Secretions of Sonoran desert toad have long had hallucinogenic reputation but authorities want you to keep your tongue awayThe US National Park Service is warning people to stop licking one of the largest toads in America, due to a toxin it secretes from its glands that can create a hallucinogenic experience.The Sonoran desert toad, which emits a quick, “weak low-pitched toot”, can make someone sick if they touch it or lick it, NPS said in a Facebook post on Tuesday. Continue reading...

‘We’re measuring for E.coli,’ says state’s chief environmental scientist who advises: ‘stay out of the water’

António Guterres told delegates gathered at the start of the conference in Egypt that humanity was 'on a highway to climate hell with our foot – still – on the accelerator'. The UN secretary general's speech set an urgent tone as government representatives assembled for two weeks of talks on how to avert the worst of climate breakdown

Some fear the outcome of the 8 November elections might derail US leadership on the global climate crisisFor Joe Biden, the United Nations climate summit in Egypt is the crowning stage to trumpet the US finally passing major legislation to slow dangerous global heating. But the thoughts of the US president and delegates from around the world are likely to nervously flit to events 6,000 miles (9,65km) away – knife-edge midterm elections back in America.The climate talks, known as Cop27, begin in earnest on Monday when more than 90 heads of state convene in Sharm el-Sheikh amid warnings from scientists that the world is heading towards disastrous climate breakdown without further, deeper cuts in planet-heating emissions. António Guterres, secretary general of the UN, has warned governments heading to Egypt that they face “economy-destroying levels of global heating” and that their efforts to stem this disaster were falling “pitifully short”. Continue reading...

Until now, I’d hung on to an irrational childhood fear of the exploding pressure cooker, but I’ve recently rediscovered just how fast and efficient they areThis column ends well, with an ideal pan of beans, cooked in a third of the usual time, using less than a third of the usual energy. This column began decades ago, when I decided I was afraid of pressure cookers. Raking back though unreliable memories, it isn’t clear why, exactly, I was afraid. We didn’t have one at home, and relatives who did weren’t using them any more by the time we were growing up. There was no incident in the house next door, no scaremongering public-information film that had lodged itself in my mind. Unexplained fear became a quiet hang-up to which I clung even as pressure cookers evolved dramatically. Some of the best cooks I know told me to get over it.Actually, this column began with a French physicist, Denis Papin. Born near Blois in 1647, he studied medicine before moving to Paris, where he assisted the Dutch physicist Christian Huygens in building vacuum pumps. Later, in England, Papin worked with the physicist Robert Boyle – whose pressure and volume of gas theory is known as Boyle’s Law – and built air pumps for the Royal Society of London. Papin’s research explored the relationship between boiling temperature and the surrounding pressure. When you cook in an ordinary pot at atmospheric pressure, water boils at 100C until it escapes as steam. Inside a sealed vessel, however, the trapped steam molecules move faster, increasing the surrounding pressure, which means the water boils at 121C. In 1679, Papin demonstrated a sensational invention: a closed vessel with a tight-fitting lid in which steam under pressure was used to cook food and soften bones; his “digesting engine”. One featurewas a small, weighted piston that moved up and released steam; a pressure-relief valve – and the original model for all modern pressure-cookers. Continue reading...

Developing countries hope to make progress on this problem because we are already suffering the effectsCop27 had not even officially opened, and already we delegates found ourselves staying up all night wrangling over important issues. In this case, it was loss and damage – and there may be many more late nights to come on that issue.At the official start of the conference of the parties to the UN framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC), the conference must first of all achieve consensus on the agenda.The Secret Negotiators are representatives of developing countries involved in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations, and who will be attending the Cop27 climate conference. Continue reading...

Rich countries ‘not living up to obligations’, says Andrew Steer, in charge of $10bn environmental fundBillionaires can not be expected to make up for climate finance gaps left by rich countries that fail to deliver on promises to the developing world, the head of the Bezos Earth Fund has said.The Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, created a $10bn (£8.8m) grant to protect the Earth’s environment in 2020. Andrew Steer, the president and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund, oversees this alongside the billionaire, his partner Lauren Sanchez and the fund’s board. Continue reading...

World leaders, climate groups and activists are meeting in Egypt to thrash out plans on how to safeguard the future of the planetFor almost three decades, world governments have met nearly every year to forge a global response to the climate emergency. Under the 1992 UN framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC), every country is treaty-bound to “avoid dangerous climate change” and find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally in an equitable way. Continue reading...

