Gigantic multicoloured organism is visible from space and has grown for between 300 and 500 yearsThe world's largest known coral, visible from space, has been discovered in the waters of the Solomon Islands.With a circumference of 183 metres, the gigantic multicoloured organism is an intricate network of individual coral polyps that have grown for between 300 and 500 years. Continue reading...
The H-2A program might grow under Trump and mass deportationsAgriculture rules in Quincy, Washington. Sprawling apple, cherry and peach orchards surround this rural city of about 8,000. Packing sheds dot the middle of downtown. Railroad tracks run close to the Columbia River, so produce can make its way to market by both train and waterway.Farm workers such as Alberto, who is only using his first name for privacy reasons, are the backbone of the industry. Once a migrant farm worker traveling around California and Washington state for jobs, he now lives permanently in Quincy with his family. There, he's found steady year-round work planting, tending and harvesting crops at various farms. With that more stable work, he and other domestic farm workers have built a tight community in Grant county. Continue reading...
NatureScot to allow shooting estates to greatly reduce area of grouse moors affected by licensing regimeWildlife charities have condemned a decision by Scotland's nature conservation agency to dilute a new law designed to combat the illegal killing of birds of prey.NatureScot, a government agency, has decided to greatly reduce the area of land affected by a new licensing regime for grouse moors after legal threats from shooting estates and land owners. Continue reading...
The climate crisis created the setting for Trump's economy-first win and it's the global south that will suffer mostDonald Trump's election is a triumph for the politics of the doomsday bunker, which is bad news for the world's environment.This is the idea that in an age of climate disruption, nature extinction and ever wider social inequality, the best chance of survival for those who can afford it is to construct a personal shelter, where they can keep the desperate masses at bay. It is survival of the richest. Continue reading...
Tiny isopod is dubbed Pentaceration forkandbrewer in push to engage community with climate-threatened life in local watersNew Zealand scientists have named a tiny snowflake-like crustacean after a Wellington brewery, in an attempt to boost the public's interest in local marine life.The roughly 1.5mm marine isopod was found in the silty depths off New Zealand's southern east coast. It helps decompose organic material that drifts to the seabed. Continue reading...
California researchers found mystery mollusc' in deep-sea midnight zone after initially observing it 20 years agoResearchers in California have discovered a new species of sea slug off the Pacific coast in an area of deep sea known as the midnight zone.A team with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute first came across the creature, which they dubbed the mystery mollusc" in 2000 at 8,576ft (2,613 meters), and spent years documenting the sea slug in order to prepare the most comprehensive description of a deep-sea animal ever made". Continue reading...
Large parts of east and south under alerts as schools are shut and riverside neighbourhoods evacuated in AndaluciaAuthorities in eastern and southern Spain have closed schools and begun evacuating some residents as the country is pounded by further torrential rains two weeks after the catastrophic floods that killed at least 215 people and unleashed a bitter political blame game.On Wednesday morning, the state meteorological agency, Aemet, put large parts of eastern and southern Spain on amber alert and issued the highest level of warning for the provinces Tarragona in Catalonia and Malaga in Andalucia. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Mia Mottley, who has championed climate action, says she would seek common ground with US president-electMia Mottley, the climate-championing prime minister of Barbados, has invited Donald Trump to a face-to-face meeting where she would seek common ground" and persuade him that climate action was in his own interests.Let us find a common purpose in saving the planet and saving livelihoods," she told the Guardian at the UN's Cop29 climate summit in Azerbaijan. We are human beings and we have the capacity to meet face-to-face, in spite of our differences. We want humanity to survive. And the evidence [of the climate crisis] we are seeing almost weekly now." Continue reading...
by Matthew Taylor (now) and Damien Gayle[earlier] on (#6S686)
France's ecology minister cancels after Azerbaijan's president attacks French actions in overseas territoriesMian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan, has joined a chorus of leaders using their speeches to call for more money to reach their climate goals - and specifying that they need grants rather than loans that saddle them with more debt.
by Rachel Savage Southern Africa correspondent on (#6S6JR)
Biggest tiger farms outside Asia are operating freely in South Africa, Four Paws animal charity saysThe largest tiger farms outside Asia are operating freely in South Africa, facilitating the illegal smuggling of tiger body parts, according to a report by an animal welfare charity.Research by Four Paws, which is campaigning to shut down South Africa's big cat industry, found 103 places in the country where tigers were kept in captivity in 2023 or 2024 or had been kept during the previous three years. Continue reading...
