Environment | The Guardian

Thousands send condolences after zoo staff euthanise panda, who was in poor health and had stopped eatingThe world’s oldest male giant panda in captivity has died in a Hong Kong zoo on Thursday.The panda, named An An, was euthanised at the age of 35, the equivalent of 105 years for humans. He was born in the wild in the south-western Chinese province of Sichuan in 1986. Continue reading...

They couldn’t agree on the climate crisis – nor whether sending troops to Ukraine would start world war three• Fancy dining across the divide? Find out how to take partJasper, 26, LondonOccupation Architect Continue reading...

Vast sums provide power to ‘buy every politician’ and delay action on climate crisis, says expertThe oil and gas industry has delivered $2.8bn (£2.3bn) a day in pure profit for the last 50 years, a new analysis has revealed.The vast total captured by petrostates and fossil fuel companies since 1970 is $52tn, providing the power to “buy every politician, every system” and delay action on the climate crisis, says Prof Aviel Verbruggen, the author of the analysis. The huge profits were inflated by cartels of countries artificially restricting supply. Continue reading...

Kylie Jenner is far from the only celebrity to make short hops using private jets despite mounting concerns over the climate crisisKylie Jenner has faced a torrent of criticism for her decision to take her private jet on a flight that lasted just 17 minutes. But the practice of taking brief journeys on luxury aircraft appears to be common among the rich and famous despite mounting concerns over the climate crisis.Jenner, the 24-year-old socialite and businesswoman, has faced online opprobrium after she posted an Instagram picture of herself and her partner, rapper Travis Scott, on the runway of an airport between two private jets with the caption “you wanna take mine or yours?” Continue reading...

As the Nord Stream pipeline reopens at lower capacity, pressure remains to reduce consumption and dependency on Moscow• Russia-Ukraine war – liveRussia has resumed critical gas supplies to Europe through Germany, reopening the Nord Stream gas pipeline after 10 days, albeit at a lower capacity. But will this be enough to resolve the pressing energy worries of Germany and the wider continent? Continue reading...

Agriculture minister Murray Watt says federal government confident new biosecurity measures enough to protect livestock industry

Report says global south has been ‘used as place to dump waste’ and that people of colour are suffering disproportionatelyThe climate and ecological crises are a legacy of systemic racism and people of colour suffer disproportionately from their harms, a Greenpeace UK report says. Globally, the report says, it is people of colour who, despite having contributed the least to the climate emergency, are now “disproportionately losing their lives and livelihoods” by the millions because of it.“The environmental emergency is the legacy of colonialism,” the report says. This was because colonialism had “established a model through which the air and lands of the global south have been … used as places to dump waste the global north does not want”, the report says. Continue reading...

This three-part documentary gathers evidence to challenge how ‘big oil fuelled the world’. Plus, Who Stole Tamara Ecclestone’s Diamonds? Here’s what to watch this eveningOver 40 years ago, oil industry experts predicted that burning fossil fuels would cause a climate crisis but little was done about it. This three-part documentary gathers all the evidence it needs to challenge those involved to prove how “big oil fuelled the world”. Episode one begins in the 70s and 80s, with some exasperating findings. “I’m not a ‘denier’, I’m a lukewarmer,” says Prof Patrick Michaels. “Climate change is real ... but it’s not the end of the world.” Hollie Richardson Continue reading...

Influential committee says UK must join dots between policies to plug gap between ambition and deliveryThe next prime minister needs to grab Britain’s net zero plans “by the scruff of the neck” to boost investor confidence, an influential House of Lords committee has said.The economic affairs committee, which counts former Bank of England governor Lord King among its members, has warned Britain is at risk of a “disorderly transition” away from fossil fuels and has urged the government to set out a detailed plan including deadlines for investment decisions. Continue reading...

