Early signs of success seen in area where native European oysters were fished to local extinction by early 1900sThousands of oysters released into the Firth of Forth appear to be thriving again after a century-long absence from the Scottish estuary since they were lost to overfishing.Marine experts from Heriot-Watt University who have helped reintroduce about 30,000 European flat oysters to the estuary said divers and underwater cameras showed they were doing well. Continue reading...
Verse's connection to nature can inspire awareness and hope amid the climate crisis, offering clarity beyond dataPoetry has a big debt to nature, its muse and source ofmetaphor for centuries. As the UN climate conference begins, it is time to pay it back. Poetry mustgive nature a voice to express its dire predicament. I will rise," declares the furious river in the Scottish makar Kathleen Jamie's poem What the Clyde Said, After Cop26 - just as the River Xanthus inHomer's Iliad rose in revenge against Achilles for filling it with so many bodies.Ms Jamie's poem appears in a new anthology, Earth Prayers, edited by the former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy. We are in the age of anthropogenic climate breakdown, possibly the Age of Grief," Ms Duffy writes in the foreword. The 100 poems, ranging from classics such as Matthew Arnold's 1867 Dover Beach to #ExtinctionRebellion by Pascale Petit, remind us not just of the beauty of the natural world, but its fragility. Continue reading...
Once heavily scorned because of fraud and poor outcomes, carbon trading is likely to be high on the agenda in BakuFor the next two weeks, countries will gather on the shores of the Caspian Sea in Baku, Azerbaijan, to discuss how to increase finance for climate crisis adaptation and mitigation. A global agreement on carbon markets will be high on the agenda as countries try to find ways of generating the trillions they need to decarbonise in order to limit heating to below 2C above preindustrial levels.Here is what you need to know. Continue reading...
Annual bird survey suggests particularly bad' autumn on key migration route through city's brightly lit skyscrapersAs fall bird migration nears its end in New York City, a troubling trend may be emerging: preliminary evidence suggest that more avians collided with buildings this season compared with last autumn.NYC Bird Alliance surveys suggest that collisions are up citywide and that it has proved to be a particularly bad" autumn for collisions. While spring 2024 showed fewer collisions than in 2023, about 60-75% of such accidents occur during fall migration, which peaks from early September to October. Continue reading...
Crucial question for summit will be how to help developing countries cope with extreme weather caused by high temperaturesCop29 officially opens on Monday 11 November in Baku, Azerbaijan, and the conference is scheduled to end on 22 November, although it is likely to run later. World leaders - about 100 have said they will turn up - are expected in the first three days, and after that the crunch negotiations will be carried on by their representatives, mostly environment ministers or other high-ranking officials.The crucial question for the summit is climate finance. Developing countries want assurances that trillions will flow to them in the next decade to help them cut greenhouse gas emissions in line with the rapidly receding hope of limiting global heating to 1.5C above preindustrial levels, and to enable them to cope with the increasingly evident extreme weather that rising temperatures are driving. Continue reading...
The region's president responds to criticisms that he was slow to act by attacking the prime ministerThe sun still hadn't risen on Tuesday 29 October when the mayor of Utiel, Ricardo Gabaldon, took another look at the warnings from Spain's state meteorological office and ordered all the schools in the small Valencian town to close.The warning early that morning - at 5am or 6am - was orange," he said. That's when I was weighing up whether to close the schools here. In the end, I ordered them to close at six or seven that morning. Soon after, the alert went red." Continue reading...
Ten people have been injured so far by the Mountain fire, which was 17% contained by Saturday morningAs firefighting crews continued to battle the Mountain fire on Saturday, some residents were allowed to return to areas destroyed by the blaze to sift through the destruction to their homes.As of 7am Pacific time on Saturday, the fire had been 17% contained, according to Cal Fire, the state's wildfire-fighting agency. Continue reading...
