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The lengthy multi-year sentences handed to Just Stop Oil activists are “not acceptable in a democracy”, a UN special rapporteur has said, as the government faced growing pressure to reverse the previous administration’s “hardline anti-protest” approach.

Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu and Cressida Gethin were each sentenced to four years in prison this week after being found guilty of planning disruptive protests on the M25.

Forst, whose role is to protect individuals facing penalisation, persecution, or harassment for exercising their environmental rights, attended two days of the trial earlier this month as he attempted to intervene with UK authorities on behalf of Shaw.

And Tom Southerden, Amnesty International UK’s human rights adviser, called on the government to repeal the portions of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 that legislated the statutory offence of public nuisance used against the defendants.

Pressed on whether Labour would look again at anti-protest laws it opposed before entering government, Starmer’s spokeswoman said: “The prime minister is very clear that when it comes to these cases, the judgments and sentencing is for independent judges to make them, they’ve had all the facts and evidence before them.

Dale Vince, the green entrepreneur, who stepped away from bankrolling Just Stop Oil to become one of the Labour party’s most significant donors, joined the broadcasters Chris Packham and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in echoing calls for a meeting with Hermer about the protesters’ case.

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The decline was driven by a drop in environmental destruction in the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, including about one-third of it in Colombia, the government of leftist President Gustavo Petro said.

The decrease “means that 44,262 hectares of forest stopped being cut down,” Environment Minister Susana Muhamad told journalists.

Advancing peace talks between the government and guerrilla groups in the area, along with financial incentives for farmers in the Amazon to help with conservation, drove the drop.

Muhamad said Monday the strong presence of government armed forces in these areas as well as progress made with peace talks will be key to maintaining a downward trend.

Mass cattle ranching, drug crops and illegal mining and logging continue to drive deforestation in the Andean nation, Muhamad said.

The data was released as Colombia ramps up to host the COP16 United Nations biodiversity summit in the southwestern city of Cali starting Oct. 21.

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But the extra money isn’t translating into spending, dragging second-quarter growth to 4.7% from a year ago — below analysts’ expectations.

Earlier this week, luxury houses Hugo Boss, Burberry, Richemont, and Swatch all reported a slump in sales in China that hit earnings.

Data suggests Chinese consumers would rather pay down their loans and move their deposits to wealth management products, said Tommy Xie, head of Greater China research at OCBC Bank, in a Monday note.

Beijing has been trying to boost economic growth by driving domestic consumption through subsidies and trade-in deals, even for property purchases.

Due to the lack of a strong social safety net in China, people in the country have an entrenched belief that they must save as a precaution, according to a Tuesday report from US investment bank TD Cowen.

Despite a lack of appetite for luxury fashion, China’s consumers have been snapping up gold — a haven asset — this year, sending prices of the precious metal to record highs.

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Previous research has identified a suite of global scale processes, referred to as Planetary Boundaries, that regulate the overall habitability and stability of the planet.

Across all aquatic ecosystems, from streams and rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and ponds to estuaries, coasts, and the open ocean, dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations have rapidly and substantially declined in recent decades.

Aquatic habitats with low oxygen levels are commonly referred to as “dead zones” because of their loss of life, which threatens ecosystem services like fishing, aquaculture, tourism, and cultural practices.

Deoxygenation can also induce aquatic ecosystems to transition to alternative and undesirable states, characterized by harmful algal blooms and widespread anoxia, or lack of oxygen.

“We are approaching critical thresholds of aquatic deoxygenation that will ultimately affect several other Planetary Boundaries,” said Rose, "DO regulates the role of marine and freshwater in modulating Earth’s climate.

“Aquatic deoxygenation trends represent a clear warning and call to action that should inspire changes to slow or even mitigate this Planetary Boundary,” said Curt Breneman, Ph.D., Dean of Rensselaer’s School of Science.

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They found that over time, inactive commuters had a much higher risk of death, disease, and mental health issues compared with those who cycled or walked.

“The more you do it, the safer you are,” Jim Walker, the founder and director of the UK-based Walk21 Foundation which advises national and local governments on pedestrian-friendly policies, told Euronews Health.

Researchers accounted for potential factors that could affect the results, such as people’s pre-existing conditions, age, gender, and socioeconomic traits.

The findings align with previous studies that show a strong link between the built environment and health outcomes such as diabetes and obesity.

Study authors said the finding “reinforces the need for safer cycling infrastructure,” and the overall results have “wider global relevance to efforts to reduce carbon emissions and shift to more active and sustainable travel modes”.

Paris, for example, has added bike lanes and aims to make the entire city suitable for cyclists by 2026, though the plan has faced some delays.

