Last two working plants were due to be mothballed, but will be used as emergency reserve into 2023 after Russia cuts off gasGermany is to temporarily halt the phasing-out of two nuclear power plants in an effort to shore up energy security after Russia cut supplies of gas to Europe’s largest economy.The economy minister, Robert Habeck, announced on Monday that the power plants, Neckarwestheim in Baden Württemberg and Isar 2 in Bavaria, are to be kept running longer than planned in order to be used as an emergency reserve until the middle of next year. Continue reading...

Lake Manchar on verge of causing more flooding, says local official, as third of country already underwaterPakistan’s biggest lake is on the verge of bursting its banks after attempts by authorities to drain it in a controlled way failed, a senior local official has warned.In a last-ditch effort to avoid a catastrophe, officials breached Lake Manchar on Sunday, a move they acknowledged could displace up to 100,000 people from their homes but would also save densely populated areas from floods. Continue reading...

The new PM has not set out plans for reducing energy waste; instead she has talked of more oil and gasLiz Truss faces a daunting array of environmental crises, from energy supply to sewage spills on British beaches, with little to show that she has the inclination to take them on.Ben Goldsmith, the chair of the Conservative Environment Network, and a longtime green Tory who was a strong supporter of Boris Johnson, said of the UK’s new prime minister and her defeated rival: “Neither Truss nor Sunak has been known for their passion for nature. Neither has made a name for themselves as an environmental leader.” Continue reading...

Experts and environmentalists say aquifer feeding Doñana national park, a Unesco heritage site, has been overexploited for tourism and to water fruit farmsThe largest permanent lake in Spain’s Doñana national park, one of Europe’s biggest and most important wetlands, has shrivelled to a small puddle as years of drought and overexploitation take their toll on the aquifer that feeds the area and sustains millions of migrating birds.On Monday, experts from Spain’s National Research Council (CSIC) said the Santa Olalla lake, which sits in a Unesco world heritage site, had dried up for the third time in 50 years. Continue reading...

Swathes of rainforest have reached tipping point, research by scientists and Indigenous organisations concludesEnvironmental destruction in parts of the Amazon is so complete that swathes of the rainforest have reached tipping point and might never be able to recover, a major study carried out by scientists and Indigenous organisations has found.“The tipping point is not a future scenario but rather a stage already present in some areas of the region,” the report concludes. “Brazil and Bolivia concentrate 90% of all combined deforestation and degradation. As a result, savannization is already taking place in both countries.” Continue reading...

Scottish first minister and London mayor urge new PM to address cost of living crisis with emergency package

World is ‘in last minute of the 11th hour to save lives’, says aid chief, amid fears that crisis is worse than 2010 famine, when 250,000 diedTwo areas of Somalia are likely to enter a state of famine later this year as the country battles an unrelenting drought and flare-ups of conflict, the UN humanitarian chief has warned.Martin Griffiths said the latest UN food insecurity analysis had found “concrete indications” that famine would occur in the Baidoa and Burhakaba districts of south-central Somalia between October and December unless aid efforts were significantly stepped up. Continue reading...

The EU’s classification of wood fuels is accelerating the climate crisis. Next week, a key vote can change thatNext week the future of many of the world’s forests will be decided when members of the European parliament vote on a revised EU renewable energy directive. If the parliament fails to change the EU’s discredited and harmful renewables policy, European citizens’ tax money will continue to pay for forests around the globe to literally go up in smoke every day.Europe’s directly elected representatives now have to choose: they can either save the EU’s “climate targets” with their legislative loopholes or they can begin saving our climate, because right now, that is not what EU targets are working towards. Continue reading...

Nick Hodgkinson gave up his job when his health worsened, and began campaigning to halt climate change. Now it is his turn to be treatedNick Hodgkinson has a dark sense of humour, which comes in useful during his climate change activism.Take the time the 59-year-old was protesting with Extinction Rebellion outside the Houses of Parliament. Hodgkinson, a retired charity worker, has motor neurone disease (MND). He uses a heavy, motorised wheelchair and has a tracheostomy tube in his neck that connects to a ventilator, meaning he communicates mainly through typing on his phone. Continue reading...

Labor is under pressure on climate policy from Greens who propose ban on high-carbon projects

From defensive flooding to buffer zones, using the natural world in conflict is as old as war itself – now academics have given it a name• Text and photographs by Vincent MundyDuring the early days of the Russia-Ukraine war, the invading force was approaching the Irpin River and the gates of the Ukrainian capital. But the river waters suddenly rose, forcing the Russians to turn back and leaving a trail of abandoned tanks and military hardware. Kyiv breathed again and a wetland ecosystem was reflooded for the first time in more than 70 years.Miraculous as it might have seemed, it wasn’t the hand of God that helped save Ukraine. “That’s warWilding,” says Jasper Humphreys, director of programmes for the Marjan Study Group in the department of war studies at King’s College London, which researches conflict and the environment. Continue reading...

