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Venezuelan Students Help Turn Plastic Waste Into School Desks

MARACAIBO (Reuters) -Piles of discarded plastic and broken school furniture are being given a second life in northwestern Venezuela, where a local...

MARACAIBO (Reuters) -Piles of discarded plastic and broken school furniture are being given a second life in northwestern Venezuela, where a local foundation is turning waste into desks for students.El Zulia Recicla, based in Zulia state's capital, Maracaibo, has refurbished 160 desks so far using plastic waste collected by students.Instead of building new furniture, the foundation repairs damaged metal frames and replaces missing parts with molded plastic panels made in its workshop."We show people that the desks they use today – with damaged wood, falling apart – can be restored," said Nicolino Bracho, the foundation's research director.At Ramon Reinoso Nunez School, where students had been sitting on the floor or using backpacks as chairs, 20 desks have already been delivered."We have many issues with desks, because of course theft and wear over time take their toll," said school director Maritza Jaimes."We hoped they could take more, but we're grateful to have 20 restored ones," she said.The initiative, partly funded by the French embassy, aims to deliver 200 desks to 10 schools in vulnerable areas and is part of the foundation's broader effort to reduce plastic pollution and raise environmental awareness in the region.(Reporting by Mariela Nava and Efrain Otero)Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

Waste
Pollution

Industrial Chemical Linked To Parkinson's Disease

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, Oct. 2, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Long-term exposure to a chemical used in metal degreasing and dry...

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, Oct. 2, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Long-term exposure to a chemical used in metal degreasing and dry cleaning might increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease, a new study says.Seniors living in places with the highest airborne levels of trichloroethylene showed a 10% higher risk for Parkinson’s than those in areas with the lowest levels, researchers report in the journal Neurology.Further, risk of Parkinson’s increased fourfold for people living one to five miles downwind of an Oregon factory that used the chemical, researchers found.“Long-term exposure to trichloroethylene in outdoor air was associated with a small but measurable increase in Parkinson’s risk,” said lead researcher Brittany Krzyzanowski, an assistant professor at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix.“These findings add to a growing body of evidence that environmental exposures may contribute to Parkinson’s disease,” she said in a news release.Trichloroethylene (TCE) is known to cause kidney cancer, and studies have linked the chemical to blood cancers and liver cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.It’s a persistent environmental pollutant in air, water and soil across the United States, researchers noted. A 2000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency  (EPA) report estimated that up to 30% of the nation’s drinking water supplies were contaminated with TCE. In 2024, the EPA issued a ban on the chemical for all consumer and commercial uses that was set to start in 2025. However, the ban was stayed pending a legal challenge, and the chemical remains in use.For the new study, researchers used Medicare data to identify seniors older than 67 newly diagnosed with Parkinson’s between 2016 and 2018, and compared each participant to five other seniors who didn’t have the disease.Parkinson’s occurs when brain cells that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine either die or become impaired. When that happens, people start to have movement problems that include shaking, stiffness, and difficulty with balance and coordination, according to Cleveland Clinic.All told, the study included nearly 222,000 people with Parkinson’s and more than 1.1 million people without the disease, researchers said.Using ZIP codes and EPA data, researchers mapped everyone’s exposure to outdoor TCE concentrations two years prior to their diagnosis.Researchers concluded that people exposed to the highest levels of TCE appeared to have a greater risk of Parkinson’s, after controlling for other risk factors for the disorder.“While the increased risk was modest, the sheer number of people exposed to TCE in the environment means the potential public health impact could be substantial,” Krzyzanowski said.The team also identified several geographic “hot spots” where outdoor TCE levels were highest, particularly in the Rust Belt region, as well as three facilities that operated as the nation’s top TCE-emitting facilities in 2002.Results showed that Parkinson’s risk was higher close to two of the three facilities. At one of those sites, Parkinson’s risk clearly rose the closer people lived to the facility. People living one to five miles downwind from a lithium battery plant in Lebanon, Oregon, had a more than four times greater risk of Parkinson’s than those living up to 10 miles away.“This underscores the need for stronger regulations and more monitoring of industrial pollutants,” Krzyzanowski said.The researchers noted that their study could not draw a direct cause-and-effect link between TCE and Parkinson’s. Their results only show an association.However, previous reports have also linked TCE to Parkinson’s, researchers said.For example, TCE contamination of the drinking water at Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in Jacksonville, N.C., has been linked with a 70% higher risk of Parkinson’s among service members stationed there.SOURCES: American Academy of Neurology, news release, Oct. 1, 2025; Neurology, Oct. 1, 2025Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Chemicals
Health