Shadow cabinet secretary Claire Coutinho accepted donation from Lord Bamford while overseeing millions awarded to his family businesses in green grantsA Conservative former cabinet minister who took donations from the billionaire boss of the JCB digger dynasty - including a 7,000 trip on his VIP private helicopter - oversaw decisions to award his family's business empire millions in taxpayer-funded green energy grants.Claire Coutinho also posed for pictures promoting Lord Bamford's personal 100m hydrogen engine project and accepted a 7,500 donation from JCB to her local election campaign while she was the energy secretary in Rishi Sunak's government. Continue reading...
Energy secretary says Britain must work on vital alliances with other countries following victory of climate-denier TrumpThe UK must ramp up its efforts on renewable energy to foster national security in an increasingly uncertain world, the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has warned, on the eve of a fraught global summit on the climate crisis.He pledged that the UK would lead efforts at Cop29 to secure the global agreement needed to stave off the worst impacts of climate breakdown, in talks that have been thrown into turmoil by the re-election of Donald Trump as US president. Continue reading...
The lesson of his first term is that he does what he says he is going to do: the UK must prepareWednesday 9 November 2016: a misty, drizzly day in Washington DC, an overwhelmingly Democrat city in trauma after the shock victory of Donald Trump in the election the previous day. A Washington rarity, a declared Trump supporter, was among a group of guests for lunch in the residence that day. I took him aside and asked whether Trump would be as radical and disruptive as the giants of American political journalism were predicting. Not at all," he said: I know the guy. All that red meat was just for the campaign. I expect him to govern as a mainstream Republican."Fast forward to London, Wednesday 6 November 2024. I'm speaking at a business dinner about the election outcome and what will come next. I mention Trump's commitment to levy 20% tariffs on all imports into America. One participant says he has just spoken to a friend in Arizona who knows Trump personally. This friend has said: It's not about instant action. Trump will use the tariffs as a threat, to persuade countries to act to get trade flows into balance." Another participant says: Trump has won his second term now. So he doesn't need to fight any more. Surely he'll calm down and focus on his legacy?" Continue reading...
After Donald Trump's victory, brute force will prevail over geopolitics as authoritarians are appeased from Russia to Israel to ChinaFeelings are not the usual focus of a world dominated by macho strongmen, complex geopolitical challenges, wars and disasters. Yet every rule has exceptions. Following Donald Trump's unexpectedly decisive US election victory, dark storm clouds seeded with powerful emotions overshadow the international landscape.Feelings of shock and anger that this lying conman again seduced enough voters to win the presidency roil America's friends and allies. There is incredulity that so very many people collaborated in their own seduction. And there is puzzlement at exit polls that show 45% of female voters backed a serial sexual predator while Latino and black men helped a shameless racist to prevail.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...
Landscape and architecture photographer Vincenzo Pagliuca was always fascinated by the empty, isolated houses scattered around the Campania region of southern Italy where he grew up. Since 2016 he has travelled along the Apennine mountain range that runs almost the length of the country, photographing uninhabited rural houses and abandoned holiday homes linked to ski tourism - now unused due to lack of snow. These images, collected in the book Monos, were shot during the winter months to capture the particular quality of the light. A house immersed in a winter landscape, even more so in its isolated state, evokes an ancestral sense of shelter and protection," says Pagliuca. It becomes an archetypal image of intimacy, inviting us to reflect on the psychological significance of home for human beings."
Patrick Grant says not even luxury clothing labels care enough about quality any moreEarlier this year Patrick Grant, The Great British Sewing Bee presenter and clothes designer, criticised the poor quality of Marks & Spencer's jumpers and socks - and now the luxury British heritage brand Burberry is in his line of fire.Speaking at an event organised by the Design Council last week, Grant had a simple message for the audience: Most people who sell you clothes do not give a stuff about the quality." Continue reading...
Gabriel Kay hopes his design can help tackle the problems caused by discarded electrical goodsGabriel Kay really understands his target audience. As a student of industrial and product design at De Montfort University, he focused on the kettle.Everyone can relate to a kettle, right?" says the 22-year-old graduate. It's easy to understand and associated with comfort. It's a friendly introduction to design." Continue reading...
