Ontario's Marineland lost five belugas last year, which the park's management puts down to the circle of life'. But activists claim animal welfare is at stakeOn the southern shores of the Niagara River, a few hundred feet from the thundering falls, sits Marineland of Canada - an amusement park, zoo, aquarium and forest occupying nearly 1,000 acres of land (400 hectares). Over the years, millions of people have clamoured to view the park's 4,000 animals, including its prized walruses, orcas, dolphins and belugas.But over the past few years, the park has taken a decidedly dark turn as there has been a string of deaths among the world's largest captive beluga population. Last year, five belugas died at the facility bringing the total number of whales and dolphins to die there since 2019 to more than 20. Continue reading...

Allocation of funds from Inflation Reduction Act makes it harder for president-elect to halt green initiativesThe Biden administration has raced to allocate $74bn of funding for climate initiatives before Donald Trump's inauguration, leaving $20bn vulnerable to potential rollback by the incoming president, new figures reveal.As the inauguration of Trump looms, the outgoing administration has been accelerating its allocation of cash for climate change and clean energy programs before they are throttled by the incoming US president. Continue reading...

Newcastle funnel-web spider's last shared common ancestor with the Sydney funnel-web was 17 million years ago, experts say

More than 150 Nobel and World Food prize laureates sign open letter calling for immediate ramping up of food productionMore than 150 Nobel and World Food prize laureates have signed an open letter calling for moonshot" efforts to ramp up food production before an impending world hunger catastrophe.The coalition of some of the world's greatest living thinkers called for urgent action to prioritise research and technology to solve the tragic mismatch of global food supply and demand". Continue reading...

High court had ruled government was not meeting legal duty to clean up Costa Beck near PickeringThe UK environment secretary, Steve Reed, is pursuing legal action against a group of anglers who are trying to restore the ecosystem of a river.Lawyers for Reed will argue on Tuesday in the court of appeal that cleaning up individual rivers and streams devastated by pollution is administratively unworkable. Continue reading...

Oakey Coal Action Alliance says it will still oppose inappropriate' mining after abandoning court appeal to stop New Hope Group's project

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Fires have killed at least 24, displaced thousands, destroyed over 12,000 structures as winds predicted until WednesdayFire crews are trying to get the upper hand on blazes that are tearing through Los Angeles before expected high wind gusts threaten their progress. The fires, which may become the most expensive in US history, have killed at least 24 people, displaced thousands, destroyed more than 12,000 structures and have 100,000 people under evacuation orders.Sustained winds of up to 40mph (64km/h) and gusts in the mountains reaching 65mph (105km/h) are predicted through Wednesday, forecasters said. Winds picked up on Monday and were expected to strengthen on Tuesday, fire behavior analyst Dennis Burns said. Continue reading...

Warning of particularly dangerous situation' with gusts expected as LA fire chief says: We are not in the clear yet'Firefighters battling the disastrous wildfires around Los Angeles were prepared for a return of dangerous winds that could again stoke the flames as the death toll in the tragedy has hit at least 24.Fierce gusts known as Santa Ana winds have been largely blamed for turning the wildfires into devastating infernos that leveled huge tranches of neighborhoods around America's second-largest city, which has also been hit by drought. Continue reading...

Concerns that dangerous fine particle pollution can become embedded in bloodstream and lungs

Honolulu officials had filed a lawsuit against the companies for an alleged decades long misinformation campaignThe supreme court has shot down the fossil fuel industry's attempts to kill a Hawaii lawsuit, which is seeking to hold the sector accountable for an alleged decades-long misinformation campaign.The Monday decision will allow the closely watched litigation, filed by officials from Honolulu, to proceed toward a trial. It is a procedural victory for the wave of climate accountability lawsuits filed against oil and gas companies in recent years. Continue reading...

Rhino unintentionally' punctured zebra's stomach in enclosure they shared, zoo saysA male zebra died after a female rhino unintentionally punctured his stomach, a zoo in Essex has said.The rhino, called Astrid, had been sparring with her son Tayo when she tried to move Ziggy out of the way last Friday. Colchester zoo said Ziggy died of his injuries within minutes. Continue reading...

The news from California is clear, but we don't want to see it. It's too confounding, big, complex. But we can sense the dangerWhen I send anxious texts to friends in Los Angeles - friends who have been evacuated or who are waiting to leave , friends escaping a fire zone, wondering if their life's work has been destroyed, worrying about the smoke's effect on an asthmatic child - I always begin with the same three words:are you OK?But a continent away, watching photos and videos of a city I love being incinerated, overcome by waves of terror, grief and mourning, I have other questions. Continue reading...

