Exclusive: Wood Group boosts fossil fuel business and shrinks renewables work after getting government-backed loanThe international engineering company Wood Group has expanded its oil and gas business and dramatically shrunk its renewables operations after receiving a £430m government-backed “green transition loan”, prompting calls from environmental groups for a review of the process that authorised the loan.The growth of fossil fuels business of the company, with headquarters in Aberdeen, Scotland, has shown that the government’s “transition export development guarantee” scheme, which guaranteed the loan, facilitates greenwashing and is open to abuse by polluting companies, according to environmental groups. Continue reading...
DuPont or 3M scientists discovered PFAS toxicity internally, but did not publish findings or report them to the EPA, study saysIn 1953, a paper developed for cigarette maker RJ Reynolds detailed possible cancer-causing agents in tobacco, but the document would remain hidden from public view for decades. In the interim, the industry told the public: “We don’t accept the idea that there are harmful agents in tobacco.”The chemical industry, it seemed, took note. Just a few years later, DuPont scientists found PFAS enlarged lab rats’ livers and likely caused birth defects in workers. Still, the company told its employees the cancer-linked compounds are “about as toxic as table salt”. Continue reading...
Next week the first constitutional climate lawsuit goes to trial amid signs fossil fuel companies are facing accountability testsClimate litigation in the US could be entering a “game changing” new phase, experts believe, with a spate of lawsuits around the country set to advance after a recent supreme court decision, and with legal teams preparing for a trailblazing trial in a youth-led court case beginning next week.The number of cases focused on the climate crisis around the world has doubled since 2015, bringing the total number to over 2,000, according to a report last year led by European researchers.The first constitutional climate lawsuit in the US goes to trial on Monday next week (12 June) in Helena, Montana, based on a legal challenge by 16 young plaintiffs, ranging in age from five to 22, against the state’s pro-fossil fuel policies.A federal judge ruled last week that a federal constitutional climate lawsuit, also brought by youth, can go to trial.More than two dozen US cities and states are suing big oil alleging the fossil fuel industry knew for decades about the dangers of burning coal, oil and gas, and actively hid that information from consumers and investors.The supreme court cleared the way for these cases to advance with rulings in April and May that denied oil companies’ bids to move the venue of such lawsuits from state courts to federal courts.Hoboken, New Jersey, last month added racketeering charges against oil majors to its 2020 climate lawsuit, becoming the first case to employ the approach in a state court and following a federal lawsuit filed by Puerto Rico last November. Continue reading...
Independent reporting on the fossil fuel industry and the climate crisisThis series focuses on efforts to hold the fossil fuel industry and its enablers accountable for the climate crisis, and will also investigate attempts to disrupt the transition to clean power. It is supported, in part, through philanthropic funding to theguardian.org, a US-based foundation that partners with the Guardian on independent editorial projects. Support for this project comes from the Rockefeller Family Fund and Tortuga Foundation.All of the journalism is editorially independent, commissioned and produced by our Guardian journalists. You can read more about content funding on the Guardian here. A full list of philanthropically supported editorial projects can be found here. Continue reading...
Populations of bees, spiders, ground beetles and hoverflies have declined twice as fast on land farmed for crops in the past 30 years, despite funding for more sustainable farming methodsConservation measures over the past 30 years have failed to stop the decline of insects on British farmland, a new report shows. Populations of bees, spiders, ground beetles and hoverflies have disappeared twice as fast in areas intensely farmed for crops, according to the paper, which looked at citizen science data on more than 1,500 invertebrate species.Although there was a push to intensify agriculture after the second world war, since the early 90s more sustainable and wildlife-friendly farming practices have emerged, with EU agri-environment funding made available for farmers to plant hedgerows and wild flowers, alongside better regulation of pesticides. However, these have not managed to stem biodiversity loss. Continue reading...
Advertising Standards Authority says ads do not make clear company’s business is mostly based on fossil fuelsAn ad campaign by Shell promoting its green initiatives has been banned for not telling consumers that most of its business is based on environmentally damaging fossil fuels such as petrol.Shell, which has set goals to become a net zero carbon energy company by 2050 while also expanding its gas business by a fifth, ran a TV, poster and YouTube campaign pushing renewable electricity, wind and car charging point initiatives. Continue reading...
