Vast areas along Po River already parched, raising fears for farming, hydropower and drinking waterItaly’s rivers and lakes are facing another year of severe drought after a winter of little rain and snowfall, raising the alarm on the implications for farming, hydropower and access to drinking water.Vast areas of the Po – the country’s longest river that nourishes several northern and central regions – are already parched, while the water level on Lake Garda is the lowest during winter in 35 years. Continue reading...

Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed will criticise ministers’ attempts to repeal Human Rights ActA new wave of human rights legislation to guarantee clean air quality and nutrition could be rolled out by the next Labour government, under plans announced by the shadow justice secretary on Friday.Steve Reed will vow to fight “tooth and nail” against any attempt by the government to repeal the Human Rights Act, and instead look to roll out the “next frontier” of “fundamental freedoms”. Continue reading...

SSW phenomenon is linked to polar vortex, an area of low pressure across the North PoleThere has been keen interest over recent weeks in the much-anticipated sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event, which only began this week but is now well under way. The SSW phenomenon is linked to the polar vortex, an area of low pressure across the North Pole that forms within the stratosphere during autumn, as temperatures plummet in the absence of solar radiation.SSW events are very common and occur two in every three winters. It remains unclear how climate change will affect these events in the future. As the vortex develops during autumn and into winter, westerly stratospheric winds increase in strength. But in the event of a SSW episode, stratospheric temperatures rise rapidly in the space of only a few days, leading to the weakening or even reversal of these winds. The zonal mean winds at 10hPa pressure – about 30km high – turned to an easterly direction on 15 Wednesday February, significantly displacing the polar vortex away from the North Pole. The vortex and zonal winds are forecast to stay much weaker than normal for the remainder of February and into the first half of March. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a lucky sea eagle, a hungry monkey and a dozing panda Continue reading...

RHS gardeners say buds on trees suggest glorious spring blooms and season will potentially last longerThe UK is expected to have a spring of beautiful blossom, after a heatwave followed by a cold early February set the trees up for peak condition blooms.Gardeners at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) have been studying the buds on the trees in their gardens across the country. They say buds suggest trees will be floriferous with blossom this spring because of the perfect conditions last year for bud formation, and also because early flowering has been prevented by the cold this February. Continue reading...

Testing of birds is continuing but Wildlife Victoria believes paralysing infection is to blame

Researchers say Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has driven up household energy costs by between 62.6% and 112.9%Soaring energy prices triggered by the Russia-Ukraine conflict could push up to 141 million more people around the globe into extreme poverty, a study has found.The cost of energy for households globally could have increased by between 62.6% and 112.9% since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a modelling study by an international group of scientists published in Nature Energy. Continue reading...

Company says vessel’s construction will help ‘pass on our whaling culture to the next generation’A Japanese company is building a new whaling ship designed to travel as far as Antarctica, sparking fears commercial operations could resume in the Southern Ocean.Australia’s environment minister, Tanya Plibsersek, reaffirmed the Albanese government’s commitment to a global moratorium on commercial whaling, while Greenpeace condemned the practice as “brutal and unnecessary”. Continue reading...

Australian Academy of Science points to over-reliance on volunteers and says more regular surveys needed

Fair Work Commission intervenes after union files lawsuit against waste contractor Cleanaway

Environment secretary tells farming conference in Washington she ‘won’t be going all vegan or vegetarian’

A government decree welcomed for protecting marine life has left artisanal fishers breaking the law to surviveEvery morning, Paola Arbolera loads a few crates of smoked shark and stingray on to her wooden canoe and drags it to the river. Before the sun rises, she rows in darkness to the market in Guapi, a small fishing town on Colombia’s Pacific coast, to sell her goods.She leaves her canoe under the rafters of the dock’s large loading bay, wedged between rubbish and other canoes, while fellow vendors unload bananas and plantain.A fish vendor takes to the river in Guapi, Colombia, with her children Continue reading...

David Malpass’s decision to quit has delighted frustrated developing nations, donors, experts and campaignersThe resignation of David Malpass, president of the World Bank, was greeted with relief and joy on Wednesday evening by climate experts and campaigners, who said it should open up a new era for financing the global shift to a low-carbon economy.Malpass, who was appointed to the role by the then US president Donald Trump in 2019, had been facing mounting calls to step down after a series of missteps, including lacklustre plans for green investment, and appearing to deny climate science when confronted by a journalist. Continue reading...

