The Guardian

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.

Meanwhile heavy rainfall predicted to far exceed annual averages in South and North Korea

While it feels as though Europe should be starting to see the end of its heatwaves, scorching temperatures are expected to continue across the north and west of the continent this week. As high pressure becomes established, parts of France and Spain could experience temperatures of 38C (100.4F) between Wednesday and Saturday. A prolonged hot period is also forecast to hit the UK with temperatures exceeding 30C, and maximum temperatures possibly hitting as high as 35C.

Meanwhile, low pressure and a slack south-westerly wind across the East China and Yellow seas will bring heavy rain across the Korean peninsula over the coming week, the second monsoon spell of the season. Daily rainfall totals of 100mm to 150mm could hit South Korea’s capital, Seoul, on Monday, with high levels of precipitation extending north-eastwards across northern Chungcheong and North Gyeonsang provinces.

Senate Democrats passed their climate and healthcare spending package on Sunday, sending the legislation to the House and bringing Joe Biden one step closer to a significant legislative victory ahead of crucial midterm elections in November.

'To the tens of millions of young Americans who spent years marching, rallying, demanding that Congress act on climate change, this bill is for you,' said Chuck Schumer, the US Senate majority leader. 

'The time has come to pass this historic bill'

• Senate passes $739bn healthcare and climate bill after months of wrangling
• Climate bill could slash US emissions by 40% after historic Senate vote
• What does the US-China row mean for climate change?

In a political system long captured by fossil fuel interests, there is a disconnect between the arguments and the evidence

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One of the most striking voices for aggressive climate action right now is the secretary general of the United Nations. Speaking at the Major Economies Forum hosted by Joe Biden last month, António Guterres held little back as he compared the culpability of coal, oil and gas companies in causing climate breakdown to the damage caused by the tobacco industry.

“We seem trapped in a world where fossil fuel producers and financiers have humanity by the throat. For decades, the fossil fuel industry has invested heavily in pseudoscience and public relations, with a false narrative to minimise their responsibility for climate change and undermine ambitious climate policies,” Guterres said.

If a rudderless government continues to stand back, other countries will dominate the electric vehicle revolution

Over recent decades, Britain’s economy has become steadily more service-based. But as the opening ceremony of Birmingham’s Commonwealth Games powerfully illustrated, industry still occupies pride of place in the imagination of regions such as the West Midlands. At the Alexander stadium, Jaguars, Minis and Rovers of various vintages were showcased to the world – the past and present of a car manufacturing sector that provides well-paid, skilled jobs, and defines a local sense of identity.

The future, though, has never looked more insecure. In the short term, a combination of the pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine has created a supply chain crisis that has led to an output slump and drop in sales. In July, car sales in the UK fell by 9%. Falling living standards, prolonged recession and high inflation will add to the industry’s problems by hitting demand. This perfect storm is challenging enough. But the longer-term question facing the UK car industry is existential: as the world leaves the internal combustion engine behind and moves to battery electric vehicles, is Britain going to remain a mass car producer or not?

Campaigners visit Berkshire estate belonging to Richard Benyon, minister in charge of access to nature

It’s hard to know what access to nature minister Richard Benyon normally finds in his gigantic Berkshire estate when he strolls out on a Sunday afternoon. It is unlikely, however, to be a loudly singing group of activist trespassers, dressed up as psychedelic animals and accompanied by an all-female morris-dancing troupe.

But that’s what wandered up his drive on Sunday, when protesters visited the Englefield estate, calling on Benyon to open it up to the public and extend access for everyone to green space across England.

My Climate party will take on 110 Conservatives in the next election: Britain can win when it comes to the environment

• Ed Gemmell is leader of the Climate party

Conservative members – and by default the whole country – have been let down by the current leadership race. Both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have almost completely ignored the climate and biodiversity crisis in their pitches to party members, effectively jeopardising the future of millions.

