Environment | The Guardian

David Moot nabs dream' Cape Cod home next to eroding cliff in imminent danger of crumbling due to climate crisisA man who says life's too short to resist buying a home that might fall off a cliff in a few years has taken ownership of a house with a beautiful view that's just 25ft (7.6 metres) from a sandy, crumbling cliff.David Moot paid $395,000 for the house on Cape Cod on the Massachusetts coast and said he intends to enjoy it while it lasts. Continue reading...

Top nature writing honour goes to Late Light by Michael Malay, which explores modern Britain through the unloved' lives of eels, moths, crickets and musselsA book that explores modern Britain by examining four unloved" animals - eels, moths, crickets and mussels - has won this year's Wainwright prize for nature writing.Michael Malay, a lecturer in literature and environmental humanities at the University of Bristol, took home the award for Late Light, in which he tells his story of moving to the UK as an Indonesian Australian, drawing parallels with the lives of the animals he looks at. Continue reading...

Harris has a progressive record on climate but indicated a shift, probably to assuage voters in swing statesKamala Harris stridently backed new fracking and expanded US gas production in comments that raised eyebrows among some environmentalists as, yet again, the unfolding climate crisis was largely overlooked during a set piece presidential debate.Harris, in a televised debate with Donald Trump on Tuesday night in Philadelphia, rebuffed the former president's claim that she will end fracking on day one" if elected by touting booming levels of drilling during her term as vice-president, in which US oil and gas production has hit record highs.Fact-checking the presidential debateHarris slams Trump for falsehoods in fiery debateTaylor Swift endorses Harris in post signed childless cat lady'Maga mad libs': How the debate played out on social mediaPresidential poll tracker Continue reading...

Ekkapol Chantawong, who spent nearly three weeks underground in 2018, forced to spend night on roof of homeThe coach of the young Thai footballers who captured the world's attention when they spent nearly three weeks trapped in a cave has found himself in another watery predicament - stuck on his roof by flash floods.Ekkapol Chantawong said he was drawing on his 2018 experience with the Wild Boars team to get through the situation at his home in the northern Thai district of Mae Sai. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Environment Agency warned about forever chemicals' 20 years before it started to regulate themThe Environment Agency was warned about the chronic threat" that firefighting foams containing PFAS forever chemicals" pose to the environment in 2003, 20 years before it started the process of regulating the chemicals, it can be revealed.In a 200-page report obtained by the Ends Report via a freedom of information request and shared with the Guardian, consultants commissioned by the Environment Agency conducted an environmental review of firefighting foams with a particular emphasis on their fluorosurfactant content". Continue reading...

I do not think it is a leap to see our exploitive relationship with Earth as part of a centuries-long war against the environmentStanding on the edge of Utah's terminal Great Salt Lake is to witness the religion of over water-consumption in the desert. Our inland sea is disappearing in climate chaos evidenced by extreme heat and a megadrought not seen in 2,500 years. Ten million migrating birds depend on this water body for food, rest and breeding. Flocks of Wilson's phalaropes, small and handsome shorebirds, spin in saline waters creating water columns alive with brine shrimp and flies and resulting in a feeding frenzy. American avocets and black-necked stilts stand stoically in the shallows. Thousands of ducks are sprinkled on the lake like pepper. Water and sky merge as one. There is no horizon. All appears well in this serene landscape of pastel blues animated by birds. It is not.The health of the Great Salt Lake is only as strong as the health of the human community that surrounds it. And vice versa. If the 2 million people living within the Great Salt Lake watershed with Salt Lake City at its center do not mobilize to put more water in the lake, the death of the Great Salt Lake will be their own. This will also be the demise of millions of migrating birds.Terry Tempest Williams is a writer, naturalist and activist Continue reading...

