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From Thursday customers can hand over fruits of lockdown clearouts for donation to Oxfam

Marks & Spencer will this week bring back its popular UK “shwopping” scheme which is aimed at keeping clothing out of landfill, six months after it was mothballed because of coronavirus.

Customers can from Thursday donate their unwanted clothes, shoes, bras and accessories of any brand or condition in 287 stores with clothing sections.

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France, Germany and UK among more than 60 countries promising to put wildlife and climate at heart of post-Covid recovery plans

World leaders have pledged to clamp down on pollution, embrace sustainable economic systems and eliminate the dumping of plastic waste in oceans by the middle of the century as part of “meaningful action” to halt the destruction of nature on Earth.

Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau, Jacinda Ardern and Boris Johnson are among 64 leaders from five continents warning that humanity is in a state of planetary emergency due to the climate crisis and the rampant destruction of life-sustaining ecosystems. To restore the balance with nature, governments and the European Union have made a 10-point pledge to counteract the damage to systems that underpin human health and wellbeing.

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 Galatians 6:1  Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. 3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. 4 But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. 5 For every man shall bear his own burden. 6 Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. 7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. 10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. 

21 containers violated international laws governing the shipping of hazardous material

Sri Lanka has shipped back to Britain container-loads of waste that the Colombo government said were brought into the island in violation of international laws governing the shipping of hazardous material.

The 21 containers – holding up to 260 tonnes of rubbish – first arrived by ship in the capital Colombo’s main port between September 2017 and March 2018, customs told AFP, adding that they departed Sri Lanka on Saturday.

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Country will need to kick addiction to coal and build eye-watering amount of wind and solar capacity

China’s President Xi Jinping stunned climate action observers in a speech at the United Nations general assembly last week with a pledge to reach “peak carbon” before 2030, and drive down emissions to virtually zero by 2060.

The pledge from the world’s biggest climate polluter is considered by environmentalists to be the most important step in tackling the climate crisis since the Paris Climate Agreement galvanised global governments to reduce carbon emissions in an attempt to cap global heating well below 2 degrees C above pre-industrialisation levels.

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NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with Brendan Cummings, who authored a petition asking the state of California to protect the western Joshua Tree from climate change.

In what should be a vintage year because of ideal growing conditions, farmers are forced to abandon fruit where it falls

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On a sloping hill just south of Dartmoor, boughs are laden with brightly coloured Devon crimson, pig’s snout, tale sweet and slack-ma-girdle. Gabriel David wanders through his five-acre orchard and acknowledges this exceptional yield of heritage cider apples: “It should be an absolutely vintage year,” he says.

“After such amazing sunny weather in lockdown, the apple blossom was perfect. The bees were everywhere: it was a stunning spring. Then it rained at just the right time so our cider apples are bigger, with a higher sugar content, resulting in a greater complexity of flavours.”

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The move extends a moratorium Trump imposed earlier this month. The oil industry opposes the move. Trump's detractors say Trump is playing politics ahead of a close election battle.

(Image credit: Steve Helber/AP)

 

FYI - the global daily infection rate is still going up with a new record high of 361,390 cases on Thursday.  1.  I went to Alpine yesterday and visited a local watchmaker who told me he thinks the pandemic is a joke.  2.  Stopped by to visit friends who own an antique store and it was filled with unmasked tourists even though there is a sign on the door that says "masks required".  3.  There is a rodeo in town this weekend and apparently they are all Covid deniers - and probably Trump supporters.  Thanks to these yahoos, look for a big bump in local infections in the next two weeks.  94,101,65,0,B 

From clean hydrogen, energy storage and low-carbon materials to carbon capture and storage, and soil carbon

The Coalition government this week released its much-anticipated Low Emissions Technology Statement that targeted five different technologies for rapid development: clean hydrogen, energy storage, low-carbon materials (steel and aluminium), carbon capture and storage and soil carbon. The plan was immediately criticised by many experts for shunning proven renewable energy generation, but others were cautiously optimistic. Here we take a closer look at some of the key technologies mentioned and whether they can deliver.

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William Perry Pendley not confirmed by Senate to role as acting Bureau of Land Management director, as required by constitution

A federal judge has ruled that a controversial Trump official who has overseen a vast weakening of public lands protections cannot continue in his position since he has not been approved by the Senate.

Related: Donald Trump set to nominate Amy Coney Barrett to supreme court – live

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• Communities around Houston are potentially contaminated
• Naegleria fowleri enters body through nose, travels to brain

Texas officials have warned residents of some communities near Houston to stop using tap water because it might be tainted with a deadly brain-eating microbe.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality warned the Brazosport Water Authority late on Friday of the potential contamination of its water supply by Naegleria fowleri.

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For years, the nation has tried to bring Lolita, also known as Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, back to her family from the Miami Seaquarium

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Triple-digit temperatures could spark new fires just a few weeks after a record heatwave

California is bracing for another dangerously warm weekend, with dry winds, parched vegetation, and triple-digit temperatures threatening to ignite new fires and complicating containment efforts in an embattled state.

With only a few weeks’ reprieve after a record heatwave in early September, firefighters have made progress in containing the dozens of blazes tearing across the region. But fatigued crews – many of whom have spent weeks fighting on the frontline – are preparing for a potentially rough week ahead.

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 The last mattress I bought was just a little too squishy so I ordered an extra firm one with a box spring during a labor day sale in Alpine.  Just picked it up today.91,96,68,0,C

For the last two years, the administration has been working to lift the rule prohibiting development in the Tongass, the country's largest national forest.

(Image credit: Elissa Nadworny/NPR)

The famed naturalist and broadcaster beat out actress Jennifer Aniston for fastest time to reach one million followers on Instagram, according to Guinness World Records.

(Image credit: Asadour Guzelian /AFP via Getty Images)

Readers respond to George Monbiot’s warning that electric vehicles are not the solution to the UK’s pollution and transport problems

George Monbiot’s article (Electric cars won’t solve our pollution problems – Britain needs a total transport rethink, 23 September) is spot on. As a retired architect and urban designer, I was particularly taken by the last section where Monbiot states: “Fundamentally this is not a vehicle problem but an urban design problem.”

His account of the “15-minute city” being carried out by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, is the way all big cities should go. By re-localising and bringing together all the workers and residents in each neighbourhood, with their own commons at the centre and weekly assembly meetings practising participatory democracy, big steps can be taken towards implementing the kind of circular economics, with zero waste, that the world so urgently needs.

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Once watering holes for mammoth and elk, Herefordshire’s neglected ancient ponds are being restored

Ecologist Will Watson is hunting for Britain’s largest blood-sucking leech in a 14,000-year-old pond in Herefordshire. The elusive medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis), grows up to 20cm long and has only officially been recorded three times in the county in the past two decades. In the ice age pond in Moccas Park national nature reserve it was last found in 2000.

Watson shakes his net in the water. Most creatures shy away from such disturbance but this leech – the only one in Britain that sucks human blood – is attracted to the vibrations as they suggest the movements of large mammals trampling around the edge of the pond, which could signal a potential meal.

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Greta Thunberg leads protests as Covid rules restrict numbers compared with last year

School pupils, youth activists and communities around the world have turned out for a day of climate strikes, intended to underscore the urgency of the climate crisis even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Social distancing and other Covid-19 control measures dampened the protests, but thousands of activists posted on social media and took to the streets to protest against the lack of climate action from world leaders. Strikes were scheduled in at least 3,500 locations around the globe.

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