Services need to recognise risk after last week’s ‘unprecedented’ blazes, say expertsFire chiefs have warned that cities in the UK need to prepare for wildfires after dozens of “unprecedented” blazes broke out during last week’s record-breaking temperatures.Temperatures reached 40C (104F) across England last Tuesday in a heatwave that dried out green spaces, triggering wildfires that destroyed more than 40 houses and shops. Continue reading...

Sightings and non-fatal incidents have proliferated on Long Island this year but experts say they are actually evidence of a conservation success storyThere were thousands of people on Robert Moses Beach on New York’s Long Island on Saturday, but in this heatwave few were venturing into the Atlantic water beyond their ankles or knees.Mothers kept their children close. An array of boats, helicopters and drones moved up and down beyond the surf. And teams of lifeguards aloft in their posts were poised with whistles to order people out of the water. Continue reading...

New biosecurity measures include suspension of walkthroughs in some enclosures and a request that recent travellers to Indonesia wait 48 hours before visiting

Officials urge residents to take precautions as forecasts point to temperatures far above historic averagesA searing heatwave is expected to bring dangerously high temperatures to US Pacific north-west – a region known for its mild, temperate summers.As Oregon, Washington, parts of northern California and British Columbia brace for a week of temperatures well above historic averages, officials are warning residents in the region – many of whom lack air conditioning and are unaccustomed to heat – to take precautions. Continue reading...

On Monday, 17 people sat in the Senate majority leader’s office to demand he reopen climate negotiationsSix staffers were reportedly arrested in Congress on Monday afternoon for staging a sit-in at Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer’s office and protesting about a lack of legislative action on the environment.The congressional staffers and activists had started the demonstration earlier Monday, with 17 staffers sitting in Schumer’s office to demand that he reopen climate negotiations, according to Saul Levin, a policy adviser for progressive congresswoman Cori Bush. Continue reading...

Conservationists say judgment is one of the most significant in environmental law since the environmental protection act was introduced in 1999

Change to ensure future emissions reduction targets could only be increased follows talks with crossbench and Greens

Experts say fire-ravaged forests must be replanted and managed differently to avoid future blazesVast swathes of fire-ravaged pine forest must be replanted and managed differently to avoid future blazes fuelled by global heating, French experts have said, as wildfires – several caused by arson – continued to burn across France and Spain.Officials in the south-west Gironde département said on Monday that two huge fires – one at La Teste-de-Buch that destroyed 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) of forest, and another at Landiras that ravaged 13,800 hectares – were both under control, although still burning. Continue reading...

Move by Norwegian Cruise authorised by city’s port authority despite plans to curb daytrippersA cruise company has circumvented a ban on its ships entering the Venice lagoon by shuttling passengers into the famous city centre on small motor boats.Norwegian Gem, a vessel of just under 300 metres long and owned by Norwegian Cruise, anchored outside the Venice Lido early on Saturday morning. It then launched several motor boats which between them dropped about 1,500 passengers off in St Mark’s Square before picking them up again in the evening. Continue reading...

Travellers on ‘bucket list adventure’ costing $110,000 will emit 20 times more than poor people do in a yearDisney is marketing a $110,000-a-ticket elite package tour that comes with a carbon price tag of 6.2 tonnes of emissions for each guest – 20 times more than a person in a low-income country accounts for in an entire year.The 24-day “bucket list adventure”, which is limited to 75 guests, takes in 12 Disney resorts in six countries on three continents. Customers will travel on a “VIP-configured” Boeing 757, accompanied by Disney staff “who [will] provide fun and fact-filled stories enabling you to be immersed in every location you visit”. Continue reading...

Government report calls for urgent action including removing barriers in waterways and better water qualityWild salmon stocks are at their lowest on record in England, a government report has found.Officials said the number of fish was reaching “crisis point” with urgent action required, including removing barriers in waterways and improving water quality. Continue reading...

Weather balloons rise to 5,184 metres before finding freezing point amid record heatwavesSwitzerland has recorded the freezing point way above its highest summits, smashing a record set 27 years ago, meteorologists have said.Scientists say human-induced climate change is amplifying the record heatwaves in several parts of the world in recent weeks. Continue reading...

