Environment | The Guardian

Environmentalists call for fisheries to move away from carbon-spewing engines and climate-harming practices such as bottom trawlingHalf the UK’s fishing fleet is at least 30 years old and uses fuel oil that is particularly polluting, according to a report that examines the outsized impact of British ships on the climate crisis.UK fisheries are estimated to have emitted 914.4 kilotons of CO over a one-year period, equivalent to the annual energy use of more than 110,000 homes, the report by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), WWF and RSPB says. Continue reading...

Researchers say climate change is driving the melting, which has seen Kebnekaise lose more than 20 metres in height since the mid-1990sSweden’s only remaining mountaintop glacier, which until 2019 was also its highest peak, lost another two metres in height in the past year due to rising air temperatures driven by climate change, Stockholm University says.In 2019, the south peak of the Kebnekaise massif was demoted to second in the rankings of Swedish mountains after a third of its glacier melted. Kebnekaise’s north peak, where there is no glacier, is now the highest in the Nordic country. Continue reading...

Paths have eroded and wildlife at risk as crowds jostle for space amid social distancing

Large blazes are also burning in Portugal and Spain, the latest in a devastating European fire season made worse by the climate crisisHundreds of French firefighters battled to contain a raging wildfire near the Mediterranean resort of Saint-Tropez on Tuesday, with thousands of residents and holidaymakers forced to evacuate.Roughly 900 firefighters were using high-pressure hoses, aircraft and helicopters in an attempt to control the flames, which began racing through the scrubland and trees of the Plaine des Maures nature reserve on Monday evening. Continue reading...

Swiss-based mining outfit faces bribery investigations in the US and UK over its operations in DRCBuying an electric vehicle may seem like the ethical choice but a campaign group has warned that Glencore’s investment in the sector could muddy the waters.The concerns revolve around multiple corruption investigations into Glencore’s mining operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, home to the world’s largest reserves of cobalt, a crucial metal in electric battery manufacture. Continue reading...

Anglo-Australian company plans to simplify structure and shift main stock exchange listing to SydneyThe FTSE 100 is to lose one of its biggest companies after the Anglo-Australian miner BHP announced it would abandon a dual listing in London in favour of shifting its main listing to Sydney.The move to simplify a complex dual-listing structure will automatically trigger BHP’s removal from the FTSE 100 under UK stock market rules, although the company will continue to have a standard listing on the London Stock Exchange. Continue reading...

A movement in California seeks a moratorium on new pumps – and a transformation of the US transportation systemEmily Bit remembers a time when she didn’t feel the constant threat of climate change. Her family lives in American Canyon, in southern Napa county, California, a state now being hit by record high temperatures and devastating wildfires. “It didn’t used to be this bad,” she said.These days her family has to evacuate their home every summer. Two of her friends lost their homes in Paradise, the town consumed by the 2018 Camp fire disaster, the deadliest in California history. Last year, a wildfire burned the nature reserve behind her local school until it was “entirely black. It was like something from a dystopian novel”. Continue reading...

UK’s first large-scale battery producer welcomes partnership with major cobalt minerMining giant Glencore has agreed to buy a stake in Britishvolt, the startup with plans to invest £4bn building the UK’s first large-scale battery factory to help accelerate the rollout of electric vehicles.Glencore said it had made an undisclosed investment in the company as part of a long-term strategic partnership with Britishvolt to supply cobalt to its pioneering battery “gigafactory” in Northumberland. Continue reading...

The fate of a planned line from Uganda to Tanzania will be the first test of whether anyone was listening to António Guterres’ call to end fossil fuelsIf there is one world leader trying to look out for the planet as a whole, not just their own nation, it’s the UN secretary general. Last week, António Guterres was resolute in the wake of the damning report from the IPCC on the perilious climate crisis. It should, he said, sound “a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet”.He called for an end to “all new fossil fuel exploration and production”, and told countries to shift fossil fuel subsidies into renewable energy. Continue reading...

Global miner declares a bumper profit due to high iron ore prices but slashes value of NSW coalmine to become a $200m liabilityGlobal miner BHP is planning a major overhaul, simplifying its company structure and dumping its oil and gas assets into Woodside Petroleum, creating one of the biggest energy producers in the world.BHP on Tuesday declared a bumper profit due to high iron ore prices, as it announced it will bring together its Australian and UK arms into one company and leave the London Stock Exchange, which could have ramifications for investors. Continue reading...

