In addition to its human consequences, cocaine trafficking harms the environment and threatens habitats important to dozens of species of migratory birds, according to a new study.
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
06/12/2024 - 10:00
PM says opposition leader’s refusal to name a short-term emissions reduction target in line with Paris agreement is calculated to reignite climate wars
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Anthony Albanese says Peter Dutton has forfeited his claim to the prime ministership because refusing to name a short-term emissions reduction target shows he is not serious about addressing climate change.
Some Liberal MPs were taken by surprise when Dutton confirmed the opposition would not name a 2030 climate target until after the next election. Moderate Liberals have sought to downplay the significance of the announcement, stressing the party remains committed to net zero by 2050 amid concerns it may hurt the Coalition in seats held by, or under threat from, climate-focused “teal” independents.
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06/12/2024 - 08:02
Stephen Kwikiriza is one of 11 campaigners against EACOP targeted by authorities in past two weeks, rights group says
A man campaigning against the controversial $5bn (£4bn) east African crude oil pipeline (EACOP) is recovering in hospital after an alleged beating by the Ugandan armed forces in the latest incident in what has been called an “alarming crackdown” on the country’s environmentalists.
Stephen Kwikiriza, who works for Uganda’s Environment Governance Institute (EGI), a non-profit organisation, was abducted in Kampala on 4 June, according to his employer. He was beaten, questioned and then abandoned hundreds of miles from the capital on Sunday evening.
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06/12/2024 - 08:00
Some studies link the popular soda sweetener to higher cancer risk, but the links are weak and questions remain
On 29 June 2023, the soda industry was bracing for a fresh wave of controversy. A media leak had suggested that a research arm of the World Health Organization (WHO), which had been reviewing the artificial sweetener aspartame, was planning to classify the additive as possibly cancer-causing.
The sweetener – included in candy, soft drinks such as Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi, and common items such as toothpaste – has long been dogged by questions about potential health risks. And such a determination could disrupt consumers’ spending and billions in annual sales.
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06/12/2024 - 07:44
The vessel, which sank off the coast of Canada in 1962, was used by the explorer on his final voyage to the continent
The wreck of the ship on which renowned Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton died has been found off the coast of Labrador, Canada, searchers have announced.
Locating the Quest – a schooner-rigged steamship which sank on a 1962 seal hunting voyage – represents a last link to the “heroic age of Antarctic exploration”, said search leader John Geiger.
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06/12/2024 - 04:00
Cocaine traffickers have put two-thirds of Central America’s key habitats for threatened birds under threat, study finds
Cocaine consumption is threatening rare tropical birds as narco-traffickers move into some of the planet’s most remote forests to evade drug crackdowns, a study has warned.
Two-thirds of key forest habitats for birds in Central America are at risk of being destroyed by “narco-driven” deforestation, according to the paper, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature Sustainability.
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06/12/2024 - 00:00
Pennon Group annual report lists dangers to water quality posed by higher temperatures
The owner of South West Water has warned that global heating will increase the risk of outbreaks of the parasite that caused diarrhoea and vomiting in south Devon.
Pennon Group said that “gradual and significant increasing average and high temperatures” could pose “risks to water quality and water treatment” – including the cryptosporidium parasite – in its annual report, published this week.
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06/11/2024 - 23:00
State reportedly arrested at least 25 journalists and activists in last year as it prepares for September climate summit
Azerbaijan’s government has been accused of cracking down on media and civil society activism before the country’s hosting of crucial UN climate talks later this year.
Human Rights Watch has found at least 25 instances of the arrest or sentencing of journalists and activists in the past year, almost all of whom remain in custody.
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06/11/2024 - 18:00
Exeter University study has origins in 1950 discovery by ornithologists who ‘chanced upon a spectacle’
It is a weird and wonderful sight: millions of migratory insects funnelling through a single narrow pass high in the Pyrenees, looking like a dark flying carpet and emitting a low, deep hum.
A team of scientists from a British university that has been studying the phenomenon for the last four years has now concluded that more than 17 million insects fly each year through the 30 metre-wide Puerto de Bujaruelo on the border of France and Spain.
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06/11/2024 - 16:14
Following decades of decline, even fewer birds will darken North American skies by the end of the century, according to a new analysis. The study examines the long-term effects of climate change on the abundance and diversity of bird groups across the continent as a whole while accounting for additional factors that put birds at risk.
