Environment

Environment

Since the pandemic, offices around the world have quietly shrunk. Many organisations don't need as much floor space or as many desks, given many staff now do a mix of hybrid work from home and the office. But on days when more staff are required to be in, office spaces can feel noticeably busier and noisier. Despite so much focus on getting workers back into offices, there has been far less focus on the impacts of returning to open-plan workspaces.

Authorities in Cyprus have urged residents to reduce their water intake by 10% the equivalent of two minutes' use of running water each day as Europe's most south-easterly nation grapples with a once-in-a century drought. The appeal, announced alongside a 31m (27m) package of emergency measures, comes as reservoirs hit record lows with little prospect of replenishment before the tourist season starts.

The wolves arrived in May of last year, just days after Paul Roen had driven his cattle back up to their summer pasture in Northern California's Sierra Valley. He started finding the bleeding bodies of calves-some still alive, so badly paralyzed that they'd need to be shot. After weeks of this, Roen finally saw a kill himself. "One wolf grabbed a cow and spun her around, while another grabbed a calf," he told me. "He tore it into three pieces in 30 seconds."

When you think about building a house, what materials come to mind? Brick, wood and metal all come to mind; there are also some very distinctive glass houses out there. (Even if their occupants should refrain from throwing stones - though honestly, that's a good tip for indoor living in general.) A group of MIT researchers have come up with a very different way of making buildings, and it's one that also addresses an ongoing waste issue."We've estimated that the world needs about 1 billion new homes by 2050. If we try to make that many homes using wood, we would need to clear-cut the equivalent of the Amazon rainforest three times over," explained AJ Perez, who conducts his research in the MIT Office of Innovation. The title of a paper written by Perez and his colleagues - "Design, Manufacture and Testing of Structural Trusses Using Additively Manufactured Polymer Composites" - gives a sense of the solution that they have in mind.

Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

"I think it's really important to think about this as just another way that we are dealing with death," said Green-Wood President Meera Joshi. "If you look throughout history, there's been so many different ways between cultures and over time on how people memorialize death. In some senses, this is the original way. It just has the benefit of technology so it can happen faster."

Dry air should move into South Florida this week, along with warm sunshine. Overnight Tuesday, a drier and more stable air mass will descend upon the state, creating a near-zero chance of rain throughout the week and into the weekend. Chances of rain are very low, with the exception of a brief coastal shower toward the end of the week. Sunny skies will prevail as well, pushing afternoon highs to the mid-upper 80s toward the weekend.

The advisory is valid from Sunday 7 a.m. until Tuesday Feb. 17, at 3 p.m. Up to 1.0 ft of inundation above ground level is possible in low-lying areas near shorelines and tidal waterways, can be expected according to the NWS San Francisco CA. At the San Francisco tidal gauge, high tide is expected to be: 0.9 ft above normal (6.8 ft MLLW) at 9:34 a.m. Sunday 1.0 ft above normal (6.9 ft MLLW) at 10:16 a.m. Monday

The NWS Reno NV says to prepare for, HIGH avalanche danger is anticipated in the backcountry Monday evening, lasting through Tuesday night, and possibly into Wednesday. A powerful storm with rapidly accumulating snowfall and strong winds may cause widespread avalanche activity in the mountains. Large avalanches capable of burying or injuring people could occur in backcountry areas, according to the NWS.

An orange cat named Cheeto, who's been an internet meme for quite some time, is a fixture of the physics department at the University of California, Davis campus, where students and staff leave out food, beds, and the occasional note about his whereabouts. Sightings get logged on Instagram, and he's even picked up a joking Rate My Professors profile, complete with five-star reviews. Most days, Cheeto is easy to find sleeping in the sun or stretched out in the landscaping, clearly unbothered by his reputation.

Located in the Kilimanjaro region, where approximately 8% of children are orphaned, the village provides accommodation for 60 children. The masterplan is organized around six domestic-scale cottages, each overseen by a live-in caregiver, and a central social building that accommodates dining, study, games, laundry, and kitchen functions. The spatial arrangement balances private living units with communal areas for education, sport, and play.

