Nominate your unsung climate hero for The Independent's 2025 Climate 100 List
Once again, we're shining a spotlight on 100 inspiring individuals and organisations driving real climate action – from bold innovators and quiet community heroes to global leaders shaping a more sustainable future.
This year's list spans continents and sectors – science, sport, politics, protest, and beyond – but everyone featured shares one vital thing: an urgent commitment to tackling the biggest crisis of our time.
And the final five places? They're reserved for your nominations.
Last year, readers helped bring extraordinary figures into the spotlight – including Dr Ye Tao, who left Harvard to develop cooling tech for climate-hit communities in Sierra Leone, and data expert Hannah Ritchie, whose evidence-led work is cutting through climate misinformation worldwide.
So, who's making a difference where you live in 2025? Whose climate action story deserves a platform?
Submit your nominations for The Independent' s Climate 100 List using the form below – and stay tuned: the full list lands in mid-September.
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The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Mapping the world is always a compromise
The Mercator projection is not a product of European chauvinism (African Union joins calls to end use of Mercator map that shrinks continent's size, 15 August). All map projections are compromises geared to a particular use, as a direct transference of a sphere on to a flat surface is mathematically impossible. The Mercator projection was a brilliant solution to a critical need of 16th-century pilots: a map on which they could plot a straight line that would be a 'straight' line on the Earth. A mathematical marvel first put to paper by Gerard Mercator in 1569, it was not until 30 years later that the English mathematician Edward Wright sufficiently solved the complexities to make it practical. The Equal Earth map promoted by the African Union, like all others, simply makes different compromises for a different purpose. The African Union could well argue that the venerable Mercator projection is not the ideal choice for everyday use, but the notion that it marginalises Africa is a pointless distraction from real issues. European civilisation is guilty of centuries of crimes against the global south, but the Mercator projection is not one of SuárezLondon Your article doesn't acknowledge that the surface of a sphere cannot be represented on a plane without distortion. This was proved mathematically by Carl Friedrich Gauss in the early 1800s. A raft of algorithms must be chosen from to translate what we see on the surface of the Earth into a two-dimensional map. This process is known as projection, and there are numerous techniques; each affects how a map ultimately looks. Every projection comes with trade-offs in shape, distance, direction, and land area. The 16th-century Mercator projection preserves the shape of land masses (which is why it is so commonly used in schools) as well as direction (which is why it is used by navigators and Google Maps). What the Mercator projection sacrifices, however, is size representation, which is most distorted at the poles – meaning Africa is rendered smaller than it really is. The Gall-Peters projection, meanwhile, nigh-on perfectly preserves land size, but heavily distorts shape. With the dawn of satellites and GPS, the Mercator projection has fallen from favour because it is no longer needed to aid navigation. Modern cartographers are free to blend equal-area maps, such as the Gall-Peters, with shape-preserving projections, such as the Mercator – and split a difference between size and shape. But there is no 'correct' map projection, and the idea that the Mercator projection is symptomatic of European imperialism is a modern critique. The fairest way to see the Earth is to study a globe. Hamish MonkChelmsford, Essex Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Weight loss jabs like Mounjaro linked to 'silent cancer' that is surging in under-50s, warn experts: 'We need to find out more'
Weight-loss jabs may raise the risk of kidney cancer—a 'silent killer' now striking more under-50s—even as new research suggests they could protect against other tumours. The alarm comes from the biggest study yet of patients on slimming injections such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, which tracked nearly 44,000 overweight and obese people for up to ten years. While the drugs were linked to a 17 per cent lower risk of cancer overall—with big drops in ovarian and womb tumours—researchers also uncovered a disturbing signal for kidney cancer. Patients on the jabs were about a third more likely to develop the disease than those who did not take them, with the risk highest among the under-65s and people who were overweight. Kidney cancer is one of the fastest-rising cancers in Britain and the US and is often dubbed a 'silent killer' because it rarely causes symptoms until it is advanced. Doctors warn that by the time tell-tale signs such as blood in the urine, persistent back pain or a lump under the ribs appear, it is often too late for successful treatment. Almost 14,000 Britons are diagnosed every year, with 4,700 deaths. In the US, there are around 80,000 new cases annually. If spotted early, three-quarters of patients survive at least five years – but once the cancer has spread, survival drops to just 18 per cent. Cases are also climbing sharply in younger adults. People born in 1990 are up to three times more likely to develop the disease than those born in the 1950s—a trend doctors say is partly driven by rising obesity and high blood pressure. The study, published in JAMA Oncology, compared 43,317 people prescribed the jabs with 43,315 who did not take them. In total, 891 cancers were diagnosed among jab users compared with 1,022 in non-users. But for kidney cancer there were 83 cases among users compared with 58 among non-users. Dr Hao Dai, a health data scientist at Indiana University who led the research, also expressed concern about the uptick in kidney cancer among users. 