Environment | The Guardian

Lawns and gardens account for 60% of household water use in arid areas of the US. This is unsustainableAs a heatwave drags across the United States, local and state governments are scrambling to find solutions to the threats brought by record high temperatures. Washington DC and Philadelphia have declared heat emergencies, activating public cooling centers and other safety measures across their cities, while Phoenix and Los Angeles continue to push programs to plant new trees in working-class neighborhoods with little canopy coverage. Many of these short-term solutions rely on water, a dangerous reality given that nearly 50% of the country is experiencing some form of drought, with the amount of Americans affected by drought increasing 26.8% since last month. This looming threat has pushed one state, Nevada, to seek a more long-term solution: the banning of non-functional lawns.Lawn grass takes up 2% of all land in the United States. If it were a crop, it would be by far the single largest irrigated crop in the country. Nevada has, due to necessity, taken an obvious but large step in alleviating some of the more immediate symptoms of the climate crisis and bought themselves more time for other measures. It is time for the federal government to push all states to do the same and create incentives to ensure that it happens quickly and in a manner that doesn’t force working-class Americans to foot the bill.Akin Olla is a contributing opinion writer at the Guardian Continue reading...

Routes that are usually safe at this time of year now face hazards as a result of warmer temperaturesLittle snow cover and glaciers melting at an alarming rate in Europe’s heatwaves have put some classic Alpine hiking routes off-limits.Usually at the height of summer tourists flock to the Alps and seek out well-trodden paths up to some of its peaks. But with warmer temperatures – which scientists say are driven by climate change – speeding up glacier melt and thawing permafrost, routes that are usually safe at this time of year now face hazards such as falling rocks released from the ice. Continue reading...

Sunken boat from second world war and at least three sets of human remains found in largest US reservoir – and more could followDrought has a way of revealing things. Receding waters can highlight the precarity of the crucial systems that keep societies functioning and expose hidden ancient cities.In the case of Lake Mead, America’s largest reservoir, diminishing waters have in recent months uncovered long buried secrets and other mysterious finds: at least three sets of human remains, including a body inside a barrel that could be linked to a mob killing, and a sunken boat dating back to the second world war. Continue reading...

The French takeover of a satellite company shows we’re not learning from the current crisisTwenty-two years in and it’s already obvious that this century is demanding challenges and responses for which the British Tory mindset, with one or two honourable exceptions, is wholly unprepared. This century does not require a small state – it requires an agile state. More years of denial and the UK will be in very serious economic and social trouble.Last week came a vignette of small-state stupidity, ceding a major area of 21st-century economic activity to France and undermining our national security – with close observers believing that no minister even knew the magnitude of their crassness. I speak of the merger, on French terms, of the formerly British-controlled space company OneWeb with France’s Eutelsat, turbo-boosting the EU space effort. These Brexiters are remarkably incompetent at doing Brexit. But then incompetence comes with the territory. Continue reading...

In Challock in Kent the taps ran dry for six days, causing the school and gastropub to closeJohn Ramsden surveyed the parched village green, its yellow grass withered in the midday sun, and wondered what lay ahead. “People are worried it’ll happen again.”The “again” refers to life without a water supply. Ramsden’s village of Challock, perched in the uplands of the Kent downs, has already survived one bout without mains water this summer. Continue reading...

Critics say Mark Pritchard’s £46,800-a-year role with Linden Energy is ‘highly concerning’A Tory MP has been urged to quit his second job as a £325-an-hour adviser to a US fossil fuel firm after the company was accused of using “classic climate denial” tactics to delay action on the climate crisis.Mark Pritchard, 55, Conservative MP for the Wrekin in Shropshire, took on a role providing “strategic communications advice” to Linden Energy Holdings in May, official records show. He will be paid £46,800 a year for working 12 hours a month through his consulting company, Map Advisory. Continue reading...

Hosepipe ban and compulsory water metering needed, say advisers, as nation braces for droughtA national hosepipe ban should be implemented as a national priority along with compulsory water metering across the UK by the end of the decade.That is the key message that infrastructure advisers have given the government as the nation braces itself for a drought that is threatening major disruption to the nation. Failure to act now would leave Britain facing a future of queueing for emergency bottled water “from the back of lorries”. Continue reading...

Any new coal and gas projects are incompatible with effective climate action. This egregious compromise has to stop nowI’ve never felt more helpless as a parent than I did during the black summer bushfires.Rushing my two-year-old son to hospital, I was overwhelmed with worry: there was no escape from the toxic smoke, even where we lived in inner-city Sydney. It went on and on. As any parents would be, we were terrified about what the next few days would hold. Continue reading...