More than 130 structures destroyed in two days by ferocious Mountain fire, as thousands remain under evacuation orderFirefighters in southern California made progress in their effort to contain a wildfire that destroyed more than 130 structures in two days as fierce wind gusts that were fanning flames eased on Friday.The Mountain fire, which started on Wednesday morning in Ventura county, had grown to 20,630 acres (about 8,349 hectares) with 14% contained as of Friday evening. Continue reading...
After debris balls were widely reported to be tar, testing coordinated with EPA revealed they were consistent with human-generated waste, or likely lumps of fatberg'
The new president's disruptive policies will challenge Sir Keir Starmer's green goals. But with strong leadership he could enhance Britain's global influenceDonald Trump's electoral earthquake in America will complicate Sir Keir Starmer's plans. Nowhere will the shock of Mr Trump's win be more intensely felt than in environmental policy. His stance on climate - advocating a US exit from the Paris climate agreement and rallying behind drill baby drill" - is more disruptive than constructive. This should concentrate Sir Keir's mind as he heads to Cop29, the UN's annual climate summit, in Baku, Azerbaijan.At last year's conference, world leaders agreed to transition away" from fossil fuels in a just and orderly manner for the first time. Mr Trump, however, dismisses the climate crisis as a hoax. With this year likely to be the hottest on record, the devastating effects of global heating are undeniable, as extreme weather batters the planet. Mr Trump may ignore the facts, but the trail of climate-related chaos and destruction speaks for itself.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Most recent fatality marks 17th beluga to die at Niagara Falls, Ontario, aquarium since 2019A fifth beluga has died at Canada's Marineland, as questions mount over the future of both the controversial theme park and one of the world's largest populations of captive whales.The most recent fatality marks the 17th beluga to die at the Niagara Falls aquarium since 2019. Continue reading...
Elnur Soltanov recorded speaking with fake oil and gas group that asked for deals in exchange for sponsoring talksThe chief executive of Cop29 has been filmed apparently agreeing to facilitate fossil fuel deals at the climate summit.The recording has amplified calls by campaigners who want the fossil fuel industry and its lobbyists to be banned from future Cop talks. Continue reading...
It could have been better designed, but Rachel Reeves's inheritance tweak will help farmers with mud on their bootsShould multimillionaire landowners benefit from a tax break designed to help small family farms pass down their land to their children? This is a hotly contested question, given last week's budget. Labour has reintroduced 20% inheritance tax for farms that are valued at more than 1m, meaning the children of farmers will no longer inherit land tax-free. Granted, 20% is still only half of the standard inheritance tax rate, and it probably sounds more than generous to an ex-miner, foundry worker or shipbuilder. But today, 1m would only buy you about 40 hectares (100 acres) of farmland, which is far short of a viable farm.Farming is a long-term business that requires substantial assets and often makes only meagre returns. Farming families have not had to consider tax planning for family succession since 1992. As a second-generation farmer, I support much of the budget. But on the inheritance tax threshold, I thought, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, had got it wrong. The positive reading of her decision is that she was trying to close a loophole whereby wealthy people buy up farmland and pass it, tax-free, to their children. If that was the main objective, though, the threshold should have been set substantially higher than 1m.Guy Singh-Watson is the founder of the organic veg box company Riverford and a member of Patriotic Millionaires UK. He grows organic vegetables on 60 hectares (150 acres) in Devon and 120 hectares (300 acres) in the French Vendee. He sold Riverford in 2018 to its 1,000 employees, and the company is now 100% employee-owned Continue reading...
Prospects of strong outcome appear dim but there is hope the talks will address pressing issue of climate financeMore than 100 heads of state and government are expected to land in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, over the next few days and the first thing they are likely to notice is the smell of oil. The odour hangs heavy in the air, evidence of the abundance of fossil fuels in this small country on the shores of the Caspian Sea.Flaring from refineries lights up the night sky, and the city is dotted with diminutive nodding donkey" oil wells raising and lowering their pistons as they draw from the earth. Even the national symbol is a gas flame, epitomised in the shape of three skyscrapers that tower over the city. Continue reading...
