Sadiq Khan defends expansion of ultra-low emission zone as government continues to criticise itClean air is a right not a privilege", the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has said as the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) was expanded to include the outer boroughs of London.People who drive in the zone in a vehicle that does not meet minimum emissions standards are required to pay a 12.50 daily fee or risk a 180 fine, reduced to 90 if paid within 14 days. Continue reading...
Swedish teenager Ia Anstoot says group's unscientific' opposition to EU nuclear power serves fossil fuel interestsAn 18-year-old climate activist has called for Greenpeace to drop its old-fashioned and unscientific" campaign against nuclear power in the EU.In April, the environmental campaign group announced it would appeal against the EU Commission's decision to include nuclear power in its classification system for sustainable finance. This taxonomy" is designed as a guide for private investors wanting to fund green projects, aiming to boost environmental investment. Continue reading...
Protesters arrested after blocking route to festival, leading to fiery exchanges and threatsThe road into Burning Man is a rural, two-lane highway winding through north-west Nevada. Approximately 80,000 people make an annual pilgrimage to the beloved bacchanal, many hauling trailers and RVs across miles of scorching desert in order to make it to their fabled Gomorrah. This year, however, climate activists temporarily halted the influx of eager festivalgoers, blocking the road with a 28-foot trailer and causing a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam for over an hour. They clashed with outraged Burning Man attendees as well as Nevada rangers.In recent years, Burning Man has drifted from its hippy roots and become better known for luxury RVs, wild orgies, and Silicon Valley bros. Protestors from the Seven Circles -a coalition of activists representing the climate groups Extinction Rebellion, Rave Revolution, and Scientist Rebellion - demanded that Burning Man ban private jets and single-use plastics, as well as unlimited generator and propane use. Signs painted with the slogans Burners of the world, unite!", Mother Earth needs our help" and System change" were erected around the blockade, while four activists chained themselves to the trailer and locked arms through PVC pipes. Continue reading...
by Helena Horton, Kiran Stacey and Peter Walker on (#6E86W)
Exclusive: Announcement set to anger environmentalists, but builders say nutrient neutrality laws are exacerbating housing crisisMichael Gove is planning to rip up water pollution rules that builders have blamed for exacerbating England's housing crisis but which environmental groups say are essential for protecting the country's rivers.The housing secretary, alongside Therese Coffey, the environment secretary, will announce the move on Tuesday, according to several people briefed on the plans, alongside hundreds of millions of pounds' worth of extra funding to mitigate the potential impact on England's waterways. Continue reading...
Fast charging stations that allow for longer journeys are being added in regions beyond LondonCharging companies are plugging the gaps in the UK's high-speed charger network, with hundreds added this year outside London in a shift that will help end the range anxiety" that holds back some would-be electric car buyers.The capital and the south-east still have far more chargers of all speeds - ranging from slow to rapid and ultra-rapid - than the rest of the country. But the presence of high-speed chargers, generally used for quick recharging on longer journeys, is increasing in other regions as electric car sales surge. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#6E7X4)
Comprehensive analysis calls into question whether such resorts have a future as global heating intensifiesA quarter of European ski resorts will have scarce snow every other year with 2C of global heating, a comprehensive analysis has found. It calls into question whether such resorts have a future as the climate crisis intensifies.The study took into account artificial snowmaking, without which half the resorts would have scarce snow every other year at 2C. Current action and policies mean the world is on track for 2.7C of global heating. Continue reading...
The recent heatwaves in Arizona, stoked by the climate crisis, have led to a spike in contact burns from asphalt almost as hot as boiling waterOn a sunny day in mid-May, Bobby Hunt fell asleep by the side of a gas station in Phoenix. Hunt says he was waiting for a friend to pick him up.Next thing I know, I wake up in the hospital." Continue reading...
