-
Professionals call for a fundamental transition including controlling flight numbers
The aviation industry is “failing dramatically” in its efforts to tackle its role in the climate crisis, according to a newly formed group of aviation professionals.
They say they are torn between their passion for flying and their concern for the planet and are calling for a fundamental transition of the industry, including controlling flight numbers.
Continue reading...
-
Researchers call for urgent action as fragments of plastic found in human brains and pollute food, water and air
The UK is falling behind on international efforts to tackle microplastics, scientists have said, as the pollutants continue to infiltrate food, ecosystems and human bodies.
The tiny fragments of plastic have been found in human testicles and brains, and they burrow into plants, inhibiting their ability to photosynthesise. The impact on human health is largely unknown, but they have been linked to strokes and heart attacks.
Continue reading...
-
Białowieża Forest, Poland: This is a vast and overwhelming place, a glimpse into a world as it was before we came along
This place, which straddles two eastern European countries, has a reputation as the continent’s last primeval forest – a glimpse of a world before it was smothered in ourselves and the homolith. To arrive at night is to tunnel through trees for mile after mile without end. And this, you realise, represents a fraction of the whole. Because beyond the border the Belorussian section of Białowieża is larger still. Overall, it extends to 149,000 hectares, but there is a further buffer forest of 131,000 hectares.
To imagine this whole: take all of the RSPB’s reserves in Britain, place them contiguously, then lay them end to end with all the 46 Wildlife Trusts’ reserves and cover it largely in trees. They would still be less in area than Białowieża.
Continue reading...
-
Campaigner Hannah Bourne-Taylor fears goal of requiring all new homes in England to include a hollow brick to help endangered cavity-nesting birds may be dropped
On more than 50 occasions over the past three years, Hannah Bourne-Taylor has lugged an oversized brick through the parliament’s security screening.
Security staff know her fondly as “the swift brick lady”. But now Bourne-Taylor is having to ruffle political feathers over what appears the simplest of nature-friendly measures – a small legal clause requiring all new dwellings in England to include a £35 hollow brick, providing homes for endangered cavity-nesting birds including swifts, house martins, sparrows and starlings.
Continue reading...
-
Doug Paulley and Kevin Jordan say their lives being ruined, and lack of effective strategy infringes their human rights
Two men who say they are being failed by the UK’s flawed response to climate breakdown are taking their case to Europe’s top human rights court.
Doug Paulley and Kevin Jordan say their lives have been ruined by the rising temperatures and extreme weather caused by the climate crisis, and that the government’s response fails to respect their human rights.
Continue reading...
-
The $160m makeover to the park’s north side is part of a long-term project to address years of neglect
Continue reading...
-
A British company is producing mosquitoes that carry a ‘self-limiting’ gene that kills off female offspring, limiting the spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue fever
In an unassuming building on an industrial estate outside Oxford, Michal Bilski sits in a windowless room with electric fly swatters and sticky tape on the wall, peering down a microscope. On the slide before him is a line of mosquito eggs that he collected less than an hour previously and put into position with a brush.
Bilski manoeuvres a small needle filled with a DNA concoction and uses it to pierce each egg and inject a tiny amount.
Continue reading...
-
Shorter winters and thinning ice are imperiling cultural activities in the north, including hockey, broomball and hunting
Janelle Oombash stands on the smooth ice of an outdoor rink, keeping score and watching the time as two teams of teenagers run across the ice, whacking a ball with sticks under the afternoon sun. Outside the rink, a bonfire crackles, keeping spectators warm as they watch the game.
Broomball has been played for more than a century in northern Ontario. The game is similar to hockey, but players use a ball instead of a puck and wear specialized shoes rather than skates. Now 31, Oombash started playing the game at age 11. Her dad is a coach and taught her to play. “It’s a big sport. Everybody plays broomball or hockey,” she said.
Continue reading...
-
A feasibility report using historical maps and ecological data is raising excitement: ‘It would be a slow process’
On the eve of the gold rush, California was teeming with grizzly bears – as many as 10,000 of them. They were so popular that the Bear Flag Republic – a short-lived attempt by a group of US settlers to break away from Mexico in 1846 – used the animals as their mascot; an image that still adorns California’s flag.
But by the mid-1920s, the bears were all gone. The last documented sighting of a grizzly bear in California was in the spring of 1924 in Sequoia national park, a lonesome bear wandering among the trees.
Continue reading...
-
This week the presenter turns 99. To celebrate, we asked 99 nature lovers – including Margaret Atwood, Jane Fonda, Bono, Kate Winslet and Michael Palin – how he has helped us see the world with fresh eyes
Presenter, nature activist
It’s all about truth. Ask yourself, “Has David ever knowingly lied to me?” No, never. He may have told us things 40 years ago that science has updated, but he’s always told us the truth. In an age when it’s hard to trust anyone, that stands as his greatest asset.
Continue reading...
