Droughts and floods forcing workers from rural areas, leading to their exploitation in cities, report warnsMillions of people forced to leave their homes because of severe drought and powerful cyclones are at risk of modern slavery and human trafficking over the coming decades, a new report warns.The climate crisis and the increasing frequency of extreme weather disasters including floods, droughts and megafires are having a devastating effect on the livelihoods of people already living in poverty and making them more vulnerable to slavery, according to the report, published today. Continue reading...

In Texas and West Virginia, unions are having tough conversations about the future of fossil fuels – and finding new ways to support workers transitioning from oil and coal to cleaner jobsIn the beginning of this summer, the US state of Connecticut passed legislation to guarantee prevailing wage and benefits are provided to workers on clean energy projects.The law was a product of labor unions and environmental groups working together to educate workers about the climate crisis and develop solutions, with a focus on creating good-paying, unionized jobs and opportunities to combat economic inequities. Continue reading...

Prime minister estimates just 60% chance of securing $100bn in aid pledges before Glasgow conferenceBoris Johnson has said he fears there is only a 60% chance that the $100bn in climate finance viewed as key to securing an ambitious outcome to the Cop26 summit will be in place by the time world leaders meet in Glasgow in November.Speaking to journalists en route to New York at the start of a three-day visit to the US, in which he hopes to “galvanise” progress towards a new climate deal, the prime minister said he would be urging developed countries to come forward with additional funding. Continue reading...

Election has framed future of automobility as showdown between petrolheads and green zealotsThe second Steve Dumke spots a gap in the traffic on the road from Eggersdorf to Strausberg, his white Hyundai Ioniq lurches forward and nestles between two fast-moving Volkswagens in the right-hand lane. “A tap on the accelerator and the gap is mine,” he howls with glee.Dumke, a 37-year-old former chef, is less a speed freak than, in his own words, “a vehicle eroticist”. “I love cars with curves and the growl of an eight-cylinder piston engine,” he says. But for the last four years the vehicular object of his desires has run on megawatts rather than litres. Continue reading...

Postmortems showed the African penguins had multiple stings around their eyesA swarm of bees has killed 63 endangered African penguins on a beach outside Cape Town, the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds said.The protected birds were found dead in Simon’s Town, a small town near Cape Town home to a colony of penguins, and taken for post-mortems. Continue reading...

Developed country governments will reportedly fail to provide $100bn a year for the next four yearsRich countries will continue to miss a longstanding pledge to provide poor countries with $100bn a year in climate finance for the next four years, new analysis suggests on the eve of a crunch meeting of world leaders at the UN on Monday.The promised cash is seen as essential to gaining support from developing countries for a global climate deal to fulfil the 2015 Paris agreement, with only six weeks go before vital UN climate talks, called Cop26, to be hosted in Glasgow this November. Continue reading...

Critics say loss of public access to section of Dinton Park goes against charity’s core valuesFor years, the rolling landscape of Dinton Park has been a favourite haunt of dog walkers, runners and seekers of tranquillity. When it snows children sledge down Toboggan Hill, and during the Covid lockdowns it became a place of solace and reflection. There is a beloved view of Salisbury Cathedral’s spire, which seems to float above the trees nine miles away.But a decision by the National Trust to lease out the Neo-Grecian Philipps House at the heart of the estate and, more importantly for lovers of the landscape, fence off a large chunk of the parkland to give the new tenant privacy has caused uproar. Continue reading...

Jessie Stevens, 16, plans to pedal 570 miles to represent young people at UN conference in NovemberUnable to afford the exorbitant train fare and refusing to fly, a 16-year-old environmental campaigner has decided to cycle 570 miles to the Cop26 summit in Glasgow – and has invited the public to join her for the ride.Jessie Stevens, from Newton Abbot in south Devon, wants to attend the climate conference in November to “bring youth representation to a conversation often dominated by older voices”. Continue reading...