Tales of rescue and tragedy emerge as governor expects death toll to rise in one of the poorest regions in AmericaAs the hunt for survivors goes on in Kentucky after a torrential storm dumped 10 inches of rain in a matter of hours, tales of rescue and tragedy are beginning to emerge from the wreckage of the natural disaster.The region, parts of which remain cut off from power and cellphone service, has recorded 25 people dead with the death toll likely to rise in the coming days as the costs in life and property damage from the flash flooding are compiled. Continue reading...

Avian virus outbreak in France and trade barriers have left gamekeepers facing redundancy and shoots likely to go bankruptBird flu has managed to do to game shooting what animal rights activists have been trying to achieve for decades – with a little help from Brexit.Dozens of pheasant and partridge shoots have been called off ahead of the shooting season after an unprecedented outbreak of avian flu in France left gamekeepers in the UK with few birds to rear. Continue reading...

Kentucky governor says he expects death toll to rise and warns officials still cannot reach certain areasCatastrophic flash flooding in eastern Kentucky has now claimed 25 lives, with at least a dozen more people reported missing, as officials in the Appalachian region attempt to calculate the cost of the worst natural disaster there in decades.The Kentucky governor, Andy Beshear, said he expected the death toll to continue to rise in the state and warned officials still could not reach certain areas. Continue reading...

Sentiment is shifting among politicians and public as beloved region of forested mountains goes up in flamesAs wake-up calls go, this one had the distinction of early morning pungency. If the Czech Republic is to complete the journey from deep climate change scepticism to full recognition of the global heating crisis, history may record that the common experience of awakening to a pervading burning smell marked a turning point.This was the sensation that greeted inhabitants of Prague and other towns and cities last Monday morning as smoke from a blaze that had broken out the previous day in Bohemian Switzerland, a storied forested area close to the German border, wafted across the country and seeped into the popular consciousness. Continue reading...

Fewer than 340 North Atlantic right whales remain and vessel strikes are among the biggest threats to the speciesVessels off the US east coast must slow down more often to help save a vanishing species of whale from extinction, the federal government said.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration made the announcement via new proposed rules designed to prevent ships colliding with North Atlantic right whales. Continue reading...

Governor Andy Beshear says he expects death toll to ‘more than double’ after record floods wipe out entire towns in state’s eastKentucky’s governor said it could take weeks to find all the victims of flash flooding that killed at least 16 people when heavy rains turned streams into torrents that swamped towns across Appalachia.More rainstorms were forecast to roll through in coming days, keeping the region on edge as rescue crews struggled to get into hard-hit areas that include some of the poorest places in America. Continue reading...

Green sea turtle hatchling was missing a flipper when it was found lying on its back in a rockpool and taken to Taronga zoo

More water companies considering move after Southern Water imposes first such ban for a decadeMillions of people could spend their summer under a hosepipe ban after parts of England recorded the driest July for more than a century.Water companies are warning they will have to implement drought measures if the conditions continue and there is not average or above-average rain in coming weeks. Continue reading...

The rapper’s explanation made his plane’s short hop flights even more of a climate disaster, critics pointed outDrake, the rapper, has attempted to defend his use of a large private plane for a series of flights that lasted less than 20 minutes – by revealing that the aircraft was being moved to a storage location with no passengers on board.The Canadian music star and several other celebrities, including the socialite and business owner Kylie Jenner, have recently been attacked online for using their private jets for short journeys that could easily be undertaken by car or public transport. Continue reading...

London commissioner Andy Roe calls for ban after blazes across country during driest spell in 111 yearsLondon’s fire commissioner has joined calls for a total national ban on disposable barbecues after they were blamed for starting wildfires in England during the recent spate of dry weather.The barbecues are a fire risk, especially when used on dry ground, and areas of England have seen the driest weather experienced for 111 years. Continue reading...

Native wildlife will be reintroduced across Europe in a bid to reduce atmospheric carbon and promote tourismA European environmental organisation is looking to expand its number of rewilding landscapes – areas where endangered wildlife is reintroduced and protected – after being awarded a grant of £4.1m.The grant has been pledged to Rewilding Europe in the hope of scaling up rewilding efforts throughout several parts of the European continent. Continue reading...

The Biden administration will work around court ruling by setting new limits on ozone and coal ash to hasten closing of coal plantsThe US Environmental Protection Agency plans to use new limits on traditional pollutants such as ozone and coal ash to encourage the retirement of the nation’s remaining coal-fired power plants, according to the EPA chief, Michael Regan.The approach reflects how the Biden administration intends to forge ahead with goals to decarbonize the power sector despite the recent ruling from the supreme court limiting the agency’s ability to impose sweeping climate regulations. Continue reading...

