Environment | The Guardian

Diana Six, an entomologist studying beetles near Glacier national park in Montana, says the crisis has fundamentally changed her professionDiana Six’s love of the outdoors began before she could form words, run, or collect the bugs and fungi that were precious to her as a child. A tough home life eventually led her to drop out of school and live on the streets. But biology classes in community college helped Six discover her calling in studying various forms of life. “They took me right back to how I was as a kid,” she says.Related: Activists fear Biden’s climate pledges are falling apart: ‘We aren’t seeing grit’ Continue reading...

Farming families are facing a choice: compete with high-production outfits, if they can, or abandon generations of dairy farming

Investor action group Market Forces says coal company is ‘building a financial house of cards’ by telling shareholders coal will remain ‘significant’ in energy mixShareholder activist group Market Forces has asked the corporate watchdog to investigate whether coal company New Hope misled investors by claiming that coal would “remain a significant part of the energy mix”.In letters sent to New Hope Corporation and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, lawyers for Market Forces have alleged that statements by the company’s chief executive, Reinhold Schmidt, may amount to “misleading and deceptive conduct” under the Corporations Act. Continue reading...

Australia’s prime minister is under pressure to act on climate change, but resolutions ahead of LNP convention show strong oppositionScott Morrison’s attempt to nudge his government in the direction of a net zero commitment by 2050 is expected to face resistance at this weekend’s annual convention of the Liberal National party in Brisbane.Policy resolutions circulated to LNP members ahead of the event include a proposal originating from George Christensen’s federal divisional council calling for the Morrison government to “oppose net zero emissions if job losses occur for little gain”. Continue reading...

Monitoring suggests toxic smoke in Yakutsk is one of world’s worst ever air pollution events

Locals fear for their health and property as smoke from raging forest fires shrouds an entire region of eastern Russia

Company hopes to get Dutch court ruling overturned which called for it to cut emissions fasterRoyal Dutch Shell has confirmed that it will appeal against the landmark Dutch court ruling calling for the oil giant to cut its carbon emissions faster.A court in The Hague reached the milestone verdict in May this year after Friends of the Earth and over 17,000 co-plaintiffs successfully argued that Shell had been aware of the dangerous consequences of CO2 emissions for decades, and that its climate targets did not go far enough. Continue reading...

Experts warn climate crisis fuelling hot conditions that can pose a ‘severe threat to public health’The heatwave health alert issued by Public Health England has been extended to Friday as much of the country continues to swelter under high temperatures.Experts said the heatwaves in the summer of 2020 caused more than 2,500 premature deaths and that the climate crisis is making heatwaves more intense and more frequent. Continue reading...

US envoy uses landmark speech in London to make impassioned plea for unified global effortThe world still has a chance of staving off the worst impacts of climate breakdown but only if governments step up in the next few months with stronger commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the US envoy for climate change has said.John Kerry, appointed by Joe Biden to spearhead the US’s international efforts to tackle the crisis, urged all large economies to come forward with new plans to cut emissions before the Cop26 UN climate talks in Glasgow this November. Continue reading...

Across the US restaurants are placing communities front and center, paying fair wages and going zero wasteWhether it’s a beautifully decorated bistro, neighborhood diner, fancy white tablecloth eatery, or fast-food joint, millions of people escape to restaurants every day for nourishment, leisure and enjoyment. In the US the industry accounts for 4% of the country’s total GDP, currently employs around 12.5 million people, and in 2020 – despite the pandemic – reported $659bn in sales.Still, restaurants do not serve all Americans equally. To name a few issues, according to the non-profit One Fair Wage seven of the 10 lowest-paying jobs in the country are restaurant industry positions. And along with grocery stores and foodservice companies, eateries account for 40% of the 40m tons of food supply wasted every year. Moreover, Feeding America reports that more than 42 million people could be facing food insecurity, including about 13 million children, a situation that has been badly exacerbated by the pandemic. Continue reading...

Seaside Aquarium says colorful fish, which weighs more than 100lb, has caused ‘quite the stir’An unusual sight has appeared on the usually mild northern Oregon coast: a large, washed-up, colorful opah fish, weighing about 100lb.Related: Opah, the world's first warm-blooded fish species, flaps fins to generate heat Continue reading...

