In climate change, the Four Horsemen have a perfect force of destruction. Maybe these fires and floods will be a wake-up call to stop stalling

Deformities point to unsettling sign of extremely low genetic diversity in isolated population in the Santa Monica mountainsMountain lions with crooked tails have been spotted in the Santa Monica mountains, an unsettling sign of extremely low genetic diversity within an isolated population of less than two dozen individuals roaming the rugged canyonlands just north of Los Angeles.In early March, biologists examined a young sedated male mountain lion. The cougar, designated P-81, had a kinked tail shaped like the letter L and only one descended testicle, a condition known as cryptorchidism. Continue reading...

Ageing infrastructure, legacy pollution and emerging contaminants across the US are driving a growing urgency to do something about America’s water crisis

Mock Cop26 set up in frustration at lack of progress due to coronavirus crisisYoung climate activists have begun a parallel process to the UN climate crisis talks, in frustration at the lack of progress they perceive in world governments’ efforts to address the emergency.Crunch negotiations aimed at fulfilling the Paris climate agreement, called Cop26, were to be hosted by the UK this November, but have been delayed by the coronavirus crisis. Activists, participants and observers have told the Guardian they are concerned at a lack of progress so far. Continue reading...

Exclusive: congestion climbed above 2019 levels in August as people went back to using cars after lockdownRoad traffic congestion in outer London is now far higher than it was last year as people have gone back into their cars after lockdown, according to new data.Congestion climbed above 2019 levels in August, and has increased to nearly a fifth on average above last year, in roads outside the capital’s central congestion charging zone, even while it has dropped sharply in the centre of the city. Continue reading...

Aboriginal authority alleges the federal organisation built a walking track near Gunlom Falls in the Northern Territory ‘without permission’Parks Australia, which manages the world-heritage listed Kakadu national park, has been charged under the Northern Territory’s Sacred Sites Act with damaging an area near the spectacular Gunlom Falls, one of Kakadu’s most popular attractions.The Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority alleges that Parks Australia built a walking track on a sacred site at Gunlom “without permission, close to a ceremonial feature of the sacred site that is restricted according to Aboriginal tradition”. Continue reading...

Green party makes electoral pledge that would make it mandatory for large financial institutions to reveal exposure to climate-related risksNew Zealand’s left-leaning Green party said it would require the financial sector to make annual disclosures about the impact of the climate crisis on their business, if it once again formed a government after October’s election. The policy would be a world-first, said James Shaw, the climate change minister and co-leader of the party.“Australia, Canada, [the] UK, France, Japan, and the European Union are all working towards some form of climate risk reporting for companies,” said Shaw in a statement. “But New Zealand is moving ahead of them by making disclosures about climate risk mandatory across the financial system.” Continue reading...

Create more sustainable fabrics and boost textile recycling facilities, says all-party groupThe government is being urged by a cross-party group of MPs to take urgent steps to fix throwaway ‘‘fast fashion’’ by supporting the development of fabrics with a lower environmental impact and boosting clothing recycling facilities.After Covid-19 exposed its “faultlines”, the industry needs to follow a more sustainable route to survive, recommends the report from the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for ethics and sustainability in fashion. Continue reading...

Leaked proposal includes carbon sinks provided by trees, soils and oceans in targetThe EU executive has been accused of “cheating” on its 2030 climate plans by proposing to include carbon sinks provided by trees, soils and oceans in its emissions reduction goal.The European commission will this week call for an EU emissions reduction target of “at least 55%” by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, according to a leaked draft seen by the Guardian. The proposal sets the stage for an intense political battle over the autumn to agree the target, intended to set the EU on track to meet a landmark pledge of net-zero emissions by the middle of the century. Continue reading...

Smoke from the fires, which have burned millions of acres across the west, has nearly reached Hawaii and MichiganFour west coast cities in the US currently rank in the top 10 for worst air quality in the world, as wildfires rage up and down the western seaboard, cloaking the entire region in smoke.Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, hold the No 1 and No 2 spots, while San Francisco and Los Angeles sit at four and six. Collectively, with the smoke from the wildfires, these four cities have knocked every city in China out of the top 10 for worst air quality. Continue reading...