Interviewing Jim for a biography revealed there was far more to him – and his influence on the modern world – than almost anyone realisesIn science and life, the reward for a curious mind is to look for one thing and find another that is more interesting. That was how James Lovelock – conceiver of the Gaia theory – explained the outlook that made him one of the most influential thinkers of the past century, and he encouraged me to apply the same approach in interviewing him over the past two years for a biography.What it revealed was that, even beyond the laudatory obituaries and tributes that followed his death at 103, there was far more to Jim – and his influence on the modern world – than almost anyone realises. Continue reading...

EU member states have been urged to reduce energy use to ensure they can cope in the event Russia cuts all suppliesEnergy ministers from the 27 EU member states, except Hungary, backed a voluntary 15% reduction in gas usage over the winter this week – a target that could become mandatory if the Kremlin ordered a complete shutdown of gas to Europe. Some are already taking steps to cut consumption.In France, air-conditioned shops have been told to keep their doors shut or risk a fine of €750 (£635). They have also agreed a plan under which they will switch off illuminated signs “as soon as the store closes” and “systematically reduce lighting intensity” by reducing lighting levels in shops. Illuminated advertising has been banned between 1am and 6am everywhere except in railway stations and airports. Public premises will also be required to set thermostats higher in summer and lower in winter, while the public will be expected to turn off wifi routers and televisions when they are away and switch off lights in rooms they are not using. Continue reading...

Naomi Klein and Caroline Lucas among signatories to letter voicing concerns over country’s hosting of climate summitA hundred days before the Cop27 summit is due to start in Sharm el-Sheikh, a group of environmentalists and activists have expressed alarm over Egypt’s ability to host the event successfully because of its poor record on human rights, as thousands of prisoners of conscience remain behind bars.“We are deeply concerned that [a successful conference] will not be possible due to the repressive actions of the Egyptian government,” they said. “Indeed, it seems more likely at this point that the conference will be used to whitewash human rights abuses in the country.” Continue reading...

UK looking for storage site for world’s biggest stockpile of untreated waste, including 100 tonnes of plutoniumPlans to dispose of radioactive nuclear waste beneath the seabed off the north-west coast of England risk seriously harming marine life including mammals such as dolphins and whales, experts have warned.Seismic surveys in the Irish Sea near Cumbria get under way on Saturday to explore whether the area is suitable for a proposed facility. The UK government is seeking a location for a deep underground repository to store the world’s largest stockpile of untreated nuclear waste. Continue reading...

Backed with billions in venture capital funding, hyper-fast delivery companies promise speed and ease. But critics fear the affect on workers and communitiesOn an otherwise busy stretch of Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood stands a black-painted former autobody shop. Long papered-over windows hide its internal workings and lend a gloomy presence to a street otherwise bustling with brunchers. A hopeful shopper stands over the threshold, taking stock of shelves lined with Doritos, Kettle Chips and sodas as a worker explains that it’s closed to the public. “You can order on the app for delivery, though,” he says.This store-like expanse is a micro-fulfilment center, or “dark store”, for Gopuff, one of numerous hyper-fast delivery companies to launch over the last few years in large cities across the US as the pandemic switched consumer focus – for those who could afford it – to ordering in. Continue reading...

Nepalese population of Bengal tigers has nearly tripled in 12 years and conflict with humans is increasingNepal’s tiger population has nearly tripled in 12 years, the country’s prime minister has announced. But concerns about the human cost of the big cat’s recovery are growing after a rise in fatal attacks.From a low of 121 in 2010, the Nepalese population of Bengal tigers has risen to 355, according to the latest survey, revealed by the prime minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, to mark International Tiger Day on Friday.Find more Age of Extinction coverage here, and follow our biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features. Continue reading...

UK regulator will scrutinise brands to discover whether sustainability claims constitute greenwashingThe Competition and Markets Authority has launched an investigation into whether “eco-friendly and sustainability claims” made by the fast fashion chains Asos, Boohoo and George at Asda constitute greenwashing.Sarah Cardell, the interim CMA chief executive, said the regulator would be “scrutinising green claims” made by the brands and “won’t hesitate to take enforcement action” if they are found to have been misleading customers over their environmental credentials. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a released spider monkey, deep sea creatures and a jagged ambush bug Continue reading...

