Environment | The Guardian

Officials seek to reassure public after world’s largest hydro-electric dam nears capacity amid heavy floodsExtreme floods have hit China’s Three Gorges dam, which recorded the largest inflow of water in its history, prompting officials to assure the public it would not be breached.Inflows to the world’s largest hydro-electric dam reached 75m litres of water a second, according to state media. By Thursday morning, 11 outlets of the dam had been opened to discharge 49.2m litres of water a second, the largest release since its construction. Continue reading...

Erebus project in Celtic Sea adds to Queen’s multi-million windfall through expected auction of offshore leasesThe Queen’s property managers have given the green light to the first floating offshore windfarm to be built off the coast of Wales, as the UK’s wind industry prepares to power into the Celtic Sea.The Crown Estate granted two new leases for windfarms in Welsh waters on Wednesday, including the seabed rights for a demonstration project that involves installing floating wind turbines 27 miles from the shore. Continue reading...

Greta Thunberg has warned that we have wasted valuable time in the fight against global heating. We need Green New Deals

Families have been forced to give up prime spots to make way for council’s £2.4m environmental hubOn the promenade at Durley Chine in Bournemouth there’s a gaping hole where Stuart Smith’s family beach hut used to stand.After 13 years on the waiting list, and almost a decade of enjoying summers on the beach from the comfort of their 7ft by 5ft (2.13 metres to 1.5 metres) bottle green cabin, the family have finally been forced to give up their spot to make way for a £2.4m environmental innovation hub the council are building on the site. Continue reading...

The Pantanal wetland – home to the hyacinth macaw – is suffering its worst blazes in decades, most probably started by humansThe world’s biggest refuge for endangered hyacinth macaws has been devastated by a historic fire in the Brazilian Pantanal.The Pantanal, a vast tropical wetland straddling Brazil’s border with Bolivia and Paraguay, is currently suffering its worst fires in more than two decades, with nearly 12% of its vegetation reportedly already lost. Continue reading...

Campaigners ask authors of two reviews of TfL finances to look again at schemePlans to build a four-lane road tunnel under the Thames in London should be dropped as part of an overhaul of transport spending in the capital, campaigners say.Opponents of the proposed £1.2bn Silvertown tunnel scheme have written to the authors of two separate reviews of Transport for London finances, asking them to look again at the project. Continue reading...

Death Valley’s forbidding landscape registered a preliminary high temperature of 129.9F on 16 August. Don’t look awayHow hot was it at the Furnace Creek visitor center at Death Valley national park on 16 August 2020? It was so hot that the huge electronic temperature display (which serves as a ubiquitous selfie backdrop) went on the fritz. Parts of the blocky digital display malfunctioned, resulting in numbers even higher than the actual mind-melting high on what turned out to be a landmark day.An automated weather station at the visitor center recorded a preliminary high of 129.9F (54.4C) at 3.41pm PDT on Sunday. Even for heat-favored landscapes such as Death Valley, it is remarkable for temperatures to inch into such territory so late in the summer, when the sun is considerably lower in the sky than at the summer solstice in late June. According to weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera, the previous global record high for August is 127.9F (53.3C), recorded in Mitribah, Kuwait, in 2011. Continue reading...

An unlikely alliance of ranchers and conservationists is working to find the best way to preserve biodiversity on grassland in OregonPhotographs by Leon WerdingerIn the north-east corner of Oregon there is a traffic jam of weathered pickups and horse trailers on the Zumwalt Road. Redwing blackbirds trill over the bellowing of hundreds of cattle clustered by corrals, the sign of a spring branding in progress. Half a dozen cowgirls and cowboys on horseback circle the herd, lassoing calves for brands, vaccinations and, for the steers, castration. The smell of singed hair hangs in the warm air.Standing in the centre of the scrum is Dan Probert, owner of Lightning Creek Ranch. Probert, 56, smiles as he watches the roping teams deftly manoeuvre his animals. Continue reading...

