Beaches in southern California littered with timber, twisted metals, charred silt and urban runoff from Palisades fireLos Angeles county beaches are contending with the aftermath of recent wildfires and winter storms as debris from the Palisades fire and urban runoff are carried to the shoreline.After last week's major rainstorm, beaches in southern California have been littered with timber, twisted metals, construction materials and charred silt and sediment originating from the Palisades fire in January. That blaze, along with the Eaton fire, killed at least 29 people. Continue reading...
Workers at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fear crackdown will have global falloutThe Trump administration has set its sights on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the US's pre-eminent climate research agency, with significant cuts and a political crackdown on climate science. As Trump takes aim at the agency, the impact is likely to be felt across the US and around the world.Noaa provides essential resources to the public and has helped make the US a scientific leader internationally. Operating 18 satellites and 15 research and survey ships, the agency's scientists, engineers and policy experts issue forecasts relied on by aviation, agriculture and fishing industries. It advises on species protection and provides ocean floor mapping depended upon for shipping and increasingly precise and accurate modeling on what to expect as climate crisis unfolds. Continue reading...
Advocacy groups are better prepared than the first term for legal challenges - but will the administration obey rulings?Amid spending freezes and policy rollbacks from Donald Trump, environmental advocacy groups are gearing up for a long series of legal showdowns with the administration.The experience of suing Trump during his first term has left the movement better prepared, but the court battles will still be daunting, with the administration appearing to test the nation's legal boundaries in an effort to consolidate power under the executive branch. Continue reading...
It's time to rethink how climate action succeeds. The key is to acknowledge that it's never the sole force driving political decisionsWe are witnessing the most devastating climate disasters on record: wildfires ravaging Los Angeles, deadly floods in North Carolina, and global temperature records shattered month after month. We have officially surpassed 1.5C of warming, a critical threshold scientists have long warned against. At the same time, the US is scaling back policies, freezing critical programs and shifting priorities away from climate action.But now isn't the time to give up on climate action. Instead, it is high time to rethink how it succeeds. Continue reading...
Thousands of seafarers are left on board their vessels in foreign waters, unpaid, with scant supplies - and no way of getting homeWhen Vihaan* set off from his home in Tamil Nadu, south India, to work on a vessel crossing the Bay of Bengal into neighbouring Bangladesh, he told his family he would be gone a few months. After delivering his cargo of stone to Bangladesh's Kutubdia Island, the marine engineer was due to head home in March 2024 to disembark at Thoothukudi port, India.But that month, the rusting tug, the Navimar 3, which was being operated by Middle East Marine (MEM), was detained by the authorities in Bangladesh due to unpaid fees. For almost a year, Vihaan has become a virtual prisoner on board, he says, forced to work without pay to keep the vessel safe, amid strong currents where it is anchored off the island in the cyclone-prone bay. His passport and certification documents are being held by a local agent for the Dubai-based company. With no means of getting home, no visa to disembark and without supplies, he has to rely on food and water from charities and unions. Continue reading...
Boat tour captures video of Northern right whale dolphins, Pacific white-sided dolphins and light grey baby calvesMore than 2,000 dolphins gathered off the California coast to form a superpod", gliding and breaching the clear, aquamarine waters off Monterey Bay.The superpod included Northern right whale dolphins and Pacific white-sided dolphins, as well as light grey baby calves. Evan Brodsky, a captain and videographer with the private boat tour company Monterey Bay Whale Watch, captured a video of the dolphins, and his company shared it on Facebook, calling the spectacle mind-blowing". Continue reading...
Volklec aims to start making batteries at part-government-funded site near Coventry before building its own factoryA startup has said it has learned from Britain's faltering attempts to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles, as it signed a deal to license technology from an established Chinese firm.Coventry-based Volklec plans to manufacture batteries for cars, boats, construction vehicles and aircraft using technology from China's Far East Battery (FEB), a maker of batteries mainly for electric bikes. Continue reading...
