Environment | The Guardian

Roughly 46% of state remains categorized in ‘severe drought’, a sharp shift from more than 71% just last weekA weeks-long onslaught of heavy rain has made a notable dent in California’s extreme drought, new data shows, even as the state braces for another round of punishing storms with no reprieve in sight until next week.The storms have killed at least 18 people so far, with more fatalities likely to be confirmed in the coming days. The dramatic increase in precipitation has raised sunken reservoirs and boosted the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada range, putting the state in a much better position to weather warm and dry days that probably lie ahead. Continue reading...

Oil company drove some of the leading science of the era only to publicly dismiss global heatingThe oil giant Exxon privately “predicted global warming correctly and skilfully” only to then spend decades publicly rubbishing such science in order to protect its core business, new research has found.A trove of internal documents and research papers has previously established that Exxon knew of the dangers of global heating from at least the 1970s, with other oil industry bodies knowing of the risk even earlier, from around the 1950s. They forcefully and successfully mobilized against the science to stymie any action to reduce fossil fuel use. Continue reading...

World Meteorological Organization data shows last year’s average temperature was 1.15C more than pre-industrial levelsThe relentless challenge of global heating has again been underscored by the tally of a passing year, with 2022 ranking as one of the warmest years ever recorded and the past eight years now collectively the hottest documented by modern science.Last year’s average temperature was about 1.15C warmer globally than levels seen in the pre-industrial era, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), with searing, record heat enveloping much of Europe and Asia, which both experienced their second hottest years on record. Europe had its warmest ever summer. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Lack of confidence in ‘inconsistent’ government is huge barrier to investors, finds Chris Skidmore• Why the review is a damning indictment of Tory governmentRishi Sunak has been criticised by his own net zero tsar, who says the UK risks missing its green targets due to inconsistent policies and lack of commitment to pledges.In his net zero review, seen by the Guardian, Chris Skidmore said a large barrier to renewable energy was a lack of confidence in the government, which has inconsistent policy support for green energy, with measures such as Sunak’s new electricity tax. Continue reading...

Female killer whale died after grounding itself north of Daytona Beach in first recorded instance in south-eastern USWildlife officials in Florida will conduct a necropsy to determine the cause of death of a 21ft (6.4-metre) orca, the first recorded instance of a killer whale beaching itself in the south-eastern US.The female orca was still alive when it came ashore in Flagler county, about 30 miles north of Daytona Beach, early on Wednesday, but died before rescuers arrived. Continue reading...

The row between Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest reveals the technical, economic and even geopolitical hurdles to completion

Piles of rubbish fill the space normally taken by summer visitors, with businesses facing the loss of a season’s earnings

Experts say while boom in invasive species is not good news for some native fish, there will be winners – including water birds

No one knows how many of these elusive and mysterious creatures are left but time is thought to be running out as artificial barriers fragment their habitatWildlife photographer Yukihiro Fukuda first began diving in the cool waters of the Hino River in south-western Japan 15 years ago. But it was not until six years later that he was able to capture the extraordinary image of a male Japanese giant salamander guarding hundreds of eggs, which gained him a place in the finals of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, staged by London’s Natural History Museum. The salamander was named Fukuda-kun in his honour.It was the first time the nesting behaviour of these mysterious amphibians, which it is thought could live up to 100 years and whose biology has changed little over the last 23m years, had been caught on camera. Continue reading...

Julien Féral also receives life hunting ban over death of Morgan Keane, as government tightens rules for sportA hunter who shot dead a French-British man he mistook for a wild boar has received a two-year suspended sentence and has been banned from hunting for life, days after the government outlined tighter rules for the sport.Julien Féral, 35, who had only possessed a French hunting licence for four months before the incident, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. He had told the court he mistook 25-year-old Morgan Keane for a wild boar when he shot him dead in south-west France in December 2020. Continue reading...

Local government survey shows 26 council sites already spilling waste on to cliffs and into seaHundreds of ageing landfill dumps on the coast of England containing plastics, chemicals and other waste are a ticking timebomb threatening to leach pollution on to beaches and into the sea, new research shows.The waste sites date back 100 years in some cases, and little is known about what has been dumped in them. Climate breakdown with associated rising sea levels and flooding are increasing the risk of a cocktail of pollutants entering the sea. Continue reading...