Swimmers and pleasure boats gather as Dutch city celebrates reopening of CatharijnesingelIt is being viewed as the correction of a historic mistake. More than 40 years after parts of the canal that encircled Utrecht’s old town were concreted over to accommodate a 12-lane motorway, the Dutch city is celebrating the restoration of its 900-year-old moat.In an attempt to recast its residents’ relationship with the car, Utrecht’s inner city is again surrounded by water and greenery rather than asphalt and exhaust fumes. Continue reading...

Some of 101 crew left stranded off Brazil amid Covid-19 crisis protested to demand repatriation

Gardening craze has led to endangered species being dug up from mountains and forests

Adept at catching salmon because they blend into the daylight, the white bears are small in number – yet First Nations are stepping in to helpWhen Marven Robinson was a kid, any mention of spirit bears was met with hushed dismissal from the elders in his community, the Gitga’at First Nation of Hartley Bay, British Columbia. Since the 19th century, Indigenous peoples in the area learned to keep the bears with ghostly coats a secret to protect them from fur traders.As the ancient legend goes, the Wee’get (meaning the “raven,” known as the creator of the world) turned every 10th black bear white to remind people of the pristine conditions of the Ice Age. Continue reading...

Climate Action 100+ group put 161 fossil fuel, mining, transport and other big-emitting companies on notice in latest campaign by shareholdersA group representing investors that collectively manage more than US$47tn in assets has demanded the world’s biggest corporate polluters back strategies to reach net-zero emissions and promised to hold them to public account.Climate Action 100+, an initiative supported by 518 institutional investor organisations across the globe, has written to 161 fossil fuel, mining, transport and other big-emitting companies to set 30 climate measures and targets against which they will be analysed in a report to be released early next year. Continue reading...

Carolyn Fairbairn calls for more green jobs to help economy recover from Covid-19

Oil will be replaced by clean electricity, BP predicts, as demand may never recover from Covid-19 pandemic

UK government said it failed on two-thirds of targets, but RSPB analysis is bleaker – and suggests UK is moving backwards in some areasThe UK has failed to reach 17 out of 20 UN biodiversity targets agreed on 10 years ago, according to an analysis from conservation charity RSPB that says the gap between rhetoric and reality has resulted in a “lost decade for nature”.The UK government’s self-assessment said it failed on two-thirds of targets (14 out of 20) agreed at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan, in 2010, but the RSPB analysis suggests the reality is worse. On six of the 20 targets the UK has actually gone backwards. The government’s assessment published last year said it was not regressing on any target. Continue reading...

From the Strait of Gibraltar to Galicia, orcas have been harassing yachts, damaging vessels and injuring crewFull story: ‘I’ve never seen or heard of attacks’ – scientists baffled by orcas harassing boatsScientists have been left baffled by incidents of orcas ramming sailing boats along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts.In the last two months, from southern to northern Spain, sailors have sent distress calls after worrying encounters. Two boats lost part of their rudders, at least one crew member suffered bruising from the impact of the ramming, and several boats sustained serious damage. Continue reading...

The climate crisis is upon us all but the president pursues more rollbacks. This election offers an existential choiceThe air outside my window is yellow today. It was orange yesterday. The Air Quality Index is over 200. The Environmental Protection Agency defines this as a “health alert” in which “everyone may experience more serious health effects if they are exposed for 24 hours”. Unfortunately, the index has been over 200 for several days.Related: Wildfires are striking closer and closer to cities. We know how this will end | Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano Continue reading...

Letter signed by 150 public figures hits back at move to scapegoat protestersStephen Fry, Mark Rylance and a former Archbishop of Canterbury are among 150 public figures to hit back at government moves to classify the climate protesters of Extinction Rebellion as an “organised crime group”. In a letter to be published in the Observer on Sunday, XR is described as “a group of people who are holding the powerful to account” – who should not become targets of “vitriol and anti-democratic posturing”.It comes in response to the prime minister and home secretary’s reported move to review how the group is classified in law after it disrupted the distribution of four national newspapers, including the Sun and the Daily Mail, last Saturday. Continue reading...

Nancy Pelosi has been notably tepid on green legislation – so are the Democrats serious about fighting climate change?With hundreds of thousands of Americans forced to evacuate their homes in the western US, Donald Trump hasn’t said a word about the wildfires blazing across multiple states in nearly three weeks.Related: Oregon fires force hundreds of thousands to flee as deaths rise Continue reading...

