Record-breaking heatwaves across Europe have been taking their toll on some of the continents most famous rivers 🧵 🇮🇹The Po, Italy

🔹Italy's longest river has been struggling to retain its width during the north's worst drought in 70 years.

🔹Water has already completely disappeared from some tributaries.

🔹The river provides irrigation for nearly 1/3 of Italy's agricultural production.

Rainwater almost everywhere on Earth has unsafe levels of ‘forever chemicals’, according to new research.

How has this happened and what’s the fallout? 🧵 Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large family of human-made chemicals that don’t occur in nature.

They are known as ‘forever chemicals’ because they don’t break down in the environment ❌

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At 115.92-metres-tall, this coast redwood known as Hyperion is located in California’s Redwood National Park in the US and is some sight to see 🌳

But visitors have been banned and threatened with up to 6 months in prison if they do come.

Here’s why 🧵 Hyperion is located in a closed area of California’s Redwood National Park with no official hiking route to reach it 🚶

And the roots of these trees grow close to the surface meaning they are vulnerable to increased footfall and their age makes them particularly delicate.

The Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on the planet, and its wildlife is being slowly poisoned by industrial toxins brought over by the wind and currents.

Scientists around the world are trying to figure out why 🧵 🇳🇴 The town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, is known as one of the best places to see the Northern Lights.

But it’s also the fastest warming town on Earth.

Believed to be extinct for more than a century, a rare species of giant tortoise is in fact still alive 🧵 The only known specimen was discovered in 1906 🐢

But in 2019, Princeton researchers discovered a lone female tortoise on the island that hinted that the species might live on.

Last week, they finally proved that the two specimens are related.

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Microplastics were found for the first time in the blood of almost 80% of people who took part in a new study.

So, how is this affecting our health? 🧵 Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic less than 5mm in size ▫️

They are used in a variety of industries — but can also be created when plastic objects are broken down. This could be from something as simple as washing synthetic clothes under a tap.

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Spring forward, fall back…

The clocks go forward an hour this Sunday in Europe as we reach the last weekend of March ⏰

But in the US they have voted to stop the biannual clock change.

Could it be a good move for the environment? 👇

cutt.ly/RS9AKuT The Sunshine Protection Act was unanimously passed last week meaning clocks will no longer change back and forth twice a year.

From 2023, it will establish a fixed time all year round.

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These are not your average goldfish…

They’ve been found in Canada and they are causing all sorts of problems 🧵 Goldfish are native to East Asia and are ‘intermediate growers’ 🫧

This means they can continue to grow throughout their lifetime and will grow larger if conditions are right.

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When it comes to funerals, cremation, embalming and casket burials are the most common ways of saying goodbye to our loved ones.

But a new trend, known as ‘body composting’, has hit the US 🧵 The process, called terramation, is being introduced by US funeral care provider Return Home.

Washington became the first state in the US to legalise this unique form of decomposition, which uses organic reduction to convert bodies into soil.

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Kyiv Zoo is home to 4,000 creatures belonging to over 200 species, including elephants, camels and Ukraine’s only gorilla.🦍

But as Russian forces descend upon the Ukrainian capital, staff at the zoo say "it's almost impossible to evacuate the animals."
euronews.com/green/2022/03/… 🗣"It's almost impossible to evacuate animals, because it's impossible to provide appropriate veterinary service and transportation," says Kyrylo Trantin, the zoo’s chief.

"For now, we have food supplies for around ten days."

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Andrea Cisternino has been living in Ukraine for 13 years, not far from Kyiv, where he created his own award-winning animal shelter.

We spoke to him about his life, his 400 rescue animals, and what his experience has been on the ground since the invasion began.

Read more👇 Originally a fashion photographer from Italy, Cisternino married a Ukrainian woman and together they have rescued 400 animals so far.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Cisternino didn't want to abandon them: "I’m staying here for my animals."

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Lithium-ion batteries are most famous for powering electric vehicles 🚗, which are set to account for up to 60% of new car sales by 2030.

