Offensive term to be replaced as first step towards more changes in unprecedented reform of nomenclature rules
Scientists have voted to eliminate the names of certain plants that are deemed to be racially offensive. The decision to remove a label that contains such a slur was taken last week after a gruelling six-day session attended by more than 100 researchers, as part of the International Botanical Congress, which officially opens on Sunday in Madrid.
The effect of the vote will be that all plants, fungi and algae names that contain the word caffra, which originates in insults made against Black people, will be replaced by the word affra to denote their African origins. More than 200 species will be affected, including the coast coral tree, which, from 2026, will be known as Erythrina affra instead of Erythrina caffra.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/20/2024 - 10:36
07/20/2024 - 09:00
Pedro Romero is one of hundreds of thousands of informal waste workers the world over, from Paris to Bangalore
Pedro Romero’s story is a familiar one in New York: he wasn’t born or raised here, but he moved to the city to take advantage of the bustling metropolis’s many opportunities. And in a city full of people willing to hustle to make it work, he’s found an opportunity others might overlook: in the trash.
Romero is a Mexico-born, Brooklyn-based waste picker who collects, sorts and redeems empty bottles and cans. Having formerly worked at grocery stores, as a food delivery driver and in restaurants, he got into waste picking through his wife, Josefa Marín, 14 years ago, and has been at it ever since. He works seven days a week, digging through the things his fellow New Yorkers throw out and salvaging what he can.
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07/20/2024 - 09:00
The robotic services allow farmers to rely less on chemicals. ‘This solves a lot of problems,’ workers say
On a sweltering summer day in central Kansas, farm fields shimmer in the heat as Clint Brauer watches a team of bright yellow robots churn up and down the rows, tirelessly slicing away any weeds that stand in their way while avoiding the growing crops.
The battery-powered machines, 4ft (1.2 metres) long and 2ft (0.6 metres) wide, pick their way through the fields with precision, without any human hand to guide them.
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07/20/2024 - 05:06
Twisters is the latest in a long line of movies that fail to address the environmental emergency – experts say it’s a missed opportunity
A rodeo crowd waves cowboy hats as a man rides a bucking horse. Then comes a shower of leaves, a chorus of mobile phone rings and a wail of klaxons. Horses run wild and cars collide. One vehicle is whipped into the air by what a weatherman calls a once-in-a-generation tornado outbreak.
This is a scene from Twisters, starring Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones, in which rivals come together to try to predict and possibly tame ferocious storms in central Oklahoma. A sequel to the hit disaster movie Twister from 1996, it is a Hollywood summer blockbuster designed to entertain – but also a lost opportunity to raise awareness of the climate crisis.
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07/20/2024 - 04:00
Countries and companies involved in oil and gas extraction to be asked to join scheme aimed at tackling global heating
Fossil-fuel producing countries and companies are being asked to pay into a new international fund to help poor countries cope with the effects of the climate crisis.
The climate investment fund is being set up by the Azerbaijan government, host country of the Cop29 UN climate summit in November.
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07/19/2024 - 12:15
Michel Forst, UN special rapporteur, joins growing chorus of voices criticising jail terms handed to five defendants
The lengthy multi-year sentences handed to Just Stop Oil activists are “not acceptable in a democracy”, a UN special rapporteur has said, as the government faced growing pressure to reverse the previous administration’s “hardline anti-protest” approach.
Michel Forst, the UN special rapporteur for environmental defenders, joined a growing chorus of voices condemning the sentences handed down to the five defendants for planning non-violent protests on the M25.
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07/19/2024 - 10:49
Tourist hotspots including Ullapool and Fort William badly hit as biting insects enjoy damp, humid conditions
Scotland’s wet summer is providing perfect conditions for surges of midges, with experts saying worse is yet to come.
This week the Scottish Midge Forecast predicted high numbers of the biting insects, reaching peaks of four and five on a scale of one to five.
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07/19/2024 - 09:00
Thousands have joined American Climate Corps, a new federal program that links young people with jobs in green energy and conservation
Did you ever imagine spending a year restoring paths along the Appalachian Trail? Developing community gardens on a Caribbean island? Or helping neighbors electrify their homes?
This summer, thousands of people in the US joined the American Climate Corps (ACC), a new federal program that connects young people with jobs in conservation, climate adaptation and green energy.
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07/19/2024 - 06:24
Chris Packham calls for meeting with attorney general as prominent figures condemn long jail terms for M25 activists
Chris Packham has called for a meeting with the attorney general for England and Wales as he joined a chorus of prominent voices condemning long jail terms for Just Stop Oil protesters.
Speaking after five activists were sentenced to up to five years for planning protests on the M25, the broadcaster and naturalist said: “Be clear, be very, very clear, this is not just about climate activism.
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07/19/2024 - 05:37
Exclusive: Create Streets calls for legislation to make it easier to remove kiosks that attract litter and graffiti
The new Labour government should remove “ugly” modern phone kiosks that are blighting high streets and attracting litter and graffiti, a leading thinktank has said.
A report by Create Streets, founded by the government adviser Nicholas Boys Smith, says there is little need for phone boxes any more and that they do not feature much on the streets of Paris or New York.
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