The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
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08/16/2024 - 02:00
08/16/2024 - 02:00
I smugly assumed I was offering my children a crash course in wholesomeness. The reality was quite different
Earlier this week, I dropped my kids off at a day camp in a park in London and then congratulated myself all the way home. The summer holiday is long and camp programmes are expensive, and when you sign up for one, there is a hard-to-resist expectation that the kids will be not only entertained but improved – physically (swimming lessons), morally (team games – specifically rounders) and, in the case of the camp we signed up for, spiritually. By which, of course, I refer to two sacred words in the middle-class lexicon: forest school.
I should say I’m completely down with the broad mission of forest school. Adults and children are improved by spending time in nature; studies and experience show this. There is a difference, however, between forest school the movement, a laudable push to get kids learning outside based on ideas that stretch back to the 19th century and popularised in the 1950s by, of course, the Scandinavians, and forest school, the modern marketing and business initiative. It reminds me of the catnip status latterly occupied by Mandarin lessons in the New York state primary system, which, when my three-year-olds started pre-school in 2018 – one of them still wearing pull-ups – saw them slogging each week through a mandatory class. There is nothing wrong with learning Mandarin, but it is perhaps not a priority for people who can’t use the toilet yet.
Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist
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08/16/2024 - 01:00
An architectural zigzag design can limit how much heat is absorbed by buildings – and emitted back to space
Incorporating zigzag patterns into building walls could help cool overheated buildings, research has found.
Buildings are now responsible for approximately 40% of global energy consumption, contributing more than a third of global carbon dioxide emissions.
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08/15/2024 - 23:00
Researchers at Australia’s Flinders University hope the acoustic method will make it easier to find and fix soil degradation
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Ever wondered what the Earth sounds like? New research suggests healthy soil has a distinctive soundtrack of its own – the crackles, pops and clicks of ants and worms bustling around underground.
Scientists from Australia’s Flinders University listened to microphones planted in the ground to see if invertebrate instrumentals are a good indicator of biodiversity and soil health.
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08/15/2024 - 20:49
‘MPower’ would be Australia’s largest scheme of its kind – with neighbouring councils invited to join in
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Melbourne residents and business owners could have their electricity bills slashed by hundreds of dollars each year in a radical plan proposed by the city’s lord mayor.
Nick Reece has pledged to facilitate Australia’s largest community-led bulk purchasing scheme for renewable energy if he is re-elected.
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08/15/2024 - 12:26
This year could beat 2023 for the hottest year on record as 15-month heat streak extends, according to Noaa
The world just had its hottest July ever recorded, elongating a string of monthly temperature highs that now stretch back 15 consecutive months, US government scientists have announced.
Last month was about 1.2C (2.1F) hotter than average across the globe, making it the hottest July on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said on Thursday. This means that every month for the past 15 months has beaten its previous monthly record.
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08/15/2024 - 12:06
Establishing Key Biodiversity Areas in the Southern Ocean will be vital for safeguarding the ecosystem from the impact of human activities, researchers say.
08/15/2024 - 11:42
Europe's abandoned farmlands could find new life through rewilding, a movement to restore ravaged landscapes to their wilderness before human intervention. A quarter of the European continent, 117 million hectares, is primed with rewilding opportunities, researchers report.
08/15/2024 - 11:07
Judge had thrown out case against Trudi Warner, whose sign told jurors they had a right to acquit ‘according to conscience’
The government has dropped an appeal against a judge’s decision to throw out a contempt case against a woman who stood outside a climate activist trial holding a placard about jury rights.
In an email sent on Thursday, a lawyer from the government legal department, led by Richard Hermer, who was recently appointed attorney general, said they had “further considered this case and decided not to pursue the appeal”.
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08/15/2024 - 11:00
Foundation says it ‘does not endorse any organizations’ while funneling hundreds of thousands to rightwing causes
A US foundation associated with the oil company Shell has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to religious right and conservative organizations, many of which deny that climate change is a crisis, tax records reveal.
Fourteen of those groups are on the advisory board of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint proposing radical changes to the federal government, including severely limiting the Environment Protection Agency.
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