The battery of a Tesla Model S, for example, uses around 12 kg of lithium.

👉 cutt.ly/DOQ5PoZ 🇩🇪 German photographer @TomHegen became interested in what the transition of the mobility sector towards electromobility looked like.

So he got on a small aeroplane and flew high above lithium extraction fields in South America to take photographs. 👇

tomhegen.com/collections/th…

When the waves generated by the volcanic eruption in Tonga hit the barrels of oils at La Pampilla refinery in Peru, gallons and gallons of oil spread into the ocean and across 20 beaches in the area.
euronews.com/green/2022/01/… As the oil spill was declared an “ecological disaster,” authorities called on locals to join the clean-up operations: not by putting on gloves and heading to the beach, but by donating their hair. 💇

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The ‘Stop illegal wildlife sales on Facebook’ campaign claims that despite only 7,000 cheetahs being left in the wild, “over 2,000 have been put up for sale on online platforms in the past decade.”

bit.ly/3og3X5B But where did this figure come from?

The number is from a study conducted last year by Patricia Tricorache, an expert in the illegal wildlife trade.

The climate innovation ideas just keep coming 😀

Although it is very hard to get a real breakthrough 😩

But maybe this one will come to fertilisation 🤞

So click below and get a load of this story 👇
euronews.com/green/2021/11/… Scientists from Tianjin University in China have combined two short strands of DNA from salmon sperm with a chemical from vegetable oil that binds them together 🧬

What this creates is a squishy material known as hydrogel 💧

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The Duke of Cambridge has made fresh comments this week regarding the ‘pressure’ put on Africa’s wildlife by human populations 🦓

The remarks have been criticised for being ‘tone deaf’ 👇 In a speech at the Tusk Conservation Awards on Monday the future king said:

"The increasing pressure on Africa’s wildlife and wild spaces as a result of human population presents a huge challenge for conservationists, as it does the world over" 🌍

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Babies have 15 times more microplastics in their bodies than adults, a new pilot study has found.

Read more 👇euronews.com/green/2021/10/… Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic less than five mm in size.

They are used in a variety of industries — but can also be created when plastic objects are broken down. This could be from something as simple as washing synthetic clothes under a tap.
euronews.com/green/2019/02/…

Can animals survive without sex?🤔

In the case of this tiny species, yes!

So how has the Oppiella nova beetle mite lasted throughout a dry spell of thousands - maybe even millions - of years?

Find out more 👇euronews.com/green/2021/09/… The Oppiella nova is an all-female species and represents something that scientists call an “ancient asexual scandal”.

They couldn’t figure out how the beetles were managing to reproduce without having intercourse, so assumed they must be doing it hidden away...

Thinking of buying the iPhone 13? Wait.

Trading in your old smartphone for the newest model is one of the worst things you could do for the environment.

Find out more here 👇
euronews.com/green/2021/09/… The iPhone 13's new and improved features include a smaller carbon footprint, although the energy required to mine the rare materials for iPhones is still huge.

According to Apple’s own metrics, 81% of the phone’s lifecycle carbon emissions are released during production.

An incredible 50 million volunteers participated in the 2021 World Cleanup Day. 🌏

From divers collecting marine debris in the Pacific to children picking up trash on beaches in Africa, it was the largest coordinated cleanup effort in the world.

euronews.com/green/2021/09/… The annual cleanup day has been running for 13 years, during which volunteers have achieved amazing things!

For example: In 2008, in the small nation of Estonia, 50,000 people united to clean up the entire country in just five hours.

📸Tallinn, Estonia

Anti-vaxxers in the UK have started to declare themselves vegans on social media, in a bid to avoid any potential compulsory vaccines.

Read more 👇euronews.com/green/2021/08/… This follows an article from the Telegraph, which stated that companies could not force employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine if they were vegan, citing legal experts who argue that vegans' beliefs are protected by employment law.