Cheers and jeers greet political rivals trying to succeed Merkel, as they chase green votes in the former DDRAs Annalena Baerbock steps on to the stage, the downpour that minutes before had soaked those gathered on Chemnitz’s Theater Platz ceases. The Green party candidate is quick to use the opportunity to stress that everything is still possible. “Minutes ago it was raining, now the sun has come out – it can happen,” she says with a huge grin, hinting that the change in the weather is a good omen for her party’s fortunes.There are both chuckles and jeers from those gathered. With a week to go before one of the most open and tension-filled German elections in years, Baerbock is in the last stages of a campaign that weeks ago saw her heading for the top job, as successor to Chancellor Angela Merkel, but in which she is now fighting for second or third place. Continue reading...

The Anishinaabe people are rallying to save their lakes and their traditional wild rice harvestsAlong the eastern boundary of the White Earth Indian Reservation in north-western Minnesota, Indigenous Anishinaabe wild rice harvesters Jerry and Jim Libby set down a row of wooden pallets into the mud just beyond the dock of Upper Wild Rice Lake. It was a clear day, and tight, lush clumps of green rice heads were visible across the lake’s horizon.In a typical year, the entrance to this – one of a long necklace of wild rice lakes in northern Minnesota to which the region’s Indigenous people flock every year in the late summer – would be covered in at least two feet of water. But now it is composed of suspended sediment as solid as chocolate pudding, through which the Libbys need to create a makeshift ramp simply to carry their canoe out to the waterline. Continue reading...

Firefighters were temporarily driven away as two blazes merged and made a run to the edge of the Giant Forest in Sequoia national parkTwo lightning-sparked wildfires in California have merged and made a run to the edge of a grove of ancient sequoias, briefly driving away firefighters as they tried to protect the world’s largest tree by wrapping its base in protective foil.A shift in the weather fanned flames in the Sequoia national park in the Sierra Nevada on Friday, the National Park Service said. The flames reached the westernmost tip of the Giant Forest, where it scorched a grouping of sequoias known as the Four Guardsmen, which mark the entrance to the grove of 2,000 sequoias. Continue reading...

Labour’s shadow business secretary says the government must ‘rebuild trust’ after a series of missteps on way to climate summitBoris Johnson should set out plans to provide Covid-19 vaccinations to all developing countries to achieve a global climate deal, Labour’s shadow business secretary, Ed Miliband, has urged.Only 2% of the population of developing countries have been inoculated, despite promises by rich nations. Ensuring the rest have access to vaccines would build trust with the poor world which is lacking, Miliband said, ahead of the vital UN Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow in November. Continue reading...

Seabird carcasses discovered along Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Scottish shores, with many more found emaciatedSeveral hundred seabirds have been found dead along the coasts of north-east England and Scotland, while many have been discovered emaciated.The UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), which is investigating the cause of the deaths, said the majority of the birds were guillemots. Continue reading...

Tips for the socially and environmentally responsible travelerIn her book An Indigenous History of the United States, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz argues the US romanticizes outdoor travel to hide its colonial roots. Many Americans were raised on the belief that our heritage was wanderlust. Chasing “wilderness” was our right. But lost in this lore is the acknowledgment that our national park system was built upon stolen land.As a travel writer, I believe deeply in our human nature to explore. But historically, the way we take advantage of our national parks has often caused harm: the genocide of Indigenous communities to make “space” for outdoor recreation, the unmanageable waste that accumulates from large crowds of tourists, the scarcity of resources for people living near parks. Continue reading...

As demand for chips surges, the semicondutor industry is trying to grapple with its huge carbon foot printThe semiconductor industry has a problem. Demand is booming for silicon chips, which are embedded in everything from smartphones and televisions to wind turbines, but it comes at a big cost: a huge carbon footprint.The industry presents a paradox. Meeting global climate goals will, in part, rely on semiconductors. They’re integral to electric vehicles, solar arrays and wind turbines. But chip manufacturing also contributes to the climate crisis. It requires huge amounts of energy and water – a chip fabrication plant, or fab, can use millions of gallons of water a day – and creates hazardous waste. Continue reading...

