Around The Web

Svante Thunberg says he was concerned about his daughter’s school strike but that her campaigning had helped her beat depression

Greta Thunberg’s father has opened up about how activism helped his daughter out of depression but still worries about how she will deal with the impact of her international fame.

Speaking to the BBC to mark his daughter’s guest-editing slot on the Today programme, Svante Thunberg revealed he thought it was a “bad idea” for Greta to stage the school strike that catapulted her into the public eye.

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The Queensland state government has launched the first proper call for projects through its Land Restoration Fund, which aims to invest A$100 million ($70 mln) in new carbon offset projects in 2020.

Unless we focus on shared solutions, violent storms and devastating blazes could be the least of the world’s troubles. Civilisation itself will be at risk

‘Good morning. Here is the shipping forecast for midday, 21 June, 2050. Seas will be rough, with violent storms and visibility ranging from poor to very poor for the next 24 hours. The outlook for tomorrow is less fair.”

All being well, this could be a weather bulletin released by the Met Office and broadcast by the BBC in the middle of this century. Destructive gales may not sound like good news, but they will be among the least of the world’s problems in the coming era of peak climate turbulence. With social collapse a very real threat in the next 30 years, it will be an achievement in 2050 if there are still institutions to make weather predictions, radio transmitters to share them and seafarers willing to listen to the archaic content.

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Environment minister Sussan Ley says consultation with states and industry will look at ‘innovative’ ways for dealing with the issue

Environment minister Sussan Ley has announced the nation’s first plastics summit to be held next year in an attempt to address the problem with Australia’s growing rubbish problem.

With Australia no longer able to send its mixed plastic waste overseas from 2021, and plastic use predicted to double once again in the next two decades, Ley said the summit will bring together retailers, researchers, school children, and governments to work out how to tackle the crisis.

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The world will face irreversible heating unless financial firms shift priorities, Mark Carney tells the BBC.

The activist's father says he thought her skipping school to fight climate change was a "bad idea".

With some blockbuster space missions underway, 2019 saw some amazing images beamed back to Earth.

Hydrogen-powered drones have several advantages to lithium ion-powered ones, says Dr Enass Abo-Hamed.

Market including food, drinks, clothing and energy has risen almost fourfold in past 20 years

Ethical consumer spending has hit record levels in the UK, according to a new report that reveals the total market – including food, drinks, clothing, energy and eco-travel – has swelled to over £41bn.

Total ethical spending has risen almost fourfold in the past 20 years and outgrown all UK household expenditure, which has been broadly flat, according to the new study from Co-op.

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Beloved family pets have all the qualities we need in the next generation of puppies, so maybe you shouldn't rush to desex them all right away. Jessica Dawson, PhD Student in Anthrozoology, La Trobe University Pauleen Bennett, Professor and Head of Department, Psychology and Counselling, College of Science, Health and Engineering, La Trobe University Paul McGreevy, Professor of Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare Science, University of Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Labor lost the election, Australia was hit by a punishing drought and the nation mourned Bob Hawke

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The spoon-billed sandpiper has been brought back from the brink after a conservation programme in Gloucestershire

After eight years, conservationists have succeeded in helping spoon-billed sandpipers hatch chicks at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust headquarters in Gloucestershire.

The birds belong to the world’s only captive flock of spoon-billed sandpipers, considered to be among the rarest of waders, and highly threatened. About 200 or so birds are thought to be left in the wild.

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Trees for Life, one of four charities chosen for our climate appeal, runs projects that offer ‘eco-therapy’ to its volunteers
• Please donate to our appeal here

Paul Valencia Palaçios has walked for two hours from the east end of Glasgow to Govan to describe what it is like to plant a tree.

The 39-year-old asylum seeker from El Salvador sits in the offices of Govan Community Project – a charity that provides everything from English lessons to legal advice for refugees – and beams.

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A selection of the best science and environment features published this year.

A law could be strengthened to punish people who throw litter out of vehicle windows.

Joanna is an urban gardener trying to reconnect with nature in Singapore.

Sarah Sands, editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, admits it ‘felt awkward’

Putting a presenter on a flight to Sweden to meet climate activist Greta Thunberg “felt awkward”, the editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme has admitted.

The 16-year-old campaigner, who was a guest editor on a special edition of the show, avoids air travel because of its environmental impact.

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With around one million species at risk, how do conservationists decide what species to save?

Tomas Tama has spent 30 years protecting the reptiles in Ethiopia, despite once being bitten.

Joyful View to operate facility as nearby residents placed on water restrictions and communities face risk of running dry

A Chinese-owned company has been granted approval to run a 96m litre a year commercial water mining operation in severely drought-hit southern Queensland, where locals are on water rations and communities at imminent risk of running dry.

Last week the Southern Downs regional council approved a development application for the company, Joyful View Garden Real Estate Development Resort Pty Ltd, to operate a water extraction and distribution facility at Cherrabah, a large property at Elbow Valley near the Queensland-New South Wales border.

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