David Pocock tables anonymous statement in parliament describing 25,000L spill of condensate off northern WA in 2022

The largest salt lake in the western hemisphere risks ‘one of the worst environmental disasters’ as it faces the prospect of disappearing in just five yearsTo walk on to the Great Salt Lake, the largest salt lake in the western hemisphere which faces the astounding prospect of disappearing just five years from now, is to trudge across expanses of sand and mud, streaked with ice and desiccated aquatic life, where just a short time ago you would be wading in waist-deep water.But the mounting sense of local dread over the lake’s rapid retreat doesn’t just come from its throttled water supply and record low levels, as bad as this is. The terror comes from toxins laced in the vast exposed lake bed, such as arsenic, mercury and lead, being picked up by the wind to form poisonous clouds of dust that would swamp the lungs of people in nearby Salt Lake City, where air pollution is often already worse than that of Los Angeles, potentially provoking a myriad of respiratory and cancer-related problems. Continue reading...

Report says simply coping with escalating impacts of climate crisis could override tackling root causeThe world is at risk of descending into a climate “doom loop”, a thinktank report has warned.It said simply coping with the escalating impacts of the climate crisis could draw resources and focus away from the efforts to slash carbon emissions, making the situation even worse. Continue reading...

East Palestine community holds meeting over health and safety concerns but Norfolk Southern Corporation skips eventNearly two weeks after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, community members packed a local high school auditorium on Wednesday night wanting answers to their health and safety concerns.Norfolk Southern Corporation, the Atlanta-based operator of the derailed train, ultimately skipped the meeting, which was the first community meeting in the town of 5,000 people since the incident. Continue reading...

The Currumbin rock pools have been closed since Monday after elevated levels of enterococci were detected

Guy Debelle points to Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and warns ‘I’m really concerned that we are missing out on a huge opportunity’

Nearly 700 sheep, including 197 valuable merino ewes, allegedly stolen from a property near Logan

Authorities looking into ‘unusual mortality events’ amid concern from conservatives and activists that wind turbines are at faultA ninth dead whale has washed up on the New Jersey coastline, as conservationists and local authorities investigate the causes of an unusual number of such deaths along the US east coast.The humpback was found in Manasquan, New Jersey, on Monday. Continue reading...

Sea ice helps protect glaciers and ice caps that would cause massive sea level rise when lost, scientists warnThe area of sea ice around Antarctica has hit a record low, with scientists reporting “never having seen such an extreme situation before”. The ice extent is expected to shrink even further before this year’s summer melting season ends.The impact of the climate crisis in melting sea ice in the Arctic is clear in the records that stretch back to 1979. Antarctic sea ice varies much more from year to year, which has made it harder to see an effect from global heating. Continue reading...

Ocean voyage to study declining sea ice levels cancelled after RSV Nuyina required repairs, leaving climate scientists dismayed

Research by Global Canopy also finds many companies are not monitoring set commitmentsA third of the companies most linked to the destruction of tropical rainforests have not set a single policy on deforestation, a report reveals.Research by Global Canopy has found that 31% of the companies with the greatest influence on tropical deforestation risk through their supply chains do not have a single deforestation commitment for any of the commodities to which they are exposed. Continue reading...

Emergency allotments helped US families weather the Covid crisis and rising prices – but they’ll end in MarchNicole Stevens doesn’t know how much further she can stretch her grocery budget.Stevens, 40, based in Battle Creek, Michigan, is a single mother raising two teenage boys. She relies heavily on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), more commonly known as food stamps, to feed her family. Before the pandemic, Stevens recalls being able to spend just $300 on her family’s big monthly supermarket haul. This always meant that she had a little bit of money left over to make additional trips to the store whenever staples like milk and bread inevitably ran out. Today, the same monthly shopping trip costs her $500. Continue reading...

Families fight for benefits after victims allegedly developed cancer from drinking water tainted by toxic PFAS at New Hampshire baseFor decades, Ken Brock and Gary Enos largely toiled in the same hangars at New Hampshire’s Pease national air base. The career US national guard members were responsible for giving fuel planes tail-to-nose inspections that prevented crashes.“We were like general practitioners for planes,” Enos said. Continue reading...

