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Campaigners say consumption such as travel, gifts and food are destroying planet and the meaning of Christmas
Whether out of poverty or virtue, many of us spend much of the year reining in our appetites to save our pennies and our health. But at Christmas many of us put our worries aside and go wild in an orgy of lavish gifting, extensive travel and a gluttonous feeding frenzy.
This carnival of consumption has a cost: not just to our wallets and our waistlines, but also to the climate.
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Scientists search for a variety to withstand the climate crisis as high temperatures and drought can stress trees
The climate crisis is increasingly affecting agriculture in the United States, including the production of Christmas trees.
Like all crops, Christmas trees are vulnerable to a changing climate, as the United States continues to experience warmer temperatures, more frequent and severe heat, increased rainfall, droughts, wildfires and hurricanes, as a result of global warming and the climate crisis – primarily driven by humans’ burning of fossil fuels.
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From the Flask glacier to King George Island, intrepid researchers expect good cheer, snow and penguins
Many of us will not get a white Christmas this year, but a group of scientists are guaranteed one while carrying out research on the Antarctic peninsula.
While ice and good cheer are expected, their yuletide activities will be very different from those back home. Dr Kate Winter, of Northumbria University, and colleagues will be deploying instruments on Flask glacier to study the way that meltwater affects how quickly glaciers flow into the ocean.
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Betchcott Hill has glorious views across the county and a mix of habitats home to curlew, cuckoo and lapwing
One of the most scenic and nature-rich spots in western England could be protected for ever in a boost for the curlew, cuckoo, lapwing and snipe that nest there.
Betchcott Hill has views across much of the county and its mix of grassland, wet flushes, woodland and heath sings with the calls of endangered birds in spring.
This article was amended on 24 December 2024 to correct the size of the site, which is 50 hectares, not 50 acres.
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Aldro, North Yorkshire: The ‘major lunar standstill’ only happens every 18.6 years, and once upon a time it would have been an unavoidable event
There’s a place a short drive from home where I’m often drawn to watch the sunset. It’s been special for thousands of years – a high point on a pre-Roman trade route and a gateway to the chalklands of the Yorkshire wolds. The area is thick with prehistoric archaeology, including mounds, cursuses and earthworks.
Here at Aldro, the banks of a vast bronze age ditched enclosure would once have stood out white against both land and sky. It is a truly spectacular vantage point, with unobscured views west and north across the vales of York and Pickering to the dales and the moors. From here it is also possible to see almost all the setting stations of the sun as they track north in summer, south in winter, falling fully west only during the spring and autumn equinoxes.
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Conservationists and scientists in New Zealand were astonished to find the world’s rarest whale washed ashore in the South Island in July. As only the seventh spade-toothed whale identified, and with none ever seen alive, this month saw the first dissection of a complete specimen
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Rising temperatures are pushing these Arctic mammals ever farther into Greenland’s north. But eventually there will be nowhere left for them to go
Built like a small bison, weighing as much as a grand piano and covered in thick, shaggy coat, the musk ox is one of the most distinctive species in the high Arctic. But from a hill on Greenland’s tundra, they seem impossible to find.
Each bush, rock and clump of grass resembles a mass of wool and horns in the blustery chill on the edge of the island’s enormous polar ice cap. Scanning the shimmering landscape with binoculars, Chris Sørensen looks for signs of movement.
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Subsidence affecting many new builds, raising questions about sustainability of skyscrapers in coastal areas
Miami’s oceanfront skyscrapers are sinking. In 2021 the devastating collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Miami’s Surfside resulted in the loss of 98 lives, and prompted closer inspection of the city’s high-rise shoreline. Now a study has identified unexpected levels of subsidence among many of Miami’s high-rise buildings, including prominent luxury properties such as the Porsche Design Tower, Trump Tower III and Trump International Beach Resort.
Using satellite data gathered between 2016 and 2023, researchers observed between 2cm and 8cm of sinking of buildings along Miami’s beachfront area. One beachfront – Sunny Isles Beach – recorded continuous subsidence in more than 70% of its new builds. The findings, published in Earth and Space Science, show the majority of affected buildings were recently constructed high-rises. Which means it is possible the subsidence is a consequence of their own construction. The combination of hefty high-rise buildings, vibration from construction, groundwater movement and tidal flows are potentially triggering the subsidence, with the worst-affected areas being those with a sandy layered limestone underlying them.
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With restrictions due next month, food vendors are still using such plastics and some traders have not heard of ban
Labake Ajiboye-Richard, the founder of a Lagos-based sustainability consultancy, was driving in Nigeria’s most populous city earlier this month when she saw someone throwing rubbish out of their car window.
“I was so shocked to see that in 2024,” she said. “If you’re throwing something on the road, what are you doing in your home? What are you doing in your community?”
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While some residents take to building houses in trees, officials recognise need for national response to climate disasters
Every summer, Dongting Hu, China’s second-largest freshwater lake, swells in size as flood water from the Yangtze River flows into its borders. Dams and dikes are erected around the lake’s edges to protect against flooding. But this year, not for the first time, they were overwhelmed.
For three days in early July, more than 800 rescue workers in Hunan province scrambled to block the breaches. One rupture alone took 100,000 cubic metres of rock to seal, according to Zhang Yingchun, a Hunan official. At least 7,000 people had to be evacuated. It was one of a series of disasters to hit China as the country grappled with a summer of extreme weather. By August, there had been 25 large floods, the biggest number since records began in 1998, reported state media.
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