Deanne Criswell makes admission as ‘extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation’ hits GeorgiaFlood maps used by the federal government are outdated, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or Fema, said on Sunday, considering a series of devastating floods caused by excessive rainfall induced by climate change.Deanne Criswell told CNN’s State of the Union: “The part that’s really difficult right now is the fact that our flood maps don’t take into account excessive rain that comes in. And we are seeing these record rainfalls that are happening.” Continue reading...

Precariousness of water system remains before services are fully restored after infrastructure failure, Chokwe Antar Lumumba saysThe mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, where 150,000 people are still without safe drinking water after an infrastructure failure, said on Sunday residents face a “much longer road ahead” before services are fully restored in the majority Black city.Speaking to ABC’s This Week, Chokwe Antar Lumumba said there had been improvements, with water pressure restored to a majority of residents. Continue reading...

The chance of extreme events is increasing because emissions aren’t slowing down. The hard work to transform the economy has barely begunYou don’t have to be paying much attention to be aware that the climate and environmental crises are not slowing down.The flooding in Pakistan is estimated to have submerged a third of the country’s habitable land, destroyed more than a million homes, crippled infrastructure, farms and clean water supplies and killed at least 1,200 people. Tens of millions have had their lives disrupted. The fallout will include food and housing shortages and rising disease. Continue reading...

Conservationists call on government to reconsider project near Darwin after 100-plus birds were spotted in bushland marked for clearing

Up to 100,000 people will be displaced from homes by Lake Manchar after waters reached dangerous levelsAuthorities in flood-hit Pakistan have breached the country’s largest freshwater lake, displacing up to 100,000 people from their homes but saving more densely populated areas from gathering flood water, a minister said.Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in Pakistan’s northern mountains have brought floods that have affected 33 million people and killed at least 1,290, including 453 children. The inundation, blamed on climate breakdown, is still spreading. Continue reading...

More than 100 protesters block and climb on trucks at dairies in the Midlands and southern EnglandMore than 100 supporters of Animal Rebellion stopped the supply of fresh milk across large areas of England in the early hours of Sunday, including Arla Aylesbury, which processes 10% of the UK supply.It came after the activist group, who campaign for a sustainable plant-based food system, received no response to a letter to Downing Street in August, in which they warned of disruptive action in September unless progress towards their demands was made. Continue reading...

Dozens of the marine animals are being found on the state’s southern beaches exhibiting signs of domoic acid poisoningThe concerned calls began in mid-August. Sea lions – mostly adult females – were turning up along the southern California coast with signs of poisoning: disoriented and agitated, with their heads bobbing and their mouths foaming.Marine animal organizations say they were inundated with inquiries from alarmed beachgoers. “We are responding to 50-100 calls a day,” the Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute, which works in the island region off the coast of Los Angeles, wrote on Instagram. Continue reading...

After stepping down as Soviet leader he devoted himself to ‘the most urgent task facing humanity today’When Mikhail Gorbachev introduced reforms permitting greater freedom of speech in the 1980s, one of the first things Soviet citizens begin to speak out about was their anger over the pollution spewed out by the country’s biggest and oldest factories.It prompted his administration to shut down 1,300 of the most polluting factories, he said in an interview with US National Public Radio in 2000, but it also helped crystallise a commitment to environmental causes that put him well ahead of his time and made him an outlier among other former global leaders. Continue reading...

Mary Peltola, the first Alaska Native elected to Congress, having defeated former vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, is a relentless coalition builderAhead of her astonishing victory this week in a special election to fill Alaska’s sole congressional seat, Mary Peltola was delighted to get recognized at Costco. “I was approached by some people to do a selfie,” she laughed.It seemed like months of traversing the state for meet-and greets was paying off. “I am getting recognized more.” Continue reading...

Almost 8,000 people have so far signed a petition against the proposal which has been described as a ‘silent cull’

Unprecedented flooding in the country during monsoon season has left at least 1,265 people deadPakistan has appealed to the international community for an “immense humanitarian response” to unprecedented flooding that has left at least 1,265 people dead.According to initial government estimates, the rain and flooding have caused $10bn (£8.7bn) in damage. Continue reading...

Ascent to power took in spat with the Turnip Taliban, a late conversion to Brexit and a gallery of photos mimicking ThatcherFrom the stage of the Liberal Democrat conference to the Tory leadership - via viral fame over cheese imports - Liz Truss has been on quite a political journey in her quest for the keys to Downing St. Here we cover the key moments of success, strife and good fortune that have made her favourite to replace Boris Johnson. Continue reading...