Experts warn of potential for disaster as Exxon pursues 9bn barrels in sensitive marine ecosystemExxonMobil’s huge new Guyana project faces charges of a disregard for safety from experts who claim the company has failed to adequately prepare for possible disaster, the Guardian and Floodlight have found.Exxon has been extracting oil from Liza 1, an ultra-deepwater drilling operation, since 2019 – part of an expansive project spanning more than 6m acres off the coast of Guyana that includes 17 additional prospects in the exploration and preparatory phases. Continue reading...

Shopper Helaina Alati, who happens to be a former snake catcher, was luckily on hand to return the three-metre python to nearby bushlandA three-metre-long python has surprised shoppers in a Sydney supermarket by slithering along a shelf in the spice section with a Woolworths spokesperson saying it was a “slippery and rare customer”.“Only in Australia!” Hilary Leigh wrote in a Facebook post when sharing a video of the large snake at the Glenorie supermarket in Sydney’s north-west. Continue reading...

Squadron Energy says the move is part of efforts to ensure its projects support the transition to a low carbon economyAndrew Forrest’s Squadron Energy is abandoning its plans for gas exploration in Western Australia’s Canning Basin because the project does not align with the company’s climate policy.The company has confirmed it is exiting from its permit 499 in the Kimberley, which it acquired last year in partnership with Goshawk Energy. Continue reading...

John Donaldson is seeking $15,000 in damages for injuries he says he suffered in the encounter while visiting Lake TahoeA California man has filed a lawsuit after he was injured trying to flee from a bear that surprised him in a dumpster while he was visiting Lake Tahoe.John Donaldson is seeking $15,000 in damages from a condominium association and waste management company for injuries he said he suffered in the encounter at a condo complex in the Incline Village area, which has long had problems with bears breaking into homes, cars and garbage cans in search of food. Continue reading...

By 2050, nearly 60% of outdoor workers could experience at least one week when extreme heat makes it too dangerous to work if little to no action is takenIn the next few decades, Americans who work outdoors could increasingly find that it is simply too hot to do their jobs without risking their health.Related: The cost of cooling: how air conditioning is heating up the world Continue reading...

Protected area delivered a tenfold return on investment, with benefits for fishing, biodiversity and tourismA marine protection area established off the coast of Mallorca is proving beneficial not just for the environment but for business, too, according to a study that appears to confirm the long-term benefits of MPAs for both habitats and economies.According to the study, carried out by the non-profit Marilles Foundation, the protected area has generated €10 in benefits for each euro of the €473,137 (£402,000) invested in the scheme. Continue reading...

Government sets out plan for low-carbon economy that could also create thousands of jobsAbout 3 million households in the UK could begin using low-carbon hydrogen to heat their homes and cook rather than fossil fuel gas under government proposals to attract at least £4bn of investment to the hydrogen economy by 2030.The government has published its long-awaited plans for a UK-wide hydrogen economy, which it says could be worth £900m and create more than 9,000 high-quality jobs by the end of the decade, rising to £13bn and 100,000 new jobs by 2050. Continue reading...

Global survey finds 74% also want climate crises and protecting nature prioritised over jobs and profitThree-quarters of people in the world’s wealthiest nations believe humanity is pushing the planet towards a dangerous tipping point and support a shift of priorities away from economic profit, according to a global survey.The Ipsos Mori survey for the Global Commons Alliance (GCA) also found a majority (58%) were very concerned or extremely concerned about the state of the planet. Continue reading...

Officials issue first-ever declaration of tier 1 shortage at Lake Mead as it falls to lowest level since its creationOfficials have declared a dire water shortage at Lake Mead, the US’s largest reservoir, triggering major water cuts in Arizona and other western states. The US Bureau of Reclamation’s first-ever declaration of a “tier 1” shortage represents an acknowledgment that after a 20-year drought, the reservoir that impounds the Colorado River at the has receded to its lowest levels since it was created in the 1930s.Already, the lake is at about 35% capacity – the white “bathtub ring” that lines its perimeter indicates where the water level once was. The lake’s level is projected to fall even lower by the end of the year, prompting cutbacks in January 2022, the Bureau of Reclamation announced Monday. Continue reading...

With service industries and foreign tourism decimated, the potential fall in ore prices and demand shows just how much the country relies on mining exportsIt seems not all that long ago all the talk was about how gloriously the economy was going and how the Covid recession was in the past. But now the two states encompassing 55% of the nation’s economy are in lockdown and the second half of this year looks to be tough for the economy – especially as our iron ore exports might be about to take a hit.One of weird things about the pandemic is that our major exports of iron ore and coal have seen an absolute prices boom: Continue reading...

