Environmental activists lock themselves to pesticide barrels in protest outside Syngenta headquarters
More than 40 people, including Greenpeace UK’s programme director, Amy Cameron, have been arrested after a protest outside pesticide company Syngenta’s Yorkshire headquarters.
A number of the activists locked themselves on to 15 blue pesticide barrels outside the headquarters, blocking the gates and leading to the temporary closure of the local A62. Activists had transformed a roundabout outside the front entrance into a giant hazard symbol carrying the message “Syngenta poisons nature” with an arrow pointing directly at the building. The action took place on World Bee day.
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Global study finds wrappers, bottles and lids on shorelines of 93% of countries analysed as UN talks to tackle issue stall
Plastic food wrappers, bottles, lids and caps are by far the most common items of litter found on the world’s shorelines, a study has found.
Researchers looked at data from more than 5,300 surveys of coastal litter to produce the first global analysis of its kind. They found the data in 355 existing studies on the subject.
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Landmark report calls for widespread air conditioning and says UK temperatures forecast to exceed 40C by 2050
British homes will need air conditioning to survive predicted levels of global heating, the government’s climate advisers have warned in a report, as measures such as drawing curtains, opening windows and growing trees for shade are not likely to be enough.
Air conditioning should be installed in all care homes and hospitals within the next 10 years, and in all schools within 25 years, according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which published a major report on adapting to the impacts of global heating on Wednesday.
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For 150 years, the Mease had been altered by human hands, which destroyed habitats. But in 2013, a restoration project began – and now its wetlands are abuzz with wildlife
‘A noisy river is a healthy river,” says Ruth Needham of the Trent Rivers Trust (TRT). The Mease in the Midlands must be in fine fettle, then, as it gurgles merrily along. Sunlight glints off riffles in the water and shoals of fry dart past. Needham whips out her phone to video the tiny fish: “My colleagues will be jumping for joy to see them!”
Needham has good reason to be buoyant. Last month, the Mease won the UK River prize 2026 – which was established by the River Restoration Centre in 2014 to acknowledge innovative projects –in recognition of the trust’s 13-year restoration campaign. “The prize has been a massive boost,” says Needham. “If we can get the Mease into better condition, we can improve other rivers, too.”
‘We wanted to get people to work together’ … Ruth Needham of the Trent Rivers Trust
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Ukrainians lament appalling toll of fighting on their country’s bird population
Russia sent kamikaze drones to attack the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia in February. They hit buildings and killed several people. One unreported victim of the bombardment was a male long-eared owl, blinded in one eye and found with a badly broken wing. A passerby scooped up the stunned bird, put him in a box and took him to the city of Dnipro.
The owl – nicknamed Sunny – is now recovering in a cosy room belonging to Veronica Konkova. No longer able to fly or hunt, Sunny instead hops around.
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Chancellor’s planning shake-up in England and Wales would ‘reduce exposure from judicial review on all but human rights grounds’
Rachel Reeves is poised to fast-track clean energy projects in England and Wales with planning reforms to curb the use of judicial reviews against new infrastructure, the Treasury has said.
Under the chancellor’s proposals, parliament will be able to designate and approve the most important clean energy projects as of “critical national importance”, as part of a wider package seeking to boost the UK’s energy security and soften the economic fallout from the Iran war.
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Young Americans are suing the president for violating rights with executive orders that fuel the climate crisis
Eva Lighthiser was at a dorm party on her Colorado college campus last month when she had to call it an early night.
“I said, ‘Hey, I’ve got to go to bed, I’m flying out to Portland tomorrow,’ and then of course follow-up questions get raised,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Well, it’s a lot to explain.’”
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Galegine compound in plant formed blueprint for metformin drug, but without the toxic side-effects
Goat’s rue or French lilac, Galega officinalis, is a wild plant and often grown in gardens for its clusters of attractive lilac or white flowers. For a long time the plant was also used to treat diabetes. Its key ingredient was later identified as galegine, which lowers blood glucose levels but has toxic side-effects.
Eventually galegine led to the development of the synthetic drug metformin, now the classic treatment for treating diabetes by controlling blood sugar. Metformin has none of the toxic side effects of galegine and is now one of the most prescribed drugs in the world. But for many years metformin was vilified and banned in many countries because of its association with galegine.
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As new settlers clear their forest habitat, the apes are coming into conflict with humans. But simply moving them to another part of the forest may not be the answer
Support for this article was provided by a grant from the Pulitzer Center
The banana skins were an ominous sign. As was the branch that had been broken off to get to the fruit. Had Edi Ramliwalked into the forest, he might have seen scattered balls of bark that had been ripped off trees, chewed like gum, then spat out. It takes a powerful jaw to do that. Closer to Edi’s home, there was an intricate construction of bent and broken branches high in a tree. The nest.