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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Three events Wednesday highlighted the uneven progress of the offshore wind industry in the Northeast, including the start of a major project in New York, research aimed at preventing environmental damage in New Jersey, and a temporary shutdown of a wind farm in Massachusetts after a broken turbine blade washed ashore on a famous beach.

Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, bolstered its beach patrols to 35 people looking for and removing debris.

“We’re making progress in the debris recovery efforts and mobilizing even more resources on the island to hasten the cleanup as quickly as possible,” the company’s CEO Klaus Moeller said in a statement.

Orsted was far along in the approval process to build two offshore wind farms in New Jersey when it scrapped both projects last October, saying they were no longer financially feasible.

And New Jersey officials on Wednesday said they would make nearly $5 million available for scientific research projects to document current environmental conditions in areas where wind farms are planned, as well as to predict and prevent potential harm to the environment or wildlife.

Jason Ryan, a spokesman for the American Clean Power Association, said the wind industry is committed to safe and reliable operations, adding it follows “rigorous and regulated standards and strict environmental protocols.”

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After years of losing money on horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the companies that have helped the United States become the leading global oil producer have turned a financial corner and are generating robust profits.

Under pressure from Wall Street to improve financial returns, the companies that survived the 2020 oil-price crash generally ditched the debt-fueled growth strategy that had propelled the American shale boom.

Since 2021, oil and gas wells in the lower 48 states have generated more than $485 billion in free cash flow, the money left over after spending on operations and new projects, according to estimates by Rystad Energy, a research and consulting firm.

“People used to call us drunken sailors,” said Steve Pruett, chief executive of the oil and gas producer Elevation Resources, which is based in Midland, Texas, an industry hub in the Permian Basin.

The Permian Basin, a vast expanse of oil pump jacks and mesquite shrubs that stretches from West Texas into eastern New Mexico, supplies roughly 6.4 million barrels a day of crude, or nearly half of all U.S. production.

Yet many who make a living pumping oil and gas bristle at Mr. Biden’s rhetoric and climate policies and worry that another term for him or another Democrat could hurt their businesses in the long run.

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The country’s conservation agency said Monday a creature that washed up on a South Island beach this month is believed to be a spade-toothed whale.

Only six other spade-toothed whales have ever been pinpointed, and those found intact on New Zealand’s North Island beaches were buried before DNA testing could verify their identification, Hendriks said, thwarting any chance to study them.

This time, the beached whale was quickly transported to cold storage and researchers will work with local Māori iwi (tribes) to plan how it will be examined, the conservation agency said.

In April, Pacific Indigenous leaders signed a treaty recognizing whales as “legal persons,” although such a declaration is not reflected in the laws of participating nations.

It took “many years and a mammoth amount of effort by researchers and local people” to identify the “incredibly cryptic” mammals, Kirsten Young, a senior lecturer at the University of Exeter who has studied spade-toothed whales, said in emailed remarks.

Firstly mistaken for one of New Zealand’s 13 other more common types of beaked whale, tissue samples — taken before they were buried — later revealed them as the enigmatic species.

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Energy think tank Ember found that major growth in wind and solar helped push global electricity production past this milestone in 2023.

Its authors say that this rapid growth has brought the world to a crucial turning point where fossil fuel generation starts to decline.

“You also have the invasion of Ukraine which increased the sense of urgency around transitioning to clean power and getting off relying on fossil fuels - not just coal but also gas, and particularly from Russia.

Plans were put in place to help individual member states reach renewable energy targets and deploy technologies at a national scale.

“Certainly you can’t ignore that there was some demand [based] impact on the decrease in use of fossil fuels, but also there was a significant role of wind and solar replacing it.”

Normally this would have meant that the clean energy capacity added around the world last year would have caused fossil fuel generation to drop by 1.1 per cent.

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The amount of wind and solar power under construction in China is now nearly twice as much as the rest of the world combined, a report has found.

The findings underscore China’s leading position in global renewable energy production at a time when the US is increasingly worried about Chinese overcapacity and dumping, particularly in the solar industry.

China is on track to reach 1,200GW of installed wind and solar capacity by the end of 2024, six years ahead of the government’s target.

“The unabated wave of construction guarantees that China will continue leading in wind and solar installation in the near future, far ahead of the rest of the world,” the report said.

Analysts say that better storage and grid flexibility is necessary to efficiently use the increasing volume of clean energy being generated on China’s wind and solar farms.

The Chinese government is aware of this challenge, naming lithium-ion batteries as one of the “new three” technologies important for creating high-quality growth, along with electric vehicles and solar panels.

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A “sauna” treatment for frogs has been used by researchers in Australia to successfully fight a deadly fungal disease that has devastated amphibians around the world, according to a new study.

Scientists created refuges for the animals using painted masonry bricks inside greenhouses that they called “frog saunas”.

