Campaigners raise concerns about water industry links as Lib Dems say watchdog should be abolishedThe appointments of the current and previous chairs of the water regulator Ofwat should be investigated, campaigners have said, as the Liberal Democrats called for the watchdog to be abolished.Jonson Cox, a former chair of the regulator, had multimillion-pound links with the privatised water industry before taking up the role. The current chair, Iain Coucher, remains a senior adviser to a global private equity firm that has interests in the water industry in the US. Continue reading...

The joint chief executive of Thames Water has refused to apologise for allowing water companies to increase their debt during her time as chief of Ofwat, the water regulator. Cathryn Ross's comments came during a parliamentary committee session with Thames Water bosses as concerns mount over the financial viability of the company. Thames Water has secured 750m of emergency funding from its shareholders but the debt-ridden company warned it would need further funding in the years ahead

Exclusive: The ongoing strength of rooftop solar installations contrasts with the sharp slowdown in new large-scale solar farms

Phil Scott says damage is historic and catastrophic'; parts of the US south and southwest are suffering extreme heat

Nuclear bomb fallout marks dawn of new epoch in which humanity dominates planetThe site to represent the start of the Anthropocene epoch on Earth has been selected by scientists. It will mark the end of 11,700 years of a stable global environment in which the whole of human civilisation developed and the start of a new age, dominated by human activities.The site is a sinkhole lake in Canada. It hosts annual sediments showing clear spikes due to the colossal impact of humanity on the planet from 1950 onwards, from plutonium from hydrogen bomb tests to the particles from fossil fuel burning that have showered the globe. Continue reading...

Environment Victoria calls for Andrews government to end opposition to commonwealth water purchases to save river

Pipeline of solar and onshore wind projects could fall short of what's needed, while carbon capture will be a crucial component', report says

Week of dangerous weather to continue across the US, as July warnings about the climate crisis intensifyFlash flood warnings were still in place in parts of Vermont on Tuesday morning, as the state capital Montpelier's downtown was under water and officials fear a local dam could fail for the first time since it was built, threatening further inundation.There were hopes that waters that have flooded several other towns in the state, which is not typically a hotspot for severe flooding, would start to recede, according to local news reports, while warnings about the Wrightsville Dam on a large reservoir in Washington county, were issued. Continue reading...

The country is suffering its worst drought in 74 years, with the government even mixing saltwater into the drinking supplyA plan to build a Google data centre that will use millions of litres of water a day has sparked anger in Uruguay, which is suffering its worst drought in 74 years.Water shortages are so severe in the country that a state of emergency has been declared in Montevideo and the authorities have added salty water to the public drinking water supplies, prompting widespread protests. Continue reading...

RSPCA accuses government of race to the bottom for animal welfare standards' with post-Brexit trade dealBattery eggs should not be sold in the UK as part of post-Brexit trade deals, animal welfare groups have said, as the government prepares to allow them to be imported.As part of the new Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), ministers are expected to give the green light to battery eggs to be imported from countries including Mexico. Continue reading...

Charity urges government to act amid fears mental health of young people is at breaking point'Play campaigners in the UK are calling for urgent action at the highest level of government to reduce the danger children face from traffic on residential roads.Playing Out, a national charity set up to help parents close roads for play, has reported a rise in temporary road closures on residential streets as parents try to help children play outside safely. Continue reading...

Fishers and retailers say mining's impact on tuna fishing in the Pacific might be felt on supermarket shelves around the worldSeafood groups representing a third of the world's tuna trade as well as major supermarket suppliers are the latest groups to call for a pause on deep-sea mining, after a new study published today showed tropical tuna fishing grounds in the Pacific would overlap with mining plans.The Global Tuna Alliance partners, which account for 32% of global tuna sales and represent Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Asda, Marks & Spencer and Aldi in the UK, joined the Sustainable Seafood Coalition, made up of 45 British seafood firms, to condemn the rush to mine the seabed. Continue reading...

Six people died and three others were missing after heavy rain triggered floods and landslides in south-west Japan.The Japan meteorological agency warned residents of Kyushu - one of the country's four main islands - to stay alert for more landslides, a common hazard in mountainous areas after heavy rainfall.Japan has been hit by unusually heavy rain and powerful typhoons in recent years, raising fears about its vulnerability to the climate crisis

Experts and former ministers have also said the developments would not reduce energy prices in the UKNew oil and gas fields in the North Sea would produce only enough gas to satisfy the UK's needs for a few weeks a year, with a minimal impact on energy security, analysis has found.Fields now under consideration would supply at most an additional three weeks of gas a year to the UK, from 2024 to 2050, even if none of the gas was exported. Continue reading...