An educator, archaeologist and scientist were among the thousands of government workers culled by Musk's agencyThe Trump administration has fired at least 20,000 government employees in its first month, as Elon Musk's so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge) dramatically overhauls work at federal agencies. Some economists have speculated that these terminations, which could affect nearly 300,000 workers, will be the biggest job cuts in US history.Most of the workers cut were in probationary periods and lacked job protections that come with longer terms of employment. In social media spaces, especially the r/fednews subreddit, these workers described scenes of confusion and feelings of anger directed at Musk, an unelected billionaire dubbed a special government employee" by the White House. Last week, unions for federal workers sued the Trump administration for unlawfully using probationary periods to cut staff. Continue reading...
Dry pattern seen among entire lower basin' of the Colorado River, including Arizona and desert cities such as Las VegasDramatic rainstorms earlier this month brought more than 6in of rain to the California mountains - a full month's worth of rain in little more than a day - but the deluge wasn't enough to reverse a worsening drought trend that is set to intensify further in the coming weeks and months.Along the iconic Pacific Coast highway in Malibu, where just weeks earlier flames leveled hundreds of oceanside homes, a Los Angeles firefighter was washed out to sea, and later rescued. Continue reading...
Union conference dominated by row over planned inheritance tax changes as farmers battle the bad weather and turbulent geopoliticsFarmers are warning of a cashflow crisis" that has left many in the agricultural sector wondering how they will make it to the end of the year.At the annual meeting of the National Farmers' Union (NFU) of England and Wales, its president told members that bad policy, geopolitics and unprecedented weather" had left some sectors of UK farming in the worst cashflow crisis ever". Continue reading...
Exclusive: The deeply troubling' move comes amid concerns US ignoring international climate ramificationsUS officials have missed recent international climate forums sparking concerns about a potentially significant shift from Donald Trump's first term, a review of meeting records and interviews with meeting attendees by the Centre for Climate Reporting and the Guardian show.On his first day back as president, Trump signed an executive order on stage in front of supporters at an arena in Washington DC which he said was aimed at quitting what he called the unfair one-sided Paris climate accord rip off". Trump's exit from the Paris agreement means the US will join Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only countries outside the international agreement adopted in 2015 to limit global warming. Continue reading...
by Nina Lakhani Climate justice reporter on (#6VGPC)
Protesters who tried to disrupt completion of Mountain Valley pipeline to defend themselves in Virginia courtClimate activists who tried to disrupt the completion of a fossil-fuel pipeline through Appalachian forests will appear in court in Virginia on Tuesday to face serious criminal charges that they vehemently deny.The Mountain Valley pipeline (MVP) was pushed through by the Biden administration in mid-2023 - overriding court orders, regulatory blocks and widespread opposition to the 300-mile (480km) fossil fuel project. Biden's decision triggered a wave of non-violent protests and civil disobedience against the pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia as work crews rushed to finish construction of the pipeline through sensitive waterways and protected forests. Continue reading...
Each spring since 2003, Jon Aars, senior scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute, and his team have conducted an annual polar bear monitoring program on Svalbard - collaring, capturing and taking samples from as many bears as they can across several weeks.
After last year's Cop16 biodiversity talks in Cali left key issues unresolved, the extra summit will attempt to seek consensus, especially over fundingGlobal talks to halt the loss of nature will reopen today in Rome, amid loss of trust" in the United Nations-led process and concerns that countries will not turn up for the meeting. Delegates are due to meet at Cop16, the UN's biodiversity conference, to discuss global targets to stop nature loss by 2030.The additional meeting in Rome was called after talks were suspended in confusion in the Colombian city of Cali in November when they overran and delegates left to catch flights home. Continue reading...
