Environment | The Guardian

Several people hospitalized in Pasadena after Africanized bees emerge from hotel’s eaves: ‘Something set them off’A swarm of as many as 40,000 Africanized bees sent several people to hospital and closed a street in California, after swarming from the eaves of a Howard Johnson Inn.Related: Ursus urbinus: 'elderly' 400lb bear spotted roaming Los Angeles suburb Continue reading...

The city has fared badly in the recent storms, with long-suffering businesses taking another hitAt Plonkers wine bar in York city centre, brass plaques on the bare brick walls show how high the floodwaters have risen over the years.The highest was 17ft 8in in 2000 – “Here it comes”, the plaque reads. The lowest is 2012’s 16ft 7in, captioned “Here again”. Another plaque from 2015 says “Keep on smiling” and records a height of 17ft 2in. Continue reading...

Penned in by freeways, LA’s big cats face extinction – but a new wildlife crossing might be the answerThe lingering stench from putrefying deer carcasses is so powerful in Richie King’s pickup truck that his neighbours once reported him to the police. The suspicious plastic boxes behind our seats are empty today, he promises, chuckling, as we drive into California’s Sierra Azul mountains.But we are both hoping the smell of fermenting roadkill proves irresistible for an elusive predator in these hills: mountain lions. Continue reading...

Candidate has offered few details on how he would he achieve goals as climate plan lags behind Democratic rivalsMike Bloomberg has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to environmental advocacy causes, but his campaign is coming under fire for a climate plan that lags far behind the other Democratic candidates for president.In the latest televised Democratic presidential debate on Wednesday night, Bloomberg said he wouldn’t “go to war with China” over its highest-in-the-world carbon emissions. He called fracked gas a “transition fuel”, and said that “we want to go to all renewables, but that’s still many years from now”. But, he added: “The world is coming apart faster than any scientific study had predicted. We’ve just got to do something now.” Continue reading...

Losing 2013 plebiscite on buying back utility grid appears to have enhanced SPD’s local prospectsAs with Brexit in Britain, the outcome of a referendum in Hamburg came as a blow to the establishment. By the slimmest of majorities, voters defied the status quo, and the party that did the best job convincing the public it would honour their will collected the political rewards.The dynamic unleashed by the 2013 plebiscite on buying the local utility grids back from private providers helps to explain why the city state is expected to buck national trends at this Sunday’s elections. Continue reading...

Researchers say their synthetic system reproduces tree’s ability to desalinate waterA novel approach to removing salt from water, inspired by mangrove trees, has been revealed by researchers who say the system could offer an unusual approach to clearing up flood water.Mangroves, like other trees, employ a system of water transport: it is thought evaporation of moisture from their leaves produces a negative pressure in their water-conducting tissues that helps to draw water into their roots and up their trunks. Continue reading...

News that the biggest mammal is returning in numbers to Antarctica signals a conservation triumph“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.” Captain Ahab’s splenetic, dying declaration of defiance, as Moby Dick destroys his whaling ship and sends it below the waves of the Pacific Ocean, is among the most famous passages in Herman Melville’s extraordinary novel.In reality, such triumphs of the hunted over the hunter were a fantasy in the brutal world of industrial whaling. The biggest cetacean of them all, the blue whale, had all but disappeared from the Southern Ocean by the time a ban on hunting it was introduced in 1967. Continue reading...

Leaked report for world’s major fossil fuel financier says Earth is on unsustainable trajectoryThe world’s largest financier of fossil fuels has warned clients that the climate crisis threatens the survival of humanity and that the planet is on an unsustainable trajectory, according to a leaked document.The JP Morgan report on the economic risks of human-caused global heating said climate policy had to change or else the world faced irreversible consequences. Continue reading...

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including chinstrap penguins and a koala up a tree Continue reading...