RHS entry includes old concrete and drainpipes alongside the blooms to highlight the importance of environmentally friendly gardeningA week before the opening of the UK’s most prestigious flower show, the site is full of JCBs and people in hi-vis vests with steel-capped boots. Some gardens still look like construction sites, including part of the RHS Cop26 Garden – except that this one is finished.Drainpipes, a manhole chamber, old concrete and industrial offcuts lie strewn around. “When I told people we were taking this stuff to Chelsea they thought we were fly-tipping,” says Marie-Louise Agius from landscaping company Balston Agius, who designed the garden. It has taken 12 people three weeks to put together. Continue reading...

The stars of 1970s television have been announced as ambassadors for the British government’s #OneStepGreener campaign. But would the Octonauts and Go Jetters do better?From Wimbledon Common to Kelvingrove park – the Wombles, Britain’s much-loved environmentally friendly furry creatures who became TV stars in the 1970s, are back in the spotlight after being announced as ambassadors for the government’s #OneStepGreener initiative in the run-up to Cop26 in Glasgow.Famous for collecting litter on Wimbledon Common in London and upcycling it, the Wombles will be promoting activities that people can do to reduce their carbon impact, such as walking and cycling, planting trees and reducing food waste, before the climate summit in November. Continue reading...

Soaring energy prices slow production of gas used to stun animals before slaughter in abattoirsBritain’s pig farmers are the latest casualty of the worsening energy crisis which threatens to trigger a shortage of carbon dioxide used across the food and drinks industry.Rocketing gas prices have caused a Europe-wide slowdown for some chemical factories that produce fertiliser, a byproduct of which is carbon dioxide, used in fizzy drinks and beer as well as in the meat industry to stun animals before slaughter. Continue reading...

Labour sources say climate crisis and green jobs will be key themes, amid concerns about leader’s commitment to policyKeir Starmer is committed to debating plans for a green new deal at Labour’s conference later this month, his team have insisted, despite the party having rejected a grassroots motion on the issue.Labour sources said the need to transform the economy to meet the climate challenge and create green jobs in the UK would be a key theme in Starmer’s conference speech, and in a lengthy essay for the Fabian Society he is due to publish in the run-up to the conference in Brighton. Continue reading...

Major commitment with deadline of 2030 is big advance towards reaching 1.5C goal set out in Paris agreementThe US and the EU made a joint pledge on Friday to cut global methane emissions by almost a third in the next decade, in what climate experts hailed as one of the most significant steps yet towards fulfilling the Paris climate agreement.The pledge came as the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, warned of a “high risk of failure” at the vital UN climate talks, Cop26, set for Glasgow this November. Continue reading...

People living amid toxic fumes hope ruling will force Walleys Quarry to make urgent changesWhen she returned to her home in the village of Knutton, outside Newcastle-under-Lyme, after a trip to London on Thursday, the landfill fumes hit Helen Vincent like a brick wall. “We were saying to each other: ‘Oh how nice was the fresh air in London?’ You won’t hear many people say that,” she laughed.Vincent had been in London for a landmark high court ruling which ordered the Environment Agency to do more to protect five-year-old Mathew Richards from the landfill’s hydrogen sulphide fumes, which doctors said were shortening his life expectancy. Continue reading...

Overfishing, a heating planet, pollution and habitat destruction have devastated reefs, scientists warnThe world’s coral reef cover has halved since the 1950s, ravaged by global heating, overfishing, pollution and habitat destruction, according to an analysis of thousands of reef surveys.From the 1,430-mile (2,300km) Great Barrier Reef in Australia to the Saya de Malha Bank in the Indian Ocean, coral reefs and the diversity of fish species they support are in steep decline, a trend that is projected to continue as the planet continues to heat in the 21st century. Continue reading...