In today's newsletter: The government is refusing to back down over its changes to inheritance tax breaks for farmers - here's why the issue is still rumbling onGood morning. It's a time-honoured tradition: the minister arriving to speak to a conference hall full of people who absolutely hate him, and getting roundly pilloried as he sticks to the government line. Today, it might be the environment secretary Steve Reed's turn. His adversaries: a large number of implacably angry farmers.Whether or not they bring pitchforks, the attendees who listen to his speech at the National Farmers' Union conference are up in arms because of the government's refusal to back down over its changes to inheritance tax breaks for farmers. And while Reed is coming with policy changes that he says will be to the benefit of British farmers, like a five-year extension of the seasonal farm workers' scheme, they are unlikely to be enough to earn him a warm welcome.Ukraine | Donald Trump has said the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, would accept European peacekeepers in Ukraine as part of a potential deal to end the three-year war. After meeting with Trump, Emmanuel Macron stressed that peace must not mean a surrender of Ukraine or ceasefire without guarantees".House of Lords | One in 10 members of the House of Lords have been hired to give political or policy advice, according to their own declarations, and others do paid work for companies that could conflict with their role as legislators. The findings in a Guardian investigation raise questions over lobbying rules in the second chamber.Gaza | At least 160 healthcare workers from Gaza, including more than 20 doctors, are believed to still be inside Israeli detention facilities as the World Health Organisation expressed deep concern about their wellbeing and safety. The detained group includes some of the most senior physicians in Gaza.Politics | Mike Amesbury, the MP for Runcorn and Helsby, has been sentenced to 10 weeks in prison for punching a man to the ground. Amesbury, who was suspended by the Labour party after an investigation, last month admitted a single charge of section 39 assault in relation to the incident.AI | More than 1,000 musicians, including Kate Bush, Damon Albarn and Annie Lennox, have released a silent album in protest against UK government plans to let artificial intelligence companies use copyright-protected work without permission. Continue reading...
Environment secretary will hope move can reset relations with farmers after inheritance tax rowThe environment secretary, Steve Reed, is to announce a five-year extension of the seasonal farm worker scheme in an attempt to reset relations with farmers after fury over inheritance tax.Making his pitch to farmers at the National Farmers' Union conference in central London on Tuesday, Reed will also announce the opening of a new national biosecurity centre to tackle diseases including foot-and-mouth and bluetongue. Continue reading...
Study shows funding bias towards animals like rhino while other endangered species including amphibians and algae disregardedMost global conservation funds go to larger, charismatic animals, leaving critically important but less fashionable species deprived, a 25-year study has revealed.Scientists have found that of the $1.963bn allocated to projects worldwide, 82.9% was assigned to vertebrates. Plants and invertebrates each accounted for 6.6% of the funding, while fungi and algae were barely represented at less than 0.2%. Continue reading...
Oil and gas interests coordinate campaign to stop local and state policies, putting climate at risk, new report showsOil and gas interests have waged a coordinated campaign to kill pro-electrification policies that ban gas connections in new buildings, putting the climate at risk, according to a new report.Since 2019, utilities and fossil fuel trade groups, including the American Gas Association (AGA) and National Propane Gas Association (NPGA), have worked together to successfully thwart various local and state efforts. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Union concerned over safety as site's bosses say budget does not cover work plannedSellafield has said nearly 3bn in new funding is not enough" and bosses are now examining swingeing cuts, prompting fears over jobs and safety at the vast nuclear waste dump.The Cumbrian nuclear site, which is home to the world's largest store of plutonium, was last week awarded 2.8bn for the next financial year, the bulk of the total of just over 4bn funds allotted to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, a taxpayer-owned and funded quango. Continue reading...
Goal of increasing renewable energy generation 20-fold to be ditched, shareholders to be told this weekBP is expected to ditch a target to ramp up renewable energy generation by 2030 as part of a shift back towards fossil fuels when it presents its strategy to investors this week.The chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, is poised to tell shareholders that the oil and gas company is scrapping its target to increase renewable generation 20-fold between 2019 and 2030 to 50 gigawatts, Reuters reported. Continue reading...