One of UK’s biggest funders of scientific research will no longer profit from businesses such as BP and ShellOne of the UK’s biggest philanthropic investors has quietly sold its stakes in large oil and mining companies such BP and Shell.The Wellcome Trust is one of the biggest funders of scientific research in the UK with a £38bn investment fund. For almost a decade it has resisted pressure from organisations, including the Guardian, who argued that profiting from fossil fuel companies was incompatible with the Trust’s objective of improving public health and wellbeing. Continue reading...

UK birders may be delighted but rising temperatures have shifted the brightly coloured bird’s range north by 1,000kmNews that a flock of European bee-eaters has turned up in Norfolk – and appear to be settling down to breed – is guaranteed to delight Britain’s birders. Yet the arrival of these multicoloured birds has also caused concern. Why? Because it is a sure sign that the climate crisis is really starting to affect wildlife.For us older birders, the bee-eater was a bird we saw only on holidays around the Mediterranean. But during the past few decades, their breeding range has shifted north by roughly 1,000 km (620 miles), because of rising temperatures. They now nest in France, Germany, Poland and Switzerland. Continue reading...

Royal Horticultural Society launches survey to examine damage from this week’s heatwaveThe traditional British garden is under threat from extreme heat, the Royal Horticultural Society has said, as it launches a survey to examine the damage from this week’s heatwave.It is likely that in the future delicate flowers including roses and poppies will have to be swapped for plants such as salvias and dahlias, which are more resistant to heat. Continue reading...

Toxic metal present in both blood and eggshell samples, but the New Zealand birds appear to have formed a tolerance for itLead has been detected in nesting native kākā chicks in Wellington, but unusually, the birds look to have developed a tolerance to the toxin, a study has found.Kākā are a noisy, smart parrot, with bright green plumage and blood red patches under their wings and chest. They are particularly animated at dawn and dusk, and some Wellingtonians are known to curse their raucous squawking, while others delight in their cheekiness. Continue reading...

Gas supplies at the Iona storage facility have fallen due to high demand amid the state’s price cap

Australian Conservation Foundation says legislation needs to ensure 43% emissions reduction target can be increased over time

Initiatives are aimed at helping salvage the president’s tattered climate agenda after Joe Manchin delivered a major blow last weekFacing the disintegration of his climate agenda as ferocious heatwaves hit large parts of the world, Joe Biden has unveiled a new plan to push billions of dollars to US cities and states to help them cope better with extreme heat.The president stopped short, however, of declaring a climate emergency. Continue reading...

Kit Malthouse, chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, says ‘impacts of climate change are with us now’The UK must learn to live with extreme weather, a minister has said, as the government was accused of going missing “while Britain burns”.

The company’s new campaign trumpets that it is ‘laying the foundations for a low carbon future’ – without mentioning the nearly $1bn it spent on coal production in 2020 and 2021

Study found nine years of culling has failed to reduce bTB levels in UK cattle herdsScientists, vets and naturalists are calling for a moratorium on the badger cull in the light of evidence that they say shows nine years of killing badgers has failed to reduce bovine TB in cattle.The culling of legally protected badgers to reduce cattle TB enters its 10th season this summer, despite the publication of a scientific paper in the journal Veterinary Record earlier this year which concluded that culling had no significant impact on bTB in cattle herds. The paper sparked a row over its methodology, which the government says was flawed, but its supporters say it shows the practice should be ended. Continue reading...

Decision goes against advice of Planning Inspectorate, which rejected project owing to impactThe UK government has given planning consent to the £20bn Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk.The decision by the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, which had been repeatedly delayed, was finally announced on Wednesday and went against the advice of the independent Planning Inspectorate. Continue reading...

Call for voluntary cut until March 2023 with binding reduction targets possible when Moscow ‘likely’ halts suppliesThe European Union’s executive body has urged member states to slash their gas consumption by 15%, as it warned that a complete shutdown of Russian supplies was “likely”.The EU has been scrambling to wean itself off Russian gas since the invasion of Ukraine, but is alarmed about a potential energy crisis this winter. Continue reading...