Protesters say classification as domestic terrorists' for opposing planned Georgia police facility has upended their livesBefore boarding a flight from San Francisco to New York last month, Luke Lucky" Harper was pulled aside and subjected to a search of his body and his belongings in front of other passengers waiting to board.The experience would have been even more upsetting if it wasn't the third time in several weeks. Harper was also searched in airports in Nashville, Tennessee and Salt Lake City, Utah. His name was called out on a loudspeaker; officials swabbed his hands, seeking traces of explosives. Continue reading...
The Committee on the Rights of the Child urges governments to respond to young people's concerns about environmental threatsGovernments must respond to growing concerns expressed by children about the effects of the climate crisis and other environmental emergencies on their lives and futures, a UN body has said.In a strongly worded formal opinion published on Monday, the Committee on the Rights of the Child concludes that the triple planetary crisis - the climate emergency, the collapse of biodiversity and pervasive pollution - is an urgent and systemic threat to children's rights globally". Continue reading...
Shadow foreign secretary says Starmer government would work with President Lula on radical climate actionThe shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has taken his green diplomatic policy for a test spin in Brazil this month in the hope that climate justice" can serve as an international rallying cry for a future Labour government.In an interview with the Guardian, Lammy said a Labour victory at the next general election would allow Keir Starmer to build a partnership for radical climate action with Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, before the UN's Cop30 climate summit in Belem in 2025. Continue reading...
Large flightless birds, thought to be extinct for 100 years, have been returned to the wilderness of the Greenstone Valley in New Zealand's South Island
London mayor bemoans lack of ministerial support for pollution charging policyThe government is weaponising air pollution and climate change" by not supporting the expansion of the capital's ultra-low emission zone (Ulez), the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, has claimedAhead of Tuesday's rollout of the expansion of Ulez to all London boroughs, Khan expressed his disappointment" at the lack of government financial support for the policy, and its accompanying scrappage scheme, unlike those run in some other cities in England. Continue reading...
Drivers want to park on Moor Lane and Bridge Road, a charge-free corridor in ChessingtonResidents of a road that will form a charge-free corridor through London's expanded ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) say they have been offered 100 a month" to let people park on their driveways and avoid paying the fee.Motorists travelling along Moor Lane, which becomes Bridge Road, in Chessington, south-west London, do not have to pay the Ulez charge, but should they turn off at any stage they will immediately enter the zone. Continue reading...
Land privatization and water depletion set the stage for the Lahaina fire 150 years ago. Now, land companies may benefit even moreIn the late 18th century, when the Hawaiian Kingdom became a sovereign state, Lahaina carried such an abundance of water that early explorers reportedly anointed it Venice of the Pacific". A glut of natural wetlands nourished breadfruit trees, extensive taro terraces and fishponds that sustained wildlife and generations of Native Hawaiian families.But more than a century and a half of plantation agriculture, driven by American and European colonists, have depleted Lahaina's streams and turned biodiverse food forests into tinderboxes. Today, Hawaii spends $3bn a year importing up to 90% of its food. This altered ecology, experts say, gave rise to the 8 August blaze that decimated the historic west Maui town and killed more than 111 people. Continue reading...
by Ossie Michelin in Rigolet, Nunatsiavut on (#6E70D)
The environment Inuit have lived in for millennia is changing fast. Canada's government once ignored Indigenous knowledge of it but now they are jointly creating the Nunatsiavut conservation area Photographs by Eldred AllenA plume of red erupts in the grey-blue waters and Martin Shiwak accelerates his boat to grab the seal he has shot before the animal sinks out of sight. Shiwak has hunted for years in the waters of Lake Melville, by the Inuit community of Rigolet in Nunatsiavut.As he hauls the ringed seal into the vessel, he says he counts himself lucky to have found one so quickly. Sometimes you have to drive around here in the boat nearly all day to find a seal," Shiwak says. Nowadays you can't even afford to - $60 only gets you five gallons of gas."Martin Shiwak with his hunting rifle in his boat, on Lake Melville, near Rigolet in Nunatsiavut Continue reading...