David Lammy says Labour government would join growing list of countries and multinationals opposing rush to mine the seabedThe Labour party has said the UK should back the call for a precautionary pause on deep-sea mining, ahead of a crucial meeting of nations in Jamaica to decide the future of the industry.David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, said the Labour party was adding its voice to a growing list of countries and businesses urging that moves to start mining be halted until and unless" there was clear scientific evidence that it could be done safely and the marine environment would be protected by new regulations. Continue reading...

In Celtic mythology they're known as fairy cattle"The word deer comes from dor and der, which in old and middle English meant, simply, animal". The Dutch word dier" still means this. The sense of a deer as an animal, as opposed to a human - it has been found to have referred to ants, fish and foxes - may come from wilddornes", the origin of wilderness or wild-animal-ness.Deer still seem to embody this mysterious animal-ness: four-legged wildness, dainty and strong, mysterious and controlled. You may say it is all in the antlers: I say it is all in the tail. I saw a small herd of fallow deer in London's Clissold park recently. A doe walked up to the fence as I walked past, then turned away and flicked her white tail: a flash of white, like a shooting star you're not sure you've seen, like the tap of a fluffy wand, like a cute cursor blinking. Continue reading...

New guidance says carbon credits should only be used to contribute to climate mitigationCompanies should drop offsetting-based environmental claims and adopt a climate contribution" model instead, according to a new quality standard.In a new code of practice, the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) has published guidance on how companies should use carbon credits as part of high-quality corporate action. It recommends that firms should disclose their emissions every year, show they are successfully meeting a science-based target aligned with the Paris agreement, and only use carbon credits to contribute to climate mitigation, moving away from claims that they have cancelled out" their emissions by purchasing offsets. Continue reading...

Hottest summer on record - fuelled by climate crisis - brought unusually high mortality rates, statistics showSearing heat killed more than 60,000 people in Europe last summer, scientists have found, in a disaster made deadlier by greenhouse gases baking the planet.EU statisticians rang alarm bells in August, as sweltering heat, withering drought and raging fires consumed much of the continent, after seeing unusually high numbers of people die during Europe's hottest summer on record. Continue reading...

Country's top cop said 90% of miners despoiling Yanomami land had been expelled, though experts say they are only displacedBrazil's top federal police chief for the Amazon has celebrated the government's success in driving thousands of illegal miners from the country's largest Indigenous territory but warned the war" against environmental criminals is not yet over.Speaking during a visit to the Amazon city of Belem, Humberto Freire estimated environmental and police special forces had expelled 90% of the 20,000 miners who had been devastating the protected Yanomami territory, since launching their clampdown in February. Continue reading...

Residents in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand warned not to go outside and Delhi schools closed amid flooding and landslides in multiple statesTorrential rain across northern India has killed at least 22 people, causing landslides and flash floods in the region, with Delhi receiving the most rainfall in decades, reports and officials have said.Schools in Delhi were closed after heavy rains lashed the national capital over the weekend, and authorities in the Himalayan states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand asked people not to venture out of their homes unless necessary. Continue reading...

Villagers who have kept pre-Hispanic milpa methods alive for years are seeing new markets spring up in the YucatanTeresa de Jesus Cen Requena is washing burgundy okra and a rainbow of freshly dug carrots at Mestiza de Indias, a regenerative agricultural project hidden down a dirt track in the jungle near the Maya village of Espita. You used to be able to live from your milpa," the farm worker says, referring to the traditional smallholding. But now many people from the village go to Cancun because they want modern luxuries.You can't buy a mobile phone with a bag of beans but I don't care - I am connected to this land."Teresa de Jesus Cen Requena, who works at the Mestiza de Indias regenerative farm, stands outside her home with her mother-in-law in their huipiles Continue reading...

Almost 200 bird species found to build nests with human litter, including cigarette butts, plastic bags and fishing netsBirds build nests with rubbish like cigarette butts, plastic bags and fishing nets, scientists say, raising fears for the safety of their chicks.Research shows 176 bird species have been found to build nests with human litter, including items that hurt them and their offspring. Continue reading...

Earth draws parallels between human impact on climate and volcanic eruptions that ripped through planet's crust 250 million years agoThe terror factor" generated by the new BBC series Earth - which re-creates a climate change event that wiped out most species 250 million years ago - could help spur us on to do something" about the environment crisis, according to its presenter, Chris Packham.Using the latest scientific discoveries and visual effects, the BBC's biography of Earth" shows the parallels between a deadly change in the atmosphere caused by a series of cataclysmic supervolcano eruptions millions of years ago and mankind's fossil fuel emissions, which Packham explains are destabilising ... with terrifying rapidity" Earth's protective layer of gases. Continue reading...

Group thanks woman who threw confetti at former chancellor's wedding but urges people to focus on out of control' global heatingJust Stop Oil has applauded a woman who threw orange confetti at the wedding of the ex-chancellor George Osborne but denied that it, as a campaign group, was responsible.The protest took place as Osborne and his bride, Thea Rogers, left a church in the village of Bruton, Somerset on Saturday. Continue reading...

