The Guardian

The Inflation Reduction Act is a big win for jobs and the environment, but Truss and Sunak have nothing similar to offer

Over the weekend, US Democrats overcame months of political struggle to pass the Inflation Reduction Act in the Senate, marking a major victory for the president, Joe Biden, and for “Bidenomics” before the US midterms.

The bill makes the single largest climate investment in US history, with $369bn for climate and clean energy. It is expected to enable the US to get two-thirds of the way towards its Paris agreement commitments while reducing energy costs. It lowers health costs for millions of Americans. It seeks to tackle inflation by directly reducing costs for individuals and by reducing the deficit through closing tax loopholes and increasing tax on corporates and the wealthy.

Carys Roberts is executive director of the Institute for Public Policy Research

Inflation, energy bills and stagnant wages could mean destitution for millions. But Conservative ideology forbids offering answers

Has Boris Johnson ended his holiday? It’s hard to tell. He was never committed to government, even during national emergencies, as his serial absence from Cobra meetings at the beginning of the pandemic revealed. Now, while several national crises converge, he seems to have given up altogether. But his detachment is not just a pathology. It is also a doctrine. Absence is what the party donors paid for.

Whether physically present or not, recent prime ministers and their governments have prepared us for none of the great predicaments we face. They have looked the other way as the water companies failed to commission any new reservoirs since they were privatised in 1989, and allowed astonishing volumes of that precious commodity we call treated drinking water – 2.4bn litres a day on current estimates – to leak away. It’s a carelessness so grand that it feels like a metaphor. Instead of forcing them to stop these leaks, the government has allowed these corporations to pump the rivers dry: the living world, as ever, is the buffer that must absorb failure and greed.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Foreign companies should not be able to sue the government for taking action on climate change

An article in the Conversation with the catchy title “Hey Minister, leave that gas trigger alone” has urged the Labor government not to extend the Turnbull government’s gas trigger, which could be used to compel foreign-owned gas companies to keep gas reserves for use in Australia in some circumstances. It warns that actually using the trigger could inadvertently allow such companies to seek to sue the government under Australia’s existing international agreements.

Many Australians don’t know this but some of our trade agreements give foreign-owned companies special legal rights to sue the federal government if a change in law or policy reduces their profits, even if the change is in the public interest. The mechanism is known as an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS).

Climate research finds modelling used cannot predict localised extreme weather, leading to poor estimations of risk

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Trillions of dollars may be misallocated to deal with the wrong climate threats around the world because the models used by central banks and regulators aren’t fit for purpose, a leading Australian climate researcher says.

Prof Andy Pitman, director of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, said regulators are relying on models that are good at forecasting how average climates will change as the planet warms, but are less likely to be of use for predicting how extreme weather will imperil individual localities such as cities, however.

The concerns, detailed in a recent report in the journal Environmental Research: Climate, were underscored by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s release on Monday of its corporate plan 2022-23. Apra plans to “continue to ensure regulated institutions are well-prepared for the risks and opportunities presented by climate change”.

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Ban will hit 15 million people in London and south-east England and could last until October

Fifteen million more people are to be hit with a hosepipe ban in London and the surrounding areas, as Thames Water has announced measures will be introduced “in coming weeks”.

People served by the water company will join those in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, who have been under restrictions since last week, and those in Sussex and Kent, who will be under a ban from this Friday.

