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Big River Watch scheme asks general public to help monitor state of rivers after years of deregulation
Rivers will be checked for sewage and other pollution by the general public this month in an attempt to assess the health of British waterways.
Cuts to the UK regulators and a change in the law to allow water company self-monitoring of pollution in England mean there is little independent monitoring of the state of rivers in the UK.
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A pioneering mission into a mysterious and violent world may reveal ‘speed bumps’ on the way to global coastal inundation
There are stadium-sized blocks of ice crashing from the soaring face of the Kangerlussuup glacier in western Greenland. Fierce underwater currents of meltwater are shooting out from its base and visibility below the surface is virtually zero thanks to a torrent of suspended mud and sand. It’s little wonder scientists have never explored this maelstrom.
Yet today, they are sending in a multimillion-dollar remotely operated submarine, potentially to its death. As the scientists onboard the Celtic Explorer research ship repeatedly say: “It’s a high risk, high reward mission.”
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This year will more than likely end up the warmest humanity has measured, reports European climate service
Summer 2024 sweltered to Earth’s hottest on record, making it even more likely that this year will end up as the warmest humanity has measured, the European climate service Copernicus reported on Friday.
And if this sounds familiar, that’s because the records the globe shattered were set just last year as human-caused climate change, with a temporary boost from an El Niño, keeps dialing up temperatures and extreme weather, scientists said.
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Rusland, Cumbria: We’ve sadly lost some committee members in recent times, but after nearly 140 years, the show must go on
Next year, my husband will be the president of the 140th annual Rusland Valley Horticultural Show, so this year he must attend as vice-president and shadow the incumbent president to see what his duties will be. We attended the show last Saturday and, thankfully, it was a warm, dry day – not the torrential rain that we have had on recent Rusland Show days.
After reporting to the secretary’s tent, we watched the long fell race runners coming in. One had taken a wrong turning and was disappointed not to win. There were then shorter running races on the grass track, before the short fell race up the hill behind Whitestock Hall. All the while, there was a hum of activity on the field as children practised circus skills, and in the craft tent people demonstrated local crafts such as swill basket-making.
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Exclusive: Campaigners accuse ministers of making misleading promises about protecting green belt sites
Huge expanses of green belt land in England could be built on to meet government housing targets, it has emerged, with guidelines saying that councils lacking enough brownfield sites will be expected to offer untouched plots for construction.
The proposals, set out in consultation documents for the revised planning rules across England, prompted condemnation from campaigners, who accused ministers of making misleading promises about protecting the green belt.
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Many ready-to-drink cocktails have as much sugar as Coca-Cola – but a loophole avoids the ‘ultra-processed’ tag
If you’ve browsed the refrigerated section of a liquor store recently, a bevy of pre-mixed cocktails may have caught your eye – piña coladas, vodka mules, rum and cokes, even a mojito. And if you’ve cracked one open, you may have thought, “A little sweet for my taste, but not bad.” Turn the bottle around to look for the nutrition facts label to figure out exactly how much sugar or artificial sweetener is in there … and you’re likely to come up empty.
Many ready-to-drink cocktails and alcopops contain as much sugar as carbonated beverages like Coca-Cola. All that sugar – and other additives – has many alcoholic beverages falling into the category of “ultra-processed foods” (UPF). But unlike other sugary beverages, most alcoholic drinks aren’t required to print nutrition facts – opening up a loophole for ultra-processed foods to unknowingly sneak their way into our diets.
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Plastic recycling is failing to scale anywhere near fast enough and remains a marginal activity in the sector
Here’s some sobering facts about plastic. Australia produces more single-use plastic waste per capita than any other country except Singapore, according to a Minderoo Foundation report. And our plastic consumption is going up: it increased by 60% from an estimated 92kg per person in 2000 to 148kg per person in 2020-21, according to the Australia Institute. Soft plastics – those that can be scrunched into a ball – are almost always single-use.
On top of that, the latest Plastic Waste Makers Index found that despite massive consumer awareness campaigns and regulations, there is now more single-use plastic in circulation globally than ever – an additional 6 million metric tons (MMT) generated in 2021 compared with 2019 – and it is still almost entirely made from fossil fuel-based “virgin” feedstocks.
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It’s the world’s most popular fruit, but the Cavendish banana is at risk of being wiped out. Queensland scientists say they may have the answer
When two biotechnologists fly from Brisbane to Darwin on Saturday, they will drive the Kakadu road to Humpty Doo and eat what has the potential to become one of the more consequential mouthfuls of banana in the history of the planet’s most popular fruit.
Whoever bites first will not only become the first person to taste a genetically modified fruit grown in Australia, they shall have the first taste of the first GM banana approved for commercial production anywhere in the world.
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Post-Covid hunger for travel is taking a heavy toll on the environment amid race to net zero, say experts
For some people, summer holidays are a relaxing break from daily life, a blissful chance to hit the sunbed and lie flat for as long as humanly possible. Other people are on the hunt for new places and adventure – plummeting down a hill on the back of a bike or tied to flimsy fabric and pulled through the air. Others still are on a quest for culture, cuisine or enlightenment – or, ideally, all three and then a nap. Travel is, most people seem to feel, amazing.
The result has been an economic boon for some parts of the world that has shifted money across oceans and into impoverished communities. But it has come at a cost to the planet that travellers have long overlooked.
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Donald Trump gets everything wrong about the climate crisis. The results of the vote in November could reverberate for a million years
Here is the biggest thing happening on our planet as we head into the autumn of 2024: the Earth is continuing to heat dramatically. Scientists have said that there’s a better than 90% chance that this year will top 2023 as the warmest ever recorded. And paleoclimatologists were pretty sure last year was the hottest in the last 125,000 years. The result is an almost-cliched run of disasters: open Twitter/X anytime for pictures of floods pushing cars through streets somewhere. It is starting to make life on this planet very difficult, and in some places impossible. And it’s on target to get far, far worse.
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