Shadow minister for Indigenous Australians says Albanese government turning a blind eye' to alleged weaponisation' of identity

Legislation before Australian parliament covers the way the country's nuclear-powered submarine program will be regulated

In the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, forests have been cleared for mines and the roads that service them. Large companies take what they can and move on, leaving abandoned ponds, toxic rivers and scraps of precious metal left in the ground

Conservationists and botanists express concern over plans for Qatari-funded upscale resort on Assomption IslandThe habitat of the largest giant tortoise population in the world is threatened by a Qatari-funded hotel development that aims to bring luxury yachts, private jets and well-heeled tourists to a remote island in the Indian Ocean, conservationists have warned.Plans for an upscale resort on Assomption, which is part of the Aldabra island group, are currently under discussion by the Seychelles authorities, and construction is already finished on an airport expansion that would allow bigger aircraft to land on the 11.6-sq-km (4.5-sq-mile) coral island. Continue reading...

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva says Amazonia suffering its worst drought in more than 40 yearsLuiz Inacio Lula da Silva has flown into the Amazon amid growing alarm over the droughts and wildfires sweeping the rainforest region and others parts of Brazil.Speaking during a visit to a riverside community near the city of Tefe, the Brazilian president said Amazonia was suffering its worst drought in more than 40 years. He said he had come to discover what is going on with these mighty rivers" that in some places now resemble deserts. Continue reading...

This year, the USDA put some limits on added sugars for the first time. But changes face robust resistance Continue reading...

Rising temperatures causing largest glacier in Dolomites to lose 7-10cm of depth a day, according to scientistsThe Marmolada glacier, the largest and most symbolic of the Dolomites, could melt completely by 2040 owing to rising average temperatures, experts have said.Italian scientists who are monitoring glaciers and the impact of climate emergency, and who took part in a campaign launched by environmentalist group Legambiente, the international commission for the protection of the Alps (Cipra), with the scientific partnership of the Italian Glacier Committee, said on Monday the Marmolada was losing between 7 and 10cm of depth a day. Continue reading...

Full bag of snack left in cave occasioned National Park Service to educate public about delicate ecosystemsA full bag of Cheetos, discarded by a subterranean visitor to the Big Room in Carlsbad Caverns national park in New Mexico, has led the US National Park Service to issue a warning that discarded food could have a huge impact" on the cave's delicate and at-risk ecosystem.At the scale of human perspective, a spilled snack bag may seem trivial, but to the life of the cave it can be world changing," the park said in its post about the garbage that was recently discovered there, threatening the balance of the unique cave system environment. Continue reading...

The Project hopes competition will raise big money for underfunded organisations working to protect beloved species

Promise to transition away from fossil fuels' made at Cop28 climate talks has been left out of draft resolutions

Under the Tories, non-violent climate protesters were jailed for up to five years - and there is little sign that Labour will change tack

European flat oyster is defined as collapsed' in UK but there are hopes it could return to coastal watersA box marked special delivery" arrived about midday at Spurn Discovery Centre, on a remote East Yorkshire peninsula in the Humber estuary.It is unlikely the postal worker had any idea it contained 300,000 living oyster larvae - tiny pinprick-sized organisms destined to become part of a new oyster reef just off the English coast. Continue reading...

Last year Antartica's sea ice was 1.6m sq km below average - the size of Britain, France, Germany and Spain combined. This week it had even less than thatSea ice surrounding Antarctica is on the cusp of reaching a record winter low for a second year running, continuing an outrageous" fall in the amount of Southern Ocean that is freezing over.The Antarctic region underwent an abrupt transformation in 2023 as the sea ice cover surrounding the continent crashed for six months straight. In winter, it covered about 1.6m sq km less than the long-term average - an area roughly the size of Britain, France, Germany and Spain combined. Continue reading...

The source of new renewable energy is also a battleground over China's cheap exports of panels that has split US firmsThe Biden administration touts solar energy as one of its big success stories, a booming new industry that is curbing the effects of the climate crisis and creating high-paying jobs across the country. But the more complicated truth is that the United States is mired in a long-running trade war with China, which is flooding the market with artificially cheap solar panels that carry an uncomfortably large carbon footprint and threaten to obliterate the domestic industry.The price of solar panels has plummeted 50% over the past year, largely, industry insiders say, because of deliberate Chinese overproduction of key components and a game of international cat-and-mouse over trade rules often likened to a game of Whac-A-Mole". As different sets of rules get established, Chinese companies have proved adept at moving their manufacturing plants to other countries, in south-east Asia, and shifting strategies to work around US tariffs and other deterrent measures.This article was amended on 10 September 2014. An earlier version incorrectly stated that this year's RE+ conference took place in Las Vegas, Nevada. Continue reading...

