#climate change

#climate change

The contentious decision came as part of a "National Strategy for Food, Nutrition and Climate," setting out the government's aims until 2030 on balancing a healthy diet while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It was supposed to be published in 2023, the culmination of a direct-democracy initiative that immediately raised the hackles of agriculture lobbies that accused the government of threatening their livelihoods.

Conservation efforts along the 153 miles of the River Thames have delivered mixed results for wildlife, according to a new report that finds improvements in some species and habitats alongside emerging threats from climate change and pollution. Researchers recorded increases in several wading bird species, marine mammals and restored natural habitats, including intertidal areas that act as nurseries for many fish. The river continues to support a surprising range of wildlife, with seahorses, eels, seals and even sharks - including tope, starry smoothhound and spurdog - now documented in the Thames.

BP's sponsorship of the museum has long drawn ire, in part because the oil company pursues an "all out for oil and gas" strategy, including plans to exploit deep drilling at the recently discovered Burmerangue site off the coast of Brazil. The project has been criticised by campaigners and oil and gas unions due to its threat to ocean ecosystems, elevated carbon dioxide levels, and lack of revenue flowing back into the Brazilian economy.

For days, the 25,000 residents of the Sicilian town of Niscemi have been living on the edge of a 25-metre abyss. On 25 January, after torrential rain brought by Cyclone Harry, a devastating landslide ripped away an entire slope of the town, creating a 4km-long chasm. Roads collapsed, cars were swallowed, and whole sections of the urban fabric plunged into the valley below.

Humans have a predisposition to experience a drop in alertness and vigilance around midday, between six and eight hours after waking up. In fact, the word siesta comes from the Latin sexta, which in Ancient Rome referred to the sixth hour of the day from dawn; a time reserved for rest and relaxation. There are many markers we measure in the laboratory which indicate that this period is present, even without having eaten lunch, he states.

About 45 minutes prior to landing in Honolulu on Dec. 18, 2022, the pilots of Hawaiian Airlines Flight 35, a widebody Airbus A330, saw a white, plume-like cloud swiftly rising vertically ahead of them, caused by a storm cell. Moments later came a hard jolt. Then the airplane dropped rapidly, creating a brief free-falling sensation inside the cabin. Phones, water bottles, blankets and service carts lifted into the air. Passengers were affected as well, with some held down by a seatbelt while others rose upward.

Some of the world's greatest winter sports athletes have called on the International Olympics Committee to stop taking fossil fuel industry money, including from Italian oil giant ENI, a "Premium Partner" of the 2026 Winter Olympics. "The time has come to question the ethical implications of...normalizing the connections between our sports and the detrimental effects of the product that [fossil fuel companies] sell," reads a petition delivered yesterday to IOC officials in Milan, Italy, where the Games' opening ceremony takes place on Friday.

Leonardo, the seventh storm to hit the Iberian Peninsula this year, has dumped months' worth of rain in a few hours on parts of Spain and Portugal. Thousands have been evacuated, and road and rail lines have been cut. Parts of southern Spain and Portugal were facing severe disruption on Thursday due to torrential rainfall, floods and landslides brought by Storm Leonardo.

Staging future Winter Games as early as January and the Paralympic Winter Games in February is a possibility because of the effects of warmer temperatures, the International Olympic Committee said Wednesday. Every Winter Games medal was won in February since the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics opened Jan. 29, and moving to January would likely disrupt scheduling of storied World Cup races and events.

Decades of successful scientific collaboration could be at risk if Europe-US political relations continue to fray over trade and defense issues. For more than 30 years, Arctic nations have worked together across the physical, biological and social sciences to understand one of the world's fastest changing regions. Since the late 1970s, the Arctic has lost around 33,000 square miles of sea ice each year roughly the same area as Czechia.

California marked a milestone this month with the return of an uninterrupted Highway 1 through the perilous, yet spectacular cliffs of Big Sur. The famed coastal road was closed for more than three years after two major landslides buried the two-lane highway, and it took unprecedented engineering might and precarious debris removal to once again connect northern Big Sur with its southern neighbors.