On the eve of Cop29 in Baku, Antonio Guterres says dangers are underestimated as irreversible tipping points nearThe world is still underestimating the risk of catastrophic climate breakdown and ecosystem collapse, the UN secretary general has warned in the run-up to Cop29, acknowledging that the rise in global heating is on course to soar past 1.5C (2.7F) over pre-industrial levels in the coming years.Humanity is approaching potentially irreversible tipping points such as the collapse of the Amazon rainforest and the Greenland ice sheet as global temperatures rise, Antonio Guterres has said, warning that governments are not making the deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions needed to limit warming to safe levels. Continue reading...
Country's foreign minister says UN climate summits have produced no results' as Pacific nation takes the rare step of withdrawing from upcoming Cop29Papua New Guinea's decision to pull out of an upcoming UN global climate summit due to frustration over empty promises and inaction" has prompted concern from climate advocates, who fear the move will isolate the Pacific nation and put vital funding at risk.Prime minister James Marape announced in August the country would not attend Cop29 in protest at the big nations" for a lack of quick support to victims of climate change". Then last week, foreign affairs minister Justin Tckatchenko, confirmed Papua New Guinea would withdraw from high-level talks at the summit, which begins on 11 November in Baku, Azerbaijan, describing it as a total waste of time". Continue reading...
Royal says it's probably been the hardest year in my life' as Catherine and King Charles underwent cancer treatmentPrince William has described the past year as brutal" and probably the hardest year in my life" as he dealt with his wife and father having cancer.In a video interview to mark the end of his week-long visit of Cape Town in South Africa for the Earthshot prize awards ceremony, William was asked about his year. Honestly, it's been dreadful," he said. It's probably been the hardest year in my life. Trying to get through everything else and keep everything on track has been really difficult. Continue reading...
Newfoundland Memorial Univeristy team find white masses are likely material used to clean pipes in oil industryWhen the chemist Chris Kozak finally got his hands on a sample of the mysterious blobs that recently washed up on the shores of Newfoundland's beaches, Project Unknown Glob officially began.At his disposal, Kozak and a team of graduate students had the gorgeous" new science building and world-class facilities" of Newfoundland's Memorial University to run a battery of tests on the white, doughy blob. Continue reading...
Critics say amendment 2 is intentionally open to applying chicanery' and outdated hunting practicesBlack bears in Florida could soon again be in the crosshairs of trophy hunters after a controversial wildlife ballot measure was approved by voters, environmental advocates say.The fear stems from amendment 2, which enshrines into the state constitution legal protections for citizens' right to hunt and fish. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#6S205)
Analysis of 19m flights between 2019 and 2023 reveals 50% rise in emissions, condemned as gratuitous waste'Private jet flights have soared in recent years, with the resulting climate-heating emissions rising by 50%, the most comprehensive global analysis to date has revealed.The assessment tracked more than 25,000 private jets and almost 19m flights between 2019 and 2023. It found almost half the jets travelled less than 500km and 900,000 were used like taxis" for trips of less than 50km. Many flights were for holidays, arriving in sunny locations in the summertime. The Fifa World Cup in Qatar in 2022 attracted more than 1,800 private flights. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#6S1VH)
Jon Thompson tells industry conference there was no evidence' that bats were at risk from the trainsThe cost of a bat shed" to protect a species in woodland along the new HS2 high-speed line has risen to more than 100m, HS2's chair has revealed.The 1km-long mesh structure will be built where the London-Birmingham high-speed line emerges from a tunnel in Buckinghamshire, to protect a colony of Bechstein's bats. Continue reading...
Warming climate has caused rivers used for transport to dry up, leaving children with little food, water or school access, says UnicefTwo years of severe drought in the Amazon rainforest have left nearly half a million children facing shortages of water and food or limited access to school, according to a UN report.Scant rainfall and extreme heat driven by the climate crisis have caused rivers in what is usually the wettest region on Earth to retreat so much that they can no longer be traversed by boats, cutting off communities. Continue reading...