Two years on from her first school strike, activist attacks ‘ignorance and unawareness’

Rise in sea temperatures caused by climate emergency is transforming marine environment and affecting local speciesThe waters off Kyonan were once home to dense forests of seaweed – the ideal habitat for the prized abalone and sardines that support the town’s economy.Today, the seaweed beds are threadbare; in some places they have vanished altogether, to be replaced by coral that belongs in the tropics, not in this corner of Tokyo Bay. Marine life that depended on macro algae for survival is making way for fish usually found in waters much further south. Continue reading...

Report finds while 28 electric models are now on sale, including eight below $65,000, market share is still only 0.6% of new car salesSales of electric vehicles in Australia tripled in 2019 despite a lack of government support, according to the industry’s peak body.The country’s network of electric vehicle charging stations was also growing, the Electric Vehicle Council’s annual report found, including a rise in the number of faster charging stations that let drivers recharge a car in about 15 minutes. Continue reading...

Voiceover by ex-Buddist monk, Mindful Escapes hopes to boost viewers’ mental health during pandemicThe BBC’s new natural history programme will ignore the animal kingdom’s violent side and instead highlight nature’s calming elements, as part of an effort to boost mental health during the coronavirus crisis.Rather than focusing on the dramatic footage of life-or-death battles that has defined shows such as Planet Earth, the new series will feature footage of more tranquil animal behaviour – such as whales circling each other and elephants swimming for minutes on end. Continue reading...

The prime minister has an ambitious post-pandemic plan that would go against the wishes of powerful industries – and several provincial leadersWith a projected C$343bn (US$260bn) Covid-shaped deficit, a collapsing oil and gas sector, and a province on the verge of bankruptcy over a botched energy project, Canada is at a crossroads.Does it pursue an ambitious “green” post-pandemic economic recovery plan that goes against the wishes of a number of influential and powerful industries – not to mention several provincial leaders – or does the tenuous Justin Trudeau-led minority government freeze in the headlights? Continue reading...

UK National Oceanography Centre, which studied waters between Britain and Falklands, says action needed urgentlyMore than 10 times as much plastic has been found in the Atlantic ocean than previously estimated to be there, showing the the world’s plastic problem is likely to be much greater than realised.New measurements of the top 200m of the Atlantic found between 12 and 21 million tonnes of microscopic particles of three of the most common types of plastic, in about 5% of the ocean. That would indicate a concentration in the Atlantic of about 200 million tonnes of these common plastics. Continue reading...

Island nation declared stare of ‘environmental emergency’ after MV Wakashio ran agroundMauritius has arrested the captain of a Japanese bulk carrier that ran aground off its coast, causing an oil spill in one of the world’s most pristine maritime environments.“We have arrested the captain of the vessel and another member of the crew. After having been heard by the court, they have been denied bail and are still in detention,” Inspector Siva Coothen told Reuters. Continue reading...

Move follows pressure from investors but company stops short of full exit from coalminingBHP has announced it plans to sell off its thermal coalmines within two years as part of moves by the global mining giant to ready itself for a low-carbon future.The move stops short of a complete exit from coalmining because BHP will retain its stake in a venture that produces the higher coking coal used to make steel. BPH said coking, or metallurgical, coal will be in higher demand in coming years as steelmakers clean up their processes. Continue reading...

Magpies can recognise people and tend to swoop those they see as a threat, but with everyone in masks, they may struggle to distinguish individuals

Geographical features cause weather differences on shared mountainous island of HispaniolaHaiti and its larger neighbour the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola, which is in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, to the east of Jamaica and Cuba.Like other Caribbean countries, it has a pleasantly warm climate, especially on the coast. There are variations inland, depending on the altitude: the Chaîne de la Selle mountains rise to almost 2,700 metres (8,800ft) above sea level. Continue reading...

William Perry Pendley, who was nominated to lead the Bureau of Land Management, has claimed climate change doesn’t existIn a rare acknowledgement of defeat, Donald Trump has withdrawn his nomination of a highly controversial figure for a top environment post.William Perry Pendley is a conservative attorney and longtime opponent of public lands and wildlife protections who had been put forward to lead the Bureau of Land Management. It oversees 240m acres of public land and is charged with managing fossil fuel and mineral development while protecting conserved lands and endangered species. Continue reading...