Irish mosquitoes are typically found in wetlands, floodplains, coastal saltmarshes Ireland has as many as 21 species of mosquito present nationwide, but scientists say it's rare for them to bite humans here. A new scientific review has shown that while most Irish mosquitoes feed on birds and animals, there are ­specific places where they feed on ­humans. Drogheda has been ­identified as one such hotspot, as well as parts of Wicklow and Derry.

For example, charging infrastructure has been somewhat of a bright spot in a dark EV world; reliability is up, access is expanding and new EV drivers are finally understanding how to use the things. Now, EV charging deserts and dead zones are becoming less common, as consumers continue to build confidence in EV ownership. And yet, despite all the bright news, some charging woes persist.

Then we circled back to the question that won't leave us alone. Do we bring a second child into this world, or do we stop at one? It's the most intimate climate question I've ever faced. Not a reusable bag choice. Not a diet tweak. A lifelong decision that will shape our home, our time, and yes, our footprint. I'm not alone in wrestling with this.

The record-breaking arctic blast that hit Florida earlier this month may have sent humans scurrying for winter coats, but it sent wildlife scurrying, swimming and slithering for their lives. Some of those animals were native, some were invasive. Some survived. Thousands of others did not. The benchmark for cold snaps in Florida is the 2010 freeze, which killed manatees, crocodiles, iguanas, thousands of snook and goliath grouper, and caused 50% to 90% of invasive pythons to die in some areas.

Sade Hogue was five months pregnant with her second daughter when her home lost power during a deadly 2021 winter storm that left millions of Texans without power or heat for days. Hogue and her family went to stay with relatives who still had electricity. Then, a few days later, they also lost power. "Not only are you worried about you, but you're worried about the unborn child because you don't know what the effects of this freeze is doing to the child as well,"

"The numbers are really, really bad," Swain says. "If this were November, they might be less meaningful. We're not in November-we're heading toward mid-February. The normal numbers are pretty high. To be at half of them means that, in absolute terms, the deficit is large."

A massive landslip has dramatically reshaped a section of the Jurassic Coast, weeks after a significant 300ft crack emerged in the cliff face. Thousands of tonnes of rock and mud have collapsed onto Charmouth beach in Dorset, obliterating a chunk of the popular South West Coastal Path England's most-visited National Trail. A 30ft wide section of the 450ft tall cliff has detached from the mainland, now resting approximately 20ft lower than its original position.

We can make changes to reduce our waste by precycling when we shop, reducing what we purchase, reusing items to get the most use out of them, and recycling when possible. But when we have items to throw away, please dispose of trash responsibly and don't litter. Let's reduce our waste and clean up our planet. It's our only home.

In the environmental nonprofit sector, "centering frontline voices" has become a familiar slogan, often detached from how decisions are made or resources allocated. It appears in grant proposals, conference agendas, and organizational values statements. And yet, too often, those voices are still positioned as illustrative rather than authoritative-invited to animate strategies already decided, asked to translate lived experience into language legible to funders, or flattened into narratives that travel more easily than the truths they carry.

A powerful storm system arrives Sunday with heavy rain, thunderstorms and dangerous waves, posing threats of flooding and debris flows through early next week. The strongest impacts hit late Sunday through Monday, with 1-2 inches of rain expected in valleys and coasts, twice as much in mountains. High-surf advisory expected Monday through Thursday, with waves exceeding 10 feet across all Southern California beaches and a 20-30% chance of damaging sets midweek.

As an adult, my relationship with snow has changed. I find great beauty in an expanse of unbroken snow, the way drifts reflect wind patterns, the stems and seedheads of last year's perennials still standing proud, and the dampened silence that accompanies a snowstorm. I delight in seeing the intrepid and ever cheerful black-capped chickadee out and about during and immediately after snowfall, determined not to let the flakes affect its outlook.

"It will prove cold with some frost and ice in places on Friday morning, especially in the west and north," she said. "Munster and south Leinster will see cloud, but that will clear to leave dry and sunny conditions with a few isolated showers in the north and highest temperatures of 3C to 7C," she said. Friday night will prove mainly dry but very cold and frosty with some icy patches.