The so-called corpse plant takes a decade to flower – and when it does, the blossom lasts just 24-48 hours and smells of rotting flesh. Guardian Australia's Henry Belot went along to take whiff
‘I can hear dry-retching from inside’: queuing for hours to smell Geelong’s corpse plant
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/11/2024 - 16:50
President-elect says ex-New York congressman will ‘ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions’ as EPA administrator
US politics – live updates
Donald Trump has picked Lee Zeldin, a former New York congressman, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), vowing the appointment will “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions” by the regulator.
Trump, who oversaw the rollback of more than 100 environmental rules when he last was US president, said that Zeldin was a “true fighter for America First policies” and that “he will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet”.
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11/11/2024 - 13:51
Agreement on rules paving way for rich countries to pay for cheap climate action abroad breaks years-long deadlock
Diplomats have greenlit key rules that govern the trade of “carbon credits”, breaking a years-long deadlock and paving the way for rich countries to pay for cheap climate action abroad while delaying expensive emission cuts at home.
The agreement, reached late on the first day of Cop29 in Azerbaijan, was hailed by the hosts as an early win at climate talks that have been snubbed by prominent world leaders and clouded by the threat of a US retreat from climate diplomacy after Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election.
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11/11/2024 - 12:49
Even if president-elect rolls back climate progress, John Podesta reaffirms commitment to a clean planet at Cop29
The US climate envoy John Podesta said the fight “for a cleaner, safer” planet will not stop under a re-elected Donald Trump even if some progress is reversed, speaking at the Cop29 UN climate talks on Monday as they opened in Baku, Azerbaijan.
“Although under Donald Trump’s leadership the US federal government placed climate-related actions on the back burner, efforts to prevent climate change remain a commitment in the US and will confidently continue,” said Podesta, who is leading the Biden administration’s delegation at the annual talks.
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11/11/2024 - 11:00
Australian-led study using seal-shaped decoys finds lighting disrupts ability of predators to see silhouettes against sunlight above
Using LED lighting on the underside of surfboards or kayaks could deter great white shark attacks, new research suggests.
In an Australian-led study using seal-shaped decoys, underside lighting disrupted the ability of great whites to see silhouettes against the sunlight above, reducing the rates at which the sharks followed and attacked the artificial prey. The brighter the lights, the more effective the deterrent was.
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11/11/2024 - 10:44
Authorities have been racing to evacuate people reluctant to leave villages affected by the erupting Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki volcano on the Indonesian island of Flores. Volcanic material has continued to spew from its crater since 3 November, prompting authorities to extend the danger area and increase the number of evacuees. Lewotobi Laki-Laki is one of 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia
At least 10 dead as volcanic eruptions destroy houses in Indonesia
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‘Mass deportations would disrupt the food chain’: Californians warn of ripple effect of Trump threat
11/11/2024 - 10:00
In 2023, state was nation’s sole producer of almonds, artichokes, figs, olives, pomegranates, raisins and walnuts
Take a drive through the Salinas or Central valleys in California and you’ll pass from town to town advertising its specialty fruit or vegetable: strawberries in Watsonville, garlic in Gilroy, pistachios in Avenal and almonds in Ripon. More than 400 types of commodities are grown in the Golden state – including a third of the vegetables and three-quarters of the fruits and nuts produced in the United States.
Much of that food is grown by immigrant farm workers – many of whom are undocumented. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), about half of the country’s 2.4 million agricultural farm workers do not have legal status in the US. But farm worker advocates say the number is much higher in places like California, where it can be “as high as 70% in some areas”, according to Alexis Guild, vice-president of strategy and programs at Farmworker Justice, a non-profit based in Washington DC.
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11/11/2024 - 09:00
Much is unclear about how Donald Trump’s return to power will affect efforts to tackle global heating but there are a few things we can say
You’ve probably already heard the worst-case takes: that a second Trump presidency is a disaster for the climate, and will almost certainly lead to emissions being higher than they otherwise would have been. There’s obvious truth in that. But it’s also true that Trump 2.0 will almost certainly not play out in line with immediate post-election predictions.
We have been here before. As the writer and analyst Ketan Joshi points out, in 2016 it was projected that Trump’s policies would lead to a steep rise in US emissions – a fork in the road at odds with the decline forecast if Hillary Clinton had won.
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11/11/2024 - 09:00
Warmer weather brings multitudes of largest and noisiest varieties to east coast, with some as loud as 120 decibels
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The east coast of Australia is heading into a big, loud cicada summer.
Prof David Emery, veterinary immunologist and cicada expert, called it a “phenomenal season so far” for green grocer cicadas, which emerged in huge numbers in the Blue Mountains in September and were now making their appearance in Sydney and parts of Victoria.
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11/11/2024 - 07:00
How do you capture the effects of the climate crisis on people right now? We have collected testimonies from around the world
This is climate breakdown: ‘I heard on the scanner there’s a child in the water’
In March 2024, the Guardian’s environment desk began collaborating on a project that we hope will give voice to the growing number of people around the world living through the daily impact of climate breakdown. Our journalists have worked alongside researchers and humanitarian workers at the Climate Disaster Project (CDP) in Canada and the International Red Cross to compile a series of testimonies from survivors of recent extreme weather events.
CDP is an international teaching newsroom coordinated out of the University of Victoria in Canada that collaborates with disaster survivors. The teams are trained in trauma-informed interview skills, and spent hours speaking with people, listening to their stories and then relaying them in a way that takes us all through the experience. In publishing these testimonies and sharing them with you, we were able to help fulfil the project’s aim of creating “a people’s history of climate change” that would honour the dignity of the survivors.
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