Cleaning and transport can be less impactful than disposable clothing, argue sustainable fashion businesses and consultantsThe fashion rental industry has challenged the findings of a recent high-profile report that suggested renting clothes is “less green than throwing them away”, based on the environmental impacts of transportation and dry cleaning.The study, published by the Finnish scientific journal Environmental Research Letters, assessed the environmental impact of five different ways of owning and disposing of clothing, including renting, resale and recycling. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Stars, activists, conservationists and Prince Albert of Monaco unite in support of Unesco’s recommendation to world heritage committeeAn international line-up of actors, conservationists and scientists, including Joanna Lumley and Hollywood star Jason Momoa, has backed calls for the Great Barrier Reef to be placed on a list of world heritage sites in danger.“The scientific evidence is beyond doubt: the Great Barrier Reef is in danger and it is time to act,” the group said in a global statement released to Guardian Australia. Continue reading...

Worldwide energy body warns more must be done to help developing countries give up fossil fuelsGlobal greenhouse gas emissions are likely to rise to record levels in the next two years, as governments fail to “build back better” from the Covid-19 pandemic.Emissions will rise again this year and next year, after a fall last year, and 2023 is now on track to see the highest levels of carbon dioxide output in human history, equalling or surpassing the record set in 2018, according to forecasts released by the International Energy Agency on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Researchers estimate the invasive species releases 4.9m metric tonnes of greenhouse gas annually by uprooting soilThe climate impact of wild pigs around the world is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions of 1.1m cars annually, according to new research.Modelling by an international team of researchers estimates that feral pigs release 4.9m metric tonnes of carbon dioxide each year globally by uprooting soil. Continue reading...

Questions raised over lack of warning as death toll passes 150 and villages are left without drinking water, power or gasGermany is asking itself how one of the world’s richest countries managed to be taken by surprise by last week’s extreme weather events, as more details emerge of how early warnings about record rainfall and expected floods did not make their way to the communities most at risk.In Erftstadt, south of Cologne, where a flooded gravel quarry swallowed up cars, houses and parts of a historic castle, residents who had installed the federal government’s weather warning app were advised on Wednesday to stay inside their house. Continue reading...

Lambeth authority to install extra CCTV and increase patrols to protect low-traffic neighbourhoodsA London council is to install extra CCTV cameras and step up security patrols following a spate of vandalism connected to low-traffic neighbourhood schemes (LTNs), after oil was poured over planters and on the street in the latest incident.Lambeth authority said it would seek to prosecute anyone targeting the infrastructure, after other incidents in which plants have been pulled up, signs sprayed over and enforcement cameras damaged. Continue reading...

The American Petroleum Institute receives millions from oil companies – and works behinds the scenes to stall or weaken legislationWhen Royal Dutch Shell published its annual environmental report in April, it boasted that it was investing heavily in renewable energy. The oil giant committed to installing hundreds of thousands of charging stations for electric vehicles around the world to help offset the harm caused by burning fossil fuels.On the same day, Shell issued a separate report revealing that its single largest donation to political lobby groups last year was made to the American Petroleum Institute, one of the US’s most powerful trade organizations, which drives the oil industry’s relationship with Congress. Continue reading...

Information should serve as ‘wake-up call’ that action on climate change is needed to protect people and their children• Download the free Guardian app; get our morning email briefingNew patient resources warning of the dangers of air pollution and bushfire smoke to pregnant people or those planning to conceive have been issued by the Royal Australian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG), in what is thought to be a world-first.Patients are warned to avoid exposureto air pollution on heavily trafficked roads, bushfire smoke or indoor smoke from things such as cigarettes, unflued fireplaces or incense. Continue reading...

One rocket launch produces up to 300 tons of carbon dioxide into the upper atmosphere where it can remain for yearsLast week Virgin Galactic took Richard Branson past the edge of space, roughly 86 km up – part of a new space race with the Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, who aims to make a similar journey on Tuesday.Both very wealthy businessmen hope to vastly expand the number of people in space. “We’re here to make space more accessible to all,” said Branson, shortly after his flight. “Welcome to the dawn of a new space age.” Continue reading...