What the president-elect calls a giant hoax' is changing the strategic calculus in the Arctic and for the Panama canalDonald Trump's desire to seize control of Greenland and the Panama canal is being shaped in part by a force that he has sought to deny even exists - the climate crisis.Last week, Trump ramped up his demands that the United States annex both Greenland and the Panama canal, refusing to rule out economic or even military interventions to take them and threatening very high" tariffs upon Denmark, of which Greenland is an autonomous territory, if it opposes him. Continue reading...

Australian mainland states permit killing of nearly 5 million annually as part of industry supplying meat and leather products

Forecasters say there won't be winds as strong as last week's record-setting gusts, but LA's dry season will get worse

Growers blame weather challenges in UK and Europe, which Met Office says will become more frequent with climate breakdownBroccoli, cauliflower and other brassicas may be in short supply this spring as the mild autumn and winter has caused the crops to come up early, growers have said.Any shortages will prolong the so-called hungry gap", which runs from April to early June, when very few crops grown in the UK are ready to eat. Continue reading...

The animals that don't die need total nursing care,' wildlife rescuer says, ahead of a potential spike in cases in coming weeks

Environment minister said vandalism and intimidation were completely unacceptable'

My generation feels trapped in a political system not built for us. Why wouldn't we be disillusioned?I'm scrolling on TikTok after work when I get a text that would have sent 12-year-old Anjali into a spiral, a frenzy of extreme climate anxiety. The text is from a friend letting me know that it's official - 2024 is the hottest year on record. Not just that, it's the first year to exceed 1.5C of warming over preindustrial levels.The news comes as my entire feed is flooded with images of an inferno of flames ripping through neighbourhoods in LA, in winter. Continue reading...

LA's first female fire chief, in a public spat with the mayor, is a 25-year veteran who's prioritized diversifying her teamKristin Crowley was appointed Los Angeles fire chief in 2022 at a time of turmoil in a department consumed by complaints of rampant hazing, harassment and discrimination among its 3,400-member ranks.She was portrayed by then mayor Eric Garcetti as a stabilizing force, a trailblazer and the most qualified person. I look for who's best, not just who makes history, because the protection of our city first and foremost has to go to the human being who is best prepared to lead. But let me be clear, that is Kristin Crowley," he said. Continue reading...

Getty team says no current plans to move prominent pieces from center deemed marvel of anti-fire engineering'It houses some of the richest treasures of the art world, such as Vincent van Gogh's Irises, a popular Rembrandt and a priceless collection of paintings, portraits and other works spanning more than seven centuries.To protect them, the Getty Center in Los Angeles was built in 1997 as a marvel of anti-fire engineering", complete with fire-resistant stone and concrete, protected steel, and set in well-irrigated landscaping. Continue reading...

More than 7,000 hectares logged in planned park area since Chris Minns won 2023 election with commitment to deliver new sanctuary, conservationists say

Organic farmers sound alarm about greenwashing amid push to introduce national domestic standard

A fire tornado was spotted as the Palisades fire continued to blaze through the San Fernando valley in California

Strong winds and low humidity continue as five fires rage across Los Angeles area, with death toll expected to rise

Postmortem will be carried out on wild cat, one of four humanely captured in Cairngorms after illegal releaseOne of the four lynx captured in the Scottish Highlands this week has died. The animal, which had been illegally released, was caught on Friday near Kingussie in the Cairngorms national park.The Eurasian lynx was one of four that had been discovered running wild in the Dell of Killiehuntly area. Two were captured on Thursday and are being kept in quarantine at Edinburgh zoo. The other pair were trapped the next day and the survivor will join the first two in captivity. Continue reading...

Elon Musk, one of the brightest minds of his generation, is saying it, so it must be trueWomen, eh? They're simply not to be trusted. Eve ate that apple; Pandora opened that horrible little box; and now women are to blame for the devastating wildfires in California. I know that sounds like a ridiculous thing to say, but it's what Elon Musk, one of the brightest minds of his generation - and one of the most powerful people on Earth - is saying, so it must be true. Continue reading...