The January blazes wiped out a thriving communal food pathway unique to the Altadena neighborhood, but farmers are starting to plan for its renewalIn Choi Chatterjee and Omer Sayeed's Altadena backyard, beehives produced pounds of honey, copious amounts of fruit and vegetables were harvested, and hens laid plenty of fresh eggs. A couple of pygmy goats and a pair of 100-pound tortoises, Layla and Manju, roamed the urban farm, keeping the weeds trimmed, the compost turned and the soil alive with microbes, much to the delight of the hundreds of visitors who have enjoyed free tours and home-cooked meals since the couple began offering them in 2020.Passersby were often drawn to the Chatterjee-Sayeed residence since the lush butterfly-filled parkway next to their home has served as a free communal garden for more than a decade. Neighbors were welcome to stop by for persimmons, guavas, nopal pads, herbs and varieties of citrus. We'd get 100 to 200 pomegranates and just hand them out to whoever was walking by," said Chatterjee, who is co-director of the Urban Ecology Center at Cal State LA. It was just bustling with life." Continue reading...
Their metamorphosis seems more like a human's than a butterfly's - so much is visible, and awkward, whereas the butterfly forms in secretSome species of frog have eyes so sensitive to light that they can detect a single photon. To confirm this, scientists dissected a frog's eye and removed the lens. If you dissected eyes in biology class, you may remember that a lens is extraordinarily simple and unlike other organs. It is a hard, clearish, object that comes out clean: no blood supply, no blood. It looks like a glass bead, and functions - inanimate - much like glass, and not like most things we find in our body (except maybe teeth, which function like knives). Look through the lens at the classroom around you, you will see it clearly, but upside down.A frog in space, moving further and further from the sun, would eventually start to see not a shrinking star but tiny flashes of light: individual photons. This is because as the photons travel further from their source, they are spread over greater areas: they will hit a frog's eye less and less often. Continue reading...
Environment justice advocates say tools to study pollution in vulnerable communities by companies, including xAI and SpaceX, have disappearedAs Donald Trump's administration continues its purge of federal agencies, environmental justice campaigners are alarmed by the disappearance of federal environmental and climate data tools - some of which have been used to identify pollution concerns about Elon Musk's companies.Several federal agencies, including the EPA and CDC, previously published data regarding pollution levels across the country, as well as data about the vulnerability of each census tract, such as poverty rates and life expectancy. Several of the websites containing that data have gone dark in the weeks following Trump's inauguration. Continue reading...
Emissions estimated at 55m tonnes in 2024 and nearly 230m tonnes in three years of warThe burning of Ukraine's forests at unprecedented rates over the past year has helped push the total greenhouse emissions from the war since Russia's full-scale invasion to almost 230m tonnes, analysis shows.The study, published on the third anniversary of the invasion, found the fighting and its consequences had led to 55m tonnes of emissions in the past 12 months. Continue reading...
The rare sighting of two common short-beaked dolphins hints at an environmental success storyWhen New Yorkers were graced by the presence of two dolphins in the city's East River earlier this month, marine experts said such a sighting was rare - but also a sign that this spring and summer season could be a good one for spotting more marine mammals, both great and small.On the morning of 14 February, a pair of common short-beaked dolphins was spotted alongside Manhattan's Upper East Side. Experts tracking them observed that they lingered until 17 February, swimming up and down the fast-flowing channel that divides Manhattan from the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn and is lined with skyscrapers. Continue reading...
by Patrick Greenfield, Daisy Dunne and Giuliana Vigli on (#6VFRD)
Many of the nations gathering in Rome for Cop16 have offered no plans to honour their agreement to protect 30% of land and sea for natureMore than half the world's countries have no plans to protect 30% of land and sea for nature, despite committing to a global agreement to do so less than three years ago, new analysis shows.In late 2022, nearly every country signed a once-in-a-decade UN deal to halt the destruction of Earth's ecosystems. It included a headline target to protect nearly a third of the planet for biodiversity by the end of the decade - a goal known as 30 by 30". Continue reading...