Voters have never been swayed by rational debate'. Only a genuine change in the way we do politics can prevent the march of the rightWe were losing slowly. Now we are losing quickly. Democracy, accountability, human rights, social justice - all were rolling backwards as money swarmed our politics. Above all, our life-support systems - the Earth's atmosphere, oceans, ecosystems, ice and snow - have been hammered and hammered, regardless of who is in power. Donald Trump might strike the killer blows, but he is not the cause of an ecocidal economic system. He is the embodiment of it.Under Joe Biden, the US was missing its own climate goals, and those goals were insufficient to meet the global objective of limiting heating to 1.5C above preindustrial levels. That target in turn might not be tight enough to prevent a tipping of Earth systems. Already, at roughly 1.3C of heating, we see what looks alarmingly like climatic flickering: the ever wilder perturbations that tend to precede the collapse of a complex system.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Leading Colombian conservationists share their experiences working in the most dangerous country to fight for wildlifePoliticians, conservationists and business people from around the world met last week to discuss how to save nature at the Cop16 biodiversity conference in Cali, Colombia.For those working on the ground, however, it is the most dangerous country in the world to fight for the environment. A third of the 196 environmental defenders killed last year were Colombian. Here, four conservationists give us a glimpse into their working lives and the dangers they face. Continue reading...
Conservation groups are asking for the decision to allow Hvalur to hunt to be put on hold until after electionA coalition of conservation and animal welfare groups are urging Iceland's president to step in and stop any plans the prime minister has to issue a whaling licence to Europe's last whaler before the Icelandic election at the end of the month.Earlier this year, the country granted a one-year licence to Hvalur to kill more than 100 fin whales this hunting season, despite hopes the practice may have been stopped after concerns about cruelty led to a temporary suspension in 2023. Continue reading...
Westminster plan for UK's biggest heat network could involve parliament warmed by waste and low-carbon heatAbout 1,000 London buildings including the Houses of Parliament and the National Gallery could soon be warmed by low-carbon heat sourced from the River Thames, London Underground and sewer networks.Plans to develop the UK's biggest heat network to supply decarbonised heat to buildings across Westminster were set out on Wednesday by the government as part of its pledge to back seven heat network zones with more than 5m of public funding. Continue reading...
Land reform charities call for better regulation of UK's carbon market so profits can be shared with publicNature campaigners have called for taxpayers to take stakes in forest and peatland projects designed to store carbon, to avoid all the profits from carbon credits going to private investors.A report from the Revive Coalition, an umbrella group for Scottish land reform and conservation charities, says carbon credits also need to be used much more effectively to bolster demand and help the UK meet its net zero targets.Government-owned banks such as the Scottish National Investment Bank should invest in carbon projects, including on public land.It becomes mandatory for all large and medium-sized companies to have audited carbon reduction targets to avoid green washing.All carbon offsetting projects must register with the official schemes, the Woodland carbon code and the Peatland carbon code.A new land tax is set up that is reduced if the land is managed to protect the climate and promote nature recovery. Continue reading...
Earlier this year, families from the Indigenous Guna people on the tiny island of Gardi Sugdub became the first to undergo a climate-related relocation by the Panamanian government because of the threat of rising sea levels. Hundreds of residents moved to Isber Yala, a new town built on the mainland. But many fear that the relocation has put their traditions and culture in perilPhotographs by Euan Wallace Continue reading...
My mother showed me the importance of Indigenous and Afro-descendant women in protecting the natural world. Yet they continue to face barriers and discrimination in their workI learned about the importance of women in small communities from my mother. She was a peasant woman - a campesina as we say in Colombia - in the mountains near Cali, where I grew up. She searched the forest for food and cultivated the earth to grow vegetables to feed me and my four siblings. It is women like her that I try to empower with my work supporting the collective rights of Indigenous and Afro-descendant women in Asia, Africa and Latin America.In an era of environmental crises, people from such communities have an outsized role in preventing the destruction of nature and slowing the climate crisis. Colombia, where the biodiversity Cop16 was held last week, is home to 10% of all life on Earth, stretching from thick mangrove forest of the Pacific coast to the Amazon rainforest. Many of the communities I work with live alongside this rich nature and have made its survival part of their culture, something increasingly recognised in conservation. This is true from the Arctic Circle to the Indonesian forest. My job is to make sure women in these places receive practical support and a fair share of growing financial assistance. Continue reading...
Environment | The Guardian