Plastics consumed nationally in 2019-20 created 16m tonnes of greenhouse gases, report says

David Duguid opposing tax while wife is in receipt of BP dividends raises questions over potential conflict of interest

Margaret Atwood and Cormac McCarthy led the way. Now a new crop of novelists is putting the heating emergency at the forefront of their plotsScience fiction has always dealt with worst-case scenarios when imagining our possible futures, and the climate has often formed the backdrop of the human struggles.Some of the biggest names writing in the genre have tackled the climate crisis and its apocalyptic or dystopian consequences - Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, Bruce Sterling's Heavy Weather. Continue reading...

Shy broad-toothed rat found after a detection dog tracked down its bright green poo

Woman empties bag of orange confetti from union jack bag over former chancellorThe wedding of former chancellor George Osborne has been disrupted by a protest from environmental group Just Stop Oil.About 200 people, including a number of well-known politicians and journalists, gathered in the Somerset village of Bruton on Saturday to mark the 52-year-old's marriage to Thea Rodgers, 40, who worked as his aide during his time at the Treasury. Continue reading...

Exclusive: General manager says chemical analysis shows slight overlap' of mine lead and samples from local residents' rainwater tanks

Rafael Grossi met with protests in Seoul during visit to try to calm fears over radioactive water dischargeProtesters have confronted the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog during a visit to South Korea in an attempt to calm fears over Japan's plan to discharge treated radioactive water from its Fukushima plant.Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Seoul on Friday to meet the foreign minister and a top nuclear safety official during a three-day visit after his trip to Japan. Continue reading...

Drones and personal watercraft among measures to protect beachgoers but expert calls for perspective over shark attack dataNew York lifeguards are being trained to use drones and personal watercraft after recent shark bites off local beaches - but one shark expert believes such solutions lack specialist input.Officials in New York's Long Island say they are upgrading training after five people were reportedly bitten by sharks since Monday, including two minors. Continue reading...

Garden designer says landlords have a responsibility to let renters improve outdoor space and help environmentLandlords have a responsibility to allow renters to garden, a top garden designer has said while exhibiting a portable" wildlife courtyard at Hampton Court Palace garden festival.Flatpack raised beds and a portable pond feature in Zoe Claymore's garden, designed for the Wildlife Trusts, which aims to demonstrate that outdoor furniture can be as easy to move from home to home as the indoor kind. Continue reading...

UK motorists may need to get stickers as more low emission zones spring up in French citiesBritish drivers heading over the Channel have long had to factor in a whole host of extra things to carry, from yellow vests to warning triangles. But how many of those making the trip this summer are aware they will need to display a clean air sticker - called a Crit'Air vignette - if they plan to drive into several French cities?In a similar move to the clean air and ultra-low emission zones that have sprung up in the UK, the French have at least 12 zones of their own, with more being added all the time. Continue reading...

Ireland and Sweden join countries calling for moratorium on extraction of metals from seabed as UN-backed authority prepares for crucial talksThe list of countries calling for a pause on deep-sea mining continued to grow this week ahead of a key moment that mining companies hope will launch the fledgling industry, and its opponents hope could clip its wings, perhaps for good.Ireland and Sweden became the latest developed economies to join critics, including scientists, environmental organisations and multinationals such as BMW, Volvo and Samsung. The carmakers have committed not to use minerals mined from the seabed in their electric vehicles. Continue reading...

Company criticised after 6,000 households were left without running water last monthThe company which left thousands of households without running water last month spent more on dividends and servicing its debt pile over two years than investing in infrastructure, it has emerged.South East Water spent 232m on distributing dividends and paying interest on its debts in the two years to March 2022, according to a new analysis. Continue reading...

The UN secretary general has said that 'climate change is out of control', as an unofficial analysis of data showed that average world temperatures in the seven days to Wednesday were the hottest week on record.'If we persist in delaying key measures that are needed, I think we are moving into a catastrophic situation,' said Antonio Guterres after reports emerged about the world temperature records being broken on Monday and Tuesday.The average global air temperature was 17.18C on Tuesday, according to data collated by the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), surpassing the record 17.01C reached on Monday

The animal had largely disappeared from the country, but the years-long debate over its recovery is coming to a headThe most famous wolverine is arguably a surly, lonely superhero human with deadly, retractable claws. One of the most famous actual wolverines, at least in the world of wolverine researchers, was named M56.The wandering male with stubby legs embodied all the elusive mustelid's personality traits when it trekked hundreds of miles from north-west Wyoming through desert and sagebrush sea to Rocky Mountain national park in central Colorado. There he spent a few years looking, presumably, for a mate, before turning back north, walking hundreds of more miles and getting shot by a ranch hand in North Dakota. Continue reading...

