Scientists confirm three birds have died from virus as park authorities redouble efforts to protect islands’ endemic birds
National park authorities on the Galápagos Islands have heightened biosecurity measures to protect the archipelago’s unique fauna from the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza after scientists confirmed that three birds had died from the virus.
“From preliminary tests of the five specimens, three of them have tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza,” Danny Rueda, director of the Galápagos national park told the Guardian. Two frigate birds and one red-footed booby were confirmed to have died from the virus on Tuesday, after samples were sent to Guayaquil on the Ecuadorian mainland for examination.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
09/20/2023 - 09:53
09/20/2023 - 09:00
Armed with plastic pots, probes and the science of eDNA, researchers in Gloucestershire are searching for evidence of the critically endangered fish
The astonishing secrets being revealed by the science of environmental DNA (eDNA) are revolutionising the way in which we study and protect biodiversity, from the densest tropical jungle to the deepest ocean trench. But standing beside a ditch in the Gloucestershire countryside with a team from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), it soon becomes apparent that collecting this biological calling card can still be very rudimentary.
A plastic pot attached to a piece of string is cast into the murky water and, once full, reeled back in, sealed and labelled. A slightly more scientific-looking probe is then sent into the water to measure pH levels before the team moves on to sample the next pool.
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09/20/2023 - 08:31
Program, modeled on a Roosevelt scheme, will serve as a major green jobs training program and will employ 20,000 young adults
President Joe Biden will use his executive authority to create a New Deal-style American Climate Corps that will serve as a major green jobs training program.
In an announcement on Wednesday, the White House said the program would employ about 20,000 young adults who will build trails, plant trees, help install solar panels and do other work to boost conservation and help prevent catastrophic wildfires.
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09/20/2023 - 07:57
UK not a serious player in global race for green growth, says Greenpeace, while Oxfam says move is ‘betrayal’
Rishi Sunak announces U-turn on key green targets
Scientists and environmental groups have expressed anger and dismay at the U-turn on net zero by the prime minister.
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09/20/2023 - 05:02
With some exceptions, the news industry is still not responding to the true scale and danger of global heating
In much of what we see, hear and read, the climate crisis has become inescapable. On Netflix, Don’t Look Up spent weeks as the most-streamed movie ever. Pop star Billie Eilish sings about hills burning in California. At the bookstore, climate fiction has become a genre of its own, while Jeff Goodell’s The Heat Will Kill You First, a harrowing nonfiction account of what life on a warming planet will mean, is entering its second month on the New York Times Best Sellers list.
And where is journalism in all of this? Despite our living through the hottest summer in history, as well as wildfires, tropical storms and crazy-hot oceans, the news media continue to be outdone by the rest of popular culture when it comes to covering the most urgent story of our time.
Mark Hertsgaard, CCNow executive director, author, and environment correspondent for The Nation, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of Columbia Journalism Review, are founders of Covering Climate Now
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09/20/2023 - 05:00
Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, leaders of two biggest carbon emitters, among those not attending summit in New York
Leaders of some of the world’s biggest polluting countries are skipping a UN summit on Wednesday aimed at generating some progress in the spluttering effort to address the climate crisis, during what may be the hottest year ever recorded.
The climate ambition summit, convened by António Guterres, the UN’s secretary general, will feature more than 100 national governments who have traveled to New York to outline renewed plans to curb global heating and help people adapt to its impacts. The UN has said the event will “showcase first movers and doers” among countries most willing to act on the climate crisis.
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09/20/2023 - 04:50
North Macedonian capital is a PM2.5 hotspot where people live in fear for their health. Is there hope of change?
The hills that circle Skopje keep citizens safe when smog grows thick, but they also trap the toxins that make its air among the most menacing of any city in Europe.
The mountains are the only escape, says Katarina, a 33-year-old accountant, as she walks home from an evening hike. “I was wearing a mask for air pollution before Covid.”
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09/20/2023 - 04:06
No 10 confirms PM, who held an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday, will deliver his speech at 4.30pm BST
Climate scientists have expressed dismay at reports that Rishi Sunak is to row back on net zero commitments, arguing that this would be harmful not just environmentally, but economically too.
Prof Myles Allen, professor of geosystem sciences at Oxford University, said:
We haven’t heard the actual speech yet, but we all have to hope the PM is true to his word that he is looking for better ways to deliver net zero, not just slower ways. As we have found time and again in Britain, dithering costs money. The USA is seeing other countries’ faltering as an opportunity to get ahead. It will be sad indeed if we just see it as an opportunity to join the laggards.
It’s not pragmatic, it’s pathetic. This rolling back on emissions cuts for short-term political gain will undermine the transition to net zero and with it the future opportunities, prosperity and safety of the entire country.
Burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide which causes global warming which amplifies the consequences of extreme weather events, as we have so clearly seen this summer. Climate change will continue until we reach net zero globally, and we will then have to suffer the consequences of that warmer world for decades or more. It also matters how we reach net zero, not just when – delaying action means more emissions which means more severe consequences.
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09/20/2023 - 03:37
PM accused of delaying vital work on transforming UK economy as car industry leaders also condemn plans
Business live – latest updates
UK politics live – latest updates
The boss of one of Britain’s largest energy suppliers has criticised the government’s plan to row back on net zero policies, including the planned phase-out of gas boilers, as a “misstep on many levels”.
Accusing Rishi Sunak of delaying the “vital work of transforming our economy”, the chief executive of E.ON UK, Chris Norbury, said there was no “green v cheap” debate. He said delaying some environmental targets to reduce pressure on household budgets during a cost of living crisis was a “false argument”.
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09/20/2023 - 03:19
Rishi Sunak accused of ‘disgusting betrayal of vulnerable people’ over net zero U-turn as he misses UN climate ambition summit
The UK was notable by its absence on Wednesday from a key statement pledging ambitious action on the climate crisis, from a group of countries of which it is normally a leading member.
The “high ambition coalition” of countries, which aims to push the world to swifter cuts on greenhouse gas emissions, issued a call for “faster stronger” action on the climate, to cause emissions to peak by 2025, and a plan to put the world on course to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement.
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