Hosepipe bans could be brought in and farmers restricted from irrigating cropsThe UK is facing the prospect of a drought being declared in August, experts have said, warning of potential crop failures after a period of remarkably dry weather and extreme heat.Hosepipe bans for households could be brought in across the UK and farmers could be restricted from irrigating their crops if the government implements a drought plan. Continue reading...

Campaigners warn of damage as concessions now cover over a quarter of land on both sides of borderEnvironmentalists on the island of Ireland say they fear a “new carve-up of the island” over coming decades, with mining concessions now covering more than a quarter of all land on both sides of the border.More than 25% of the total land area of Northern Ireland is covered by mining concessions, according to government statistics, while the figure for the Irish republic has in the past couple of years been even higher at 27%. The prospecting licences covering these areas grant mining companies permission to survey and assess sites, as well as carry out exploratory work that includes digging tunnels, pits, taking rock samples and carrying out chemical analyses. Continue reading...

Minister says open doors lead to 20% more consumption as restrictions on illuminated signs also announcedAir-conditioned shops throughout France will have to keep their doors shut or risk a fine of €750 (£635), a French minister has announced, after the mayors of several major cities unveiled a similar rule during the country’s heatwave last week.Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the minister for ecological transition, said leaving doors open with air conditioning on led to “20% more energy consumption and … is absurd”. A decree confirming the decision will be issued in the coming days. Continue reading...

His latest climate defeat has affirmed what we’ve long feared: that he just isn’t the man for the momentOn Friday, 15 July, Joe Biden acknowledged the death of his signature climate bill, conceding defeat in a war he never truly seemed willing to wage. He did it from a hastily prepared briefing room in Jeddah, where he had spent the previous day shilling for increased Saudi oil production.It was painful to watch. The fossil fuel oligarchs had him right where they wanted him: his climate ambitions foiled, his rhetoric defanged, his hat in his hand. For their part, they had never been under any illusions that they were waging a war. Over the course of his presidency, they had deployed every weapon at their disposal to protect their profit margins from the public’s desire for a dignified life on a habitable planet.Daniel Sherrell is the author of Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World (Penguin Books) and a climate activist Continue reading...

Animals and insects have been casualties of recent extreme heat, but the true impact will only be known over time, experts sayAnimal rescue centres received a glut of calls, birds fell out of the sky and nature reserves burned as British wildlife baked in last week’s heatwave.Conservationists said animals were eerily still as they tried to shelter from the heat. Experts fear that record-breaking temperatures could cause a further collapse in insect numbers, with bumblebees and butterflies among those most affected. Continue reading...

‘Everything we thought we knew may not actually be true,’ says fish biologist in response to findingResearchers have made a surprising discovery about the dining habits of whale sharks, handing the largest fish in the sea another world title.It turns out the ocean giants routinely enjoy a seaweed salad alongside hefty helpings of krill, meaning they have officially dethroned the Kodiak bear as the world’s biggest omnivore. Continue reading...

Campaigners say bonus curbs on Peter Simpson not enough as company logs 25% of all serious pollution incidents last yearThe boss of a water company with one of the worst pollution records in England has been handed more than £1m in pay and bonuses.Anglian Water chief executive Peter Simpson faces criticism after he landed a “substantial” £337,651 bonus as part of a £1.3m pay package. Continue reading...

Council-supported project beginning on roof of school in Poblenou could grow across the cityA secondary school and a residents’ association have teamed up with Barcelona city council to create a solar energy community with the capacity to grow – rooftop by rooftop – across large areas of the city.The solar panels on the roof of Quatre Cantons secondary school in the former industrial district of Poblenou supply power to the school and 30 households in the surrounding area. Continue reading...

Oak fire prompts Gavin Newsom to declare state of emergency for Mariposa County as firefighters scramble to contain the blazeCalifornia governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Mariposa County on Saturday after a fast-moving wildfire near Yosemite national park exploded in size, prompting evacuation orders for thousands of people.The Oak fire, which began Friday afternoon south-west of the park near Midpines in Mariposa County, grew to 10.2 sq miles (26.5 sq km) by Saturday morning, according to the California department of forestry and fire protection, or CalFire. Continue reading...