Tian Xuejun rejects Australia’s ‘groundless accusations’ that China influenced the finding to score political pointsThe Chinese host of a United Nations world heritage committee has defended a proposal to label the Great Barrier Reef as “in danger”, and rejected Australian government suspicion that China influenced the finding for political reasons.It came as the Morrison government sought to use a new report by Australia’s marine science agency to argue there had been widespread coral recovery on the reef. Continue reading...

New alliance urges governments to work together to deliver a just transition to a green economyPeople around the world need a “global green deal” that would tackle the climate crisis and restore the natural world as we recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, a group of politicians from the UK, Europe and developing countries has said.The Global Alliance for a Green New Deal is inviting politicians from legislatures in all countries to work together on policies that would deliver a just transition to a green economy ahead of Cop26 UN climate talks in Glasgow this November. Continue reading...

Former NSW premier says the proposal to raise Warragamba Dam wall is undermining environmental protections of regionThe former New South Wales premier and foreign minister Bob Carr has written to Unesco urging it to send a mission to the Blue Mountains to assess its world heritage status, warning it could be badly affected by the proposed heightening of the Warragamba Dam.Carr, who was premier when the greater Blue Mountains region was inscribed on the world heritage list 21 years ago, said the area had been badly affected by the 2019-20 bushfires – which he described as “by far the worst in Australia’s history” – and parts would be flooded if the dam wall was raised, as proposed by the Gladys Berejiklian government. Continue reading...

Chancellor surveys flood damage and meets survivors as German death toll passes 150 with dozens missingChancellor Angela Merkel has said Germany must up its pace in tackling the impact of the climate crisis, after more flash floods devastated towns in eastern Germany, Bavaria and Austria over the weekend.While one flood in itself was not an indicator of the climate crisis, Merkel said during a visit to one of the two regions in western Germany hardest hit by last week’s record rainfall, the number of such extreme weather events had increased in recent years. Continue reading...

Here are some key findings of the investigation the Guardian published this week into America’s monopolized food systemWhen you walk into a US grocery store the shelves seem to be teeming with choice, with countless brands appearing to offer every type of food and drink.But a joint investigation published this week by the Guardian and Food and Water Watch showed how this choice is largely an illusion. In fact, a handful of mega firms dominate every link of the food supply chain: from seeds and fertilizers to slaughterhouses and supermarkets to cereals and beers. Continue reading...

Most are built for affluent professionals rather than oligarchs, with trend raising flood concernsWith their underground swimming pools, cinemas and art galleries, London’s luxury basement developments have long provoked envy and disgust as depositories for the hidden wealth of the super-rich.But a study that has mapped all the 7,328 basements approved by 32 boroughs and the City of London between 2008 and 2019 has found that the majority of these developments were built for affluent professionals rather than oligarchs, with the researchers saying they have become as normal as loft conversions. Continue reading...

Walkers and cyclists defy closure of Ash Ranges they say is illegal under 1876 grant to armed forcesRod Johnson has walked around Ash Ranges all his life. On a few days each month, the ancient woodland is closed to the public so soldiers from Aldershot barracks can practise at the firing ranges.Related: Ministry of Defence under fire for ‘inventing rules’ to sell wildlife haven Continue reading...

Search for missing continues, with Netherlands, Switzerland and Luxembourg also affectedThe death toll from catastrophic floods in western Germany and Belgium has risen to more than 180, as emergency services continued their search for hundreds still missing.The German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said he was “stunned” by the devastation caused by the flooding and pledged support to the families of those killed and to cities and towns facing significant damage. It is Germany’s worst natural disaster in more than half a century. Continue reading...

Dominic Spooner’s startup Vaulta is working on a reusable battery casing to create less waste and a lighter productAs some of the world’s largest companies invest billions to advance battery technology, Dominic Spooner has been working at solving the next problem: the impact of unwieldy – and environmentally unfriendly – battery casings.Spooner runs his lightweight battery casing technology firm Vaulta from a shared garage in Brisbane’s north. “Batteries will change our lives in ways that we’re maybe not even totally aware of, but … we can create our own new group of problems if we’re not careful,” he says. Continue reading...

