#falling-trees

#falling-trees

Researchers have known since at least 2008 that wildfires can create chromium-6, but a new study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology in November, is the first to report details such as how long it might persist in groundwater.

One of the key reasons for India's withdrawal appears to be the steadily declining relevance of COP in driving meaningful global climate action. The complete erosion of trust among countries at the Belem summit in Brazil, where several nations reneged on previously agreed commitments, seems to have contributed significantly to this decision.

At a young age, I learned quickly how oil wealth and power could burn the land while people struggled. I saw heat rise off the streets, the Nile strained, and the air thickened with injustice. In my teenage years, through Aotearoa, being on the edge of the Pacific, I felt the ocean breathing heavy, swallowing the shores of islands that have done the least to cause this harm.

The idea that hiking trails are a tool for conservation is based on a simple premise: people protect what they know. That requires making conservation areas accessible. There's no point telling people you only protect what you know, if you don't give them the tools to know. The trail is this tool. People who hike, people who camp, these people often become defenders of the environment.

Peat bogs provide huge value to humans and the environment. When healthy, they store twice as much carbon as all the world's forests, reducing global emissions.

Last year the JIC produced a hard-hitting report which found the collapse of globally important ecosystems around the world including the potential shift of the Amazon from rainforest to savannah, the demise of coral reefs, and the loss of glaciers would threaten the UK's national security, through food shortages at home and the potential for conflict overseas.

After a majority of EU leaders gave the green light last week to the free-trade deal that was 25 years in the making, von der Leyen said it would "create more business opportunities" and "give [European] companies better access to critical raw materials." Once approved by the European Parliament and ratified by both the EU and Mercosur, the massive accord often dubbed a "cows-for-cars" trade deal will open up markets on both continents to almost all goods, including cars, machinery and chemicals from Europe.

Every year, American golfers lose an estimated 300 million golf balls, according to research by the Danish Golf Union - and that figure, dating to 2009, is almost certainly too low.

Laterite deposits are created by intense humidity and tropical weathering of rock and so they form in the tropics, often in hotspots for biodiversity and rich, intact rainforests. These deposits account for about 70% of the world's reserves of nickel, a mineral now in high demand for manufacturing batteries, especially for electric cars and clean energy infrastructure.

A moratorium that has protected vital rainforest since 2009 is on shaky ground as several players from Brazil's soy industry say they are pulling out. Specifically, the Brazilian industry association ABIOVE, whose members include global companies such as Cofco International, Bunge, Amaggi and JBS, have said they will no longer refrain from growing soy on deforested land. Environmentalists fear this could fuel a new wave of Amazon logging.

The river won, the forest won, the memory of our ancestors won, said the campaigners in Santarem when it was clear their actions had forced the Brazilian government into a U-turn on plans to privatise one of the world's most beautiful waterways and expand its role as a soy canal.

Police and prosecutors from Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname have arrested nearly 200 people in their first joint cross-border operation targeting illegal gold mining in the Amazon region, authorities said. The operation was backed by Interpol, the EU and Dutch police specialising in environmental crime. It involved more than 24,500 checks on vehicles and people across remote border areas and led to the seizure of cash, unprocessed gold, mercury, firearms, drugs and mining equipment, Interpol said.

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.

Raw sewage and solid waste flow into the bay from surrounding cities, home to more than 8 million people. Cargo ships and oil platforms chug in and out of commercial ports, while dozens of abandoned vessels lie rotting in the water. But at the head of the bay, between the cities of Itaborai and Mage, the environment feels different. The air is purer, the waters are empty but for small fishing canoes, and flocks of birds soar overhead.

The world spends 30 times more money destroying nature than protecting it. That's according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) that exposes a massive gulf between so-called "harmful investments" and financing that promotes nature preservation. The global environment agency's latest "State of Finance for Nature" (SNF) report is calling to phase out the US$7.3 trillion (6.2 trillion) in global investments that damage nature including into high-emissions energy infrastructure and manufacturing, for example.

Originally due to be published in the autumn, the review appears to have had some sections removed. An earlier version is reported to have included warnings about the risks of eco-terrorism and the growing likelihood of war between China, India and Pakistan due to competition over a shrinking water supply from the Himalayas.