The Conservative party as a whole, along with the other mainstream parties, has miserably failed Britain on climate, displaying a nonchalant attitude to the danger and a lack of commitment to action. Leadership has been so lacking on this issue that my co-founders and I felt compelled to create a new single-issue, centre-right party to champion these concerns: the Climate party.

Ed Gemmell is leader of the Climate party, a Buckinghamshire councillor, and managing director of Scientists Warning Europe

Patient safety compromised during IT failure at Guy’s and St Thomas’

Two of the UK’s leading hospitals have had to cancel operations, postpone appointments and divert seriously ill patients to other centres for the past three weeks after their computers crashed at the height of last month’s heatwave.

The IT breakdowns at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals in London have caused misery for doctors and patients and have also raised fears about the impact of climate change on data centres that store medical, financial and public sector information.

Researchers fear spread of invasive disease could be disastrous for Australia’s diverse plant life and are calling for urgent national response

An invasive fungus attacking some of Australia’s most ecologically important tree species has spread to Western Australia while also flourishing in damp conditions along the country’s east, driving a “silent extinction” and prompting urgent calls for a national response.

Experts warn if the myrtle rust fungus detected in the east Kimberley reaches the state’s biodiversity-rich south-west, the consequences could be disastrous for those ecosystems.

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Rising sea temperatures caused by climate crisis create unusual phenomenon in St Ives

Thousands of venomous crabs converged on the beaches of Cornwall due to rising sea temperatures caused by the climate crisis. The migratory creatures swarmed in the shallow water in St Ives, shedding their shells before returning to depths of up to 300ft.

The crustaceans are instantly recognisable for their long legs and pincers and have a venomous bite that is poisonous to their prey but harmless to humans.

Apparently underweight whale swimming towards Paris is refusing food and seems skittish, say French authorities

French authorities were planning on Saturday to give vitamins to a beluga whale that swam way up the Seine, as they raced to save the malnourished cetacean that is refusing food.

The apparently underweight whale was first spotted Tuesday in the river that flows through Paris to the Channel. On Saturday it had made its way to about 70km (44 miles) north of the French capital.

The world heritage site still has some capacity for recovery but the window is closing fast as the climate continues to warm

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The Great Barrier Reef is one of the planet’s natural jewels, stretching for more than 2,300km along Australia’s north-east.

But as well as being a bucket-list favourite and a heaving mass of biodiversity across 3,000 individual reefs, the world heritage-listed organism is at the coalface of the climate crisis.

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A new database of extreme weather studies makes clear how far policymaking is lagging behind the reality of climate chaos

The scientists behind a new database of more than 400 extreme weather attribution studies have performed an essential service. This piece of work, drawing together every study of this type, ought to galvanise a greater sense of urgency around policymaking and campaigning. It shows that intense heatwaves, hurricanes, droughts and floods have all been made far more likely by greenhouse gas emissions, which trap the sun’s heat and put more energy into weather systems. And it spells out the alarming unpredictability as well as the extent of global heating’s consequences.

Until the early 2000s, when the first attribution studies were published, it was harder to link CO2 in the atmosphere with global heating’s tangible effects. Thanks to a growing body of research, now we know. The record-breaking “heat dome” over north-western Canada and the US last summer would have been almost impossible without human-caused climate change. The same is true of heatwaves across the northern hemisphere in 2018, and in Asia in 2016.

Campaigners say ‘our rivers are dying’ after driest July in England for more than 100 years

Most of the UK’s rivers are on “red alert”, according to the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH), as campaigners say “our rivers are dying” and call for immediate nationwide hosepipe bans.

This summer, water companies have come under intense criticism for their apparent failure to plan for drought and deal with their leaking pipes. Sarah Bentley, the chief executive of Thames Water, received a £496,000 bonus last year, which is nearly double the performance-related payout for the previous year, and a salary increase to £750,000 from £438,000 in 2020-21, annual accounts show.

Technology applied to Oude Rign river helps stop plastic pollution reaching sea

Five years ago, Claar-els van Delft began to suspect that plastic waste on the beach at Katwijk in the Netherlands did not come from visitors, or the sea, but from the mouth of a nearby river.