‘A remarkable ability to inspire’: global tributes pour in for Jane Goodall

Barack Obama, Prince William and Tanzanian president among many to mark death of primatologist at age of 91Word leaders, friends and former colleagues have been paying tribute to the primatologist Jane Goodall, who died in California on Wednesday aged 91.Goodall devoted her life to studying chimpanzees and other great apes, and became a global champion for primates and for conservation, helping to challenge the idea that the primates were vegetarian and that only humans could use tools. She died in her sleep from natural causes in Los Angeles while on a speaking tour, according to her institute, leading to an outpouring of dedications from around the world. Continue reading...

Word leaders, friends and former colleagues have been paying tribute to the primatologist Jane Goodall, who died in California on Wednesday aged 91.Goodall devoted her life to studying chimpanzees and other great apes, and became a global champion for primates and for conservation, helping to challenge the idea that the primates were vegetarian and that only humans could use tools. She died in her sleep from natural causes in Los Angeles while on a speaking tour, according to her institute, leading to an outpouring of dedications from around the world.“Jane Goodall had a remarkable ability to inspire us to connect with the natural wonders of our world, and her groundbreaking work on primates and the importance of conservation opened doors for generations of women in science,” said former US president Barack Obama. “Michelle and I are thinking of all those who loved and admired her,” he said.Prince William said the world had lost “an extraordinary voice”.“Her boundless curiosity, compassion and pioneering spirit transformed our understanding of the natural world. She challenged us all to make a difference and inspired me and countless others to work to protect our planet. Jane Goodall made a difference,” he said in a statement.The naturalist and broadcaster, Chris Packham, said: “Goodall was extremely determined. She was a do-it-yourselfer. She broke down barriers and wasn’t interested in broken or outdated conventions in science – she was bold and brave, an important inspiration to women wishing to enter science.Chris Packham described Goodall as bold and brave. Photograph: Everett/Shutterstock“She also became a powerful advocate for life, quiet, considered, clear and passionate. And critically tireless – she died on her job, trying to communicate the urgent need to confront climate breakdown and biodiversity loss. We have lost one of the greatest and most necessary voices for life on Earth ‘Tanzanian president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, said Goodall was a friend of the country and paid tribute to her decades of research on chimpanzees in Gombe national park. “With great sorrow, I have received the news of the passing of Dr. Jane Goodall. A renowned zoologist, primatologist, researcher and a friend of Tanzania, Dr. Goodall’s pioneering work at Gombe National Park transformed wildlife conservation, and placed our country at the heart of global efforts to protect chimpanzees and nature. Her legacy will live on. May she Rest in Peace,” she wrote on X.The University of East Anglia biologist Prof Ben Garrod, who worked closely with her for many years, said: “Jane Goodall was transformative. She was often the quietest person in the loudest room, who would have the greatest impact. She worked absolutely tirelessly to make the world better for everyone, whether you were young or old, rich or poor, human or any other animal. She worked non-stop, travelling 300 days a year, working every day I knew her, working to change the world.”Amanda Hurowitz, great apes programme director for Mighty Earth, said: “I will never forget listening to Jane Goodall pant hoot (a loud chimpanzee call that has an intro, build-up, climax and let-down) in a room at the US Capitol with members of Congress and other dignitaries. She inspired so many with her dedication to protecting our next of kin and teaching about how much we all shared.”American primatologist Russell Mittermeier, chief conservation officer for the NGO Re:wild, said: “There will never again be anyone like Jane,” said , who is . “I have known Jane for nearly 50 years, and have always been amazed by her boundless energy, her vision and her truly global impact. All of us will miss her,” he said.David Obura, the head of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem, said Goodall’s work inspired him as a teenager. “I devoured her books that were really an account not just of her science, which shone through brilliantly, but of living in, and really identifying with the nature that became her life. I wanted to emulate what she found. And then as an adult with her humility and purpose – it was all about the species, places and people that she brought to the world’s attention,” he said.Actor and conservationist Leonardo DiCaprio said Goodall was “his hero”.“Her groundbreaking research on chimpanzees in Tanzania transformed our understanding of how our closest relatives live, socialise, and think – reminding us that we are deeply connected not only to chimpanzees and other great apes, but to all life,” he wrote on Instagram. “She never stopped,” he said.Apple CEO, Tim Cook, said Goodall was “a groundbreaking scientist and leader who taught us all so much about the beauty and wonder of our world. She never stopped advocating for nature, people, and the planet we share. May she rest in peace.”Leading environmental lawyer Farhana Yamin said Goodall was “an outstanding scientist and environmentalist. She helped us understand apes but also ourselves. Thanks to her outstanding observations we know that language, love and caring are core parts of the more than human world and we don’t own nature but are part of it.And the CEO of the African Wildlife Foundation, Kaddu Sebunya, said that the AWF “recommits to carrying forward the flame she lit, ensuring that Africa remains at the heart of global conservation, and that her vision of a just and thriving world for people and nature endures.” Sebunya added that: “On a personal note, I commend her for the path she charted, one that showed young girls everywhere, including my own daughter, that it is possible to dream boldly, to lead fearlessly, and to leave the world better than they found it.”

