by Jasper Jolly, Rowena Mason and Matthew Taylor on (#77P9A)
Cut in electric vehicle sales targets could add millions of tonnes of CO to emissions in UK, say green campaignersAndy Burnham has been criticised for moving to cut electric vehicle (EV) sales targets and accept North Sea drilling at a time of devastating wildfires caused by the climate emergency.The prime minister for the first time acknowledged on Friday that the climate crisis was behind hundreds of wildfires that have ripped across the parts of the UK. Continue reading...
Utility company's plant, which has only run five times, now has an estimated total cost of 500mThames Water is preparing the UK's only desalination plant to restart operations later this year - but it will not be ready until the winter, long after the current drought is likely to have passed.The utility company said that it was hoping to start operating its plant in Beckton, east London, by the end of the year", in order to help build up reservoir supplies over the winter for next summer. Continue reading...
Marine conservationist says deliberate attack would be act of extreme cruelty' against endangered populationSpanish officials have launched an investigation after the matriarch of an orca pod known for jostling and ramming boats off the Iberian Peninsula was spotted with wounds suggesting she had been shot by a pellet gun.On Friday, Spain's environment ministry said Toni, the oldest living member of the pod, had been seen swimming in the Strait of Gibraltar with markings on her dorsal fin that were consistent with shots from a pellet gun". Continue reading...
With the UK experiencing the driest summer on record, we look at how the weather is affecting the pitches and courses across the country Continue reading...
Weather forecasts once gave Britons something safe to chat about. Not any more, and that's a problem for the experts - indeed, for all of usIn this fragmented but supposedly mild country, watching and talking about the weather forecast is meant to be a reassuring, unifying activity. Collectively, we have created and maintained a national climate narrative of small disappointments and pleasures. The first weather forecaster to appear on British TV, George Cowling, made his debut on the BBC in January 1954, predicting that tomorrow would be rather windy", but a good day to hang out the washing". For most of the 72 years since, such brief, carefully calibrated broadcasts have provided people from Aberdeen to Penzance with practical information, small talk and minor grumbles about essentially the same situation: living in a country where the weather is constantly changing, in a paradoxically unchanging way.Yet like the traditional British climate, that common weather culture may now be evaporating. Met Office considers issuing red extreme heat warning' across Britain while nation enjoys incredible summer'," said the headline above the forecast on the GB News website on Monday, caught between terror and delight at the latest heatwave. As the climate crisis has affected this country in more and more unmistakable but uneven ways, TV weather forecasters have increasingly struggled to find the right language to describe this transformation's daily consequences. Their struggle influences and exemplifies that of many Britons to understand, and work out what we think about, the apparent end of the weather patterns we expected to shape our whole lives.Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
The writer - who was also shortlisted in 2023 - has won the prize for her book When There Are Wolves Again, a speculative work of eco-fiction set in near-future BritainA novel about rewilding and climate activism in Britain has been named this year's winner of the Arthur C Clarke award for science fiction.When There Are Wolves Again by EJ Swift is an ambitious study in the power of long-term hope in the face of climate breakdown", said the award's director, Tom Hunter. Continue reading...
Move by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is latest government rollback of climate science activityThe Trump administration has pulled its support for an annual report on the environmental changes across the Arctic, a region that is already heating up four times faster than the global average due to the climate crisis.On Tuesday, Kim Doster, the communications director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), said the federal agency was withdrawing its support for the Arctic Report Card, which has provided environmental updates on the region to scientists and the public since 2006. Continue reading...
US envoy had claimed Americans could be extracting crude by as early as next yearGreenland authorities have forced a US oil company connected to Donald Trump to postpone drilling wells in the Arctic territory, defying claims by the US president's envoy that Americans could be extracting crude by next year.Amid Trump's imperialist threats, tensions have been rising on Greenland's eastern coast after the oil company brought drilling equipment ashore in July without permission, drawing a strong warning" from the government. Continue reading...