Will Thornton, 39, was having a coffee on his balcony when he saw the koala heading for the highway and raced down, barefooted, to save the day

Report from climate activist groups says City is unprepared for potential collapse in value of fossil fuel assetsThe UK could suffer 500,000 job losses and be forced to spend £674bn of taxpayer cash to rescue its banks and ensure financial stability, unless the City prepares for the value of fossil fuels to collapse as a result of climate crisis regulations, research shows.The report, published by a collective of climate activist groups known as the One for One campaign (pdf), suggests those financial repercussions could eclipse those linked to the 2008 banking crisis, which forced tohe government to bail out major lenders including Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, and cost the UK roughly $556bn (£457bn). Continue reading...

Arctic bird of prey made famous by Harry Potter series and rarely seen so far south and west draws crowds to Orange countyOrange county has long served as a warm winter getaway for those escaping chillier climates, and since last month it’s hosted an unusual visitor from the Arctic: a snowy winter owl.The bird of prey, which typically calls the Arctic Circle and northern Canada home, has migrated to a residential neighborhood in Cypress. Its presence in the suburban community east of Los Angeles is highly unusual, experts say, and has drawn regular crowds eager to catch a glimpse of the majestic creature featured in the Harry Potter series. Continue reading...

In an area prone to natural disasters, residents claim a new mining project has damaged homes and livelihoods and left them fearing for their safetyVillagers in North Sumatra have accused the Indonesian government of putting their lives at risk by allowing a zinc mining firm to operate in an area prone to earthquakes and flooding.People in the mountainous Dairi Regency claim construction work carried out by Dairi Prima Mineral (DPM) has damaged their homes and livelihoods. They fear for their safety as the mine, which is expected to be operational in 2025, will sit on the Great Sumatran fault. Continue reading...

Ratcliffe-on-Soar’s fourth unit to be kept viable until late 2024 as ministers make request prompted by energy crisisA Nottinghamshire coal-burning power plant will stay fully open for two years beyond its planned closure date after a call from ministers prompted by the UK’s energy crisis.Ratcliffe-on-Soar had initially been pencilled in to shut in 2022, but last year said it would have an initial extension until 31 March 2023. Continue reading...

Study suggests the thousands of dams clogged with sediment pose a threat to water suppliesThousands of the world’s large dams are so clogged with sediment that they risk losing more than a quarter of their storage capacity by 2050, UN researchers have concluded, warning of the threat to water security.A new study from the UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health found that, by mid-century, dams and reservoirs will lose about 1.65tr cubic metres of water storage capacity to sediment. Continue reading...

Molly Sampson found an Otodus megalodon shark species tooth at a beach near her home in Maryland while hunting for fossilsFor Christmas, nine-year-old Molly Sampson and her sister Natalie, 17, asked their parents for one thing: insulated waders, to “go shark’s-tooth hunting like professionals”, said Molly’s mother, Alicia Sampson.When the waders arrived from Santa, Molly told the Guardian, she declared that she would be looking “for a Meg”, or megalodon tooth, and ventured to Maryland’s Calvert Beach to hunt fossils on Christmas Day with Natalie and their father, Bruce Sampson. Continue reading...

Sultan Al Jaber, chief of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, expected to be named president of global climate talksThe United Arab Emirates will launch its presidency of global climate talks on Thursday, with the head of its national oil company likely to be given the leading role.Sultan Al Jaber has served as climate envoy to the country, and is chief of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), the world’s twelfth-largest oil company by production, and is hotly tipped to take on the pivotal role of president of the talks. Continue reading...

Aly Domínguez and Jairo Bonilla, co-founders of grassroots resistance group to iron ore mine in Guapinol, murdered in streetTwo environmental defenders have been shot dead in broad daylight in Honduras, triggering fresh calls for an independent investigation into the persecution and violence against a rural community battling to stop an illegally sanctioned mine.Aly Domínguez, 38, and Jairo Bonilla, 28, from Guapinol in northern Honduras, were murdered on Saturday afternoon as they returned home on a moped after finishing work collecting payments for a cable company. They were intercepted by armed assailants and died at the scene, according to relatives. Continue reading...

