Pesticide Action Network analysis of government testing data finds chemicals linked to cancer and harmful to bees
Imported food has been found to have residues of 48 pesticides that have not been approved for use by British farmers, including chemicals linked to cancer and imidacloprid, which is harmful to bees, analysis shows.
Pesticide Action Network (PAN) went through UK government testing data, comparing the results for pesticide tests on imported and domestically produced food. They found there were residues of 46 cancer-linked pesticides in imported produce, compared with 19 in food of UK origin.. Importers include the EU, Peru, Thailand, Turkey and the US.
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12/11/2024 - 01:00
12/11/2024 - 01:00
Research shows UK police arrest environmental and climate protesters at three times the average global rate
British police arrest environmental protesters at nearly three times the global average rate, research has found, revealing the country as a world leader in the legal crackdown on climate activism.
Only Australia arrested climate and environmental protesters at a higher rate than UK police. One in five Australian eco-protests led to arrests, compared with about 17% in the UK. The global average rate is 6.7%.
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12/10/2024 - 15:20
US Fish and Wildlife Service extends protections to ‘iconic’ insects, who experts say may not survive climate crisis
The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced a decision on Tuesday to extend federal protections to monarch butterflies after years of warnings from environmentalists that populations are shrinking and the beloved pollinator may not survive the climate crisis.
Officials plans to add the butterfly to the threatened species list by the end of next year following an extensive public comment period.
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12/10/2024 - 12:38
Drastic shift driven by frequent wildfires, pushing surface air temperatures to second-warmest on record since 1900
The Arctic tundra is undergoing a dramatic transformation, driven by frequent wildfires that are turning it into a net source of carbon dioxide emissions after millennia of acting as a carbon sink, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said on Tuesday.
This drastic shift is detailed in Noaa’s 2024 Arctic Report Card, which revealed that annual surface air temperatures in the Arctic this year were the second-warmest on record since 1900.
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12/10/2024 - 11:54
Fast-growing and small-seeded tree species are dominating Brazilian forests in regions with high levels of deforestation and degradation, a new study shows. This has potential implications for the ecosystem services these forests provide, including the ability of these 'disturbed' forests to absorb and store carbon. This is because these 'winning' species grow fast but die young, as their stems and branches are far less dense than the slow growing tree species they replace. Wildlife species adapted to consuming and dispersing the large seeds of tree species that are being lost in human-modified landscapes may also be affected by these shifts.
12/10/2024 - 11:51
While sustaining friendships from afar can be challenging, they may offer unexpected benefits for environmental conservation. A new study found that these social ties can positively influence community-based conservation. While the study focused on 28 fishing villages in northern Tanzania, it has potential broader implications for global conservation efforts.
12/10/2024 - 09:00
Exclusive: Glenn Platt says opposition leader’s ‘lazy’ response to report undermines science
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A former CSIRO energy director has said Peter Dutton’s attempt to politicise the national science agency’s work on the likely costs of nuclear reactors is “incredibly disappointing” and “absurd”.
The opposition leader attacked the CSIRO after its latest GenCost report reaffirmed that electricity from nuclear energy in Australia would be at least 50% more expensive than power from solar and wind, backed up with storage.
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12/10/2024 - 08:42
Friends of the Earth calls on government to rein in growth of datacentres for fear they could increase fossil fuel use
Ireland has allowed itself to become a “data dumping ground” for big technology companies such as Amazon and Meta which are monopolising clean energy generation for their datacentres, campaigners claim.
They say the growth of the cloud storage sector in Ireland is so rapid it is threatening the country’s legally binding decarbonisation commitments.
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12/10/2024 - 08:19
Campaign group will pay no money to oil and gas company, but will donate £300,000 to RNLI
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Shell has agreed to settle its controversial multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Greenpeace after its campaigners boarded an oil rig last year as part of a peaceful protest.
The oil company threatened to sue Greenpeace for $2.1m (£1.6m) in damages in one of the biggest legal threats against the group after its campaigners occupied a moving oil platform off the coast of the Canary Islands for 13 days to protest against the damage to the climate caused by Shell.
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12/10/2024 - 07:00
Filter performs well in removing plastic pollution from water and Chinese researchers say it appears to be scalable
A sponge made of cotton and squid bone that has absorbed about 99.9% of microplastics in water samples in China could provide an elusive answer to ubiquitous microplastic pollution in water across the globe, a new report suggests.
Just as importantly, the filter’s production appears to be scalable, the University of Wuhan study authors said in the paper, which was peer-reviewed and published in the journal Science Advances. That would address a problem that has stymied the use of previous microplastic filtration systems that were successful in controlled settings, but could not be scaled up.
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