John Vaillant, the author of Fire Weather, explains why fires such as those in Los Angeles are different from those beforeWhen writing about the hot, dry Santa Ana winds and how they affect the behavior and imaginations of southern Californians, Joan Didion once said: The winds show us how close to the edge we are."I've lived here my entire life. I evacuated my family's hillside home as a teenager. I've experienced the surrealism of watching ash rain down from the sky more times than I can count. But there is something different, supercharged, about the hurricane-force winds that fueled this week's catastrophic wildfires in Los Angeles. Continue reading...

We fell in love with the power and speed that fossil fuels brought us. But the price being paid in California, and around the world, has become too highZero per cent contained. In layperson's terms, that means out of control and burning at will". It's a common designation for a wildfire - in the wild. But when a fire like this enters an urban area such as Los Angeles County, the most highly populated metropolitan area in the US, it becomes an exploding bomb, and this one has been detonating since last Tuesday.By now, the energy release from this wind-driven, drought-fuelled firestorm turned urban conflagration is into the megatons, and the nuclear-scale destruction is there for all to see: block after block and neighbourhood after neighbourhood levelled - roughly 12,000 structures destroyed or rendered uninhabitable, 55 sq miles of city and mountain burnt, nearly 200,000 residents evacuated - so far. There is more to come. Continue reading...

Common Wealth thinktank warns that communities and taxpayer may have to pick up pieces when production endsNorth Sea oil and gas must be brought under greater public control to avoid a cliff-edge collapse of the industry and secure a sustainable future for workers and communities, according to a report.Under the current private ownership model the inevitable end of North Sea oil and gas production - whether through government action or the lack of viable oilfields - will lead to private companies abruptly abandoning the basin, leaving frontline communities and the state to deal with the social and economic consequences, the authors predict. Continue reading...

Every barrel of oil, every cubic meter of gas, and every ton of coal burned brings us closer to environmental catastropheApocalyptic flames and smoke are raging through southern California in the worst fire in Los Angeles county's history. At least seven people have died. Thousands of structures have been destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes. The private forecaster AccuWeather estimates initial damage and economic loss at more than $50bn and has the potential to be the costliest wildfire disaster in American history. The impacts of the disruption and loss faced by community members is incalculable.While some media outlets are discussing the link between the Los Angeles fires and the climate crisis, the president-elect Donald Trump and rightwing media are using this devastating event to foster misinformation including denying the role of climate crisis. Continue reading...

Environmentalists condemn unauthorised releases as reckless' and highly irresponsible'For a brief moment this week, lynx have been roaming the Scottish Highlands once again. But this was not the way conservationists had hoped to end their 1,000-year absence.On Wednesday, Police Scotland received reports of two lynx in a forest in the Cairngorms national park, sparking a frantic search. That episode ended in less than a day. Both animals were quickly captured by experts from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and taken to quarantine facilities at Highland wildlife park. Continue reading...

Second pair of illegally released animals safely captured in Cairngorms after they were spotted on camera trapsTwo more lynx abandoned in the Cairngorms have been safely captured, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland said on Friday.Two of the illegally released animals were captured on Thursday after being sighted in the Dell of Killiehuntly near Kingussie in the Scottish Highlands. Continue reading...

Firefighters battle on as people across Los Angeles struggle to find a way forward on Friday

Noaa says last year was the warmest since records began in 1850 and Nasa concurs: The long-term trends are very clear'It was the hottest year ever recorded for the world's lands and oceans in 2024, US government scientists have confirmed, providing yet another measure of how the climate crisis is pushing humanity into temperatures we have previously never experienced.Last year was the hottest in global temperature records stretching back to 1850, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa announced, with the worldwide average 1.46C (2.6F) warmer than the era prior to humans burning huge volumes of planet-heating fossil fuels. Continue reading...

Events in California reveal how political obstruction is deepening a climate crisis that needs urgent action to prevent it becoming an irreversible disasterThe wildfires ravaging Los Angeles have killed at least 10 people, displaced 180,000 and scorched about 40 square miles - an inferno driven by fierce winds and severe drought in what should be California's wet season. It is a sobering reminder that the climate crisis is driving wildfires to become more frequent, intense and destructive - leaving ruined lives, homes and livelihoods in their wake. The US president Joe Biden responded by mobilising federal aid. By contrast the president-elect, Donald Trump, a convicted felon who was criminally sentenced on Friday, used the disaster to spread disinformation and stoke political division.The climate crisis knows no national borders. Deadly floods in Spain, Hawaii's fires and east Africa's devastating drought show nowhere is safe from its effects. Countries must work toward the global common interest and beyond their narrow national interests. The scale of the climate emergency is such that there is a case to view all crises through a green lens. Instead Mr Trump's denialism works to foment distrust about the science. He's not just aiming to delay the onset of truth. He wants to demolish it. It's a familiar playbook: the fossil fuel industry knows the reality of the climate emergency but chooses profit over responsibility, effectively deceiving the public while the planet burns. Continue reading...

