Agriculture – mainly alfalfa – consumes 80% of the Colorado River’s dwindling water supply, prompting calls for conservation effortsOn an early August morning in California’s Imperial Valley, tractors rumble across verdant fields of alfalfa, mowing down the tall grass and leaving it to dry in shaggy heaps under the hot sun.Here, in one of the oldest farming communities in the Colorado River basin, the forage crop is king. One out of every three farmed acres in the valley is dedicated to growing alfalfa, which dries into a high-protein hay commonly used as food for livestock. Continue reading...

Jam Land ordered to pay government’s costs after federal court dismisses appeal over clearing of critically endangered NSW grasslands

Guy Singh-Watson, founder of the organic veg-box firm, continues to experiment with new ways of producing food and promoting wildlife, 36 years after his first harvestIn a field full of polytunnels containing row after row of tomatoes and cucumbers, laminated sheets covered in images that look like police mugshots are prominently displayed. Pictured are a list of “friends and foes”.The “foes”, according to Riverford Organic Farmers, are aphids, spider mites and thrips. The “friends” are predatory and parasitic wasps, lacewings, ladybirds and hoverflies. There is no mention of herbicides and insecticides, which most farmers would consider friends. Crops have no signs of disease thanks to a system that has taken years to fine-tune, says the company’s founder, Guy Singh-Watson. “Attention to detail,” he says. “It’s good farming, really.” Continue reading...

Industry bosses in Germany say high costs are having an impact on vehicle production and salesSoaring energy costs are threatening the future of the electric car, industry bosses in Germany have warned.A rise in electricity prices as well as in raw material costs and availability, a chronic shortage of parts, and a widespread reduction in disposable income are having a considerable impact on the production and sales of cars. Continue reading...

Exclusive: ‘Blatant efforts’ by companies criticised by campaign group Transport & EnvironmentBritain’s biggest housebuilders privately lobbied for the government to ditch rules requiring electric car chargers to be installed in every new home in England, documents have revealed.The FTSE 100 construction firms Barratt Developments, Berkeley Group and Taylor Wimpey were among the companies who argued against the policy in responses to an official consultation seen by the Guardian. The “blatant lobbying efforts” were criticised by Transport & Environment, a campaign group. Continue reading...

Every fraction of a degree of global heating avoided makes a difference. Here are some reasons for hope

Memories of postwar squalor revived by Vladimir Putin’s shutting down of Nord Stream 1 pipelineThat Robert Habeck, Germany’s economy minister in his recent, pre-ministerial life, wrote a children’s book in which a girl called Emily experiences “how exciting a night-time power cut can be” may yet come back to haunt him.These days, Habeck is charged with the daunting task of ensuring that the lights do not go out in for real in Europe’s largest economy. And even if Germans have been hoarding candles and camping stoves, just as not so long ago they were doing with toilet paper and pasta, they consider the prospect of a blackout and cold homes to be scary rather than exciting. Reports of people illegally felling trees for fuel have brought back memories of postwar squalor, when Berlin’s Tiergarten park was stripped bare as Germans tried to keep warm. Continue reading...

In ‘project of the century’, country will bury spent nuclear fuel deep underground in claySwiss authorities have selected a site in northern Switzerland not far from the German border to host a deep geological storage repository for radioactive waste.After nearly 50 years of searching for the best way to store its radioactive waste, Switzerland is gearing up for its “project of the century”, entailing burying spent nuclear fuel deep underground in clay. Continue reading...

Long championed by climate activists, the green bank would provide funding to expand clean energy use across the USBuried on page 667 of the Inflation Reduction Act is a climate policy that has been in the making for more than a decade.The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund provides $27bn in funding for projects aimed at lowering America’s planet-heating emissions. Some of those funds, roughly $7bn, will be dedicated to clean energy deployment in low-income communities – but the vast majority of the funds will be used to create America’s first national green bank, an initiative long championed by climate activists. Those activists hope that the national green bank, which will provide ongoing financial assistance to expand the use of clean energy across the country, will accelerate America’s transition away from fossil fuels. Continue reading...

Cutting heat loss from houses will be more effective in the long term than subsidising bills, according to analysisBritain will be plunged into an even worse energy crisis in a year’s time without an immediate plan to improve leaky homes and dramatically reduce demand for gas, ministers have been warned.The UK ranks among the worst in Europe for the energy efficiency of its homes, according to new research outlining an urgent need to reduce the amount of heat being wasted. Experts are warning that while Liz Truss has bought the government time with her £100bn-plus package to cap energy bills, similarly expensive and unsustainable schemes will be needed unless substantial plans are introduced to improve homes and reduce demand. Continue reading...