Exclusive: Top officials and climate policy experts believe delays in cutting emissions make it improbable 2045 target will be metScotland is likely to miss its legally binding climate target by up to 20m tonnes, according to official data seen by the Guardian.The Scottish government set itself the world-leading target of reaching net zero - the point where any excess carbon emissions are soaked up by trees, peat or carbon capture - by 2045. Continue reading...
Despite conflicting laws, a wave of amateur homesteaders have started keeping fowl in the spirit of self-sufficiencyKatie Whalen's backyard in the Florida city of Port St Lucie is testament to her journey towards a life of self-sufficiency. She grows mangoes, avocados, starfruit, jackfruit and coconuts. She is cultivating a tropical tree spinach known as chaya.What she really wants, however, is a chicken coop and hens to provide eggs that are becoming increasingly unaffordable in stores. As bird flu worsens across the US and commercial suppliers struggle to keep up with demand, the keeping of fowl and production of eggs in home environments, has surged in popularity, and Whalen is keen to join the revolution. Continue reading...
Unions have accused UK government of failing to act quickly enough to save jobs, but Labour says it took time to build credible proposalKeir Starmer has announced 200m in funding to boost investment at Grangemouth oil refinery, which is closing down with the loss of more than 400 jobs.The prime minister said the national wealth fund would provide 200m in state investment for up to five companies who moved to Grangemouth, where several thousand jobs in the wider supply chain are also at risk. He said that should leverage up to 600m more in private investment. Continue reading...
Robust group of organizers - including midwives, environmental justice advocates and urban gardeners - rewrite what it means to be from the US mountain regionAppalachia, which spans from southern New York to northern Mississippi, usually evokes images of white working-class people, as depicted in JD Vance's 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy. But it's little known to people outside of the region that there's a robust community of Black organizers who are rewriting the narrative of what it means to be Appalachian.While just 10% of Appalachia is made up of Black residents, they are disproportionately impacted by resource extraction that has led to adverse effects on the environment, health and access to food. But Black activists in Appalachia such as Staysha Quentrill, a midwife and reproductive justice advocate in West Virginia; the Right Rev Marcia Dinkins, an environmental justice advocate in Ohio; and Femeika Elliott, a foodways practictioner in Tennessee are working to improve the wellbeing and safety of the people in their communities. Continue reading...
Former federal employees devastated by president's mass firings: We're at risk of losing our public lands to the billionaire agenda'Approximately 2,300 people have been terminated from the agencies that manage the 35m acres (14m hectares) of federal public lands in the US.These are our lands. They encompass national parks and forests, wilderness and marine protected areas, scenic rivers. They are home to campgrounds, river accesses, hiking trails and myriad other sites and facilities that more than 500 million people visit each year. Continue reading...
Research group says discovery could lead to new type of environmentally friendly farmingA biological mechanism that makes plant roots more attractive to soil microbes has been discovered by scientists in the UK. The breakthrough - by researchers at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, Norfolk - opens the door to the creation of crops requiring reduced amounts of nitrate and phosphate fertilisers, they say.We can now think of developing a new type of environmentally friendly farming with crops that require less artificial fertiliser," said Dr Myriam Charpentier, whose group carried out the research. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#6VEW6)
Fast fashion and drinks cans among technological-age matter most likely to endure as fossils, say scientistsAs an eternal testament of humanity, plastic bags, cheap clothes and chicken bones are not a glorious legacy. But two scientists exploring which items from our technological civilisation are most likely to survive for many millions of years as fossils have reached an ironic but instructive conclusion: fast food and fast fashion will be our everlasting geological signature.Plastic will definitely be a signature technofossil', because it is incredibly durable, we are making massive amounts of it, and it gets around the entire globe," says the palaeontologist Prof Sarah Gabbott, a University of Leicester expert on the way that fossils form. So wherever those future civilisations dig, they are going to find plastic. There will be a plastic signal that will wrap around the globe." Continue reading...