Claims that power plants are gaming the system to charge huge sums to switch on in the UK's cold weather

To solve the climate crisis, power must flow away from the billionaire classWhen I feel uncertain, I find it's helpful to write down things I know to be true. Fossil fuels are causing irreversible planetary overheating. Overheating threatens essentially all life on Earth. Oil and gas executives knew this but they chose to systematically lie and block a climate transition. They continue to make this choice.I choose to focus my energy on the climate crisis because a habitable planet is a prerequisite for everything worth fighting for, and because the prospect of losing a planet feels horrific and sad to me in a primal way that I can't express with words. I'm also simply in love with the Earth. But planetary overheating is really just the most geophysical symptom of extractive colonial capitalism - billionairism" - a system designed to pump wealth from the poor to the rich, creating billionaires, the healthcare crisis, the housing crisis, genocide, hierarchies like racism and patriarchy, and a great deal of suffering.Peter Kalmus is a climate scientist and author of Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution Continue reading...

At least 45 whales were entangled by fishing ropes and line on the east coast in 2024. 'There's a lot of times when we'll get out to an entanglement where we just think, this animal should just probably be put to sleep,' says Sea World's head of marine sciences, Wayne Phillips.The constant drag of rope and floats slowly causes a whale to succumb to exhaustion. 'It's probably the worst way of dying for any marine ... animal,' marine scientist Olaf Meynecke, says. 'It takes weeks to several months until they actually die' Continue reading...

Exclusive: The kaputar slug, which can grow longer than a human hand, was almost wiped out in the black summer bushfires of 2019-20

Experts recorded 45 entanglements off Australia's east coast in 2024 - but believe that's the tip of the iceberg'

Those who lived in regions with firefighting training areas earned about 1.7% less later in life, research showsEarly life exposure to toxic PFAS forever chemicals" could affect economic success in adulthood, new first-of-its-kind research suggests.The Iowa State University and US Census Bureau working paper compared the earnings, college graduation rates and birth weights of two groups of children - those raised around military installations that had firefighting training areas, and those who lived near bases with no firefighting training site. Continue reading...

A similar campaign of rumors and lies was seen after the North Carolina hurricane, with DEI a primary targetAs Los Angeles firefighters battle ongoing blazes, prominent rightwing figures are spreading bigoted criticism of the response and lies about who is to blame, including that the fire is raging because of diversity within the fire department.The misinformation echoes the claims that plagued the North Carolina hurricane response. Both disasters led to outrage, which partisan actors seized upon to advance their political goals, muddying the already confusing information ecosystem that accompanies a fast-moving news event. Continue reading...

The best of this week's wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

Highest recorded temperatures supercharged extreme weather - with worse to come, EU data showsClimate breakdown drove the annual global temperature above the internationally agreed 1.5C target for the first time last year, supercharging extreme weather and causing misery to millions of people".The average temperature in 2024 was 1.6C above preindustrial levels, data from the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) shows. That is a jump of 0.1C from 2023, which was also a record hot year and represents levels of heat never experienced by modern humans. Continue reading...

Bureau of Meteorology says showers and storms a regular feature of Australian summer but warm and dry periods still to come

It's possible for massive fires to burn in Australian cities. Planning needs to reflect thisAs the Los Angeles wildfires rage, we are watching a disaster unfold in real time.We knew this would happen eventually. We have moved from possible futures to these things now happening. The deferment has ended. Continue reading...

Emissions caused by wealthiest 1% so far this year would take someone from poorest 50% three years to createThe world's richest 1% have already used up their fair share of the global carbon budget for 2025, just 10 days into the year.In less than a week and a half, the consumption habits of an individual from this monied elite had already caused, on average, 2.1 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, according to analysis by Oxfam GB. It would take someone from the poorest 50% of humanity three years to create the same amount of pollution. Continue reading...

With winds scattering embers across swaths of land, the Eaton fire burns down some houses while leaving others unscathed