The Guardian

Big Butterfly Count records increase on 2022 but longer-term trends show declines for some of most common species

This year’s capricious summer weather has been an unexpected boon for Britain’s butterflies, with the biggest insect count in the world recording an increase on last year’s all-time low.

Red admirals dominated the Big Butterfly Count as citizen scientists recorded an average of 12 butterflies per 15-minute count, up from nine in 2022.

Protests were a preview of planned marches in the city ahead of United Nations’ climate ambition summit on 20 September

Progressive lawmakers and climate activists rallied at the Capitol on Thursday to demand an end to fossil fuel usage, previewing a planned march in New York on Sunday ahead of the United Nations’ climate ambition summit on 20 September.

“Clearly, saving the planet is the most important issue facing humanity,” the Democratic senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, said. “But here’s the ugly and brutal truth: right now, humanity is failing. The planet is crying out for help.”

The latest warning from climate experts points to the urgency of a fossil fuel phase-out

The climate is changing more quickly now than it has done for tens of millions of years. This was the blunt conclusion to the BBC’s recent Earth series, which sought to convey to viewers how cataclysmic the disruption caused by global heating could be. Chris Packham, its presenter, described the tipping points that were reached 56m years ago, when, over the course of a few thousand years, temperatures climbed by 5C. Fossil records from this period are one resource that modern scientists use when trying to predict the consequences of the much faster heating that is now under way.

Planetary boundaries, about which scientists this week issued an updated warning, are another tool for thinking about the environment. These are a set of parameters defined at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, led by Prof Johan Rockström, in 2009. They are limits within which changes to the Earth’s life support systems, which have been relatively stable for 10,000 years, can be considered manageable. Once the boundaries are breached, however, everything becomes much more extreme, unstable and threatening. As well as an attempt at quantifying the disruption that natural systems can withstand, the nine boundaries represented an attempt to broaden understanding of the risks. One key message was that global heating caused by greenhouse gases trapped in the atmosphere is not the only threat.

Federal effort will focus on marginalized areas in all parts of country and aims to reduce extreme heat and benefit health

Hundreds of communities around the US will share more than $1bn in federal money to help them plant and maintain trees under a federal program that is intended to reduce extreme heat, benefit health and improve access to nature.

The US agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, will announce the $1.13bn in funding for 385 projects at an event on Thursday morning in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Fatih Birol, head of International Energy Agency, says countries planning expansion are ‘misjudging market trends’

Countries and companies planning to expand their fossil fuel production are taking “very unhealthy and unwise economic risks” as their investments may not be profitable, the world’s foremost energy adviser has warned.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), predicted this week that fossil fuels would peak this decade, a historic turning point for the climate. But despite the likelihood of demand declining, and the threat of climate chaos, many countries and private sector companies are considering new capacity.

Claimants to argue lack of adequate action is breach of human rights, in largest climate legal action to date

Six young people are preparing to appear at the European court of human rights to try to compel 32 nations to rapidly escalate their emissions reductions in the world’s largest climate legal action to date.

Aged from 11 to 24, the six Portuguese claimants, say they were driven to act by their experiences in the wildfires that ripped through the Leiria region in 2017, killing 66 people and destroying 20,000 hectares of forest.

Insect-eating sundew plants among 17,500 reintroduced as part of carbon-sequestering conservation scheme

After a 100-year absence, ruthless carnivores are flourishing again on a peat bog near Garstang in Lancashire.

The insect-eating great sundew and oblong-leaved sundew are among 17,500 plants being reintroduced to Winmarleigh Moss as part of its restoration by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust.

Family of Donald Morrison now believe he died at Koumala state school of an underlying medical condition ‘he was unaware of’

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A Queensland man who was thought to have died from a snake bite on the weekend when helping a friend did not have any venom in his body, a toxicology report has found.

Donald Morrison, who was in his 60s, was attending a reunion at Koumala state school in Queensland on Saturday when he was reportedly bitten on the arm and chest while removing the reptile that had coiled around his friend’s leg.

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Techniques such as solar radiation management may have unintended consequences, scientists say

Governments should place a moratorium on efforts to geoengineer the planet’s climate, as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and the climate crisis takes hold, a panel of global experts has urged.

Geoengineering is highly controversial, but discussions of its feasibility are gathering pace as the impacts of extreme weather, driven by climate breakdown, grip the planet. There is no global agreement on geoengineering, and no rules on what countries, or businesses, can do.

Series sponsored by organisations including coal and gas companies features ‘incorrect’ claims on ‘green gas’ and context missing on carbon capture technology

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In a double-page spread in News Corp Australia’s metropolitan newspapers on Monday, readers were told how families loved cooking with gas, how gas had been officially stamped as “green” by the European Union and how coal had a future thanks to carbon capture and storage.

The news articles, packed with industry talking points about the future of fossil fuels, were written around a picture of a smiling mum with her two young sons, one of them sitting cross-legged on a kitchen bench next to a gas stove.