Conservationists say plan to increase bearded vulture numbers in north-east would be ‘severely compromised’Conservationists in Spain are calling for a “profound debate” on how best to balance the protection of wildlife with renewable energy demands after efforts to reintroduce endangered bearded vultures to an eastern area of the country had to be paused because of the threat posed by a huge new windfarm.The bearded vulture – known in Spanish as the quebrantahuesos, or bone-breaker, because of the way it drops bones from a great height so they shatter and yield their marrow – was common across the country until the 20th century, when it was poisoned and hunted to the brink of extinction. Continue reading...
IPPC chair Hoesung Lee says over-reliance on the technology could mean the world misses 1.5C targetOver-reliance on carbon capture and storage technology could lead the world to surpass climate tipping points, the head of the world’s climate science authority has warned.Hoesung Lee, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said using technologies that capture carbon dioxide or remove it from the atmosphere was “no free lunch” and that countries should be wary. Continue reading...
Delegates from 180 nations set out pathway to binding global agreement on tackling plastic pollution as soon as 2025Nation-state representatives have taken the first concrete step toward a legally binding treaty to regulate plastic, described as the most important green deal since the 2015 international climate agreement.The banging of a recycled-plastic gavel, on Friday night at Unesco headquarters in Paris, signalled the end of a fraught process, marked by accusations of exclusion and industrial lobbying. Talks threatened to fall apart, but in the end delegates were able to broadly agree on key elements that the treaty should contain, laying the groundwork for the future agreement. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#6C2WN)
Ice-free summers inevitable even with sharp emissions cuts and likely to result in more extreme heatwaves and floodsIt is now too late to save summer Arctic sea ice, research has shown, and scientists say preparations need to be made for the increased extreme weather across the northern hemisphere that is likely to occur as a result.Analysis shows that even if greenhouse gas emissions are sharply reduced, the Arctic will be ice-free in September in coming decades. The study also shows that if emissions decline slowly or continue to rise, the first ice-free summer could be in the 2030s, a decade earlier than previous projections. Continue reading...
Google-designed tools help 9,000 young Climate Cardinals volunteers who translate reports into more than 100 languagesA network of young volunteers that translates climate information into dozens of languages is being boosted by new artificial intelligence tools designed by Google.Since founding Climate Cardinals three years ago to improve global climate literacy, Sophia Kianni, 21, has built a network of 9,000 young volunteers around the world who translate reports and content into more than 100 languages, including Swahili, Hebrew, Urdu, Mandarin and Hindi. Continue reading...
Images from around the world taken on World Environment Day, an annual global event celebrated on 5 June to raise awareness, mobilise action and promote environmental sustainability Continue reading...
Barring public access to beaches and other sites is not a model for development. Transparency and engagement are neededWalk along a Caribbean beach, which may stretch for miles, and your stroll is guaranteed to be cut short by an angry hotel security guard. In recent years, the Caribbean has seen a worrying trend of governments readily selling off assets to foreign corporations and political financiers.Prime real estate, protected land and valuable resources are being relinquished without consideration for long-term consequences. It raises questions about whether remnants of the colonial mindset still prevail in political ideologies and decision-making. Continue reading...
UK’s most senior climate adviser says policy is ‘right thing to do’ and criticises government’s stanceThe UK’s most senior climate adviser has strongly endorsed Labour’s vow to halt new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, and slammed the government for failing to show leadership on the issue.John Gummer, who as Lord Deben chairs the statutory committee on climate change, told the Guardian he approved of Labour’s commitment. “I welcome this policy, I am absolutely in favour and it is the right thing to do,” he said. Continue reading...
Single-use e-cigarettes growing in popularity among young people despite unknown health effects and environmental impactChildren’s doctors are calling for an outright ban on disposable vapes to reduce their popularity among young people as the long-term impact on lungs, hearts and brains remains unknown.The government should ban single-use disposable vapes, which can be bought for just £1.99 and are most popular with young people, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has said. Continue reading...
