MPs on Commons committee describe figures as a waste and say money should have been used to fix infrastructureEnglish water companies have spent 16.6m fighting legal action against regulators and campaigners over environmental breaches such as illegal sewage spills.Correspondence from the companies to the Commons environment, food and rural affairs (Efra) committee published on Tuesday reveals that millions of pounds of billpayers' money has been spent over the past five years on expensive external lawyers enlisted to reduce liabilities for regulatory breaches. Continue reading...
Authorities said the boy, who survived and was hospitalized, was bitten while snorkelling near Key LargoAn eight-year-old child suffered a significant amount of blood loss" after he was bitten by a shark as he was snorkelling near Key Largo on Monday, authorities in Florida said.The boy survived and was taken by helicopter to hospital in Miami for treatment to a leg wound above the knee. His condition was unknown on Tuesday morning, but local media reports described his wounds as severe". Continue reading...
Exclusive: The progressive thinktank, which has championed a real zero' emissions policy, says it protects privacy of donors to avoid them being targeted
Over 85 top climate specialists lambasted administration's review, calling it a shoddy mess' that downplays risksA group of the US's leading climate scientists have compiled a withering review of a controversial Trump administration report that downplays the risks of the climate crisis, finding that the document is biased, riddled with errors and fails basic scientific credibility.More than 85 climate experts have contributed to a comprehensive 434-page report that excoriates a US Department of Energy (DOE) document written by five hand-picked fringe researchers that argues that global heating and its resulting consequences have been overstated. Continue reading...
Research reveals huge disparity between perceived and actual willingness of public to contribute to fixing climatePoliticians and policymakers significantly underestimate the public's willingness to contribute to climate action, limiting the ambition and scope of green policies, according to research.Delegates at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) were asked to estimate what percentage of the global population would say they were willing to give 1% of their income to help fix climate change. The average estimate was 37%, but recent research found the true figure is 69%. Continue reading...
From the firing of the labor statistics chief to plans for a new census, the president's moves serve to entrench authoritarianismIn 1937, Joseph Stalin commissioned a sweeping census of the Soviet Union. The data reflected some uncomfortable facts - in particular, the dampening of population growth in areas devastated by the 1933 famine - and so Stalin's government suppressed the release of the survey results. Several high-level government statistical workers responsible for the census were subsequently imprisoned and apparently executed. Though the Soviet authorities would proudly trumpet national statistics that glorified the USSR's achievements, any numbers that did not fit the preferred narrative were buried.A few weeks ago, following the release of disappointing" jobs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Donald Trump fired the commissioner of labor statistics, Dr Erika McEntarfer, and claimed the numbers were rigged". He also announced his intention to commission an unprecedented off-schedule census of the US population (these happen every 10 years and the next one should be in 2030) with an emphasis that this census will not count illegal immigrants". The real goal is presumably to deliver a set of population estimates that could be used to reapportion congressional seats and districts ahead of the 2026 mid-term elections and ensure conditions favorable to Republican control of Congress - though it is not clear there is sufficient time or support from Congress to make this happen. The administration is also reportedly updating" the National Climate Assessments and various important sources of data on topics related to climate and public health have disappeared. In addition to all this, Trump's justice department launched an investigation into the crime statistics of the DC Metropolitan police, alleging that the widely reported decline in 2024 DC violent crime rates - the lowest total number of recorded violent crimes city-wide in 30 years - are a distortion, fueled by falsified or manipulated statistics. One might say that the charge of fake data" is just a close cousin of the fake news" and all of this is par for the course for an administration that insists an alternate reality is the truth. But this pattern may also beget a specifically troubling (and quintessentially Soviet) state of affairs: the public belief that all political" data are fake, that one generally cannot trust statistics. We must resist this paradigm shift, because it mainly serves to entrench authoritarianism.Daniel Malinsky is an assistant professor of biostatistics in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University Continue reading...
Unprecedented average temperature made about 70 times more likely by human-induced climate change, says agencyThe UK has had its hottest summer on record, the Met Office has said, after the country faced four heatwaves in a single season.The mean temperature for meteorological summer, which encompasses the months of June, July and August, was 16.1C (60.98F), which is significantly above the current record of 15.76C set in 2018. Continue reading...