We Own It says 31% of water bills went on shareholder payouts and company debts in last financial year, while the same percentage of 2024 remainsTuesday is the day water bills will start servicing debt and paying shareholders rather than fixing leaks and ending the sewage scandal, campaigners have said, dubbing it cost of water privatisation day".The public services campaign group We Own It has shared analysis from the University of Greenwich that reveals roughly 31% of money collected from water bills goes towards shareholders and paying off debts. Last financial year, an average of 11% of revenue was spent on dividends and 20% went towards servicing debts, while as of 10 September 31% of 2024 remains.This article was amended on 10 September 2024 to remove a quote incorrectly attributed to Chris Weston, the chief executive of Thames Water. Continue reading...

Report says governments in global north increasingly using draconian measures while criticising similar tactics in global southWealthy, democratic countries in the global north are using harsh, vague and punitive measures to crack down on climate protests at the same time as criticising similar draconian tactics by authorities in the global south, according to a report.A Climate Rights International report exposes the increasingly heavy-handed treatment of climate activists in Australia, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and the US.Record prison sentences for non violent protest in several countries including the UK, Germany and the US.Preemptive arrests and detention for those suspected of planning peaceful protests.Draconian new laws passed to make the vast majority of peaceful protest illegal.Measures to stop juries hearing about people's motivation for taking part in protests during court cases, which critics say fundamentally undermines the right to a fair trial. Continue reading...

Robots being used to gather sample that will give clues about conditions inside the reactors, a step towards decommissioning plant hit by tsunami in Japan 13 years agoA difficult operation to remove a small amount of radioactive debris from Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant has begun, after technical issues suspended an earlier attempt.Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said in a statement on Tuesday that its pilot extraction operation" had started. It will take about two weeks, according to the company. Continue reading...

Latin America was the most deadly region in which to defend ecosystems from mining and deforestation, with Indigenous people among half the deadAt least 196 people were killed last year for defending the environment, with more than a third of killings taking place in Colombia, new figures show.From campaigners who spoke out against mining projects to Indigenous communities targeted by organised crime groups, an environmental defender was killed every other day in 2023, according to a new report by the NGO Global Witness.Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X for all the latest news and features. Continue reading...

Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa want international criminal court to class environmental destruction as crime alongside genocideThree developing countries have taken the first steps towards transforming the world's response to climate breakdown and environmental destruction by making ecocide a punishable criminal offence.In a submission to the international criminal court on Monday, they propose a change in the rules to recognise ecocide" as a crime alongside genocide and war crimes. Continue reading...

The last time the National Farmers' Federation marched on Canberra politicians were carefully controlled. This time the agenda looks more useful for politicians than farmers

Animal rights groups had claimed beluga named Hvaldimir, which was found dead last month, had been shotA beluga whale that rose to fame in Norway after its unusual harness prompted suspicions that the creature was trained by Russia as a spy died after a stick became stuck in its mouth, police have said.The lifeless body of the whale, named Hvaldimir - a combination of the Norwegian word for whale and the first name of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin - was found floating in the sea on 31 August by a father and son fishing in Risavika Bay, southern Norway. Continue reading...

Chongqing authorities say cloud seeding to break heatwave did not cause winds that sent laundry flyingIt was the talk of the town. After the authorities sought to break a long-running heatwave in Chongqing by using cloud-seeding missiles to artificially bring rain, the Chinese megacity was blasted by an unusual weather event - an underwear storm.Termed the 9/2 Chongqing underwear crisis", an unexpected windstorm on Monday brought gusts of up to 76mph (122km/h), scattering people's laundry from balconies on the city's high-rises. Douyin, China's sister app to TikTok, was filled with videos of pants and bras flying through the skies, landing in the street and snagging on trees. Continue reading...

Louisianans say a major accident at a sprawling Marathon refinery caused health issues. The company insists there were no offsite impacts'At 8.04am on 25 August last year, Darnell Alboudoor watched a plume of black smoke blanketing the sky and rolling in the direction of her family home.A stench like burning oil filled the air on that piping hot summer morning, as Alboudoor, 54, looked in the direction of the sprawling petroleum refinery, which sat a few hundred feet from her back yard. She called 911. Continue reading...