'We need to do another observational study to confirm that these drugs increase the risk,' he said. 'But from my point of view, it might be that the drugs raise the risk of some types of kidney cancer. 'We don't know, however, and need to do more research.' One theory is that the drug's common side effects, including severe nausea, vomiting, and dehydration, may trigger repeated bouts of acute kidney injury. Over time, that stress could damage kidney tissue and increase the risk of mutations that lead to cancer. Another area of concern is that the kidneys contain GLP-1 receptors. These are the same receptors Ozempic targets to regulate blood sugar and keep people full. Some scientists wonder whether constantly stimulating these receptors could cause cells in the kidneys to grow out of control, though this remains speculative and has not been proven in humans. Rapid weight loss and dramatic metabolic shifts caused by the drug might also play a role, potentially altering the body's immune response or revealing preexisting kidney issues. However Professor Paul Pharoah, a cancer specialist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, urged caution over the findings. He said: 'While these results suggest that GLP1 receptor agonist have an effect on cancer risk the presence of an association does not mean that the association is a causal one.' Dr Stephen Lawrence, associate clinical professor at the University of Warwick, added: 'There was a slight uptick among users—two cases per 1,000 patients per year compared with 1.3 per 1,000 for non-users. 'That's about six extra cases for every 10,000 patients treated over a year. Not ideal, but still a drop in the ocean against other health benefits.' He added: 'Further research is needed before drawing any firm conclusions. The science is promising, but more research will be important to confirm these findings as more individuals begin these treatments.' At the same time, scientists found people on the jabs were significantly less likely to be diagnosed with other cancers. Rates of ovarian cancer fell by nearly half, while cases of womb cancer and certain brain tumours (meningiomas) also dropped. Overall, patients on the injections had a 17 per cent lower chance of developing cancer of any type compared with those who did not take them. The study was presented at the American Clinical Society of Oncology's annual conference in Chicago, Illinois, the largest cancer conference in the world. But experts remain cautious about over-interpreting the data, stating that the drop in cancer risk might simply be a result of weight loss itself, rather than the drugs. Slimming jabs have already been credited with cutting the risk of heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure, on top of their dramatic weight-loss effects. Experts say the latest results underline that while they may offer protection against some cancers, vigilance is still needed over the warning signs for kidney disease.
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
Three more giraffe species than previously thought, scientists say
Giraffes are one of the world's most distinct and well-loved creatures, always thought to be one now scientists at the International Union for Conservation of Nature say we can welcome three more species of the world's tallest not the first time researchers have suggested there are four species of these giants strolling on our planet, but the latest assessment puts an official stamp on did scientists work it out? And what does it mean for the future of the animal? Scientists compared the skull size and head shape of different giraffes and concluded there was enough genetic diversity for four groups to be considered as different researchers looked at natural features across Africa such as deserts, rivers and valleys that could have separated animals in the past, meaning they evolved separately from each hello to the Southern giraffe, one of the newly-recognised species. This giraffe lives in Angola, southern Botswana, Namibia, southern Zimbabwe, Zambia, and southwestern rivers (the Kunene and Zambezi) and rainforests in the Congo Basin probably separated the animals from overlapping with other second new species is the Reticulated giraffe. This giraffe lives in the open savannas and wooded grasslands of Kenya, Somalia, and think the Tana river, Ethiopia's mountains and towns separated this animal from other giraffes in the north of the is also a migrating animal, which means it may have passed by other giraffes when it could have third species we can officially recognise is the Northern giraffe. This animal lives in western Ethiopia, central and western Kenya, eastern South Sudan and say the Nile River and Lake Victoria, as well as its migration pattern, separated this giraffe from others. The fourth and final species is the beautiful Masai giraffe, with its distinctive leaf-pattern hide. It lives in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, separated from the Northern giraffe by Lake Victoria and the Nile its pattern makes it seem like it could be a marker of being a separate species, the scientists say that the hides vary even within one population of giraffes and as the animals International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) says that identifying genetic difference is "vital" for conservation and managing giraffe populations. "The more precisely we understand giraffe taxonomy, the better equipped we are to assess their status and implement effective conservation strategies," said co-author of the report Michael Brown of the IUCN. As a single species, the giraffe was classed as vulnerable to extinction, although some of the sub-species were increasing in IUCN will now re-assess the vulnerability of the four new species and their sub-species and says it hopes to better protect the majestic animals with the new information.