Firm says merging its hydrocarbon business with Australian producer Woodside Petroleum is one optionThe mining multinational BHP has begun talks to exit the oil and gas industry by merging its hydrocarbon business with Australia’s top independent gas producer, Woodside Petroleum.BHP said a merger with Woodside was one of the options being evaluated as part of a strategic review of its oil and gas business, and its place in the company’s long-term portfolio. Continue reading...

Reintroducing the big cats could control deer numbers and enrich ecosystems but farmers and the public need reassurance, say expertsThe maverick rewilder Derek Gow is wearing an extremely small pair of coral pink shorts as he introduces his three new Eurasian lynxes. He looks like Tiger King’s Joe Exotic on the wrong side of the Atlantic.The shy new arrivals are joining a menagerie of animals at his rewilding project in Devon. They are in a large pen with a four-metre-high fence but Gow, like a growing number of conservationists, wants to see lynxes prowling freely in the countryside. Continue reading...

Solar energy use will become more common as power use becomes smarter and more automatedDealing with the climate crisis involves the overhauling of many facets of life, but few of these changes will feel as tangible and personal as the transformation required within the home.The 128m households that dot America gobble up energy for heating, cooling and lighting, generating around 20% of all the planet-heating emissions produced in the US. Americans typically live in larger, more energy hungry dwellings than people in other countries, using more than double the energy of the average Briton and 10 times that of the average Chinese person. Continue reading...

Victorian fire agency’s research finds state faces increase in number of extreme fire danger days

Campaigners say Chichester harbour at risk of environmental ruin from dumping of raw sewageDischarges of raw sewage by Southern Water into a protected natural harbour risk causing an environmental catastrophe, say campaigners.Chichester harbour in West Sussex is one of the most highly protected marine environments in the country. But the latest analysis from Natural England shows that 80% of its protected habitats are in an unfavourable or declining condition. Continue reading...

Lord Deben says he is ‘pressing very hard’ to get details of strategy published as Cop26 approachesBoris Johnson’s delay in publishing the net zero emissions strategy has left a space for climate sceptics to “complain, attack and undermine” on cost grounds, and other countries could do with seeing more “proper leadership” from the UK before Cop26, the government’s independent climate adviser has said.Lord Deben, the Conservative peer and chair of the climate change committee, said critics of the net zero policy had been vocal in the public debate because “it hasn’t been put into context by the government”. Continue reading...

Plan is to tighten rules to stop energy firms exaggerating environmental benefits of green tariffsThe UK government has launched an investigation into renewable electricity deals amid growing concern over the extent of “greenwashing” by large energy firms claiming to offer environmental benefits to customers.In a crackdown as increasing numbers of people switch to a renewable energy deal, the government said it would review how the sector markets its green electricity tariffs to consumers. Continue reading...

Ashjayeen Sharif wants Australia’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter to be 100% renewable by 2030An 18-year-old student and climate change campaigner is bidding for a seat on the board of energy company AGL, Australia’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter.Ashjayeen Sharif, from Melbourne, wants the company to phase out its “dirty coal-burning power stations” by 2030 and replace them with 100% renewable energy. Continue reading...

Upside down, they resemble a pair of scalesDragonflies have a near-perfect hunting record, successfully grabbing their prey in mid-air 95% of the time: they do this while flying skywards, earthwards, side to side, backwards and upside down. In one experiment, a dragonfly with numbers drawn on its clear wings alights backwards from a reed, legs raised above its head like a person making an offering to God, and scoops up the bug flying behind it. The dragonfly appears to catch its prey both benevolently and malevolently: snatching it and saving it, like a ball or a falling baby.Dragonflies transform from their larval stage with similarly precise acrobatics: the skin splits, the insect wriggles its head and chest out with the awkwardness of someone trying to get into a sleeping bag while standing up, and then it hangs upside down for a while, its tail still trapped in the skin. The almost-dragonfly regains its strength, then does an upside down sit-up at the same time it pulls and flicks its tail out: a perfectly controlled dismount, a precisely calibrated monkey acrobat toy. Continue reading...

Greens says government’s support for fossil fuel expansion is ‘bonkers’ and no one will visit the tourist site ‘if it’s surrounded by gas drilling rigs’The Victorian government has given consent for a gas company to produce gas extracted from beneath a national park in the state’s south-west, near the celebrated tourist site the Twelve Apostles.Documents tabled in Victorian parliament earlier this month show Lily D’Ambrosio, the state energy and climate change minister, gave consent for an existing exploration gas well underneath the Port Campbell national park to be developed into a production well. Continue reading...