Plans for hyperscale datacenter in Palm Beach county prompt concerns over water and electricity demandsAbout 16 miles (26km) west of the Mar-a-Lago estate on President Donald J Trump Highway, near the northern edge of the Florida Everglades, developers have proposed a hyperscale datacenter on a 202-acre (82-hectare) parcel of land surrounded by water. Local environmentalists warn that the proposed 600MW datacenter in western Palm Beach county could damage the wetlands, which the federal government and the state of Florida have spent a combined $6bn to restore after decades of drainage and development.One concern is that the datacenter could exacerbate an existing issue of toxic bacterial blooms in a water system which has already been stressed by drought, fertilizer runoff and warm water temperatures. In recent summers, the bright blooms of blue-green algae have covered nearly half of Lake Okeechobee, which feeds into the Everglades. Continue reading...
Emergency services, residents and environmental groups say military dropping flares to destroy forests and cropsFirefighters and residents of south Lebanon have accused the Israeli military of lighting wildfires in the region, as forested areas burned down in blazes sparked by Israeli bombing.Environmental groups said the fires in recent weeks were part of a longstanding Israeli practice of targeting Lebanon's natural environment. Continue reading...
PM to look at imposing restriction on devices in public spaces, though campaigners fear it does not go far enoughThe government will look at banning disposable barbecues as wildfires continue to rage across the UK, Andy Burnham has said.Disposable barbecues have been the cause of a number of serious fires over the last few years, but campaigners were critical of the prime minister's failure to link those fires more broadly to the climate crisis. Continue reading...
Winds of more than 80mph, severe flooding and tornadoes swept through Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and KentuckyPowerful storms swept across the midwest on Tuesday, leaving three dead and more than 800,000 without power in four states as winds gusts of more than 80mph (130km/h) tore down trees and power lines.In Indiana, a four-year-old child died after a tree fell on his home in Geneva Township and a person died in a suspected weather-related house explosion in Portage, a city about 30 miles south-east of Chicago. Continue reading...
by Constance Malleret in Rio de Janeiro on (#77MYS)
The gigantic aquatic acrobats are exciting Brazil's tourists as numbers recover from whaling. But some marine biologists question how booming tourism and conservation can coexistThe anticipation is palpable onboard the Boaventura II as the yacht sets off from Rio de Janeiro at sunrise. Once beyond the Cagarras Islands, rocky outcrops just three miles off Ipanema beach, the group gathers at the bow and starts scanning the horizon.They do not have to wait long. Eleven o'clock!" someone calls out, as a pod of bottlenose dolphins appears, playfully diving in and out of the water. Then, two spouts of vapour hanging in the air signal the reason for the outing: a pair of humpback whales. The majestic mammals surface to breathe with an unhurried chuff, before revealing the underside of their fluke as they dive back underwater. Continue reading...
More than 120 firefighters tackling blaze that started on Sunday after van caught fire near habitat rarer than rainforest'More than 120 firefighters are tackling a devastating" blaze on internationally protected heathland in the New Forest.The area hit by the blaze, which started after a van caught fire on the A31 near Ringwood on Sunday, is protected heathland that is home to a number of rare species, according to the New Forest national park authority. Continue reading...
Conservationists have created a coastal corridor' of ocean-based projects designed to preserve and nourish vulnerable marine lifeFrom disappearing manatees to bleached coral reefs, gender-changing turtles and oyster beds destroyed by hurricanes, no other state's marine life faces the magnitude of climate-related challenges than Florida's.Now, wildlife authorities are attempting to bring some cohesion to tackling the diverse slate of issues by borrowing from a playbook that has already proved successful on land. Continue reading...
Extreme conditions in Washington and Oregon have fueled fast-moving fires, leaving the region draped in toxic plumes - and the danger isn't overPiles of twisted metal and ashen debris line the cul-de-sacs where the tranquil suburbs of Spokane, Washington, once stood.The scale of devastation from a historic wildfire season in the Pacific north-west has come into sharper focus as firefighters wrangle a trio of blazes that consumed at least 846 structures on the eastern side of the state. Continue reading...
