The Guardian

Latest environmental news, opinion and analysis from the Guardian.
The Guardian
  • ‘Make America healthy again’ leaders call for Lee Zeldin to quit for favoring chemical companies over US families

    “Make America healthy again” (Maha) movement leaders have put out a petition calling for Donald Trump to fire Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lee Zeldin, who, since being appointed in late January, has quickly moved to undo toxic chemical regulations and fast-track pesticide approvals.

    The petition represents the latest salvo in a growing Maha-Maga feudover the Trump administration’s policies around toxic chemicals and pesticides. Trump campaigned on cleaning up the nation’s water and food supply, a priority for the Robert F Kennedy Jr-led Maha movement that helped propel the US president to office.

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  • Several additional people, including children, have severe liver damage amid 21 cases of amatoxin poisoning

    California officials are warning foragers after an outbreak of poisoning linked to wild mushrooms that has killed one adult and caused severe liver damage in several patients, including children.

    The state poison control system has identified 21 cases of amatoxin poisoning, likely caused by death cap mushrooms, the health department said on Friday. The toxic wild mushrooms are often mistaken for edible ones because of their appearance and taste.

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  • Drag queen, environmentalist, diversity and inclusion advocate and social media star arrives in San Francisco

    Pattie Gonia, the drag queen and environmentalist, arrived in San Francisco on Friday afternoon and crossed the Golden Gate Bridge with $1m more than when she set out on her journey last week.

    The diversity and inclusion advocate completed the 100-mile trek from Point Reyes national seashore to San Francisco in full drag with her voluminous red wig and smokey eye. The effort was part of a campaign she launched to raise $1m for eight non-profits that aim to expand access and make the outdoors a more “equitable place”.

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  • Paper published in 2000 found glyphosate was not harmful, while internal emails later revealed company’s influence

    The journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology has formally retracted a sweeping scientific paper published in 2000 that became a key defense for Monsanto’s claim that Roundup herbicide and its active ingredient glyphosate don’t cause cancer.

    Martin van den Berg, the journal’s editor in chief, said in a note accompanying the retraction that he had taken the step because of “serious ethical concerns regarding the independence and accountability of the authors of this article and the academic integrity of the carcinogenicity studies presented”.

    The paper, titled Safety Evaluation and Risk Assessment of the Herbicide Roundup and Its Active Ingredient, Glyphosate, for Humans, concluded that Monsanto’s glyphosate-based weed killers posed no health risks to humans – no cancer risks, no reproductive risks, no adverse effects on development of endocrine systems in people or animals.

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  • Designer Michael Schmidt’s 36-piece collection was made from the wool of rams who have shown same-sex attraction

    When a ram tips its head back, curls its upper lip, and takes a deep breath – what is known in the world of animal husbandry as a “flehmen response” – it is often a sign of arousal. Sheep have a small sensory organ located above the roof of the mouth, and the flehmen response helps to flood it with any sex pheromones wafting about.

    Usually, rams flehmen when they encounter ewes during the mating period, according to Michael Stücke, a farmer with 30 years of experience raising sheep in Westphalia, Germany. But on Stücke’s farm, the rams flehmen “all the time”.

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