Almost 200 people still missing after heavy rains and access problems hamper second day of rescue operation
The death toll from a series of landslides in Kerala has risen to 166 and almost 200 people are still missing as the southern Indian state reels from one of its worst disasters in years.
Hundreds of homes were swept away and crushed by two huge consecutive landslides in the hilly district of Wayanad in the middle of the night on Tuesday.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/31/2024 - 08:00
An extract from Andrea Freeman’s Ruin Their Crops on the Ground unpacks government cheese – from Steve Harvey jokes to Jay-Z lyrics and Wahlburgers
During the Depression, when milk supply exceeded demand, the US government bought milk to keep its price stable and support dairy farmers. Then, trying to find a way to store or get rid of the surplus, it started stockpiling cheese, which lasts longer than milk.
The government bought so much cheese that it eventually filled every cold storage in the country. But there was still more excess milk. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) rented half an acre in a Kansas cave and filled it floor to ceiling with blocks of cheese. At its height, the US had 2lbs of stored cheese for every resident.
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07/31/2024 - 08:00
Scorching temperatures in Mediterranean countries and north Africa already causing increase in premature deaths
The “heat dome” causing scorching temperatures across western Europe and north Africa, and boiling athletes and spectators at the Olympic Games in Paris, would have been impossible without human-caused global heating, a rapid analysis has found.
Scientists said the fossil-fuelled climate crisis made temperatures 2.5C to 3.3C hotter. Such an event would not have happened in the world before global heating but is now expected about once a decade, they said. Continued emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide will make them even more frequent, the researchers warned.
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07/31/2024 - 08:00
Experts say facility beyond reach of climate breakdown and other terrestrial events is needed to safeguard biodiversity
With thousands of species at risk of extinction, scientists have devised a radical plan: a vault filled with preserved samples of our planet’s most important and at-risk creatures located on the moon.
An international team of experts says threats from climate change and habitat loss have outpaced our ability to protect species in their natural habitats, necessitating urgent action. A biorepository of preserved cells, and the crucial DNA within them, could be used to enhance genetic diversity in small populations of critically endangered species, or to clone and create new individuals in the worst-case scenario of extinction.
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07/31/2024 - 07:33
The insects are being looked after in a conservation project that encourages visitors to enjoy their ‘piercing’ light
Far out in the Channel, the lights of ships at anchor flickered while the lighthouse at Anvil Point emitted its steadier beam. Late on, a crescent moon shone a coppery orange.
But, undoubtedly, the most extraordinary light source to be seen was the vivid green gleam from the glow-worms that inhabit the herb-rich grassland on the cliffs and quarries in this tucked-away corner of southern Britain.
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07/31/2024 - 06:00
Scientists are discovering just how toxic wildfire smoke is to the body – here’s what to know and how to stay safe
As dozens of wildfires rage across the US and Canada, blackening the skies once again this summer, scientists are revealing even more about how dangerous wildfire smoke is for our health.
Some of the worst fires – including the Durkee fire in Oregon, the Park fire in California and the Jasper fire in Alberta, Canada – have sent smoke billowing for hundreds of miles around them, blanketing cities like Boise and Calgary with poor-quality air.
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07/31/2024 - 06:00
US researchers say they have uncovered potential link after tracking 130,000 people over four decades
Eating processed red meat could be a significant risk factor for dementia, according to a large study that tracked more than 100,000 people over four decades.
Processed red meat has previously been shown to increase the risk of cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Now US researchers say they have uncovered a potential link to dementia.
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07/31/2024 - 05:00
Critics say bill is a ‘fossil fuel wolf in clean energy clothing’ that would gut environmental protections
US senators should reject an energy-permitting reform bill being brought to committee on Wednesday by senators Joe Manchin and John Barrasso because it’s a “wishlist for the fossil industry” of the kind envisioned by Project 2025, environmental groups say.
Manchin, a senator from West Virginia and a former Democrat who registered as an independent in May, and Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, argue their bill will speed permitting of power transmission, mining and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects. Their bill will be voted on by the Senate energy and natural resources committee, of which Manchin, a longtime proponent of the reforms, is the chair and Barrasso is the committee’s top Republican.
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07/31/2024 - 03:39
Advocates say nets are killing marine life and do not prevent shark bites but government says it will not remove them completely
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For years, sea turtles have been nesting along the east coast of Australia – but as global heating causes waters to warm, the marine animals are pushing farther south and into areas off Sydney where shark nets are in place every summer.
In anticipation of increased turtle activity in April next year, the New South Wales government has announced it will remove the shark nets one month early, on 31 March.
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07/31/2024 - 03:33
Land and Environment Court fines state agency $360,000 for logging eucalyptus trees after black summer bushfires
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A court has released a scathing judgment against the New South Wales’ state-owned forest agency, finding it had “a pattern” of illegally damaging the environment and had refused to accept the “true extent of the harm that it has caused”.
The Land and Environment Court fined the Forestry Corporation of NSW (FCNSW) $360,000 for offences related to the logging of 53 eucalyptus trees in environmentally significant forest near Eden, in the state’s south, after the black summer bushfires.
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