Environment | The Guardian

Amid the heat and humidity, energy bills in New Orleans are surging - but the options for low-income residents are severely limitedDarlene Jones spends most of her time holed up in the bedroom to minimize the amount of electricity she uses to cool and light her home in downtown New Orleans.Air seeps out from the doors and windows of the 1890 one-bedroom shotgun house - and through the bashed-up floorboards and ceiling that Jones cannot afford to repair. She has wrapped foam around the leaky air-conditioning pipes, and taped handwritten signs on the front door above the metal letterbox that read Please close the slot". Continue reading...

The implications of policy are felt very differently depending on how well-off you are. It's time for politicians to recognise thisMany of Rishi Sunak's political decisions are baffling, but one that's easy to understand is his recent rowing back from the UK's climate commitments: he, like many creatures of Westminster, thinks working-class people don't care much for climate action. This is a lazy stereotype and, predictably, did nothing for his poll numbers.The simple truth is this: when it comes to the climate crisis, working-class people are often the first to spot the changes occurring because even slight fluctuations can make or break family finances. That doesn't mean this is the first subject working-class people raise when a canvasser knocks at the door or a pollster asks, but it is there in the background when deciding who to trust with our futures.Roger Harding is the founding director of Round our Way Continue reading...

Chris Bowen also says climate disaster fund will need to be bankrolled by broader-than-expected range of countries in speech ahead of Cop28

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Jealous Mpofu wins Tusk's ranger of the year award for his work with a maligned and misunderstood speciesWhen Jealous Mpofu was a boy, he overheard his father's bosses talking negatively about painted dogs, wild African canines with distinct marble coats that are among the world's most endangered species.They said they didn't kill an animal, they grabbed the flesh. They said they were rough animals," Mpofu said. Continue reading...

Nature Talks presents the results of the nature photographer of the year 2023 competition. Jacquie Matechuk, from Canada, is the winner in the contest, an initiative from the organisation also responsible for the annual Nature Talks photo festival in the Netherlands Continue reading...

Landmark finding in judicial review over management of Costa Beck river could force overhaul of government's plansThe government and environment agency failed in their duty to restore and protect waterways from pollution, the high court has ruled in a significant case that could force an overhaul of the government's plans.Fish Legal and Pickering Fishery Association took the government to judicial review over its river basin management plan for the Costa Beck river in the Humber district, which had a reputation as one of the best fly fishing spots in the UK until a few years ago. Continue reading...

Sentences risk silencing public concerns about the environment, climate change rapporteur Ian Fry saysLong sentences handed to two Just Stop Oil protesters for scaling the M25 bridge over the Thames are a potential breach of international law and risk silencing public concerns about the environment, a UN expert has said.In a strongly worded intervention, Ian Fry, the UN's rapporteur for climate change and human rights, said he was particularly concerned" about the sentences, which were significantly more severe than previous sentences imposed for this type of offending in the past". Continue reading...

Icelandic singer condemns terrible suffering' of salmon farming with proceeds from her new single with Rosalia going to activistsThe Icelandic singer Bjork has condemned industrial salmon farming in open pens as extraordinarily cruel", as she announced her debut song with the Catalan singer Rosalia, which will be available on Tuesday 21 November.The pair will donate the proceeds of the single, a love song based on a recently recovered recording Bjork made two decades ago, to activists opposing the controversial industry in Iceland. Continue reading...

Data shows baby boomers have highest emissions and London has lower footprint than rest of UK The great carbon divide: charting a climate chasmRestaurants, pets and foreign holidays are among the reasons why the UK's most well-off people rack up carbon footprints far greater than those on low incomes, according to data shared with the Guardian.The biggest carbon divide is in aviation, with the richest 10% in the UK - the 6.7 million people paid more than 59,000 a year - causing more than six times more climate-heating emissions from flights than the poorest 10%. Spending on electrical items, homeware and furniture also contributes to the outsize impact of the wealthy, who splash out four times more on these goods. Continue reading...