A pilot program by the agriculture department in 2013 detected chemicals not found by the wholesalers’ system

Fast action in global gigafactory race is happening outside UK, as Swedish pacesetter showsIn a fantasy world, the would-be rescuer of Britishvolt would be a consortium that included a car manufacturer or two. The ailing startup would instantly get what it needs most after six months of crisis: endorsement for a battery product that is still in development, plus some , future customers.At that point, the big political claims made about Britishvolt, its planned gigafactory in Northumberland and “the UK’s place at the helm of the global green industrial revolution”, as the former prime minister Boris Johnson put it a year ago, would start to sound more credible. Continue reading...

Hundreds of climate activists barricaded themselves in a camp at an abandoned village in western Germany in an anti-coal protest. About 700 demonstrators occupying the deserted village of Lützerath in North Rhine Westphalia clashed with officers after eviction orders were issued by a local court. Environmentalists say bulldozing the village to expand the nearby Garzweiler coalmine would result in huge greenhouse gas emissions. The government and utility company RWE say the coal is needed to ensure Germany’s energy security

Animal has been evading capture from Rochford fishing lake since mid-DecemberA seal trapped in a fishing lake has “found himself in a branch of Waitrose” and has no incentive to escape, according to an expert.The animal has evaded multiple attempts at capture since first being spotted at Rochford Reservoir, in Essex, almost a month ago, the BBC reported. Continue reading...

Campaigners say most sites cannot cope with amount of wastewater, raising risk of raw discharges into riversInvestment into expanding sewage treatment works by Thames Water falls far short of what is needed to stop raw sewage discharges into rivers, according to a campaign group.Campaigners analysed 106 treatment works in the upper Thames area, which stretches from the Chilterns into the Cotswolds. A treatment works is where wastewater is stored and treated, before being released to the environment. The research suggested three-quarters of the works examined did not have enough capacity to cope with the amount of wastewater from the population. If a treatment works is over capacity, it increases the likelihood of raw sewage being released to the environment. Continue reading...

Seas dominate global weather patterns and the climate crisis is causing profound and damaging changesThe world’s oceans were the hottest ever recorded in 2022, demonstrating the profound and pervasive changes that human-caused emissions have made to the planet’s climate.More than 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gas emissions is absorbed in the oceans. The records, starting in 1958, show an inexorable rise in ocean temperature, with an acceleration in warming after 1990. Continue reading...

Australian billionaires had backed $30bn Sun Cable venture designed to help power Darwin, Indonesia and Singapore but the company has gone into voluntary administration

George Eustice says adapted kerosene boilers can run on ‘hydro-treated vegetable oil’ and cut emissions by 88%A proposal to incentivise households in rural areas to run their heating systems on vegetable oil is to be put to parliament.The former environment secretary George Eustice will introduce a bill proposing the removal of duties on renewable liquid heating fuels and incentives to replace kerosene in existing boilers. Continue reading...

Startup firm making 7.5 tonne truck at Essex facility after receiving European type approvalThe truck startup Tevva has become the first company to start high-volume production of electric lorries in the UK.The company has started making its 7.5 tonne electric truck for customers at a facility in Tilbury, Essex, after receiving European type approval – the regulatory clearance required by all volume manufacturers. Continue reading...

The pilot program that ran in 2013 was cancelled by then agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce and the results never released

PM accused of wasting taxpayers’ money with ‘extravagant’ flight rather than taking the trainRishi Sunak has been accused of undermining the government’s green credentials and wasting taxpayers’ money after it emerged he travelled from London to Leeds on a 14-seat RAF jet.Sunak used the jet to travel 200 miles to the Rutland Lodge medical practice on Monday, which he visited alongside the social care minister, Helen Whately. The trip was organised to publicise the government’s announcement of £200m to buy thousands of extra care home beds. Continue reading...

Supermarket’s switch from glass to aluminium cans expected to halve carbon footprint per drinkWaitrose is canning the mini wine bottle in an effort to reduce the carbon footprint of takeaway drinks.The supermarket plans to switch all of its 187ml glass wine bottles – except those containing champagne, prosecco, cava and rioja because of restrictions imposed by those particular appellations – to aluminium cans by next week. The cans will come in 187ml, 200ml and 250ml sizes. Continue reading...