Walgett, Collarenebri and Lightning Ridge isolated as more than 140 flood warnings remain in place across New South Wales and Victoria

Analysis examining carbon impact of billionaires’ investments published as Cop27 talks get under wayThe super-rich emit greenhouse gases at a level equivalent to the whole of France from their investments in carbon intensive businesses, according to analysis published on the opening of the Cop27 UN climate talks in Egypt.Examining the carbon impact of the investments of 125 billionaires, the research found they had a collective $2.4tn stake in 183 companies. On average each billionaire’s investment emissions produced 3m tonnes of CO2 a year; a million times more than the average emissions of 2.76 tonnes of CO2 for those living in the bottom 90% of earners. In total the 125 members of the super-rich emitted 393m tonnes of CO2 a year – equivalent to the emissions of France, which has a population of 67 million. Continue reading...

Ex-PM to contrast optimism at Cop26 last year with failures of governments – including UK – to follow throughBoris Johnson will attack the “corrosive cynicism” on net zero that is hampering UK, and global, efforts to tackle the climate crisis, in a speech at the UN Cop27 climate summit on Monday.In a swipe at members of his own Conservative party, the former UK prime minister will contrast the success and spirit of optimism at Cop26 in Glasgow last November with the failures of governments – including the UK – to follow through on promises since. Continue reading...

A valuable if somewhat conventional reminder of how our reliance on oil developed and the threats it now poses to life on EarthAs protests against the fossil fuel industry continue to go viral in the news media, Emma Davie’s documentary makes for a valuable resource on the historical background as well as the environmental ramifications of oil drilling in the North Sea. Featuring interviews with those from both sides of the issue, who include environmental experts, executives of oil corporations as well as student activists, the film captures how the black gold permeates every aspect of our daily life.The expert voices here describe how Britain’s dependence on the oil industry is a relatively new phenomenon, escalated in the 1970s by the discovery of oil reserves in the Forties field off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland. Following the mass privatisation of these assets under Margaret Thatcher’s government, this natural resource became the lifeblood behind the functioning of Britain as a nation, providing employment, enabling the production of consumer goods, and much more. The film moves on to discuss the bigger picture: how the environmental changes resulting from this ceaseless, industrial extraction of oil lead to increased flooding and natural disasters in countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam. As millions of barrels of oil are produced every day, individual responsibility is simply not enough to make a difference. Continue reading...

Restore Trust blamed new voting system for defeat of all its candidates at annual general meeting in BathA right-leaning campaign aiming to wrest control of the National Trust from an alleged “political” takeover has criticised a new voting system, after all of its candidates for council seats were defeated at the trust’s annual general meeting.Restore Trust failed to secure a single win and immediately attacked the soundness of the charity’s democratic system after results were announced at the National Trust’s Grade I-listed Bath Assembly Rooms. Continue reading...

Winner of government tender was unveiled at Cop26 as one that would ‘stand the test of time’It was meant to join the red phone box, the London bus and the black cab as a symbol of modern Britain. Yet a so-called iconic design for a UK electric car charger commissioned by Grant Shapps, then transport minister, is likely to remain on the drawing board after the government admitted it may never be made.The government put out the tender for the contract in June last year and revealed the winning design, by the Royal College of Art and PA Consulting, at the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow a few months later. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Claim by academics, including former integrity chair of Australia’s carbon credit scheme, raises further doubts about system

Martinsgans – or martin goose – is eaten around 11 November, but restaurants are dropping dish to save cashSoaring inflation threatens to cast a shadow over one of Germany’s most popular cultural festivities, which culminates in eating roast goose.A Martinsgans – or martin goose – is eaten on or around 11 November – St Martin’s Day – when the 4th-century Roman soldier turned saint for sharing his cloak with a poor man is remembered in lantern parades, song, bonfires and theatrical reenactments of his life throughout the country. Continue reading...

Contentious opening to UN climate conference as delegates struggle to reach agreement on discussion of loss and damageThe Cop27 UN climate summit has made a delayed start after delegates tussled late into Saturday night and on into Sunday morning over what should be discussed at the conference.At the heart of the disagreement was the vexed question of loss and damage, which refers to the devastating consequences of climate breakdown suffered by the poorest and most vulnerable countries, and how to help them. Continue reading...