Carbon emissions of richest 10% is up to 40 times bigger than poorest, and ignoring divide may make ending climate crisis impossible, experts say

The Dine helped dig the raw materials to build the US's nuclear arsenal, but were never told of the dangerAllen Tsosie was just 14 when he went to work in the uranium mines in the Lukachukai mountains near Cove, Arizona.Tsosie was one of thousands of Navajos who took jobs in the mines, starting in the 1940s. They worked without masks or ventilation to disperse the lethal radon gas, and they were never told the rocks they were handling - leetso in the Dine language, or yellow dirt - were deadly. Continue reading...

In the 1970s, Graeme Pearman measured rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, briefing three prime ministers on what that meant for the planet. After decades leading Australia's climate research, Pearman, now 82, speaks of the frustration that the science didn't lead to meaningful change. Subscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTubeThis video is part of Weight of the World: a climate scientist's burden. The series features three pioneering Australian climate change scientists - Graeme Pearman, Lesley Hughes and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg. The series tells the story of how the three scientists made their discoveries, how they came under attack for their science and the personal toll it has taken on them. And importantly, how they stay hopeful.

Some of the 250-year-old beeches made famous by Game of Thrones to be removed over risk to public safetySix trees from the Northern Ireland road known as the Dark Hedges are to be cut down because branches risk falling on Game of Thrones tourists and other visitors.Contractors sealed off Bregagh Road in Armoy, County Antrim on Monday to prepare the felling of at least six ancient beeches deemed a risk to public safety. Continue reading...

A life-changing revelation by my estranged mother when I was 26 led me on a quest for family, heritage and selfHaving spent most of my life in Minnesota, I never could have imagined that I'd feel most like myself fishing in the Pacific waters off the south-east Alaska coast. Continue reading...

With the rivers that feed it drying up, less rainfall and a hotter climate, the world's largest inland body of water is in peril. With five countries sharing it, can the political will to save this unique habitat be found?

Urgent and unswerving attention' required to deal with rising temperatures and extreme weatherThe National Trust has called on the UK government to introduce legislation that recognises the importance of adapting buildings, coastlines and countryside to make sure they can cope with the effects of the climate emergency.It is arguing a new Climate Resilience Act" should set targets on preparing for the risk posed by rising temperatures and extreme weather, saying urgent and unswerving attention" on the issue is needed. Continue reading...

Renowned for clean-energy tech, the billionaire seems to be at one now with super-emitters and far-right global climate deniersElon Musk was once lauded as a sort of green Tony Stark - the genius inventor who leads a double life as superhero Iron Man - for single-handedly tackling the climate crisis one Tesla at a time, helping to forge a clean energy future and pushing for new taxes to drive down fossil fuel use.But the climate credentials of the world's richest person have become clouded by his embrace of rightwing politicians, some of whom dismiss global heating, as well as by his management of X, formerly known as Twitter, during which many climate scientists have fled the platform amid a proliferation of misinformation about the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Research shows impact from lifestyles and investments of likes of Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Elon Musk

Man resembling Brazilian ex-president seemingly spotted on a jetski about 15 metres from distressed mammalFederal police are investigating Brazil's former president, Jair Bolsonaro, for yet another suspected misdeed: harassing" a humpback whale while taking a public holiday spin on his jetski.Bolsonaro's anti-environmental policies earned him the nickname Captain Chainsaw" during a four-year administration characterised by soaring destruction of the Amazon. But the far-right ex-president's latest suspected environmental offence reportedly occurred in the waters off Brazil's south-eastern coastline near the town of Sao Sebastiao. Continue reading...

It felt like 58.5C in Rio on Tuesday - and the soaring, indeed dangerous, temperatures are hitting the poorest hardestThe start of summer in the southern hemisphere is still a month away, but Brazil has already experienced its eighth heatwave of the year so far, as temperatures soar to dangerously high levels.Large swathes of the country were put under red alert this week by Inmet, the national meteorological institute, which warned of risks to health and even life" as temperatures stayed at least five degrees Celsius above average for more than five days. Continue reading...

