For British botanist Leif Bersweden, finding an orchid is ‘pure joy’ and one that he is happy to share with fellow enthusiasts as they scour a nature reserve in HampshireIt’s a Friday, and half a dozen retirees are scouring the ground for flowers. We’re on chalk grassland in Noar Hill nature reserve in Hampshire. Medieval chalk extraction has created small artificial valleys in this scrubby 20-hectare (50-acre) landscape perched above farmland. It is home to a jungle of flowers, including an abundance of oxeye daisies and clovers. But today we’re hunting for a rarer inhabitant: the orchid.Leif Bersweden, a 28-year-old botanist who has been obsessed with orchids since the age of 12, immediately spots a frog orchid, a little greenish plant about 10cm tall. Its flowers would only look like frogs to someone on hallucinogens. Continue reading...
The centrist senator has seemingly sunk Biden’s hopes of passing a major bill, and among climate activists the despair is palpableJoe Manchin, the Democratic senator who has made millions of dollars through his founding of a coal-trading company in his home state of West Virginia, has seemingly sunk fellow Democrat and US president Joe Biden’s hopes of passing a major bill to combat the climate crisis. Continue reading...
by Adam Gabbatt and Martin Pengelly in New York and C on (#61ES1)
West Virginia senator refuses to support funding for climate crisis and says he will not back tax raises for wealthy AmericansJoe Biden has promised executive action on climate change after Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator who has repeatedly thwarted his own party while making millions in the coal industry, refused to support more funding for climate action.In another blow to Democrats ahead of the midterm elections, the West Virginia senator also came out against tax raises for wealthy Americans. Continue reading...
Author recognised for his decades-long commitment to neglected environmental issuesThe “elegant, urgent writing” of George Monbiot has seen the author, environmentalist and Guardian columnist win the prestigious Orwell prize for journalism.The prize is awarded for commentary or reporting that comes closest to meeting the ambition of George Orwell, the novelist, essayist, journalist and critic, to “make political writing into an art”. Continue reading...
Band of volunteers now assist surveying homes so that re-roofing and scaffolding does not disrupt beloved birds’ nestingWhen Chet Cunago heard that scaffolding was blocking swifts from entering their ancestral nests in the eaves of homes in Sheffield, she raced into action.After frantic calls to the council, charities and fellow nature lovers, she got the scaffold boards removed and assembled a volunteer group to search for overlooked swift nests in all the council houses scheduled for renovation in Handsworth.Erect a swift box, which costs £30–£100 depending on size. Local swift groups can help advise on installation or roofers and aerial installers can help. South-facing eaves are often too hot for the nests.Site-faithful swifts are notoriously difficult to attract to new nest boxes but playing swift calls from an adjacent window can work. Swift Conservation sells automatic MP3 players with swift calls for £22. And even if the box isn’t adopted by swifts, it will certainly be used by other birds.Drilling holes into plastic soffits and adding dividers inside is a cheap and unobtrusive way to make a modern house swift-friendly. Add swift bricks (£25) to any new extensions.Join a local swift group and help survey nest sites – there will almost certainly be a swift group in your nearest city or town. When more swift nest sites are known about, they can be protected.Join campaigns for swift bricks to be fitted in every new home. Alert developers, councils, housing associations and architects to the issue.Contrary to popular belief, grounded swifts can usually get airborne again, so if you find a grounded swift it may be immature (it can only fly if its wings are at least 16cm long) or ill. Put it in a warm box, give it water by running a wetted cotton bud around the edge of its beak, avoiding the nostrils, and call a local swift rescuer. A full list of swift rescuers can be found here. Continue reading...
US adviser to the White House and partner call on UN to move climate crisis summit over fears they would be targetedA White House adviser and his partner have called on the United Nations to move a key climate change summit from Egypt due to the country’s treatment of LGBTQ people, citing fears that they and other activists would be targeted by security forces if they attend the talks.The couple, Jerome Foster and Elijah Mckenzie-Jackson, have written to Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to condemn the choice of Egypt as host of the Cop27 talks due to its “LGBTQ+ torture, woman slaughter and civil rights suppression” and that the decision “places our life in danger in the process of advocating for the life of our planet”. Continue reading...
by Caitlin Cassidy (now) and Cait Kelly (earlier) on (#61E3V)
This blog is now closedNSW has recorded 12,228 new cases and 14 deaths in the past 24 hours.There are 2,027 people in hospital and of those, 60 are in ICU. Continue reading...