Report at Cop27 shows the world is now deep into the climate emergency, with the 1.5C heating limit ‘barely within reach’The past eight years were the eight hottest ever recorded, a new UN report has found, indicating the world is now deep into the climate crisis. The internationally agreed 1.5C limit for global heating is now “barely within reach”, it said.The report, by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO), sets out how record high greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are driving sea level and ice melting to new highs and supercharging extreme weather from Pakistan to Puerto Rico.Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are at record levels in the atmosphere as emissions continue. The annual increase in methane, a potent greenhouse gas, was the highest on record.The sea level is now rising twice as fast as 30 years ago and the oceans are hotter than ever.Records for glacier melting in the Alps were shattered in 2022, with an average of 13ft (4 metres) in height lost.Rain – not snow – was recorded on the 3,200m-high summit of the Greenland ice sheet for the first time.The Antarctic sea-ice area fell to its lowest level on record, almost 1m km below the long-term average. Continue reading...

Cybersecurity experts warn that official Cop27 climate app requires access to a user’s location, photos and even emailsThere are mounting fears over the surveillance of delegates at the Cop27 climate talks in Egypt, with cybersecurity experts warning that the official app for the talks requires access to a user’s location, photos and even emails upon downloading it.The revelation, as more than 25,000 heads of state, diplomats, negotiators, journalists and activists from around the world gather at the climate summit that starts in Sharm El-Sheikh on Sunday, has raised concerns that Egypt’s authoritarian regime will be able to use an official platform for a United Nations event to track and harass attendees and critical domestic voices. Continue reading...

The climate summits do serve a purpose even while avoiding facing up to some awkward realitiesThe Cop is a strange beast – an annual event that everyone claims to hate but no one wants to miss. This year’s Cop is even weirder: it’s in a famous Red Sea seaside resort renowned for its warm blue seas and coral reefs, but the diving centres are closed for security reasons and in any case few of us will have time to so much as dip a toe in the sea.We will spend all our hours inside a conference centre with little daylight, and only see the sun as we try to dash in our formal clothes from air-conditioned hotel to air-conditioned conference hall without getting covered in sweat.The Secret Negotiators are representatives of developing countries involved in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations, and who will be attending the Cop27 climate conference. Continue reading...

Implementing the $369bn Inflation Reduction Act amid tight deadlines and high-stakes midterm will be a challengeThe bitter fight to deliver a climate change bill to Joe Biden’s desk this summer pitted the White House and its Democratic allies against some of America’s most powerful industry lobbies and every Republican in Congress. It may prove to have been the easy part.At the heart of the hard-won Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is a $369bn package of climate investments that Biden called the “most significant legislation in history” to tackle the climate crisis. Estimates suggest it could cut US greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030.Coordinating across dozens of different departments and agencies.Minimizing waste and fraud.Investing in risky and uncertain technologies.Smoothing diplomatic wrinkles with international allies who object to the law’s manufacturing and sourcing requirements.Meeting the expectations of climate organizations and advocacy groups whose support for the IRA was contingent on promoting environmental justice and protecting workers.Seeking to head off the inevitable attacks and investigations of congressional Republicans. Continue reading...

Floods crisis continues across NSW and Victoria although waters are subsiding in parts of the country including Forbes and Wagga Wagga

The government denied wavering over the future of Sizewell C, but it needs to come up with an energy plan – and quicklyFor a moment last week, our cash-strapped government seemed ready to abandon a project that many experts believe is central to our plans of achieving energy independence and net zero emissions. According to the BBC, the Treasury had indicated the proposed new nuclear reactor Sizewell C was on a list of major construction projects that were under review for possible cancellation. Its days could be numbered, it was suggested.The threat has since been denied by Number 10. The new atom plant in Suffolk will go ahead, it has insisted. For a nation that hopes to wean itself off its fossil fuel addiction and its dependence on natural gas imports, this is good news. The UK’s future prosperity depends on its ability to generate electricity, independently and at low cost and nuclear power is expected to play a critical role in ensuring this happens. The trouble is that these plans have very shaky foundations, as was revealed last week when uncertainties about Sizewell C first surfaced. Continue reading...

Latest incident at coal-fired power station Callide reignites debate about their future and transition to renewable energy

Environment minister visited Tasmania for two days and insists she’s taking mine decision seriously but Brown wanted her to visit rainforest with him

Only Labour grasps the challenges of the climate crisis and why we must become a clean energy giantRishi Sunak will go on his day trip to Cop27 tomorrow, having been dragged kicking and screaming. His eventual decision to attend was an embarrassing U-turn. But his initial snub, one of his first decisions as prime minister, was the act heard around the world.It said that Britain is not in the business of showing climate leadership on the world stage. That, because of his weak position, the prime minister’s first priority will always be the basest instincts of the Conservative party. For the Tories, it’s always party first. What is best for the country – and for the planet – comes a distant second. Continue reading...

