The Guardian

For the first time in 75 years, hatchlings of the world’s smallest sea turtle species have been discovered on the Chandeleur Islands, a chain of barrier islands in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of New Orleans.

Wildlife experts at the Breton national wildlife refuge have documented more than 53 turtle crawls and two live hatchlings that were navigating towards the sea, Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority announced in a press statement this week.

The news was particularly uplifting for environmentalists because the hatchlings were Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, an endangered species that also happens to be the world’s smallest sea turtle. The turtles are predominantly found in the Gulf, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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By Claudia Allen & Patrick Jackson
BBC News

A huge nuclear power plant occupied by Russia during its invasion of Ukraine is "completely out of control", the head of the UN's nuclear agency says.

Rafael Grossi was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying the Zaporizhzhia plant needed an inspection and repairs.

"You have a catalogue of things that should never be happening in any nuclear facility," he said.

Europe's biggest nuclear plant is dangerously close to the fighting.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia earlier this week of using the plant, which it overran in March, as a military base to launch attacks on Ukrainian forces.

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NBC News
By Patrick Smith and Josh Lederman

KYIV, Ukraine — The prospect of a nuclear catastrophe spurred growing international alarm Monday after shelling hit a Russian-controlled power plant in Ukraine that is almost twice the size of Chernobyl.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for international inspectors to be given access to the sprawling nuclear site as fears of a disaster grew after the weekend strikes left the plant damaged but still operational.

“Any attack to a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing,” he said Monday in Tokyo after a ceremony in Hiroshima to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bombing.

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The New York Times
By Emma Bubola

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, on Monday condemned the fighting around the vast Zaporizhzhia nuclear power complex in southern Ukraine, saying that any attack on a nuclear facility is “suicidal.”

Russian forces have occupied the nuclear complex, Europe’s largest, since March, and have for the past month been using it as a base to launch artillery barrages at the Ukrainian-controlled town of Nikopol, across the Dnipro River.

In recent days, blasts have occurred and rockets have struck on the complex’s grounds. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the attacks, which have raised fears of a major nuclear accident.

Mr. Guterres said on Monday that he hoped the attacks would end and that the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, would be given access to the plant as Ukraine has requested.

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by Green Science Policy Institute

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are man-made hazardous chemicals that are spread globally in the atmosphere and as a result they can be found in the rainwater and snow in even the most remote locations on Earth. During the last 20 years, guideline values for PFAS in drinking water, surface waters and soils have decreased dramatically due to new insights into their toxicity. As a result, the levels in environmental media are now ubiquitously above guideline levels. A perspective article by researchers from Stockholm University and ETH Zurich published in Environmental Science & Technology suggests that PFAS define a new planetary boundary for novel entities that has been exceeded.

"There has been an astounding decline in guideline values for PFAS in drinking water in the last 20 years. For example, the drinking water guideline value for one well known substance in the PFAS class, namely the cancer-causing perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), has declined by 37.5 million times in the U.S.," said Ian Cousins, the lead author of the study and professor at the Department of Environmental Science, Stockholm University.

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The New York Times

By Manuela Andreoni, Blacki Migliozzi, Pablo Robles and Denise Lu

BOA VISTA, Brazil — From 2,500 feet in the air, the dirt airstrip is just a crack in a seemingly endless ocean of rainforest, surrounded by muddy mining pits that bleed toxic chemicals into a riverbed.

The airstrip is owned by the Brazilian government — the only way for health care officials to reach the Indigenous people in the nearby village. But illegal miners have seized it, using small planes to ferry equipment and fuel into areas where roads don’t exist. And when a plane the miners don’t recognize approaches, they spread fuel canisters along the airstrip to make landing impossible.

“The airstrip now belongs to the miners,” said Junior Hekurari, an Indigenous health care official.

‌The miners ‌have also built four other airstrips nearby, all illegally, propelling such a rapid expansion of illegal mining on the supposedly protected land of the Yanomami people that crime has grown out of control and government workers are too scared to return.

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The publication of Bill McGuire’s latest book, Hothouse Earth, could not be more timely. Appearing in the shops this week, it will be perused by sweltering customers who have just endured record high temperatures across the UK and now face the prospect of weeks of drought to add to their discomfort.

And this is just the beginning, insists McGuire, who is emeritus professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London. As he makes clear in his uncompromising depiction of the coming climatic catastrophe, we have – for far too long – ignored explicit warnings that rising carbon emissions are dangerously heating the Earth. Now we are going to pay the price for our complacency in the form of storms, floods, droughts and heatwaves that will easily surpass current extremes.

The crucial point, he argues, is that there is now no chance of us avoiding a perilous, all-pervasive climate breakdown. We have passed the point of no return and can expect a future in which lethal heatwaves and temperatures in excess of 50C (120F) are common in the tropics; where summers at temperate latitudes will invariably be baking hot, and where our oceans are destined to become warm and acidic. “A child born in 2020 will face a far more hostile world that its grandparents did,” McGuire insists.

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APNEWS
By HANNA ARHIROVA

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Shell-shocked family pets started roaming around Ukraine’s capital with nowhere to go in the opening stages of Russia’s war.

Volunteers opened a shelter to take them in and try to find them new homes or at least some human companionship. Every day, Kyiv residents come to visit cats and dogs evacuated from cities on the frontlines or left without owners because of the nearly five-month war.

Hrystyna Sairova and her 12-year-old daughter Anna walk rescued dogs three to four times a week. Many of them arrived at the temporary shelter with lost paws or other serious injuries, Sairova said.

“They don’t deserve this, nor do humans. They are members of our families,” she said.

The shelter occupies a small building that was once an exhibition space to showcase the achievements of the Soviet Union. Wooden kennels and leashes fill a corridor, and a playroom is furnished with bowls and toys inside the safe haven for animals that would not exist if Russia had not invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

“We could not ignore the fact that due to active hostilities, animals began to appear on the city streets,” said shelter coordinator Natalia Mazur, who also manages the Kyiv City Hospital of Veterinary Medicine.

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The Guardian
By Charlotte Higgins

Let me tell you a story. Long, long ago, the Pelasgians, a people who lived in Thessaly, planted a forest grove in honour of Demeter – the goddess who breathes life into seeds, who makes young leaves unfurl, who unclenches the grip of winter, who taught humans how to bind straw into sheaves. The forest was so dense, so close-packed with elms and apple and pear trees, that you couldn’t shoot an arrow through it if you tried. Demeter loved the place beyond almost any other.

But one day, a king called Erysichthon brought 20 men to the forest armed with axes. The first tree that was hacked by a bronze blade was a tall, elegant poplar. That tree screamed in agony.

Demeter heard and she came straight away, disguised as her own priestess. “What are you doing to the goddess’s sacred grove?” she said. “Stop this now – or Demeter will be angry.” Erysichthon just glared at her. “Get out of my way,” he said, “or this axe won’t be just chopping down trees. I need this timber to make a roof for my new banqueting hall.”

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