Corporate responsibility lawsuit begun by NGOs accusing Evian brand owner of ‘failing’ to address environmental footprintDanone, the French yoghurt and bottled water company, is being taken to court by three environmental groups who accuse it of failing to sufficiently reduce its plastic footprint.The company behind Evian and Volvic mineral water was failing in its duties to act under a groundbreaking French law, the groups said. Continue reading...

Disasters costing at least $1bn killed 474 people last year, government figures showThe US endured a particularly painful year as communities wrestled with the growing impacts of the climate crisis, with 18 major disasters wreaking havoc across the country as planet-heating emissions continued to climb.Storms, floods, wildfires and droughts caused a total of $165bn in damages in the US last year, $10bn more than the 2021 total and the third most costly year since records of major losses began in 1980, according to new US government data. Continue reading...

Hundreds of protesters prepare to defy police at abandoned village of Lützerath in North Rhine WestphaliaHundreds of climate activists who have barricaded themselves in a protest camp on the site of an abandoned village in western Germany have said they are prepared to risk their lives to prevent it from being mined for coal.Lützerath in North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) has been emptied of its residents, who have all been relocated. An estimated 700 anti-coal protesters, who started occupying the deserted village and surroundings two and a half years ago, squatting in empty houses, outbuildings and farmland, are preparing for a showdown with police after eviction orders were issued by a local court that are valid from Tuesday. The number of protesters has grown in recent weeks as hundreds of activists from Germany and around the world join the protest. Continue reading...

I grabbed my friend’s arm, frozen, and imagined my tombstoneWhen you are a child, the first letter of your name will associate you with one animal or another. Mine was, inevitably and to my great disappointment, a hippo: an animal of thick, grey skin, whiskers sprouting from its cheeks, feet that were far too small for its body. Hippos weren’t even cute, I knew this: their strange mouths, cheeks at the end of a long nose, hid (where? how?) vast discoloured teeth which they used to chomp anything from antelope to zebra. I wanted my name to start with an elegant lowercase h: a letter that also happened to be the shape of a miniature giraffe. Instead I was H for Hippo, stocky and sturdy, like a Kalabari mask from Nigeria.Hippos eat grass instead of fish, according to Kikuyu legend, because of a deal with God: the hippo wanted to swim in waters cooled by the snow from Mount Kenya but God worried he would eat his little fishes, which were very dear to him. (And why wouldn’t they be? Little silver fish, quick and made of light.) So the hippo promised that, at night, he would emerge from the water “every time that food passes through my body, and I will scatter my dung on the earth with my tail”. Continue reading...

Cornwall Insight warns reduction in support could curb businesses’ ability to invest in reducing fossil fuel emissionsThe reduction in government support for companies’ energy bills could threaten their efforts to reduce fossil fuel emissions, a leading consultancy has warned.The Treasury announced on Monday that it plans to slash the support available to “non-domestic” energy customers – including businesses, schools, hospitals and charities – from April in a bid to reduce the cost to the government. Continue reading...

Continent records hottest ever summer as analysis shows temperatures rising twice as fast as global averageTwelve European countries broke monthly temperature records in 2022 as the continent recorded its hottest ever summer, new analysis shows.Of 27 European countries analysed by the Guardian, 12 recorded their highest ever temperature anomaly for at least one month in 2022. In each case, the anomalies were more than 1.9C above the average temperature recorded between 1991 and 2020 for at least one month. Continue reading...

Experts say extreme weather is a growing danger to displaced people and could force more to flee homesGovernments must get to grips with the links between the climate crisis and the plight of migrants around the world, experts have said, as increasingly extreme weather is a mounting danger to already vulnerable displaced people, and is potentially pushing more people to flee their homes.Migrants and displaced people number more than 100 million around the world, mainly in developing countries, and are among the populations most at risk from extreme weather. Continue reading...

Talks on rescue deal for battery startup led by DeaLab, which has been involved in fossil fuel transactionsThe battery startup Britishvolt is in talks with an Indonesia-linked oil and gas investor for a £160m rescue deal that would almost wipe out the value of existing shareholders’ stakes.The investor consortium is led by DeaLab Group, a UK-based private equity investor that has been involved in several fossil fuel and renewable energy transactions in Indonesia, and an associated metals business, Barracuda Group. Continue reading...