Scepticism from summit attendees as PM adopts Labour leader’s stated aim of making UK a green ‘superpower’Rishi Sunak attempted an extraordinary volte-face on green policy on the eve of the Cop27 climate summit on Saturday, saying he would attend in order to “galvanise” world leaders to save the planet.The prime minister – who had been criticised for saying he was too busy with domestic commitments to attend – also adopted precisely the same language on renewable energy that Labour leader Keir Starmer has been using for months, declaring that he now wanted to turn the UK into a “clean energy superpower”. Continue reading...

The two protesters did not damage the works but ‘caused their frames slight blemishes’ the Prado museum saysTwo climate activists have glued their hands to the frames of two paintings by Spanish master Francisco Goya at a museum in Madrid.The protest at the Prado museum, in which both protesters each glued a hand to the frames, did not damage either painting but caused their frames slight blemishes, the museum said. Continue reading...

New social media drive targets Conservatives’ failure to ban fracking, rising mortgage costs, and direct action taken by Just Stop Oil protestersRed wall Tory MPs are being targeted by Labour attack ads over their failure to oppose a ban on fracking, as part of an overhaul of the party’s social media effort.A new in-house digital team, filled with former Google and tech start-up employees, has been building new applications for the party to create, target and publish swift social media ads at swing voters. They have so far concentrated on fracking, the rising costs of mortgages, the Tory record on the economy and Labour’s opposition to some of the direct action taken by Just Stop Oil protesters. Continue reading...

Campaigners say talks could fail before they begin unless issue of loss and damage is put on agendaCop27, the UN climate summit beginning this Sunday in Egypt, could fail before it even starts if countries do not agree to put the loss and damage experienced by the poorest countries at the heart of the talks, according to climate experts and campaigners.Delegates began to arrive at the conference centre on Saturday, and the talks will formally open on Sunday with a session deciding what should be on the agenda for the two weeks of negotiations, before world leaders gather on Monday and Tuesday. Continue reading...

The devastating effects of climate change are motivating how voters cast their ballots in the midterm electionsAcross the US, temperature records tumbled in a summer of heatwaves, enormous floods drowned entire towns and, in the west, an ongoing drought is now so severe that corpses are being uncovered in rapidly drying reservoirs.Despite these increasingly ominous signs, the climate crisis has struggled to gain much visibility in the lead-up to next week’s midterm elections. “Many voters are more focused on things like inflation, understandably, because people are struggling to get by in this economy,” said Geoffrey Henderson, an expert in climate policy at Duke University. Continue reading...

With war in Ukraine and a cost of living crisis, the global picture is much changed since last year’s conferenceFor oil and gas companies this has been the best year ever. The world’s five biggest alone have made a combined profit of $170bn so far in 2022, a figure likely to be just the tip of the iceberg – most producers are nationally owned, and not required to come clean on their profits. “We are getting more cash than we know what to do with,” as one senior executive from BP admitted, before the companies zipped up their communications in the face of public fury.Party time for fossil fuels is not what climate experts had been hoping for. If the world is to get to grips with the climate emergency, oil and gas must be urgently phased out. Instead, they are becoming one of the most attractive investments in the global market. Continue reading...

It’s great the new president is on the side of nature but no leader can succeed unless the Cop15 deal in Montreal is right on the moneyWe are a month away from Cop15 and money is on my mind. The election of President Lula da Silva in Brazil is good news for the chances of success in Montreal. But optimism must always consider reality: huge financial resources are needed to halt the destruction of the planet’s ecosystems, and we are still very far from a credible plan for raising the necessary funds.Across the globe, almost without exception, nature is worth more dead than alive. That is the unfortunate truth. There is not yet a mechanism for tilting the playing field in favour of biodiversity and the climate, something I am sure will come up frequently at Cop27, too. To change that, we need to tackle two key issues: rural poverty and globalised greed. Continue reading...

Spurred by Lula’s election, the three countries, home to half of all tropical forests, will pledge stronger conservation effortsThe big three tropical rainforest nations – Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – are in talks to form a strategic alliance to coordinate on their conservation, nicknamed an “Opec for rainforests”, the Guardian understands.The election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, has been followed by a flurry of activity to avoid the destruction of the Amazon, which scientists have warned is dangerously close to tipping point after years of deforestation under its far-right leader, Jair Bolsonaro. Continue reading...