Animal Rebellion activists began blockade of Scunthorpe site on Thursday over fast food chain’s meat productsFour activists have been arrested at a protest that lasted almost three days at a McDonald’s burger factory in Scunthorpe.About 50 activists from Animal Rebellion claimed they had prevented millions of burgers from leaving the factory, and urged the fast food chain to move to a meat- and dairy-free menu by 2025 to help protect the future of the planet. Continue reading...

A mobile market is helping to get healthy food into neighborhoods otherwise full of ‘fringe’ food stores like liquor shops“I like the purple cabbage,” says Matinah Muhammad as she peruses all the colorful produce available at today’s mobile farmer’s market. “I used to have to go all the way to wherever just to get some cabbage.”She knows all this fresh food would be nowhere near her neighborhood if it was not for the bright green truck that brings this seasonal market here every two weeks, organized by a local non-profit, the Arcadia Center. Continue reading...

Dolphins, manatees and 800 tons of dead fish are piling up on the state’s shorelines in one of the worst algal blooms in yearsPiles of dead fish, dolphins, turtles and manatees are rotting on the shorelines of coastal Florida in a soup of reddish brown ocean water after a devastating so-called “red tide” algal bloom struck sea life in the region.The city council in St Petersburg, Florida, called for a state of emergency last week saying that crews need help getting the dead sea creatures cleaned up from the beaches. In the Pinellas county area, more than 800 tons of dead fish and sea life have washed ashore – and the smell is already hitting the cities. Continue reading...

Former Bank chief says governments must act as free markets will not reduce emissions aloneGovernments must step up their regulation of businesses to tackle the climate crisis, the former Bank of England governor Mark Carney has urged, because the financial free markets will not reduce greenhouse gas emissions alone.Carney, who left the Bank of England last year before the first Covid-19 lockdown, is now one of the most influential figures working on Cop26, the vital UN climate talks to be held in Glasgow in November. He is a UN envoy on climate change and Boris Johnson’s finance adviser on the climate. Continue reading...

As more and more countries grant natural features or ecosystems legal personhood, the UK’s fight to pass nature rights laws is quietly gaining paceThe River Frome murmurs and babbles through the woods and fields of north Somerset. It is popular with anglers and wild swimmers but is often polluted with a cocktail of agricultural runoff, leading to frequent complaints from the public.In 2018, Frome Town Council tried to pass a bylaw giving part of the river and the adjacent Rodden meadow the status of a person in law. This would establish their right to exist, flourish and thrive, and for the river to flow freely and have a natural water cycle, as well as ensuring timely and effective restoration if they were damaged. The council and a local charity, Friends of the River Frome, were to be made joint guardians of the river and meadow, tasked with balancing their interests with the health and safety of local people. Continue reading...

Rule changes aimed at making room for more household solar systems and batteries on the grid would be unfair to current owners, some say

Kenyan president condemns killing of Joannah Stutchbury, who protested against building in Kiambu forestA prominent environment activist has been shot dead near her home in Kenya, after receiving multiple death threats following her campaign against the development of wetlands in a national park.Joannah Stutchbury, 67, was killed at 10pm local time on Thursday as she returned to her home on the outskirts of Nairobi. Friends said she had stopped her car to clear branches blocking her driveway when she was shot several times. Neighbours found her body in the car with the engine still running and valuables still in the vehicle, suggesting the attack was not a robbery. Continue reading...

Debris from areas burned by wildfires courses through city streets as one woman dies in flash flood on Colorado RiverParts of Arizona have been hit with devastating flooding, with the city of Flagstaff declaring a state of emergency after being inundated with torrents of water that turned streets into murky, fast-running streams.In one widely shared video, a person shouting “Oh my God!” filmed as a Toyota Prius was shown being swiftly carried down a Flagstaff street by a raging swell of dark water. The city, located among the mountains of northern Arizona and considered a gateway to the Grand Canyon, has been pelted by several days of rain, prompting local officials to urge people to shelter in place. Continue reading...

Campaigners criticise European Commission strategy that allows continued burning of trees for fuelThe EU executive has been accused of “sacrificing forests” after it published proposals that would allow trees to continue to be burned for fuel.The charges of “accelerating climate breakdown” through wood-burning were made on Friday as the European Commission unveiled its forest strategy, which includes a goal to plant 3bn trees across the EU by 2030. Continue reading...