International funders join Pakistan PM and UN secretary general in Geneva to agree recovery plan following ‘monsoon on steroids’The international community has promised $10.5bn (£8.77bn) to help Pakistan rebuild after last summer’s catastrophic floods, described by UN secretary general António Guterres as a “monsoon on steroids.”The pledges were made on Monday at the International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan in Geneva, Switzerland, hosted by Pakistan’s prime minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and Guterres. Continue reading...

Plan to restrict car journeys in Oxford becomes lightning rod for fears of global assault on freedomsJordan Peterson is rarely lacking in strong opinions, but even by the standards of the Canadian psychologist turned hard-right culture warrior, this was vehement stuff: a city is planning to lock people in their local districts as part of a “well-documented” global plot to, ultimately, deprive them of all personal possessions.Where was this? Not Beijing, or even Pyongyang. It was Oxford. In the days since Peterson’s tweet – viewed 7.5m times – officials in the city have fielded endless queries from around the world asking why they are imposing a “climate lockdown”. Inevitably, there have also been some threats. Continue reading...

Welsh government considers whether to block plan after experts say manure from intensive units is turning Wye into ‘pea soup’The Welsh government is under pressure to block a new mega chicken farm in the Wye catchment, in what campaigners call a “crucial moment in the life or death of the Wye”.The River Wye has become synonymous with the intensive poultry industry, with more than 20 million chickens in its catchment area, producing more manure than the land can absorb and turning the river the colour of “pea soup”. Continue reading...

It’s lost 73% of its water and is unable to sustain some wildlife – and could soon negatively affect human healthEmergency measures are required to avert a catastrophe in Utah’s Great Salt Lake, which has been drying up due to excessive water use, a new report warns. Within years, the lake’s ecosystems could collapse and millions will be exposed to toxic dust contained within the drying lakebed, unless drastic steps are taken to cut water use.A team of 32 scientists and conservationists caution that the lake could decline beyond recognition in just five years. Their warning is especially urgent amid a historic western megadrought fueled by global heating. To save the lake, the report suggests 30-50% reductions in water use may be required, to allow 2.5m acre-feet of water to flow from streams and rivers directly into the lake over the next two years. Continue reading...

Members who set up group say past policies have been ‘trite’ and social justice case needs to be clearly madeLabour MPs have joined a lobby group in an attempt to push Keir Starmer into making nature and climate a key part of his election manifesto.Previous Labour nature policies have been “trite”, MPs have said, arguing that the social justice case for climate and nature needs to be made more clearly by the party. Continue reading...

Plan that is key to Albanese government’s 2030 target will focus on emissions intensity to encourage cleaner practices rather than cutting production

Scientists describe as ‘very alarming’ research that shows severe weather events were made more likely by climate changeRelentless drought in California, extreme rainfall in the UK, record heat in China – some of the most severe weather events that have occurred around the world in the past few years were made far more likely due to the climate crisis, new research has found.The analysis of extreme events in 2021 and 2022 found that many of these extremes were worsened by global heating, and in some cases would have been almost impossible in terms of their severity if humans had not altered the climate through the burning of fossil fuels. Continue reading...

The cost of hot water has risen dramatically, while environmental concerns are more pressing than ever. So just how short should your shower be?Name: The four-minute shower.Age: Over before you know it. Continue reading...

Most of atmospheric layer that protects planet from ultraviolet radiation likely to be fully recovered for most of world by 2040The hole in the Earth’s ozone layer, once the most feared environmental peril facing humanity, is set to be completely healed over most of the world within two decades following decisive action by governments to phase out ozone-depleting substances, a new UN assessment has found.The loss of the ozone layer, which risked exposing people to harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun, is on track to be completely recovered by 2040 across the world, aside from the polar regions, according to the report. The poles will take a little longer – the ozone layer will fully bounce back by 2045 over the Arctic and by 2066 over the Antarctic. Continue reading...

Tougher sentences to be imposed for those causing accidents but activists dismiss alcohol ban as ‘laughable’The French government has angered anti-hunt campaigners after refusing to ban hunting on Sundays during the season.Instead, it has declared a ban on drinking alcohol and taking drugs while hunting, a move activists say is unenforceable, and will set up a voluntary application for hunters to indicate where they are active. Continue reading...