Thousands of residents in British Columbia's wine and orchard region were ordered to evacuate on Saturday as a fast-moving wildfire in western Canada nearly doubled in size overnight. The Bald Range fire was burning out of control across about 9,500 hectares, prompting evacuation orders in Summerland, Peachland and other districts west of Okanagan Lake
Wildfires in and around Spokane have stretched ability of federal and local agencies to fight blazesWildfires in eastern Washington state forced the evacuation of 60,000 people in the Spokane area while destroying at least 600 homes, businesses and other structures, authorities said on Sunday.The fires in and around Spokane, the state's second largest city, burned about 8.2 sq miles (about 21 sq km), but they were among dozens across the western US that stretched the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them. A total of about 390 sq miles have burned across the state, and some of the fires, including those in the Spokane area, have not been contained. Continue reading...
by Helena Smith in Athens and agencies on (#77DG2)
Fire department says two-person crew of one aircraft killed in incident during gale-force winds to west of capitalTwo firefighting helicopters have collided west of Athens, killing the two-person crew of one of the aircraft, as efforts to control a massive wildfire barrelling towards the outskirts of the Greek capital intensified.Footage showed one of the helicopters losing control in the face of gale-force winds that have pushed flames towards settlements on Athens' western fringes. Continue reading...
Farmers battle to salvage what they can of their crops as heatwave set to continueBritain could face shortages of certain foods after punishing drought in parts of England, the National Farmers' Union (NFU) has warned as a heatwave was forecast to continue into next week.The UK's Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued heat health alerts for eight regions of England, with temperatures set to rise above 30C in parts of the country. UKHSA said rising temperatures may increase health risks, particularly for vulnerable groups. Continue reading...
Water is a vital shared resource, and privatisation has made a just transition harderCompared with rising heat-related deaths, and devastating wildfires in the Cairngorms and Suffolk,the announcement that the Royal HorticulturalSociety(RHS) is considering moving its hydrangea collection from Surrey to Greater Manchester and North Yorkshire might seem unimportant. But it points to geographical differencesin exposure to globalheating that have arguably never been more evident than this summer, with last month the driest on record. Seven areas of south and east England are officially in drought, along with the whole of Wales.A drought is less easily measured than a heatwave, which is declared by the Met Office when the maximum temperature exceeds a set threshold on three consecutive days. But the fact that drought is harder to quantify does not make it less damaging. Water shortages are exposing specific vulnerabilities and inequalities, as well as the UK's lack of preparedness for climate change overall. Continue reading...
by Mark Brown North of England correspondent on (#77DG4)
Volunteers painstakingly gather plastic pellets washing up on beaches after ship collision on 19 JulyYou've got a local community that really cares about the coastline," said Alice Laverty, reflecting on the huge army of volunteers who had taken to crisis-hit beaches in north-east England with passion and only the most basic tools. They've all got a dustpan, a brush, a bucket, a kitchen sieve."On beaches from Cambois in Northumberland to Seaburn on Wearside, up to 2,000 dedicated volunteers have been painstakingly sifting through sand to find tiny, lentil-sized pellets of plastic. Continue reading...
August usually sends me into an anxious funk, but I think I've worked out how to handle 2026's terrifying heat and apocalyptic imagesUnfortunately for hairdressers, How's your summer going?" is a loaded question this year. Even basking lizards and barbecue obsessives are wavering in their sun worship as cataclysmic wildfires engulf our nearest neighbours (and threaten the UK), Wales and parts of England experience drought, and farmers issue dire warnings about our food supply in the near future. Rescue centres are filling up with dehydrated hedgehogs and the Environment Agency is having to rescue fish. Lazy, joyful, sunscreen-scented days are giving way to stifling, existentially terrifying ones spent skulking in the dark (assuming you don't need to be out in the extreme heat, as many workers do), sweatily scrolling through apocalyptic images.Vanity Fair has decreed it's a sad-girl summer", highlighting the female singer-songwriters soundtracking the myriad anxieties of an undeniably cruel" 2026 season, but it's not just the girlies who are sad - many of us are struggling and we still have August to survive. How? Continue reading...