Humane alternatives to killing rampant creatures such as wild boar, deer and grey squirrels are being developedConflicts between humans and wildlife are triggering growing numbers of disease outbreaks, road accidents and crop damage. And the problem is likely to get worse unless new, humane measures to curtail animal numbers are developed in the near future, say scientists.It is a critical environmental issue that will be debated this week at a major conference in Italy where experts will discuss how best to limit numbers of grey squirrels, wild boar, deer, feral goats, pigeons, parakeets and other creatures that are causing widespread ecological damage in many countries. Continue reading...
Votes invited for the public's top 10 resorts and experiences, from beach huts and lidos to the Blackpool TowerThe British seaside may be derided by some for being as tacky as the candyfloss stuck to the side of your mouth. Yet tackiness is fundamental to its charm, according to campaigners who say that seaside heritage sites should be protected as fiercely as castles and stately homes.The Seaside Heritage Network (SHN) says amusement parks, lidos and scenic railways are all part of the UK's role in the creation of modern tourism and should be cherished. Continue reading...
Threats of violence as ultra-low emission zone expansion begins - but mayor defends it as essential for health Read more: how Ulez expansion is affecting lives of LondonersThe Metropolitan police has vowed to throw considerable resources" at protecting this week's expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) amid fears the rollout will prompt a spike in vandalism and disruptive protests.The force's declaration came as London mayor Sadiq Khan issued a fierce defence of his bitterly contested policy, saying he was acting to tackle toxic air" and prevent the capital's children growing up with stunted lungs". Continue reading...
Despite progress towards a 2045 zero-emission goal, the high price of EVs has created a headache for governmentsEuropean countries are struggling to persuade people to switch from combustion engine cars to electric ones, experts warn.Europe sells 10 times more electric cars today than it did just six years ago, according to the International Energy Agency, but its fleet is cleaning up too slowly to meet its climate goals. Governments across the continent are struggling with the price-tag of electric vehicles, which can cost several thousand euros more upfront than comparable ones that burn fossil fuels. Continue reading...
Councils are letting grass and weeds grow to increase urban biodiversity. But many people are unhappy with the resultBrighton is home to the UK's only Green member of parliament and is outwardly a bastion of progressive politics. Wild spaces here are not only the rolling hills of East Sussex or the beachfront but the smaller, often overlooked, green areas within residential neighbourhoods.These untamed enclaves are full of nature's drama, but another kind of drama is playing out among residents who feel that rewilding in the city's backyard has gone too far. Continue reading...
Potentially lethal to fish and dangerous for humans, the summer's toxic invader is caused by warming seas and strong windsWhen Owen Francomb from Margate set out on a walk with his dog Gertie along Kent's picturesque Thanet coast early this month, he didn't imagine he'd need to be rescued from a tide of toxic sludge. But on the beach at Newgate Gap, French bulldog Gertie started sinking into a thick carpet of rotting seaweed and began to panic.She couldn't move," Francomb. says. So I scrambled down the slipway and jumped down on to the beach, expecting the seaweed to be a foot deep, but it came up to my belt. I really struggled to wade through it." Another dog walker had to help him and Gertie out of the stinking slime. Continue reading...
A freakish season of record temperatures, wildfire smoke and the destruction of Lahaina could soon become normal, climate experts sayIt's been a strange, cruel summer in the United States. From the dystopian orange skies above New York to the deadly immolation of a historic coastal town in Hawaii, the waning summer has been a stark demonstration of the escalating climate crisis - with experts warning that worse is to come.A relentless barrage of extreme weather events, fueled by human-caused global heating, has swept the North American continent this summer, routinely placing a third of the US population under warnings of severe heat and unleashing floods, fire and smoke upon communities, with a record 15 separate disasters causing at least $1bn in damages so far this year. Continue reading...