In her first days as premier, Liz Truss was announcing plans for unprecedented spending when politics came to a haltAt around noon on Thursday, the House of Commons was doing what it does best. The benches were packed, the exchanges were combative. The place was full of the sound and fury of adversarial politics. On all sides, MPs were engaged, not least because what was being discussed was so crucial to the lives of the millions of families they represent.The new prime minister, Liz Truss, was just two days into the job. But that counted for nothing. The Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, conscious that few policy statements in recent years had been more important, savaged her government for failing to provide written copies of it in advance to MPs. “Rather than judging it to be deliberate, I will put it down to bad management or incompetence,” said Hoyle, brutally. Continue reading...

António Guterres calls for ‘massive financial support’ in wake of disaster that has killed at least 1,391 peopleThe United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has visited several areas of Pakistan ravaged by floods, as he rounded off a two-day trip aimed at raising awareness of the disaster.Record monsoon rains and glacier melt in the country’s northern mountains have triggered floods that have killed at least 1,391 people, sweeping away houses, roads, railway tracks, bridges, livestock and crops. Continue reading...

A boil water notice remains in majority-Black city and a long-term solution remains elusiveResidents in Jackson, the majority-Black capital city of Mississippi, now have water coming out of their taps once again, but are still having to boil it before drinking, as they have had to intermittently for years.It is a step forward from the situation last week, when floods overwhelmed the city’s dilapidated main water treatment plant and essentially interrupted water supply across the entire city, affecting more than 160,000 residents. Continue reading...

Conservationists hail success after first chicks in two centuries hatch in Leicestershire“I’m over the moon. We’ve waited a long time for this.” Beth Dunstan, environmental project manager at Belvoir Castle is celebrating the birth of the first osprey chicks in Leicestershire for two centuries this summer, one of a series of recent successes in bringing the osprey back across the UK.The birds of prey were at one time extinct across the country, which makes the recent hatching of the two osprey chicks cause for celebration. “It’s such a rare thing,” said Dunstan. “There are only around 30 breeding pairs of ospreys in England, so to have a pair on our land breeding and raising chicks is so exciting.” Continue reading...

Countries most responsible for climate crisis must ‘end war with nature’, says António GuterresThe UN secretary-general, António Guterres, has said the world owes impoverished Pakistan “massive” help in recovering from the summer’s devastating floods because the country bears less blame than many others for the climate crisis.Months of heavy monsoon rains and flooding have killed 1,391 people and affected 33 million while half a million people have become homeless. Planeloads of aid from the United States, the United Arab Emirates and other countries have begun arriving, but Guterres said there is more to be done to help a country which contributes less than 1% of global emissions. Continue reading...

Government says it can finalise £100bn policy before 1 October energy price rise in spite of parliament closureLiz Truss’s plans to legislate for a £100bn package of help with energy bills will not be affected by 10 days of national mourning for the Queen, despite parliament being cancelled for the next week, Downing Street has said.The government is postponing most business until after the Queen’s funeral, but Truss’s team needs to implement the package before the energy price rise that is due to come into force on 1 October. Continue reading...

Countries that import large volumes fear Kremlin would respond by halting all gas flows, plunging them into recessionEU energy ministers have clashed over a plan to put a price cap on Russian gas, casting doubt on whether the measure will go ahead.Speaking after emergency talks in Brussels in response to surging gas and electricity prices, the EU’s energy commissioner, Kadri Simson, said “nothing is decided” on proposals to curb Russia’s income. Continue reading...

Demand for luxury goods is driving global trade in hawksbill and green turtles, researchers say, adding to calls for more protectionMore than 1.1 million sea turtles have been illegally killed in the past 30 years, according to new data.Despite laws to protect them, scientists at Arizona State University estimate that about 44,000 turtles across 65 countries were illegally killed and exploited every year over the past decade. Continue reading...