Port Moresby nature park may not survive the impact of pandemic shutdownsFrom the heat and dust of the city’s noisy, crowded streets, the Port Moresby Nature Park is an oasis, for the city’s residents as well as the animals it keeps.Home to more than 500 creatures and spread over 30 verdant acres, the park has spent years rescuing injured, orphaned or trafficked animals from across the country, and protected and nurtured native species, including the endangered pig-nosed turtle, and the magnificent riflebird. Continue reading...

Australia’s biggest superannuation funds also demand the miner guarantee the protection of culturally important sitesRio Tinto has sacked three senior executives, including the global CEO, as penance for destroying a 46,000-year-old archaeological and sacred site in Western Australia’s Pilbara, but shareholder and Indigenous groups insist the move must signal the start of a major overhaul of the way all mining companies operate in the region.One of Australia’s biggest superannuation funds says the departure of CEO Jean-Sébastien Jacques, head of iron ore Chris Salisbury, and corporate affairs chief Simone Niven won’t be enough to restore investor confidence. Continue reading...

The best of the week’s wildlife pictures from around the world, from mountain lion cubs in California to an orca with her new calf Continue reading...

Final blast of summer expected after weekend downpours in parts of ScotlandThe UK can look forward to “one last blast of summer” next week, with temperatures forecast to climb above 30C (86F).The mercury could hit 31C in southern England on Tuesday, however parts of Scotland can expect torrential downpours this weekend that could bring almost a month’s worth of rain in just one day. Continue reading...

Citroën’s ‘urban mobility object’ is classed as a light quadricyle and can be driven without a full licenceThe vehicle is cheap and the reactions from the pavement are a bonus, from the disbelieving double-take or uncontrolled giggle to the frankly envious where-do-I-get-one-of-those (plus the odd pitying stare, but then this is Paris).At first glance, Citroën’s new Ami, a playful polypropylene cube on wheels with an unashamedly Toytown aesthetic, seems hardly the kind of car to excite the passions of France’s drivers. But, perhaps because it is not a car, that is just what it is doing. Continue reading...

Scientists have been warning of the growing threat of climate change, and now those projections are a reality

Competing teams have both completed trips to the summit but plans have been disrupted by the pandemicSome time in the near future – after a wait of a decade – the world will learn the new height of Mount Everest.China and Nepal have teamed up to measure the world’s highest mountain which straddles their border and, under a 2019 memorandum of understanding, they must announce their findings together. The announcement was reportedly delayed because of the pandemic. Continue reading...

Father of Lukas Orda says family was shocked to hear active search for his son had been called off by Japan’s coast guard on Wednesday

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian offers to hold further talks over state’s koala protections policy at cabinet on 6 OctoberThe NSW Nationals leader, John Barilaro, has backed off from his threat to pull his party out of the Coalition and has instead agreed to a compromise offered by Gladys Berejiklian to hold further talks over the state’s new koala protections in cabinet on 6 October.The Nationals had earlier resolved to push for early talks in September and had compiled a list of changes that they wanted. But the premier insisted on normal processes and declined to offer concessions. Continue reading...

Over 600 people were arrested during the environmental demonstrations in LondonTen days of Extinction Rebellion demonstrations in London ended with naked protests and an arrest over graffiti daubed on a statue of Winston Churchill.At least 648 people have been arrested during the environmental action, including one man on Thursday on suspicion of causing criminal damage to the statue in Parliament Square. Continue reading...

By early June, emissions had mostly returned to the levels of the same period in 2019, a UN report foundThe Covid-19 pandemic will deliver an unprecedented annual drop in global greenhouse gas emissions of up to 7% by the end of 2020, but the slowdown’s impact on the atmosphere will be almost imperceptible, according to a major report led by the United Nations.Analysis of fossil fuel burning found emissions hit their lowest daily rate in April but by June – as economies began to open up again – emissions were returning to the same levels seen the previous year. Continue reading...

NSW premier tells deputy he cannot sit on crossbench and remain in cabinet after dispute sparked by koala protectionThe New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has given her deputy, John Barilaro, until Friday morning to reverse his threat to have the Nationals sit on the crossbenches or he and his fellow Nationals ministers will be stripped of their portfolios.The crisis in the Coalition has been prompted by National party demands over koala policy which passed through cabinet and became law earlier this year but which the Nationals now want to be changed. Continue reading...