Question mark over freeport in Tees Valley after ecological disaster puts communities in the north east of England at loggerheads with the governmentStan Rennie has indelicate hands that aren’t good for typing. He’s not the kind of person who cares much for technology at all.But over the last year, the fisherman has found himself spending less time outdoors and more time glued to his computer, tapping out stern emails to politicians and researching niche areas of environmental law. “It’s taken over his life,” his daughter Sarah, 36, says. Continue reading...

Met Office warns torrential downpours could cause flooding and disruption to power supplies and transportA yellow weather warning has been announced for Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland amid forecasts of heavy rain and possible thunderstorms.The Met Office extended its warning on Saturday morning to include parts of central and western Scotland. Continue reading...

New research reveals the breeding patterns of the species could not keep pace with a more demanding environment

From solar panels to biomass burners, boom in green initiatives seen as vital to achieving EU climate targetsEurope’s swift transition to a sustainable, low-carbon future will not happen without the engagement and involvement of citizens producing and consuming energy locally, experts say – and across the continent, there are signs it is happening.A summer of wildfires, drought and record heatwaves fuelled by climate breakdown has combined with soaring gas and electricity prices, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to inject a new urgency into the switch to alternative, renewable sources. Continue reading...

Seven firefighters hospitalized, with extreme temperatures expected to last through Labor DayFirefighters were battling blazes across California in grueling heat on Friday, as fast-moving flames erupted near the Oregon border and prompted evacuation orders for at least 5,000 people.Residents of the towns of Weed, Lake Shasta and Edgewood in Siskiyou county were told to evacuate after a blaze, dubbed the Mill fire, began spreading in hot and windy conditions and grew to 500 acres in about an hour, the Siskiyou sheriff’s office said in a statement. Continue reading...

A skilled hunter can shoot 100 of the invasive marsupials in a night. But with millions of hectares infested, some fear control efforts are too latePete Peeti flicks off the headlights, cuts the ignition and lets his truck roll quietly down a bush track, deep in the heart of New Zealand’s North Island. Twilight is slipping into night and rain is falling in thick drapes.

Police find Reena James, 42, ‘solely responsible’ for 4 July ‘inferno’ that injured three other residentsA woman who was killed in an explosion that caused a fire in a block of flats, injuring three other people, deliberately started the blaze, detectives have concluded.Resident Reena James died, and three others were taken to hospital, in what was described as an “inferno” in the three-storey block in Bedford’s Redwood Grove on 4 July. Continue reading...

Experts warn drop from 100,000 samples in 2012 to 41,519 last year means huge risk to water qualityTesting of rivers in England has fallen dramatically in the past 10 years, with experts warning it leaves a vacuum of knowledge about the effects of pollution.Environment Agency data shows its river testing has fallen from nearly 100,000 samples a year in 2012 to 41,519 in 2021 – the lowest level of sampling in 20 years apart from the drop-off during Covid in 2020. Continue reading...

Exclusive: conservationists hail government-backed projects led by farmers and landowners to revive biodiversityAmbitious schemes by farmers and landowners to restore nature and reduce flooding while still producing food will be supported by the government in 22 locations across England.The landscape recovery scheme is being hailed by land managers and conservationists as the most “exciting and important” step in a generation to restore lost biodiversity. Continue reading...

Aid projects in DRC and Zimbabwe encourage rural inhabitants to eat insects rich in vitamins and mineralsUK aid spending is encouraging hunger-stricken Africans to eat insects, with projects aiming to develop the practice in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe.Edible insects have long been touted as a resource-efficient source of protein, requiring less land and water than conventional livestock. However, taste and cultural resistance have proved to be stumbling blocks in extending the practice in many parts of the world. Continue reading...

Vegan protesters aim to block supermarkets this month and stop millions of people from buying milkVegan activists have vowed to cause massive disruption to the UK’s milk supplies this month, as they demand the government supports a transition to a “plant-based food system” and rewild land used for animal pasture.Animal Rebellion, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion that focuses on the environmental harms of animal agriculture, claims it has hundreds of supporters willing to be arrested and go to prison for taking direct action. Continue reading...

Planes bring food, medicine and tents to disaster zone, with officials blaming floods on climate crisisPlanes carrying fresh supplies are forming a humanitarian air bridge to flood-ravaged Pakistan as the death toll passed 1,200, officials have said, with families and children especially at risk of disease and homelessness.The ninth flight from the United Arab Emirates and the first from Uzbekistan were the latest to land in Islamabad overnight as a military-backed rescue operation elsewhere in the country reached more of the 3 million people affected by the disaster. Continue reading...