by Severin Carrell, Rob Evans and David Pegg on (#61ED6)
Exclusive: Dozens of laws protect Queen’s private estates from investigators – but documents reveal allegations of wildlife crimeOn a pleasant autumn evening in 2007, a wildlife warden at the Dersingham Bog nature reserve in Norfolk took a friend to see two female hen harriers returning home to roost. But as dusk descended, they were startled by the sound of shotgun blasts.After the first shot, they saw one of the rare birds of prey “immediately fold and drop out of sight”. About 30 seconds later they heard a second blast – and another harrier fell from the sky.Sandringham has been investigated for wildlife and pesticides offences against legally protected birds of prey at least six times between 2005 and 2016.As well as the two hen harriers shot in 2007, police and Natural England have investigated the deaths of a goshawk, a sparrowhawk, a red kite, a tawny owl and a marsh harrier at Sandringham estate and land it owns nearby, with only one prosecution.In 2009, the estate was given an official warning about the mishandling and unlawful storage of highly toxic chemicals after the sparrowhawk was poisoned.In 2016, Sandringham admitted it had destroyed the body of a goshawk found dead near Sandringham House before it could be examined by police, which meant no cause of death could be established. Continue reading...
by Adam Morton Climate and environment editor on (#61DE3)
Climate change minister Chris Bowen has accepted the resignation of three members of the Emissions Reduction Assurance CommitteeLabor will make substantial changes to a committee responsible for ensuring the integrity of the national carbon credit system after overseeing the departure of three members appointed by the Coalition, including the chair.A spokesperson for the climate change minister, Chris Bowen, confirmed he had accepted the resignation of three members of the Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee. Continue reading...
Giant sequoias still safe as firefighters face challenges from the warm and dry conditions fueling the blazeThe wildfire sweeping through Yosemite national park swelled to more than 4,375 acres (1,770 hectares) by Thursday morning, and is now pushing east into the Sierra national forest.Raging across steep and rugged terrain, firefighters have faced challenges battling the blaze, which has exhibited extreme fire behavior, officials said. Warm and dry conditions as well as dried out vegetation have upped the intensity, spurring flames that, in some areas, stretched high into the canopies of the tall trees and produced large plumes of smoke that billowed into the sky. Continue reading...
Temperatures of over 40C cause red alert in the city and test records as heatwave ravages parts of EuropeChina’s most populous city, Shanghai, has issued its highest alert for extreme heat for the third time this summer as sweltering temperatures repeatedly tested records this week.The commercial and industrial hub of 25 million people declared a red alert on Thursday, warning of expected temperatures of at least 40C (104F) in the next 24 hours. Temperatures soared as high as 40.6 C in the afternoon but fell short of Wednesday’s 40.9 C, which matched a 2017 record. Continue reading...
German pensioners seeking ‘asylum’ from soaring energy costs and rising inflation are welcome in Greece, says ministerGreece’s tourism minister has sent an invitation to German pensioners wanting to escape astronomical heating bills and other high living costs this coming winter, urging them to see his country as an attractive alternative.With gas bills already having doubled in Germany and expected to rise to around seven times the level they were a year ago, Vasilis Kikilias has said Greece offers the promise of warmth, hospitality and lower grocery and restaurant prices. Continue reading...
by Nina Lakhani and Oliver Milman in New York on (#61DGM)
A Pew survey found more Americans favor stricter environmental laws and regulations – even at an economic costMore than 80% of Democrats think the government is not doing enough to tackle the climate crisis, according to a large nationwide survey that found younger voters across both parties are most frustrated with the pace of political action on green issues.Overall, Americans are largely split along party lines in how they view Joe Biden’s record on pressing climate and environmental challenges like clean water and air quality, according to the Pew Research Center survey of more than 10,000 adults. Continue reading...
by Sandra Laville Environment correspondent on (#61D7Y)
Report shows English water and sewage firms’ performance on pollution has declined to worst in yearsWater company bosses must be jailed for serious pollution, the Environment Agency (EA) has said, as it revealed English water firms have overseen shocking levels of pollution in the last year.The agency said water firms’ performance on pollution had declined to the worst seen in years. It is calling for chief executives and board members to be jailed if they oversee serious, repeated pollution because they seemed undeterred by enforcement action and court fines for breaching environmental laws. Continue reading...
by Nicola Cutcher, Tom Levitt and Robin Eveleigh on (#61D1R)
The River Wye flows through Herefordshire where bird numbers – and their waste – surged in the year after the supermarket signed a deal with a local processor, Guardian investigation showsA major deal to supply chicken to Tesco from nearly a decade ago may be linked to the ecological demise of one of the UK’s favourite rivers, according to a Guardian investigation.As the River Wye flows through mid-Wales to the Severn estuary, it passes through the so-called chicken capital of the UK, where an estimated 20 million birds are farmed in the river’s catchment. Continue reading...