Europe’s most severe drought in decades is hitting homes, factories, farmers and freight across the continent, as experts warn drier winters and searing summers fuelled by global heating mean water shortages will become 'the new normal'. Drone footage comparisons between the summer of 2022 and previous years shows the dramatic impact lack of rainfall has had on European rivers

• ‘The new normal’: how Europe is being hit by a climate-driven drought crisis
  
• UK braced for drought conditions to last until October
  

The bill is a devil’s bargain between the Democrats, the fossil fuel industry, and recalcitrant senator Joe Manchin. Yet it’s better than nothing

“We’re pleased,” ExxonMobil’s CEO, Darren Woods, said on an earnings call last month, speaking about the Inflation Reduction Act. He called the bill, now making its way through the US Congress, “clear and consistent”. After it passed the Senate Sunday evening, Shell USA said it was “a step toward increased energy security and #netzero”. The world is currently on track to produce double the amount of coal, oil and gas in 2030 than is consistent with capping warming at 1.5C. To state the obvious: climate policy should strike fear into the hearts of fossil fuel executives, not delight them. So what have some of the world’s worst polluters found to like about a historic piece of climate legislation?

Guilt by association only goes so far: that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed is undoubtedly good news. It will do a lot of good things. Democrats face the distinct possibility of being locked out of power for at least a decade after midterm elections this November, when they’re expected to lose the House of Representatives. Republicans won’t be keen to recognize that another party’s candidate could win the presidency, let alone reduce emissions. That something being called climate policy passed at all is thanks to the tireless work the climate movement has done to put it on the agenda, and the diligent staffers who spent late nights translating that momentum into legislation.

Kate Aronoff is a staff writer at the New Republic and the author of Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet – And How We Fight Back

Tory leadership hopefuls urged to set out emergency plans as parts of UK face driest conditions on record

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak must set out emergency water plans to tackle “immoral” wastage, the president of the National Farmers’ Union has said.

Farmers fear their crops will be harmed, or even fail, due to the recent dry weather. If there is not significant rainfall this autumn and winter, drained reservoirs and empty rivers will not refill sufficiently for a lot of farming to be viable next year. And next year’s potential drought could be more severe than this summer’s arid conditions.

Oak said to have inspired Chronicles of Narnia among 12 contenders in competition now in its eighth year

• Woodland Trust’s UK tree of the year 2022 nominations – in pictures

An oak tree that is said to have inspired the Chronicles of Narnia is among those nominated for the Woodland Trust’s tree of the year competition.

The Kilbroney oak is located in Kilbroney Park, Northern Ireland, where CS Lewis holidayed as a child, later describing it as his vision of Narnia.

Five gargantuan oaks, one of which is said to have provided the inspiration for the fantasy land of Narnia, and a spectacular ‘portal rowan’ are among the unique specimens in the running to be crowned the Woodland Trust’s tree of the year for 2022

• ‘Living legends’: Woodland Trust reveals tree of the year shortlist

Precise cause of the deaths of hundreds of fish first detected last week is unknown, with preliminary analysis suggesting oxygen deprivation

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The deaths of hundreds of fish in Lake Macquarie are being investigated, with the New South Wales environmental regulator looking for “any potential pollution sources” that could have caused the mass kill.

Paul Winn, the lead researcher at the Hunter Community Environment Centre, said “probably several hundred to up to 1,000 fish” had been killed in Wyee Bay, on the southern end of Lake Macquarie near Newcastle, and washed ashore.

More than half of human diseases caused by pathogens have been aggravated by hazards associated with climate change, study finds

More than half of the human diseases caused by pathogens have been worsened at some point by the sort of impacts associated with the climate crisis, a new and exhaustive study of the link between disease and climatic hazards has found.

Diseases such as Zika, malaria, dengue, chikungunya and even Covid-19 have been aggravated by climate impacts such as heatwaves, wildfires, extreme rainfall and floods, the paper found. In all, there are more than 1,000 different pathways for these various impacts to worsen the spread of disease, a cavalcade of threats “too numerous for comprehensive societal adaptations”, the researchers wrote.

Trees that have been standing for hundreds or thousands of years are entitled to special treatment – just like precious buildings

Efforts to increase the level of protection available to ancient – or simply old – trees in the UK have been building for some time. In 2019, Janis Fry, an artist and yew expert living in Wales, launched a petition calling for new laws that would prevent the destruction of about 157 ancient yew trees at least 2,000 years old. Since then, the chorus of disapproval about current provision has grown steadily louder (if not exactly deafening: tree enthusiasts not generally being the noisiest protesters).