In homes metres away from the river, residents say they are constantly on alertKelly Ramsden hardly sleeps a wink when heavy rain is forecast. Last Saturday, when the army was deployed to Yorkshire’s Calder Valley to build flood defences in preparation for Storm Dennis, the 39-year-old was up half the night fretting.She doesn’t have to wait for flood sirens to know if she needs to switch from slippers to wellies. The window of her attic bedroom looks up towards the moors and she can gauge how soggy her kitchen will be by the amount of water rushing down the hillside towards the cobbled alley at the back of her house. From her living room, she can guess whether the River Calder, speeding along just 15 metres away behind a waist-high wall, is going to cause problems downstream in Hebden Bridge or Mytholmroyd. Continue reading...

Everything you need to know about the phasing out of the polluting domestic fuelsFrom next year, the UK will phase out sales of the most polluting domestic fuels: coal and wet wood. What will this mean for households, the environment and the traditional roaring open fire? Continue reading...

All new projects that enable fossil fuel growth are an affront to our state of climate emergency. It is a disgrace Canada is considering them

February is typically one of the wettest months in California, but the state is parched, and there’s no moisture in the forecastsSan Francisco and Sacramento have not seen a drop of rain this February, and climate scientists are expecting that disturbing dry trend to hold, in what is typically one of the wettest months of the year for California.“This hasn’t happened in 150 years or more,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. “There have even been a couple wildfires – which is definitely not something you typically hear about in the middle of winter.” Continue reading...

WorkSafe Tasmania has threatened protesters with fines of up $500,000, but Bob Brown says activists won’t stopAnti-logging activists from the Bob Brown Foundation have been banned from protesting in Tasmanian forests by the state’s workplace safety regulator over “unsafe behaviour”, and threatened with fines as high as $500,000.But the veteran conservationist said protesters would not be deterred and has flagged legal action against the restrictions. Continue reading...

Wood burning stoves and coal fires are the single largest sources of PM2.5The sale of the most polluting fuels burned in household stoves and open fires will be phased out from next year to clean up the air, the government has said.Plans to phase out the sale of house coal and wet wood have been confirmed as part of efforts to tackle tiny particle pollutants known as PM2.5, which can penetrate deep into lungs and the blood and cause serious health problems. Continue reading...

Mathias Cormann says Coalition will ‘finalise longer-term target in time for Cop26’ but Angus Taylor commits only to ‘long-term strategy’Senior Morrison government ministers are publicly at odds about whether Australia will take a long-term emissions reduction target to global climate talks in November after Labor unveiled a target of net zero emissions by 2050.On Friday the finance minister Mathias Cormann confirmed the government “will be finalising a longer-term target in time for Cop26” but the emissions reduction minister would commit only to “a long-term strategy” despite repeatedly being asked about a new target. Continue reading...

The call for technology before action is a specious distraction designed to paper over the plan to take no actionIf you’re committed to the Paris agreement – to keep the increase in global average temperature to well below two degrees above pre-industrial levels, and pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees – then at a minimum, logically, scientifically, you’re committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.So far, at least 77 countries have committed to the target, as has every state and territory in Australia. The fact that prime minister Scott Morrison is pushing back hard against the calls for such a target sends yet another strong signal that his government still denies the need to tackle climate change. Continue reading...

Thinktank says 70,000 new builds in high risk areas are not covered by government-backed schemeTens of thousands of families who bought new homes in flood-risk areas are facing “crippling” financial costs, as they are ineligible for cover under a government-backed insurance scheme, a study has found.Research by the liberal conservative thinktank Bright Blue found that 70,000 homes had been built on land at the highest risk of flooding in England since 2009, including 20,000 that were not protected by flood defences. Continue reading...

Letter offers scathing criticism of police’s tactics against Wet’suwet’en people amid growing protest over gas pipelineCanadian federal police had “no legal authority” to make ID checks and searches on activists seeking to block a pipeline project on Indigenous territory, according to newly released correspondence from the force’s oversight body.The nine-page letter written by Michelaine Lahaie, chair of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP, offers scathing criticism of the police’s continued use of tactics against Indigenous people which she had previously warned against. Continue reading...