Conservation
Animals
Energy

Farm Workers At Risk For Kidney Disease

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, Oct. 2, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Farm workers have a higher risk for kidney disease, mainly due to...

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, Oct. 2, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Farm workers have a higher risk for kidney disease, mainly due to exposure to high heat and agricultural chemicals, a new small-scale study says.Workers on a grape farm near the Arizona-Sonora border had high levels of arsenic, cadmium and chromium in their urine, and those were linked to increased signs of kidney injury, according to findings published in the November issue of the journal Environmental Research.“We’re seeing an increase in kidney disease in young people who lack typical risk factors, especially in hotter regions,” said lead researcher Rietta Wagoner, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Arizona.“There is evidence that heat, pesticides and metal exposures each play a role, and especially that heat is making potentially toxic exposures worse,” she said in a news release. “Each individually has been studied, but little research has examined a combination of factors. This study is an attempt to answer questions." For the study, researchers followed 77 farm workers who traveled seasonally from southern Mexico to work the grape farm. The workers arrived in February and March, at the beginning of the grape season, and stayed until the end of summer.The team collected daily urine and blood samples from the workers, and measured their heat stress twice a day with inner ear temperatures and heart rates.The worker’s kidney function generally decreased during the season, based on estimates derived from blood and urine samples.This decline was linked to chemicals found in pesticides and fertilizers, as well as the excessive summer heat in the Sonoran Desert, where air temperatures ranged upwards of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, researchers said.“When we looked at heat in combination with metals and metalloids, we found heat especially exacerbated the effects of the metals arsenic and cadmium on the kidney,” Wagoner said. “In other words, together, the effects were worse.”This kidney damage can be prevented, she said.“We recommend mandatory periodic breaks and rest built into the workday,” Wagoner said. “Provide water, electrolyte replacement and have restrooms nearby. Also, allow the workers time to get used to the conditions.”It’s also important to get to the source of workers’ exposure to these toxic metals, she said, noting that workers drink well water in places where uranium and arsenic are found in the soil.“If we can implement prevention measures early on,” Wagoner said, “we can prevent longer term issues.”SOURCES: University of Arizona, news release, Sept. 23, 2025; Environmental Research, November 2025What This Means For YouFarm workers should make sure to take frequent rest breaks during hot days and stay hydrated.Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Health
Chemicals
Water

Court dismisses lawsuit alleging EPA failed to protect farmers from PFAS in fertilizer

A federal district court this week dismissed a lawsuit alleging the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) failed to prevent the contamination of farmland across the country with toxic PFAS in sewage sludge used as fertilizer.

A federal district court this week dismissed a lawsuit alleging the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) failed to prevent the contamination of farmland across the country with toxic PFAS in sewage sludge used as fertilizer.

Scientists Reveal That the Red Sea Completely Vanished 6.2 Million Years Ago

KAUST researchers discovered that the Red Sea experienced a massive disruption 6.2 million years ago, completely transforming its marine life. Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have confirmed that the Red Sea once completely dried up around 6.2 million years ago, only to be suddenly refilled by a catastrophic influx of [...]