More than 40 houses were destroyed by fires on Britain’s hottest day. Now there are calls for an urgent rethink on building safety lawsFires that burned in several parts of the UK last week spread in the same way as those that led to the great fire of London and would have been far worse with stronger winds, a fire expert has said.Fires in Wennington, Uxbridge and Erith destroyed 41 properties last Tuesday, when temperatures went above 40C to make it the hottest day on record in the UK, and fire services had their busiest day since the second world war. Continue reading...

Sale calls into question protection deal signed at Cop26 as expert warns Congo auction could be a catastrophe for wildlife, health and climateThe Democratic Republic of the Congo has announced it will auction oil and gas permits in critically endangered gorilla habitat and the world’s largest tropical peatlands next week. The sale raises concerns about the credibility of a forest protection deal signed with the country by Boris Johnson at Cop26.On Monday, hydrocarbons minister Didier Budimbu said the DRC was expanding an auction of oil exploration blocks to include two sites that overlap with Virunga national park, a Unesco world heritage site home to Earth’s last remaining mountain gorillas. Continue reading...

While planting rates have risen in Scotland, carbon capture figures overall have fallen every year since 2009, official data showsThe amount of carbon dioxide captured by the UK’s forests has fallen by millions of tonnes and will remain at historically low rates for over a decade, because of a failure to quickly replace old forest stocks.Official data shows the amount of CO absorbed annually by trees in the UK peaked at just under 20m tonnes in 2009, but has fallen every year since. Millions of mature conifers have been felled but not replaced, reducing the carbon they capture and store. Continue reading...

City allegedly addresses illegal dumping complaints by people of color more slowly than those from white residentsHouston’s city government is under federal investigation after accusations that it responds to calls from Black and Hispanic residents about illegal dumping more slowly than if the complaints are from white residents, US justice department officials announced Friday.The investigation into whether the Texas metropolis’ so-called quality of life officials are illegally discriminating against residents based on their race or national origin was prompted by a complaint filed earlier this year by the nonprofit Lone Star Legal Aid clinic, authorities added. Continue reading...

Yields of cherries, strawberries and blueberries could more than double on the same time last yearThe UK heatwave has produced a glut in strawberry, cherry and blueberry harvests prompting a wave of discounts in stores and lower prices for British farmers.Strawberry farmers said they were picking as much as 30% more fruit than usual, and blueberry growers at least 50% more this week as temperatures topped 40C on Tuesday in some parts of England. Yields are expected to be double that of the same week last year in the week ahead. Blackberry harvests are expected to be up 80% on the same time last year this week according to the British Berry Growers association. Continue reading...

Prosecutors say two men confessed to killing British journalist and Indigenous expert while third participatedPublic prosecutors have charged three individuals with the murder in June of the British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira in the remote western reaches of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.Phillips – a regular contributor to the Guardian – and Pereira had met Indigenous people near the entrance of the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory, which borders Peru and Colombia, and were travelling along the Itaquai River back to the city of Atalaia do Norte when they were attacked. Continue reading...

Blaze, estimated to have damaged 14,000 hectares, started after spark escaped from soil excavatorAn international reforestation company has said it is “devastated” after one of its contractors accidentally caused a massive fire in Spain, where dozens of calamitous wildfires have raged this week.Land Life, a Netherlands-based company with offices in Spain and the US, said the fire broke out on Monday at one of its reforestation projects in Ateca in the north-eastern region of Aragón. Continue reading...

Rightwing outlets are increasingly covering complaints about extreme heat as a culture war issueReaders of the Daily Mail were in no doubt as to what the newspaper thought about Monday’s hot weather: it was little more than a “sunny day” where “snowflake Britain had a meltdown”. There was criticism that public services had pre-emptively closed down – and praise for Prince Charles continuing to wear a suit and tie in the heat.Inside the newspaper, the columnist Stephen Robinson bemoaned how weather maps had dispensed with jolly symbols and instead used deep red colours to show high temperatures. He claimed the Met Office – in cahoots with the BBC – has become an “all-singing, all-dancing amen choir for the climate alarmist ‘Blob’”. Continue reading...

Green Tory hits out at critics of Boris Johnson’s environmental land management policyThe next prime minister must press ahead with changes to farm subsidies that prioritise protecting nature and the environment, despite attacks on the policies from within the Conservative party, the prominent green Tory Ben Goldsmith has urged.“Environmental land management contracts should be defended at all costs,” he told the Guardian. “They would tie agriculture subsidies to stewardship and the restoration of soils and nature. They incentivise the transition to more regenerative agriculture. They are about making space for nature. They are a huge win for the natural environment in this country.” Continue reading...