Millions of people rely on the 1,450-mile waterway as increasing periods of drought and rising temperatures reduce flow of riverThe flow of the Colorado River is dwindling due to the impacts of global heating, risking “severe water shortages” for the millions of people who rely upon one of America’s most storied waterways, researchers have found.Increasing periods of drought and rising temperatures have been shrinking the flow of the Colorado in recent years and scientists have now developed a model to better understand how the climate crisis is fundamentally changing the 1,450-mile waterway. Continue reading...

Labor leader to argue setting goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 ‘should be as non-controversial in Australia as it is in most nations’Labor has to take the initiative in defending Australia against the dangers of climate change because the summer of catastrophe has highlighted our national vulnerability and because business and the states are now demanding national leadership, according to Anthony Albanese.As revealed by Guardian Australia, the Labor leader will use a speech to a progressive thinktank on Friday to commit the ALP to adopting a net-zero target by 2050 if it wins the next federal election, without the use of carryover credits from the Kyoto period. Continue reading...

Brazil’s JBS says it can’t trace the origins of all stock, as concern grows over deforestation linked to beef industryThe world’s biggest meat company has frequently been accused of links to deforestation. Now JBS is facing growing pressure from Brazilian politicians and environmentalists to address the information gaps and transparency failings in its supply chain.Critics say these deficiencies mean JBS is unable to ensure it does not buy cattle from farms involved in illegal deforestation over a decade after promising to do so. Continue reading...

Severe weather brought heavy rain and strong winds and flooded hundreds of propertiesFlooding and damage left in the wake of Storm Dennis, which swept across the UK on 15 and 16 February, is estimated to cost £225m in insurance claims, taking the total insurance costs from two February storms to £425m.The severe weather brought heavy rain and strong winds to England and Wales, which led to record high river levels and flooded hundreds of properties. Continue reading...

Ministers were planning to ban environmentally harmful practice of burning old heatherOwners of large grouse moors threatened to take legal action against government ministers who had started developing plans to ban repeated heather burning, Whitehall documents have disclosed.The landowners issued the threat after ministers started working on producing a law to ban them from carrying out the environmentally damaging practice on their moorland estates. The old heather is burned to expose new shoots – a source of food for grouse, whose numbers are boosted. The estates then charge people who want to shoot grouse. Continue reading...

Financial Reporting Council wants to ensure companies are being clear with investorsThe UK’s accounting watchdog has launched a major review into whether companies and their auditors are adequately reflecting the financial risks of the climate crisis in their accounts.The Financial Reporting Council, which sets reporting standards for all listed companies in the UK, plans to use the review to make sure companies are being clear with investors about their exposure to climate risks. Continue reading...

As villagers in Somali region fall ill in unexplained circumstances, some locals fear gas exploration has tainted the local water supplyAt first, 23-year-old Khadar Abdi Abdullahi’s eyes began turning yellow. Then the palms of his hands did the same. Soon he was bleeding from his nose, and from his mouth, and his body was swelling all over. Eventually he collapsed with fever. He later died.A deadly sickness is spreading through villages near a Chinese natural gas project in Ethiopia’s Somali region, according to locals and officials who spoke to the Guardian. Many of Khadar’s neighbours have suffered the same symptoms. Like him, some died. Continue reading...

If ocean temperatures don’t drop in the next two weeks, heat stress could tip reef over into another widespread eventThe Great Barrier Reef could be heading for a third major coral bleaching outbreak in the space of five years if high ocean temperatures in the region do not drop in the next two weeks, scientists and conservationists have warned.Heat stress is already building across the world’s biggest reef system, with reports of patchy bleaching already occurring. But a major widespread event is not currently taking place. Continue reading...

Use of harmful chemicals is higher in poorer nations, according to data analysed by UnearthedThe world’s biggest pesticide companies make billions of dollars a year from chemicals found by independent authorities to pose high hazards to human health or the environment, according to an analysis by campaigners.The research also found a higher proportion of these highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) in the companies’ sales in poorer nations than in rich ones. In India, 59% of sales were of HHPs in contrast to just 11% in the UK, according to the analysis. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Anthony Albanese is expected to confirm in speech on Friday that Labor will oppose using Kyoto carryover creditsLabor has locked in behind a target of net zero emissions by 2050, and will oppose taxpayer funding of new coal-fired power plants, in the party’s first major decisions about climate policy for the next federal election.As well as adopting the clear 2050 target that Scott Morrison appears reluctant to sign up to, in part because of rolling combat within the Coalition, Guardian Australia understands shadow cabinet has also decided to oppose using carryover credits from the Kyoto period to meet future emissions reduction targets. Continue reading...