Instead of home insulation and cheap renewables, ministers have given us fracking. This crisis is just the start of the painAs the full horror of the gathering energy crisis takes shape and the party of austerity prepares to borrow £150bn just to pay the bills, government ministers are desperate for you to remember one thing: it is all Vladimir Putin’s fault. Although the terrifying spike in gas prices is driven by the economic war Putin is waging on Europe, the emergency we face this winter is not simply a product of those high prices. It’s also a product of successive Conservative governments wilfully dismissing policies that would have reduced our reliance on gas in the first place.Take insulating homes and buildings. The past decade has been a period of dismal neglect for one of the most economically obvious policies. Report after report, campaign after campaign, year after year, governments have been reminded of the prudence of investing to make our buildings cheaper and cleaner to heat. Direct grants for those on low incomes, financial support for households and private firms, and properly funded schemes for the public sector could have ended the UK’s reign as the least insulated country in western Europe. Adopting these policies would have cost less than £5bn, and returned money to the Treasury over time through myriad economic benefits, even before gas prices skyrocketed.Max Wakefield is director of campaigns for the climate action group Possible Continue reading...

Kohei Saito’s book Capital in the Anthropocene has become an unlikely hit among young people and is about to be translated into EnglishThe climate crisis will spiral out of control unless the world applies “emergency brakes” to capitalism and devises a “new way of living”, according to a Japanese academic whose book on Marxism and the environment has become a surprise bestseller.The message from Kohei Saito, an associate professor at Tokyo University, is simple: capitalism’s demand for unlimited profits is destroying the planet and only “degrowth” can repair the damage by slowing down social production and sharing wealth. Continue reading...

Some people might shy away from eating bugs off their plates, but Chef Joseph Yoon is popularizing the age-old practice of entomophagy – with mouthwatering resultsChef Joseph Yoon is used to people reacting negatively to his creations: he’s watched a child cry when she realized the pumpkin cake in her mouth was made with cricket powder, seen a grown adult spit out his bug-laden bite of food, and endured racist online comments aimed at him for suggesting that scorpions or mealworms are worth eating.But none of that seems to faze Yoon. If anything, it just reaffirms the importance of his work destigmatizing entomophagy. As the founder of Brooklyn Bugs and a self-described “edible insect ambassador”, Yoon is on a mission to prove that eating bugs is good for the planet – and the palate. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including helpful blue-banded bees, a recovering vulture and a drumming chimp Continue reading...

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, grandson of Pakistan’s hanged reforming prime minister, saw devastation and desperation after recent floodsA Pakistani artist whose work centres on the Indus River delta, its wildlife and the climate crisis has told of his return to his home village and seeing the devastation its swollen waters had brought.Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who is named after his grandfather, the former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, said he met people fearful for what the future may bring and heard the sound of houses collapsing into the water. Continue reading...

Evidence suggests least well-off and minority ethnic communities face biggest burden from toxic airIt has long been known that the poorest and those from minority ethnic communities shoulder the greatest burden from air pollution – and now a study has provided compelling evidence.Researchers used sensors mounted on satellites and aircraft to map nitrogen dioxide across 11 major US cities. Clouds and snow on the ground prevented measurement on many days but the researchers were able to map the pollution exposure well enough to compare with census data. Continue reading...

As Liz Truss lifts ban, experts say UK shale cannot be produced at scale and any gas produced would be sold to highest bidderFracking will not ease the UK’s energy crisis or bring down heating bills, but will imperil climate targets, scientists and economists have said, after the prime minister, Liz Truss, made lifting the ban on fracking one of the central planks of her energy strategy.The technology used for hydraulic fracturing of shale rocks, and the difficulty of extracting gas from the UK’s shale deposits, have not changed markedly in the decade since fracking was first tried in the UK, according to scientists. Continue reading...

Company will use bailiffs if those protesting against continuing raw sewage discharges continue to hold back payment of billsSouthern Water is threatening to use debt collection agencies against customers involved in a payment boycott in protest against continuing raw sewage discharges.The water company, which was given the lowest one star rating for performance by the Environment Agency, has informed boycotters that it will be using bailiffs if they continue to hold back bill payments. Continue reading...

Most striking feature of new PM’s strategy is how much has been filed under ‘to do’ or ‘details to follow’After three days in office, Liz Truss’s administration could not be expected to have every detail of its big-bucks energy strategy nailed down. Even so, the striking feature – beyond the well-trailed two-year price cap for households – was how much has been filed under “to do” or “details to follow”. At least six areas of the canvas are virtually blank.First, six months of “equivalent” support for businesses, public sector bodies and charities inevitably prompts the question of what happens in April. On what basis will deserving causes for ongoing help be selected? Continue reading...