Record heat reaffirms urgency to decarbonise, but technical challenge is far greater for aviation than for most other parts of economyThe temperature of the runway hit 50C at the Farnborough airshow this week. Officials checked for melting asphalt between the aerospace industry showing off its wares, with flights by passenger jets including the Boeing 777X and Airbus A350, assorted military aircraft and flypasts by the Red Arrows display team.The heat on Monday was yet another reminder, if one were needed, of the urgency of decarbonising aviation, responsible for about 3% of global emissions. The threat of climate crisis has taken the shine off an industry that was once the height of glamour, and zero-emissions flight presents a technical challenge far greater than decarbonising most other parts of the economy. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including hot cows, a lost walrus and a pelican in a traffic jam Continue reading...

UK temperatures exceed 40C while France and Portugal hit new highs, with some extreme consequencesRecord-breaking heat continued to affect parts of western Europe during the past week, with UK temperatures exceeding 40C (104F) for the first time since records began.On Tuesday, several weather stations across London, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire broke the 40C barrier, with a top temperature of 40.3C in Coningsby, Lincolnshire. A further 39 stations across central and southern England also broke the previous highest temperature of 38.7C, which was set in July 2019. Continue reading...

The party has largely abandoned its past climate denialism, but experts and activists say the ideas Republicans have proposed are insufficient or misguidedWhen Joe Manchin announced an abrupt end to Senate negotiations over major climate legislation last week, activists and even fellow Democrats expressed outrage against the West Virginia lawmaker. Manchin was attacked as a “modern-day villain” who had delivered “nothing short of a death sentence” to a rapidly heating planet.Some Democratic leaders, however, including Joe Biden, have since attempted to redirect that anger toward congressional Republicans instead. Continue reading...

Improved monitoring has shown nearly 6,000 tigers, says International Union for Conservation of Nature, with population ‘stable or increasing’There are 40% more tigers in the wild than previously thought, with as many as 5,578 around, though they remain an endangered species, according to a leading conservationist group.The jump in numbers was due to improved monitoring, with the population thought to be stable or increasing, said the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Habitat protection projects showed that “recovery is possible”. Continue reading...

Electric vehicle advocates and auto industry say Australia needs nationally mandated fuel efficiency standards

Climate change minister Chris Bowen says Arena will have mandate to accelerate electrification and focus on renewable technology

Targeting scarce public resources at ailing nuclear initiatives flies in the face of all known data, says Prof Andy StirlingThe UK is sadly becoming habituated to an officially sponsored attrition of truth about nuclear power. Despite intensifying propaganda, even government data shows this military-backed technology to be, in reality, an expensive, slow, unreliable, risky and unpopular way to deliver affordable, secure, zero-carbon energy.The gap in efficacy and competitiveness between nuclear and other options is continually growing. Supporting nuclear, rather than energy efficiency, wind and solar, slows down climate action, bleeds taxpayers, forgoes jobs and forces unnecessarily large and regressive burdens on consumers. Continue reading...

100 million Americans are enduring searing temperatures as Biden declines to announce a climate emergencyThe National Weather Service has warned that extreme heat will affect more than 100 million people in the US this week, with triple-digit temperatures in some states and broken temperature records in many areas across the country.“Above-normal temperatures will continue to prevail across much of the US through the end of the week, with a significant portion of the population remaining under heat-related advisories and warnings,” the agency said. Continue reading...

‘Nature’s engineers’ who create wetlands with their dams are recognised as native wildlifeBeavers are to be given legal protection in England, meaning it will be illegal to kill or harm them as they are formally recognised as native wildlife.This is a step forward for the charismatic rodents, which were hunted to extinction in the country 400 years ago but have reappeared owing to illegal releases around the country. Continue reading...

Officials announce eight cats will be brought from Namibia in effort to reintroduce animal to its former habitatCheetahs are to return to India’s forests this August for the first time in more than 70 years, officials have announced.Eight wild cats from Namibia will roam freely at Kuno-Palpur national park in the state of Madhya Pradesh in efforts to reintroduce the animal to their natural habitat.

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...