Plants, insects and organisms crucial to food production in steep decline, says UN
The world’s capacity to produce food is being undermined by humanity’s failure to protect biodiversity, according to the first UN study of the plants, animals and micro-organisms that help to put meals on our plates.
The stark warning was issued by the Food and Agriculture Organisation after scientists found evidence the natural support systems that underpin the human diet are deteriorating around the world as farms, cities and factories gobble up land and pump out chemicals.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
02/21/2019 - 15:20
Park safety director alleges buckets of uranium sat near exhibit for almost 20 years, but interior department says there’s no risk
For almost 20 years, workers and visiting school children at a Grand Canyon museum may have been unknowingly exposed to radiation from three buckets of uranium sitting next to a taxidermy exhibit, according to allegations from a National Park Service safety director.
The whistleblower says officials learned about the buckets last year and tried to hide the revelation, according to the Arizona Republic newspaper. Earlier this month, Elston “Swede” Stephenson emailed all park staff and brought the matter to the attention of the head of the interior department, which oversees the park service, and the agency’s internal watchdog.
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02/21/2019 - 09:00
Biologists discover single female Wallace’s giant bee inside a termites’ nest in a tree
As long as an adult thumb, with jaws like a stag beetle and four times larger than a honeybee, Wallace’s giant bee is not exactly inconspicuous.
But after going missing, feared extinct, for 38 years, the world’s largest bee has been rediscovered on the Indonesian islands of the North Moluccas.
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02/21/2019 - 05:56
Centrica says it will take £300m hit on cap on energy bills and lowers 2019 cashflow outlook
The owner of British Gas, Centrica, lost about three-quarters of a million customers last year and warned it will take a £300m hit from the government’s price cap on energy bills.
Shares in Britain’s biggest energy company dropped more than 10% after the company lowered its cashflow outlook for 2019, leading investors to fear Centrica’s dividend could be cut.
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02/21/2019 - 05:00
Report says few headlines sparked by food crises that ravaged Madagascar, Ethiopia and Haiti
Climate change was responsible for the majority of under-reported humanitarian disasters last year, according to analysis of more than a million online news stories.
Whole populations were affected by food crises in countries ravaged by by drought and hurricanes such as Ethiopia and Haiti, yet neither crisis generated more than 1,000 global news stories each.
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02/21/2019 - 04:31
Adult female discovered 113 years after only other living Chelonoidis phantasticus was found
A living member of species of tortoise not seen in more than 110 years and feared to be extinct has been found in a remote part of the Galápagos island of Fernandina.
Related: Welcome home, Lonesome George: giant tortoise returns to Galapagos
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02/21/2019 - 02:00
On Friday demonstrators will protest against ‘negligent’ climate change education
Teachers will follow on the heels of striking students on Friday with a protest to demand the national curriculum be reformed to make the climate and ecological crisis an educational priority.
The Extinction Rebellion group will support the demonstration outside the Department for Education, which organisers describe as a “peaceful nonviolent protest that may involve civil disobedience”.
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02/21/2019 - 01:00
Residents of cities like Chester, outside Philadelphia, fear a rise in pollution from incinerators after China’s recycling ban
The conscientious citizens of Philadelphia continue to put their pizza boxes, plastic bottles, yoghurt containers and other items into recycling bins.
Related: Fighting pollution: Toledo residents want personhood status for Lake Erie
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02/21/2019 - 00:35
Australia’s largest coal producer says decision to cap production doesn’t mean it intends to drop greenfield coal projects
Green groups say Australia’s biggest coal producer Glencore should commit to withdrawing from new coalmining projects if it is serious about aligning its business with the goals of the Paris agreement.
The company has moved to cap its output of thermal and coking coal at current production levels of 145m tonnes a year after pressure from investors who want companies to take stronger action and factor in the financial risks of climate change.
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02/20/2019 - 19:08
The baby boomers gave us Trump and Brexit. Can my generation age more gracefully?
Generational politics is bullshit, but a Gen X guy would say that. I sometimes wonder, though, whether whatever is distinctive in my generation’s experience (and haunting our minds) might have something to offer the future.
After a brief flurry of interest in the 1990s, thinkpieces on my demographic quickly waned. There were never that many of us; the meat in the sandwich was and is meagre.
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