New research estimates a 32% increase in deaths of people under 35 if greenhouse gases not radically cut
Extreme heat fueled by the climate crisis is often viewed as primarily a problem for vulnerable segments of the population, such as elderly people. But it is people aged under 35 that are set to suffer the brunt of heat-related deaths as temperatures climb, new research has suggested.
While older people are susceptible to heatwaves, they currently make up the bulk of cold-related deaths. As the world heats up, it will be younger people that will suffer disproportionately as the mortality burden shifts, with the new study estimating a 32% increase in deaths of people under 35 years old this century from heat if greenhouse gases emissions aren’t radically cut.
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12/06/2024 - 14:00
12/06/2024 - 12:00
Former and current NFL and WNBA stars are ushering in a wave of athlete-farmers who see farming as a greater mission
When Jason Brown speaks to schoolchildren, they clamor to hear about his seven-year NFL career. A mountain of a man who stood six-three and weighed 330lbs in his prime, he excelled at center – gridiron speak for the innermost lineman who initiates offensive plays by “snapping” the ball between his legs to the quarterback.
Brown entered the draft in 2005 after standout years at the University of North Carolina. He quickly gained a reputation for being a human plow who relentlessly cleared pathways for some of the game’s best. He got paid well for it, signing a $20m free-agent contract with the St Louis Rams in 2009. At 26, he was the position’s highest paid player in the league, and he bought the toys to show it: the MTV Cribs-style house, the flashy cars to match.
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12/06/2024 - 11:20
Non-native species introduced by humans are among the main causes of global species decline -- they were partly responsible for 60 percent of the species that have become extinct worldwide in recent decades. In Central Europe, non-native mammals include species such as the Norway rat, the mouflon and the mink. Now a study shows that some of these species introduced by humans are themselves endangered in their native range.
12/06/2024 - 09:00
Here are some of the standout images from the 2024 Nature Conservancy Oceania photo contest.
The 2024 contest saw close to 2,000 entries from photographers in Australia, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea
Dead native birds and flying foxes found in SA town home to one of world’s largest lead smelters
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12/06/2024 - 09:00
High voltage required to use Aemo’s emergency backstop is a bit like stopping a car by driving into a tree, Vince Garrone says
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This week’s call by the Australian Energy Market Operator for “emergency backstop” mechanisms to switch off rooftop solar systems brings safety risks, because the high voltages needed exceed the limits that many appliances have safely been tested for.
That’s according to Vince Garrone, former power quality manager at Energex, Queensland’s biggest electricity distributor who called the situation ironic. Authorities, in using “brute force” to trip inverters, were creating the very high voltage conditions the device protection was designed to prevent.
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12/06/2024 - 07:41
Campaigners want rethink of national policy because of ‘wasteful knock-it-down-and-start-again approach’
Campaigners are calling for planning rules to consider the environmental implications of knocking down buildings after a controversial redevelopment of Marks & Spencer’s historic store on London’s Oxford Street was given the green light by the government.
Save Britain’s Heritage said national policy should consider the embedded carbon linked to a site when considering its future and prioritise reuse of historic buildings amid the climate crisis alongside issues such as preserving important architecture.
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12/06/2024 - 05:21
Hunting bigger, more experienced animals eradicates memories and knowledge crucial to group survival, research suggests
It’s not just humans who get wiser as they age – animals do too, according to a growing body of research. The bigmouth buffalo fish can reach 127 years old, the Greenland shark 392, and some sponges can live for 10,000 years or more. And age is not just a number: as animals get older they behave differently depending on their life experiences, gain richer knowledge of their environment, and often pass it on to younger members of their group, researchers say.
The problem is, we are killing off these older creatures. “Earth’s old animals are in decline,” researchers warned in a paper published in Science last month, which analysed more than 9,000 peer-reviewed papers. Few animals make it to old age, and the ones that do are vulnerable to being hunted or harvested by humans, because they are the biggest or have, for example, the largest antlers, horns or tusks.
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12/06/2024 - 02:00
The overwhelming majority of Europeans support climate action, but they must be compensated for its costs in tangible ways
This year was not an easy time to be Green. Green parties took a beating in June’s European elections, with their seat count plummeting from 71 to 53. In national elections they haven’t fared much better. The Green party was nearly wiped out in last week’s general election in Ireland, losing all but one of its seats after having been part of a coalition government.
At the same time, climate-sceptic parties framing environmental policies as elitist and unfair have surged across the continent. In Germany, for instance, the far-right AfD owes some of its electoral success to its rallying cry against an emerging “eco-dictatorship”.
Björn Bremer is an assistant professor of political science at Central European University and a John F Kennedy Memorial fellow at Harvard University. Jane Gingrich is a professor of social policy at the University of Oxford. Hanna Schwander is a professor of political sociology and social policy at the Humboldt University of Berlin. They are all co-conveners of the Progressive Politics Research Network, whose findings are published here
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12/05/2024 - 19:01
The forests are home to eagles, smelly lichen and fungus that looks like intestines, say conservationists battling to save them
Britain’s rare rainforests are home to wildlife from eagles to the world’s largest slugs and lichen that looks like dragon skin, say conservationists battling to save them.
The Woodland Trust has unveiled a list of 11 “weird and wonderful” species that make their home in and around temperate rainforests found in the south-west and north-west of England, Wales and Scotland.
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12/05/2024 - 14:30
When a forest is lost to development, some effects are obvious. Stumps and mud puddles across the landscape, a plowed field or houses a year after that. But deforestation isn't just a loss of trees; it's a loss of the countless benefits that forests provide -- one of which is control of disease. Now, a global study shows that a widespread malaria-fighting strategy -- bed nets -- becomes less effective as deforestation rises. The research underscores how important a healthy environment can be for human health.