It was October, the fruiting season. The pile of half-eaten bananas was less than a minute’s walk from where Edi and his family slept. He felt nervous. He got on with his day. He picked sweetcorn and sold it at the market. He bought a carton of chocolate milk and biscuits for his grandson. He and his wife, Siti Munawaroh, ran the farm with their three adult children. They prepped the land, sowed seeds, tended crops. Survival depended on what they could grow.
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Like many informal settlements, communities that have sprung up on the edges of Ayacucho in the Andes are on the frontline of extreme weather events
In December 2009, a late‑afternoon storm unleashed torrential rain over Ayacucho, in Peru, hitting poor hillside neighbourhoods hard. The deluge overwhelmed drainage systems, turning streams into lethal flows of mud, stones and debris that flooded houses and streets and trapped drivers at a busy junction.
Ten people died, 18 were injured, and 530 houses were destroyed or damaged, according to a government inquest. “It was a disaster,” recalls Edgar Castro, a leader in Ayacucho’s largest informal neighbourhood, Mollepata.
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Nova studija je pokazala da kada je vitamin C prisutan i u hrani, poput lisnatog povrća poput špinata, može smanjiti rizik od raka. Studija također sugerira da uzimanje dodataka vitamina C nakon svakog obroka može imati umjeren pozitivan učinak u smanjenju stvaranja nitrozacijskih produkata povezanih s rizikom od raka od nitrita i nitrata u prehrani, poput onih koji se nalaze u hrani poput slanine i salame.
Nedostatak vitamina D povezan je s umjerenijom do jakom boli nakon operacije raka dojke i povećanom konzumacijom opioidnih lijekova, otkriva novo istraživanje. Stoga pacijentice s rakom dojke s niskom razinom vitamina D (ispod 30 nmol/L) mogu imati koristi od uzimanja dodataka prehrani prije radikalne mastektomije.
Znanstvenici sa Stanford Medicine otkrili su da najčešće bijele krvne stanice u našem tijelu - imunološke stanice zvane neutrofili - mogu proizvoditi protein C4A za koji nitko nije znao da ga proizvode. Novo uočena neutrofilna veza, kao izvor proteina zvanog C4A, povezuje dugi popis drugih opažanja koja su identificirala C4A kao izražen faktor rizika za shizofreniju. Osobe sa shizofrenijom imaju tendenciju povećanja broja neutrofila u krvi, a najučinkovitiji lijek za shizofreniju inhibira neutrofile.
Nedavna studija pokazuje da poremećaji spavanja tijekom trudnoće mogu biti značajan faktor rizika za gestacijski dijabetes. Inače, gestacijski dijabetes je brzo rastući javnozdravstveni problem koji povećava rizik od komplikacija i za majku i za dijete tijekom trudnoće, a dugoročno i rizik od pretilosti i dijabetesa.
Lijek tezepelumab pokazao se učinkovitim u kliničkim ispitivanjima kod osoba s teškom astmom. Naime, tezepelumab je bio povezan s boljim ishodima kod pušača, pacijenata s preklapajućom astmom i kroničnom opstruktivnom plućnom bolesti (KOPB), kao i kod adolescenata.
Nova studija je identificirala disfunkcija dopamina kao prethodno neprepoznati mehanizam koji leži u osnovi oštećenja pamćenja, otključavajući potencijalno terapijsko sredstvo za preokretanje kognitivnog pada.
Žene koje pate od bolesti mišićne slabosti mijastenije gravis mogu zatrudnjeti bez ikakvih negativnih posljedica, pokazuje nova studija. Naime, trudnoća nije povezana s povećanim rizikom od ozbiljnih pogoršanja ili težih simptoma kod žena s miastenijom gravis.
Dugotrajna izloženost smogu mogla bi povećati rizik od demencije s Lewy tjelešcima, tvrdi nova studija. Čak su i mala povećanja onečišćenja česticama i dušikovim dioksidom povezana s povećanim rizikom od demencije s Lewy tjelešcima i demencije povezane s Parkinsonovom bolešću.
Prema rezultatima novog istraživanja, tihi srčani udar (infarkt miokarda, IM) može značiti više od oštećenja srca, naime, znanstvenici su otkrili da su čak i tihi srčani udari povezani s bržim kognitivnim padom tijekom vremena, što postavlja nova pitanja o tome kako zdravlje srca oblikuje dugoročnu funkciju mozga.
Može li majčino radno mjesto prije i tijekom trudnoće utjecati na neurološki razvoj djeteta? Velika danska studija povezuje nekoliko profesionalnih kategorija, uključujući poslove u prijevozu i obrani, s većom vjerojatnošću dijagnoze autizma kod djece, postavljajući nova pitanja o izloženosti toksinima, stresu i prenatalnom zdravlju.