German energy firm shaved 3bn from spending plans for next financial year to 7bnA German energy giant has warned that Donald Trump's election victory has increased the risks of investing in offshore wind projects - but his return to the White House could help to bolster Britain's renewables sector, according to UK developer SSE.Germany's RWE has cut its spending plans and warned that, as a result of the US election, the risks for offshore wind projects have increased". Continue reading...
Of 140 million people in the US who draw water from US aquifers via private or public wells, 70% at riskPFAS may be contaminating drinking water for up to 70% of about 140 million people in the US who draw water from the nation's aquifers via private or public wells, a new federal government study estimates. The findings show a potential impact on about 95 million people, or 27% of the nation's population.The US Geological Survey sampling and modeling of groundwater contamination found readings up to 37,000 times higher than the EPA's new drinking water limits. In some regions virtually all of those using public systems that draw from groundwater may be drinking contaminated water. Continue reading...
From olive oil to butter, extreme weather is pushing up the cost of living and having a dramatic political impact. Economists need a solutionIn the US, where Donald Trump swept the board last week, it was the experience of sharply increasing essentials prices, from food to energy, that glued together the Republicans' new electoral coalition. About 75% of those voting Republican reported that they had faced hardship" or severe hardship" as a result of price rises; only 25% of Democrats said the same. When Trump asked if Americans felt better now than they did four years ago, the answer for most was a clear no.Price surges are having political impacts. In elections this year in three of the world's largest economies, incumbent parties were hammered by voters angry about their helplessness in the face of the steeply rising cost of essentials.James Meadway is the host of the podcast Macrodose Continue reading...
Questions raised over influence after 1,261 business and industry delegates registered for biodiversity summit in ColombiaRecord numbers of business representatives and lobbyists had access to the UN's latest biodiversity talks, analysis shows.In total 1,261 business and industry delegates registered for Cop16 in Cali, Colombia, which ended in disarray and without significant progress on a number of key issues including nature funding, monitoring biodiversity loss and work on reducing environmentally harmful business subsidies. Continue reading...
Despite nations' pledges at Cop28 a year ago, the burning of coal, oil and gas continued to rise in 2024There is no sign" of the transition away from burning fossil fuels that was pledged by the world's nations a year ago, with 2024 on track to set another new record for global carbon emissions.The new data, released at the UN's Cop29 climate conference in Azerbaijan, indicates that the planet-heating emissions from coal, oil and gas will rise by 0.8% in 2024. In stark contrast, emissions have to fall by 43% by 2030 for the world to have any chance of keeping to the 1.5C temperature target and limiting increasingly dramatic" climate impacts on people around the globe. Continue reading...
by Fiona Harvey, Damian Carrington, Ajit Niranjan and on (#6S5Y3)
Antonio Guterres says global heating is super-charging disasters, and Cop hears warning of inflation on steroids'This year has been a masterclass in human destruction", the UN secretary general has said as he reflected on extreme weather and record temperatures around the world fuelled by climate breakdown.Antonio Guterres painted a stark portrait of the consequences of climate breakdown that had arisen in recent months. Families running for their lives before the next hurricane strikes; workers and pilgrims collapsing in insufferable heat; floods tearing through communities and tearing down infrastructure; children going to bed hungry as droughts ravage crops," he said. All these disasters, and more, are being supercharged by human-made climate change." Continue reading...
Sir Keir Starmer's pledge on emissions is an encouraging step at a frightening momentPredictions that this will be the first calendar year in which the 1.5C warming limit enshrined in the Paris agreement is surpassed provide a stark backdrop to the UN's 29th climate conference. This year - 2024 - has already seen the hottest-ever day and month, and is expected by experts to be the hottest year too. Addressing delegates on Tuesday, the UN chief, Antonio Guterres, referred to a masterclass in climatedestruction". The escalating pattern of destructive weather events, most recently in Valencia,is a warning of what lies ahead.When the 1.5C figure was included in the 2015 deal, it was known to be a stretch. The treaty says countries must hold the average temperature well below 2C above pre-industrial levels" and aim for 1.5C. Busting this target in 2024 will not mean it has been definitivelymissed; the measurement of global temperatures relies on averages recorded over 20 or more years. But the crossing of this threshold is a menacing moment. Around the world, people as well as governments and climate specialists should take notice - and act. Continue reading...
