The Guardian

Floods could leave coastal communities in states like Florida and California unlivable in two decades

Sea level rise driven by global heating will disrupt the daily life of millions of Americans, as hundreds of homes, schools and government buildings face frequent and repeated flooding by 2050, a new study has found.

Almost 1,100 critical infrastructure assets that sustain coastal communities will be at risk of monthly flooding by 2050, according to the new research by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). The vast majority of the assets – 934 of them – face the risk of flood disruption every other week, which could make some coastal neighborhoods unlivable within two to three decades.

Items containing ‘forever chemicals’ linked to cancer risk, lower fertility and developmental delays

A new law coming into effect in Colorado in July is banning everyday products that intentionally contain toxic “forever chemicals”, including clothes, cookware, menstruation products, dental floss and ski wax – unless they can be made safer.

Under the legislation, which takes effect on 1 July, many products using per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances – or PFAS chemicals linked to cancer risk, lower fertility and developmental delays – will be prohibited starting in 2026.

Disruptive demonstrations are decried by the press, but given acres of coverage. This is the new conundrum of public protest: the only way to be talked about is if you’re demonised

When Just Stop Oil covered Stonehenge with orange cornflour last week, Keir Starmer was called upon to decry the act, which he dutifully did, even though anyone with even a very slight knowledge of geology will know that the marks won’t last. But that wasn’t what the Labour leader was being asked. Rather, the question was whose side was he on, between “respectable” people and disruptive ones?

A respectable person, who cares about the environment – and this, in theory, is all respectable people, because to not care about the survival of everything you love would make you unhinged – shouldn’t throw things in protest, they should peacefully march. Happily, they did: 100,000 of them at the weekend, fighting for nature. It made some news reports; it didn’t make the bulletins. No radio host gave over their phone-in to the question of whether or not this sort of thing should be allowed. This is the new conundrum of public protest; the only way to be talked about is if you’re demonised. Grab yourself a “hate march” moniker because one person got arrested, and you’ll get all the coverage of your wildest dreams, but it will be unjust, because that one person was actually a counter-protester, and there are more arrests at your average football match.

The opposition claims Australia is an outlier in the developed world in not having nuclear, yet Germany and Italy have closed their plants

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So much has been said by the Coalition about what nuclear energy could do for Australia, with so little evidence to back it up, that it can be hard to keep up with the claims.

The key assertion by Peter Dutton and Ted O’Brien is that nuclear would lead to a “cheaper, cleaner and consistent” electricity supply. None of this has been supported.

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Reef escapes being classed ‘in danger’ for now but the government must submit a progress report to World Heritage committee by February 2025

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Unesco has urged Australia to set more ambitious climate targets for the Great Barrier Reef in a list of recommendations to preserve its status as a world heritage site.

The report, published in Paris late on Monday, did not recommend the reef be placed on a list of sites “in danger” – a threat that has hung over the reef for years – when the 21-country world heritage committee meets next month.

For generations the Gurung community in Taap, about 175km (110 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu, and other villages in the districts of Lamjung and Kaski, have scoured the steep Himalayan cliffs for honey. The villagers say the proceeds, split among them, are drying up as the number of hives has declined over the past decade, although some also earn a living from growing crops of rice, corn, millet and wheat

Almost a third of installers surveyed say finding skilled fitters is a barrier for customers, while 40% note lack of interest

The UK’s drive to replace gas boilers with heat pumps is being stymied by a lack of consumer demand and a shortage of skilled installers to fit heat pumps where they are wanted, according to an industry survey.

The most comprehensive poll of heat pump installers to date found that the biggest barrier was the low number of households choosing to get one fitted.

Adult cats were released into national park last year after British population had come close to extinction

The birth of wildcat kittens in the Cairngorms national park has been hailed as a “major milestone” in efforts to rescue the secretive mammals from extinction in the UK.

In footage exclusively shared with the Guardian by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), two of the kittens can be seen playing in grassland with their mother and leaping on to a fallen tree branch.

Former NSW Liberal MP spoke out against the lack of climate action by the Morrison government during the 2019-20 black summer bushfires

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The federal Labor government has appointed prominent New South Wales Liberal Matt Kean as the new chair of the Climate Change Authority.

Here’s a short explainer on Kean and the agency he will chair.

Exclusive: French survey of 26 countries finds fewer Australians than global average agree that climate change is the greatest health threat facing humanity

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Australians are among the most sceptical around the world that “climate disruption” is being caused by humans and that the costs of tackling it will be less than that of its impacts, according to polling across 26 countries.

Just 60% of Australians accept that “climate disruption” is human-caused, a fall of six percentage points from the previous poll 18 months earlier and well behind the global average of 73%, according to the results from French polling company Elabe.