Revenue at Australia Pacific LNG doubles in 2021-22, prompting renewed calls for a windfall tax

Most of the world’s mountain glaciers are retreating because of the climate crisis, but those in the European Alps are especially vulnerable. Smaller and with less ice cover, this year they are on track for their highest loss of mass in at least 60 years of record keepingFrom the way 45-year-old Swiss glaciologist Andreas Linsbauer bounds over icy crevasses, you would never guess he was carrying 10kg of steel equipment needed to chart the decline of Switzerland’s glaciers.Glaciologist Andreas Linsbauer and assistant Andrea Millhaeusler drill a hole at a measuring point on the Pers glacier, near the Alpine resort of Pontresina Continue reading...

Fears that turning muddy route BR-319 into an all-season road will make it an artery for illegal logging and deforestationBrazil’s environmental authority has granted an initial permit to allow a major highway to be paved through the centre of the Amazon rainforest, the minister of infrastructure said, in a move that threatens to increase deforestation.On the campaign trail, Brazil’s rightwing president, Jair Bolsonaro, had pledged to repave the road, called BR-319, that would connect the largest Amazon city of Manaus year-round to the rest of Brazil. Continue reading...

Recent extreme temperatures were higher than those simulated by climate models, analysis revealsClimate breakdown made the recent record UK heatwave 10 times more likely, researchers have found. Analysis by World Weather Attribution reveals that temperatures in the UK during the heatwave, when it hit 40.3C, were higher than those simulated by climate models.The researchers say extreme temperatures in western Europe are rising faster than expected. Continue reading...

The $369bn climate spending package is part of a broader package, known as the Inflation Reduction ActJoe Manchin, the centrist West Virginia senator and coal company owner who has repeatedly thwarted Joe Biden’s attempts to pass legislation to tackle the climate crisis, shocked Washington on Wednesday by saying he will support a bill aimed at cutting planet-heating emissions.The $369bn package has been touted by jubilant Democrats as the largest climate bill ever in the US, and even the world. It still faces obstacles before passing but the support of Manchin, a crucial swing vote in an evenly divided US Senate, appears to augur well for its chances. So what’s in the legislation? Continue reading...

Experts warned the move would significantly worsen the UK’s housing crisis and push up living costs

Aemo executive says need for renewables is ‘urgent’ as failing coal-fired power plants and global gas costs cause prices to surge

Hanover is first large city to impose energy-saving measures and Berlin switches off monument spotlightsCities in Germany are switching off spotlights on public monuments, turning off fountains, and imposing cold showers on municipal swimming pools and sports halls, as the country races to reduce its energy consumption in the face of a looming Russian gas crisis.Hanover in north-west Germany on Wednesday became the first large city to announce energy-saving measures, including turning off hot water in the showers and bathrooms of city-run buildings and leisure centres. Continue reading...

But the senator’s insistence on more fossil fuel drilling was called a ‘climate suicide pact’ by one expertClimate advocates reacted with surprise and delight to Joe Manchin’s decision to back a sweeping bill to combat the climate crisis, with analysts predicting the legislation will bring the US close to its target of slashing planet-heating emissions.The West Virginia senator, who has made millions from his ownership of a coal-trading company, had seemingly thwarted Joe Biden’s hopes of passing meaningful climate legislation – only to reveal on Wednesday his support for a $369bn package to support renewable energy and electric vehicle rollout. Continue reading...

Labour says UK government ‘asleep at the wheel’ of Cop26 presidency as just 16 of 197 member nations submit new climate action plansInternational climate targets could be at risk because only a handful of countries have updated their emission reduction goals since last year’s Cop26 summit, campaigners have warned.Just 16 out of 197 member countries of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have updated their plans for how to meet climate goals – known as nationally determined contributions or NDCs. Continue reading...

Ed Gemmell wants to offer Conservative voters climate-conscious, business-friendly alternative

The climate emergency has been declared over and over. The future the scientists warned us about is here, nowWe are declaring a climate emergency. Everyone can, in whatever place on Earth they call home. No one needs to wait for politicians any more – we have been waiting for them for decades. What history shows us is that when people lead, governments follow. Our power resides in what we are witnessing. We cannot deny that Great Salt Lake is vanishing before our eyes into a sun-cracked playa of salt and toxic chemicals. Nor can we deny that Lake Mead is reduced to a puddle. In New Mexico a wildfire that began in early April is still burning in late July. Last August, the eye of Hurricane Ida split in two – there was no calm – only 190mph winds ripping towns in the bayous of Louisiana to shreds; and 7m acres in the American west burned in 2021. The future the scientists warned us about is where we live now.The climate emergency has been declared over and over by Nature and by human suffering and upheaval in response to its catastrophes. The 2,000 individuals who recently died of heat in Portugal and Spain are not here to bear witness, but many of the residents of Jacobabad in Pakistan, where Amnesty International declared the temperatures “unlivable for humans”, are. The heat-warped rails of the British train system, the buckled roads, cry out that this is unprecedented. The estimated billion sea creatures who died on the Pacific north-west’s coast from last summer’s heatwave announced a climate emergency. The heat-devastated populations of southern Asia, the current grain crop failures in China, India, across Europe and the American midwest, the starving in the Horn of Africa because of climate-caused drought, the bleached and dying coral reefs of Australia, the rivers of meltwater gushing from the Greenland ice sheet, the melting permafrost of Siberia and Alaska: all bear witness that this is a climate emergency. So do we. Yet the anxiety we feel, the grief that is ours, pales in comparison to the ferocity of our resolve.Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnistTerry Tempest Williams is a writer, naturalist, and activist Continue reading...

