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UN secretary general, António Guterres, says ‘we must exit this road to ruin’ in annual new year message
The world has endured a “decade of deadly heat”, with 2024 capping 10 years of unprecedented temperatures, the UN has said.
Delivering his annual new year message, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the 10 hottest years on record had happened in the past decade, including 2024.
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Part of an international initiative to combat organised wildlife crime, similar seizures in Australia and Norway have recovered more than 50,000 eggs
More than 6,000 eggs have been seized in the biggest haul of its kind in UK history, after police carried out raids in Scotland, South Yorkshire, Essex, Wales and Gloucester. Thousands of eggs were found secreted in attics, offices and drawers.
The UK raids took place in November as part of Operation Pulka, an international effort to tackle organised wildlife crime – specifically the taking, possessing and trading of wild birds’ eggs. The raids began in June 2023 in Norway, and resulted in 16 arrests and the seizure of 50,000 eggs. In Australia, an estimated 3,500 eggs have been seized, worth up to A$500,000 (£250,000).
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Exclusive: Report finds poorer areas particularly affected by varying availability and cost of charging electric cars
The UK is at risk of a drastic slowdown in its transition to electric cars because of big disparities in the availability and cost of charging points, especially in poorer areas, a report says.
The study, by the consultancy Stonehaven, argues that given rapid advances in batteries and car range, persuading more people to move to electric vehicles is now less an issue of technology than one of “urban management and social equity”.
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Frome, Somerset: Driven out from here centuries ago, they are a presence once more – just don’t expect an easy sighting
Lost in a Glen Coe blizzard, I met ravens for the first time at close quarters when I was not that long out of college. Back then, these vultures of the northern hemisphere were fixed on distribution maps exclusively as birds of the mountainous north and west, hatched in ice, feathers stiffened with granite. Ravens were indubitably tough birds of hard places – there was surely no home for them in the English home counties, nor here over the soft tops of the Mendips.
But old habitations die hard, and ravens are back to make an easier living in counties from which they were driven out centuries ago. And there appear to be few barriers – the Victorian naturalist R Bosworth Smith commented that “His dietary ranges from a worm to a whale”.
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Call for illicit market to be taken out of hands of criminals as numbers continue to fall drastically due to poaching
International trade in rhino horns should be legalised, a leading wildlife expert has urged.
Writing in the research journal Science, Martin Wikelski argues only carefully monitored, legitimate transactions in horns can save the world’s remaining species of rhinoceros.
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While droughts are a natural feature of California’s climate, human-induced warming has made them even drier.After Eric Haas, 62, moved to Oakland in 2007, California was in a drought so severe a statewide emergency was declared. After experiencing drought conditions for several years, the California professor had a rainwater and greywater capture system installed at his highly efficient urban home to do his part to conserve water.
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Bumper grain crop set to weigh heavily as farmers count costs of seed, fertilizer – and effects of possible trade war
Many US midwestern grain farmers will lose money this year after reaping a bumper crop, and the outlook for their future income is bleak.
US farmers harvested some of the largest corn and soybean crops in history this year. Big harvests traditionally weigh on crop prices because of plentiful supply. And those price pressures comes at a time when costs remain persistently high to grow corn and soybeans, the US’s most valuable crops.
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Wildlife Victoria expects ‘catastrophic and long-term impacts’ for wildlife, including substantial loss of life, burns, blindness and starvation
As fires headed toward her Grampians property in the Australian state of Victoria on Boxing Day, wildlife carer Pam Turner sheltered 20 joeys in her living room.
The animals gathered inside – standing alert from the noise of the sprinklers – are all hand-reared by her after being orphaned through car accidents, fence hangings and shootings.
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I wind my thread around their holes to create sculptures that connect with ageing and time
I have collected hundreds and hundreds of broken shells. I select them by holding them up to the sea, looking at the shape of them and deciding whether I want to work with them – and whether they will work with my thread.
To me, a shell that is broken is more interesting than a shell that is perfect. A broken shell has lived a life. I can see what the sea has done to it, what has happened to it on the rocks and stones. We spend so much of our lives searching for or trying to obtain perfection. But as I’ve got older, I’ve realised that perfection is unattainable – and the search isn’t worth it.
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Social monogamy has been observed in less than 10% of mammal species – and birds have been shown to be less faithful than previously believed
In 2011 a shock celebrity break-up garnered headlines around the world – not the separation of Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, nor Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, but the sudden, inexplicable rupture between Bibi and Poldi, two 115-year-old Galápagos tortoises at Happ reptile zoo in Austria.
After nearly a century as a couple, the female, Bibi, had had enough: one day, she bit a chunk off Poldi’s shell, drawing blood, and continued to attack him until zoo staff moved him to a separate enclosure.
Continue reading...Diane Danzebrink says some women were not told about the side-effects of having ovaries removed.
Isobel Perl says suffering from trichotillomania ended up being a turning point for her business.
Phil Fuller is hailed for "almost certainly saving the man's life" when he was due to end his shift.
Sofia Brizio, who lives in Cardiff, said she can spend four hours a day on "disability admin".
The animals - including a Bengal tiger, cougars and bobcats - have died of the virus over the past several weeks.
A law creating a Patient Safety Commissioner post was passed last year - but no-one has yet been found to take it on.
The system checks patients' ECG heart traces for subtle early warning signs.
Leading end-of-life doctors warn system is struggling, and changing law could make situation worse.
BBC News speaks to two terminally ill people with opposing views on the impact of assisted dying.
MPs have backed a change in the law, but the measure still faces many hurdles before coming into force.
Alarm bells screamed for nature in 2024. But amid the gloom, quiet victories emerged, as ordinary people made extraordinary progress for nature.
It was a year of rough seas for the world’s oceans. But that didn’t stop conservationists and communities from working to protect the seas. Here are highlights from the year.
Conservation International researchers in Peru have uncovered a wealth of wildlife, including species new to science.
As 2024 comes to a close, global temperatures are at an all-time high — topping the previous hottest-year on record: 2023. Yet amid this backdrop, research consistently shows nature is a powerful climate ally.
“Invest in one woman, and that ripples out to her family, her community and beyond. It changes people’s lives.”
In southern Africa, grasses can beat the heat better than trees, according to Conservation International research.
An unheralded breakthrough at the recent UN biodiversity conference highlights the often-overlooked connection between our health and the planet’s, a Conservation International expert says.
A recent study on climate solutions downplays nature’s potential, two Conservation International experts say.
A new study found that seaweed forests may play a bigger role in fighting climate change than previously thought — absorbing as much climate-warming carbon as the Amazon rainforest. But not all seaweed forests are created equal.
For the conscientious consumer, finding the perfect present can be a challenge. Not to worry, Conservation International's 2024 gift guide has you covered.