New research shows the Red Sea dried out 6.2 million years ago before being suddenly flooded by the Indian Ocean. (Artist’s concept). Credit: SciTechDaily.comKAUST researchers discovered that the Red Sea experienced a massive disruption 6.2 million years ago, completely transforming its marine life. Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have confirmed that the Red Sea once completely dried up around 6.2 million years ago, only to be suddenly refilled by a catastrophic influx of water from the Indian Ocean. Their work places a precise timeline on a remarkable event that reshaped the basin’s history. By combining seismic imaging, microfossil analysis, and geochemical dating, the team discovered that this transformation occurred within just 100,000 years, an exceptionally short span in geological terms. During this period, the Red Sea shifted from being linked to the Mediterranean to becoming a desolate salt basin. The dry phase ended when a powerful flood cut through volcanic ridges, opening the Bab el-Mandab strait and restoring the Red Sea’s connection to the global oceans. “Our findings show that the Red Sea basin records one of the most extreme environmental events on Earth, when it dried out completely and was then suddenly reflooded about 6.2 million years ago,” said lead author Dr. Tihana Pensa of KAUST. “The flood transformed the basin, restored marine conditions, and established the Red Sea’s lasting connection to the Indian Ocean.” How the Indian Ocean Flooded the Red Sea The Red Sea was initially connected from the north to the Mediterranean through a shallow sill. This connection was severed, drying the Red Sea into a barren salt desert. In the south of the Red Sea, near the Hanish Islands, a volcanic ridge separates the sea from the Indian Ocean. But around 6.2 million years ago, seawater from the Indian Ocean surged across this barrier in a catastrophic flood. The torrent carved a 320-kilometer-long submarine canyon that is still visible today on the seafloor. The flood rapidly refilled the basin, drowning the salt flats and restoring normal marine conditions in less than 100,000 years. This event happened nearly a million years before the Mediterranean was refilled by the famous Zanclean flood, giving the Red Sea a unique story of rebirth. Why the Red Sea Matters Geologically The Red Sea formed by the separation of the Arabian Plate from the African Plate beginning 30 million years ago. Initially, the sea was a narrow rift valley filled with lakes, then became a wider gulf when it was flooded from the Mediterranean 23 million years ago. Marine life thrived initially, as seen by the fossil reefs along the northern coast near Duba and Umlujj. However, evaporation and poor seawater circulation increased salinity, causing the extinction of marine life between 15 and 6 million years ago. Additionally, the basin was filled with layers of salt and gypsum. This culminated in the complete desiccation of the Red Sea. The catastrophic flood from the Indian Ocean restored marine life in the Red, which persists in the coral reefs to the present. All in all, the Red Sea is a natural laboratory for understanding how oceans are born, how salt giants accumulate, and how climate and tectonics interact over millions of years. The discovery highlights how closely the Red Sea’s history is linked with global ocean change. It also shows that the region has experienced environmental extremes before, only to return as a thriving marine ecosystem. “This paper adds to our knowledge about the processes that form and expand oceans on Earth. It also maintains KAUST’s leading position in Red Sea research,” said co-author KAUST Professor Abdulkader Al Afifi. Reference: “Desiccation of the Red Sea basin at the start of the Messinian salinity crisis was followed by major erosion and reflooding from the Indian Ocean” by Tihana Pensa, Antonio Delgado Huertas and Abdulkader M. Afifi, 9 August 2025, Communications Earth & Environment.DOI: 10.1038/s43247-025-02642-1 Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.Follow us on Google, Discover, and News.

