Ruth Davis named special representative for nature ‘to put climate and nature at the heart of our foreign policy’
The government has appointed the UK’s first envoy for nature, a former environment campaigner described as “the environmentalist’s environmentalist”, who will be charged with forging global agreement on halting the precipitous decline of species.
Ruth Davis, the new special representative for nature, is in Colombia for the start of two weeks of vital talks that will decide the global response to the biodiversity crisis. The UK has played a leading role in such efforts in the past and Davis helped draw up a global pledge on deforestation that was one of the main outcomes of the UN Cop26 climate summit hosted in Glasgow in 2021.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
10/20/2024 - 09:16
It has been a nightmare season for farmers, with England said to have had its second-worst harvest on record
Giant orange pumpkins with ghoulish grins have become a Halloween doorstep tradition but this year trick-or-treaters may be greeted with even spookier green-tinged jack-o-lanterns after a nightmare season for growers.
In Asda, pumpkin displays have signs telling shoppers “don’t worry if I’m slightly green, I will ripen at home and turn orange”.
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10/20/2024 - 09:03
Greater bamboo lemur births in captivity are extremely rare and park is only UK collection to have bred it this year
Cotswold wildlife park has successfully bred one of Madagascar’s most endangered lemurs.
The as yet unnamed youngster was born to a breeding male, Raphael, and female, Bijou, at the wildlife park.
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10/20/2024 - 09:00
Policies such as cash payouts for bicycle commuters have knock-on effects including reduced pollution and better physical and mental health
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It’s time for a major rethink of transport in Australia, experts say – and, while some new ideas may meet resistance, “these are not ideas from radical left Scandinavian pot-smoking greenies”, Prof Matt Burke says.
Policies lumped together as “active transport” include proposals to offer rebates for people who ditch their cars for public transport, or cash payouts for people who cycle to work.
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10/20/2024 - 09:00
Princeton University, the only other North American school to do so, rolled back its commitment recently
The University of Toronto’s environment school has announced it will financially dissociate from fossil fuel companies, in a landmark win for climate activists.
The institution has committed to stop taking funds from the sector for research, sponsorships, scholarships or infrastructure such as buildings. It will also halt collaborations with the industry on events and school initiatives and cease to host fossil fuel recruitment events, while working to “increase transparency about the our funding, donations, and partnerships”.
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10/20/2024 - 05:58
We need to deal with the climate effects of global capitalism the way we deal with inflation – by applying the brakes
The impact of the climate crisis is evident everywhere. Finance ministers meet in Washington DC this week for the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund in the wake of two devastating hurricanes in the US within a month. Parts of the Sahara have been flooded for the first time in half a century.
Scientists attribute the growing number of extreme weather events to a planet that continues to get hotter as the result of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases linked to human activity. Global temperature records are being broken with every year that passes and the idea that this can continue indefinitely is a fantasy.
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10/20/2024 - 02:00
Puffins, Manx shearwaters and kittiwakes on Rathlin Island in Northern Ireland have been dying. Now islanders and experts think they have the solution
The dramatic sea cliffs, crags and stacks of Rathlin Island, county Antrim, rise more than 200 metres above the Atlantic Ocean and host one of the UK’s largest seabird colonies, including hundreds of endangered puffins, attracting up to 20,000 birders and tourists a year.
On a spectacularly sunny day in September, the cliff faces are devoid of birds, with the puffins already having made their annual migration to spend the winter months at sea. Instead, Rathlin’s cliffs are dotted with roped-up figures in harnesses and bulging rucksacks, directed from above by a Scottish mountaineer, via a walkie-talkie.
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10/20/2024 - 02:00
Experts say UN event will be critical for world’s declining wildlife population as host nation pushes for inclusivity
World leaders, environmental activists and prominent researchers have begun to arrive in Cali, Colombia, for a biodiversity summit that experts say will be decisive for the fate of the world’s rapidly declining wildlife populations.
The host nation is also hoping that the summit, which formally opens on Sunday evening, will be the most inclusive in history.
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10/20/2024 - 01:00
Research at the Francis Crick Institute could lead to new drugs to counter progress of diseases like Alzheimer’s
British scientists are about to launch a remarkable research project that will demonstrate how the air we breathe can affect our brains. This work will be vital, they say, in understanding a major medical problem: how atmospheric pollution can trigger dementia.
In recent years, scientists have discovered that air pollution is one of the most pernicious threats to human health and have shown it is involved in causing cancer, heart disease, diabetes, low birthrates, and many health conditions.
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10/19/2024 - 14:00
The groundwater system in western Victoria and south-east South Australia has begun to show signs of collapse, threatening the water security of SA’s second biggest city
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Some of the best-quality groundwater in Australia underlies the upper and lower south-east of South Australia and parts of south-western Victoria.
But almost 200 years of drawdown for agriculture, farming and domestic use has changed the surface drainage. Underground water in some areas has collapsed and water quality is deteriorating, putting at risk not only a fragile natural ecosystem but a $5bn regional economy.
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