My hope is that the viewer will pause, slow down and take notice. Pay attention to the small, magical things that are happening within each one of the images on these pages and find your own place within them. There we can meet in silence - be still, and watch with wonder.' - Palani Mohan, palanimohan.com.The book Watch with Wonder is published by Hong Kong University Press and the images are on display at the Blue Lotus gallery in Hong Kong until 10 December Continue reading...

Earlier this year, the Norwegian artist and photographer Tine Poppe stumbled across a Ted Talk about the environmental impact of the cut flowers industry. In her series Gilded Lilies she sets these flowers against scenery around the world. The backdrops create an illusion of the flowers having been documented in their natural habitat,' she says, but the viewer will notice that something is off at a second glance.' The flowers in the portraits are genetically engineered examples of their species, grown in industrial scale greenhouses and transported on long-haul flights. I hope to convey a sense of our planet's mortality,' she says.

Once only accessible to the well-off, solar power is making inroads to low-income households thanks to federal and state programsJoseph Wang and his wife have figured out a way to stay warm and efficient during northern California's winter nights: layering.We bundle up during the day, and at night. We use two blankets," said Wang, 87, in Mandarin, explaining how he and his wife, Meng Rou Lan, 84, dealt with trying to save money on their electricity bill last winter. When he and his wife were hit with a $130 electricity bill, they decided to use their heater sparingly. But soon, due to a publicly funded statewide solar program in California, their bill may go down as much as $40 a month. Continue reading...

Tony Juniper believes new homes and protection for green spaces and wildlife should not be seen as oppositesBuilding on the green belt should be part of the UK's answer to the housing crisis, provided more effort is also put into improving the quality of urban green space, England's nature chief says.New housing and better protection for green spaces, wildlife and nature should not be seen as opposites, according to Tony Juniper, the chair of Natural England. The oppositional mindset" that sees the two as binary choices" does not reflect reality, and is hindering local communities from finding ways to provide enough homes for people, while restoring the UK's dwindling species. Continue reading...

Republican board member condemns photos in some textbooks for being unfairly critical of oil and gas industryTexas's Republican-controlled education board voted Friday not to include several climate textbooks in the state science curriculum.The 15-member board rejected seven out of 12 for eighth-graders. The approved textbooks are published by Savvas Learning Company, McGraw Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Accelerate Learning and Summit K-12. Continue reading...

Efforts to grow seaweed are springing up in the Philippines and beyond, and they're in line for Elon Musk's $1m Milestone prize. However, the Climate Foundation's plans for the ocean have troubled some scientistsA white metal platform on the surface of the Pacific Ocean faces another, smaller one some distance away. Sam Donohue stands on the big platform, Gorio Pepito on the small one. They press buttons, and a high-pitched whirring sets in.Pepito and Donohue release the buttons. The whirring stops. They communicate by walkie-talkie. Everything's OK. A crab walks across the big platform: that's their pet, Donohue says. They press the buttons again. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Steve Barclay accepted 3,000 donation from Michael Hintze, a key funder of Global Warming Policy FoundationThe new environment secretary, Steve Barclay, received a donation from a major funder of a climate sceptic thinktank just weeks before taking up his role, the Guardian can reveal.Barclay accepted 3,000 from Michael Hintze on 20 October, and is being asked by campaigners to reveal whether he has been lobbied on climate issues by those who seek to deny the extent of climate breakdown. Continue reading...

Charges said to be needed to prevent UK companies being undercut by overseas manufacturersThe prospect of higher taxes is not usually viewed with joy by British businesses, or Conservative MPs - but when it comes to carbon, that is precisely what many are asking for.A growing number of manufacturers, Tory MPs and experts are calling for charges to be levied on the carbon emissions associated with imports. They believe the levy is needed to create a level playing field that would enable UK companies to invest in cutting their greenhouse gas emissions, without finding themselves undercut by lower-cost but higher-carbon imports from overseas. Continue reading...