King Felipe VI reportedly plans to revisit Valencia amid alerts for heavy rain, high waves and strong windsPeople in flood-hit Spain stacked sandbags and braced for new storms on Tuesday as the political repercussions from last month's deadly climate disaster rumbled on.Amid fresh weather warnings, local media reported that King Felipe VI would soon return to the site of the flash floods, after he was pelted with mud and eggs on his first visit last week owing to local fury at the poor preparation and response of the authorities. Continue reading...
Greenpeace and Uplift say Rosebank and Jackdaw licences were granted unlawfully by former Tory governmentClimate campaigners have urged a Scottish court to cancel the licence to drill the UK's largest untapped oilfield, arguing it will cause sizeable" and unjustified damage to the planet.Greenpeace and Uplift accuse the former Conservative government of having unlawfully given the Norwegian oil giant Equinor a licence to exploit the Rosebank oilfield, which sits 80 miles (130km) north-west of Shetland and holds nearly 500m barrels of oil and gas. Continue reading...
Keir Starmer has confirmed that the UK has committed to an 81% cut to emissions by 2035. The prime minister also said the British government was due to launch the CIF Capital Markets Mechanism, a climate finance scheme, on the London Stock Exchange to help developing countries
Restaurants are a major part of Asheville's $3bn tourist economy. But no drinking water in most areas and little recovery money put staff in limboJosiah McGaughey's fine dining restaurant, Vivian, is still standing. Many of its neighbors in the River Arts district in Asheville, North Carolina, were leveled by Hurricane Helene's flooding in late September.We were graciously spared the worst of the damage," said McGaughey, who opened the business with his wife, Shannon, in 2017. Then, it was a pop-up serving elevated cuisine on paper plates at a local brewery. During the recent storm, Vivian's building sustained some roof damage. We lost water and power, as did everyone else. But we also lost tens of thousands of dollars worth of product." Continue reading...
Environmental Protection Agency rule seeks to curb super pollutant' more potent than carbon dioxide in short termOil and natural gas companies for the first time will have to pay a federal fee if they emit dangerous methane above certain levels under a rule being made final by the Biden administration.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule follows through on a directive from Congress included in the 2022 climate law. The new fee is intended to encourage industry to adopt best practices that reduce emissions of methane - the primary component of natural gas - and thereby avoid paying the fee. Continue reading...
Newly unearthed documents contain warning from head of Air Pollution Foundation, founded in 1953 by oil interestsMajor oil companies, including Shell and precursors to energy giants Chevron, ExxonMobil and BP, were alerted about the planet-warming effects of fossil fuels as early as 1954, newly unearthed documents show.The warning, from the head of an industry-created group known as the Air Pollution Foundation, was revealed by Climate Investigations Center and published Tuesday by the climate website DeSmog. It represents what may be the earliest instance of big oil being informed of the potentially dire consequences of its products. Continue reading...
by Damien Gayle (now) and Alan Evans (earlier) on (#6S5ER)
Mia Mottley and Keir Starmer among world leaders addressing the UN climate conference on day twoIn the halls of Cop29, activists from Oil Change International gathered around a computer to watch a Dutch court's ruling on a major ruling.In this morning's verdict, the Dutch appeals court struck down a 2021 ruling ordering oil and gas giant Shell to cut emissions by 45% by 2030 from 2019 levels. The activists were devastated. Continue reading...
'2024 - a masterclass in climate destruction.' That is how the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, started his address to world leaders at Cop29 on Tuesday. 'Families running for their lives before the next hurricane strikes; workers and pilgrims collapsing in insufferable heat; floods tearing through communities, and tearing down infrastructure; children going to bed hungry as droughts ravage crops. All these disasters, and more, are being supercharged by human-made climate change,' he said
Oil and gas company had challenged 2021 ruling that it must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030Shell has won its appeal against a landmark climate judgment by a Dutch court, which in 2021 ordered the fossil fuel company to sharply reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.A court of appeal ruled on Tuesday that, while Shell does have a special responsibility" to cut its emissions as a big oil company, this would not be achieved by imposing a specific legal goal. Continue reading...