Large-scale study indicates population declines after collation of data from country's conservation organisations and birdwatchersA report on India's bird population has painted a grim picture for many of the country's species.The State of India's Birds (SoIB) report - published on Friday - showed worrisome declines, with 178 species of wild birds identified as needing immediate priority for conservation. Continue reading...
Unsuspecting drivers could be caught out when scheme extends to all London boroughs from TuesdayThe expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) to cover all of London means that from Tuesday travellers setting off for Heathrow airport will have to pay the daily charge for the first time if they use an older, more polluting car to get there.While people who regularly drive into the capital will probably be aware of the rollout of the scheme, the motorists most likely to be caught out are those making a rare visit to the airport when they go on holiday or those dropping off and picking up friends and family. Continue reading...
Mexico latest country where government is considering passing new laws to criminalise environmental destructionA growing number of countries are considering introducing laws to make ecocide a crime.Mexico is the latest country where politicians are seeking to deter environmental damage - and to get justice for its victims - by criminalising it. Karina Marlen Barron Perales, congresswoman for Nuevo Leon, has submitted a bill to the Mexican congress introducing a new crime of ecocide". Continue reading...
Which? advises drivers paying London ultra-low emission zone fee to make sure they're using official TfL websiteDrivers are being ripped off by copycat websites that add extra fees to the ultra low emissions zone charges in London, consumer champion Which? has warned.As Ulez expands across all boroughs in the capital from Tuesday, Which? has found a series of identical, unofficial websites targeting people trying to pay the charge. This has led to drivers paying more than the 12.50 daily fee. Continue reading...
Residents of Carmel, California, have named the bird Cupid, and are monitoring its health, which seems unaffected by the injuryFor months, a wild turkey has been spotted roaming the rolling hills of Carmel, California, with a 30in arrow sticking through her chest. It hasn't seemed to faze her.Local residents first began spotting the bird, who they're calling Cupid, last winter. Since then, she has been photographed and filmed roosting in trees, foraging for grubs and evading predators and generally going about her business as if she hadn't been impaled. Continue reading...
Open letter warns that ascribing aggression to rammings puts animals at risk of human violenceOrcas that have been ramming boats are not attacking" the vessels, but are most likely being playful, leading scientists have said.The experts have warned that the false narrative is putting the animals at risk of retribution from humans. Continue reading...
Publisher Springer Nature says 2022 article not supported by available evidence' as editors launch investigationOne of the world's biggest scientific publishers has retracted a journal article that claimed to have found no evidence of a climate crisis.Springer Nature said it had retracted the article, by four Italian physicists, after an internal investigation found the conclusions were not supported by available evidence or data provided by the authors". Continue reading...
Once a child farm worker, Eduardo Lalo' Garcia Guzman rejects tidy narratives about immigration and the respectability Americans quietly demand of migrantsThe Mexican chef Eduardo Lalo" Garcia Guzman migrated to the US with his family from rural Guanajuato, Mexico, when he was a small child. Instead of attending school, he spent most days working with his family picking fruits and vegetables from Florida to Michigan.It was dangerous work, but Garcia looks back fondly at his early experiences as a child farm worker. Continue reading...
UK has not reciprocated after EU banned import of pot plant soil, in which some species can travel undetectedInvasive species are increasingly likely to come to Britain because of lax post-Brexit trade rules, experts have warned.The EU has banned the import of soil in pot plants from the UK since Brexit, partly because invasive species such as the Asian hornet can travel undetected in soil. The UK has not put reciprocal bans in place, however, meaning damaging species from the continent could be transported in soil. Continue reading...
by Rebecca Ratcliffe in Bangkok and Reuters on (#6E543)
El Nino weather pattern could accelerate melting, leading to sea level riseTwo of the world's few tropical glaciers, in Indonesia, are melting and their ice may vanish by 2026 or sooner as an El Nino weather pattern threatens to accelerate their demise, the country's geophysics agency has said.The agency, known as BMKG, has said the El Nino phenomenon could lead to the most severe dry season in Indonesia since 2019, increasing the risk of forest fires and threatening supplies of clean water. Continue reading...
by Bryony Moore, Stephanie Windeler, Albert Villa Als on (#6E5DR)
In 2023, the effects of the climate crisis have come into sharp focus. Much of the northern hemisphere endured a blistering heatwave, while other countries were inundated with torrential rain and catastrophic flooding. A number of climate records - some unofficial - tumbled in recent weeks. The Guardian spoke to four people from Hawaii, India, China and the Middle East directly affected by extreme weather events Continue reading...