Estimate in new EPA analysis is probably dramatic' undercount because forever chemical' waste is unregulated in USUS industry disposed of at least 60m pounds of PFAS forever chemical" waste over the last five years, and did so with processes that probably pollute the environment around disposal sites, a new analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data finds.The 60m pounds estimate is likely to be a dramatic" undercount because PFAS waste is unregulated in the US and companies are not required to record its disposal, the paper's author, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer), wrote. Continue reading...

Fire Weather, which looks at the blazes that ravaged Canada's prairies in 2016, is a book that forces you to ask some questions of yourself', judges saidCanadian-American writer John Vaillant has won this year's 50,000 Baillie Gifford prize for his book Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World, which judges said was both exceptional" and terrifying".Vaillant's book tells the story of the wildfires that struck Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada in 2016, while taking in the connected histories of the oil industry and climate science. It is the first book on the topic of the climate emergency to win the prize, the UK's most prestigious honour for non-fiction, since it started in 1999. Continue reading...

Seafood companies and retailers threaten to boycott north-east Atlantic catch after two-decade failure to agree sustainable quotasA coalition of British seafood companies and retailers, including Young's, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Aldi and Waitrose, has condemned the collective failure" of the UK, Norway and other states to reach agreement on the sustainable fishing of mackerel in the north-east Atlantic.Lack of political agreement over a decade has led to an overfishing disaster of potentially epic proportions", conservationists say, leading to 44% more fish being caught than is sustainable. Continue reading...

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

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As officials prepare to gather in Nairobi, Kenya, for the third stage of talks on a UN plastic pollution treaty, new photos show the scale of the waste problem less than 8 miles from the UN Environment Programme building where the talks will take place. Nairobi's Dandora dump site is one of the largest in Africa Continue reading...

Move would cost less than $5bn and cut toll of deaths from power outages and lack of supply, Cop28 delegates will hearAll healthcare facilities in poorer countries could be electrified using solar energy within five years for less than $5bn, putting an end to the risk of life from power outages, experts will argue at Cop28 this month.I would like the international community to commit to a deadline and funding to electrify all healthcare facilities," said Salvatore Vinci, an adviser on sustainable energy at the World Health Organization and a member of its Cop28 delegation. We have solutions now that were not available 10 years ago - there is no reason why babies should be dying today because there is not electricity to power their incubators. Continue reading...

The Neretva, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is one of the most biodiverse rivers on the continent - supporting bears, wolves, lynx and many rare species - but more than 50 planned dams could permanently transform the ecosystemAt the bottom of a ravine, near the mountain town of Ulog, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, lie the sparkling turquoise waters of the Ljuta, a tributary of the Neretva. In its upper stretches, the Neretva is one of Europe's most unspoiled rivers, and it appears to be a scene of pristine wilderness.But lethal landmines left behind from the country's two-decades-old conflict litter its forested slopes, and wild dogs roam the trails. Poring over a map from the country's mine action centre, ecologist Gabriel Singer, a professor at the Institute of Ecology at the University of Innsbruck, assesses the safest route. Red and black lines indicating where mines lie mark both sides of the Neretva where it meets the Ljuta, leaving just one perilously steep slope navigable. Continue reading...

Improvement targets for horticulture and poultry reduced after lobbying from National Farmers' UnionThe UK government has weakened energy efficiency targets for farmers after lobbying from the National Farmers' Union.The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) had proposed a 40.9% energy efficiency improvement target for horticulture and a 12% target for poultry in order to cut the carbon footprint of the farming sector and reduce the reliance on fossil fuels to heat greenhouses and sheds. Continue reading...

There is an unprecedented global swing towards solar and wind power under wayIf you're searching for some hope on the climate crisis before the Cop28 UN meeting in Dubai this month, try this: China may be changing direction on pollution earlier than expected.Lauri Myllyvirta, a longtime China analyst now with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, calculated that CO emissions from the world's biggest national polluter are likely to fall next year and could then go into structural decline". Continue reading...