Network Rail announces ‘resilience taskforce’ to plan for future extreme weatherSevere disruption on Britain’s railway continued on Wednesday while engineers worked to repair the effects of an unprecedented heatwave, as Network Rail announced a new “resilience taskforce” to plan for future extreme weather.Services were expected to return towards normal later in the day, after two days of blanket speed restrictions and mainline closures, but damage including broken overhead wires and fires that spread on to tracks was still halting many services on Wednesday morning. Continue reading...

Adam Bandt says state of environment report and pressure from Pacific Islands leaders should be enough for Labor to negotiate on emissions

Tory leadership candidate’s ‘energy sovereignty strategy’ also attacked for lack of focus on climate crisis

Claimants say they are experiencing serious negative impacts and demand Swiss-based Holcim pay compensationResidents of an Indonesian island threatened by rising sea levels have begun legal action against the cement producer Holcim.The claim for compensation, filed in Switzerland by three men and one woman, is understood to be the first major climate damages lawsuit against a cement company. Continue reading...

Experts say it would take years to begin shale gas production and it is far less accessible than once thoughtThe political earthquake in Downing Street has delayed publication of a review into the scientific evidence around fracking for shale gas, which had been expected earlier this month.In the face of an urgent and intensifying energy crisis, that delay can only be bad news – or so the vocal media and political supporters of shale gas development would have you believe. (The Sun has published at least 14 editorials this year calling for UK fracking – one every fortnight.) Continue reading...

Fashion council reveals more than a billion items arrive in Australia each year and calls for levy on clothing imports to reduce textile waste

A Guardian investigation finds pipes are only replaced at homeowners’ cost, and removal work risked causing increase of lead in waterElena Bautista didn’t pay much attention to the work crews that rolled down her street last year. They planned to remove water pipes made of lead, a toxin that can permanently damage children’s brains.But they skipped the tenement building where Bautista and her two kids lived. Continue reading...

Mayor Sadiq Khan warns ‘the grass is like hay’ as temperatures fall and UK travel disruption continuesThe fire service in London faced its busiest day since the second world war on Tuesday as fires raged throughout the UK amid brutal temperatures.Temperatures dropped dramatically on Wednesday, but further travel disruption was expected as repairs were carried out on road and rail networks and at airports. Heavy showers and thunderstorms were predicted to hit parts of the country, potentially causing localised flooding. Continue reading...

Dozens of coastal sites in the UK closed to the public as H5N1 continues to sweep through wild bird populations across the worldA quarter of Europe’s breeding seabirds spend spring in the UK, turning our coastline into a giant maternity unit. These noisy outcrops usually stink of bird poo. However, this year has been different. “Instead of the smell of guano, it’s the smell of death,” says Gwen Potter, a National Trust countryside manager working on the Farne Islands, off the coast of Northumberland. “It’s completely horrendous.”This annual congregation of life has turned into a super-spreader event, as a highly pathogenic avian influenza, H5N1 – also known as bird flu – sweeps through populations of breeding birds, causing devastating losses. More than 300 outbreaks have been reported in UK seabird colonies, and dozens of coastal sites have closed to the public. Continue reading...

Low-emission zones, now in 320 cities, are increasing as EU battles pollution health emergencyThe number of clean air zones across Europe has risen 40% since 2019, forcing older and more polluting vehicles off the road, according to new research based on EU data.Low-emission zones (LEZs) have now been introduced in 320 European city regions, and that figure is expected to rise by more than half again, to 507, by 2025. Continue reading...

Study found that the most at-risk neighbourhoods were also among the most ethnically diverse and have lower carbon footprints than averagePeople of colour are four times more likely to live in areas at high risk from heatwaves in the UK as the climate heats up, according to experts.Researchers at the University of Manchester and Friends of the Earth found one in three people from minority ethnic groups lived in areas most exposed to extreme heat, compared with just one in 12 white people. Continue reading...

