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Christian Aid annual report’s top 10 disasters amounted to more than $120bn in insured losses
Cyclones and floods in south-east Asia this autumn killed more than 1,750 people and caused more than $25bn (£19bn) in damage, while the death toll from California wildfires topped 400 people, with $60bn in damage, according to research on the costliest climate-related disasters of the year.
China’s devastating floods, in which thousands of people were displaced, were the third most expensive, causing about $12bn in damage, with at least 30 lives lost.
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With the snow line edging higher, 186 French ski resorts have shut, while global heating threatens dozens more
When Céüze 2000 ski resort closed at the end of the season in 2018, the workers assumed they would be back the following winter. Maps of the pistes were left stacked beside a stapler; the staff rota pinned to the wall.
Six years on, a yellowing newspaper dated 8 March 2018 sits folded on its side, as if someone has just flicked through it during a quiet spell. A half-drunk bottle of water remains on the table.
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Merlin has been trained to identify the songs of more than 1,300 bird species around the world
When Natasha Walter first became curious about the birds around her, she recorded their songs on her phone and arduously tried to match each song with online recordings. After a friend recommended Merlin Bird ID, a free app, she tried it in her London garden and was delighted to discover the birds she assumed were female blackbirds – “this is how bad a birder I was” – were actually song thrushes and mistle thrushes.
“I’m obsessed with Merlin – it’s wonderful and it’s been a joy to me,” says Walter, a writer and human rights activist. “This is what AI and machine-learning have been invented for. It’s the one good thing!”
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Mersey Valley Way takes in Manchester and Stockport on its 13-mile route with other walks to be identified in 2026
A new river walk has been announced by the government as ministers try to improve access to nature in England.
The 13-mile (21km) walk will go through Greater Manchester and the north-west of England. There will be a river walk in each region of the country by the end of parliament, the government has pledged.
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From merrily dismissing climate science, to promoting irresponsible health claims, the podcast was an unintentional warning for our times
Looking back on this crazy year, one event, right at the start, seems to me to encapsulate the whole. In January, recording his podcast in a studio in Austin, Texas, the host, Joe Rogan, and the actor Mel Gibson merrily dissed climate science. At the same time, about 1,200 miles away in California, Gibson’s $14m home was being incinerated in the Palisades wildfire. In this and other respects, their discussion could be seen as prefiguring the entire 12 months.
The loss of his house hadn’t been confirmed at the time of the interview, but Gibson said his son had just sent him “a video of my neighbourhood, and it’s in flames. It looks like an inferno.” According to World Weather Attribution, January’s fires in California were made significantly more likely by climate breakdown. Factors such as the extreme lack of rainfall and stronger winds made such fires both more likely to happen and more intense than they would have been without human-caused global heating.
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Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire: I couldn’t believe how much moss there was covering the rocks, the trees, the ground – everything
Living in a city, I don’t have much contact with nature, but when I do, I always savour it. Most people go to the woods in search of flowers, birds, insects or fungi, but I was looking for moss. Why moss? What is so special about this irksome plant you find hidden in plain sight?
The Forest of Dean could be synonymous with moss. When I went, I was immediately struck by the amount there was. It was covering rocks, trees, the ground – everything! Everywhere was camouflaged by this blanket of green. It was like looking through emerald glasses. I ran my hand over a patch of moss; it was soft and velvety like a puppy’s fur.
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Secondhand tobacco smoke and routine tasks such as operating the stove shown to be biggest emitters of indoor pollution in UK homes
Christmas and New Year is a time when many people will be at home. Being indoors can give us a degree of protection from outdoor air pollution, but it can also trap pollution we produce inside our homes.
Risks from secondhand tobacco smoke are well known and the effect is perhaps best seen by comparison of health data before and after indoor smoking bans. A study of 47 indoor smoking bans in public spaces found hospital admissions for heart attacks decreased by an average of 12%, but people are less aware of other indoor pollutants and how to minimise them.
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Just 70km from Melbourne yet only accessible by ferry, the island’s isolation is the source of its appeal and its biggest drawback
Approaching French Island on the ferry at dawn, if you’re lucky you might be greeted by the sight of hundreds of ibis in flight. From far away, they look like starlings in murmuration, the flock constantly swelling and shifting like the sea far beneath them.
Just 70km from Melbourne in the middle of Western Port Bay, French Island is a remote haven hidden in plain sight. While nearby Phillip Island boasts popular holiday attractions, a motorcycle grand prix, a population of nearly 14,000 and a bridge to the mainland, French Island – twice its size – can only be accessed by an expensive, intermittent two-car barge from the small town of Corinella, or passenger ferry from Stony Point. It’s a refuge for native wildlife and for a small human population – just 139 in the last census – who live entirely off-grid and prefer things to stay quiet.
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The Caatinga in the north-east has been transformed by the heating climate in just a generation and could become the country’s first desert
Every Tuesday at dawn, Raildon Suplício Maia goes to the market in Macururé, in Brazil’s Bahia state, to sell goats. He haggles with buyers to get a good price for the animals, which are reared in the open and roam freely.
Goats are the main – and sometimes only – source of income for the people of Macururé, a small town in the Brazilian sertão.This rural hinterland in the country’s north-east is known for its dry climate and harsh conditions.
Raildon Suplicio Maia, a goat farmer from Macururé sells his animals at the market. Grazing has disappeared and he now spends any profit on feed
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These fungi boost plant growth and restore depleted ecosystems, but federal funding for a library housing them has been cut – and it may be forced to close
Inside a large greenhouse at the University of Kansas, Professor Liz Koziol and Dr Terra Lubin tend rows of sudan grass in individual plastic pots. The roots of each straggly plant harbor a specific strain of invisible soil fungus. The shelves of a nearby cold room are stacked high with thousands of plastic bags and vials containing fungal spores harvested from these plants, then carefully preserved by the researchers.
The samples in this seemingly unremarkable room are part of the International Collection of Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (INVAM), the world’s largest living library of soil fungi. Four decades in the making, it could cease to exist within a year due to federal budget cuts.
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