Tory leadership hopefuls ‘taking countryside voters for granted’ and neglecting pressing issues, says CLA business groupNeither of the candidates for leadership of the Conservative party has made a convincing pitch to rural voters, despite that demographic being one of the biggest sources of Tory power, the head of the UK’s biggest rural business organisation said.Mark Tufnell, president of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents about 30,000 landowners and rural businesses, said Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak had done too little to show how they would boost the countryside economy and deal with pressing concerns such as planning, rural broadband, and farm support. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including preening flamingos, a jackal cub and a kelp forest Continue reading...

Pennings required to compile information he has about Carmichael coalmine and various campaigns

While France and Germany have introduced bans, Britain continues to slaughter 29 million unwanted chicks every yearUK retailers are blocking moves to end the killing of millions of day-old male chicks each year, farmers and breeding companies have said.The industrial-scale culling of unwanted chicks is common practice around the world, with 330 million males slaughtered by crushing or gassing each year in Europe, according to campaigners, 29 million of those in the UK. Continue reading...

After an increase in the number of days when the mercury rose to at least 35C, 9,000 yellow fibreglass umbrellas will be handed out to children in KumagayaChildren living in Japan’s hottest city will be given specially designed umbrellas to protect them from the heat, after a summer that saw record-breaking temperatures in many parts of the country.Local authorities in Kumagaya in Saitama prefecture have devised an umbrella that keeps out the rain and doubles as a parasol, the Mainichi Shimbun reported. Continue reading...

Jackson, Mississippi, lost access to safe running water after flooding – but it’s the capstone to years of problems with race a possible factorThirty-year-old Kendrick Hart remembers the warning his father gave about Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, where they both still live: “They need to do something about that water before it gets bad.”Now that moment has come. Continue reading...

Environment groups call on federal minister to reject NSW government’s ‘deeply flawed’ Cumberland Plain conservation plan

We must push the government to facilitate renewable energy schemes in appropriate places, not criticise local communities for resisting them, writes Barbara ChillmanThe analysis by the planning and development consultancy Turley revealing that an increased number of planning applications for solar farms have been refused in recent years is widely interpreted as evidence of nimbyism, inflicting higher bills on customers and environmental damage (Solar farm plans refused at highest rate for five years in Great Britain, 25 August).But did Turley identify why those applications have been refused? Perhaps there has been an increased number of inappropriate applications trying to jump on the sustainability bandwagon for purely commercial reasons? Continue reading...

Idea would separate the cost of electricity produced by nuclear and renewable sources from generation by gasThe energy industry has thrown its weight behind a plan it says could save homes and businesses up to £18bn a year, by reducing the prices charged for electricity generated from sources other than gas.Energy UK, the trade body for the sector, said its proposals could cut £18bn a year from energy bills, including £11bn for businesses. Continue reading...

Idea would separate the cost of electricity produced by nuclear and renewable sources from generation by gasThe energy industry has thrown its weight behind a plan it says could save homes and businesses up to £29bn a year, by reducing the prices charged for electricity generated from sources other than gas.Energy UK, the trade body for the sector, said its proposals could cut between £10.8bn and £18bn a year from household bills, and £6.7bn to £11.1bn for businesses. Continue reading...

Temperature ties with 2018 on data going back to 1884, while UK as whole has had fourth hottestEngland has had its joint hottest summer on record, tying with 2018 in data stretching back to 1884, the Met Office has said.Provisional figures show the summer of 2022, covering June, July and August, had an average temperature of 17.1C, tying with 2018 to be the warmest on record. Continue reading...

Humanitarian workers expect conditions to worsen as monsoon rains continue and say millions face a terrible winterAid workers have appealed for urgent donations to fight the “absolutely devastating” impact of flooding in Pakistan, as new satellite images appeared to confirm that a third of the country is now underwater.As the UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) launched an appeal to raise funds for the 33 million people affected, the European Space Agency released stark images based on data captured by its Copernicus satellite. Continue reading...

The vote was one of several major decisions on the state’s climate future and will delay the facility’s closure by five yearsCalifornia’s last nuclear plant – scheduled to fully shut down by 2025 – has been given renewed life.California lawmakers voted on Wednesday to delay the closure of the Diablo Canyon facility by five years, after the governor warned the state could face rolling blackouts if its twin reactors were retired too soon. Continue reading...

Scheme will be tried in certain areas for three years, and environmental groups hope it will be rolled out across countryFrance is cracking down on the tonnes of unsolicited junk mail and advertising brochures put through letterboxes each year, warning of unnecessary waste and damage to the environment.For more than a decade, households in France that do not want to receive piles of unaddressed advertising leaflets have been able to put a sticker on their letterbox saying “no to advertising”. But the government acknowledged this approach had failed and has changed tack. Continue reading...