This week is National Moth Week, when citizen scientists worldwide are urged to record their sightings of some of the 160,000 species of moth. In recent years, photographer Carla Rhodes has been capturing moths in all their beautiful variety at her home in New York state Continue reading...

Tradies in paradise scheme offers incentives for workers to move to state, but budget mostly spent on ads and admin, government says

Canterbury-Bankstown mayor says bin mixing due to ‘problematic locations’, sparking wider reflection on Australia’s waste system

Heatwaves around world showing clear evidence of climate crisis, experts sayEven cool periods in the UK are now warmer than they used to be, meteorologists have warned, as an assessment of last year’s weather showed average temperatures higher across the country, in sync with rising heat across the globe.Britain’s record-breaking heatwave last week, when the mercury topped 40C for the first time on record, has subsided into scattered showers and cooler temperatures across much of the country, but forecasters have warned that smaller heatwaves could return in the next month. Continue reading...

Despite declaring a climate emergency, government is in court defending decision to issue fossil fuel prospecting permits in TaranakiNew Zealand’s government has argued that the climate crisis is of “insufficient weight” to stop it issuing oil and gas exploration permits – despite declaring a climate emergency and committing to eliminate offshore exploration.The government is in court defending its 2021 decision to allow fossil fuel companies to prospect for oil and gas in Taranaki. A group of students sued over the decision, saying the ministry failed to adequately consider the climate impact of the exploration, or give enough weight to crucial documents including advice from the climate commission and the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero By 2050 report. Continue reading...

The PM spruiked the myth that Australia’s ‘quality’ coal was relatively clean – following in the footsteps of Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison

Biden notes ‘extraordinary effort it took to reach this result’ and urges Congress to pass measureSenator Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat infamous for thwarting his own party’s most ambitious policy goals, announced he has signed on to a domestic policy bill that would pay down the national debt, lower healthcare costs and address the climate crisis.After reaching a deal with the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, Manchin said the new policy package was called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and included “realistic energy and climate policy”. Continue reading...

Users may also be paid to use less electricity, as country prepares for gas shortfalls across EuropeCoal power plants could be paid to generate more electricity, with consumers and businesses paid to use less, as the UK hunkers down for a winter of gas shortfalls across Europe caused by the standoff with Russia over the war in Ukraine.In its early outlook forecasting Britain’s ability to keep the lights on over winter, the National Grid admitted there could be “tight periods” in early December, which would trigger a call for power plants to ramp up generation. Continue reading...

With Europe grappling with an energy crisis, Mohammed bin Salman finds he is once again welcomeSmiles, handshakes, backslaps and the Acropolis all to himself. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has landed in Europe – his first trip west since the brutal killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi – and on a continent jittering with energy worries, the Saudi royal has received red-carpet treatment.Human rights concerns aside, the de facto leader of the world’s greatest oil producer has luxuriated in a welcome that only recently may have seemed impossible. Continue reading...

Vladimir Putin’s cynical extortion makes as eloquent a case for the clean energy transition as any environmental idealistWhen Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, he gambled that it would be won quickly and that the west would acquiesce in a fait accompli. He underestimated Ukrainian resilience and European readiness to punish Kremlin aggression with sanctions. That forced Mr Putin into a longer game. Now he is betting that European reliance on Russian gas exports will corrode western solidarity, leading to a degrading of sanctions and restored tolerance of Moscow’s territorial aggressions.To hasten that scenario, Russia has cut the flow of gas through the main east-west pipeline. The Kremlin’s message of strategic extortion is not subtle: go softer on the war and have a cosier winter; stay tough and freeze. European solidarity is just about holding. Earlier this week EU members agreed a deal to cut gas usage by 15% as part of a phased move away from reliance on Russian supplies. But the deal is diluted by opt-outs and exceptions for various countries. Hungary, the EU state that is cosiest with the Kremlin, has not signed up at all. Continue reading...