The Guardian

James Hansen, who testified to Congress on global heating in 1988, says world is approaching a ‘new climate frontier’

The world is shifting towards a superheated climate not seen in the past 1m years, prior to human existence, because “we are damned fools” for not acting upon warnings over the climate crisis, according to James Hansen, the US scientist who alerted the world to the greenhouse effect in the 1980s.

Hansen, whose testimony to the US Senate in 1988 is cited as the first high-profile revelation of global heating, warned in a statement with two other scientists that the world was moving towards a “new climate frontier” with temperatures higher than at any point over the past million years, bringing impacts such as stronger storms, heatwaves and droughts.

Bayer and Syngenta accused of breaching legal obligations and unethical behaviour over brain toxicity studies

The pesticide companies Bayer and Syngenta have been excoriated in a European parliament hearing after failing to disclose studies on the brain toxicity of their products.

European regulators said the companies had breached legal obligations and behaved unethically. MEPs questioning executives from the companies said their actions had been “outrageous” and represented a “scandal”. The companies rejected the accusations and said they had provided all relevant studies.

Twenty-three of Italy’s 27 main cities expected to be under red alerts as searing temperatures continue; wildfires north and west of Athens force residents to flee

• Italian hospitals report sharp rise in emergency cases as Rome hits 41.8C

Here are some more images form the wires of the wildfires that swept through forestland and towns north-west of Athens for a second day. The fires forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 children close to a Greek seaside resort.

Tourists flocked to China’s scenic Flaming Mountains to experience searing high temperatures amid punishing heatwaves that have scorched much of the Northern Hemisphere.

Get used to it humanity! The planet you thought you lived on is gone

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At least 97% of the blood samples contained a type of PFAS known as PFOS, associated with multiple serious health problems

California researchers have found new evidence that several chemicals used in plastic production and a wide array of other industrial applications are commonly present in the blood of pregnant women, creating increased health risks for mothers and their babies.

The researchers said their findings add to a growing body of evidence showing that many chemicals people are routinely exposed to are leading to subtle but harmful changes in health. The work should be a “wake-up call” to policymakers, they said.

This story is co-published with the New Lede, a journalism project of the Environmental Working Group

Report finds government goal to plant 30,000 hectares of woodland by March 2025 unlikely to be achieved

The government has met less than half of its annual tree-planting target in England, MPs have found, putting net zero ambitions at risk.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) this year published what it called “ambitious” nature targets, a requirement under the Environment Act, including the goal of planting 30,000 hectares of woodland by March 2025. A report by the environmental audit committee (EAC) of cross-party MPs has found that this target was unlikely to be met.

Lords committee calls for creation of advisory groups to tackle the pollutants, which may increase risk of heart disease and premature death

Light and noise are “neglected pollutants” that are causing significant harm to human health and can cause premature deaths, a group of peers have said.

The science and technology committee of the House of Lords has called on ministers to do more to tackle these pollutants, which it claims are “poorly understood and poorly regulated”.

Searing temperatures from Spain to Greece underline that the climate emergency cannot be put on hold while other crises are prioritised

The weather map of southern Europe remains a deep, sinister red, as the heat soars above 40C in places and closer to 50C in Sicily and Sardinia. In Madrid, some nights are equatorial rather than tropical, as the temperature stays above 25C. June was the hottest month recorded on Earth for 120,000 years. The hottest week came early this month. “Very dangerous long-duration heat”, to use the language of the recent alert issued by the US National Weather Service in Arizona, sums up the experience of the last few weeks across much of the northern hemisphere. Extreme heat, wildfires and floods are ravaging parts of the US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, India and China.

Global heating is not the sole explanation for the hellish impact of Cerberus and Charon, the heatwaves named after mythical denizens of Hades. As in 2016 – the hottest year ever recorded – an emerging El Niño weather pattern is helping drive the barometer upwards. But each time this natural and sporadic event recurs, typically adding 0.2C to the average global temperature, it heats up a planet that is already warmer than before as a result of greenhouse gas emissions.

Court told wild camping is not open-air recreation as park authority appeals against recent ban

Wild camping is not recreation because sleeping is not an enjoyable activity, lawyers acting for a wealthy landowner said in court while defending a judge’s decision to ban the activity on Dartmoor national park.

In a packed courtroom at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Tuesday, lawyers for the Dartmoor national park authority (DNPA) brought an appeal against the decision to ban backpack camping on the common land. The case hinges on whether wild camping counts as “open-air recreation” as allowed in a 1985 law.

Conservationists ‘utterly elated’ at arrival of first offspring since release of 25 of the eagles on Isle of Wight

A white-tailed eagle chick has been born in England for the first time in more than 240 years, and conservationists are “utterly elated” by the new arrival.

White-tailed eagles were once widespread across England but were widely persecuted by humans, and the last record of a pair breeding was in 1780. Since 2019, 25 of these eagles, which are Britain’s biggest bird of prey, have been released to the Isle of Wight as part of an effort to bring back long-lost species.

It is easy to despair as we leave one geological epoch and enter another. Our situation is dire, but we can address it

Land temperatures have hit 60Cin Spain, satellite data shows, with tourists warned to stay off beaches throughout the Mediterranean. Across the pond, more than 100 million Americans are still under extreme heat warnings. The “heat dome” squatting over the south sent thermometers soaring to 56C in Death Valley yesterday, close to the hottest ever recorded on Earth.