Judge says demonstration was ‘peaceful’ but impacted Murdoch, Mail, Telegraph and Standard titlesSix Extinction Rebellion protesters on trial for blockading the printing press of some of the UK’s biggest newspapers have been found guilty.The activists appeared at St Albans magistrates court on Friday accused of obstructing the highway outside Newsprinters printing works in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, on 4 September 2020. Continue reading...

National Trust rangers are keen to see how the return of tourists will affect the birds’ new habits

Advocates want Osha to issue federal heat standards, requiring water, shade and rest breaksThe climate crisis is endangering farm workers around the US who work outside in excessive heat throughout the year without any federal protections from heat exposure in the workplace.“It’s really challenging to work in the heat, but the reality is we have to, we don’t really have a choice, we have to keep working even when it’s incredibly hot,” said Tere Cruz, a farm worker for 15 years in Immokalee, Florida. “The first thing in the morning, you don’t feel it as much but then after 11am your body really starts to feel the heat. You feel like all the energy has been sucked out of you and it’s really hard to keep going.’’ Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including endangered vultures, a baby beaver and a spectacular wingnut tree Continue reading...

Deluge raises fears human-caused disruption is making extreme weather even worse than predictedThe intensity and scale of the floods in Germany this week have shocked climate scientists, who did not expect records to be broken this much, over such a wide area or this soon.After the deadly heatwave in the US and Canada, where temperatures rose above 49.6C two weeks ago, the deluge in central Europe has raised fears that human-caused climate disruption is making extreme weather even worse than predicted. Continue reading...

Fears of growing urban/rural divide as workers take to tractors to protest against measures they say are unfairThousands of farmers have descended on dozens of towns and cities across New Zealand in their tractors in a nationwide protest against a swathe of new environmental regulations.The Howl of a Protest event was tipped to be the largest of its kind for the rural sector, with motorcades expected in 51 towns and cities. Continue reading...

Public urged to join world’s biggest butterfly count to help collect data on impacts of climate crisisButterflies across the UK have been hit hard by unseasonably cold and wet spring weather, conservationists have warned.April was the sunniest on record but it also had a record number of frosts followed by the wettest May for England in 54 years. Native butterflies such as the small tortoiseshell, large white, and red admiral have been badly affected, with numbers down compared with 10-year averages, according to the wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation. Continue reading...

Energy firms hope to produce world’s first large-scale floating turbines in north-east ScotlandRoyal Dutch Shell has joined forces with Scottish Power to develop the world’s first large-scale floating offshore windfarms in the north-east of Scotland.The energy companies have submitted multiple plans for a string of large floating offshore windfarms to Crown Estate Scotland as part of the property manager’s latest leasing round for access to the coastline. Continue reading...

Parts of Belgium, France and Netherlands also badly affected as unprecedented rainfall wreaks havocAt least 58 people have died and dozens more are missing in Germany after much of western Europe was inundated by record rainfall that brought devastating floods.“Climate change has arrived in Germany,” the environment minister said, as the country reeled from the sight of destroyed buildings, upended cars and people stranded on rooftops. Continue reading...

Its favourite thing to do is to crawl inside a flower, where petals turn light pink, yellow or redA small girl is eating ice cream. She is at a lake, “Zoo Lake”, in the middle of a city. People who live nearby hear the Zoo’s lions roaring at night. (A world and a century away, in Innisfree, Yeats lives “alone in the bee-loud glade”.)The principal activities at this lake are learning to ride bikes, riding bikes, and walking. Ice-cream sellers pedal their cooler boxes round and round the water. Bees hover over the rubbish bins full of ice-cream wrappers. Continue reading...

Newark, New Jersey, has removed more than 20,000 lead water lines while the White House pushes national plan

Coalition’s Great Barrier Reef envoy also said Australia was a ‘victim of our own success’ when it came to coral bleaching• Download the free Guardian app; get our morning email briefingCoral and ocean scientists have described statements on coral bleaching from the government’s reef envoy, Warren Entsch, as “far-fetched” and “ill-informed” on the day he accompanied more than a dozen ambassadors on a snorkelling trip to the Great Barrier Reef.Entsch told the ABC on Thursday warm water originating in the northern hemisphere and flowing across the Pacific to the reef was a chief cause of mass coral bleaching. Continue reading...