Pedro Sanchez says country's deadly August wildfires show society needs to mobilise and take immediate actionSpain's prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, has announced a 10-point plan to prepare the country for the climate emergency, warning: If we don't want to bequeath our children a Spain that's grey from fire and flames, or a Spain that's brown from floods, then we need a Spain that's greener."Sanchez said August's heatwave-fuelled wildfires - which killed four people, burned through an area six times the size of Ibiza and required the biggest human and technical deployment" ever seen in Spain - showed that immediate action must be taken to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis. Continue reading...
Conservationists hope that in 15 years species will no longer be at risk of extinction in Mexico - but challenges remainIn 2010, Gerardo Ceballos and a group of other researchers set out to answer a burning question: how many jaguars were there in Mexico? They knew there weren't many. Hunting, loss of habitat, conflict with cattle ranchers and other issues had pushed the population to the brink of extinction.Ceballos and his team from the National Alliance for Jaguar Conservation (ANCJ) thought there were maybe 1,000 jaguars across the country. They decided to carry out the country's first census of the animal to find out exactly how many there were. They found 4,100. Continue reading...
Most of these little-known but already endangered fish have never been seen alive in their natural habitat, but are under threat from bottom trawling and deep-sea miningThree years ago I was running a research project from a bottom trawler off Namibia about deep-sea sharks - all of which live under enormous water pressure, close to the seafloor and are rarely seen by humans.These sharks were being brought up in the trawler's nets. By the time they were brought to the surface, they had experienced such a dramatic change in pressure that they had undergone barotrauma, so they were internally damaged and unlikely to survive. Continue reading...
Frontrunner Zack Polanski has dismissed claims of a hostile takeover' but contest has been unusually fractiousThe Green party will name its next leader on Tuesday after a fiercely fought leadership contest that has exposed tensions over tone, strategy and the party's ambitions on the national stage.The frontrunner, Zack Polanski, has pitched himself as a bold communicator able to turn rising support into a mass movement. He is facing the joint candidates Ellie Chowns and Adrian Ramsay, two impactful Green MPs elected last year who are seen as offering a steadier, more targeted route to growth. Continue reading...
Weather services of UK, Ireland and Netherlands chose list of 21 names from 50,000 suggestions by the publicMeteorologists in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands have announced this year's north Atlantic winter storm names, chosen after 50,000 suggestions were submitted by the public.Amy, Bram and Chandra will be the first named storms of winter 2025-2026, the Met Office said on Monday. Continue reading...
by Katharine Gammon in Rancho Palos Verdes on (#6ZPJY)
Pollution, warm oceans and hungry urchins devastated Pacific kelp. Now, thanks to divers with hammers, one of the world's most successful rehabilitation projects has helped it reboundOn an overcast Tuesday in July, divers Mitch Johnson and Sean Taylor shimmy into their wetsuits on the back of the R/V Xenarcha, a 28ft boat floating off the coast of Rancho Palos Verdes, south of Los Angeles. Behind them, the clear waters of the Pacific are dotted with a forest of army-green strands, waving like mermaid hair underwater.We are here to survey the giant Pacific kelp, a species that once thrived in these ice cold waters. But over the past two decades, a combination of warm ocean temperatures, pollution, overfishing and the proliferation of hungry sea urchins that devour the kelp has led to an 80% decline in the forest along the southern California coast. Continue reading...
Beaches from Florida to Maine under advisories, leading to closures at some of the most popular beach destinationsBeaches across the US are facing swimming caution advisories during the Labor Day holiday weekend due to water quality concerns caused by elevated levels of bacteria associated with fecal waste.Beaches from Crystal River, Florida, to Ogunquit, Maine, have been under advisories this week, discouraging beachgoers from entering the water because the bacteria can cause gastrointestinal illness, rashes and nausea. Continue reading...
by Nina Lakhani in Mohave county, Arizona on (#6ZPDQ)
Heat deaths could surge in the state as energy poverty linked to Trump's energy and trade policies burnsIt was the hottest day of the year so far when the central air conditioning started blowing hot air in the mobile home where Richard Chamblee lived in Bullhead City, Arizona, with his wife, children, and half a dozen cats and dogs.It was only mid-June but the heat was insufferable, particularly for Chamblee, who was clinically obese and bed-bound in the living room as the temperature hit 115F (46C) in the desert city - situated 100 miles (160km) south of Las Vegas on the banks of the Colorado River. Continue reading...
