Syngenta has been besieged by lawsuits from people claiming its product caused the neurological condition
Besieged by thousands of lawsuits alleging that its paraquat weedkiller causes Parkinson’s disease, its manufacturer, Syngenta, has entered into an agreement aimed at settling large swaths of those claims.
A court filing on Monday confirmed that a letter of agreement between the parties had been signed. In a court hearing on Tuesday, one of the lead plaintiff lawyers, Khaldoun Baghdadi, said the terms of the settlement should be completed within 30 days.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
04/15/2025 - 12:47
04/15/2025 - 11:19
Whitewebbs Park oak cut down by contractors working for firm that runs nearby restaurant
The sudden felling of one of the oldest and largest oak trees in London has been carried out by the company that owns a nearby Toby Carvery, as campaigners renewed calls for better protection for such nationally significant trees.
The oak in Whitewebbs Park, Enfield, was up to 500 years old, with a trunk that was more than six metres in circumference. It was listed on the Woodland Trust inventory of ancient trees, but was not the subject of a tree preservation order.
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04/15/2025 - 10:00
Boyce tells Climate and Energy Realists Queensland that opposition to renewables is growing and fellow MPs should adopt a ‘do nothing strategy’
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Coalition MP Colin Boyce told a group of climate science deniers that blackouts were “a big political opportunity” and that he had urged fellow MPs to adopt a “do nothing strategy” that would allow power outages and build opposition to net-zero policies.
A video of Boyce, posted on YouTube, speaking to the Climate and Energy Realists Queensland group, includes comments by the Flynn MP that net-zero climate policies “need a rethink”.
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04/15/2025 - 10:00
Coalition’s proposal overestimates the reliability of Australia’s ageing coal generators, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis says
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Peter Dutton’s plan to build less renewable energy and keep Australia’s coal plants running longer has overestimated the reliability of ageing generators and could lead to major electricity shortages, according to a new analysis.
The Coalition has pledged to put taxpayer-funded nuclear reactors at seven sites around Australia and has pointed to modelling by Frontier Economics that shows the country’s ageing coal fleet would need to take up the slack in electricity generation while they are built.
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04/15/2025 - 10:00
Researchers looked at more than 25,000 everyday items available at supermarkets like Aldi, Coles, Woolworths, Harris Farm and IGA
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Simple grocery swaps – including substituting red meat for chicken or plant-based alternatives, opting for dairy-free milk and yoghurt and choosing fruit toast instead of muffins – could substantially cut household greenhouse gas emissions, new research has found.
A report by the George Institute for Global Health found switches could reduce a household’s climate pollution by 6 tonnes a year, which it said was roughly equivalent to the emissions from an average household’s grid-based electricity use.
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04/15/2025 - 09:58
The White House has pulled federal webpages tracking climate and environmental justice data
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Green groups have sued the Trump administration over the removal of government webpages containing federal climate and environmental justice data that they described as “tantamount to theft”.
In the first weeks of its second term, the Trump administration pulled federal websites tracking shifts in the climate, pollution and extreme weather impacts on low-income communities, and identifying pieces of infrastructure that are extremely vulnerable to climate disasters.
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04/15/2025 - 07:00
With extreme weather and Trump’s looming trade war, US farmers are reeling and resigned to needing more cash help
Farmers across the United States say they could face financial ruin – unless there is a huge taxpayer-funded bail out to compensate for losses generated by Donald Trump’s sweeping cuts and chaotic tariffs.
Small- and medium-sized farms were already struggling amid worsening climate shocks and volatile commodities markets, on top of being squeezed by large corporations that dominate the supply chain.
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04/15/2025 - 05:00
Bear Grylls-inspired vessel helps wardens on Coquet Island care for UK’s only breeding colony of roseate terns
It looks like something James Bond might drive – or, more accurately, Bear Grylls. But rather than enabling secret missions or carrying millionaires, this innovative amphibious boat is helping RSPB wardens look after Britain’s only breeding colony of roseate terns.
The endangered birds nest on Coquet Island off the Northumberland coast each spring but seasonal wardens who manage the tiny island struggle to get on and off it because there is no safe mooring point or harbour at low tide. This means boats can only take people and kit to the island at high tide – often at inconvenient times of day or night – making life for the wardens, who live in the island’s lighthouse, a little complicated.
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04/15/2025 - 05:00
As part of Trump’s administrations ‘efficiency’ drive, staff running decades-old program for energy assistance laid off
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is facing new demands to release almost $400m allocated by Congress to help low-income US families keep the air conditioning on this summer.
The funds are under threat after the staff running a decades-old program were fired – as part of the Trump administration’s so-called “efficiency” drive.
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04/15/2025 - 04:40
Dmitry Kalmykov is a Ukrainian scientist who has dedicated his life to investigating environmental disasters, first at Chornobyl and now in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan - formerly the Soviet Union's primary nuclear weapons testing site. He teaches schoolchildren about how bombs were tested, and how – more than 30 years after the site was decommissioned – the surrounding community is only beginning to comprehend radiation's lasting deadly effects. Against the backdrop of war in Ukraine and the long shadow of a nuclear conflict across the region, Dmitry debates Kazakhstan's nuclear future with its next generation
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