The film Oppenheimer has shone a global spotlight on the dawn of US nuclear weapons tests. In the Marshall Islands, where 23 of those earth-shattering blasts happened, people have never been able to forgetAt first glance, the aquamarine waters that surround the Marshall Islands seem like paradise. But this idyllic Pacific scene hides a dark secret: it was the location of 67 nuclear detonations as part of US military tests during the cold war between 1946 and 1958.The bombs were exploded above ground and underwater on Bikini and Enewetak Atolls, including one device 1,100 times larger than the Hiroshima atom bomb. Chernobyl-like levels of radiation forced hundreds from their homes. Bikini Atoll remains deserted. At the US government's urging, residents have begun returning slowly to Enewetak. Continue reading...
A dolphin has also died at the Marineland theme park, which faces accusations of animal crueltyFourteen whales and a dolphin have died since 2019 at a popular Canadian aquarium and theme park, according to a new investigation by the Canadian Press.Of the marine animals that have died, 13 were belugas and one was Kiska - the world's loneliest orca", who died of a bacterial infection after four decades in captivity, the last 12 of which were in isolation. Continue reading...
Benji Backer, executive chairman of conservative climate group, calls question on crisis in debate historic' but laments answersRepublicans deserve to lose" electorally if they can't show they care about the climate crisis, according to the head of a conservative climate organization that put forward a rare question on the issue to GOP candidates in Wednesday's televised debate.The Republican presidential hopefuls, minus Donald Trump, were asked at the Fox News debate what they would do to improve the party's standing on climate policy by Alexander Diaz, a young conservative who is part of the American Conservation Coalition (ACC), a youth conservative group that pushes for action on the climate crisis. Continue reading...
Many credits in the voluntary market going unused, with study finding some offsetting could make global heating worseCarbon credit speculators could lose billions as scientific evidence shows many offsets they have bought have no environmental worth and have become stranded assets.Amid growing evidence that huge numbers of carbon credits do nothing to mitigate global heating and can sometimes be linked to alleged human rights concerns, there is a growing pile of carbon credits equivalent to the annual emissions of Japan, the world's fifth largest polluter, that are unused in the unregulated voluntary market, according to market analysis. Continue reading...
Amnesty links wildfires and lack of legal migration routes to deaths of 19 people believed to be asylum seekersRefugees and migrants in Greece are facing off against the two great injustices of our times", Amnesty International has said, as it linked wildfires and scant access to legal migration routes to the deaths of 19 people believed to be asylum seekers.As wildfires continue to rage across swathes of Greece, authorities in the country said they were working to identify the charred remains of 18 people found this week in the dense forests that straddle the country's north-eastern border with Turkey. Continue reading...
Breeding failures in the Bellingshausen Sea without precedent' as multiple colonies across large region all failed in a single seasonThousands of emperor penguin chicks across four colonies in Antarctica likely died because of record-low sea ice levels that caused a catastrophic breeding failure" in late 2022, according to new research.Analysis of satellite images showed the break-up of usually stable sea ice and the disappearance of the colonies at a time when chicks had not yet grown their waterproof feathers. Continue reading...
In the 20th year of the South Australian Museum's photographic competition, Samuel Markham's image My Country Burns was the overall winner. The picture, taken while Markham was defending his home from a bushfire, was described by the judges as a breathtaking, scary photograph ... indicative of the world we now live in'
Environment | The Guardian