Unless we contain carbon, our food supply will be under threat. By 2050, US corn yields could decline by 30%I know a stiff wind. They call this place Storm Lake, after all. But until recently most Iowans had never heard of a “derecho”. They have now. Last Monday, a derecho tore 770 miles from Nebraska to Indiana and left a path of destruction up to 50 miles wide over 10m acres of prime cropland. It blew 113 miles per hour at the Quad Cities on the Mississippi River.Related: Two dead and hundreds of thousands without power after wind storm batters US midwest Continue reading...

NFU predicts yields could be down by a third as extreme weather hits crops

Hundreds of workers fell ill after cleaning up America’s largest industrial disaster without proper gear. At least 50 have died. Twelve years later, they’re still waiting for helpThis story was produced through a partnership between Southerly and the Guardian, with support from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.Doug Bledsoe opened his mouth to order sweet tea at the Ruby Tuesday in Powell, Tennessee, when he had his first seizure. Continue reading...

Supermarket says move follows evidence that reusable plastic bags are being thrown away after one useMorrisons is planning to ditch all its plastic “bags for life” following evidence that they are being used once and thrown away. The food retailer is running a trial in eight stores from Monday, which will see sturdy paper bags offered at checkouts instead.If the trial is popular, introducing paper bags only across all its 494 stores would save 90m plastic bags being used annually, the equivalent of 3,510 tonnes of plastic per year, the company said. Continue reading...

Grounded carrier has split in half and poor conditions make removal of ship’s remaining oil riskyInternational experts and thousands of local volunteers were making frantic efforts on Sunday to protect Mauritius’s pristine beaches and rich marine wildlife after hundreds of tonnes of oil was dumped into the sea by a Japanese carrier in what some scientists called the country’s worst ecological disaster.Related: Grounded carrier off Mauritius breaks apart risking ecological disaster Continue reading...

When a court in the Netherlands ruled its government’s actions unlawful, it inspired others to hold big polluters to account• Time to reset: more brilliant ideas to remake the worldAt key moments in history, courts around the world have helped to accelerate social change – they have vindicated the demands of people fighting to end slavery, racial segregation and gender inequality. It should therefore come as no surprise that they are being called on to help resolve the biggest social and environmental crisis of our time: the climate emergency.The case against the government of the Netherlands powerfully illustrates what climate litigation can achieve. In 2015, the Hague district court issued a groundbreaking decision in response to a lawsuit filed by the Urgenda Foundation and 886 Dutch citizens, arguing that the government was failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions quickly enough. The court agreed that the government’s actions were unlawful and ordered it to slash the Netherlands’ emissions by 2020. That decision was upheld by a court of appeal and ultimately by the supreme court of the Netherlands in 2019. Continue reading...

Bradley site to extract last coal two months after sister site in Northumberland ended productionThousands of years of English coalmining will near an end this week with the closure of one of the country’s last remaining coalmines in Bradley near Durham.The owner of the surface mine, the Banks Group, said Bradley will extract its last coal on Monday 17 August, two months after its sister site at Shotton in Northumberland ended its own coal production. Continue reading...

Ten-year management strategy aims to combat habitat loss and dwindling wildlife in Kenya’s oldest national parkKenya’s oldest national park, which is facing threats from habitat loss, a decline in wildlife species and government infrastructure developments, is at the centre of a fresh row over its future.Created through a colonial proclamation in December 1946, the 45-square mile Nairobi national park is the only sanctuary in the world where wild animals roam freely next to a bustling metropolis. Its ecological health is indicative of the country’s efforts to preserve Africa’s vanishing wildlife. Continue reading...