The PM and his ministers are supporting illiberal laws that hard-right authoritarians could apply with zealIf the Trump project implodes, it might take with it the extreme and far-right European parties to which it is umbilically connected. Like all such parties, the hard-right Reform UK poses as patriotic while grovelling to foreign interests, and this could be its undoing.But we cannot bank on it. The UK government must do all it can to prevent the disaster that has befallen several other European nations. If it fails to meet people's needs and keeps echoing far-right talking points, we could go the same way as Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, Finland, Sweden and Austria.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnistDo 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...
In Buriticupu, about 1,200 people risk losing their homes, and residents have seen the problem escalate in 30 yearsAuthorities in a city in the Brazilian Amazon have declared a state of emergency after huge sinkholes opened up, threatening hundreds of homes.Several buildings in Buriticupu, in Maranhao state, have already been destroyed, and about 1,200 people of a population of 55,000 risk losing their homes into a widening abyss. Continue reading...
As Ningaloo reef bleaches and an election looms, we must hold to account those who stand in the way of our safety - the small cohort profiting from fossil fuels, and the politicians who protect themLate last spring, I was part of an expedition to Scott Reef, a magnificent coral atoll nearly 300 kilometres off the Kimberley coast. And while it was a privilege to be in such a remote and wonderful place, watching rare and endemic sea life drifting past, the moment I tipped from the boat in my mask and fins, I knew something was wrong.The water was too hot. Not tropical warm, but uncomfortably hot. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Ged Kearney, Kate Thwaites, Josh Burns, Jerome Laxale, Sally Sitou, Alicia Payne, Josh Wilson and Renee Coffey will get extra door-knocking, phone banking and push ads
Concerns are mounting that depleting already thinned ranks will only hamper extreme weather response effortsFederal agencies that play crucial roles in administering conservation, recreation and resource development across roughly than 640m acres of the nation's public lands were thrust into a state of chaos this week after the Trump administration fired thousands of federal workers, leaving key operational gaps in its wake.The agencies are also on the frontline of mitigating the escalating effects from the climate crisis and concerns are mounting that the depletion of already thinned ranks will only hamper efforts to respond and recover from extreme weather events. Continue reading...
US government stripping funds from domestic and overseas research amid warnings for health and public safetyThe Trump administration is stripping away support for scientific research in the US and overseas that contains a word it finds particularly inconvenient: climate."The US government is withdrawing grants and other support for research that even references the climate crisis, academics have said, amid Donald Trump's blitzkrieg upon environmental regulations and clean-energy development. Continue reading...
Expert recommendations will influence plans for energy, housing, transport industry and farming for decadesLabour will next week be confronted with stark policy choices that threaten to expose the fault lines between the Treasury and the government's green ambitions, as advice for the UK's next carbon budget is published.Plans for the energy sector, housing, transport, industry and farming will all be called into question in a sweeping set of recommendations for how the UK can meet the legally binding target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Continue reading...
Tall buildings fare poorly in derechos, say experts, raising questions over their resilience as climate crisis worsensSkyscrapers built to withstand major hurricanes fare much more poorly in less powerful windstorms known as derechos, researchers have found, raising questions for cities worldwide over the resilience of tall buildings as the climate emergency worsens.A team from Florida International University's (FIU) civil and environmental engineering department studied the unexpectedly severe damage caused to buildings in Houston, a city with 50 skyscrapers of 492ft (150 metres) or more, during the 16 May 2024 derecho. Continue reading...
The annual competition draws thousands of entries from across the world and brings together images from below the water's surface that show the diversity and challenges of subaquatic life