The Guardian


Body of man who drowned in Montana national park may have been found
Glacier national park rangers believe they have recovered remains of Siddhant Vitthal Patil, who fell into creek in July
Glacier national park rangers believe they have recovered the body of a man who drowned over the July 4 weekend, park officials in Montana said.
Siddhant Vitthal Patil, 26, of India fell into Avalanche Creek on 6 July, but the creek was running too fast to recover his body.
Continue reading...A naked mole rat: the world’s only ‘eusocial’ mammal has an endlessly pregnant queen | Helen Sullivan
Each piece of information about this xenophobic rodent is worse than the last, but you cannot stop reading
To read about the naked mole rat is to come across information that you wish you never knew – and then to look for more.
The first thing to know about this tunnelling creature is that some people call them sand puppies. The next is that they are the world’s only “eusocial” mammal. What could that mean, you wonder, and you look it up: as it is with termites, so it is with naked mole rats.
Continue reading...Kamala Harris played a crucial role in passing one of the strongest climate laws in the world | Leah C Stokes
America’s landmark climate law, which turns two years old this month, has Harris’s signature all over it
Two years ago today, I watched as Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote for the largest climate investment in American history. It was an emotional moment. After decades of inaction, America had finally passed a climate law – one of the strongest climate laws in the world.
I didn’t know it then, but a month later I would get a call asking if I would like to interview the vice-president about climate policy.
Continue reading...Australian Conservation Foundation’s X account suspended after apparent ‘report bombing’
‘I do believe we are being targeted and they are trying to silence us out of this space,’ ACF spokesperson says
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The X account of the Australian Conservation Foundation was suspended for more than 24 hours with the charity saying it believes it is being “report bombed by pro-nuclear groups” seeking to remove negative commentary.
The environment charity’s X account @AusConservation was suspended on Sunday morning, sparking outrage among supporters. The account was reinstated late on Monday, but without the charity’s 32,000 followers.
Continue reading...EPA deals ‘major blow’ to Woodside’s multibillion-dollar gas drilling plan at Browse basin
Scientists flagged risks to migrating whales, a beach where endangered turtles make nests and potential oil spill destroying a pristine environment
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A multibillion-dollar Woodside Energy gas export development off Western Australia’s north-west has been deemed “unacceptable” by the state’s Environment Protection Authority due to its impact on marine life at Scott Reef.
The EPA’s assessment of Woodside’s Browse liquefied natural gas (LNG) proposal was revealed in response to a freedom of information request by WAToday.
Continue reading...Norfolk Wildlife Trust revives endangered species: the local pub
Restoration of Pleasure Boat Inn on edge of Hickling Broad makes charity the first wildlife trust to own a pub
It was a much-loved endangered species that desperately needed saving, but it was still a surprise when the Norfolk Wildlife Trust stepped in to revive it.
The nature conservation charity has become the first wildlife trust to own a pub after restoring the Pleasure Boat Inn on the edge of Hickling Broad, a national nature reserve in the Broads national park.
Continue reading...Australians shunning petrol-powered cars for hybrid vehicles as bowser prices rise
Trend also reflects concerns over range and a lack of charging infrastructure affecting purely electric vehicles, experts say
Australians are buying more cars than ever but are increasingly choosing hybrid vehicles over petrol-powered cars due to rising costs at the bowser, new data by the Australian Automobiles Association shows.
Quarterly vehicle sales data released on Monday revealed a further uptick in demand for hybrid vehicles, a trend the industry believes reflects both the rising cost of living, as well as range anxiety and concerns over a lack of charging infrastructure affecting purely electric vehicles.
Continue reading...One of Australia’s most elusive birds, a 2,200km journey and a mid-winter mystery solved
A new project that aims to uncover where the Australian painted-snipe goes during winter has revealed why, until now, no one knew
It had been three months without a peep, and the ecologist Matt Herring thought Gloria had perished. He had captured the elusive bird on 22 October 2023, on a property north of Balranald in New South Wales – the first Australian painted-snipe to be fitted with a radio transmitter.
But contact had been lost, and there was a sticky complication: Gloria’s transmitter had been financed by a successful crowdfunding campaign. Herring started preparing an obituary for the avian pioneer for her species.
Continue reading...Death Valley records its hottest month ever in July
The national park had an average 24-hour temperature of 108.5F that month, beating its previous record in 2018
Death Valley, the hottest place on Earth, recorded its hottest month ever on record in July, the National Park Service (NPS) announced.
In a statement released on Friday, the NPS revealed that the park had an average 24-hour temperature of 108.5F (42.5C), in turn beating out its previous record of 108.1F (42.3C) set in 2018.
Continue reading...I swear by almighty river: an ancient practice is making a comeback in Britain's courts | Tim Adams
When a juror was sworn in on a cupful of water from the Roding he made modern history
The barrister Paul Powlesland, who has acted for climate protesters, was called to jury service last week, and made judicial history by taking an oath on the thing most holy to him – not an ancient book, but a cupful of water from his local river in north-east London: “I swear by the River Roding, from her source in Molehill Green to her confluence with the Thames,” he said, “that I will faithfully try the defendant and give a true verdict according to the evidence.”
Powlesland explained that he wanted to promote the idea of the sacredness of nature, and its place in the legal system. “I hope that many others follow suit,” he said, “and animism is soon found more regularly in our courts.”