The launch of the Woodland Trust’s Tree of the Year competition this week – in which five venerable oaks dominate a shortlist of 12 – offers another chance to focus minds. The wider problem goes beyond the lack of protection for individual trees, and includes issues relating to the conservation of nature more broadly. While tree cover in the UK is increasing, woodland wildlife is not, and more diverse planting, including a larger proportion of native species, is needed if that is to change. The consensus among experts and charities such as the trust is that government proposals recently sent out for consultation did not go far enough. Pressure must be applied to ensure that existing protections are not only maintained but strengthened as the risks from unchecked global heating and fossil fuel production continue to increase.

Parched Greenwich Park, drought-stricken Berlin and wildfires from Spain to Belgium – Europe is feeling the heat this summer

• How Europe is being hit by climate-driven drought crisis

Water shortages across the continent, from France through Italy, Spain and beyond, are creating a critical situation

• Europe’s worst ever drought in pictures

Europe’s most severe drought in decades is hitting homes, factories, farmers and freight across the continent, as experts warn drier winters and searing summers fuelled by global heating mean water shortages will become “the new normal”.

The EU European Drought Observatory has calculated that 45% of the bloc’s territory was under drought warning by mid-July, with 15% already on red alert, prompting the European Commission to warn of a “critical” situation in multiple regions.

Roads closed in borough of Islington as video shows streets under more than a metre of water

Thames Water is facing criticism and anger from customers after one of its water mains burst, causing street flooding at the height of a drought crisis.

The burst 91cm (36in) water main prompted many road closures around Hornsey Road, north London, as video of the incident showed streets submerged in more than a metre of water.

Exclusive: plant at Suffolk port is slated to produce 100megawatts a year of fuel from 2026

ScottishPower is planning to build a £150m green hydrogen plant at the Port of Felixstowe to power trains, trucks and ships, the Guardian can reveal.

The energy company has drawn up proposals for a plant at the Suffolk port to produce the fuel using renewable electricity from 2026, in quantities equivalent to 100megawatts a year – enough to power 100,000 homes.

England’s water and sewage chiefs awarded themselves £27m amid leakages of 2.4bn litres a day

Water company bosses should be banned from giving themselves bonuses until they fix their leaky pipes, the Liberal Democrats have demanded.

New figures uncovered by the party found that England’s water and sewage company bosses have awarded themselves about £27m in bonuses over the past two years.

Americans throw away an estimated 2.5m plastic water bottles an hour. We need international cooperation to protect our planet and our health

Every great movie has at least one scene that stays with you.

In the 1967 classic The Graduate, directed by Mike Nichols, that scene could be when Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft) first seduces our protagonist, young Ben (Dustin Hoffman), a newly minted college graduate. Or when Ben, crazy in love, pounds the glass walls of a church. What haunts me, though, is the earlier scene in which one of Ben’s parents’ friends offers him some unsolicited advice. The man tells him that a “great future” awaits him in one word: “Plastics.”

Kim Heacox is the author of many books, including The Only Kayak, a memoir, and Jimmy Bluefeather, a novel, both winners of the National Outdoor Book Award. He lives in Alaska

From toucans and puffins to iridescent hummingbirds, the most unique creatures are the most vulnerable to human impacts

For decades ecologists have been warning about the homogenisation of diversity – species becoming more alike – in the living world. Now, researchers at the University of Sheffield have published research predicting that bird species with striking and extreme traits are likely to go extinct first. “The global extinction crisis doesn’t just mean that we’re losing species,” says the study’s leader, Dr Emma Hughes. “It means that we are losing unique traits and evolutionary history.”

This shows that human activity is not just drastically reducing numbers of species, it is probably disproportionately destroying the most unique, unusual and distinctive creatures on Earth.