Eco Hvar's aims for protecting animals and improving animal welfare, plus related articles
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The site contains articles and information on topics related to health, the environment and animal welfare.
While the focus is on Hvar Island in Dalmatia, much of the information is relevant to the rest of Croatia, and some to Europe, the United States and the rest of the world.
The main language of the site is English, but articles in Croatian are being added as quickly as possible. Some of the Croatian articles are translations, some original. Book reviews are in the language of the publication being reviewed.
To see all the articles archived in each category, click on the category name which is given below the title of each article (Environment, Highlights, Notices etc).
For further relevant news items and bits of interesting information, please refer to our Facebook page.
We are very grateful to Željka Horvat Kozulić for kindly and expertly designing the ECO HVAR logo, also to Jelena Bunčuga, Petra Mimica, Bartul Mimica, Ivana Župan, Dinka Barbić and Josip Vlainić for their generous help in translating articles into Croatian.
Special thanks are also owed to Mihael Magdić of Orion Informatika i Trgovina, Varaždin, for his excellent and patient efforts in designing the website.
Starmer to convene major energy industry and insurance figures to draw up emergency plans amid continued blockade of strait of Hormuz
Rachel Reeves will warn G7 nations they must move faster on clean energy to insulate economies against global price shocks from oil and gas as she and the energy secretary Ed Miliband meet G7 finance and energy ministers on Monday.
Keir Starmer will also gather major energy industry and insurance figures to thrash out what emergency measures might be needed to contain the continuing crisis from the blockade of the strait of Hormuz.
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As the clocks go forward and the UK enters British summer time, the Guardian photographer Sarah Lee has been trying to distract herself from gloomy world news by focusing on the miracles of springtime and coming of longer days
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In today’s newsletter: Nearly a year after disposable vapes were outlawed, new figures suggest the policy has delivered only modest gains while creating new challenges
Good morning. They seemed to come from nowhere: millions of multicoloured plastic contraptions, each producing a plume of sweet-smelling steam. Love them or loathe them, vapes are now an inescapable part of life in the UK – 5.4 million adults are now vaping daily or occasionally in Great Britain, according to ONS figures.
To advocates, vapes and e-cigarettes contribute a massive public health benefit by helping people to avoid the toxins and tar that come with tobacco smoking, a major cause of cancer and other health conditions. But detractors caution that they can be equally as addictive, with long-term health outcomes still being studied. Vapes have also been an environmental mess – with millions of single-use devices made from plastic and cheap lithium-ion batteries thrown into landfill.
Middle East| Iran has warned the US that it is prepared to confront any ground assault, accusing Washington of secretly planning a land attack while publicly seeking talks.
Politics| Keir Starmer will launch Labour’s local elections campaign by saying that a vote for Reform UK will put at risk progress his government is making on the cost of living, arguing that Britain’s values are being tested in a volatile world.
UK news| A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a car struck several pedestrians on one of Derby’s busiest streets.
Religion| Pope Leo has said God ignores the prayers of leaders who wage war and have “hands full of blood”, in an apparent rebuke to the Trump administration.
UK news| The NHS is set to miss key targets to shorten waiting times for help at A&E, cancer care and planned hospital treatment, leaving millions of patients facing persistently long delays.
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Waterrow, Somerset:On World Water Day, I witness an act of devotion to a river that, like so many others, is in need of a little love
There’s something afoot in the woods today. Bubble-headed humanoid figures bump clumsily through the trees, making their way down to the water’s edge accompanied by flute and drum. Here comes Frog, with bulgy red eyes, followed by stripe-faced Badger and a slim figure with a massive salmon on her head. I wanted to be Otter, but Otter is taken, so I end up as Barn Owl.
All around us, wild garlic bursts through the leaf litter, like clean green licks of paint, and every passing bootprint sends a pungent plume into the air. Blackbird song and the glockenspiel gurgle of the playful young River Tone provide the soundtrack to this morning’s ceremonials, and behind our papier-mache masks we’re all a little overexcited.
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Exclusive: critics warn Reform UK use of trade policy would increase food costs amid cost-of-living crisis
Nigel Farage’s farming adviser has called for a doubling of wheat prices by using trade policy, which critics have said would hike food costs during a cost-of-living crisis.
Arable farmer and campaigner Clive Bailye has been appointed as a farming and land use adviser for Reform UK. Bailye owns the website The Farming Forum, a social network for farmers, and helped organise the large-scale protestsagainst the Labour government’s introduction of inheritance tax for farmed land.
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Weak and sick mammal has become stuck in shallow bays and experts say prognosis ‘doesn’t look good’
The fate of a humpback whale stuck in shallow bays off Germany’s Baltic coast hangs in the balance after it became stranded for a third time.