Major incident declared, with Sizewell B power station monitoring blaze and RSPB nature reserve badly hitHundreds of people have been evacuated and a major incident declared after a wildfire spread over more than 80 hectares (200 acres) on the coast of Suffolk, just a few miles from the Sizewell B nuclear power station.The fire - which had been described by one witness as apocalyptic" - was said to be stabilising on Thursday night. The statement was posted by Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service, which said at least 12 fire crews were remaining overnight in the area.
by Damian Carrington, Lucy Swan, Ana Lucía González on (#77BBC)
Ferocious flames continue to rage in parts of France and Spain, with no sign of abating. We chart the destruction in graphics and picturesThe hellish infernos that have torn through parts of France and Spain have caused deaths, the evacuation of 330,000 people from their homes, widespread destruction and clouds of toxic smoke. Records have already been smashed and with the fourth heatwave of the European summer setting in, there are few signs of the waves of wildfires ending.France has already surpassed the worst previous year for the size of the area burned, with August, usually the hottest month, yet to come. Continue reading...
Analysis of samples collected from carcasses found traces of toxic chemical compound, says Kenya Wildlife ServiceThe recent deaths of 15 elephants near a park in southern Kenya in the past month were likely caused by the animals ingesting pesticides used on nearby tomato farms, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has said.Erustus Kanga, the agency's director general, told Citizen TV that analysis of samples collected from the carcasses had found traces of cyanide, a chemical compound used in farming as a predator control poison and a pest fumigant, which has also been used by poachers. Continue reading...
Several councils to stop housing tenants in glass-fronted Britannia Point in London, where tenants were earlier told they could not use air conAs the fourth heatwave of the year hit the UK on Wednesday, Benice Bodah and her three teenage sons braced for more scorching temperatures inside their south-west London home. The two-bedroom flat has a built-in air-conditioning unit, but it has worked only intermittently in the almost three years since the family were placed in temporary accommodation at Britannia Point in Colliers Wood. It has not been easy, but what can we do?" said Bodah, 48.Several councils have now agreed to stop housing families in emergency accommodation in the glass-fronted block after the Guardian revealed they had been told they couldn't use the air-conditioning during heatwaves as it had not been offered as an amenity" for them. The 19-storey building is owned by Criterion Capital, set up by the billionaire property magnate Asif Aziz. The temporary tenancies can last from weeks to years and are managed separately by letting agencies, including the London-based Aura Assets Management. Continue reading...
The White House seems committed to ecocide. The EU should harness the power of the single market to force it to change courseAre we understanding it yet? As Europe burns in the west, the south and the north, are we grasping the fact that our economies, food systems, political stability and even our ability to plan for the future, will all be charred in a world on fire?Paris got a taste of what is in store for us Europeans when, weeks ago, fire ripped through Fontainebleau forest, a bouldering paradise and one of the world's first natural reserves. But the wildfires currently threatening Bordeaux and Madrid, which experts are calling the most extreme seen in Europe, are apocalyptic in comparison. In the Gironde region around Bordeaux, tens of thousands of hectares have burned, creating an unpredictable thunderstorm of fire" as the region's chief administrator called it. More than 200,000 people have been displaced in the largest peacetime evacuations in France's history. Only the bravery of firefighters, dozens of whom have been injured, is keeping the fires within mere kilometres of Bordeaux and its more than a million inhabitants.Alexander Hurst writes for Guardian Europe from Paris. His memoir Generation Desperation is out now Continue reading...
Ryder Williams, 16, saved a boy from drowning in Santa Cruz, California - the first rescue of his careerA rookie, teenage California lifeguard who saved a young boy from drowning amid massive waves - while a bystander recorded dramatic video - has spent his whole life preparing for such a moment, according to his father.Ryder Williams, 16, said he refused to let go of the child because he knew the boy would almost certainly die if he did, the lifeguard's father, Shane, recounted on Tuesday, three days after the pulse-pounding rescue. Continue reading...
