‘Everybody in the ecosystem benefits from gopher tortoises being there,’ says ranger at park where the animals settled
Dozens of gopher tortoises survived a perilous sea crossing after being swept from their homes during Hurricane Helene last summer, and are enjoying a new lease of life on a remote stretch of Florida coastline.
Rangers at Fort de Soto county park near St Petersburg say that before the September storm only eight of the vulnerable species were known to be living there.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
04/07/2025 - 06:00
04/07/2025 - 04:00
We do not have the luxury of rejecting solutions before we have thoroughly investigated their risks, trade-offs and feasibility
As a lifelong scientist, I have always believed that if something is possible, we can find a way to achieve it. And yet, one of the starkest realities we now face is that the world is failing to meet its climate goals. Last year marked a historic and deeply troubling threshold: for the first time, global temperatures exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Without drastic and immediate climate action, this breach will not be temporary. The consequences – rising sea levels, extreme weather and devastating loss of biodiversity – are no longer projections for the distant future. They are happening now, affecting millions of lives, and likely to cause trillions in damages in decades to come.
But we must think beyond our immediate horizons. When I read The Iliad, I am reminded that it was written 2,800 years ago. I often wonder: in another 2,800 years, what will people – if humanity as we know it still exists – read about our time? Will they see us as the generation that failed to act or one that made the choices necessary to safeguard the planet for the future?
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04/07/2025 - 04:00
By learning to live with its ursine neighbours, mountainous Pettorano sul Gizio has drawn tourists and new residents, bucking a trend of rural decline
Pettorano sul Gizio is a medieval mountain town full of alleys, watchful cats and wooden doors locked sometime in the last century. In the lower parts of town, rustic charm turns into abandonment – branches grow out of walls and roofs have fallen in. The only bar closed at Christmas, after the owner died. Some “For Sale” signs have been up so long the phone number is illegible.
The town, with its faded ochre and orange hues, is listed as one of Italy’s I Borghi più belli (an association of historic towns). In 1920, about 5,000 people lived here, now the population is 390. It resembles many others in Italy’s south-central Abruzzo region, home to a shrinking, ageing population. One nearby town has been almost completely abandoned, and is home to just 12 people.
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04/07/2025 - 03:44
Transport secretary says overhaul in response to Trump tariffs supports car firms and climate goals
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Labour’s changes to electric vehicle (EV) rules in response to Donald Trump’s tariffs will have a negligible impact on emissions, the transport secretary has said.
Keir Starmer has confirmed plans to boost manufacturers, including reinstating the 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars.
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04/07/2025 - 01:00
Guardian readers around the world voted in the this year’s contest, celebrating our spineless, friendly neighbours. But which creature won?
If you didn’t vote in the recent ballot, you missed out. Here was a vote where all 10 candidates were creative and morally upstanding, a vote unsullied by dubious lobbies, dodgy polls or demagogues. And if you’re seeking inspiration from a figure of strength who is also strangely cute then look no further than the winner of 2025: Milnesium tardigradum, a microscopic multisegmented animal that resembles a piglet wrapped in an enormous duvet.
Thousands of Guardian readers around the world voted in the contest, which we invented to celebrate the overlooked, unsung heroes of our planet.
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04/07/2025 - 00:00
Proposal that ships pay levy on emissions to fund climate action in poor countries opposed by powerful economies
Poor countries have accused the rich world of “backsliding” and betrayal of their climate commitments, as they desperately tried to keep alive a long-awaited deal to cut carbon from shipping.
Nations from 175 countries have gathered in London this week at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to hammer out the final details of a deal, more than a decade in the making, that could finally deliver a plan to decarbonise shipping over the next 25 years.
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04/07/2025 - 00:00
UK’s £800m research body backs project that could unlock radical therapies to extend human lifespans
The curious case of the queen bee has long had scientists pondering whether the head of the hive harbours the secret to a long and healthy life.
While queen bees and workers have nearly identical DNA, the queens enjoy what might be regarded as royal privileges. They are larger, fertile throughout life and survive for years compared with workers, who last a few months at best.
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04/06/2025 - 23:00
Victoria Rance says the ‘1970s technology’ will cause pollution that will damage health for decades, but London mayor and TfL claim it will reduce congestion
A multibillion-pound road tunnel under the River Thames will be out of date the moment it opens, according to campaigners.
The first cars and lorries are due through the Silvertown tunnel in east London on Monday, passing between Greenwich on the south side of the river and Newham in the north.
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04/06/2025 - 22:28
Now in its 10th year, the Parrtjima festival is a free event showcasing installations, interactive workshops and performances all centred around this year’s theme, ‘Timelessness’. The festival is on now at Alice Springs desert park until 13 April
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04/06/2025 - 14:06
Without the strongest conservation efforts, it can’t be long before the Maugean skate – and other marine living fossils in Australia – are wiped out
Explore the series – Last chance: the extinction crisis being ignored this election
Get Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an email
Australia is justly famous as a place where ancient species, long extinct elsewhere, live on. After aeons of adversity, Australia’s living fossils often survive only in protected habitats: the Wollemi, Huon and King Billy pines, the Queensland lungfish and even the Tasmanian devil (which thrived on the mainland at the same time as the Egyptians were building the pyramids) are good examples. Such species are a source of wonder for anyone interested in the living world and they should serve as a source of hope that, given half a chance, even ancient, slow-changing species can survive periods of dramatic climate change.
Australia’s largest repository of living fossils is arguably the cool, shallow marine waters off its southern coastline. Despite that fact that most of us enjoy a swim, snorkel or walk on the beach, the biological importance of our shallow temperate seas is almost entirely unrecognised.
Get Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an email
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