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Category: Nature & Outdoors (Page 2 of 4)

PFAS Chemicals » US outdoor sports retailer REI will ban cancer-causing ‘Forever Chemicals’ from clothes and cookware it retails by 2024

2023-07-10 /

Grist »

After more than a year of pressure from environmental groups, the major outdoor retailer REI announced on Tuesday that it will ban hazardous “forever chemicals” from all its clothing and cookware by fall 2024.

REI’s new product standards will require its suppliers to eliminate all per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, from the pots, pans, apparel, shoes, bags, packs, and similar gear sold by the retail chain. Suppliers of heavy-duty apparel like professional-grade raincoats will have until 2026 to make those products PFAS-free.

Related » Patagoina is doing the same.

Ireland and Sweden join countries calling for moratorium on extraction of metals from seabed

2023-07-09 /

Karen McVeigh and Chris Michael, The Guardian »

Much is at stake. Scientists have warned of large-scale, severe and irreversible harm to global ocean ecosystems, already threatened by the climate and biodiversity crises, if deep-sea mining goes ahead. Too little is known about the ocean’s abyss even to draw up regulations, they say.

Last month, the European Academies Science Advisory Council warned of the “dire consequences” for marine ecosystems and against the “misleading narrative” that deep-sea mining is necessary for metals required to meet the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Earth is getting ‘hotter, drier and more flammable’ due to climate change

2023-07-06 /

Euronews »

“Projections indicate that if Spain does not cut severely the emissions that cause global warming, the country will become hotter, drier, more arid and flammable,” says Maria José Caballero, Unit Head of Rapid Response at Greenpeace Spain.

“It will experience more floods and high-intensity fires and the impacts of sea-level rise. The data in the report shows the urgency of cutting emissions and tackling the climate crisis by taking ambitious measures, to which all political parties must commit.”

Though he lacks Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s showmanship, New Brunswick’s Blaine Higgs has a hard-line conservative record to make right-wing ideologues giddy

2023-07-04 /

The Conversation »

However, Higgs has gone further than his Conservative counterparts in the region. In doing so, he has burned many bridges.

His relationship with the health-care sector is fraught. Emergency rooms have overflowed at times with residents dying in waiting rooms.

When it was reported a woman was unable to get access to a rape kit, Higgs blamed the nurses for “showing a lack of compassion.” He has also limited abortion access within the province.

Higgs has an equally contentious relationship with Indigenous Peoples. In 2021, New Brunswick directed government employees to halt territorial acknowledgements because the province is involved in a series of legal actions and land claims initiated by First Nations.

The province also tore up tax-sharing agreements with the Wolastoqey Nation, which Higgs argued were “unfair.”

On this day 125 years ago, Nova Scotia-born Joshua Slocum became the first person to have sailed single-handedly around the world

2023-06-27 /

On the morning of April 24, 1895, Joshua Slocum departed Boston Harbor, at the helm of Spray.

On June 27, 1898, Slocum sailed into Newport, Rhode Island, having circumnavigated the world and sailing some 74,000 km (46,000 miles).

In 1900 Slocum wrote a book about his journey, Sailing Alone Around the World, which became an international best-seller.

Forest fire centre declares 2023 already worst year ever for Canadian wildfires » It’s only June

2023-06-27 /

CTV »

Canada surpassed the record for area burned by wildfires in a single year Monday as hundreds of fires continued to blaze in almost every province and territory.

The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported Monday afternoon that 76,129 square kilometres of forest and other land has burned since Jan. 1. That exceeds the previous record set in 1989 of 75,596 square kilometres, according to the National Forestry Database.

CNN » Canadian wildfire smoke reaches Europe

Three Canadian cities — Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto — ranked among world’s top 10 most livable

2023-06-23 /

Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto ranked in the top 10 according to a long-running Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) latest survey, the Global Liveability Index 2023 ranking of 173 metropolises.

For 2023, the world’s 10 most livable cities according to the EIU are:

  1. Vienna, Austria 🇦🇹
    For the second year, the Austrian capital took the title of world’s most liveable city in the world.
  2. Copenhagen, Denmark 🇩🇰
  3. Melbourne, Australia 🇦🇺
  4. Sydney, Australia 🇦🇺
  5. Vancouver, Canada 🇨🇦
  6. Zurich, Switzerland 🇨🇭
  7. Calgary, Canada 🇨🇦
  8. Geneva, Switzerland 🇨🇭
  9. Toronto, Canada 🇨🇦
  10. Osaka, Japan 🇯🇵  and Auckland, New Zealand 🇳🇿 (tie)

Least liveable of the cities ranked include Douala, Cameroon; Kyiv, Ukraine; Harare, Zimbabwe; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; Karachi, Pakistan; Lagos, Nigeria; Algiers, Algeria; Tripoli, Libya; Damascus, Syria.

Read the report » Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Global Liveability Index 2023

20 cities with the world’s worst air pollution

2023-06-20 /

Mental Floss »

  1. Lahore, Pakistan
  2. Hotan, China
  3. Bhiwadi, India
  4. Delhi, India
  5. Peshawar, Pakistan
  6. Darbhanga, India
  7. Asopur, India
  8. N’Djamena, Chad
  9. New Delhi, India
  10. Patna, India
  11. Ghaziabad, India
  12. Dharuhera, India
  13. Baghdad, Iraq
  14. Chapra, India
  15. Muzaffarnagar, India
  16. Faisalabad, Pakistan
  17. Greater Noida, India
  18. Bahadurgarh, India
  19. Faridabad, India
  20. Muzaffarpur, India
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