Preston New Road activists promise to regroup to fight Cuadrilla until fracking in UK is banned for goodChris Holliday, 60, recalls the exact moment a 2.9-magnitude earth tremor brought a halt to fracking in the UK. It was 8.30am on August bank holiday Monday in 2019 and Holliday, a retired IT consultant, was with his wife, Susan, in their neat kitchen when all of a sudden the cups and saucers began to shake.“The crockery and glasses were rattling. The windows were rattling,” he said on Thursday. Continue reading...

Breathe, due out next year, will see the London mayor draw on his own experience with adult-onset asthma to address the crisisLondon mayor Sadiq Khan to is to publish his first book, described by his publisher as a “warm and practical guide” to tackling the climate emergency.Khan became mayor of London in 2016, and since then has brought in a range of environmental measures, including introducing the world’s first ultra-low emission zone, overseeing hundreds of kilometres of new cycle lanes and announcing plans to rewild Hyde Park. Continue reading...

Endangered animal caught by ZSL camera intended for hedgehogs in woodland in south-west of capitalA pine marten has been spotted in London for the first time in more than a century after being pictured on a camera trap installed to monitor hedgehogs.The endangered mustelid was driven to extinction in England a hundred years ago and was only sighted again for the first time in the Shropshire hills in 2015, remaining an extremely rare animal. Continue reading...

Former energy and climate minister will look for the quickest ways to reach the emissions targetLiz Truss has appointed the Conservative MP Chris Skidmore to lead a review of net zero, to find the most efficient and fastest ways to reach the climate target.The former energy and climate minister has been given until the end of the year to present his findings to the prime minister. Continue reading...

PM announces £150bn scheme and resumption of fracking as she pledges to tackle root causes of crisis

One herd has flourished in British Columbia after an Indigenous-led project established a carefully guarded pen to protect pregnant caribou and their newborn calvesIn a cramped cabin in western Canada, Starr Gauthier’s mornings begin with a comforting routine. As the sun flits through stands of mountain evergreens, she brews coffee, chops wood and prepares food – for her co-worker and for the endangered caribou whose fate rests in her hands. “I get fired up every morning knowing that we’re actually doing something that matters,” says the former oil worker.“And it’s not just that we’re serving a purpose for our community and the ecosystem around us. We’re serving a global purpose. And I’m grateful to be a part of that.” Continue reading...

Region’s long awaited energy and economic transition will be substantially boosted by US’s first climate law, the Inflation Reduction ActWhen Mason Taylor enrolled at the local vocational school with dreams of becoming an electrician like his dad, it was assumed that the ninth-grader would eventually end up moving away from Wise county, Virginia, to find a decent job.Now 19, Taylor just bought a truck after a summer apprenticing with a crew of electricians installing rooftop solar systems at public schools in the county. He was among a dozen or so rookies paid $17 an hour, plus tools and a travel stipend, as part of the state’s first solar energy youth apprenticeship scheme. Continue reading...

The 1m lines from pots used to catch the crustaceans are one of the two main threats to the whales, of which fewer than 340 remainLobster nets and pots have become such a threat to the survival of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales that the crustaceans have been “red-listed” as seafood to avoid by a major fish sustainability guide.Fewer than 340 of these whales exist today, including only 80 breeding females. The population is estimated to have dwindled by 28% over the past decade. Continue reading...

Communities secretary defends decision not to extend windfall tax as Liz Truss unveils support package

Labor’s climate bill has passed both houses of parliament with support from the Greens and key crossbench senators

BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies spend $750m a year burnishing climate credentials but only 12% of capital on low-carbon developmentBig oil and gas companies are spending tens of millions publicising their environmental work, while only about a 10th of their investment goes into low-carbon development, a report claims.A comprehensive study of public communications from five oil and gas firms by InfluenceMap, a climate finance thinktank, found that 60% of the publicity made at least one claim highlighting the companies’ positive climate actions. But on average, the five companies devoted only 12% of capital expenditure to low-carbon activities – and this included some gas projects. Continue reading...

A new term – renewable gas – has emerged. But to claim the industry is ‘well on the way to decarbonising’ is questionableAustralia’s gas industry and the owners of all the pipes and infrastructure are on a public relations splurge to convince customers to stick with it in the face of the grand decarbonisation challenge.A new term – renewable gas – has emerged, with the industry talking the talk about replacing its fossil fuel gas with alternatives such as hydrogen and gas generated from waste. Continue reading...

