Survival International says Hongana Manyawa in Indonesia are at risk but mining company says the people in ‘voluntary’ contact with workers
Uncontacted hunter-gatherers in Indonesia “are facing a severe and immediate threat of genocide” because of mining for minerals on their lands for use in electric vehicles, a report claims.
In their own language, the Indigenous Hongana Manyawa people, of Halmahera island, call themselves “the people of the forest”. But their forest home is being destroyed in a rush for nickel, a crucial component in rechargeable batteries, campaigners say.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/26/2024 - 00:00
11/25/2024 - 16:30
This study examines the positive correlation between an area's wealth and biodiversity, known as the 'luxury effect.' The authors present an alternative framework for understanding links between socio-economic factors and ecosystem health which emphasizes the agency of less-wealthy communities in promoting healthy ecosystems where they live.
11/25/2024 - 14:56
A new mapping project puts 427 crayfish taxa and over 100,000 observation records on the first searchable global atlas: World of Crayfish. The resource will help protect vulnerable crayfish species and manage invasive ones worldwide.
11/25/2024 - 14:56
Deforestation has remained a significant issue globally, with primary forests contributing to 16 per cent of the total tree cover loss in the last two decades, driven by climate change and intensive human activity. This threatens natural resources, biodiversity, and people's quality of life. To protect forests, scientists have developed Forest 4.0, an intelligent forest data processing model integrating blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. The system enables real-time monitoring of forest conditions, sustainable resource accounting, and a more transparent forest governance model.
11/25/2024 - 14:00
Operations at a cold war lab exposed at least 1,073 people to radiation. Risks to the nearby communities persist
Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point is a special report by the San Francisco Public Press, an independent non-profit news organization focused on accountability, equity and the environment.
In September 1956, Cpl Eldridge Jones found himself atop a sunbaked roof at an old army camp about an hour outside San Francisco, shoveling radioactive dirt.
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11/25/2024 - 12:49
IFS suggests gifts of land before a certain date could be tax-free so that elderly farmers would not be caught out
Ministers should give farmers an inheritance tax holiday for the next few years, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said as it warned that government changes to agricultural taxes risked treating some landowners unfairly.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, announced in her budget last month that farmers with a business worth more than £1m could be subjected to 20% inheritance tax, prompting a tractor protest outside parliament.
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11/25/2024 - 12:22
Experts say financial movements mean poor nations will in effect get billions less in value from £300bn pledge
A failure to factor in inflation means the $300bn (£240bn) climate finance deal agreed at Cop29 is not the tripling of pledges that has been claimed, economists have said.
The international talks in Baku were pulled back from the brink of collapse early on Sunday morning when negotiators struck an agreement in which rich countries promised to raise $300bn a year by 2035. On paper, this is a tripling of the previous climate finance target of $100bn a year by 2020, and has been trumpeted as such by the UN and others.
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11/25/2024 - 11:31
Britain wanted much better outcomes on many issues, but seeing the ambition at the conference gives me hope for the future
The climate crisis is all around us. And the world is not moving nearly fast enough. In that context, the Cop process for climate negotiations feels frustratingly slow. Yet it is the best mechanism for multilateral action we have, so we have to use it to do everything we can to speed up action.
The UK went to Cop29 determined to play its part in a successful negotiation because it is in our national interest. As the prime minister said in Baku earlier this month, there is no national security without climate security. That is so clear from the effects of Storm Bert over the past couple of days. If we do not act, we can expect more and more of these extreme and devastating outcomes.
Ed Milband is secretary of state for energy security and net zero
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11/25/2024 - 09:00
My negotiating team tried in vain to push up support for the global south. Lessons must be learned before the next summit in Brazil
Mukhtar Babayev is president of the Cop29 UN climate change conference
China was willing to offer more in climate finance, says Cop29 president
Nine years after the Paris agreement, and after 11 months of multilateral diplomacy and two weeks of the most intense negotiations at Cop29 in Baku, we have a deal. Under the terms of the Baku breakthrough, the world’s industrialised nations will provide $300bn (£240bn), which, combined with resources from multilateral lending institutions and the private sector will reach $1.3tn in climate financing. Cop29 also finalised, after years of failed attempts, a global framework for international carbon markets trading, a critical mechanism for less polluting and less wealthy nations to raise climate finance. A fund for responding to loss and damage – another new financial resource for less developed nations – was brought in shortly before the summit, and funds are already being paid into it.
This deal may be imperfect. It does not keep everyone happy. But it is a major step forward from the $100bn pledged in Paris back in 2015.
Mukhtar Babayev is president of the Cop29 UN climate change conference
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11/25/2024 - 09:00
Study detects synergistic effect making substances more dangerous, raising alarm since humans are exposed to both
Few human-made substances are as individually ubiquitous and dangerous as PFAS and microplastics, and when they join forces there is a synergistic effect that makes them even more toxic and pernicious, new research suggests.
The study’s authors exposed water fleas to mixtures of the toxic substances and found they suffered more severe health effects, including lower birth rates, and developmental problems, such as delayed sexual maturity and stunted growth.
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