The Guardian
Extreme global weather is 'the face of climate change' says leading scientist
Prof Michael Mann, one of the world’s most eminent climate scientists, declares the impacts of global warming are now ‘playing out in real-time’
• Heatwave made more than twice as likely by climate change, scientists find
The extreme heatwaves and wildfires wreaking havoc around the globe are “the face of climate change”, one of the world’s leading climate scientists has declared, with the impacts of global warming now “playing out in real time”.
Climate change has long been predicted to increase extreme weather incidents, and scientists are now confident these predictions are coming true. Scientists say the global warming has contributed to on the scorching temperatures that have baked the UK and northern Europe for weeks.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
A new species of spider, frolicking hares and migratory sea turtles are among this week’s pick of images from our overheated natural world
Continue reading...Fewer children walk or cycle to school despite air pollution fears
The government’s latest National Travel Survey reveals that more parents are using cars for school run amid mounting evidence of health harms
The proportion of parents who drive their children to school rather than walk or cycle is on the rise despite growing concerns about the impact of air pollution on young people’s health.
New figures from the government’s National Travel Survey show that the percentage of primary school children who walk or cycle in England fell from 53% to 51% in 2017.
Continue reading...Heatwave made more than twice as likely by climate change, scientists find
The fingerprints of global warming are clear, they say, after comparing northern Europe’s scorching summer with records and computer models
The heatwave searing northern Europe was made more than twice as likely by climate change, according to a rapid assessment by scientists.
The result is preliminary but they say the signal of climate change is “unambiguous”. Scientists have long predicted that global warming is ramping up the number and intensity of heatwaves, with events even worse than current one set to strike every other year by the 2040s.
Continue reading...Is Zinke trolling San Francisco with plan to dismantle city's reservoir?
US interior secretary’s meeting with group in favor of Yosemite valley restoration met with puzzlement from experts
US interior secretary Ryan Zinke has prompted puzzlement by meeting with a group that seeks to dismantle a dam providing San Francisco’s water, as experts wonder whether he is taking the fringe proposal seriously or trolling the city.
Zinke’s Sunday discussion with Restore Hetch Hetchy concerned the dam at Hetch Hetchy reservoir in California’s Yosemite national park. Removing it would restore the valley, which was once so beautiful that the environmentalist John Muir called it “one of nature’s rarest and most precious mountain temples”, to its natural state - and force San Francisco to figure out where else to store 90% of its water supply.
Continue reading...London's Tory mayoral candidates are stuck in the past on cycling
When the free-market case for bike infrastructure is so clear, why won’t Conservative candidates embrace it?
Among his many claims to political prominence, both good and bad, Boris Johnson was notable as a Conservative who built a lot of bike lanes fairly quickly (at least in the end).
Similarly, much of New York City’s bike renaissance was launched by Michael Bloomberg, the three-term mayor who, as a billionaire media tycoon and Republican, had more in common with most Bond villains than your stereotypical wind-in-the-hair bike advocate.
Continue reading...Country diary: a change in the ecological weather
High Fields, Stoney Middleton, Derbyshire: These exhausted hay meadows, now owned by the National Trust, are on the way to being restored
Climbing up from the top of Coombs Dale, I turn up a rough road known as Black Harry Lane. I don’t know the origins of the name; my hunch would be that it’s related to the region’s distant lead-mining past. There was an 18th-century highwayman called Black Harry, who was gibbeted nearby, but he was named after the packhorse road, not the other way round.
On a warm summer’s evening, there is nothing malevolent about the place. The verges are thick with flowers: meadow crane’s-bill, a flower that when I notice it reminds me I’m home, its commonplace purple threaded with the subtler, paler scabious. The track itself has needed heavy repairs in recent years, thanks to off-road enthusiasts, whose local reputation, like that of highwaymen, is mixed.
Continue reading...Farmers across UK braced for heavy rain and thunderstorms
Sudden weather change after weeks of drought could cause flooding and crop damage
Farmers across many parts of the UK are bracing themselves for thunderstorms and outbursts of heavy rain after weeks of drought and high temperatures.
The sudden change in the weather, expected to affect eastern areas hardest but spreading to the north and Midlands over Friday, is likely to cause problems of flooding and potential crop damage.
Continue reading...Why is it so hot? – video explainer
As the northern hemisphere endures record breaking temperatures, scientists and meteorologists are looking at the possible causes.
Climate change is partly responsible, but the summer has also featured unusual jet stream activity, which is bringing the subtropical heat north
• UK ‘woefully unprepared’ for deadly heatwaves, warn MPs
China's long game to dominate nuclear power relies on the UK
Approval of Chinese nuclear technology in the UK would act as a springboard to the rest of the world
China wants to become a global leader in nuclear power and the UK is crucial to realising its ambitions.
While other countries have scaled back on atomic energy in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, state-backed Chinese companies benefit from the fact that China is still relying on nuclear energy to reach the country’s low-carbon goals.