Labour leader aims to set up British jobs bonus fund' to challenge oil firms to accelerate shift to clean energyKeir Starmer has challenged the oil industry to dramatically speed up its shift to clean energy by offering up to 2.5bn to subsidise new jobs in renewables for North Sea workers.The Labour leader has told executives from firms including Shell and BP that the UK is in a global race to move away from oil and gas, with competitor countries such as the US investing billions in climate-friendly technologies. Continue reading...

Annual funding promise made in 2009 to help poor countries deal with climate crisis had original 2020 targetThe totemic promise by rich countries to provide $100bn (80bn) a year to the poor world in climate finance has finally been met, two years after the deadline, data published on Thursday shows.About $89.6bn was provided to developing countries in 2021, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and that sum was likely to have exceeded $100bn in 2022, based on OECD preliminary data. Continue reading...

Nine women used hammers and chisels to shatter building's windows in April 2021 as part of Extinction Rebellion protestNine climate protesters have been cleared by a jury of causing 500,000 worth of criminal damage to the windows at the headquarters of HSBC bank in London.The women, who were all taking action as members of Extinction Rebellion, sang and chanted as they shattered the custom-made glass windows with hammers and chisels at about 7am on 22 April 2021. Continue reading...

Superb singers, pollen showers and some jambalaya on the bayou. The winners of the sixth annual BirdLife Australia Bird Photography awards have been announced

Researcher says data suggests permit conditions breached on up to 70 days, but United Utilities disputes findingsSuspected illegal dumping of raw sewage into Windermere took place on up to 70 days in 2022, a year in which campaigners said the lake had its worst summer of harmful algal blooms, according to analysis of data released under environmental information rules.Prof Peter Hammond, whose research first identified the scale of illegal raw sewage discharges from English water companies, has analysed detailed data on spills and treatment by United Utilities, which was released by the Environment Agency. Continue reading...

Government and Ofgem aim to prevent delays to projects such as Tata's 4bn electric battery factoryThe UK energy secretary could be handed powers to fast-track connecting electricity-hungry projects, such as Jaguar Land Rover's owner Tata's planned electric battery factory, to the grid, under plans being discussed between government and regulators.Amid concerns about delays of up to 15 years in hooking up large schemes, the Guardian understands the move would allow Claire Coutinho to request that energy network companies accelerate upgrades to substations and power lines to connect specific new developments. Continue reading...

Scientists in eastern China find 24 out of 28 water samples have plastic particles commonly seen in synthetic fibers and packagingAir, water, soil, food and even blood - microplastics have found their way virtually everywhere on Earth, and now that list includes clouds.Bits of plastic particles were recently discovered above eastern China, with new research showing that these microplastics could influence cloud formation and the weather. Continue reading...

Species populations falling, with some decreasing due to loss of habitat and less food availabilityMore than half the seabird species breeding on British and Irish coasts have declined over the last 20 years, according to the most comprehensive census to date.Eleven of 21 nesting seabirds species have fallen, five species have remained stable and five have increased, some because of targeted conservation work, according to the Seabirds Count survey. Continue reading...

Former chair of climate change committee says UK's decision has encouraged other countries to keep exploiting fossil fuelsThe UK's decision to open a new coalmine in Cumbria was a disaster" that encouraged other countries to press ahead with fossil fuels, and the continued expansion of North Sea oil and gas is likely to continue the harm, a former chief adviser to the government has said.Other countries are using the UK as an excuse for pressing ahead with fossil fuel projects despite their climate commitments, according to Adair Turner, the first chair of the Committee on Climate Change and a former head of the CBI. Continue reading...

Concerns rose when no wind projects were put forward for government's recent clean energy auctionThe government will offer significantly higher subsidies for new offshore windfarms after crisis talks with developers that are battling cost inflation across global energy supply chains.Ministers have agreed to raise the starting price of the government's next auction for offshore wind subsidies by around two-thirds to 73 per megawatt hour to help more offshore windfarm projects to move ahead despite higher costs. Continue reading...

Group which owns Kmart and Target has not signed up to initiative that would impose 4 cent levy on garments to fund research