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National Grid’s plan for the Suffolk coast is mirrored across the UK. We need an energy policy that protects our heritage

Energy, and its future costs and security, is one of the main issues facing this country, yet it has drawn little attention or interrogation in the general election debate.

Our local community faces devastation on a criminal scale, and that is sadly representative of similar cases across the UK. National Grid wishes to build across a vast area of peaceful countryside less than three miles from coastal Aldeburgh and Thorpeness, a thriving tourism destination for ramblers, ornithologists and nature lovers – and to make this a “concrete coast”.

Water companies have logged five sewage spills a day, every day, for a decade, analysis by the Observer shows

Water companies in England and Wales have averaged five serious sewage spills into rivers or seas every day over the past decade, the Observer can reveal.

Analysis of Environment Agency data has found that the 10 firms recorded 19,484 category 1-3 pollution incidents between 2013 and 2022, the most recent year recorded, an average of one every four and a half hours.

Communities in the Latrobe Valley – and those in six other locations around Australia – are on a new energy frontline. On Wednesday, the Coalition promised that, if elected to government, a part of the Loy Yang power station would be one of seven sites to host a nuclear reactor. But what do residents think of Peter Dutton's nuclear plan for their area? The Coalition's decision seems to have split opinions

• Confusion reigns about the Coalition’s nuclear proposal. Here’s how the rhetoric has shifted

• There is no shortage of Coalition U-turns on nuclear. But this Aukus example might be the most remarkable

Exclusive: State department official urges politicians to do ‘the right thing’, citing ‘collective responsibility’

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A senior US official has urged Australia and other countries not to back away from their 2030 climate commitments, insisting that “we all have a collective responsibility for the planet we live in”.

The message from Australia’s top security ally contrasts with rhetoric from the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, who claimed on Saturday the Labor government was “appeasing the international climate lobby” and “global climate activists”.

Thousands of people marched through central London to urge political leaders to take more decisive action in tackling the UK’s wildlife crisis. For the first time, mainstream organisations including the National Trust and the RSPB stood beside hunt saboteurs and direct action activists in the Restore Nature Now march, as campaigners called on the next government to take 'bold' steps to tackle the biodiversity crisis

• Restore Nature Now: thousands to march in London calling for urgent action

• Thousands march in London to urge leaders to tackle wildlife crisis

Costly new vehicles, limited choice and scarce charging points are holding back a switch to electric by businesses

Carbon emissions from vans in the UK have risen by 63% since 1990, new analysis shows, as cars are getting cleaner.

While more people are opting to drive electric or plug-in hybrid cars, van drivers still prefer diesel because electric vans are much more expensive with little choice of models.

Study suggests exposure to chemicals manufactured to resist water and heat likely to affect health of offspring

New research has found for the first time that PFAS “forever chemicals” accumulate in the testes, and the exposure probably affects children’s health.

The toxic chemicals can damage sperm during a sensitive developmental period, potentially leading to liver disease and higher cholesterol, especially in male offspring, the paper, which looked at the chemicals in mice, noted.

Thanks to the tireless work of campaigners in Surrey, fossil-fuel development must now take into account ‘downstream’ emissions

• Sarah Finch is a climate campaigner and a member of the Weald Action Group

This week I found out what it feels like to go beyond your wildest dreams. A case I fronted won at the supreme court, with potentially huge positive impacts for the climate. For almost five years, I had been mounting a legal challenge to fossil-fuel production at Horse Hill in the Surrey countryside. A group of residents, activists and lawyers had been pursuing a routine legal review of a council planning decision that had given an oil company the green light to drill four new oil wells and produce oil for 20 years.

The supreme court ruling means it will now be much harder for new fossil-fuel projects to go ahead as their full climate impact will need to be factored in from the start. Our challenge centred on the fact that the oil produced by the Horse Hill site would inevitably be burned, throwing carbon into the atmosphere and heating the planet. We expected it to be a routine legal procedure lasting six months. But as the case came together, its wider significance for the climate and the fossil-fuel industry at large became clearer, and months turned into years as it worked its way through the courts.

Sarah Finch is a climate campaigner and a member of the Weald Action Group

Daily heat records were broken in the early season heatwave, yet relief in sight as cooler weather forecast

About 65 million people were under heat alerts in the north-eastern and midwest states on Friday, as an early season heatwave in the US continued to roast the region.

Record temperatures were set in some areas, with heat indexes that combine temperature and humidity hitting 100F and 110F. Calendar-day highs were broken across Maine, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.

Environmental Research Center, a consumer protection non-profit, says it found ‘forever chemicals’ in eight flavors

A wide range of No Cow protein bars are contaminated with lead and toxic “forever chemicals”, recent filings with the California department of justice charges.

The filings, made by the Environmental Research Center (ERC), a San Diego-based consumer protection non-profit, states that its testing found PFOA, a dangerous PFAS compound, and lead in eight flavors of No Cow bars.