Rare specimens found in China from 514m years ago thought to be remains of proto-mollusc
From colourful, enigmatic octopuses, to oysters with their iridescent pearls, molluscs today are as beautiful as they are diverse. But it seems their ancient relatives may have resembled the love child of a slug and a hedgehog.
Soft-bodied creatures are a rarity in the fossil record as their tissues decay rapidly after death. However, researchers say they have found a rare exception in the eastern Yunnan province, in south-western China, in fossils dating to about 514m years ago.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
08/01/2024 - 13:00
08/01/2024 - 07:00
DKNY, Tom Ford and Reebok among companies to score 0% in Fashion Revolution report ranking top 250 firms
Almost a quarter of the world’s biggest fashion brands, such as Reebok, Tom Ford and DKNY, do not have a public plan for decarbonisation, a report has found.
The fashion industry can be highly polluting. In some casesforever chemicals have been found in the waters near factories. The industry is also a concerning source of waste, with fast fashion accused of encouraging overconsumption.
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08/01/2024 - 07:00
Protesters say recently approved tax-free datacentre will ‘provide nothing except toxic waste and greenhouse gases’
Google’s plans to build a datacentre in Uruguay have angered environmentalists, who say the project will release thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide and hazardous waste.
Uruguay’s environmental authorities recently approved the datacentre, which will use air conditioning to cool its servers. The company initially proposed using millions of litres of fresh water to cool its infrastructure, but this caused an outcry in a country that suffered its worst drought since 1950 last year, causing its capital city to run short of drinking water.
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08/01/2024 - 05:44
UK lender has faced backlash for providing services to climate polluters and defence firms with alleged links to Gaza war
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The chief executive of Barclays has praised Wimbledon organisers for “rightly resisting pressures” to drop the bank’s sponsorship, suggesting that protests over issues including its climate policies are “ultimately misguided”.
The UK bank has been the subject of a wave of demonstrations by climate campaigners and anti-war activists. They claim Barclays has been sponsoring big sporting events and music festivals to “launder” its reputation, and “cover up” its role in funding climate polluters and providing financial services to defence companies, in particular those accused of supplying equipment to Israel as it continues its war in Gaza.
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08/01/2024 - 05:00
Biden’s efforts to save mature trees are not getting enough Forest Service support, according to some conservationists
They are the ancient giants of America – towering trunks of sequoias or beech or ash that started to sprout in some cases before the age of the Roman empire, with the few survivors of a frenzy of settler logging now appreciated as crucial allies in an era of climate and biodiversity crises.
Joe Biden has vowed to protect these “cherished” remnants of old growth forest, as well as the next generation of mature forests, directing his government to draw up new plans to conserve the ecological powerhouses that enable US forests to soak up about 10% of the country’s carbon emissions, as well as provide a vital crucible for clean water and wildlife.
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08/01/2024 - 01:00
The annual coronation of a young girl symbolised a fishing community’s hopes. Now, as the industry declines, it has evolved to reflect the powerful role of women and the change they bring about
• Photographs by Christopher Thomond
The sun is battling the clouds, but the forecast rain holds off as the flotilla enters the harbour. Lining the quayside, hundreds of local people and tourists cheer each boat as it appears, and the sound of a pipe band skirls on the breeze as families crane their necks. They are looking for WaveDancer, the final, most important vessel. Today it is carrying an honoured passenger: the Eyemouth Herring Queen.
Fourteen-year-old Holly Blackie is the 80th Eyemouth Herring Queen (EHQ) and this year is particularly special as 50 former queens have travelled from all over the world to witness her coronation.
Holly Blackie is crowned by the outgoing Herring Queen, Sophie Crowe
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07/31/2024 - 23:00
Cornwall Wildlife Trust initiative aims to benefit creatures from upland marsh fritillaries to seahorses in St Austell Bay
A Cornish conservation charity has launched an ambitious rewilding project intended to benefit creatures from marsh fritillary butterflies living high on the moor to long-snouted seahorses in seagrass in a bay five miles away.
The Tor to Shore project will stretch from Helman Tor, a reserve topped with a granite boulder summit near Bodmin, to St Austell Bay via the tumbling River Par, its idea to improve a landscape at scale.
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07/31/2024 - 21:57
Japanese government confirms it will allow whalers to catch and kill up to 59 fin whales, a species conservationists consider vulnerable
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The Australian government is “deeply disappointed” by Japan’s decision to add the world’s second-largest whale species to the list of species its commercial whale hunters will target.
Tanya Plibersek, the environment minister, attacked Japan’s decision to hunt fin whales – the world’s second-longest whale and considered vulnerable.
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07/31/2024 - 19:00
Opposition leader’s argument is puzzling given Canadian provinces dominated by renewables pay less for electricity
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There’s a community in Ontario called Dutton which, right now, seems appropriate given the number of times Peter Dutton has name-checked the Canadian province over the last 12 months.
In dozens of media interviews and speeches, Dutton (the opposition leader, not the township) has said Ontarians are getting cheap electricity because of their 20 nuclear reactors.
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07/31/2024 - 13:12
New research led proposes a plan to safeguard Earth's imperiled biodiversity by cryogenically preserving biological material on the moon. The moon's permanently shadowed craters are cold enough for cryogenic preservation without the need for electricity or liquid nitrogen.