Other sectors are opening up, but travel and tourism were dealt a further blow last week. They urgently need state supportThe coronavirus pandemic has thrown the travel industry into a tailspin. In the latest blow for the sector, the government last week imposed quarantine measures on people arriving in Britain from France and several other countries.Even before that move, the outlook was bleak. Tui, Europe’s biggest holiday company, warned last week that it had lost €2bn (£1.8bn) in the nine months to the end of June. Revenues had collapsed by 98% between April and June – the period during which lockdown measures effectively grounded international flights around the world. Continue reading...

Man punches shark repeatedly until it lets woman’s leg go in attack off Shelly BeachA woman is in a stable condition in hospital as authorities hunt the juvenile great white shark that attacked her on the NSW mid north coast.The 35-year-old was rushed to Port Macquarie Base Hospital with serious leg injuries after she was mauled off the city’s Shelley Beach about 9.30am on Saturday. Continue reading...

ACT chief minister Andrew Barr calls for more funding to reduce assessment delaysAustralia’s 20-year-old national environmental laws need to be modernised to address climate change as part of the statutory review now under way, the chief minister of the Australian Capital Territory, Andrew Barr, has said.Speaking in Canberra on Friday, Barr also called on the Morrison government to increase funding for agencies responsible for environmental assessments for major projects, saying budget cuts had caused delays to assessments. Continue reading...

Battle is on to remove fuel oil from Japanese vessel the MV Wakashio as weather worsens

Permit lets Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Native American tribes kill 540 California sea lions and 176 Steller sea lionsUS authorities have given wildlife managers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho permission to start killing hundreds of sea lions in the Columbia River basin in hopes of helping struggling salmon and steelhead trout.The marine mammals long ago figured out that they could feast on the migrating fish where they bottleneck at dams or where they head up tributaries to spawn. Continue reading...

Leaking oil now threatens the majestic ocean ecosystems of my home island – already at risk from the climate crisisThe news has been awash with images of an oil spill off the coast of Mauritius – a beautiful, tropical island in the middle of the Indian Ocean where my family is from. For me the images are gut-wrenching. The lagoon where this massive spill is happening is where many of my family lives. It’s where I used to swim and snorkel for hours and hours as a kid. It’s where I used to go fishing with my late grandfather who lived on the shore of this lagoon for decades with my grandmother.It’s one of the most beautiful places on Earth I know, and it is being devastated. Already over 1,000 tonnes of oil have leaked out of the Japanese carrier MV Wakashio that ran aground on the coral reef, and thousands more could follow if the ship breaks apart. Continue reading...

Busy beaches and warm, calm seas fuel sightings of lion’s manes, compasses and moonsFrom a “mile-long” swarm in Devon to warnings to swimmers in the Outer Hebrides, it seems jellyfish are difficult to ignore this summer.High temperatures, calm and warm seas and packed beaches have resulted in large numbers of reports of jellyfish blooms around the UK coast, and combined with a glut of the plankton on which they feed, some are reaching record sizes, experts said. Continue reading...

Oxford PV says tech based on perovskite crystal can generate almost a third more electricity

Exclusive: project becomes an increasingly vexed state election issue as the mining union threatens to withdraw support for the partyLabor’s internal environment lobby has called on the Queensland government not to approve the expansion of the controversial New Acland coalmine on the Darling Downs – a project that has become an increasingly vexed election issue for the party.This week, the mining union threatened to withdraw its campaign support for Labor at the upcoming Queensland election over the ongoing uncertainty about the proposed expansion. Continue reading...

Public comments on the project reopened after oil and gas company claimed economic benefits would be greater than thought

Exclusive: leaked environment department document raises concerns about the regent honeyeater and forest and woodland ecosystemsRaising the wall of the Warragamba dam could affect half the remaining population of the critically endangered regent honeyeater and would put forest and woodland communities at risk of extinction, according to a summary of the environmental impact statement for the proposal, contained in a leaked federal environment department document.The department found the New South Wales government had failed to properly assess how its proposal to raise the wall of the dam by 17 metres to mitigate flood risk in western Sydney would affect endangered wildlife. Continue reading...