How can Britain persuade other countries to ditch fossil fuels when it won’t do so itself?Boris Johnson’s apparent willingness to sign off a new oilfield, Cambo, in the North Sea makes a mockery of his claim to global climate leadership. The first phase of Cambo would produce up to 170m barrels of crude. That is the equivalent, say Friends of the Earth, of the annual emissions of 18 coal-fired power plants. This sends dark clouds scuttling over the UK’s presidency of Cop26, held in Glasgow in November this year. For the UN climate summit to be a success, Mr Johnson’s team, headed by Alok Sharma, must cajole recalcitrant countries into line. It is doubtful that Mr Sharma can persuade other nations of the merit of forsaking fossil fuels when Britain will not lead by example.Last week, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change delivered its starkest warning yet about the planetary emergency. To have a 50% chance of keeping global heating below 1.5C requires the world to get net emissions of carbon dioxide down to zero before 2050. In a foreword to the IPCC report, António Guterres, the UN secretary general, wrote that countries should “end all new fossil fuel exploration and production”. The International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental group founded to protect access to hydrocarbons, has said much the same. Continue reading...

Increase means country will slip back from goal of cutting emissions by 40% from 1990 levelsGermany is forecast to record its biggest rise in greenhouse gas emissions since 1990 this year as the economy rebounds from the pandemic-related downturn, according to a report by an environmental thinktank.Berlin-based Agora Energiewende said the country’s emissions would probably rise by the equivalent of 47m tons of carbon dioxide. Continue reading...

Author of government study says Treasury resistance to green spending programmes could halt progress to net zeroImposing “premature austerity” again will undermine the fight against climate change and stop poorer households going green, one of the world’s leading climate economists has warned the government, amid claims that the Treasury is resisting policies to tackle the crisis.Nicholas Stern, the author of the seminal 2006 government study into the costs of climate change, said comprehensive programmes were needed to help poorer households make the switch to electric cars and away from gas heating, if the government hoped to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Continue reading...

People thought to be trapped in collapsed buildings in Bozkurt as rescuers search for survivorsFamilies of those missing after Turkey’s worst floods in years anxiously watched rescue teams search buildings on Saturday, fearing the death toll from the raging torrents could rise further.At least 57 people have died from the floods in the northern Black Sea region, the second natural disaster to strike the country this month. Continue reading...

Eight Russian and Turkish crew members and emergency workers killed trying to land in Adana provinceA firefighting plane from Russia crashed on Saturday in a mountainous area in southern Turkey, killing the eight crew members and emergency workers aboard, Russia’s defence ministry said.The ministry said five Russian and three Turkish citizens were on the amphibious Beriev Be-200, which crashed while trying to land in Turkey’s Adana province. A team to investigate the accident was dispatched to the Kahramanmaras area, Turkish state media said. Continue reading...

The fuels we use to warm our homes create a carbon burden. Systems that capture ambient heat could offer a solutionOne of the greatest contributors to pollution is such a part of everyday life it is easily overlooked: the fossil fuels used in our homes for heating, hot water and cooking make up more than a fifth of the UK’s carbon emissions.This is why the government plans to ban gas boilers in new-build homes from 2025, a policy which could extend to all new gas boilers in homes from the mid-2030s. Beyond this date, newly installed heating systems would need to be low-carbon or able to be converted to use clean-burning fuel such as hydrogen. Continue reading...

Farmers are laying out carcasses to tempt vultures and eagles back to the UK countrysideWhen a griffon vulture last year graced the UK with its presence, awed birdwatchers from across the country gathered in the Derbyshire moors in the hope of catching a glance.Now conservationists are hoping to make sightings of these magnificent birds more frequent by adding raw nature back into the countryside. Continue reading...

Authorities in Hiroshima and northern Kyushu issue evacuation alert amid unprecedented rainfallMore than a million people have been urged to seek shelter as torrential rain triggered floods and landslides in western Japan, leaving at least one dead and two missing.Authorities in Hiroshima and the northern part of Kyushu issued their highest evacuation alert as the weather agency reported unprecedented levels of rain in the area on Saturday. Continue reading...

• Hunters killed double limit during February breeding season• State wildlife officials recommended a 130-kill limitWisconsin wildlife officials have authorized the killing of 300 wolves for the 2021 fall hunting season, more than doubling biologists’ recommendation of a 130-wolf kill limit.Scientists with the state department of natural resources (DNR) recommended the 130 limit after the four-day hunting season in February saw hunters kill almost twice as many wolves as allotted during the wolves’ breeding season, raising concerns over potential long-term ramifications for the population. Continue reading...