While a boutique industry around converting vintage cars to electric is growing, it’s an exclusive, cost-prohibitive oneOver the next decade, millions of new battery-electric trucks, SUVs and cars are forecast to hit the market globally. In the US alone, Joe Biden is pushing for 50% of all new cars sold in 2030 to be zero-emission vehicles.What happens to all of the old gasoline- and diesel-powered cars that are on the road right now is trickier. One idea that’s recently been in the spotlight is converting them to electric vehicles. Toyota made waves when it showcased two vintage Corollas that had been converted to electric and hydrogen power at a recent industry event where the company’s CEO, Akio Toyoda, raised the prospect of the company getting into the conversion game. Continue reading...

Frontbenchers unleash on party for signalling it might vote with Coalition to stymie reform of safeguard mechanism

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Woods at Wembury will expand by 84 hectares with additional 90,000 trees along with hedgerows and banks full of wildlifeWithin a few decades, if all goes well, swathes of oaks and other native British trees will tumble down the banks of the River Yealm in Devon and provide a home to owls, woodcocks, hares and butterflies as part of a new community woodland project.There will also be an orchard planted in a place known to be favoured by bats and an area of wood pasture – a more open landscape of flower-rich meadows where animals can graze and shelter around trees and shrubs. Continue reading...

Law comes into force in 30 countries in move campaigners hope will stop an estimated 1m waterbirds a year dying of lead poisoningShooting birds using lead shot will be banned in all wetlands in the European Union from this week.The law will apply to all 27 EU countries, as well as Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. An estimated one million waterbirds die of lead poisoning in the EU every year. Continue reading...

Parks Victoria has taken samples for testing, with an expert suggesting the source could be avian botulism

Neighbouring countries and local fishers express concern as 12th anniversary of nuclear disaster loomsAlmost 12 years have passed since the strongest earthquake in Japan’s recorded history resulted in a tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people along its north-east coast.As the country prepares to mark the 11 March anniversary, one of the disaster’s most troubling legacies is about to come into full view with the release of more than 1m tonnes of “treated” water from the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Continue reading...

Experts say wood burners have become ‘middle-class status symbols’ and government should regulate sale in urban areasEmissions of toxic air pollution from wood burning in UK homes has more than doubled in the past decade, according to official government statistics.The report also showed that solid fuel burning in homes, which includes a small proportion of coal, is the single biggest source of PM2.5 pollution, which refers to particulate matter that is smaller than 2.5 microns in size. Road transport, industry and burning wood and other biomass to produce electricity all produce fewer PM2.5 emissions. Continue reading...

Climate groups have accused head of national oil company, Sultan Al Jaber, of conflict of interestThe United Arab Emirates, the oil-rich Gulf nation that is hosting the next UN climate summit, is “running towards” a renewable energy future, the president of the summit has said.“The UAE has always made progress by getting ahead of the future,” said Sultan Al Jaber, who will oversee the Cop28 conference beginning this November, at an international meeting in Dubai on Tuesday. “We believe that gamechanging solutions can be achieved if the collective political will is there. It certainly is from the UAE. We in the UAE are not shying away from the energy transition. We are running towards it.” Continue reading...

António Guterres calls for urgent action as climate-driven rise brings ‘torrent of trouble’ to almost a billion peopleAn increase in the pace at which sea levels are rising threatens “a mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale”, the UN secretary general has warned.The climate crisis is causing sea levels to rise faster than for 3,000 years, bringing a “torrent of trouble” to almost a billion people, from London to Los Angeles and Bangkok to Buenos Aires, António Guterres said on Tuesday. Some nations could cease to exist, drowned under the waves, he said. Continue reading...

Good Law Project to argue government scheme will lead to raw sewage being discharged into waterways for decadesCampaigners are to make a high court challenge to the government’s plan to reduce raw sewage discharges into rivers and seas in England, arguing it does not go far enough.The case, to be taken by the Good Law Project, will put the storm overflow scheme under detailed scrutiny. It will argue that the plan will lead to raw sewage being discharged into waterways for decades to come and does not protect the majority of coastal areas designated as ecologically sensitive. Continue reading...

