settlements in the Ural mountains, Siberia and areas of Kazakhstan close to rivers such as the Ural and Tobol, which local officials said had risen by metres in a matter of hours to the highest levels ever recorded.
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04/09/2024 - 08:21
Ben van Beurden says company is undervalued in UK and US investors are ‘more positive’ about fossil fuels
Business live – latest updates
Shell’s former chief executive has stoked fears that the oil company will quit the London Stock Exchange in favour of a New York listing because US investors are “more positive” about fossil fuels.
Ben van Beurden used his first public interview since stepping down in 2021 to echo concerns that the £180bn company is “massively undervalued” by the UK market compared with its US listed rivals.
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04/09/2024 - 06:30
Weak government climate policies violate fundamental human rights, the European court of human rights has ruled.
In a landmark decision on one of three major climate cases, the first such ruling by an international court, the ECHR raised judicial pressure on governments to stop filling the atmosphere with gases that make extreme weather more violent.
The court’s top bench ruled that Switzerland had violated the rights of a group of older Swiss women to family life
Human rights violated by inaction on climate, ECHR rules in landmark case
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04/09/2024 - 06:00
While the ecosystem is thriving off the coast of Argentina, the proliferation of salmon farms in Chile’s waters is threatening marine life, say critics
A rocky path, strewn with thick tree roots, leads from a dirt road down to a small green hut overlooking the choppy waters of the Beagle Channel, a strait between Chile and Argentina. The shack is home to Diane Mendez and her family but doubles as Alama Yagan, one of nine restaurants in the fishing village of Puerto Almanza.
The village, in Argentinian Tierra del Fuego, has become a foodie haven, and the final stop on the king crab route, a trail that starts in the provincial capital Ushuaia, 45 miles to the east. But things could have been different.
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04/09/2024 - 05:50
Retailer works on changing diet with aim of cutting 11,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year
Marks & Spencer is investing £1m in tackling cows’ carbon footprint by changing the diet of the herds that provide its milk.
The retailer is working with all 40 of the pasture-grazed dairy farmers in its supply base with the aim of cutting 11,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually produced by cattle burps and manure.
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04/09/2024 - 05:29
Court finds in favour of group of older Swiss women who claimed weak policies put them at greater risk of death from heatwaves
Weak government climate policies violate fundamental human rights, the European court of human rights has ruled.
In a landmark decision on one of three major climate cases, the first such rulings by an international court, the ECHR raised judicial pressure on governments to stop filling the atmosphere with gases that make extreme weather more violent.
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04/09/2024 - 05:00
Florida is on track to ban cell-cultivated meat while three others float it – but experts say the reasoning has little to do with safety, ethical or environmental questions
At a press conference in February, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, told a room full of reporters: “We’re not going to do that fake meat. That doesn’t work.” He’d been discussing legislation under debate in the statehouse that would ban cell-cultivated meat – an emerging technique that, instead of slaughtering animals for consumption, grows meat in a lab using a small sample of animal cells.
A few weeks later, a Republican member of the Florida legislature – and cattle rancher – Dean Black took to the House floor, saying, “Cultured meat is not meat … it is made by man, real meat is made by God Himself … If you really want to try the nitrogen-based protein paste, go to California.”
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