When I killed my first mule deer, I felt deep reverence for the animal. It showed me hunting can be more honest and sustainable than eating factory-farmed meatMurderer! You're a murderer!"That is what my French mother shouts down the phone line - right after I tell her I had grouse for dinner. Continue reading...
Pakistan's eastern Punjab province was dealing with the biggest flood in its history, a senior official said on Sunday, as river water levels rose to all-time highs. More than 1,400 villages were flooded after three large rivers - the Sutlej, Chenab and Ravi - overflowed their banks because of heavy rain and the release of water from overfilled dams in neighbouring India. Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the climate crisis, despite producing less than 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions
Conservative leader says it is absurd' to shift away from fossil fuels and leave vital resources untapped'The Conservative party will aim to maximise extraction" of oil and gas in the North Sea if it wins power, Kemi Badenoch has vowed.The Tory party leader will use a speech in Aberdeen in the coming days to set out her plans to extract as much oil and gas as possible instead of shifting away from fossil fuels. Continue reading...
A painterly, macro view of a cauliflower soft coral by Ross Gudgeon has taken out top prize in the Australian Geographic nature photographer of the year competition. This is an exceptional photograph that skews perception and leaves us questioning reality," the judges said. Giving us a unique perspective on coral. There's nothing fake here, but still we ponder, is this nature or a painting?' An exhibition is on now at the South Australian Museum
Roughly $400,000 in the $1m budget was for public awareness - but those funds were recently zeroed out'When a team of scientists embarked two years ago on a $1m landmark study of Iowa's persistent water-quality problems, they knew that the findings would be important to share. High cancer rates amid the state's inability to stem the tide of pollutants flowing into rivers and lakes was a growing public concern.But now, after the completed study pointed to agricultural pollution as a significant source of the key US farm state's water problems, public officials have quietly stripped funding from plans to promote the study findings, according to sources involved in the project. Continue reading...
Toxic algae cases in Northern Ireland's Lough Neagh have tripled since last year, as local fishers' incomes plummetThe UK's largest lake, Lough Neagh, is on course to record its worst year of potentially toxic algal blooms to date, as rescue plans remain deadlocked.As a ban on eel-fishing in the lake is extended yet again, with local fishers' incomes falling by 60% since 2023, there have so far this year been 139 detections of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) growths recorded at the lough and its surrounding watercourses, according to a government pollution tracker. This is more than treble the number for the same point in 2024 (45). The data covers the 400 sq km freshwater lough, its tributaries, and smaller peripheral bodies of water, including Portmore Lough and Lough Gullion. Continue reading...
Transforming bare and compacted soil in vineyards can boost numbers of important invertebrate, say advocatesVineyards are generally the most inhospitable of landscapes for the humble earthworm; the soil beneath vines is usually kept bare and compacted by machinery.But scientists and winemakers have been exploring ways to turn vineyards into havens for worms. Continue reading...
Duration of torrential rains from Typhoon Kajiki lead to elevated landslide risk across Laos and ThailandTyphoon Kajiki steadily intensified over the South China Sea last weekend into a category 2 storm with sustained wind speeds of 115mph. It made landfall near the coastal city of Vinh in Vietnam on Monday afternoon, having slightly weakened but still packing a punch with winds of up to 100mph and torrential rainfall.Kajiki's wind threat soon faded after landfall, but the flood risk continued into Tuesday and Wednesday as the system moved inland. Parts of central and northern Vietnam, as well as Thailand, experienced 300-400mm of rainfall. Continue reading...
Environment Protection Authority laid charges after investigation into accusations the corporation breached laws while operating in Tallaganda state forest
Survival International says Mashco Piro seen in nearby Amazon village in alarming sign group is under stressMembers of an Indigenous tribe who live deep in Peru's Amazon rainforest and avoid contact with outsiders have been reported entering a neighboring village in what activists consider an alarming sign that the group is under stress from development.The sightings of members of Mashco Piro tribe come as a logging company is building a bridge that could give outsiders easier access to the tribe's territory, a move that could raise the risk of disease and conflict, according to Survival International, which advocates for Indigenous rights. Continue reading...