Support for government's environmental legislation offered in exchange for protections that deliver immediate, tangible impacts'

Solar power could enable 400 million Africans without water to tap into groundwater aquifers. However, we must ensure smaller projects do not lose out in the rush for new technologyIt's a truly dreadful irony: for many of the 400 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who lack access to even a basic water supply, there is likely to be a significant reserve in aquifers sitting just a few metres below their feet.Groundwater - the water stored in small spaces and fractures in rocks - makes up nearly 99% of all of the unfrozen fresh water on the planet. Across the African continent, the volume of water stored underground is estimated to be 20 times the amount held in lakes and reservoirs. Continue reading...

Climate crisis is driving key predators from their homes and threatening an already embattled ecosystemSharks are deserting their coral reef homes as the climate crisis continues to heat up the oceans, scientists have discovered.This is likely to harm the sharks, which are already endangered, and their absence could have serious consequences for the reefs, which are also struggling. The reef sharks are a key part of the highly diverse and delicate ecosystem, which could become dangerously unbalanced without them. Continue reading...

Moules frites are a staple, but the majority of the shellfish eaten in the country are imported. Previous attempts to farm them have foundered - but a bumper harvest this year suggests the delicate' Belgian mussel is here to stayIt is harvest day at the Westdiep sea farm and the crew are bringing their haul on to the boat: 12-metre long ropes laden with clusters of blue mussels. Bobbing on the water just three nautical miles off the Belgian coast, the four-man crew on the little red Smart Farmer use a crane to hoist the ropes on deck. The mussels go on to a steel conveyor belt, straight into the declumper", a machine that will break up bunches of molluscs into smaller groups.It may look like a typical late summer scene on the Belgian North Sea coast, but the mussel harvest is a novelty. Although Belgium is renowned for its moules frites, it has long struggled to cultivate the shellfish for its national dish on a commercial scale. Of the estimated 20,000 tonnes of mussels Belgium consumes each year, most are imported from Zeeland in the Netherlands. Continue reading...

Even a majority of Republicans support efforts to hold manufacturers accountable for allegedly deceptive claimsConcern about the fossil fuel and plastics industries' alleged deception about recycling is growing, with new polling showing a majority of American voters, including 54% of Republicans, support legal efforts to hold the sectors accountable.The industries have faced increasing scrutiny for their role in the global plastics pollution crisis, including an ongoing California investigation and dozens of suits filed over the last decade against consumer brands that sell plastics. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Experts say legislation is broken' when it's cheaper for landholders to break the law than it is to apply for permits

Uluru, the Daintree and Bondi beach among locations that could be impacted if planet hits even 2C of warming by 2050

Provisionally known as Greens Organise, the collective will fight electoral assimilation' and push for radical policiesLeftwing members of the Green party are calling for a shift towards an internationalist, anti-capitalist and ecologically transformative agenda" as they launch a new group at their party's conference this weekend.The new collective aims to combine the party's traditional environmentalist politics with new strands of ecological consciousness, from river pollution and right to roam campaigns to an internationalist and decolonial climate justice movement". Continue reading...

Environment minister lambasts opposition leader over vow to overturn her rejection of tailings dam at McPhillamys goldmine

Creating a fox-proof haven for endangered eastern quolls required a high, encircling fence. But what about the other wildlife?

The problem: a fence that protects eastern quolls threatens long-necked turtles in Booderee national park at Jervis Bay. The solution? Turtle tunnels. Nine water-filled tunnels were built beneath a 82-hectare fence that surrounds the botanic gardens which keep out feral predators, providing a safe passage for the reptiles to go between watering holes. Over a period of 123 days, conservationists recorded 73 successful instances of the turtles using the tunnels

Jacob Rees-Mogg criticises plans for 2.6m members to decide on increasing share of vegan and vegetarian optionsNational Trust members are being invited to vote on a plan to make 50% of the food in its cafes vegan and vegetarian as part of the charity's commitment to reach net zero by 2030.Cafe menus at the trust's 280 historic sites are already 40% plant-based. Now, the trust's 2.6 million members will get to vote on whether the charity should gradually increase this figure to 50% over the next two years. Continue reading...