by Kirsten Lie-Nielsen in Fredrikstad, Norway on (#6S5EX)
Odd-looking creatures called ciona are naturally rich in protein and one company aims to farm and process them for the tableAt a seaside restaurant near the docks in Fredrikstad, Norway, there's a selection of delicious looking entrees sitting in front of me. There is a cheesy lasagne, a savoury Mexican casserole, and a spicy chilli con carne. Biting in to each one in turn, I savour the familiar taste of ground beef. Or is it?The dishes come from Pronofa Asa, a Scandinavian company whose purpose is to make new and sustainable protein sources. In 2022, it acquired the Swedish research company Marine Taste and expanded on its work turning ciona - or sea squirts" to you and me - into mincemeat. The dishes in Fredrikstad were prototypes, but Pronofa plans to have its mincemeat on supermarket shelves in Norway and Sweden before the end of the year, it says, and will aim to expand throughout Europe in the coming years. Continue reading...
The so-called corpse plant takes a decade to flower - and when it does, the blossom lasts just 24-48 hours and smells of rotting flesh. Guardian Australia's Henry Belot went along to take whiff
Agreement on rules paving way for rich countries to pay for cheap climate action abroad breaks years-long deadlockDiplomats have greenlit key rules that govern the trade of carbon credits", breaking a years-long deadlock and paving the way for rich countries to pay for cheap climate action abroad while delaying expensive emission cuts at home.The agreement, reached late on the first day of Cop29 in Azerbaijan, was hailed by the hosts as an early win at climate talks that have been snubbed by prominent world leaders and clouded by the threat of a US retreat from climate diplomacy after Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election. Continue reading...
by Alan Evans, Damien Gayle and Bibi van der Zee on (#6S4HE)
This live blog is closedUN climate chief Simon Stiell gave a moving speech at the Cop29 opening plenary on Monday, writes Dharna Noor, fossil fuels and climate reporter for Guardian US, who is reporting from Baku.In tough times, up against difficult tasks, I don't go in for hopes and dreams," he said. What inspires me is human ingenuity and determination. Our ability to get knocked down and to get up again over and over again, until we accomplish our goals." Continue reading...
by Dharna Noor in Baku and Oliver Milman in New York on (#6S4V3)
Even if president-elect rolls back climate progress, John Podesta reaffirms commitment to a clean planet at Cop29The US climate envoy John Podesta said the fight for a cleaner, safer" planet will not stop under a re-elected Donald Trump even if some progress is reversed, speaking at the Cop29 UN climate talks on Monday as they opened in Baku, Azerbaijan.Although under Donald Trump's leadership the US federal government placed climate-related actions on the back burner, efforts to prevent climate change remain a commitment in the US and will confidently continue," said Podesta, who is leading the Biden administration's delegation at the annual talks. Continue reading...
Authorities have been racing to evacuate people reluctant to leave villages affected by the erupting Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki volcano on the Indonesian island of Flores. Volcanic material has continued to spew from its crater since 3 November, prompting authorities to extend the danger area and increase the number of evacuees. Lewotobi Laki-Laki is one of 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia
In 2023, state was nation's sole producer of almonds, artichokes, figs, olives, pomegranates, raisins and walnutsTake a drive through the Salinas or Central valleys in California and you'll pass from town to town advertising its specialty fruit or vegetable: strawberries in Watsonville, garlic in Gilroy, pistachios in Avenal and almonds in Ripon. More than 400 types of commodities are grown in the Golden state - including a third of the vegetables and three-quarters of the fruits and nuts produced in the United States.Much of that food is grown by immigrant farm workers - many of whom are undocumented. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), about half of the country's 2.4 million agricultural farm workers do not have legal status in the US. But farm worker advocates say the number is much higher in places like California, where it can be as high as 70% in some areas", according to Alexis Guild, vice-president of strategy and programs at Farmworker Justice, a non-profit based in Washington DC. Continue reading...
Much is unclear about how Donald Trump's return to power will affect efforts to tackle global heating but there are a few things we can sayYou've probably already heard the worst-case takes: that a second Trump presidency is a disaster for the climate, and will almost certainly lead to emissions being higher than they otherwise would have been. There's obvious truth in that. But it's also true that Trump 2.0 will almost certainly not play out in line with immediate post-election predictions.We have been here before. As the writer and analyst Ketan Joshi points out, in 2016 it was projected that Trump's policies would lead to a steep rise in US emissions - a fork in the road at odds with the decline forecast if Hillary Clinton had won. Continue reading...