NSW government says relocation the priority but will not rule out some brumbies may be killed during largest removal of horses in park’s history

Deputy premier John Barilaro says the government’s priority is ‘getting new trees in the ground and strengthening the industry’The New South Wales government won’t proceed with privatising Forestry Corporation’s softwood plantation business after an unprecedented bushfire season.The government decided to forgo a long-term lease of the business after a five-month investigation which took into account recent damage to the state’s forestry assets. Continue reading...

Group of about 20 blocked Canadian National Railway Co rail line near Edmonton, capital of the western province of AlbertaDemonstrators opposed to a Canadian gas pipelinehave blockaded another railway line in the west of the country, adding to pressure on Justin Trudeau to solve a two-week protest.Freight traffic in eastern Canada has already been stopped for days after campaigners blockaded a main line in Ontario. Protesters across the country have taken up the cause of the Wet’suwet’en indigenous people who are seeking to stop the C$6.6bn (US$4.98bn) Coastal GasLink gas pipeline project in British Columbia. Continue reading...

Number of properties built in high-risk areas has more than doubled in recent yearsOne in 10 of all new homes in England since 2013 have been built on land at the highest risk of flooding, official figures reveal, potentially leaving tens of thousands of people in greater danger from extreme winter storms.The number of properties built in these high-risk areas annually has more than doubled in recent years, with more than 84,000 new at-risk homes in total since 2013, according to a Guardian analysis of government data. Continue reading...

Study indicates human fossil methane emissions have been underestimated by up to 40%The oil and gas industry has had a far worse impact on the climate than previously believed, according to a study indicating that human emissions of fossil methane have been underestimated by up to 40%.Although the research will add to pressure on fossil fuel companies, scientists said there was cause for hope because it showed a big extra benefit could come from tighter regulation of the industry and a faster shift towards renewable energy. Continue reading...

Environmentalists and politicians at loggerheads after court order halts tree fellingGerman environmentalists and political leaders are at loggerheads over plans to build a Tesla electric car factory on the site of woodland outside Berlin, with the government casting doubt over the future of a project seen as key for its support of green technologies and regeneration in the east of the country.The economy minister, Peter Altmaier, said this week that delays could threaten the go-ahead of the so-called Gigafactory, which is expected to employ up to 12,000 workers making 50,000 electric cars a year. Continue reading...

Discovery draws criticism from those who say fashion industry generates too much wasteHundreds of Victoria’s Secret bras have reportedly been found discarded in a bin close to a recently closed branch of the lingerie store in Colorado.The discovery comes at a time when the fashion industry is under fire for generating significant levels of waste, while Victoria’s Secret continues to face criticism regarding recent controversies. Continue reading...

Utah aims to reduce emissions over air quality concerns as other red states are also starting to tackle global heatingIn a move to protect its ski slopes and growing economy, Utah – one of the reddest states in the nation – has just created a long-term plan to address the climate crisis.Related: Washington state takes bold step to restrict companies from bottling local water Continue reading...

The billionaire couple want to provide ready-made solar and battery arrays to communities cut off from the power gridSoftware billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and his wife Annie have promised up to $12m to install solar and battery systems in communities disconnected from the electricity grid by bushfire or flood.The couple say they will provide prefabricated solar panel and battery systems through a new venture, known as Resilient Energy Collective, that will power up to 100 sites disconnected from the grid in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. Some are relying on diesel generators, others are without power. Continue reading...

The ALP leader says a feasibility study into a new coal-fired power station in Queensland is ‘hush money’ for climate scepticsAnthony Albanese says he supports jobs and economic activity from the Adani coalmine, but he has blasted a feasibility study into a new coal-fired power plant in Collinsville as “hush money” for climate sceptics in the Coalition.In Queensland on Wednesday for his fourth “vision statement” since taking the Labor leadership, Albanese told reporters the ALP needed to improve its electoral performance in the state given the poor showing in last year’s federal election. He said he was listening to voters in a number of regional centres. Continue reading...