Labour’s move to oppose erosion of EU-derived laws welcomed by environmental groups

Ministers’ plans to weaken river pollution rules are in tatters after they suffered two defeats in the House of Lords.

Labour had made clear it would oppose the “reckless” plans by the Conservatives to rip up EU-derived laws on nutrient neutrality, which force developers to mitigate pollution from new developments.

First complete ‘scientific health check’ shows most global systems beyond stable range in which modern civilisation emerged

Earth’s life support systems have been so damaged that the planet is “well outside of the safe operating space for humanity”, scientists have warned.

Their assessment found that six out of nine “planetary boundaries” had been broken because of human-caused pollution and destruction of the natural world. The planetary boundaries are the limits at which key global systems, such as climate, water and wildlife diversity, beyond which these systems’ ability to maintain a healthy planet is in serious peril.

Oil firm should get out and argue the case for sticking to the transition timetable as Bernard Looney’s successor is sought

Bernard Looney, after four years talking about orderly transitions, has made a disorderly transition out of BP. Not being fully transparent with the board of directors – whether about past personal relationships with colleagues or anything else – usually has that outcome for a chief executive. On the company’s version of events, this was clearly a resigning matter.

The immediate question is succession. BP is the type of company that likes to promote from within and, with the 53-year-old Looney at the helm, the board probably thought it had a few more years to observe the internal jostling for position.

MEPs vote for WHO guidelines on several substances, but centre-right backlash puts implementation back five years

The EU has voted to clean its air by setting tough limits on pollutants in a move that experts say will save lives and money.

The European parliament agreed on Wednesday to limit the concentration of several dangerous substances to levels put forward by the World Health Organization (WHO). But after a fierce backlash from centre-right politicians, it decided to push back the date for meeting the WHO’s limits by five years.

Queensland police investigating complaint from Wangan and Jagalingou man Adrian Burragubba

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Police are investigating a complaint made by a traditional owner who alleges staff from Bravus, formerly Adani, attempted to block him and his family from accessing a sacred site near the Carmichael mine.

Wangan and Jagalingou man Adrian Burragubba alleged on 27 August he and his family were attempting to go to the Doongmabulla Springs for cultural reasons when they were overtaken by a Bravus car that then obstructed a gate at an entrance to pastoral land.

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Scheme to restore Aller’s natural flow has created wetland teeming with life and could provide model for managing other rivers

It does not have the sense of order associated with the National Trust’s manicured stately homes, nor the grandeur of many of the wild places that the organisation manages. But a muddy piece of land in west Somerset was unveiled with a fanfare on Wednesday by the conservation charity, which sees this unassuming-looking plot as a pioneering project that could revolutionise the way some rivers are managed.

Under the stage-zero restoration project at the Holnicote estate, a section of the River Aller has been liberated from its narrow artificial channel. This allows the water to find its own way, creating streams, pools and boggy ground, a landscape that is better for flora and fauna. Moreover, the slower flow makes flooding less probable downstream.

Eleven countries have already pledged to exit the disastrous international charter treaty. We must join them

If Labour wants an energy transition in which working people don’t foot the bill, it has to address fossil fuel companies’ secret weapon against national climate laws: the energy charter treaty (ECT).

The treaty is a multi-country investment deal for the energy sector that contains the notorious investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), a mechanism written into international agreements that companies can use to sue governments over policy changes they allege could affect their profits. The cases are heard in secretive tribunals outside the national legal system.

Cleodie Rickard is trade campaign manager at Global Justice Now

Exclusive: Watchdog is supposed to audit firms yearly to ensure they are not illegally dumping sewage, but 36% of audits since 2010 are missing

The Environment Agency is failing to regularly audit water companies to check they are telling the truth about pollution and illegal sewage dumping in England, the Guardian can reveal.

The audits contribute to the star rating companies are given for environmental performance by the watchdog. Some companies are being given top ratings, even though the FoI data suggests the EA has not audited them for several years.

Clean Air Task Force calls for overhaul of action plans with many countries, including Germany and France, missing drafts deadline

European countries must bridge the vast “planning gap” between their climate targets and action plans, according to a report.

The national energy and climate plans (NECPs) that EU member states made in 2019 are outdated, lack key details and do not line up with long-term strategies, according to analysis from the environmental nonprofit organisation Clean Air Task Force. Only half of the states have submitted a fresh proposal two months after an EU deadline for draft plans passed in June.

Species such as mackerel and North Sea cod have been overfished or have reached critically low populations

Half of Britain’s 10 largest fish populations are in a “deeply troubling state”, having been either overfished or depleted to a critically low size, according to a new report. The situation is being driven by the UK government setting catch limits at levels that exceed scientific advice, said Oceana, a Washington DC-based NGO.

The UK’s fishing industry relies heavily on 10 key stocks. Five are either being overfished, including mackerel, which accounted for the largest volume of landings in the UK in 2021, or have reached critically low populations, such as North Sea cod. Many cod species are in crisis, pushing the popular fish close to population collapse.