The roughly 10-metre-long (33ft) mammal appeared weakened and sick on Sunday and was struggling to find a route back to the Atlantic when it ran into fresh difficulty.
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Andalusia houses ‘Europe’s vegetable garden’ – a laboratory of development and innovation producing vegetables for all of Europe
Europe’s vegetable garden is in Andalusia, southern Spain. It is so vast that it can even be seen from space: if you open Google Maps and look west of Almería, you will see a white patch that looks like a glacier, but as you zoom in, you realise it is the highest concentration of greenhouses in the world. More than 30,000 hectares (74,131 acres) of land are covered in plastic, a geometric labyrinth five times the size of Manhattan, where 3.5m tons of vegetables are produced every year – from tomatoes to cucumbers, peppers to courgettes, aubergines to melons – enough to feed half a billion people and generate a turnover of more than 3bn euros.
Workers prepare peppers inside the Hortamar cooperative, a fruit and vegetable producers’ organisation in Roquetas de Mar, founded in 1977, that now has more than 240 members and sells throughout Europe, the US and Canada.
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Two kona low storms dumped up to 50in of rain on Oahu, flooding fields and submerging equipment
Eddie Oroyan’s farm was thriving when the storms hit. He and his wife had started LewaTerra Farm last year on a gorgeous stretch of land on the north shore of Oahu. They were delivering vegetables to customers in the community, selling at farmer’s markets and to local restaurants.
Then, on the week of 10 March, a first kona low storm hit the island, bringing copious amounts of water, flooding their land and wiping out crops. Nearly all their papayas were gone. And the tomatoes didn’t survive. But the couple quickly began cleaning, replanting and tying down crops, confident that they would get back on their feet shortly.
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Fossil-fuel burning at Ohio facility could burn longer, leaving Middletown residents to face environmental risks
It was just a few months after moving from Louisville to Middletown, Ohio, four years ago that Vivian Adams’s six-year-old daughter’s asthma problem worsened.
“My daughter was born prematurely so she already had lung issues,” she says, “[but] it’s gotten worse. She stays sick and coughing and can’t breathe. She’s had to go on everyday medication for her asthma, plus she has a rescue inhaler.”
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Many say they have not received support to rebuild their homes months after the storm caused unprecedented destruction
“Before Hurricane Melissa I could have navigated life, figured things out. But since its passage, everything has just been turned upside down,” said Kerry-Ann Vickers.
Vickers was three months pregnant when Hurricane Melissa demolished parts of her home in the coastal town of Black River, in St Elizabeth, west Jamaica, last October. Nearly six months on, Vickers, 25, is still struggling to get support to rebuild her house and is distraught that her baby will arrive in a home without a secure roof.
Continue reading...People sharing pictures and accounts on socials of red, inflamed skin have triggered the first UK research into TSW.
David Slater, 72, says ministers need to step up and sort out issues with the medication.
Demand for ultrasound has increased but too few people are being trained for the job, sonographers warn.
Claire Harkin believes the experiences of people who are supporting loved ones with an addiction can be overlooked.
After Noa-Rose became critically ill, the four-year-old spent two weeks fighting for her life.
New government guidance also suggests children under-two should not be watching screens alone.
The walkout over jobs and pay is one of the longest yet in the dispute, and will begin on 7 April in England.
As patients struggle to find NHS dentists, Labour has a plan but not everybody is convinced it will work
The UK has failed to keep pace with the rest of the world. Can it regain its status, and how?
Experts say the wait was indefensible and possibly delayed identification of the outbreak.
Deep in the mountains of Palawan, Conservation International scientists are capturing what few people ever see: the secret lives of the Philippines’ rarest species.
At Maido — the Lima restaurant recently crowned the best in the world — one of the star dishes is paiche, a giant prehistoric river fish.Its journey to the table begins on a small family farm deep in Peru’s Amazon.
“Jane Goodall forever changed how people think about, interact with and care for the natural world,” said Daniela Raik, interim CEO of Conservation International.
Conservation International’s Neil Vora was selected for TIME’s Next 100 list — alongside other rising leaders reshaping culture, science and society.
Climate change is happening. And it’s placing the world’s reefs in peril. What can be done?
After decades of negotiation, the high seas treaty is finally reality. The historic agreement will pave the way to protect international waters which face numerous threats.
The Amazon rainforest, known for lush green canopies and an abundance of freshwater, is drying out — and deforestation is largely to blame.
The ocean is engine of all life on Earth, but human-driven climate change is pushing it past its limits. Here are five ways the ocean keeps our climate in check — and what can be done to help.
In a grueling and delicate dance, a team led by Conservation International removes a massive undersea killer.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. These pictures might be worth even more. An initiative featuring the work of some of the world’s best nature photographers raises money for environmental conservation.