With Cop26 on the horizon, activists are finding new ways to make politicians and public pay attentionA new wave of climate activism, during which motorways have been blocked and politicians confronted by young people, is attempting to put pressure on the UK government before the UN Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow later this year.Insulate Britain staged its first protest on Monday and has since brought large sections of the UK’s busiest motorway to a standstill to demand action to tackle the escalating climate emergency. Continue reading...

Nine sea turtles hatch on beach in Jesolo, Veneto, in what scientists describe as ‘exceptional’ eventEggs that were laid on a sandy beach in northern Italy by a loggerhead sea turtle, or Caretta Caretta, have hatched in what scientists describe as an “exceptional” event possibly brought on by global heating. It was the first time that the hatching of Caretta Caretta sea turtle eggs had been recorded along the northern Adriatic coast.Nine sea turtles were born on Wednesday night on the beach in Jesolo, a popular seaside resort close to Venice where their mother had deposited 82 eggs, about 25 metres from the sea, overnight on 9 July. Continue reading...

Fifteen finalists chosen for providing innovative solutions to environmental challenges facing the planetThe first finalists in the Duke of Cambridge’s ambitious £50m global Earthshot prize to help repair the planet over the next 10 years have been announced and include a schoolgirl, a city and a country.The prestigious global environment prize is designed to encourage solutions on climate change. The 15 inaugural finalists – three in each of the prize’s five categories – were chosen by experts and the prize council members. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including an ambush bug, friendly frogs and a rescued orca Continue reading...

Members of Oil and Gas Authority hold shares in fossil fuel firms, raising conflict of interest concernsCampaigners have warned that close links uncovered between the oil and gas industry and the UK’s North Sea regulator, which is responsible for licensing new fields, risk overly “cosy” relationships that might affect the decision making process.Three of the 13 members of the board of directors and senior management team of the Oil and Gas Authority hold sizeable shareholdings in oil companies, amounting to about £225,000, and eight of the 13 previously worked in the oil and gas industry, the news site the Ferret has found, in an investigation funded by the Uplift campaign against fossil fuels. Continue reading...

Nuclear submarine deal with Australia draws mixed response, plus message in a bottle found after 37 yearsDon’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.The US and Britain are battling to contain an international backlash over a nuclear submarine pact struck with Australia amid concerns that the alliance could provoke China and prompt conflict in the Pacific. Continue reading...

Faroese have been killing whales since Viking times but many islanders now oppose annual slaughterIn a parked car overlooking the ocean sit two of the biggest whale killers in the Faroe Islands. They look exhausted, but not from hunting. Ólavur Sjúrðaberg, 75, and Hans J Hermansen, 73, have been on the phone constantly since a mass killing of 1,428 white-sided dolphins in the Faroe Islands on Sunday sparked international outrage and led the Faroes prime minister to announce on Thursday that the government would review the dolphin hunt.Neither Sjúrðaberg nor Hermansen participated in the killing, but they are the current and former chairman of the Faroese Whalers Association, founded in 1992 to explain and defend the traditional killing of whales in the islands, known as the “grind”, and ensure it is as efficient and respectful as possible. Continue reading...

Environmental groups accuse government of allowing ‘business as usual’ under 10-year roadmap for the $1bn industry

A volunteer with the New York City Audubon found nearly 300 carcasses littering the sidewalks below the World Trade CenterHundreds of birds migrating through New York City this week died after crashing into the city’s glass towers, a mass casualty event spotlighted by a New York City Audubon volunteer’s tweets showing the World Trade Center littered with bird carcasses.This week’s avian death toll was particularly high, but bird strikes on Manhattan skyscrapers are a persistent problem that NYC Audubon has documented for years, said Kaitlyn Parkins, the group’s associate director of conservation and science. Continue reading...