In a message of hope' the animals have been brought in from Namibia to establish a group in their historical homelandAfter an epic 36-hour journey, the first native giraffes to be returned to an Angolan national park arrived from Namibia this week, in what many hope to be the first of multiple translocations to return the animals to their historical homeland.The giraffes, seven males and seven females, travelled more than 800 miles (1,300km) from a private game farm near Otjiwarongo in the Otjozondjupa region of central Namibia to Iona national park in the south-west corner of Angola. Continue reading...

International Maritime Organization agreement is inadequate to decarbonise sector, say campaignersAttempts to impose a levy on greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping, in order to fund climate action, have been delayed but not extinguished at the conclusion of talks among 175 governments.Greenhouse gas reduction goals for international shipping were agreed, in a toughening of previous targets, but were criticised as inadequate by campaigners. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Aid NGOs criticise government and Labour after Guardian reveals flagship climate pledge is almost impossible to meetKeir Starmer has been accused of wavering on climate commitments" after the Labour party refused to commit to the 11.6bn climate funding pledge made to the world's poorest nations.Aid NGOs have criticised the government and the Labour party after the Guardian revealed that under current plans, meeting the flagship pledge made at Cop26 to protect vulnerable countries against the climate crisis is almost impossible. Continue reading...

Results contradict public view that disrupting events such as Wimbledon and Pride achieves nothingTheir guerrilla protests" on Britain's roads, at art galleries, museums, and cultural and sporting events have enraged the press, politicians and the public alike. But now experts have said they believe climate activists' most important weapon could be the strategic use of nonviolent disruptive tactics".Nearly seven in 10 of academics surveyed rated disruptive protest tactics as at least quite important" to success of a movement, ranking it as more important than gaining media coverage or even strictly avoiding violent tactics. Continue reading...

The judge rejected Serge Paincahud's scared' defense to fire at a black bear while illegally carrying a shotgun on a trailA Canadian man, who had pleaded guilty to shooting a black bear in a national park, will pay a fine of C$7,500 after the judge rejected his fear" of the predator as justification for bringing a loaded firearm on a popular hiking trail.Serge Painchaud, 42, was this week fined for violating a hunting restriction under the National Parks Act. Continue reading...

Rising temperatures are leaving governments scrambling to prepare - a federal body could help them share best practicesRecord-breaking temperatures. Millions under heat alerts. Hikers dying on hot trails.As large swaths of the US bake under sweltering heat, some advocates and officials say the Biden administration should consider appointing a heat tsar" to manage a response. Continue reading...

Most of the deaths were in Punjab province and mainly caused by electrocution and building collapsesAt least 50 people, including eight children, have been killed by floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains that have lashed Pakistan since last month, officials have said.The summer monsoon between June and September brings 70-80% of south Asia's annual rainfall every year. It is vital for the livelihoods of millions of farmers and food security in a region of about 2 billion people - but it also triggers landslides and floods. Continue reading...

The best of this week's wildlife photographs, including a spectacled bear, roaming goats and marine iguanas Continue reading...

After record breaking days on Monday and Tuesday, unofficial analysis shows the world may have seen its hottest seven days in a rowThe UN secretary general has said that climate change is out of control", as an unofficial analysis of data showed that average world temperatures in the seven days to Wednesday were the hottest week on record.If we persist in delaying key measures that are needed, I think we are moving into a catastrophic situation, as the last two records in temperature demonstrates," Antonio Guterres said, referring to the world temperature records broken on Monday and Tuesday. Continue reading...

Deadline tied to the regulation of controversial plans to extract seabed minerals looms amid division over the practiceDays ahead of a deadline that highlights the pressure to develop rules on deep-sea mining, Cook Islands prime minister Mark Brown said pursuing the controversial practice is the right thing to do for our country."Brown told the Guardian the small Pacific nation continues to proceed with caution" as it studies the feasibility of harvesting seabed minerals within its waters. As the Cook Islands moves ahead, opposition to the nascent industry is widespread - including among Pacific states - with some countries calling for a moratorium or outright ban. Those against deep-sea mining are concerned about the environmental impact it could have on marine ecosystems. Continue reading...

Gabriel Barajas and Malea Tribble thought it was all over for us' - but marine expert suggests shark was merely being inquisitive'A pair of paddleboarders raising money for charity had a frightening encounter with a hammerhead shark that circled them near Florida's coast - and the entire incident was caught on video.Gabriel Barajas and Malea Tribble were paddling from Florida to the Bahamas, an 80-mile journey, to raise money for cystic fibrosis awareness, WJZY reported. Continue reading...

Opposition leader to tell Institute of Public Affairs that domestic reactors are natural next step from Aukus pact