Cropped 13 August 2025: Fossil-fuelled bird decline; ‘Deadly’ wildfires; Empty nature fund
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We handpick and explain the most important stories at the intersection of climate, land, food and nature over the past fortnight. This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s fortnightly Cropped email newsletter. Subscribe for free here. Key developments ‘Deadly’ wildfires WINE BRAKE: France experienced its “largest wildfire in decades”, which scorched more than 16,000 hectares […]
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London’s ‘Wet Wipe Island’ is the first such mass to be removed by mechanical means
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Hammersmith Bridge (image credit: Alex.muller, CC BY-SA 3.0 license). Work has begun on the mass excavation of a 180-ton mass on an area of the Thames’ shore near Hammersmith Bridge, in a first-of-its-kind river clean-up project. The effort is being led and organised by the Port of London Authority with collaboration from Thames Water, in […]
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Tyres now the biggest source of emissions from vehicles, suggests testing company CEO
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Nick Molden is CEO of independent testing firm Emission Analytics. As CEO of a company specialising in vehicle emissions, Nick Molden believes that in many countries tyres are becoming the biggest source of emissions from in-use vehicles. Speaking in a new interview on the Emissions Analytics’ YouTube page, Nick says: “Tyres are the great unappreciated […]
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Road pollution ‘stressing’ ocean life with complex chemical cocktails
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Chemicals released from car tyres as they wear down are washing into rivers, estuaries and the sea and they could be disrupting life at the base of the marine food web, according to a new study. Researchers found that just four days of exposure to three common tyre-derived chemicals significantly slowed the growth of tiny […]
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SuDS role grows under new water rules
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SUDS system components installed in a primary school in England. Publication of the Independent Water Commission’s Final Report, alongside new legislation and updated national standards, marks a major turning point in the wider adoption of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) by water companies and developers, writes Alex Stephenson, director, SuDSPlanter The report, released on 21 July […]
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Direct Li-ion recycling advances poised to reshape the battery materials market
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Conrad Nichols, a senior energy storage technology analyst at market intelligence firm IDTechEx, previews some of the key findings from a new report. The Li-ion battery (LIB) recycling market has continued to grow rapidly through players establishing new partnerships, securing supply deals, and gathering large volumes of funding. Key players have also persisted with constructing […]
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How synthetic turf is supplying fresh water in South Africa
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The installation has been undertaken by the Cruyff Foundation, which has a declared aim of supporting sporting endeavours for children and young people with special needs. A project in South Africa is using a form of synthetic turf to enable freshwater recycling, in what seems a novel attempt to solve two problems at once: drought […]
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How to Interpret Your XGBoost Model: A Practical Guide to Feature Importance
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One of the most widespread machine learning techniques is XGBoost (Extreme Gradient Boosting).
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Making Sense of Text with Decision Trees
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In this article, you will learn: • Build a decision tree classifier for spam email detection that analyzes text data.
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Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
Last year, China started construction on an estimated 95 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power capacity, enough to power the entire UK twice over. It accounted for 93% of new global coal-power construction in 2024. The boom appears to contradict China’s climate commitments and its pledge to “strictly control” new coal power. The fact that […]
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AI-driven continuous water monitoring system to be adopted by Yorkshire Water
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The Ilkley river Testing, inspection, and certification firm SOCOTEC UK and Ireland has secured a contract with Yorkshire Water—in partnership with UnifAI Technology—to deploy AI-powered, continuous water quality monitoring across 20 inland bathing sites. The initiative, funded through Ofwat’s Water Breakthrough Challenge, is one of 16 innovation projects sharing over £42 million.1 Under the scheme, […]
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Analysis: England’s most ethnically diverse areas are 15 times more likely to face extreme heat
Neighbourhoods in England that are home to the most minority-ethnic people are 15 times more likely to face extreme heat than the least diverse areas, according to Carbon Brief analysis. People with the lowest carbon footprints – who therefore contribute less to climate change – are also more likely to live in areas that experience […]
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UK SMEs could unlock £94 billion a year by tackling project inefficiencies, says digital skills expert
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A seemingly bracing call to action has been issued to UK SMEs by a digital skills training provider: Adopt better project management practices or continue losing billions annually through inefficiencies and informal working methods. The Coder’s Guild has compiled data from a number of industry sources which appears to reveal that poor project delivery and […]
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Harmonizing Sources, Hardening Duties – Inside the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on Climate Change
The International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s release of its Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States with Respect to Climate Change marks a watershed moment, not just because of what the court says about climate obligations, but also because of how it says it. In responding to the legal question posed to it, the ICJ does […]
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Fossil-fuelled heat has caused tropical birds to decline by ‘up to 38%’ since 1950s
An uptick in heat extremes, driven by human-caused climate change, has caused tropical bird populations to decline by up to 38% since the 1950s, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis. The study combines ecological and climate attribution techniques to trace the fingerprint of fossil-fuelled climate change on declining wildlife populations. It shows that an increase in […]
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COP experts: How could the UN climate talks be reformed?
This year marks a decade since nations successfully negotiated the Paris Agreement, a landmark treaty that has been the guiding force for international climate politics ever since. Yet, with another round of negotiations looming at COP30 in November, there has been growing discontent with the UN climate process. Critics say the talks are not doing […]
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Environmental health trade group calls for extra resources to help tackle issue of empty homes
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The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) is calling for extra resources to help environmental health teams deal with the blight of empty homes as communities report rises in unoccupied housing, and landlords threaten to leave the market. This follows a BBC investigation which has highlighted an increase in the prevalence of empty homes and […]
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Adler & Allan acquire engineering and environmental services group E&E Group
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This article contains paid for content produced in collaboration with Adler & Allan. Leading environmental services provider Adler & Allan has acquired engineering and environmental services group, E&E Group. According to the group, the acquisition significantly enhances Adler & Allan’s comprehensive environmental services offering, expands its nationwide operational footprint, and increases its exposure to blue […]