Just 13% of global oceans undamaged by humanity, research reveals
The remaining wilderness areas, mostly in the remote Pacific and at the poles, need urgent protection from fishing and pollution, scientists say
Just 13% of the world’s oceans remain untouched by the damaging impacts of humanity, the first systematic analysis has revealed. Outside the remotest areas of the Pacific and the poles, virtually no ocean is left harbouring naturally high levels of marine wildlife.
Huge fishing fleets, global shipping and pollution running off the land are combining with climate change to degrade the oceans, the researchers found. Furthermore, just 5% of the remaining ocean wilderness is within existing marine protection areas.
Continue reading...Heatwave, GM and Earth overshoot – green news roundup
The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox
Continue reading...Laos villages submerged after dam collapse – video
The devastation continues after a hydropower dam collapsed in Laos, where 26 people have reportedly died and more than 100 are missing. The flood waters have also poured into neighbouring Cambodia, forcing thousands of people to evacuate
Continue reading...These six species are about to be sacrificed for the oil and gas industry
Republican-led changes to the Endangered Species Act put plants and animals across America at risk. Here are the ones you should be most concerned about
Republicans in the western United States have been trying to whittle away the Endangered Species Act (ESA) since Donald Trump took office, and their efforts reached a crescendo last week with help from the White House. The Trump administration has proposed significant changes to its enforcement of the bedrock environmental law. Under the new rules, wildlife managers would limit protections for species designated as “threatened” (a level below endangered), consider the economic costs prior to defending a species and de-emphasize long-term threats such as climate change.
The administration’s action follows bills and budget riders from congressional Republicans that would, among other things, in effect remove protections for gray wolves in the lower 48 states, exempt the controversial greater sage-grouse from an ESA listing for 10 years, and increase state involvement in conservation decisions. The flurry of measures is an attempt to change the law, long seen as oppressive to oil and gas interests, while the GOP controls Congress and the White House.
Continue reading...Country diary: horseflies are a biting scourge throughout the land
Sandy, Bedfordshire: As with mosquitoes, the female is deadlier than the male, seeking a meal of animal blood so that she can grow her eggs
Many a fly has landed on my bare limbs this long summer, stretching out its minesweeper mouthparts to dab at my skin for something edible. Not thinking too hard about where those dirty feet have been, I tolerate them pattering about, sucking up, until the tickling sensation gets too much, and I shake them off.
What I worry about is the flies that don’t walk.
Continue reading...Logging 'destroying' swift parrot habitat as government delays action
Researchers say failures allowed logging of 25% of old growth forest despite extinction threat
Habitat for the critically endangered swift parrot is being “knowingly destroyed” by logging because of government failures to manage the species’ survival, according to research.
Matthew Webb and Dejan Stojanovic, two of the Eureka prize finalists from the Australian National University’s difficult bird research group, say governments have stalled on management plans that would protect known feeding and nesting habitat in Tasmania.
Continue reading...Why can’t we just produce less waste? | Letters
As Coca-Cola launches yet another heavily branded rewards-based initiative around recycling (Recyclers get half-price tickets for attractions, 25 July), it’s interesting to note that the global behemoth apparently still wonders whether deposit systems for bottles and cans increase recycling. Not only was it on a government working group that found that they do, but it runs many deposit systems around the world that see recycling rates as high as 98.5%.
As reward systems only fuel higher levels of consumption, the question is why would a company promote a solution to waste that actually creates more waste? The answer, predictably, is that the system only benefits itself and other big businesses, rather than being better for taxpayers or the environment.
Continue reading...The facts about Powys game shoot | Letters
Your country diary (14 July) on the Llechweddygarth shoot in Powys is wrong. There are no grey partridge on the shoot. The game is not “tossed into the backs of Land Rovers” but hung properly in accordance with the Code of Good Shooting Practice on a purpose-built game cart. The game is not “sent for landfill” but respectfully processed and sold by a local small food business.
There is no shooting in the churchyard of Pennant Melangell; the nearest gun is two football fields from the church and birds are driven away from the shrine.
Continue reading...Gene-editing is GM, Europe's highest court rules
Landmark decision means gene-edited plants and animals will be regulated under rules governing genetically modified organisms
Plants and animals created by innovative gene-editing technology have been genetically modified and should be regulated as such, the EU’s top court has ruled.
The landmark decision ends 10 years of debate in Europe about what is – and is not – a GM food, with a victory for environmentalists, and a bitter blow to Europe’s biotech industry.
Continue reading...British farmers fear fire as heatwave creates 'tinderbox'
Wildfire is now an over-riding concern for many farmers, who are taking extra precautions to stop fires spreading as the hot spell continues
“It’s like a tinderbox out here,” says Lesley Chandler, looking down at parched fields where bleached-out grass struggles through baked, stone-hard earth. “Just a spark could set it all alight.”
Chandler farms 200 acres of arable land in Oxfordshire, where there has been virtually no rain for weeks. Pastures that would normally boast grass nearly a foot tall have instead a thin cover of dried-out vegetation.
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