Humidity forecast to remain as thunderstorms spread across much of England and Wales

Drone was about 162ft in the sky when bald eagle attacked and tore propellor off, possibly mistaking it for a rival bird or snackIn a rare case of nature taking on a manmade machine and winning, a bald eagle attacked and destroyed a government drone that was flying above Lake Michigan on an environmental monitoring mission.Related: Trump faces surprise call from Republican congressman to pardon Edward Snowden – live Continue reading...

Growers hope to avoid a third bad year but have already been hit by lockdown and a heatwaveThe humble spud, staple of the British dinner table, has weathered storm, flood and lockdown, but farmers are on tenterhooks ahead of the crucial growing season for the key crop as the UK heatwave is followed by thunderstorms and deluges.Farmers are desperate to avoid a repeat of last year, when good growing weather over the summer was followed by heavy rains in some areas from late September that left the ground too sodden to harvest for months, spelling disaster for many potato growers. Continue reading...

Thinktank says changes to forecasts reflect accelerated shift away from fossil fuelsThe world’s largest listed oil companies have wiped almost $90bn from the value of their oil and gas assets in the last nine months as the coronavirus pandemic accelerates a global shift away from fossil fuels.In the last three financial quarters, seven of the largest oil firms have slashed their forecasts for future oil market prices, triggering a wave of downgrades to the value of their oil and gas projects totalling $87bn. Continue reading...

It is not just at sea that North America’s smallest marine mammals with a huge appetite are benefitting the ecosystem

Countryside and coastal custodians lament ‘different demographic’ of visitors leaving litter and endangering wildlife

As unemployment soars, local governments and non-profits have created conservation jobs in the Roosevelt moldDanielle Johnson spends up to six hours a day working in a wooded section of Table Rock state park in South Carolina, navigating rough terrain in the hot sun to clear brush, tamp down dirt and make way for the park’s first new trail in 80 years.This is not her usual gig. Until the pandemic hit, she was a rock-climbing and whitewater rafting instructor. There are others working alongside her who are also newly unemployed: a realtor, bartender and a sales representative for an outdoor outfitter. Continue reading...

Chinese investment in Argentina’s hog industry would boost exports, but environmentalists fear risk of pandemicA government-sponsored plan to turbocharge Argentina’s hog industry with Chinese capital is generating unprecedented resistance among its supposed beneficiaries – the Argentinian general public.Nearly 400,000 people have signed petitions opposing the move. “We never had such a huge response before,” said environmental lawyer Enrique Viale, one of the group who banded together last month to challenge the government’s initiative. His petition currently has 200,000 signatures; another on change.org has almost 120,000 additional signatures, and three separate petitions on the same platform have clocked up another 55,000 between them. Continue reading...

Activist investor group welcomes miner’s change of mind, saying Minerals Council should follow suitMining giant BHP has reversed its position on Australia’s use of carryover credits to meet global greenhouse gas emissions targets, saying in a review of the company’s memberships of industry groups that it does not support their use.The major miner published a new set of standards on Friday morning, covering its memberships of industry associations and lobby groups and how they advocate on climate change policy. Continue reading...

Economists say falling cost of clean energy and growing climate risks strengthen case for cutting CO2 emissionsWithdrawing from the Paris agreement does not make economic sense for the US, a group of economists has argued, as the cost of clean energy has fallen since the agreement was signed in 2015, while the risks of climate catastrophe have increased.Economists from the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at the London School of Economics examined the economic case for the US withdrawal, which President Donald Trump signalled in June 2017, and which will take effect on 4 November, the day after this year’s presidential election. Continue reading...

The government must rise to the challenge thrown up by the pandemic to support young adults and school-leaversRecessions are never normally a good time for leaving education and entering the jobs market for the first time. Unsurprisingly, it’s harder to find a job with a shorter CV while businesses are barely hiring. With the coronavirus pandemic causing the deepest recession in living memory, that task has become nigh on Herculean, writes Richard Partington.Enter the government to make matters worse. After the downgrading of A-level grades in England this year, the hard times for school leavers are multiplied even further. Continue reading...