They found that endangered Australian green and golden bell frogs were able to clear infections from the deadly Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis fungus, in the warmer conditions of the greenhouses, when they would otherwise have died.

In glacial ponds and alpine lakes, rainforests and wetlands, the deadly fungus has been killing off the word’s amphibian populations.

The Tanzanian Kihansi spray toad, Honduran Cerro Búfalo streamside frog and Mexican claw-toothed salamander are among the species believed to have been wiped out by the infection in the wild.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X for all the latest news and features

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In a forest, a large tree like this would be part of a sprawling scaffold supporting thousands of species from floor to canopy, she notes, an ecosystem far removed from the paved-over terrain out the car window.

That is why the federal government is spending $1 billion to forest urban areas across the country, part of the largest effort to fight climate change in U.S. history.

For the endeavor to bear fruit, arborists such as Elliott must ensure millions of trees thrive in less-than-ideal conditions: under power lines and around utilities and foundations; in compact polluted soil, beset with floods and droughts.

The homeowner can get a rebate on a smaller tree that would provide an intermediate forest layer for wildlife and tolerate shade, such as an American hornbeam or a flowering dogwood.

Elliott suggests a tulip tree, which will grow up to 50 feet tall and produce yellow flowers that attract pollinators and lightning bugs.

At the front of the house, there is a perfect spot for a statement tree — a regal American linden would give the home a stately Southern look, Elliott says.

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Ever seen one of those “warranty void if removed” stickers covering the screw holes on a gadget?

Gigabyte includes: “If the manufacturing sticker inside the product was removed or damaged, it would no longer be covered by the warranty.”

“The Warranty Act prohibits warrantors of consumer products costing more than five dollars from conditioning their written warranties on a consumer’s use of any article or service, such as repair service, which is identified by brand, trade, or corporate name, unless (1) the warranty states the article or service will be provided to the consumer for free, or (2) the warrantor has been granted a waiver by the Commission,” the FTC writes.

“FTC investigators have copied and preserved the online pages in question, and we plan to review your company’s written warranty and promotional materials after 30 days,” the agency is telling each firm.

In 2018, the FTC put Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft on notice for doing the same thing with their game consoles, as well as Asus, HTC, and Hyundai.

iFixit has a blog on how “warranty void if removed” stickers may be legal in other parts of the world.

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We balance it across three domains: the people, the planet, the profits," Michelin North America President and CEO Alexis Garcin said during a presentation.

The “People, Planet, Profit” principles emphasize eco-consciousness but also remind everyone that Michelin is a company that needs to make money to keep tires rolling off the lines.

This is a vast improvement over companies that unveil unrealistic, feel-good items that won’t ever see production.

It had a lower rolling resistance, allowing drivers to potentially save money on gas and reduce their carbon footprint (although, to be fair, most probably didn’t think about that).

In 2019, it introduced new racing tires for IMSA’s WeatherTech Sportscar Championship that used 30 percent renewable and recycled materials, with no real drop-off in performance.

The higher the abrasion rate, the more particulates are left on the asphalt, which migrate to the soil and eventually end up in the water supply.

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The portal’s mouth — a furrowed pit about half a mile wide — spirals 1,250 feet into the ground, expos­ing a marbled mosaic of young and ancient rock: gray bands of basalt, milky veins of quartz and shimmering con­stellations of gold.

At some point not long after our planet’s genesis, in some warm, wet pocket with the right chemistry and an adequate flow of free energy — a hot spring, an impact crater, a hydrothermal vent on the ocean floor — bits of Earth rearranged themselves into the first self-replicating entities, which eventually evolved into cells.

This deluge is partly a consequence of geographic serendipity: Intense equa­torial sunlight speeds the evaporation of water from sea and land to sky, trade winds bring moisture from the ocean and bordering moun­tains force incoming air to rise, cool and condense.

Nearly two and a half billion years ago, photosynthetic ocean microbes called cyanobacteria permanently altered the planet, suffus­ing the atmosphere with oxygen, imbuing the sky with its familiar blue hue and initiating the formation of the ozone layer, which pro­tected new waves of life from harmful exposure to ultraviolet radia­tion.

Conceived by the British scientist and inventor James Lovelock in the 1960s and later developed with the American biologist Lynn Margulis, the Gaia hypothesis proposes that all the animate and inanimate elements of Earth are “parts and partners of a vast being who in her entirety has the power to maintain our planet as a fit and comfortable habitat for life.”

The tunnels and chambers were decorated with strange and beautiful formations: massive chandeliers of frostlike gyp­sum, lemon-yellow sulfur pods, pearly balloons of hydromagnesite, transparent selenite spears and calcite lily pads hovering over turquoise pools.