The sea is little cooler, with Florida ocean temperatures well above 30C. Further north on land, people are being rescued by dinghies and helicopters from suburban streets as heavy rain causes flooding across Pennsylvania and New York and into New England. Vermont has declared a state of emergency. The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for parts of the midwest, and a severe thunderstorm watch for other states. Parts of Canada have been on fire for months.

Gaia Vince is the author of Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval

Judge sides with Barngarla people when blocking facility near Kimba, citing ‘apprehended bias’ of former Coalition resources minister Keith Pitt

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Traditional owners opposing the federal government’s plan for a nuclear waste dump on their land in South Australia have had a major win, with a court ruling the facility can’t be built.

The Barngarla people were jubilant outside the federal court in Adelaide on Tuesday after justice Natalie Charlesworth said the commonwealth’s decision to build the dump near Kimba would be set aside.

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Voters want climate action but don’t trust politicians to do it. Could projects like a Whitehaven windfarm be the answer?

• Rebecca Willis is professor of energy and climate governance at Lancaster University

The seaside town of Whitehaven, in the north-west of England, found itself at the centre of a political storm in May, when the levelling up, housing and communities secretary, Michael Gove, gave his approval for the UK’s first new deep coalmine in more than 40 years just outside the town.

But Whitehaven may soon be known for more than climate-wrecking coal. That is the ambition of Project Collette, a £3bn proposal for a windfarm off the Cumbrian coast to be part-owned by the local community – instigated by the Green Finance Community Hub in collaboration with the engineering firm Arup and community energy specialists Energy4All – and with the potential to power nearby industry. If Cumbrians could stand on the sandstone cliffs and look out at wind turbines they owned, and that had provided jobs for local people, that might just build the political support and engagement that is so vital to reaching our climate targets?

A month of floods, fire and heatwaves from Rome to Chile

Northern hemisphere suffering severe heatwave and record temperatures; John Kerry signals ‘big steps’ at Beijing talks; China and Vietnam evacuate tens of thousands ahead of typhoon Talim

• Extreme temperatures recorded across northern hemisphere

Meanwhile prolonged high temperatures in China are threatening power grids and crops and raising concerns about a repeat of last year’s drought, the most severe in 60 years.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated in southern China and Vietnam on Monday as typhoon Talim barrelled towards land, AFP reports.

The China Meteorological Administration said typhoon Talim made landfall on the coast of Guangdong province at around 10:20 pm (1420 GMT).

Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua seeks ‘common ground’ in first key summit between two largest carbon emitters since US-Beijing freeze

John Kerry, the US climate envoy, has called for more rapid action to confront the climate crisis in a crucial visit to China that is taking place against a fraught backdrop, with both countries currently baking under record heatwaves and Kerry facing hostile opposition from Republicans back home.

Kerry’s meeting with Xie Zhenhua, his Chinese counterpart, for three days of formal talks in Beijing is the first substantive summit between the world’s two largest carbon emitters on the climate crisis since relations were frozen last August, when Nancy Pelosi, the then-House of Representatives speaker, visited Taiwan, a move condemned by China’s leadership.

People were ordered to leave their homes south-east of Athens on Monday as a wildfire fanned by strong winds burned nearby vegetation. The blaze was raging close to buildings in the village of Kouvaras, about 27km (17 miles) from the Greek capital, and threatening other settlements, the civil protection service said. In Kalyvia, horses were evacuated from stables that had caught light

• Extreme heatwave: live updates

Limiting demand of richest 20% saves seven times greenhouse gases required to meet needs of poorest 20%, researchers find

• Extreme heatwave – latest news updates

Gently limiting “luxury” demand from the 20% of European consumers who use the most energy saves seven times the amount of planet-heating gases that would be emitted in meeting the basic needs of the 20% who use the least energy, researchers have found.

The study, which modelled the effect of narrowing the gaps in energy use between households within 27 European countries, found capping demand from the top fifth, even at a fairly high level, cut greenhouse gas pollution from energy consumption by 9.7%, while raising demand from people in the bottom fifth who also live in poverty to a fairly low level increases emissions by just 1.4%.

Record heat in Europe is part of a pattern of more intense heatwaves made more likely by climate breakdown

• Extreme heatwave – latest news updates

Scientists say “turbo-charged” climate change is driving the prolonged period of record temperatures currently baking much of the planet.

As the planet has heated, hotter-than-usual spells have become more intense and now last on average about 24 hours longer than 60 years ago, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Noaa data from the 50 most populous cities in the US shows the heatwave season is 49 days longer now compared with the 1960s.

Exclusive: Leaked document ‘falls far short’ of what is needed to safeguard lives and livelihoods from heat, drought and storms, say experts

The government’s new plan to cope with the climate crisis has been condemned as “very weak” by experts, who say not enough is being done to protect lives and livelihoods.

Responding to the document, which was leaked to the Guardian, one highlighted its failure to adequately protect people in the UK from extreme heat. The heatwave in 2022, when temperatures surpassed 40C for the first time, led to the early deaths of more than 3,000 people, wildfires, buckled rail lines and farmers struggling with drought. Southern Europe is currently in the grip of a searing heatwave.