“We started picking up litter and we noticed, near the river entrance, pieces that came from fresh water – all kinds of plastic,” she says. “Tampon sheaths, brush bristles, but also crisp packages, drink packages, everything.”

By promoting more diverse farming, we can provide nutritious food without having the same devasting effect on our climate

• Andy Cato is a regenerative farmer and cofounder of Wildfarmed. He is also one half of the electronic music band Groove Armada

On the way back from a gig 15 years ago, I read an article on the environmental consequences of food production. It made for sobering reading, and ended by saying: “If you don’t like the system, don’t depend on it.” I was inspired to transform our garden in France into a vegetable patch in a quest for self-sufficiency. This quickly escalated, and I ended up selling the rights to my songs with Groove Armada to buy a farm nearby. After 12 years in the agricultural school of hard knocks, what we learned there is now being applied on a National Trust farm near Swindon for which we were awarded the tenancy last year.

Back in France during last month’s heatwaves, the effect on the landscape was devastating. Spring-sown crops, hanging on after very little rainfall and unrelenting sun, will, for many, not be worth harvesting. Looking over the parched valley, veiled in wildfire smoke drifting up from the coast, I made a throwaway remark to some farming friends about planting olive trees to cope with increasingly regular episodes of intense, dry heat. One replied that there was in fact a meeting that evening about the creation of a Gascon olive oil collective. The shift in weather patterns over the past decade has been incredible. Farmers feel the effects immediately; we are gardening without a hosepipe.

Andy Cato is a regenerative farmer and cofounder of Wildfarmed. He is also one half of the electronic music band Groove Armada

Kylie Jenner’s 17-minute private jet ride is a reminder that private jets are morally obscene and terrible for the climate. The planet can no longer afford these indulgences

Kylie Jenner, Drake and other celebrities have recently faced criticism for carbon emission-heavy private jet rides, with one of Jenner’s flights reportedly lasting an offensively short 17 minutes.

It might be less insulting if the flights were taken for reasons vital to the survival of the human race or at least the function of government. But these were entertainers and private individuals who have access to first-class commercial flights and the same conveniences of phone and video calls us humble common folk use.

private aircraft still emit more than 33m tonnes of greenhouse gases, more than the country of Denmark … they are five to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes, per passenger, and 50 times more polluting than trains.

Akin Olla is a contributing opinion writer at the Guardian

Birdwatcher ‘overcome with emotion’ on spotting the Santa Marta sabrewing, only third time it has been documented

A rare hummingbird has been rediscovered by a birdwatcher in Colombia after going missing for more than a decade.

The Santa Marta sabrewing, a large hummingbird only found in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains, was last seen in 2010 and scientists feared the species might be extinct as the tropical forests it inhabited have largely been cleared for agriculture.

Thousands more residents outside the original contamination zone may be drinking tainted water

A French industrial fabric producer that poisoned drinking water supplies with PFAS “forever chemicals” across 65 sq miles (168 sq km) of southern New Hampshire misled regulators about the amount of toxic substance it used, a group of state lawmakers and public health advocates charge.

The company, Saint Gobain, now admits it used far more PFAS than regulators previously knew, and officials fear thousands more residents outside the contamination zone’s boundaries may be drinking tainted water in a region plagued by cancer clusters and other health problems thought to stem from PFAS pollution.

From US floods to drought in France, communities around globe are still feeling effects of July’s extreme weather

Central US states are still reeling from a week of extreme flooding events in the final days of July. Initially, the extreme rainfall into St Louis gave a quarter of the normal annual rainfall in just 12 hours, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). A few days later, in eastern Kentucky, at least 10-12 inches (about 25-30cm) fell in the space of a few days, causing devastating flooding in the Appalachian region of the state.

The complex, numerous and steep valleys in the region enabled rainwater to quickly run down valley sides and build up on the limited and often built-up floodplains. Deforestation and historic mining activity in the region have also been mentioned as potential contributors. Both flooding events have been classified as one in 1,000-year events by the NWS.