Continue reading...Ecologist taking on MoD to protect skylarks says he has faced threats and assault
Campaigners say rare grassland on former firing range in Essex was mowed, killing the birds and their chicks that nest on the ground
The song of the skylark has filled poets’ hearts for centuries, from Shelley’s “blithe spirit” to Wordsworth’s “ethereal minstrel”. But there is little that is poetic about a row over the birds that has blown up in Colchester.
Campaigners seeking to save Middlewick Ranges, a former Ministry of Defence firing range in Essex, are furious that some of the 76 hectares of rare grassland were mowed last month, an act that they believe has killed skylarks and their chicks, which nest on the ground.
Continue reading...‘This is climate change’: Scottish beach eroding by 7 metres a year
Centuries-old Montrose golf links falling into the sea and town at risk of flooding as coastal erosion accelerates
A beach in north-east Scotland is eroding rapidly owing to climate change, leaving a town at risk of flooding and its centuries-old golf links crumbling into the sea.
The Dynamic Coast report in 2021 studied the rate of erosion at Montrose and predicted that 120 metres would be lost over 40 years, an average of 3 metres a year.
Continue reading...The Guardian view on reclaiming the Seine: hope for 21st century rivers | Editorial
Paris 2024 has pointed the way towards a brighter future for urban waterways in post-industrial cities
It was an American modernist poet who captured best the ancient, elemental status of rivers. In one of his best-loved poems, Wallace Stevens celebrated their “third commonness with light and air / A curriculum, a vigor, a local abstraction”. Life-supporting and place-defining, the great rivers of the world have nurtured and sustained our cities, but more latterly been blighted by the toxic legacy of industrialisation.
The successful staging of Olympic events in a cleaned-up River Seine therefore deserves to be seen as a social and environmental milestone, as well as a sporting one. The remarkable spectacle of triathlon competitors diving from the Pont Alexandre III, as the Eiffel Tower loomed large on a blue-skied summer morning, will take some beating as a signature image of Paris 2024.
Continue reading...Utah’s Great Salt Lake rings climate alarm bells over release of 4.1m tons of carbon dioxide
Study has found that the lake, which has lost 73% of its water, released climate-warming emissions
For years, scientists and environmental leaders have been raising alarm that the Great Salt Lake is headed toward a catastrophic decline.
Now, new research points to the lake’s desiccating shores also becoming an increasingly significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists have calculated that dried out portions of the lakebed released about 4.1m tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in 2020, based on samples collected over seven months that year.
Continue reading...Choughs breed in Kent for first time in 200 years
Unexpected fledging is result of long-term restoration project to bring red-billed birds back to Kent coastline
The chough, a charismatic cliff-dwelling corvid, has bred in Kent for the first time in two centuries.
A young pair among eight birds released last year defied expectations to successfully breed this summer, making a nest on Dover Castle and rearing one chick, which fledged in June.
Continue reading...Week in wildlife – in pictures: a feisty sea lion, a retiring elephant and a fleeing fox
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
Continue reading...Environmentalist becomes first juror to swear oath on river water
Paul Powlesland, the co-founder of Lawyers for Nature, says he considers the River Roding to be sacred
When jurors are called to court, they are required to swear on a holy book or make a secular promise to tell the truth.
So court officials were perplexed when the environmental activist and barrister Paul Powlesland was called for jury service and produced a vial of river water and asked to swear on the River Roding.
Continue reading...Sea swimming was my saviour. But the dumping of sewage changed everything | Jo Bateman
My daily dips were a game-changer for my mental health. Now I’m suing the water company that’s deprived me of them
Six years ago, I was living in the Midlands, about as far away from the sea as you can get. But during a week of walking from Poole to Lyme Regis, I fell in love with that vast blue space and its ability to restore my mind and body. I went home, handed in my notice, put my house on the market and within a few months I was living in Exmouth, Devon – a stone’s throw from the most beautiful beach, almost two miles of unbroken golden sand.
I still remember my first outdoor swimming experience, in Exmouth’s sheltered Pirate Cove – how I felt as the cold began to creep up from my toes. Endorphins coursed through me. I was buzzing, grinning, full of joy, and from that moment I was hooked. I began to swim daily.
Jo Bateman is a retired physiotherapist. She lives in Exmouth, Devon, and swims in the sea all year round
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Continue reading...Brazil led the way, now the UK should get behind the assault on hunger and poverty | Kevin Watkins
At its recent summit, Lula gave the G20 a chance to show its commitment to real change – and Britain can take the lead
Last week the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, shattered the mould of G20 meetings. In using the annual summit as a launchpad for a new effort to tackle hunger and extreme poverty, he has provided the world with a chance – a last chance – to breathe new life into a moribund sustainable development goal (SDG) agenda. He has handed the G20 a cause that could halt its slide into irrelevance.
For the UK, the creation of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty represents an opportunity to restore a deeply tarnished reputation on international development.
Continue reading...Cornish conservation charity launches major ‘Tor to Shore’ rewilding project
Cornwall Wildlife Trust initiative aims to benefit creatures from upland marsh fritillaries to seahorses in St Austell Bay
A Cornish conservation charity has launched an ambitious rewilding project intended to benefit creatures from marsh fritillary butterflies living high on the moor to long-snouted seahorses in seagrass in a bay five miles away.
The Tor to Shore project will stretch from Helman Tor, a reserve topped with a granite boulder summit near Bodmin, to St Austell Bay via the tumbling River Par, its idea to improve a landscape at scale.
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