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Cody Armstrong, a sugarmaker, volunteered at the event to connect with students he could hire as seasonal workers, during the busy late winter/early spring sugaring period.

“The technology wasn’t specifically generated to counter the impacts of climate change,” explained Eric Sorkin, the owner and producer at Runamok Maple.

As Vermont warms and hardier species can spread and dominate forests, the cold-adapted sugar maples may lose out in competition for sunlight, nutrients and growing space.

But improving forest health today can insulate the trees from the worst of these future conditions, says Mark Isselhardt, the University of Vermont extension maple specialist and another key organizer of the student event.

Maintaining a healthy and diverse sugarbush might not only help maple weather a changing climate, but it can also contribute to broader environmental health; the forests store carbon and provide a rich habitat for wildlife, especially migrating birds.

He likes learning all the new technology, things about process.” He brought a similar openness to the competition, helping other students fill out their scantrons as they took tests to demonstrate their maple knowledge.

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For the people of the Venezuelan state of Mérida, the glaciated peaks of its Sierra Nevada have been a source of pride since time immemorial: The mountains are part of the regional identity and the origin of various legends in the area that relate them to mythical white eagles.

It is a great sadness and the only thing we can do is use their legacy to show children how beautiful our Sierra Nevada was,” Alejandra Melfo, an astrophysicist at the Universidad de los Andes in Mérida, said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo.

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), they typically exist where average annual temperatures reach near-freezing levels and winter precipitation causes significant accumulations of snow.

With the increase in global temperatures due to climate change, the melting of large ice masses is a continuous phenomenon that, among other things, contributes to raising sea levels around the world.

“Although the end of the glacier was something that was going to happen due to the cycle we are experiencing, there is no doubt that global warming, a product of greenhouse gases, has of course accelerated the disappearance process,” Bezada said.

The Andes region — a mountain range running through parts of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela — has seen a temperature rise of at least 0.10 degrees Celsius over the past seven decades.

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While Matt Damon relied on potatoes cultivated in crew biowaste to survive in the hit film The Martian, researchers say it is a humble desert moss that might prove pivotal to establishing life on Mars.

“The unique insights obtained in our study lay the foundation for outer space colonisation using naturally selected plants adapted to extreme stress conditions,” the team write.

Dr Agata Zupanska, of the SETI Institute, agreed, noting moss could help enrich and transform the rocky material found on the surface of Mars to enable other plants grow.

Writing in the journal The Innovation, researchers in China describe how the desert moss not only survived but rapidly recovered from almost complete dehydration.

“Looking to the future, we expect that this promising moss could be brought to Mars or the moon to further test the possibility of plant colonisation and growth in outer space,” the researchers write.

Dr Wieger Wamelink of Wageningen University, also raised concerns, including that temperatures on the red planet rarely get above freezing, making outdoor plant growth impossible, while the new study did not use Mars-like soil.

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In a vast stretch of the Sonoran Desert, between the towns of San Luis Río Colorado and Sonoyta in northern Mexico, sits a modest building of cement, galvanized sheet metal, and wood—the only stop along 125 miles of inhospitable landscape dominated by thorny ocotillo shrubs and towering saguaro cactuses up to 50 feet high.

By doing so, she relieves the thirst of bighorn sheep, ocelots, pronghorn, coyotes, deer, and even bats that have been deprived of access to their natural water sources.

“The crows come to the house and scream to warn us that there is no more water … it’s our alarm,” says Ortiz Ramos in her distinct northern Mexico accent.

“This vital source supplies both humans and animals over an area of more than 1 million hectares,” Federico Godínez Leal, an agronomist from the University of Guadalajara, explains to me.

Godínez Leal and his team have been documenting the stark difference between each side: Their poignant photographs show skeletons of wild boar, deer, and bighorn sheep lying on Mexican soil.

In turn, villagers in some spots on the Mexican side of the border have organized to try to alleviate the thirst of many animals that have been left without access to water.

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Australia’s first Indigenous-owned solar farm connected to a power grid has been officially opened in a Northern Territory remote community.

The 60-member Marlinja community, located 700 kilometres south of Darwin, has built a solar farm and battery after years of planning the microgrid project with Indigenous clean energy organisation Original Power.

Marlinja resident and Mudburra woman Janey Dixon said the community had been frustrated for years about suffering frequent wet season disconnections from their nearest diesel power station at Elliott, 25km away.

She said she was even more excited that, as well as having more reliable local electricity, the microgrid meant residents wouldn’t have to buy as many expensive power cards to run their household meters.

“We hope in the future we’ll be able to sell to the neighbouring cattle station and the local school,” Ms Mellor said.

“The issue has been around the stability of the grid, so that has been a sticking point, but we are getting very close to full implementation of those solar farms,” she said.

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