The ruptures on the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea has led to what is likely the biggest single release of climate-damaging methane ever recorded, the United Nations Environment Programme said reut.rs/3rpS7qA 1/5 A plume of highly concentrated methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent but shorter-lived than carbon dioxide, was detected in an analysis of satellite imagery by researchers associated with UNEP's International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO), the organization said 2/5

Floods from record monsoon rains in Pakistan and glacial melt in the country’s mountainous north have affected 33 million people and killed over 1,500, washing away homes, roads, railways, bridges, livestock and crops in damage estimated at $30 billion reut.rs/3xIe9sa 1/7 Both the government and U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres have blamed climate change for the extreme weather that led to the flooding and submerged huge areas of the nation of 220 million 2/7

Spurred on by soaring demand for seafood, a Spanish company plans to open the first commercial octopus farm next year but as scientists discover more about the enigmatic animals some warn it could be an ethical and environmental disaster reut.rs/3Ig8kFS 1/6 'This is a global milestone,' said Roberto Romero, aquaculture director at Nueva Pescanova, the company pouring $74 million into the farm, which is pending environmental approval from local authorities 2/6

Scientists are struggling to monitor an active volcano that erupted off the South Pacific island of Tonga at the weekend, after the explosion destroyed its sea-level crater and drowned its mass, obscuring it from satellites reut.rs/3nthFll 1/6 The eruption of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano, which sits on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, sent tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean and was heard some 2,300 kilometers, roughly 1,430 miles, away in New Zealand 2/6

Japanese scientists say they have succeeded in recreating Wagyu beef, a delicacy renowned for its fat marbling and high prices, in a laboratory to produce something that could eventually look and taste like the real steak reut.rs/303CLhb 1/4 Osaka University researchers led by Michiya Matsusaki used 3-D bioprinters and bovine stem cells to replicate Wagyu's distinctive marbling in a solid steak-like piece, rather than a minced form that has typified other attempts at cultured meat 2/4

The U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday recognized access to a clean and healthy environment as a fundamental right, formally adding its weight to the global fight against climate change and its devastating consequences reut.rs/3aiXNdB 1/5 The vote passed with overwhelming support, despite criticism in the lead-up from some countries, notably the United States and Britain 2/5

Riverside restaurant owner Titiporn Jutimanon was convinced flooding in Thailand could be the end of a business already struggling from the pandemic.

But with the rising tide of the Chao Phraya river this week came an unexpected opportunity reut.rs/3Al3fak 1/5 Instead of closing for the floods, Titiporn's eatery is making waves in Thailand, staying open for customers who are reveling in shin-deep dining, and the thrill of avoiding the rush of water set off as boats go by 2/5

U.S. President Joe Biden’s promise to take action against climate change with a flurry of executive orders and ambitious goals faces political, legal, and economic obstacles from home, which has raised questions if he can meet his commitments reut.rs/3Ee4hYW 1/5 Setbacks include a judge overturning the administration's effort to block new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and rising retail gas prices that have led the White House to publicly ask the global oil cartel, OPEC, to boost production 2/5

The Umusambi Village in Rwanda’s capital of Kigali has rescued more than 200 grey crowned cranes from captivity over the years, helping to boost the population of the endangered birds to 881 from 487 just four years ago reut.rs/2Xt3T8r 1/5 Before the intervention, local communities were hunting or capturing the birds to sell, said veterinarian Olivier Nsengimana, whose conservation organization runs Umusambi Village together with the government. The name means grey crowned bird in the Kinyarwanda language 2/5

Ice provides historical records about the climate and shows the impact humanity has had. But many glaciers are now melting, prompting renewed urgency among scientists reut.rs/3z8R5Rg 1/8 Scientists are racing to collect ice cores – along with long-frozen records they hold of climate cycles – as global warming melts glaciers and ice sheets.