Science
Technology
Climate

Tories pledge to scrap landmark climate legislation

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch says her party would axe legally binding targets to cut emissions.

The Conservatives have pledged to scrap the UK's landmark climate change legislation and replace it with a strategy for "cheap and reliable" energy.The Climate Change Act 2008, which put targets for cutting emissions into law, was introduced by the last Labour government and strengthened under Tory PM Theresa May.Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said her party wanted to leave "a cleaner environment for our children" but argued "Labour's laws tied us in red tape, loaded us with costs, and did nothing to cut global emissions".Environmental groups said the move would be an act of "national self-harm", while Labour said it would be "an economic disaster and a total betrayal of future generations".The 2008 act, which was passed when current Energy Secretary Ed Miliband was in the same role in Gordon Brown's government, committed the UK to cutting carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. In 2019, under May's premiership, this legally binding target was updated to reaching net zero by 2050 - meaning the UK must cut carbon emissions until it removes as much as it produces.At that time the legislation passed through Parliament with the support of all major parties.However, the political consensus on net zero has since fragmented.Badenoch has previously said the target of net zero by 2050 is "impossible" for the UK to meet and promised to "maximise" extraction of oil and gas from the North Sea.Reform UK has also said it would scrap net zero targets if it wins the next election, blaming the policy for higher energy bills and deindustrialisation in the UK.The UK was the first country to establish a long-term legally binding framework to cut carbon emissions and since the act was passed many other countries have introduced similar legislation.However, the Tories said the act forced ministers "to make decisions to meet arbitrary climate targets, even if they make the British people poorer, destroy jobs, and make our economy weaker".Badenoch said: "We want to leave a cleaner environment for our children, but not by bankrupting the country."Climate change is real. But Labour's laws tied us in red tape, loaded us with costs, and did nothing to cut global emissions. Previous Conservative governments tried to make Labour's climate laws work - they don't."Under my leadership we will scrap those failed targets. Our priority now is growth, cheaper energy, and protecting the natural landscapes we all love."However, Miliband said: "This desperate policy from Kemi Badenoch if ever implemented would be an economic disaster and a total betrayal of future generations."The Conservatives would now scrap a framework that businesses campaigned for in the first place and has ensured tens of billions of pounds of investment in homegrown British energy since it was passed by a Labour government with Conservative support 17 years ago."The Liberal Democrats also criticised the announcement.The party's energy security and net zero spokesperson Pippa Heylings said: "The reality is that investing in renewables is the greatest economic growth opportunity in this century and will protect the planet for future generations."Meanwhile, Richard Benwell, chief executive of the Wildlife and Countryside Link coalition of environmental groups, said: "The real route to lasting security is in homegrown clean power, not burning more fossil fuels."Without binding climate law, ministers will be free to trade away our future - and it is nature and the poorest communities that will pay the price."

