Fifty years of change on iconic limestone pavements has revealed mixed fortunes for one of the most distinctive landscapes in the UK. The findings, which reveal large changes since the 1970s, are from the first national assessment in half a century of plants and vegetation in Britain's rare and iconic limestone pavements.
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/14/2024 - 13:02
11/14/2024 - 12:04
When infestations affect Notting Hill billionaires, it reminds you that it’s the little winged bastards who truly own this city
While reading of the case of the super-rich couple suing the previous owners of their west London mansion over its moth infestation, one particularly detail prompted warm memories. Iya Patarkatsishvili and Yevhen Hunyak had to tip away glasses of wine after discovering moths floating in them, Hunyak told the court. Ah yes, I thought, I too have found a moth taking a little dip in my tipple, though I’ll admit that I simply fished him out rather than waste a glass. Worse, mine only contained Tesco’s finest wine, as opposed to, you know, the world’s.
Moths, it seems, pay no attention to social class. Whether you are a lowly renter in a poky flat, such as I, or the daughter of a Georgian billionaire; if you live in London, they are coming for you. Moths, like mice in the tube, are simply a fact of living in this city, so commonplace as to be almost unremarkable. Even when waging daily battle against them, you sort of forget about them; their soft fluttering wings are a kind of inaudible mood music, until someone who has recently moved here says, “What’s with all the moths?”, and you remember the bastards that truly own this city.
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist and author
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11/14/2024 - 12:04
Police reveal ages and genders of the 216 people who died in Valencia, along with eight other victims elsewhere in Spain
Almost half of the 216 people known to have died in the catastrophic floods that hit the eastern Spanish region of Valencia at the end of October were 70 or above, according to a police analysis.
Figures from the data integration centre set up after the disaster show that 131 of the victims were male, 85 were female and 104 were aged over 70, including 15 aged over 90.
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11/14/2024 - 08:09
Gigantic multicoloured organism is visible from space and has grown for between 300 and 500 years
The world’s largest known coral, visible from space, has been discovered in the waters of the Solomon Islands.
With a circumference of 183 metres, the gigantic multicoloured organism is an intricate network of individual coral polyps that have grown for between 300 and 500 years.
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11/14/2024 - 08:00
The H-2A program might grow under Trump and mass deportations
Agriculture rules in Quincy, Washington. Sprawling apple, cherry and peach orchards surround this rural city of about 8,000. Packing sheds dot the middle of downtown. Railroad tracks run close to the Columbia River, so produce can make its way to market by both train and waterway.
Farm workers such as Alberto, who is only using his first name for privacy reasons, are the backbone of the industry. Once a migrant farm worker traveling around California and Washington state for jobs, he now lives permanently in Quincy with his family. There, he’s found steady year-round work planting, tending and harvesting crops at various farms. With that more stable work, he and other domestic farm workers have built a tight community in Grant county.
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11/14/2024 - 07:34
NatureScot to allow shooting estates to greatly reduce area of grouse moors affected by licensing regime
Wildlife charities have condemned a decision by Scotland’s nature conservation agency to dilute a new law designed to combat the illegal killing of birds of prey.
NatureScot, a government agency, has decided to greatly reduce the area of land affected by a new licensing regime for grouse moors after legal threats from shooting estates and land owners.
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11/14/2024 - 06:00
Trump could stop in its tracks US’s emergence as clean energy superpower and forfeit billions in investment
The United States’s blossoming emergence as a clean energy superpower could be stopped in its tracks by Donald Trump, further empowering Chinese leadership and forfeiting tens of billions of dollars of investment to other countries, according to a new report.
Trump’s promise to repeal major climate policies passed during Joe Biden’s presidency threatens to push $80bn of investment to other countries and cost the US up to $50bn in lost exports, the analysis found, surrendering ground to China and other emerging powers in the race to build electric cars, batteries, solar and wind energy for the world.
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11/14/2024 - 02:00
Oscar winners Mark Rylance and Olivia Colman among those writing to Rachel Reeves about excluding fossil fuels
Leading British actors including Mark Rylance, Olivia Colman, and Benedict Cumberbatch have called on the chancellor to increase investment in clean energy by reforming pensions.
Members of the performing arts union Equity have written an open letter to Rachel Reeves before her Mansion House speech on Thursday asking her to make “smart, strategic reforms” that could unlock £1.2tn from the pensions sector for growing clean energy and infrastructure in the UK.
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11/14/2024 - 01:01
This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Cop29 coverage here
Josh Gabbatiss, from Carbon Brief has published an update on social media about where negotiations at Cop29 have got to.
You may have seen talk of new texts about the climate finance negotiations doing the rounds.
These proposals have been produced by the co-chairs and circulated among negotiators and civil society observers, but for some reason they are not being published on the UNFCCC website.
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11/14/2024 - 01:00
Bedfordshire farm was saved through public donations after a successful £1.5m crowdfunding campaign
A unique farm that was “accidentally” rewilded 35 years ago and is now a haven for endangered nightingales and other rare wildlife has been saved, thanks in part to the generosity of Guardian readers.
Strawberry Hill in Bedfordshire has been successfully bought by the Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs and Northants (BCN) after a crowdfunding appeal raised £1.5m.
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