The Cop26 climate summit will be an opportunity to put fossil fuel companies on trial through the court of public opinionFossil fuel companies bear as much responsibility as governments do for humanity’s climate predicament – and for finding a way out. Our planetary house is on fire, and these companies have literally supplied the fuel. Worse, they lied about it for decades to blunt public awareness and policy reform.There’s no better time for ExxonMobil and other petroleum giants to be held accountable than at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November. The Glasgow summit is more than just another international meeting. It is the last chance for world leaders to limit future temperature rise to an amount that civilization can survive. Doing so, scientists say, will require a rapid, global decline in oil, gas and coal burning. Continue reading...

Expert tells inquiry WCM’s plans are not legally compliant under UK’s and EU’s policy frameworksThe company seeking to open the UK’s first new deep coalmine in 30 years is gambling on the UK’s and EU’s failure to address climate change, the public inquiry into the mining plans has heard.An expert witness for one of the parties opposed to West Cumbria Mining’s (WCM) plans to dig up 2.7m tonnes of coking coal a year says the firm’s case for the mine rests on the assumption that UK and EU governments will breach their legally binding climate targets by using the coal to supply steelmaking over the coming decades. Continue reading...

Timing of defence deal, ahead of Cop26 summit where China will be key player, dismays campaignersThe timing of the new defence deal between the US, UK and Australia has dismayed climate experts, who fear it could have a negative effect on hopes of a deal with China on greenhouse gas emissions ahead of vital UN climate talks.The Aukus trilateral security partnership has been interpreted as seeking to counterbalance Chinese power in the Asia-Pacific region, and has been likened to a new cold war by China. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson warned the three countries to “respect regional people’s aspiration and do more that is conducive to regional peace and stability and development – otherwise they will only end up hurting their own interests”. Continue reading...

Residents of Shoal Lake 40 can drink from taps thanks to a new water treatment facility but dozens of communities lack accessResidents of a First Nations community in Canada, who were deprived of clean drinking water for nearly a quarter of a century, can now drink from their taps after a water treatment facility became fully operational earlier this week.Shoal Lake 40, a community on the Manitoba-Ontario border, has been under drinking water advisory since 1997. Continue reading...

Doctors say Mathew Richards’ life expectancy has been shortened due to exposure to hydrogen sulphide fumesThe high court has ruled the Environment Agency must do more to protect a five-year-old boy from landfill fumes that doctors say are shortening his life expectancy.In a landmark judgment on Thursday, a high court judge said he was not satisfied that the EA was complying with its legal duty to protect the life of Mathew Richards, whose respiratory health problems are being worsened by fumes from a landfill site near his home in Silverdale, near Newcastle-under-Lyme. Continue reading...

Online retailer also says it will ensure that 50% of managers are women, and 15% are from ethnic minoritiesAsos will target net zero carbon emissions by 2030 and will aim to match the general population in gender and ethnic diversity among its leaders as the fast fashion company responds to shoppers’ rising demand for ethical brands.Fast fashion retailers have faced persistent criticisms from campaigners over the environmental footprint of cheap clothing that is treated as disposable by many customers. It is estimated that fashion accounts for about 10% of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. Continue reading...

Wabtec shows off locomotive amid fresh attempt by some US lawmakers to slash carbon emissions from rail transportThe world’s first battery-electric freight train was unveiled at an event in Pittsburgh on Friday, amid a fresh attempt by some US lawmakers to slash carbon emissions from rail transport in order to address the climate crisis.Wabtec, the Pittsburgh-based rail freight company, showed off its locomotive at Carnegie Mellon University as part of a new venture between the two organizations to develop zero emissions technology to help move the 1.7bn tons of goods that are shipped on American railroads each year. Continue reading...

Case, launched by two Melbourne EV drivers, will argue the levy is unconstitutional and ‘similar to the GST which is a commonwealth tax’

EPA data reveals that one of America’s biggest PFAS-making plants is second largest polluter of highly damaging HCFC-22 gasA new analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data has revealed that PFAS chemicals – often known as “forever chemicals” due to their longevity in the environment – are contributing to the climate crisis as their production involves the emission of potent greenhouse gases.In recent years, an ever-expanding body of scientific research has shown that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are among the most toxic substances widely used in consumer products. Continue reading...