Climate
Business
Government

‘Only if we help shall all be saved’: Jane Goodall showed we can all be part of the solution

Jane Goodall showed tremendous courage in charting her own course as a pioneering researcher – and working to spread hope wherever she went.

Penelope Breese/GettyWith the passing of Dr Jane Goodall, the world has lost a conservation giant. But her extraordinary achievements leave a profound legacy. Goodall was a world-leading expert in animal behaviour and a globally recognised environmental and conservation advocate. She achieved all this at a time when women were commonly sidelined or ignored in science. Her work with chimpanzees showed it was wrong to assume only humans used tools. She showed us the animals expressed emotions such as love and grief and have individual personalities. Goodall showed us scientists can express their emotions and values and that we can be respected researchers as well as passionate advocates and science communicators. After learning about how chimpanzees were being used in medical research, she spoke out: “I went to the conference as a scientist, and I left as an activist.” As childhood rights activist Marian Wright Edelman has eloquently put it, “You can’t be what you can’t see”. Goodall showed what it was possible to be. Forging her own path Goodall took a nontraditional path into science. The brave step of going into the field at the age of 26 to make observations was supported by her mother. Despite making world-first discoveries such as tool use by non-humans, people didn’t take her seriously because she hadn’t yet gone to university. Nowadays, people who contribute wildlife observations are celebrated under the banner of citizen science. Goodall was a beacon at a time when science was largely dominated by men – especially remote fieldwork. But she changed that narrative. She convinced famous paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey to give her a chance. He first employed her as a secretary. But it wasn’t long until he asked her to go to Tanzania’s remote Gombe Stream National Park. In 1960, she arrived. This was not easy. It took real courage to work in a remote area with limited support alongside chimpanzees, a species thought to be peaceful but now known to be far stronger than humans and capable of killing animals and humans. Goodall is believed to be the only person accepted into chimpanzee society. Through calm but determined persistence she won their trust. These qualities served Goodall well – not just with chimps, but throughout her entire career advocating for conservation and societal change. At Gombe, she showed for the first time that animals could fashion and use tools, had individual personalities, expressed emotions and had a higher intelligence and understanding than they were credited with. Jane Goodall worked with chimpanzees for decades. This 2015 video shows her releasing Wounda, an injured chimpanzee helped back to health in the Republic of Congo. Goodall was always an animal person and her love of chimps was in part inspired by her toy Jubilee, gifted by her father. She had close bonds with her pets and extended these bonds to wildlife. Goodall gave her study subjects names such as “David Greybeard”, the first chimp to accept her at Gombe. Some argue we shouldn’t place a human persona on animals by naming them. But Goodall showed it was not only acceptable to see animals as individuals with different behaviours, but it greatly aids connection with and care for wildlife. Goodall became an international voice for wildlife. She used her profile to encourage a focus on animal welfare in conservation, caring for both individuals and species. Jane Goodall’s pioneering work with chimpanzees shed light on these animals as individuals – and showed they make tools and experience emotions. Apic/Getty A pioneer for women in science With Goodall’s passing, the world has lost one of the three great “nonagenarian environmental luminaries”, to use co-author Vanessa Pirotta’s phrase. The other two are the naturalist documentary maker, Sir David Attenborough, 99, and famed marine biologist Dr Sylvia Earle, who is 90. Goodall showed us women can be pioneering scientists and renowned communicators as well as mothers. She shared her work in ways accessible to all generations, from National Geographic documentaries to hip podcasts. Her visibility encouraged girls and women around the world to be bold and follow our own paths. Goodall’s story directly inspired several authors of this article. Co-author Marissa Parrott was privileged to have spoken to Goodall several times during her visits to Melbourne Zoo and on her world tours. Goodall’s story was a direct inspiration for Parrott’s own remote and international fieldwork, supported by her mother just as Goodall’s mother had supported her. They both survived malaria, which also kills chimpanzees and gorillas. Goodall long championed a One Health approach, recognising the health of communities, wildlife and the environment are all interconnected. Co-author Zara Bending worked and toured alongside Goodall. The experience demonstrated how conservationists could be powerful advocates through storytelling, and how our actions reveal who we are. As Goodall once said: every single one of us matters, every single one of us has a role to play, and every single one of us makes a difference every single day. From the forest floor to global icon Goodall knew conservation is as much about people as it is about wildlife and wild places. Seventeen years after beginning her groundbreaking research in Gombe, Goodall established the Jane Goodall Institute with the mission of protecting wildlife and habitat by engaging local communities. Her institute’s global network now spans five continents and continues her legacy of community-centred conservation. Researchers have now been studying the chimps at Gombe for 65 years. Goodall moved from fieldwork to being a global conservation icon who regularly travelled more than 300 days a year. She observed many young people across cultures and creeds who had lost hope for their future amid environmental and climate destruction. In response, she founded a second organisation, Roots & Shoots, in 1991. Her goal was: to foster respect and compassion for all living things, to promote understanding of all cultures and beliefs, and to inspire each individual to take action to make the world a better place for people, other animals, and the environment. Last year, Roots & Shoots groups were active in 75 countries. Their work is a testament to Goodall’s mantra: find hope in action. Jane Goodall went from pioneering field researcher to international conservation icon. David S. Holloway/Getty Protecting nature close to home One of Goodall’s most remarkable attributes was her drive to give people the power to take action where they were. No matter where people lived or what they did, she helped them realise they could be part of the solution. In a busy, urbanised world, it’s easier than ever to feel disconnected from nature. Rather than presenting nature as a distant concept, Goodall made it something for everyone to experience, care for and cherish. She showed we didn’t have to leave our normal lives behind to protect nature – we could make just as much difference in our own communities. One of her most famous quotes rings just as true today as when she first said it: only if we understand, can we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help shall all be saved. Let’s honour her world-changing legacy by committing to understand, care and help save all species with whom we share this world. For Jane Goodall. Euan Ritchie is a Councillor with the Biodiversity Council, a member of the Ecological Society of Australia and the Australian Mammal Society, and President of the Australian Mammal Society.Zara Bending is affiliated with the Jane Goodall Institute as a resident expert on wildlife crime and international law. Kylie Soanes, Marissa Parrott, and Vanessa Pirotta do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Activism
Animals
Climate