Homeowners can boost property value by average of £10,000, shows research by WWF and ScottishPowerBritons could cut their annual energy bills while slashing their carbon emissions and boosting the price of their home, research has shown.A study by WWF and ScottishPower has found that installing green technologies could reduce energy bills by up to £1,878 a year and cut home carbon emissions by more than 95% over the lifetime of their installation. Continue reading...

London Heathrow records hottest ever temperature; London mayor Sadiq Khan says major incident has been declared

President could bypass the political gridlock as nearly 20% population faces 100F and above temperaturesJoe Biden is under pressure to declare a national climate emergency as temperatures soar across the US and Europe.Facing political gridlock in Washington, the president could make such an announcement – which would unlock federal resources to address the crisis – as soon as this week, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. Continue reading...

A true picture of how bad things have become emerges from the report, but with 2,000 pages of convincing evidence, change is possibleThe state of the environment report paints a detailed and brutal picture of destruction and loss, and almost none of it is new.Virtually everything in this five-yearly government report card – that another 202 animal and plant species have been identified as threatened with extinction or worse, that at least 19 ecosystems show signs of collapse, that hundreds of thousands of hectares of native forest have been bulldozed, that vast southern kelp forests have disappeared – was already known and publicly documented. Continue reading...

‘We were in this place in 2007 and we watched it all go wrong,’ Labor and former Wilderness Society campaigner Felicity Wade says

Experts worried that extreme heatwaves in Europe happening quicker than expected, suggesting climate crisis worse than feared

Agreement with autocratic ruler to double supplies within five years comes as EU seeks to reduce reliance on Russian energyHuman rights groups have criticised an EU deal to ramp up gas supplies from Azerbaijan, as Europe scrambles to secure non-Russian sources of energy.The European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on Monday hailed Azerbaijan as a “crucial” and “reliable” energy supplier, as she announced an agreement with Baku to expand the southern gas corridor, the 3,500km pipeline bringing Caspian Sea gas to Europe. Continue reading...

Households told to save water after hottest night and temperatures rising rapidly during the day

Activists target London HQ of Rupert Murdoch’s media company after UK weather treated as upbeat storyExtinction Rebellion protesters have smashed windows at the London headquarters of Rupert Murdoch’s media company, in protest at his outlets’ coverage of the climate crisis.Activists targeted the News UK building next to London Bridge station early on Tuesday morning, destroying glass panels and putting up posters reading “tell the truth” and “40 degrees = death” next to the entrance used by journalists at the Sun and the Times. Continue reading...

Tory leadership hopeful says she could set target back, despite backing the 2019 pledge on MondayKemi Badenoch has U-turned a second time on her support for the government target of net zero emissions by 2050.After telling a room of MPs at the Tory leadership climate hustings on Monday that she supported the 2019 manifesto pledge, later that evening she declared on TalkTV that she would delay it. Continue reading...

Minister says legislation will go before parliament next year and confirms bid to protect 30% of land by 2030 as she launches State of the Environment report

Photographer Alexander Turner captured the moment the first bison to be released into the wild in the UK took their initial steps in Blean Woods, Kent Continue reading...

Traps set and residents warned to keep windows shut after infant grabbed in most serious incidentPolice in Japan are searching for a wild monkey that has attacked 10 people in the space of a fortnight.The attacks began on 8 July in the Ogori district of Yamaguchi prefecture in the country’s south-west. In the most serious incident, it badly scratched an infant after invading a family home. Continue reading...

Across the state, 264 individual fires are burning and it is on track to break its 2004 record of 6.5m acres destroyedAlaska has seen more than 500 forest fires since the beginning of April, which have forced the evacuation of mining camps, villages and remote cabins.By 15 June, more than 1m acres (405,000 hectares) in the state had already gone up in flames, about the amount of acres that would normally burn in an entire fire season. By mid-July, more than 3m acres of land had been torched, putting the state at risk of breaking its 2004 record of 6.5m acres (2.6m hectares) burned. Continue reading...

Campaigners warn of ‘disturbing trend’ of proposed mines falling just below the threshold requiring environmental impact statement