Five years ago, I wrote an open letter asking climate scientists to speak out against fossil fuels. Now governments are in retreat, it is surely time to act
by Damien Gayle, Laure Boulinier and John Farrell on (#779QV)
The Earth keeps getting hotter and experts fear this year's El Nino, nicknamed 'Godzilla' because of its predicted intensity, could raise global temperatures by up to 3.6C. Environment correspondent Damien Gayle spoke to climate scientists to understand how the weather phenomenon and the climate crisis pose a huge threat to the planet
Matthew Myerscough's remarkable find is one of many detailed in his new book. But his journey into fossil hunting began years earlier, when he was caught in an avalancheWhen Matthew Myerscough walks along a beach, he cannot help hunting for fossils. I think my fossil radar is always on - even if I'm not looking, it's hard sometimes to not see things," says the 40-year-old civil engineer, who has discovered thousands of fossils on British beaches.It was while he was not looking" on Lavernock beach near Penarth, south Wales, that he recently stumbled across the fossilised bone of an early type of plesiosaur, a marine reptile that roamed the oceans while dinosaurs stalked the land during the early Jurassic period. Continue reading...
From Afghanistan to Taiwan, unprecedented deluge highlights devastating impact of climate breakdownIt rained for 10 days and 10 nights, non-stop - I'd never seen anything like it," says Anar Gul, a construction worker who lives in the remote district of Dur Baba in eastern Afghanistan.The houses in his village are built from stone and mud, which makes them extremely vulnerable to heavy rains. After days of rain, Gul's kitchen collapsed and his neighbour, Sayed Afsar Sadat, saw a large part of his house completely destroyed. Rains like this are coming heavier and earlier each year," says Sadat. They are destroying the roads and washing away our crops. It's impacting us directly." Continue reading...
by Angelique Chrisafis in Bordeaux, Angela Giuffrida on (#7790G)
Coming days are absolutely critical' for firefighters before temperatures rise again this week, officials sayFirefighters in France and Spain are racing to bring huge wildfires under control before another heatwave this week that will complicate efforts to tame the flames.Spain's interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said Monday and Tuesday were absolutely crucial days" before temperatures rise again from Wednesday, prompting prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, to warn: We face difficult hours, complex hours" ahead. Continue reading...
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent on (#779QY)
Intensive nature of modern chicken farming creates ideal conditions for campylobacter, allowing bacteria to evolveIndustrial chicken farming is accelerating the spread of the world's most common bacterial cause of diarrhoea, scientists have found.The study found a dramatic increase in the exchange of campylobacter strains between wild birds and chickens as farming has intensified, creating the ideal conditions for the bacteria to mix, spread and acquire new traits. There has also been a rise in antimicrobial resistance traits in circulating strains, raising concerns that serious illness in people will be more difficult to treat. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#778J7)
Airports in England and Wales are likely to lose millions of passengers if third runway goes ahead, DfT economic paper showsExpanding Heathrow airport will take thousands of jobs from other regions of the UK, including almost 10,000 from the West Midlands alone, according to an analysis of the government's own forecasts.An economic paper published by the Department for Transport last month shows that airports in England and Wales are likely to lose millions of passengers if Heathrow builds a third runway, in a significant blow to regional jobs. Continue reading...
by Peter Walker Senior political correspondent on (#778KM)
Exclusive: Party says housing stock woefully unprepared' for extreme heat and new rules for builders must be setAll new UK homes should be built with air conditioning to cope with the effects of the climate crisis, according to the Liberal Democrats.The party says British homes are dangerously unsuited to rising temperatures, meaning passive cooling measures such as planting more trees in residential areas are necessary. Continue reading...
Temperatures of 95-105F (35-40C) are expected, spanning Gulf of Mexico coast to the Great Plains and the midwestAbout 70 million people in the US are set to face excessive heat advisories as dangerously hot temperatures scorch much of the country's southern and central states.The third major heat dome" event to hit the US in the past month is gathering strength over the weekend, spanning a vast swathe of the country, from the Gulf of Mexico coast to the Great Plains and the midwest. Continue reading...
Footage shows the extent of the devastation caused by wildfires in Cenicientos, in the Madrid region of Spain, on Friday. Members of Spain's military emergency unit sought to contain the blazes in the Madrid region and in Cuevas de Canart in the country's north-east. In France, dozens of firefighters battled flames threatening homes around the towns of Saumos and Sainte-Helene in the south-west as a wildfire swept the nearby forest. The virulence of the wildfires, fuelled by high temperatures and the long-term effects of the climate crisis, caught fire crews and authorities off-guard in both countries