When residents in Union Hill, Virginia, decried the pipeline as a form of environmental racism, the energy company insisted it wasn’tAs fracked gas fields in West Virginia boomed over the past decade, energy companies jumped at the chance to build massive new pipelines to move the fuel to neighboring east coast markets. The 600-mile Atlantic Coast pipeline would have been the crown jewel.But Union Hill, Virginia – a community settled by formerly enslaved people after the civil war on farm land they had once tilled – stood in the way. Residents fought against a planned compressor station meant to help the gas move through the pipeline, arguing that because Union Hill is a historic Black community, the resulting air pollution would be an environmental injustice. Continue reading...

Sussan Ley’s decision denounced as a ‘betrayal of young people’ and follows a federal court ruling that she has a duty of care to protect young people from the climate crisis

Creature was a dead spotted lanternfly – an invasive moth-like bug that has been causing massive damage to plants in eastern statesA young contestant’s proud entry at the Kansas state fair caused a flap when a judge saw the specimen submitted in the boy’s exhibition box – and it prompted a federal investigation.The show item was a dead spotted lanternfly the boy had discovered at his home – an invasive moth-like bug that has been causing massive damage to plants in US eastern states but had not previously been thought to have reached Kansas. Continue reading...

London-Glasgow flight run partly on sustainable fuel produces 62% less CO2 than a decade agoBritish Airways has operated its first passenger service directly powered by sustainable aviation fuel, a London to Glasgow flight that the airline said produced 62% less CO2 emissions than a similar journey a decade ago.The airline said the combination of the fuel – partly made from recycled cooking oil – with optimal flight paths, electrified airport vehicles and its newest plane slashed emissions. BA said it had offset the CO2 produced, making the flight carbon-neutral. Continue reading...

Coal plants being warmed up as market prices surge to £2,500 per MWh from a norm of £40A major fire has forced the shutdown of one of Britain’s most important power cables importing electricity from France as the UK faces a supply crunch and record high market prices.National Grid was forced to evacuate staff from the site of the IFA high-voltage power cable, which brings electricity from France to a converter station in Kent, where 12 fire engines attended the blaze in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Continue reading...

Scientist compares bloom caused by iron particles in smoke aerosols to ‘the entire Sahara desert turning into a productive grassland’

Despite protests from locals and Green councillors, wildlife haven will become hard courts at cost of £266,000A wildflower meadow containing 130 different flowering plants, dragonflies and rare bats that sprung up on Norwich’s last public grass tennis courts has been bulldozed.Despite protests from local people and Green councillors, all-weather hard courts with floodlights and fencing are being installed in Heigham Park, where species including whiskered and brown long-eared bats, pygmy shrews, hedgehogs and 18 species of dragonfly have been recorded. Continue reading...

Insulate Britain environmental campaigners target London traffic during morning rush-hourMore than 70 environmental protesters have been arrested after they blocked traffic on Britain’s busiest motorway for the second time in three days.Activists from Insulate Britain staged the demonstration at several sections of the M25 in London during the morning rush-hour on Wednesday, causing long delays. Continue reading...

Retailer also plans to slash carbon emissions and eliminate single-use plastics from its operations by 2027Primark has committed to making all of its clothes from recycled or more sustainably sourced materials within a decade, promising the strategy will not lead to price rises.The retailer has also pledged to make clothes that can be “recyclable by design” by 2027. Only a quarter of the clothing it sells is made from recycled or sustainably sourced materials. Continue reading...

National disaster declared as crops fail after poor rains and locusts, while ethnic conflicts add to crisisAn estimated 2.1 million Kenyans face starvation due to a drought in half the country, which is affecting harvests.The National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) said people living in 23 counties across the arid north, northeastern and coastal parts of the country will be in “urgent need” of food aid over the next six months, after poor rains between March and May this year. Continue reading...