Ministers should find out what the regulator says before signing away a further 1.8bn of public moneyThere is already a scandal of bad accounting at Drax, one could say mischievously. It's the one that maintains that transporting wood pellets from North America to burn in North Yorkshire is a carbon neutral" activity because replacement trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow. You don't have to be a green lobbyist to think there's something wrong there. As the research group Ember regularly reminds us, Drax is the UK's biggest emitter yet qualifies for renewables subsidies.That weirdness in the methodology is one for the government to justify. The Financial Conduct Authority's investigation is into the grittier issue of Drax's historical statements" about its sourcing of wood pellets. Three sets of annual accounts - 2021, 2022 and 2023 - are in the spotlight for adherence to listing rules for quoted companies and transparency disclosures. Continue reading...
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Feargal Sharkey back campaign to save the animal, which once inspired placenames, songs and storiesWhen the Somerset Levels flood in winter, their reed-fringed waterways swell into a glinting inland sea - haunting and half forgotten.Generations ago, these wetlands pulsed with the seasonal arrival of eels: twisting through rhynes - human-made water channels - and ditches in their thousands, caught in baskets, sung about in pubs and paid as rent to Glastonbury Abbey. Today those same waters flow more slowly, more sparsely: once-teeming channels now show only the barest traces of what was here. Continue reading...
Volunteers are tasked with logging about 150,000 park trees by hand - and for some, it's become a strange obsessionOn a recent morning, as the late August sun began to beat down, a few dozen New Yorkers stood in the shade of one of the nearly 500 trees adorning Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park, worrying a bit about hurting its feelings.We had already identified the species - bald cypress - thanks to its feathered leaves and strong pyramidal shape", measured its trunk's circumference (17in; 43cm), and noted that its roots appeared normal, its leaves were healthy and its branches had suffered some damage from improper pruning. But now we were tasked with assigning the tree an overall grade - on a scale of poor" to excellent" - and no one seemed to want to say. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Analysis of responses shows firms are urging parliamentarians to limit regulation of forever chemicals'Chemical firms are lobbying MPs not to ban forever chemicals" in the same way as proposed in the EU, using arguments disputed by scientists and described as big tobacco playbook" tactics, it can be revealed.Pfas, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and commonly known as forever chemicals owing to their persistence in the environment, are a family of about 10,000 chemicals, some of which have been linked to a wide range of serious illnesses, including certain cancers. They are used across a range of industries, from cosmetics to firefighting. Continue reading...
Particles are small enough to burrow into lungs, says report, with health impacts more substantial than we realize'Every breath people take in their homes or car probably contains significant amounts of microplastics small enough to burrow deep into lungs, new peer-reviewed research finds, bringing into focus a little understood route of exposure and health threat.The study, published in the journal Plos One, estimates humans can inhale as much as 68,000 tiny plastic particles daily. Previous studies have identified larger pieces of airborne microplastics, but those are not as much of a health threat because they do not hang in the air as long, or move as deep into the pulmonary system. Continue reading...
The invaders present a devastating threat to Britain's pollinators - constant watchfulness and clever technology are needed to thwart their progressWere it not for the bags of destroyed hornets nests in the corner, you could be forgiven for confusing Peter Davies' office with the set of a TV detective show. Maps dotted with Post-it notes cover the wall in the repurposed hotel suite just off the M20 in Kent. There is no natural light: the only window looks down on an atrium below, and is partly obscured by a flip chart with the plan for the day. From here, Davies and his team run the national command centre for holding back the Asian hornet, an invasive species that preys on honeybees and other pollinators.In effect, I'm the incident commander to tackle the hornet. We have a forward operating base at the hotel so we can get anywhere in Kent quickly, because that's where we've had the most incursions," he says. Continue reading...
Steps to make electricity cheaper, such as ending levies, could transform prospects for pumps, thinktank showsHeat pumps could save households hundreds of pounds a year on heating bills, if the government took simple measures to reform the energy system, an analysis has found.The average household's heating bills could be roughly halved, saving about 375 a year with a heat pump instead of a gas boiler, if steps were taken to make electricity cheaper. Continue reading...
