The Guardian

Politicians must respond to the latest warnings that climate science has underestimated risks

Last week’s shockingly high temperatures in the northwestern US and Canada were – and are – very frightening. Heat and the fires it caused killed hundreds of people, and are estimated to have killed a billion sea creatures. Daily temperature records were smashed by more than 5C (9F) in some places. In Lytton, British Columbia, the heat reached 49.6C (121F). The wildfires that consumed the town produced their own thunderstorms, alongside thousands of lightning strikes.

An initial study shows human activity made this heat dome – in which a ridge of high pressure acts as a lid preventing warm air from escaping – at least 150 times more likely. The World Weather Attribution Group of scientists, who use computer climate models to assess global heating trends and extreme weather, have warned that last week exceeded even their worst-case scenarios. While it has long been recognised that the climate system has thresholds or tipping points beyond which humans stand to lose control of what happens, scientists did not hide their alarm that an usually cool part of the Pacific northwest had been turned into a furnace. One climatologist said the prospect opened up by the heat dome “blows my mind”.

Commission imposes €875m fine for breaching antitrust rules by delaying cleaner emissions technology

The EU has fined Volkswagen and BMW €875m (£750m) after finding that the German carmakers colluded with another rival, the Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler, to delay emissions-cleaning technology.

The European Commission said that the carmakers had “breached EU antitrust rules by colluding on technical development in the area of nitrogen oxide cleaning”.

What has not been melted, incinerated or damaged beyond repair has been compromised to the point of being unsafe

• We are republishing in its entirety the open letter written by the mayor of Lytton after the village was destroyed by wildfire

On June 29, the small village of Lytton, in Canada, became one of hottest places on Earth. Temperatures reached an astounding 49.6 °C (121.3 °F). The next day, a wild fire destroyed most of the town. In this open letter, the Mayor of Lytton describes the situation on the ground.

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In Canada, almost every policy to help wean us off fossil fuel has been watered down by oil and gas lobbyists

After recording the country’s highest ever temperatures of 49.6C, the town of Lytton in British Columbia, Canada, burst into flames. Residents had minutes to flee a “wall of fire” with nothing but the clothing on their backs. Like people in many other places in the world struggling with heatwaves, fires, droughts and strange extreme storms, BC residents now know what it feels like to live in a changing climate on an increasingly inhospitable planet.

It’s the helplessness you feel as a mother when your son is throwing up from heat exhaustion. It’s the fear you feel when your asthmatic niece struggles to breathe because of the dense smoke from wildfires. It’s the panic you feel when you know that your oldest son is out in northern British Columbia tree planting and that there are now 180 wildfires raging across the province, caused by unprecedented “fire weather” – 710,000 lightning strikes in a 24-hour period.

Cruise ships kill whales, leak gray water, and are largely exempt from US taxation. When they violate the law, they pay the equivalent of a parking ticket

Decades ago, when I worked as a ranger in Alaska’s Glacier Bay national park, each cruise ship that entered the bay carried hundreds of passengers. Today, they carry thousands. They don’t look like ships any more. They look like the boxes the ships came in, huge floating milk cartons – ponderous and white.

But once they get moving, they’re a force. One that occasionally strikes whales.

British Columbia scientist says heat essentially cooked mussels: ‘The shore doesn’t usually crunch when you walk’

More than 1 billion marine animals along Canada’s Pacific coast are likely to have died from last week’s record heatwave, experts warn, highlighting the vulnerability of ecosystems unaccustomed to extreme temperatures.

The “heat dome” that settled over western Canada and the north-western US for five days pushed temperatures in communities along the coast to 40C (104F) – shattering longstanding records and offering little respite for days.

In the midst of a climate crisis with 8 billion humans on the globe, it’s absurd to say that what’s lacking is babies

Fertility rates are falling across the globe – even in places, such as sub-Saharan Africa, where they remain high. This is good for women, families, societies and the environment. So why do we keep hearing that the world needs babies, with angst in the media about maternity wards closing in Italy and ghost cities in China?

The short-range answer is that, even though this slowdown was predicted as part of the now 250-year-old demographic transition – whose signature is the tumbling of both fertility and mortality rates – occasional happenings, such as the publication of US census data or China’s decision to relax its two-child policy, force it back into our consciousness, arousing fears about family lines rubbed out and diminishing superpowers being uninvited from the top table.

The fossil-fuel multinationals fund ‘thinktanks’ and ‘research institutes’. But it’s gullible public service broadcasters that give them credibility

Yes, we should rake over the coals. And the oil, and the gas. Democratic accountability means remembering who helped to stoke the climate crisis. We should hold the fossil fuel companies to account.

In 1979, an internal study by Exxon concluded that burning carbon fuels “will cause dramatic environmental effects before the year 2050”. In 1982, as the Guardian’s Climate Crimes series recalls, an Exxon memo concluded that the science of climate change was “unanimous”. Then it poured millions of dollars into lobby groups casting doubt on it.

Funding for offshore kelp forest, butterflies, beavers and wetlands among other schemes will help address climate crisis

Restoring a kelp forest off the Sussex coast, creating new habitat for heat-sensitive butterflies and connecting fractured wetlands for the reintroduction of beavers are among 12 new projects receiving funding to help the UK tackle climate change, the Wildlife Trusts has announced.

Planting new seagrass pastures in the Solent, expanding salt marshes on the Essex coast and restoring peatlands in Cumbria, Durham, Yorkshire, Northumberland and Somerset are some of the “high-impact” schemes that the nature charity said will help mitigate the impact of global heating on land and at sea.