Labour leader to address union’s conference after its leader attacks plan to ban new North Sea oil and gas extractionKeir Starmer will pledge to put “good, union jobs” at the heart of Labour’s energy policy during a speech to one of its biggest donor unions after its general secretary criticised a proposed ban on oil and gas expansion.He will speak at the GMB’s annual conference on Tuesday, a day after he tried to calm a growing rift with its leadership over Labour’s energy policy. Continue reading...
Hundreds gather in Rio and Belém to remember two men who worked to defend the Amazon and its Indigenous inhabitantsIndigenous leaders, politicians and friends and relatives of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira have paid tribute to the two men on the anniversary of their murders in the Brazilian Amazon.The British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous expert were ambushed and killed on 5 June 2022 while travelling by boat through the remote Javari valley region. Continue reading...
Proposed compensation would be paid to developing countries that must transition away from fossil fuelsRich industrialised countries responsible for excessive levels of greenhouse gas emissions could be liable to pay $170tn in climate reparations by 2050 to ensure targets to curtail climate breakdown are met, a new study calculates.The proposed compensation, which amounts to almost $6tn annually, would be paid to historically low-polluting developing countries that must transition away from fossil fuels despite not having yet used their “fair share” of the global carbon budget, according to the analysis published in the journal Nature Sustainability. Continue reading...
Simon Stiell tells conference in Bonn the world is at ‘tipping point’ and must fight together for common goodThe world is at a “tipping point” in the climate crisis that requires all countries to put aside their national interests to fight for the common good, the UN’s top climate official has warned.Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, pointed to recent findings from scientists that temperatures were likely to exceed the threshold of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels within the next five years. Continue reading...
Silver perch fingerlings released in ceremony designed to address community’s collective trauma over ecological disaster that left millions of dead fish in river
Monitoring stations that already test for pollution could have dual purpose of mapping declines in biodiversity, reveals new studyFrom owls to hedgehogs to fungi, genetic material from plants and animals is being inadvertently hoovered up by air-quality monitoring stations around the world, creating an untapped “vault of biodiversity data”, according to a new scientific paper.Globally, thousands of air filters are continually testing for heavy metals and other pollutants in the atmosphere. Scientists are now realising that this monitoring network is also picking up invisible traces of genetic material known as airborne environmental DNA (eDNA) from bits of hair, feathers, saliva and pollen. Continue reading...
Lawyers for chemical company say they are making ‘significant’ progress over deal with city of Stuart, FloridaUS industrial conglomerate 3M and the city of Stuart, Florida are making “significant” progress to settle a water pollution suit tied to toxic “forever chemicals” and sought to delay a trial, according to a court filing on Sunday.3M was scheduled to face trial in South Carolina federal court on Monday in a lawsuit brought by the Florida city accusing the company of manufacturing PFAS, or per- and polyflouroalkyl substances, despite knowing for decades that the chemicals can cause cancer and other ailments. Continue reading...
The term doesn’t mean that much any more, and there are other, more important factors to consider when selecting foodIf you walk into a Whole Foods in Oakland and pick up a container of non-dairy yoghurt marked “local”, you might be surprised to learn that though the company is headquartered nearby in San Francisco, the cashews the yoghurt is made of come from Vietnam, more than 7,500 miles (12,000km) away, or Ivory Coast, about 7,300 miles in the opposite direction.This yoghurt made with ingredients from the other side of the globe points to the contradictory nature of so-called local food today: though the term holds appeal for customers, nearly two-thirds of whom perceive local food to be more environmentally friendly, experts suggest it may not always mean what you think. Continue reading...
Concentrations of plastics in round-the-world race through remote ocean environments found to be up to 18 times higher than during previous event in 2017-18Sailors testing the waters during the Ocean Race, which travels through some of the world’s most remote ocean environments, have found microplastics in every sample.Up to 1,884 microplastic particles were found per cubic metre of seawater in some locations, up to 18 times higher than in similar tests during the last Ocean Race, which ended in 2018. Scientists noted that the sensitivity of their instruments is now higher. Continue reading...