Adam Bandt says the time has come for Labor to ‘decide how much it wants new coal and gas’

Lawsuit alleges Bolthouse Farms deceived customers by claiming Green Goddess smoothie is made with ‘100% fruit juice’A new class-action lawsuit alleges US beverage maker Bolthouse Farms deceived customers with claims that its Green Goodness smoothie is made of “100% fruit juice” after testing found the drink contains toxic PFAS, a synthetic chemical, at levels far above federal advisory drinking water limits.PFAS are a class of about 12,000 chemicals typically used to make thousands of consumer products resist water, stains and heat. They are called “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down, and they are linked to cancer, fetal complications, liver disease, kidney disease, autoimmune disorders and other serious health issues. Continue reading...

Low-income households spend four times as much on energy as well-off ones, which means attacking efficiency regulations burdens themA new skirmish in the climate culture war began last month when Republicans became outraged over an energy-saving feature on gaming devices that users can opt to use. “First gas stoves, then your coffee, now they’re gunning for your Xbox,” Texas senator Ted Cruz misleadingly tweeted.This comes just a few weeks after Republicans expressed anger over the suggestion that gas stoves could be banned in favor of more efficient and safer electric and induction cooktops. Continue reading...

Only a few of the rare US snakes survive in the remnants of wetlands in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. Captive breeding may just be the thing that saves them from disappearing• Words and photographs by Ryan WagnerAt the intersection of Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, the corn monoculture melts away to reveal green rolling hills and deep gorges. The lush forest is pockmarked by steep-banked ponds, carved out by retreating glaciers 10,000 years ago. Standing waist-deep in a forest pool, Megan Seymour scans the shrubby banks with binoculars.A slight change in colour and texture spotted in the tangled buttonbush swamp reveals her quarry: a thick, glossy, copperbelly water snake (Nerodia erythrogaster neglecta). Seymour hoists up her waders and ties back her hair as she prepares to grab the water snake before it can disappear into the murky water, taking with it one of the last chances to save the species.Biologists Megan Seymour, right, and Lindsey Korfel scan the banks of a pool for copperbelly water snakes Continue reading...

Paper calls for assessment of impact of sound pollution on cetaceans before firms allowed to mine sea bedDeep sea mining could be doing irreparable damage to blue whales and other rare marine creatures, scientists have warned.A peer-reviewed paper published by the University of Exeter and Greenpeace Research Laboratories focuses on the overlap between cetaceans (such as whales, dolphins and porpoises) and target sites for deep sea mining, especially in the Pacific Ocean. The authors warn that urgent research is needed to assess threats to these mammals. Continue reading...

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Complaint says switching off tracking devices should raise ‘red flags’ with insurers, as it could be covering illegal fishing activity and puts crew’s lives at riskWhen it comes to illegal fishing, London’s ancient business of ship insurance may not get much attention. But according to a new complaint, the UK capital’s insurance industry is partly to blame when fishing vessels “go dark” at sea by turning off their mandatory satellite tracking equipment.In a filing to City of London watchdogs, the ocean conservation charity Blue Marine Foundation has argued that EU-flagged vessels operating in the Indian Ocean that go dark are in likely breach of international, flag state and coastal state law, and that the UK insurance industry is “enabling” them by continuing to provide cover, thereby putting seafarers’ lives at risk. Continue reading...

As Cyclone Gabrielle wreaks havoc in New Zealand, the country's climate minister James Shaw has excoriated the parliament over climate inaction. Shaw, who is the co-leader of the Greens, noted how New Zealand had already faced its 'worst climate-related disaster in this country only two weeks ago'

A national state of emergency has been declared, with flooding and landslides devastating several communities. People have been trapped on roofs and houses have been destroyed as the storm lashes the North Island

James Shaw says country is entering ‘period of consequences’ for inaction over climate change as extreme weather wreaks havoc across the North Island

Jury found Helen Redfern, Simon Reding and Catherine Rennie-Nash guilty of public nuisance over 2021 Bishopsgate protestThree Insulate Britain activists have been found guilty of causing a public nuisance by a jury for a two-hour sit-down blockade of traffic.The three, Helen Redfern, Simon Reding and Catherine Rennie-Nash, were banned from talking about the climate crisis or the role of insulation in cutting greenhouse gas emissions as they presented their case to the jury at Inner London crown court. The same restriction has been placed on other Insulate Britain defendants in previous trials for public nuisance relating to peaceful protests taken as part of the group’s campaign for better insulation in UK homes. Continue reading...

Scientists hope emerging research into new types of animal feeds will make aquaculture more sustainable

Environmentalist alliance says plastic waste from failed supermarket-backed recycling scheme can be safely warehoused until it can be recycled