Geoengineering does little to defuse most of the risks that really matter for people – and it runs the risk of making some harms worse
Planetary-scale solar geoengineering interventions involve the deliberate injection of either natural or artificial particulates into the stratosphere – stratospheric aerosol injection, or SAI – with a view to offset some of the global heating caused by greenhouse gases. If implemented, the technology would create a metaphorical thermostat for the planet. Such a thermostat is advocated on the grounds that controlling global temperature reduces the harms associated with the climate crisis.
I wish to challenge this assertion.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
02/20/2026 - 06:00
02/20/2026 - 05:34
A man in Catania, Sicily, trained his dog to dump rubbish bags by the roadside in an attempt to outsmart anti-fly-tipping cameras, municipal police have said. The 'canine courier' was caught on newly installed surveillance footage, prompting officers to post the clip on the city’s official Facebook page with a pointed message: 'Inventiveness can never become an alibi for incivility.' The owner has since been identified and fined.
Illegal dumping is a chronic problem across Italy, particularly in the south. Authorities recorded more than 9,300 waste-related offences in 2023 – a 66% increase on the previous year – as councils increasingly turn to camera traps and smart monitoring systems to catch offenders in the act
Man in Sicily trained his dog to illegally dump rubbish, say police
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02/20/2026 - 05:30
City of Catania calls ruse to avoid CCTV cameras installed to stop fly-tipping ‘as cunning as it is doubly wrong’
A man in Catania, Sicily, trained his dog to dump bags of rubbish by the roadside in an attempt to evade surveillance cameras installed to combat fly-tipping, municipal police have said.
The episode was detailed in a post on the city of Catania’s official Facebook page. Accompanying a video of the dog was a remark from the police that “inventiveness can never become an alibi for incivility”.
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02/20/2026 - 03:00
This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world
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02/20/2026 - 01:00
Kraków’s ban on burning solid fuels plus subsidies for cleaner heating has led to clearer air and better health
As a child, Marcel Mazur had to hold his breath in parts of Kraków thick with “so much smoke you could see and smell it”. Now, as an allergy specialist at Jagiellonian University Medical College who treats patients struggling to breathe, he knows all too well the damage those toxic gases do inside the human body.
“It’s not that we have this feeling that nothing can be done. But it’s difficult,” Mazur said.
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02/20/2026 - 00:00
Government announces tougher measures to tackle unlicensed sites as ‘prolific waste criminal’ is ordered to pay £1.4m
A new 33-strong drone unit is being deployed to investigate the scourge of illegal waste dumping across England, the government has announced.
The improvements to the investigation of illegal waste dumping – which costs the UK economy £1bn a year – come as the ringleader of a major waste crime gang was ordered to pay £1.4m after being convicted at Birmingham crown court.
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02/19/2026 - 20:38
UniSuper says change was made ‘to expand the investible universe’ but complaint to Asic claims members were not properly informed
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A major Australian super fund has been accused of greenwashing after it continued to badge an investment option as “sustainable” despite halving its environmental criteria.
UniSuper, which invests $158bn on behalf of 670,000 members, promotes its Global Environmental Opportunities option as a portfolio “selected on the basis of environmental considerations”.
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02/19/2026 - 17:30
Government plans legislation giving landowners and tenants rights to cull deer to protect crops and property
It will be much easier to shoot deer in England under government plans that aim to curb the damage the animals are doing to the country’s woodlands.
Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, plans to bring forward new legislation to give landowners and tenants legal rights to shoot deer to protect crops and property.
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02/19/2026 - 15:32
President’s move, which also seeks ‘immunity’ for makers, faces backlash from health advocates and Maha coalition
Donald Trump has signed an executive order protecting production of glyphosate-based herbicides, such as Roundup, which some bodies and studies have linked to cancer and which are the subject of widespread US litigation.
The president’s move, which also seeks to provide “immunity” for makers of the herbicides, was strongly criticized by health and environmental advocates including some figures in the “Make America healthy again” (Maha) coalition.
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02/19/2026 - 15:00
Arctesthes avatar moth, which won nearly half of the votes, was discovered in 2012 and is critically endangered
A tiny critically endangered moth, named after the Avatar films because of the proposed mining activity threatening its primary habitat, has been crowned New Zealand’s bug of the year.
The Avatar moth won by a wide margin, earning 5,192 of the more than 11,000 total votes cast. It won 2,269 more votes than the runner-up, the mahoenui giant wētā, one of the world’s largest insects. Other contenders included the wonderfully spiky hellraiser mite, the country’s heaviest spider – the black tunnelweb – and a giant earthworm that glows in the dark.
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