UK Health Security Agency warns of potential rise in deaths as hot weather sweeps in from Monday
A yellow heat health alert has been issued across much of England for the start of next week as forecasters predict another heatwave.
Temperatures could reach the mid-30s across central, southern and eastern areas of the country by Wednesday, the Met Office has said.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
08/08/2025 - 05:58
08/08/2025 - 02:00
Experts warn country is in danger of becoming ‘dirty man of Europe’ as it falls to bottom of bathing water leaderboard
English swimming waters are five times more likely to be polluted than those in the EU, new research has revealed.
Experts have said that the country is in danger of becoming the “dirty man of Europe” again as it falls at the bottom of the leaderboard for bathing water which is free of bacterial contaminants.
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08/08/2025 - 01:00
Lek Chailert devoted her life to rescuing abused elephants. Now caring for 120 of them, she fears for their future in Asia
Saengduean Lek Chailert was five years old when she saw an elephant for the first time. It was in chains, lumbering past her home in rural Thailand on its way to help loggers pull trees from the forest. Back then, she saw the giant mammals like everyone else – as animals that served humans. But that changed the day she heard a scream from the forest.
Chailert was 16 when she heard the terrible noise. She scrambled through the trees until she found the source: a bull elephant scrabbling in the mud as it tried and failed to drag a log out of a ditch. Every failed attempt was met with punishment from the loggers and mahout, the elephant keeper.
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08/08/2025 - 01:00
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
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08/08/2025 - 00:00
Social media post led to discovery that samplers measuring toxic particles in air can also detect fragments of DNA
As the UK’s Big Butterfly Count reaches more than 100,000 submissions, an international group of scientists have produced the first national survey of biodiversity using an entirely different approach. Instead of looking for species by eye, they took advantage of the samplers around the UK that constantly measure toxic metal particles in the air, and used them to measure tiny fragments of DNA.
Dr Joanne Littlefair from University College London, part of the research team, said: “Organisms lose bits of themselves all the time – dead skin cells, fragments of hair or feathers, saliva, even faeces and urine. Some of this will blow up into the air and become airborne ‘environmental’ DNA or eDNA.”
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08/08/2025 - 00:00
Plans have provoked outrage from communities in areas of Great Britain expected to host new infrastructure
The government is pushing head with a plan to offer those who live near new electricity pylons a discount of £2,500 from their energy bills over the next 10 years to ease the backlash against its clean power plans.
Thousands of households within half a kilometre of new or upgraded electricity infrastructure could each receive up to £250 off their annual energy bill from next year to help speed up the rollout of infrastructure critical to the government’s targets.
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08/07/2025 - 21:45
News Corp broadsheet puts Pollyannish spin on study that found a record decline in the world’s largest coral reef. Plus: Grok goes woke
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The Australian Institute of Marine Science’s annual monitoring study came out on Wednesday. It warned that the Great Barrier Reef could reach a tipping point where it cannot recover fast enough between major catastrophic events.
The Guardian reported it as: Great Barrier Reef coral bleaching event in 2024 most widespread and severe on record
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08/07/2025 - 17:04
Ex-fossil fuel executive Chris Wright said administration is reviewing national assessments made by past governments
The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, is facing growing criticism from scientists who say their “worst fears” were realized when Wright revealed that the Trump administration would “update” the US’s premier climate crisis reports.
Wright, a former oil and gas executive, told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins earlier this week that the administration was reviewing national climate assessment reports published by past governments.
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08/07/2025 - 14:04
Otterpool Park’s 8,500 homes will run on solar power and batteries – with enough renewable energy to help keep lights on elsewhere
One of Britain’s first all-electric towns to be built with almost no reliance on fossil fuels could soon help to power the grid with renewable energy.
The developers of a new garden town in Kent have struck a deal with a leading energy infrastructure company to design and operate a “smart” energy grid, which could mean its 8,500 households act as a virtual power plant for the rest of the country.
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08/07/2025 - 13:15
Trees to remain as memorial to Marline Anderson, who died recently, and who planted them in Battersea in 1980s
The pair of subtropical grapefruit trees have stood, slightly incongruously, on a street in south-west London for 40-odd years since Marline Anderson brought them over from Grenada – a “gift” from her homeland – and planted them in her front garden.
The trees will remain as a memorial to Anderson, who died recently, after campaigners seeking to protect them were told on Thursday they had been successful.
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