A tournament in Cornwall will pit anglers against these magnificent creatures, as part of a rising trend for so-called sportfishing'It's the UK equivalent of bullfighting. Next week, in Falmouth in Cornwall, anglers will compete to fish for bluefin tuna in a three-day tournament. Sponsored by companies including Suzuki and Shimano, it's a festival of cruelty and destruction, waging war on a magnificent giant which, in a rare instance of ecological hope, has begun returning to our shores.Where's the sport in this sportfishing"? While some forms of angling require knowledge and skill, in this case the paying customer (the angler) sits in a boat while the professional skipper motors up and down, trailing a set of lures. When a tuna is hooked, the angler, strapped into a harness, either stands or sits in what is called the fighting chair" and plays" the fish to exhaustion: a one-sided fight of 30 minutes or more. It's a risk-free means of pitting yourself against nature, a truly pathetic form of macho gratification. You can imagine my surprise on discovering that Nigel Farage is a big fan.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnistThe Guardian's climate assembly with George Monbiot and special guests On 16 September, join George Monbiot, Mikaela Loach and Emma Pinchbeck as they discuss the forces driving the big climate pushback, with an address by Feargal Sharkey Continue reading...
The old saying about late summer rain being good for vineyards and bees may be plausibleEach month has its weather folklore, and according to one old saying: When it rains in August, it rains honey and wine."Historically, vineyards were not irrigated, and some winemakers believe natural rainfall is needed to keep the all-important terroir characteristic of a particular area. Irrigation increases the grape yield, potentially quadrupling the weight per hectare, but supposedly reduces wine quality. Similarly drought years are sometimes said to produce the best vintages. Continue reading...
A group of farmers, bikers, truckers and scientists from the political left and right are working to bring attention to the health risks of using toxic sludge as fertilizerAn unlikely alliance of farmers, bikers, truckers, a detective and scientists from across the political spectrum are working to pressure the Trump administration and Republican leadership to rein in the use of toxic sewage sludge as fertilizer on the nation's farmland.Sludge often teems with Pfas, or forever chemicals", which present a health risk to farmers and the public, and have destroyed farms and contaminated water across the country. The issue has touched the groups' lives in different ways, highlighting its broad risks to health. Continue reading...
Aerial footage shows thick plumes of smoke from wildfires raging in the northern Spanish region of Asturias.Wildfires have burned more than a million hectares (2.5m acres) of land in the European Union this year so far, the highest amount in any year since official records began in 2006, EU data showed.Spain and Portugal have been worst hit and together accounted for about two-thirds of the EU's burnt area Continue reading...
by Jonathan Watts Global environment editor on (#6ZKEA)
Localised rises in temperature caused by land clearance cause 28,330 heat-related deaths a year, researchers findDeforestation has killed more than half a million people in the tropics over the past two decades as a result of heat-related illness, a study has found.Land clearance is raising the temperature in the rainforests of the Amazon, Congo and south-east Asia because it reduces shade, diminishes rainfall and increases the risk of fire, the authors of the paper found. Continue reading...
by Damien Gayle Environment correspondent on (#6ZKEX)
Thinktank predicts wider inequality gap and calls for revised policies to tackle flying and excess private car useInequality in transport emissions between the richest and the poorest in the UK is set to widen dramatically over the next decade, an analysis has found.The most affluent and mobile already produce 10 times more carbon through their domestic travel than the poorest and least mobile. Under current decarbonisation policies, thinktank researchers forecast this to grow to 13 times by 2035. Continue reading...
Picked from a record 60,636 entries, the first images from the Natural History Museum's wildlife photographer of the year competition have been released. The photographs, which range from a lion facing down a cobra to magnified mould spores, show the diversity, beauty and complexity of the natural world and humanity's relationship with it. The winners will be announced on 14 October Continue reading...
Firefighters try to corral Garnet fire, with parts of California under red flag warning, as Oregon blaze destroys homesNumerous wildfires across the US west coast are challenging emergency crews from California wine country to central Oregon, as weather forecasters warned that the risks of more blazes sparking is not over yet.In central California, firefighters are working to corral a fast-growing wildfire that is churning through the Sierra national forest as forecasters warned on Tuesday that lightning strikes from thunderstorms could ignite new fires.
Environment | The Guardian