Reactions to the UK’s National Grid warning of unlikely but possible power cuts this winterHouseholds across the UK have begun preparing after warnings that the National Grid may impose a series of rolling three-hour power cuts this winter if the supply of gas for power stations falls too low.Some are preparing blackout boxes and buying candles, camping stoves and windup radios. Others are sourcing batteries and generators to keep vital equipment running, including a home aquarium and sensory equipment for an autistic family member. Continue reading...

A look at who will – and who may not – be at Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh climate summit this month

Expert team studied maps, old photos and satellite data to estimate glacier movements and track lost gearWhen the American mountaineers Bradford Washburn and Robert Bates summited Canada’s third-tallest peak in 1937, bad luck forced them to jettison hundreds of pounds of gear – including tents, fuel ice axes and valuable cameras – on a glacier before they began their ascent.They then had to rework their planned route back due to poor weather, transforming a celebratory descent into a harrowing trek through Yukon territory. Continue reading...

La Niña brings an increased chance of above average rainfall for Australia’s north and east and a lingering risk of flooding for the months ahead

Labor has improved Australia’s emissions pledge on the one Scott Morrison took to Glasgow, but observers say it will still have questions to answer

Grant Shapps hints scaling back of Northern Powerhouse Rail could be among cost-saving measuresAll capital spending is under review before Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement with a view to making billions in savings on infrastructure projects, with a senior cabinet minister hinting a key northern rail line could be scaled back.No 10 denied reports on Friday that plans for the new Sizewell C nuclear power station could be scrapped, but big energy projects along with every other major infrastructure plan such as HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail will have costs reviewed. Continue reading...

Statement comes after reports Suffolk reactor project could be delayed or axed amid spending cuts

Egypt has expressed frustration at leaders making positive statements that are abandoned in negotiationsGovernments meeting for vital climate talks have been accused of making positive commitments in public but denying them later in the privacy of the negotiating rooms by the Egyptian hosts of the summit.Wael Aboulmagd, the Egyptian diplomat in charge of running the negotiations at the Cop27 UN climate summit, said: “Political statements and pledges are made in front of the cameras, but in the negotiating rooms it’s back to the adversarial approach. These [publicly positive positions] will not be of value until translated into the negotiating rooms, and that has not been the case so far.” Continue reading...

About 70 people seized in protest at environmental damage from crude oil spillage into Cuninico RiverIndigenous people in the Amazon in Peru have detained a group of Peruvian and foreign tourists, including UK and US citizens, in protest at a lack of government aid following an oil spill in the area.“[We want] to call the government’s attention with this action, There are foreigners and Peruvians, there are about 70 people,” Watson Trujillo, the leader of the Cuninico community, told RPP radio. Continue reading...

Derelict dams crisscrossing the country’s rivers and tributaries disrupt the paths of migrating fish and pose a flood hazardOn a muggy day in late August, George Jackman, an aquatic ecologist who works on habitat restoration, stood at the edge of Quassaick Creek in upstate New York.The Quassaick, which flows through the small city of Newburgh, New York, and spills into the Hudson River, was unusually shallow after a summer with little rain. “It looks bucolic now,” Jackman said. “But it can be a raging torrent.” Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including jellyfish, wild ponies and a squadron of pelicans Continue reading...

Recent flooding is believed to have caused the pipeline outage in central-west NSW and is hampering repair

Scientists have long sought to farm the scarce seafood staple, but critics say animals are not suited to intensive methodsScientists in Japan say they have developed a groundbreaking method of farming squid that could solve shortages of the seafood staple, amid warnings from environmental groups that aquaculture is incompatible with the animal’s welfare.Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) say their system produced a reliable supply of squid and has the potential to be commercialised. Continue reading...

Queensland environment group had asked federal minister to revisit decisions made going back to 2011

Waverley Abbey’s 500-year-old ‘living legend’ wins contest, as experts seek greater protection for ancient treesA gnarled yew whose twisted trunk has been growing for more than half a millennium has been crowned tree of the year.The roots of the yew snake around the ruins of Waverley Abbey in Surrey, which was the first monastery founded in Britain by the Cistercian religious order in 1128. Continue reading...

Judge says VicForests’ actions posed ‘a threat of serious and irreversible harm’ to greater gliders and yellow-bellied gliders