Rivers Severn, Teme and Wye will remain high as rain builds up again from Wednesday morningFlood-hit UK communities are braced for further heavy rain as river levels continue to threaten to breach barriers.Hundreds of properties have been flooded and at-risk areas evacuated across England and Wales after the downpours brought by Storm Dennis. Continue reading...

For all the talk of retraining Polish miners, this fund will most likely line the pockets of the carbon finance elites

Children in biggest carbon-emitting nations are healthiest, while those with tiny environmental footprints suffer twofold from poor health and living at the sharp end of the climate crisisEvery country in the world is failing to shield children’s health and their futures from intensifying ecological degradation, climate change and exploitative marketing practices, says a new report.The report says that despite dramatic improvements in survival, nutrition, and education over the past 20 years, “today’s children face an uncertain future”, with every child facing “existential threats”. Continue reading...

State senate passes bill to ban new permits for water bottling operations, calling process ‘detrimental to public welfare’Washington has taken a major step toward becoming the first US state to restrict companies looking to extract, bottle and sell local water supplies.On Monday night the state senate passed a bill that would ban new permits for water bottling operations. SB 6278 states “any use of water for the commercial production of bottled water is deemed to be detrimental to the public welfare and the public interest” and would apply retroactively to new permits filed after 1 January 2019. Continue reading...

Miner will not set climate targets, but will produce less coal as reserves are depletedMining giant Glencore has predicted its carbon footprint will shrink by almost a third by 2035, but will not set climate targets for the company.The company expects its total carbon emissions to fall by 30% in the next 15 years as it gradually produces less coal due to the “natural depletion” of its coal reserves. Continue reading...

Many facilities lack the ability to process ‘mixed plastics’, a category of waste that has virtually no market as new productsMany plastic items that Americans put in their recycling bins aren’t being recycled at all, according to a major new survey of hundreds of recycling facilities across the US.The research, conducted by Greenpeace and released on Tuesday, found that out of 367 recycling recovery facilities surveyed none could process coffee pods, fewer than 15% accepted plastic clamshells – such as those used to package fruit, salad or baked goods – and only a tiny percentage took plates, cups, bags and trays. Continue reading...

Scientists propose best use of funds pledged by Amazon founder to fight climate crisisAmazon revenue to restore the Amazon rainforest? A political war chest in the US to counter the pernicious influence of big oil? Or research funding for “moonshot” technologies to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere?The world’s richest man is never going to be short of suggestions for how to spend money, but Jeff Bezos’s announcement of a new $10bn (£7.67bn) Earth Fund to fight global heating has raised the question of what is the best bang for a climate buck. Continue reading...

P&O Maritime employee Madeleine Habib was asked to remove social media post of a banner on the ship after the Australian Antarctic Division contacted P&OAn officer on Australia’s flagship Antarctic icebreaker, the Aurora Australis, was asked by bosses to remove a social media post showing her on deck with a banner critical of Scott Morrison’s climate policies after Australia’s Antarctic Division contacted her employer.Madeleine Habib, currently in Antarctica, unfurled the banner with the words “Scomo – Coal or Ice?” and posted the picture on her Facebook page. Continue reading...

Pollination has become big business, and thieves are now targeting hives with growing sophistication in the USMike Potts was aware he was at risk of being a victim of crime, he just didn’t think it would happen to him. But Potts is an owner of an increasingly valuable commodity that thieves are targeting with growing sophistication in the US: bees.A booming demand for honeybees for pollination drew Potts, owner of Pottsy’s Pollination in Oregon, to load 400 hives of his bees on trucks and drive them down to California’s agricultural heartland last month. He unloaded them to a holding area just outside Yuba City and returned just a few days later to find 92 hives had been whisked away by thieves. Continue reading...

Experiment revealed increased wind speeds reduced the efficiency of their foraging