New developments for cloud computing could threaten civil-war era and post-emancipation historical sites in rural VirginiaAs you drive west from Washington DC, an imposing cluster of rectangular buildings emerges from the countryside. They emit a whirring sound, and could be confused for warehouses.But, in fact, this is the home of the cloud internet. Continue reading...
by Constance Malleret in Rio de Janeiro on (#6C26W)
How to Save the Amazon will be published so Dom Phillips’ work telling the stories of rainforest defenders does not die with himOne year after Dom Phillips was killed in the Brazilian Amazon, friends and colleagues have come together in a show of journalistic solidarity to keep his legacy alive and finish the book the British journalist was working on at the time of his death.Phillips and his Brazilian companion, the Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, were killed while returning from the remote Javari valley in the western Amazon last June. Three men have been charged with murder and are being held in high-security prisons while awaiting a decision on whether they will face trial. Continue reading...
by Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent on (#6C23E)
Outcry includes protest song comparing closure of inshore fishing grounds to Highland clearances“It’s about justice,” says Angus MacPhail, a creel fisher off Barra, in the Outer Hebrides, about the marine protection plans that he believes will devastate island cultures like his own.“Our lives are being dictated by people who know nothing about the areas we live in or the jobs we do,” says MacPhail, whose main catch is crab and lobster. “Most of us fishing around islands like Barra are small-scale operators and you don’t get much more environmentally friendly than that.” Continue reading...
by Flávia Milhorance in Rio de Janeiro on (#6C23D)
As an economic boom’s gains pass them by, people in unprotected land have been hit by hunger and disease, with infant mortality rates seven times higher than the rest of BrazilThe infant mortality rate among the Indigenous peoples of Brazil jumped by 16% last year, according to new data, as experts warn that the expansion of legal and illegal extractive industries in the Amazon rainforest has had profound effects on the health and quality of life of Indigenous people living in unprotected areas.Over the past 50 years, the Amazon’s landscape has changed dramatically, with about 17% of the primary forest now gone, replaced by towns, roads, cattle ranches, mines and vast fields of soya beans. Continue reading...
Black-veined whites, thought to have died out in 1920s, have seemingly returned due to warmer climateWhen they last roamed England in 1925, they counted Winston Churchill as a fan. Now, black-veined whites – an extremely rare species of British butterfly – have been spotted fluttering once again.Small numbers of the black and white insects have been spotted in fields and hedgerows in south-east London, nearly a century after the species was thought to have become extinct in the UK. Continue reading...
Oxfam report says only $11.5bn (£9.2bn) of climate finance in 2020 devoted to helping vulnerable statesRich nations are undermining work to protect poor and vulnerable countries from the impacts of the climate crisis, by providing loans instead of grants, siphoning off money from other aid projects or mislabelling cash, new research suggests.Only $11.5bn (£9.2bn) of climate finance from rich countries in 2020 was devoted to helping poor countries adapt to extreme weather, despite increasing incidences of climate-related disaster, according to a report from the charity Oxfam. Continue reading...
Sarah Bentley lands £1.5m package despite saying she would shun bonus amid criticism of water companiesThames Water has been accused of conducting a “flimsy PR stunt” as it prepares to report that its chief executive has landed nearly double her annual salary with a £1.5m pay package – after announcing that she would shun her bonus amid intense criticism of Britain’s water companies.Sarah Bentley said last month that she and the firm’s finance chief, Alastair Cochran, would forgo their bonuses and any payments due under long-term incentive plans for the 2022-23 financial year. Continue reading...
Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira were killed in a region where 23 Indigenous groups live – and we all face the same dangerAmong my people, the Marubo, knowledge is transmitted through oral history, passed down by elders throughout the centuries. For many generations these stories described the approach of people we call nawas – outsiders who always brought misfortune, usually in search of natural resources from the forests we inhabit.My ancestors spoke of Catholic missionaries from Spain and Portugal, of Peruvian rubber barons and logging companies. The stories my generation tells are of fundamentalist evangelical missionaries, illegal miners and fishing gangs bankrolled by drug trafficking networks. Continue reading...
by Tom Phillips and Constance Malleret in Rio de Jane on (#6C1SY)
British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous expert were killed a year ago on Monday in remote Amazon region they tried to defendFriends and admirers of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira are preparing to gather in towns and cities across Brazil as well as London to remember the men and the causes they cherished.The British journalist and the Brazilian Indigenous expert were shot dead during a reporting trip in the Amazon’s remote Javari valley region one year ago, on 5 June 2022.If you want to help finish Dom Phillips’s book on the Amazon you can contribute here. Continue reading...