Environment minister has 28 days to appeal historic ruling that carbon emissions from coalmine should not cause young people ‘personal injury or death’

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Australia’s federal court has formally declared the nation’s environment minister has a “duty to take reasonable care” that young people won’t be harmed or killed by carbon dioxide emissions if she approves a coalmine expansion, in a judgment that could have wider implications for fossil fuel projects.

In the federal court case, brought by eight schoolchildren and an octogenarian nun, Justice Mordecai Bromberg on Thursday also ordered the minister pay all costs.

Environmental groups criticise grant to Empire Energy, which had lobbied ministers for information on funding, as a ‘brazen misuse of taxpayer funds’

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The Coalition handed three grants for fracking in the Beetaloo Basin to a political donor and Liberal-linked company, which had earlier lobbied federal ministers for information on the funding scheme.

On Wednesday, resources minister Keith Pitt announced that Imperial Oil and Gas, a subsidiary of Empire Energy, would receive $21m in grants through the $50m Beetaloo Cooperative Drilling Program.

Cost of Australian-based climate offsets is soaring but 90% of local purchases are for overseas projects

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Pledges from major companies to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions are driving up prices for Australia-based climate offsets to levels not seen since the 2014 repeal of the carbon pricing scheme.

Prices for Australian carbon units have topped $20 a tonne with demand up 20% in the past 12 months, with analysis released today saying prices could rise to $50 by the end of the decade.

Kenyan ministry of tourism and wildlife expresses concern about reports of scheme to transport herd from Kent

Confusion has erupted over plans to fly a herd of elephants from Kent to Kenya, after the Kenyan wildlife service said it had not been contacted or consulted about the operation.

On Monday, the Aspinall Foundation announced ambitious plans to transport 13 savanna elephants, born and bred in captivity, almost 4,500 miles from their home at Howletts Wild Animal Park to a site in the east African country, in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). The wildlife charity, where the prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, has a top corporate role in communications, said it would be a world-first operation to “rewild” the mammals.

Nearly 700 million people worldwide live in low coastal zones vulnerable to sea-level rise and coastal storms. That number could reach a billion by 2050

A few years ago, after I gave a talk on water and climate change, I had an Arizona rancher come up and ask me if there would be enough water in the future for their livestock or if they should sell out and move north. This week, I received an email from a retiring doctor, who, acknowledging both their privileged economic situation and the personal nature of the decision, nevertheless asked if it “would it be more advantageous/safe to consider moving to coastal Oregon or Washington, rather than staying in southern California” because of rising seas, extreme heat and the growing threat of wildfires. At an Independence Day party this weekend, a couple asked me if they should move from Colorado to Michigan because of growing drought and water shortages in the western US.

Related: My new climate reality? Packing a ‘firebag’ so I can flee at the drop of a hat | Michelle Nijhuis

Global summit to be held in Glasgow in November will be ‘most inclusive’ ever, says spokesperson

Young people will interview government ministers on stage as part of plans to make this autumn’s climate change summit the “most inclusive ever”, the government has announced.

A whole day will be dedicated to listening to the views of selected young climate activists at Cop26, the global summit due to be held in Glasgow in November. The event will heavily feature the “marginalised generation”, many of whom have said they have been ignored by governments.

Satellite data shows temperature peaks are lasting longer and rising higher

North America endured the hottest June on record last month, according to satellite data that shows temperature peaks lasting longer as well as rising higher.

The heat dome above western Canada and the north-west United States generated headlines around the world as daily temperature records were shattered across British Columbia, Washington and Portland.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep – at least in the images of Jasper Goodall. In Twilight’s Path, he stays awake to capture nocturnal landscapes in the forests and on the moors of the British Isles

Anthropogenic warming of climate has been a factor in extreme precipitation events globally, researchers say

Human activity such as such as greenhouse gas emissions and land use change were a key factor in extreme precipitation events such as flooding and landslides around the world, a study has found.

In recent years, there have been numerous instances of flooding and landslides: extreme precipitation, an amount of rainfall or snowfall that exceeds what is normal for a given region, can be a cause of such events.

But watchdog warns government that costs will double if it delays action to cut emissions

The UK’s climate targets will cost the government less over the next 30 years than the price of battling the Covid-19 pandemic if it acts quickly, according to the UK’s fiscal watchdog.

Forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) show that ending the UK’s contribution to the global climate crisis would add 21% of GDP to the national debt by 2050, or £469bn in today’s terms. But those costs could climb twice as high if the government delays action to cut emissions.

A green jobs revolution can deliver a fair transition to carbon neutrality

In the lead-up to November’s crucial Cop26 climate change conference, the government has been rather better at setting eye-catching CO2 reduction targets than taking the necessary actions to meet them. This month, however, there have been signs of an overdue sense of urgency kicking in when it comes to creating and safeguarding green jobs.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Vauxhall’s owner, Stellantis, will manufacture electric vans at Ellesmere Port, saving the site’s future. The carmaker has been promised substantial government support for its investment. That followed Nissan’s decision last week to build a £1bn electric vehicle hub in Sunderland, which will include a new battery plant, or gigafactory, with five times the capacity of the only existing facility in the United Kingdom. The government is rumoured to have pledged in the region of £100m as a sweetener. The UK still lags far behind its European competitors in developing the scale of battery capacity that will be needed for the domestic electric car industry to flourish. But having brought forward a ban on the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles from 2040 to 2030 last year, Boris Johnson and his business minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, are at last backing up rhetoric with a modicum of hard cash and the beginnings of a green industrial strategy.