Retailers say they don’t have enough time to adjust to law, which is likely to come into force in early 2021South Australia has become the first Australian state to introduce laws banning some single-use plastics including cutlery, straws and stirrers.Environmental campaigners say the laws, likely to come into force in early 2021, are historic and will help protect wildlife on land and in the oceans. Continue reading...

Home values, state tourism and local governments could be damaged, causing defaults and market disruptionsThe devastating wildfires now sweeping across the western US are among the sparks from climate change that could ignite a financial crisis by damaging home values, state tourism and local government budgets, an advisory panel to a US markets regulator found.Those effects could set off a cascade of events including defaults and market disruptions, undermining the economy and sparking a crisis, according to a report from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Continue reading...

Discovery of deadly virus in wild boar cadaver leads to crisis measures including hunting, harvesting and leisure bansGerman farmers have been ordered to enact a series of crisis measures after the discovery of the country’s first case of African swine fever (ASF).The arrival of the highly infectious disease, found in the cadaver of a wild boar close to the German border with Poland in the state of Brandenburg, is a devastating blow to farmers who have been at pains for several years to keep it at bay. Continue reading...

Insurance market says claims totalled £2.4bn in first half of 2020, leading to £400m loss

Strategic partnership will seek to develop more wind farms off the coast of the US

More than 230m gallons spilled in Fort Lauderdale between December 2019 and February 2020Florida has recently experienced several large sewage spills and the is issue expected to worsen in the state due to its growing population, urban development, the climate crisis and ageing infrastructure that frequently cause existing wastewater systems to fail.For example, between December 2019 to February 2020, more than 230m gallons of sewage spilled into waterways in Fort Lauderdale, the result of ageing water infrastructure. Continue reading...

Centre Alliance’s Stirling Griff joins independents Rex Patrick and Jacqui Lambie to oppose EPBC Act changesCrossbench senators have vowed to block the Morrison government’s proposed changes to environmental laws next month, in part because they include nothing to improve the protection of Australia’s ailing wildlife and natural heritage.The Coalition last week used its numbers to gag debate in the lower house of parliament and force through changes that would transfer greater development approval powers to state and territory governments. Continue reading...

Assembly made up of members of public says economic recovery should drive move to net zero carbon emissions

Pinning hopes of economic recovery on fossil fuel comes at huge environmental cost, analysis warnsAustralia’s untapped gas reservoirs could lead to three years’ worth of global greenhouse gas emissions if they were developed to their full extent, an analysis suggests.With the Morrison government proposing what it has described as a “gas-led recovery”, a report by the thinktank the Australia Institute has estimated the emissions that would be released if the fossil fuel industry were significantly expanded. Continue reading...

Extinction rates for birds and mammals since 1993 would have been ‘three to four times higher’ without actionUp to 48 bird and mammal extinctions have been prevented by conservation efforts since a global agreement to protect biodiversity, according to a new study.The Iberian lynx, California condor and pygmy hog are among animals that would have disappeared without reintroduction programmes, zoo-based conservation and formal legal protections since 1993, research led by scientists at Newcastle University and BirdLife International found. Continue reading...

Animal populations have plunged an average of 68% since 1970, as humanity pushes the planet’s life support systems to the edgeWildlife populations are in freefall around the world, driven by human overconsumption, population growth and intensive agriculture, according to a major new assessment of the abundance of life on Earth.On average, global populations of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles plunged by 68% between 1970 and 2016, according to the WWF and Zoological Society of London (ZSL)’s biennial Living Planet Report 2020. Two years ago, the figure stood at 60%. Continue reading...

Report suggests buyers of polluting vehicles should subsidise electric carsUp to £1,500 could be added to the cost of new petrol and diesel cars in order to subsidise electric car purchases, under proposals being considered by the government.Forcing buyers of more polluting vehicles to pay towards making electric cars cheaper, a so-called “feebate” system, would be one of the most effective ways to encourage a faster move away from fossil fuels, according to a feasibility report commissioned by the Department for Transport (DfT). Continue reading...

Miners and environmentalists have reached an uneasy truce over lithium – both agree Australia should be mining more of this key ingredient in renewable energy batteries“Where are you going to find experienced lithium miners? That’s like finding unicorns,” laughs James Brown, the managing director of Western Australian resources firm Altura Mining.Brown is the next best thing. Hailing from a family five generations deep in coal mining, the burly Queenslander never imagined he’d be applying his expertise to digging out a key building block of a low-carbon economy. Continue reading...