In the search for sustainable flying, Cranfield University might have found the answer in hydrogenThis row of brick sheds, locked away down overgrown country lanes in Bedfordshire, feels a long way from the glossy boardroom presentations about sustainable aviation. But it was recently the backdrop, in the search for greener flying, to a strange and remarkable scene.“Anyone passing would have wondered why these people were staring at a pipe and whooping and laughing,” says Bobby Sethi, associate professor of gas turbine combustion at Cranfield University. “But we were almost certainly the only people in the world right then burning anything without producing CO.” Continue reading...

Rescuers sift through rubble for victims and survivors as country reels from floods and wildfiresThe death toll from Turkey’s flash floods has risen to 38 as emergency crews searched for more victims and survivors in the devastated Black Sea region just as the country was gaining control over hundreds of wildfires.The health minister, Fahrettin Koca, announced on Twitter late on Friday that 32 people died in Kastamonu province, along the Black Sea, and six in the neighbouring area of Sinop. The toll was also reported by the government’s disaster agency AFAD. Continue reading...

The Coalition promised to release a long-term plan before the Glasgow climate talks – and that’s just 80 days awayLeading Australian industry groups have warned that the government has failed to consult them on a promised long-term emissions reduction strategy, despite it planning to present it at pivotal climate talks in Glasgow in just 80 days.The government has been saying for more than 18 months that the strategy is in development and has promised to release it publicly and to the UN before the Glasgow talks in November. Continue reading...

Temperatures expected to hit triple digits in Portland and Seattle as Pacific north-west bakes in second heatwave of summerWashington and Oregon endured scorching temperatures, and a sense of deja vu hung in the air as the region baked in the second intense heatwave of the summer.Temperatures were expected to soar to triple digits again on Friday in Portland and Seattle. Forecasters said hot weather and wildfire smoke would pose a problem through the weekend. Continue reading...

Global land and ocean surface temperature last month was 0.9C hotter than 20th-century average, beating July 2016 recordJuly was the world’s hottest month ever recorded, US government scientists have confirmed, a further indication of the unfolding climate crisis that is now affecting almost every part of the planet.Related: Greenhouse gas emissions must peak within 4 years, says leaked UN report Continue reading...

Asian giant hornet spotted about two miles from where first US nest was found last yearWashington state has confirmed its second “murder hornet” sighting of 2021 – the first glimpse of a live one, officials reported.A statement released by the Washington state department of agriculture (WSDA) confirms the first report of a live Asian giant hornet in the state this year. Continue reading...

Twenty-seven killed in Turkish flash flooding, with southern Europe bracing for more extreme weatherThe death toll from flash floods in Turkey has reached 27 and fresh wildfires erupted on the ravaged Greek island of Evia, as southern Europe braces for more extreme weather events caused by human-made climate change.Record Mediterranean heatwaves fuelled blazes that have devastated parts of Italy, Turkey and Algeria, with Spain and Portugal on high alert, while Turkey’s Black Sea region has been hit by some of the worst floods in living memory. Continue reading...

Region has fastest-growing network with number of electric vehicles in Coventry alone tripling in three yearsThe West Midlands has overtaken London as the region with the fastest-growing network of electric car chargers, thanks to a push by Coventry to rapidly move away from petrol and diesel cars.The number of electric car chargers in the West Midlands rose by a fifth between April and July, according to data from Zap-Map and the Department for Transport. That compared with growth of 12.6% in the east of England. Continue reading...

Experts say chancellor refusing to commit spending needed to shift economy to low-carbon footingThe Treasury is blocking green policies essential to put the UK on track to net zero emissions, imperilling the UK’s own targets and the success of vital UN climate talks, experts have told the Guardian.A string of policies, from home insulation to new infrastructure spending, have been scrapped, watered down or delayed. Rows about short term costs have dominated over longer term warnings that putting off green spending now will lead to much higher costs in future. Continue reading...

Hundreds of spills off Gulf of Paria having ‘dire’ impact on local fishing in one of the most biodiverse areas of Trinidad and TobagoHands masked in thick black oil, the fisher drips toxic globules back into the sea as he pleads with the camera, urging viewers to “share this video”.In the footage, filmed onboard a small boat, Gary Aboud documents an oil spill this week in the Gulf of Paria, off the Caribbean coast of Trinidad. It is just the latest of many spills that threaten to wreak havoc on the area’s vulnerable marine life and fishing industry. Continue reading...