Workers face being targets in what could be Environmental Protection Agency's biggest upheaval since its foundingAfter several years of recovery after the tumult of Donald Trump's last administration, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now bracing itself for even deeper cuts to staff numbers and to work protecting Americans from pollution and the climate crisis as Trump prepares to return to the White House.When he was last president, Trump gutted more than 100 environmental rules and vowed to only leave a little bit of the EPA" left because you can't destroy business", prompting hundreds of agency staff to leave amid a firestorm of political interference and retaliation against civil servants. An even greater exodus is expected this time, with staff fearing they are frontline targets in what could be the biggest upheaval in the agency's 50-year history. Continue reading...
Air force had earlier claimed supreme court's overturning of Chevron doctrine had exempted it from EPA's orderThe US air force has backpedaled on a claim that the supreme court's recent reversal of the Chevron doctrine shields it against regulators' orders to clean drinking water the military polluted in Tucson, Arizona.The air force's bases partially contaminated water supplies for more than 500,000 people with toxic PFAS forever chemicals" and other dangerous compounds. In a July letter in which it refused to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency's May orders to address the problem, air force attorneys cited the reversal of Chevron. It claimed the EPA's order can not withstand review". Continue reading...
Voluntary standards proposed at Cop16 focus on local like-for-like habitat projects, while critics call the issue a distraction'International biodiversity offsetting doesn't work", according to experts aiming to create a nature market that avoids the pitfalls of carbon offsets.The biodiversity sector has been circling the idea of a credits market that would allow companies to finance restoration and preservation of biodiversity, deliver net-positive" gains for nature, and help plug the $700bn (540bn) funding gap. Continue reading...
The theme' chosen for Cop29 must be some kind of dark joke. This summit, like those before it, is a mere act of greenwashingDuring rapidly escalating climate and humanitarian crises, another authoritarian petrostate with no respect for human rights is hosting Cop29 - the UN's latest annual climate summit that starts today and is being held after the re-election of a climate-denier US president.Cop meetings have proven to be greenwashing conferences that legitimise countries' failures to ensure a livable world and future and have also allowed authoritarian regimes like Azerbaijan and the two previous hosts - the United Arab Emirates and Egypt - to continue violating human rights.Greta Thunberg is a Swedish activist and international climate crisis campaigner Continue reading...
Early signs of success seen in area where native European oysters were fished to local extinction by early 1900sThousands of oysters released into the Firth of Forth appear to be thriving again after a century-long absence from the Scottish estuary since they were lost to overfishing.Marine experts from Heriot-Watt University who have helped reintroduce about 30,000 European flat oysters to the estuary said divers and underwater cameras showed they were doing well. Continue reading...
Verse's connection to nature can inspire awareness and hope amid the climate crisis, offering clarity beyond dataPoetry has a big debt to nature, its muse and source ofmetaphor for centuries. As the UN climate conference begins, it is time to pay it back. Poetry mustgive nature a voice to express its dire predicament. I will rise," declares the furious river in the Scottish makar Kathleen Jamie's poem What the Clyde Said, After Cop26 - just as the River Xanthus inHomer's Iliad rose in revenge against Achilles for filling it with so many bodies.Ms Jamie's poem appears in a new anthology, Earth Prayers, edited by the former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy. We are in the age of anthropogenic climate breakdown, possibly the Age of Grief," Ms Duffy writes in the foreword. The 100 poems, ranging from classics such as Matthew Arnold's 1867 Dover Beach to #ExtinctionRebellion by Pascale Petit, remind us not just of the beauty of the natural world, but its fragility. Continue reading...
Once heavily scorned because of fraud and poor outcomes, carbon trading is likely to be high on the agenda in BakuFor the next two weeks, countries will gather on the shores of the Caspian Sea in Baku, Azerbaijan, to discuss how to increase finance for climate crisis adaptation and mitigation. A global agreement on carbon markets will be high on the agenda as countries try to find ways of generating the trillions they need to decarbonise in order to limit heating to below 2C above preindustrial levels.Here is what you need to know. Continue reading...
Environment | The Guardian