From trade unions to a bishop, activists are uniting to keep the UK government to its North Sea climate commitmentsWhen the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, tweeted on the eve of the long jubilee weekend that the government was giving the go-ahead to a new oil and gas project in the North Sea, ministers probably hoped the news would slip out without much fuss.But less than 24 hours later hundreds of protesters, furious that the government was planning to expand fossil fuel infrastructure in the midst of a climate crisis, took to the streets across the UK to voice their objections. Continue reading...
Governments will need to spend big to protect vulnerable people this winterEurope is sweltering during a prolonged summer heatwave. But the attention of political leaders is increasingly focused on the coming winter. As a succession of recent warnings from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and elsewhere has underlined, an energy crisis to rival the oil price shock in the 1970s could hit when the weather turns cold.As Vladimir Putin seeks to make the west pay for its support for Ukraine since February’s brutal invasion, Moscow has intensified its squeeze on gas exports to Europe. On Monday, Russia shut down its main pipeline to Germany – having previously reduced the flow of gas through it by 60%. Ostensibly, Nord Stream 1 has been closed to allow scheduled maintenance work, but its reopening later this month is far from certain. Gas supplies to Italy have been reduced by a further third; in all, a total of 12 EU countries have been either fully or partially cut off from Russian gas supplies. Supplies are accordingly dwindling before the period when they will be most needed. And, amid shortages and outages, European gas prices are almost 10 times higher than in the US. Continue reading...
Increased human activity is driving excess phosphorus into Coeur d’Alene Lake – making a tribe’s vital resource vulnerable to a looming ecological catastropheIn Ernie Stensgar’s Plummer, Idaho, office sits an heirloom older than any human, a relic passed down from his great-great-grandparents: a set of four 150-year-old gathering baskets, handwoven from Inland north-west reeds.Built to last, the receptacles still haven’t frayed, despite age. They’re not museum exhibits, either. Stensgar uses them to collect mountain huckleberries, prairie plants and water potatoes from nearby Coeur d’Alene Lake, sacred water to his people. Like his ancestors, he plans to pass them along when it’s time. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Hollywood, Florida on (#61C43)
Michelle Reynolds forced to enlist help after Mexican spicy tail iguana, which can grow up to 18in, ‘took up most of the toilet bowl’A Florida woman was surprised by an uninvited guest in her bathroom on Saturday night: an iguana in her toilet.Michelle Reynolds told WSVN that when she went to the bathroom, she “did a quick turnaround because I saw this thing in there and quickly shut the door!” Continue reading...
Firm’s president at time of disaster among four defendants found liable for £80bn in damage by Tokyo courtA court in Japan has ordered former executives of Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) to pay ¥13tn (£80bn) in damages for failing to prevent a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011.The ruling by Tokyo district court centred on whether senior Tepco management could have predicted a serious nuclear accident striking the facility after a powerful tsunami. Continue reading...
by Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent on (#61BWS)
RePlanet calls on EU to ditch organic targets and for governments to lift bans on genetically modified cropsGovernments should put a moratorium on the use of biofuels and lift bans on genetic modification of crops, a green campaigning group has urged, in the face of a growing global food crisis that threatens to engulf developing nations.Ending the EU’s requirement for biofuels alone would free up about a fifth of the potential wheat exports from Ukraine, and even more of its maize exports, enough to make a noticeable difference to stretched food supplies, according to analysis by the campaign group RePlanet. Continue reading...
Groups representing Unilever and Amazon say long-term targets will boost investment and provide jobsBusiness groups representing Amazon, Coca-Cola, Unilever and Lloyds Banking Group have all called on Conservative leadership contenders to protect the net zero target for the good of the economy.There have been fears that the leadership election could cause the UK’s climate commitments to be ditched, as at least two contenders have said they would pause the emissions targets. Continue reading...
by Regin Winther Poulsen and Karen McVeigh on (#61BQQ)
After an outcry at last year’s killing of 1,480 white-sided dolphins, campaigners say new government hunt quotas are ‘farcical’Months after the much-criticised slaughter of more than 1,400 white-sided dolphins in the Faroe Islands, a provisional annual hunt quota of 500 has been set by the Faroese government in what campaigners call a “farcical” decision.The Faroese fisheries minister, Árni Skaale, said that the quota was meant to secure sustainability. “We have a right to hunt,” he told the Guardian, but added that there was an obligation to protect the country’s resources: “We have to utilise everything sustainably.” Continue reading...