Deteriorating conditions and other whales in area south of Sydney hampered attempts, say rescuersA humpback whale trapped in waters south of Sydney has finally been freed after a gruelling eight-hour rescue mission.Rescue efforts began on Saturday morning after reports of a whale in distress off Five Islands near Port Kembla. Volunteer crews from Marine Rescue NSW and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service were called to assist at about 8.30am. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gilbert in Bylas, Arizona, on the San Carlo on (#6C1HK)
Twila Cassadore hopes teaching Western Apache traditional foodways can aid mental, emotional and spiritual healthOn a warm day in April, Twila Cassadore piloted her pickup truck toward the mountains on the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona to scout for wild edible plants. A wet winter and spring rains had transformed the desert into a sea of color: green creosote bushes topped with small yellow flowers, white mariposa lilies, purple lupines and poppies in full bloom.Cassadore and I drove up a rough dirt road that used to be an old cattle trail, passing through various ecosystems, moving from Sonoran desert to grasslands and piñon-juniper woodlands. In each area, Cassadore would stop to gather desert chia seeds, cacti flowers and thistles. Continue reading...
Decomposing pieces of Great Atlantic sargassum belt carry Vibrio bacteria on state’s shorelineIt might have been one of Alfred Hitchcock’s fanciful tales of the supernatural: a 5,000-mile wide blob of murky seaweed creeping menacingly across the Atlantic before dumping itself along the US shoreline.But now giant clumps of the 13m-ton morass labeled the Great Atlantic sargassum belt are washing up on Florida’s beaches, scientists are warning of a real-life threat from the piles of decomposing algae, namely high levels of the flesh-eating Vibrio bacteria lurking in the vegetation. Continue reading...
by Sara Manisera and Daniela Sala in Al Khora on (#6C1E5)
Pollution from gas flaring – the burning of natural gas associated with oil extraction – is also a major concern in the oil-rich but extremely dry southWestern oil companies are exacerbating water shortages and causing pollution in Iraq as they race to profit from rising oil prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Water scarcity has already displaced thousands and increased instability, according to international experts, while Iraq is now considered the fifth most vulnerable country to the climate crisis by the UN. In the oil-rich but extremely dry south, wetlands that used to feed entire communities are now muddy canals. Continue reading...
Hollywood director of climate crisis satire praised protestors for waking up ‘sleeping governments’ and will triple donations over weekendThe Hollywood director of Netflix film Don’t Look Up has pledged to triple donations to Just Stop Oil over the weekend, the group has said.Adam McKay, who made the satire on the climate crisis as well as Step Brothers and The Big Short, said he stands with the protesters, praising them for waking up “sleeping governments”. Continue reading...
Dupont, Chemours and Corteva agree deal and 3M also reportedly considering $10bn settlement to avoid trial due to start on MondayDuPont and two related companies said they would pay close to $1.2bn to settle liability claims brought by public water systems serving the vast majority of the US population on Friday, just days before the start of a bellwether trial in South Carolina over PFAS contamination.PFAS maker 3M was reportedly also considering a settlement that would keep the company from having to face allegations that it was responsible for knowingly contaminating drinking water supplies around the United States. Continue reading...
Travel blog Capture the Atlas has crowned its best Milky Way photographs of the year. This year’s shots captured the galaxy glowing above dramatic landscapes in Namibia, Chile, Japan, Spain, Iran and New Zealand Continue reading...
Flies chilled to sub-zero temperatures amputate one or more of their six limbs to protect their internal organsFlightless snow flies in the US and Canada can amputate their legs to survive as they begin to freeze, researchers have discovered.Lab experiments in which the flies were chilled gradually to sub-zero temperatures revealed they can detach one or more of their six legs, an apparent “last-ditch tactic” to protect their internal organs from the advancing cold. Continue reading...
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