‘Desecration of landscape’: the fight over development in areas of outstanding natural beauty

Residents of Woodgate estate in West Sussex enjoy its open spaces and wildlife but conservationists say it has set worrying precedentUK fifth-worst country in Europe for loss of green space to developmentRevealed: Europe losing 600 football pitches of nature and crop land a dayA flock of goldfinches circle before settling on a rooftop as Sue takes her morning walk around the Woodgate estate in Pease Pottage, West Sussex. Rounding a corner, she reaches a large wildlife pond where eight signets and a swan are feeding. Dragonflies circle overhead.For the last three years, the estate a few miles south of Crawley built within the High Weald area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) has been Sue’s home. Her son and daughter-in-law also live on the estate, where the 600 homes range from shared ownership flats to £1.4m luxury detached houses. Continue reading...

A flock of goldfinches circle before settling on a rooftop as Sue takes her morning walk around the Woodgate estate in Pease Pottage, West Sussex. Rounding a corner, she reaches a large wildlife pond where eight signets and a swan are feeding. Dragonflies circle overhead.For the last three years, the estate a few miles south of Crawley built within the High Weald area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) has been Sue’s home. Her son and daughter-in-law also live on the estate, where the 600 homes range from shared ownership flats to £1.4m luxury detached houses.Cycleways, leisure parks, a village green and wildlife ponds give the estate a lush and green backdrop.Analysis by the Guardian found that the estate was the largest land grab of an AONB by developers in Britain in the five years between 2018 and 2023.At 45 hectares, the development sprawls across the High Weald AONB. These precious, natural landscapes, which have been renamed national landscapes, are supposed to be some of the country’s most protected areas.There are 42 across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, awarded the designation for qualities including their relative wildness, tranquillity and any distinctive habitats they may support.The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) fiercely fought the plans for the Woodgate estate, saying it created a worrying precedent and appeared to undermine the protections behind national landscape designation.Kia Trainor, a director at the CPRE’s Sussex branch, described the development as the “desecration of our most beautiful landscape’”. In a later report, the CPRE released data showing that AONBs were facing an insidious threat in the form of a dramatic increase in major housing applications.Sue, on her walk with her friend Sarah, however, points out the large village green at the centre of the development, the pathways, the primary school and community shop, before heading into the woodland walk that takes you into the depths of Tilgate Forest, which is next to the estate.The development sprawls across the High Weald area of outstanding natural beauty. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian“We were just saying to each other how beautifully they have created this estate,” Sue says. “There are big open spaces and we see a lot of wildlife. The large pond at the bottom of the estate is amazing, it has brought in so much wildlife.“Before this estate was built, the land was farmland and they held a car boot sale here. This estate is great for children with all the open space, they can cycle and walk everywhere. They are planting an orchard here and creating a walking trail, which goes all around the development, and a games field for ball games.”The developers, Thakeham, told the Guardian that from the beginning they integrated infrastructure, biodiversity, and green spaces and pathways into the design. “Wildlife-friendly enhancements such as bird boxes, bat boxes, swift bricks, hedgehog highways, and insect hotels can be found across the development,” said a spokesperson. That includes the Meadow Maze, which includes over 50 varieties of wildflowers to attract pollinators and contributes to the broader B-Line project. “Thakeham made a commitment to deliver BNG of 10% on its developments three years before it became a statutory minimum in February 2024.”Balancing housing requirements with the need to protect and enhance nature in the UK, where there have been significant declines in species and habitats since the 1970s and less than half of its original biodiversity remains intact, will always be difficult.The 600-home estate has a large village green, primary school and community shop. Photograph: Jill Mead/The GuardianMid Sussex district council has assessed that it is required to build 19,741 new homes for the period 2021-40 to comply with national planning targets. Existing commitments will provide 8,696 homes and the council needs to find locations for the remaining 7,558.The CPRE says there needs to be a balance of economic, social and environmental considerations and that building large developments away from existing residential areas will force people into cars and does not amount to sustainable development.In addition, the UK has committed to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 – a target contained in the Environment Act. But the Labour government’s determination to roll back environmental laws in its push for growth will put some of the UK’s most precious and protected land at risk of destruction by housebuilding, experts say.Jackie Copley, a campaign lead for the CPRE, said: “Areas of outstanding natural beauty are supposed to enjoy the highest status of protection for landscape reasons and that is supposed to stop major development taking place on them. A development of 600 houses with a school and district centre is unarguably a major development.‘The large pond at the bottom of the estate is amazing, it has brought in so much wildlife,’ resident Sue says. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian“Very soon if we continue to allow piecemeal developments across areas of outstanding natural beauty, they are going to cease to have any landscape value.”Her words are prescient. Another large development within and adjacent to the High Weald national landscape is in the pipeline: 1,450 homes to be on agricultural land between Cuckfield and the village of Ansty.As campaigners join the CPRE to fight the development, a High Weald national landscape officer has recently warned of serious adverse impacts from the proposed development, citing major effects on the landscape character, visual quality, and a failure to conserve and enhance the area’s natural beauty.The Guardian’s Green to Grey team included Pamela Duncan, Zeke Hunter-Green, Tural Ahmedzade and Patrick Barkham with additional reporting by Rachel Keenan, Raphael Boyd, Olivia Lee, Yassin El-Moudden, Gracie Daw, Matthew Holmes, Mariam Amini, Gabriel Smith, Dominic Kendrick and Emma RussellFor more, visit greentogrey.euThe next phase of this project will be planet-wide: join a crowdsourced citizen science initiative to measure global nature loss here

Nature
Forests
Science

Accounting for uncertainty to help engineers design complex systems

The approach could enable autonomous vehicles, commercial aircraft, or transportation networks that are more reliable in the face of real-world unpredictability.