Eleven nations least responsible for global heating must spend up to 22% of GDP on dealing with effects of itAfrican countries that are the least responsible for the climate crisis will have to spend up to five times more on adapting to global heating than they do on healthcare.Analysis of 11 nations with a total population of more than 350 million lays bare the huge financial toll of taking action to avert the severe environmental consequences of global heating. Continue reading...
A lack of recent rainfall forces part of the Leeds-Liverpool canal to shut while 5 million face a hosepipe banBoat owners on the UK’s longest canal will not be able to move their boats next week, due to a water shortage, while 5 million people have been warned they may be soon facing a hosepipe ban.Stretches of the Leeds-Liverpool canal will be closed during periods next week after a lack of rainfall has led to low levels in some Yorkshire and Lancashire reservoirs, leaving canal locks unable to be filled. Continue reading...
by Vincent Ni, China affairs correspondent, Sam Jones on (#61B0D)
At least 86 Chinese cities issue alerts, while temperatures soar in south-west and central US and Iberian peninsulaDangerous heatwaves are engulfing parts of China, Europe, south-west and central US this week, as dozens of cities have found themselves dealing with soaring summer temperatures.By Tuesday afternoon, at least 86 Chinese cities in eastern and southern parts of the country had issued heat alerts. Chinese meteorologists forecast temperatures in some cities would top 40C (104F) in the next 24 hours. Continue reading...
The WHO declared it a probable human carcinogen in 2015 and 70-80 UK councils have turned to chemical-free optionsYellow grass and unnaturally bare soil around public trees and paths is increasingly a vision of the past, as indiscriminate use of the controversial weedkiller glyphosate is phased out by councils. But changing the way the public realm looks is not without controversy, with some complaining so-called weeds make urban spaces unsightly.Heavily used in farming, glyphosate’s non-agricultural use extends to parks and green spaces, pavements and playgrounds, hospitals and shopping centres. Since the WHO declared it a “probable human carcinogen” in 2015, after research found “strong” evidence for its toxicity, 70 to 80 UK councils have turned to chemical-free options or simply letting plants grow, from Bath & North East Somerset council, to Highland council in Scotland. Continue reading...
George Eustice reassures public as he announces 50 landowners have applied to rewilding programmeFifty landowners have applied to a government scheme to rewild their land, the environment secretary has said, as he reassured green Tories that the net-zero target will be protected by the next administration.Speaking at the Conservative Environment Network’s summer party, George Eustice acknowledged that people who care about the environment feel “apprehensive and anxious” about the Conservative leadership election. Continue reading...
by Tom Perkins with photographs by Allison Joyce on (#61AFZ)
Exposure to harmful PFAS remains almost impossible to escape – particularly for the people of the Cape Fear River basinIn Wilmington, 50-year-old Tom Kennedy thinks it might be time to stop fighting the cancer that started in his breast and now grips his spine. He’s endured 85 chemotherapy treatments since an inverted nipple sent him to the doctor five years ago, and he fears the endless struggle to keep him alive is more than his daughters can bear. He wonders if it’s time to let death take him so his family can move on.A deadly cancer has already taken 43-year-old Amy Nordberg away from her family, also of Wilmington. Nordberg died in January after a three-year battle with a vicious cancer that followed the development of multiple sclerosis. The cancer moved through her body faster than doctors expected, enveloping her colon and invading her bone marrow. Continue reading...
Payments extended to eight more local government areas and sped up to prioritise victims over auditing; free Covid rapid tests for concession card holders to end this month. This blog is now closed
Research puts US ahead of China, Russia, India and Brazil in terms of global damage as climate expert says numbers ‘very stark’The US has inflicted more than $1.9tn in damage to other countries from the effects of its greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new analysis that has provided the first measurement of nations’ liability in stoking the climate crisis.The huge volume of planet-heating gases pumped out by the US, the largest historical emitter, has caused such harm to other, mostly poor, countries through heatwaves, crop failures and other consequences that the US is responsible for $1.91tn in lost global income since 1990, the study found. Continue reading...