Some say they are running out of time. And, in some cases, it’s already too late 2/8

Temperatures dropped across Brazil - with rare snowfall overnight in some places - as a polar air mass advanced toward the center-south of the global agricultural powerhouse, threatening coffee, sugarcane and orange crops with frost reut.rs/3iWd9IM 1/5 'I am 62 years old and had never seen the snow, you know? To see nature's beauty is something indescribable,' said truck driver Iodor Goncalves Marques in Cambara do Sul, a municipality of Rio Grande do Sul state, speaking to TV Globo network 2/5

A mixed vaccination of first AstraZeneca and then a Pfizer COVID-19 shot boosted neutralizing antibody levels by six times compared with two AstraZeneca doses, a study from South Korea shows reut.rs/3BE0Edz 1/5 The study involved 499 medical workers - 100 receiving mixed doses, 200 taking two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech shot and the remainder getting two AstraZeneca shots 2/5

🌏Rounding today's climate change news 👇

The world doesn't have the ‘luxury' of waiting for the pandemic to end before tackling climate change, says U.S. climate envoy John Kerry, as the world continues to see the effects of a warming planet reut.rs/2UWYEfB 1/6☀️ 🌡 In the UK, Britain’s Met Office announced its first amber extreme heat alert due to unusually high temperatures, warning of its health risks and business impacts reut.rs/3BktxeF 2/6

Dredging ships have sucked millions of tons of sand from the bed and shores of China's Poyang lake, drastically altering its ability to function.

New plans to build a sluice gate now further threaten the delicate ecosystem reut.rs/3ze3Xq0 1/6 Decades of mass urbanization in China have fueled rampant demand for sand to make glass, concrete and other materials used in construction.

The most desirable sand for this industry comes from rivers and lakes rather than deserts and oceans 2/6

Thousands of baby flamingos have died at Turkey's Lake Tuz in the past two weeks from a drought that environmentalists said was the result of climate change and agricultural irrigation methods reut.rs/3kmk4xj 1/5 Drone footage of the large saline lake in Turkey's central province of Konya showed dead flaminglets lying partially buried in dried mud. Lake Tuz is home to a flamingo colony where up to 10,000 flaminglets are born every year 2/5

A top medical organization has thrown its weight behind calls to cancel the Tokyo Olympics saying hospitals are already overwhelmed as the country battles a spike in coronavirus infections less than three months from the start of the Games reut.rs/3tWE2jA 1/5 The Tokyo Medical Practitioners Association representing about 6,000 primary care doctors said hospitals in the Games host city 'have their hands full and have almost no spare capacity' amid a surge in infections 2/5

More than 30 South Korean college students shaved their heads in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul to protest Japan's decision to release water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, Hyun Yi reports reut.rs/3v1NL99 1/4 Police periodically dispersed crowds, who chanted and held placards, but did not stop the event from taking place, though there is an anti-pandemic ban on gatherings larger than 10 people 2/4

Researchers unveiled the first calculation of the total Tyrannosaurus rex population during the estimated 2.4 million years that this fearsome species inhabited western North America during the twilight of the age of dinosaurs reut.rs/3gjcAJs 1/5 Their analysis put the total number of T. rex individuals that ever existed at about 2.5 billion, including approximately 20,000 adults alive at any one time 2/5

🔊 This is what a spiderweb sounds like.

It is an eerie, foreboding, reverberating tune, enough to send a tingle down your spine reut.rs/32cASfQ From communication to construction, spiderwebs may offer an orchestra of information, says Markus Buehler, engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who has been using artificial intelligence to study them

A third of COVID-19 survivors in a study of more than 230,000 mostly American patients were diagnosed with a brain or psychiatric disorder within six months, suggesting the pandemic could lead to a wave of mental and neurological problems, scientists said reut.rs/2Q69eON Researchers who conducted the analysis said it was not clear how the virus was linked to psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and depression, but that these were the most common diagnoses among 14 disorders they looked at

Malaysia said it sent 267 containers of illegal plastic waste back to their countries of origin since 2019 and is in the process of returning 81 more reut.rs/31T5XVK 1/4 Malaysia became the destination of choice for the world’s plastic waste after China banned imports in 2018, but is struggling to fend off a deluge of generally unlicensed, unrecyclable garbage 2/4