Designing a complex electronic device like a delivery drone involves juggling many choices, such as selecting motors and batteries that minimize cost while maximizing the payload the drone can carry or the distance it can travel.Unraveling that conundrum is no easy task, but what happens if the designers don’t know the exact specifications of each battery and motor? On top of that, the real-world performance of these components will likely be affected by unpredictable factors, like changing weather along the drone’s route.MIT researchers developed a new framework that helps engineers design complex systems in a way that explicitly accounts for such uncertainty. The framework allows them to model the performance tradeoffs of a device with many interconnected parts, each of which could behave in unpredictable ways.Their technique captures the likelihood of many outcomes and tradeoffs, giving designers more information than many existing approaches which, at most, can usually only model best-case and worst-case scenarios.Ultimately, this framework could help engineers develop complex systems like autonomous vehicles, commercial aircraft, or even regional transportation networks that are more robust and reliable in the face of real-world unpredictability.“In practice, the components in a device never behave exactly like you think they will. If someone has a sensor whose performance is uncertain, and an algorithm that is uncertain, and the design of a robot that is also uncertain, now they have a way to mix all these uncertainties together so they can come up with a better design,” says Gioele Zardini, the Rudge and Nancy Allen Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT, a principal investigator in the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS), an affiliate faculty with the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS), and senior author of a paper on this framework.Zardini is joined on the paper by lead author Yujun Huang, an MIT graduate student; and Marius Furter, a graduate student at the University of Zurich. The research will be presented at the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control.Considering uncertaintyThe Zardini Group studies co-design, a method for designing systems made of many interconnected components, from robots to regional transportation networks.The co-design language breaks a complex problem into a series of boxes, each representing one component, that can be combined in different ways to maximize outcomes or minimize costs. This allows engineers to solve complex problems in a feasible amount of time.In prior work, the researchers modeled each co-design component without considering uncertainty. For instance, the performance of each sensor the designers could choose for a drone was fixed.But engineers often don’t know the exact performance specifications of each sensor, and even if they do, it is unlikely the senor will perfectly follow its spec sheet. At the same time, they don’t know how each sensor will behave once integrated into a complex device, or how performance will be affected by unpredictable factors like weather.“With our method, even if you are unsure what the specifications of your sensor will be, you can still design the robot to maximize the outcome you care about,” says Furter.To accomplish this, the researchers incorporated this notion of uncertainty into an existing framework based on category theory.Using some mathematical tricks, they simplified the problem into a more general structure. This allows them to use the tools of category theory to solve co-design problems in a way that considers a range of uncertain outcomes.By reformulating the problem, the researchers can capture how multiple design choices affect one another even when their individual performance is uncertain.This approach is also simpler than many existing tools that typically require extensive domain expertise. With their plug-and-play system, one can rearrange the components in the system without violating any mathematical constraints.And because no specific domain expertise is required, the framework could be used by a multidisciplinary team where each member designs one component of a larger system.“Designing an entire UAV isn’t feasible for just one person, but designing a component of a UAV is. By providing the framework for how these components work together in a way that considers uncertainty, we’ve made it easier for people to evaluate the performance of the entire UAV system,” Huang says.More detailed informationThe researchers used this new approach to choose perception systems and batteries for a drone that would maximize its payload while minimizing its lifetime cost and weight.While each perception system may offer a different detection accuracy under varying weather conditions, the designer doesn’t know exactly how its performance will fluctuate. This new system allows the designer to take these uncertainties into consideration when thinking about the drone’s overall performance.And unlike other approaches, their framework reveals distinct advantages of each battery technology.For instance, their results show that at lower payloads, nickel-metal hydride batteries provide the lowest expected lifetime cost. This insight would be impossible to fully capture without accounting for uncertainty, Zardini says.While another method might only be able to show the best-case and worst-case performance scenarios of lithium polymer batteries, their framework gives the user more detailed information.For example, it shows that if the drone’s payload is 1,750 grams, there is a 12.8 percent chance the battery design would be infeasible.“Our system provides the tradeoffs, and then the user can reason about the design,” he adds.In the future, the researchers want to improve the computational efficiency of their problem-solving algorithms. They also want to extend this approach to situations where a system is designed by multiple parties that are collaborative and competitive, like a transportation network in which rail companies operate using the same infrastructure.“As the complexity of systems grow, and involves more disparate components, we need a formal framework in which to design these systems. This paper presents a way to compose large systems from modular components, understand design trade-offs, and importantly do so with a notion of uncertainty. This creates an opportunity to formalize the design of large-scale systems with learning-enabled components,” says Aaron Ames, the Bren Professor of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, Control and Dynamical Systems, and Aerospace at Caltech, who was not involved with this research. 

Transportation
Technology

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