Burning with unquenchable resentment, Restore Trust is making another attempt at taking over the institutionThe leaves are starting to change and there's autumnal coolth in the air. Which means that the opaquely funded private organisation called Restore Trust is once again making its annual attempt to take over one of the country's most successful and best-loved institutions, the National Trust. Burning with unquenchable resentment about a 2020 report that truthfully stated that Winston Churchill opposed Indian independence; armed with inflated stories about mushroom bans, cancelled Easters and vote-rigging; and furious about a single disco ball in one room of one of the National Trust's 230 historic houses, Restore Trust has once again put up a slate of candidates for the National Trust's council, with a view to turning their grievances into policy. If you're a member of the National Trust, and you'd rather not see it turned into a platform for an angry minority, vote now for its recommended candidates. Continue reading...

Big River Watch scheme asks general public to help monitor state of rivers after years of deregulationRivers will be checked for sewage and other pollution by the general public this month in an attempt to assess the health of British waterways.Cuts to the UK regulators and a change in the law to allow water company self-monitoring of pollution in England mean there is little independent monitoring of the state of rivers in the UK. Continue reading...

Driver, a 32-year-old man, escaped blaze in the early hours of Saturday unharmed

Hottest summer on record continues, with millions from Phoenix to Los Angeles to Seattle under heat alertsAn intense heatwave across the US west has brought unusually warm temperatures to the region - some of the highest of the season - and broken heat records.Millions of Americans from Phoenix to Los Angeles to Seattle are under heat alerts. Even before this latest bout of extreme weather, which began on Wednesday and is expected to last through the weekend, summer 2024 was already considered the hottest summer on record. Continue reading...

Soggy summers and warmer winters are hitting sales as climate crisis blurs seasonsWhen the season switched from summer to autumn, like clockwork clothing stores would swap out the racks of floaty frocks and fill them with heavy coats and jumpers.Now, as the nights draw in, retailers are having to rejig seasonal ranges as the UK's unpredictable weather calls for summer jackets and lighter knits. Continue reading...

This year will more than likely end up the warmest humanity has measured, reports European climate serviceSummer 2024 sweltered to Earth's hottest on record, making it even more likely that this year will end up as the warmest humanity has measured, the European climate service Copernicus reported on Friday.And if this sounds familiar, that's because the records the globe shattered were set just last year as human-caused climate change, with a temporary boost from an El Nino, keeps dialing up temperatures and extreme weather, scientists said. Continue reading...

Co-leader kicks off party conference by saying chancellor is not looking in the right place' for money

Many ready-to-drink cocktails have as much sugar as Coca-Cola - but a loophole avoids the ultra-processed' tagIf you've browsed the refrigerated section of a liquor store recently, a bevy of pre-mixed cocktails may have caught your eye - pina coladas, vodka mules, rum and cokes, even a mojito. And if you've cracked one open, you may have thought, A little sweet for my taste, but not bad." Turn the bottle around to look for the nutrition facts label to figure out exactly how much sugar or artificial sweetener is in there ... and you're likely to come up empty.Many ready-to-drink cocktails and alcopops contain as much sugar as carbonated beverages like Coca-Cola. All that sugar - and other additives - has many alcoholic beverages falling into the category of ultra-processed foods" (UPF). But unlike other sugary beverages, most alcoholic drinks aren't required to print nutrition facts - opening up a loophole for ultra-processed foods to unknowingly sneak their way into our diets. Continue reading...

Donald Trump gets everything wrong about the climate crisis. The results of the vote in November could reverberate for a million yearsHere is the biggest thing happening on our planet as we head into the autumn of 2024: the Earth is continuing to heat dramatically. Scientists have said that there's a better than 90% chance that this year will top 2023 as the warmest ever recorded. And paleoclimatologists were pretty sure last year was the hottest in the last 125,000 years. The result is an almost-cliched run of disasters: open Twitter/X anytime for pictures of floods pushing cars through streets somewhere. It is starting to make life on this planet very difficult, and in some places impossible. And it's on target to get far, far worse. Continue reading...