Environment Protection Authority’s climate policy plans to reclassify greenhouse gas and offer incentives to transition from fossil fuels

Chris Skidmore urges new PM to ignore ‘tiny vocal minority in Westminster’ arguing against climate targetTop green Conservative Chris Skidmore is to embark on a net zero tour to show that “normal people are getting on with” decarbonisation, and urge the new prime minister to ignore the “Westminster bubble” that is pouring scorn on the climate target.Skidmore, a former energy minister, will on Thursday visit green schemes across north-west England, including a home insulation demonstration in Salford and a peat restoration project in Oldham. Continue reading...

BEIS has been sitting on report delivered in early July into possible effect of fracking in UKLiz Truss must publish a recently completed review on fracking in the UK, green campaigners have urged, amid expectations the new prime minister will lift the moratorium on shale gas drilling immediately.The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has been sitting on a report delivered in early July by the British Geological Survey into the possible effects of fracking in the UK, including the danger of Earth tremors. Continue reading...

Large amounts of rubbish dumped by festivalgoers in Lake Tahoe and Reno irks locals who have to dispose of itBurning Man has become known for wild outfits, utopian philosophy, rich techies and celebrity attendees and, increasingly, frustrated locals in nearby towns.Nearly 80,000 people pour into Nevada’s Black Rock Desert each year for the countercultural festival with community principles that include leaving no trace in the environment and protecting social networks and public spaces. Continue reading...

Matthew Sinclair wrote book tackling ‘burgeoning climate change industry’Global heating could bring benefits, according to one of Liz Truss’s new advisers.As onlookers seek to read the environmental signals being sent by Truss’s new appointments, there has been particular interest in the ideas of Matthew Sinclair, who published Let Them Eat Carbon in 2011. Continue reading...

Environmentalists assess cabinet appointments and say it is ‘a mixed bag’ and there is no clear directionThe spotlight on energy should be the UK’s opportunity to finally adopt a green agenda that sets a clear path to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But Truss’s own pronouncements – more oil drilling, more gas fracking – and many of her cabinet appointments suggest action on net zero could be undermined rather than boosted by her government. As the makeup of her government comes into focus, will it head in the direction environmentalists say the UK urgently needs to travel? Continue reading...

Olaf Scholz says country has enough energy to get through winter after Russia cut gas suppliesThe German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has rejected calls for his government to commit to a longer-term extension of the life of the country’s nuclear power plants and insisted that Europe’s largest economy would have enough energy to get through the winter.Scholz shut down criticism from the opposition conservative alliance and at least one leading economist, who have described his coalition’s decision to keep two remaining reactors in emergency reserve rather than letting them produce electricity, as “madness” while the government refuses to reverse its long-term plan to close down the last remaining plants. Continue reading...

Wildlife cameraman James Aldred’s diary of time spent observing a family of goshawks in the New Forest takes top honourWildlife cameraman James Aldred, who has collaborated with David Attenborough, has been named the winner of the James Cropper Wainwright nature writing prize, while the award’s inaugural children’s writing prize has gone to two brothers writing about climate change.Aldred’s book Goshawk Summer is a diary of his time spent observing a family of goshawks in the New Forest in southern England. Originally commissioned at the start of 2020 to film the lives of the goshawks, Aldred was granted permission to continue when lockdown struck. Continue reading...

European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen also plans cap on price of Russian gasThe head of the EU executive, has set out plans for windfall taxes, mandatory electricity savings and a cap on the price of Russian gas to limit Kremlin revenues used to finance the “atrocious” war in Ukraine.Ursula von der Leyen outlined a five-point plan in response to an energy price crisis, driven by the Russian shutdown of the key Nord Stream 1 pipeline but exacerbated by the climate crisis and lingering effects of the Covid pandemic. Continue reading...

Environmental and faith groups say focus should be on investing in net zero and improving energy efficiencyA coalition of environmental and faith groups has written to Liz Truss urging her to take strong action to tackle climate change, the energy crisis and the steep decline in the nation’s wildlife and habitats.More than 100 groups including the National Trust, Christian Aid, the RSPB and Wildlife and Countryside Link say decisive action is needed to tackle record heatwaves, water shortages, rising energy bills and increasing gas prices. Continue reading...