Category Archives: Environment

Locust outbreak in Afghanistan’s ‘breadbasket’ threatens wheat harvest

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With 20m people at the highest risk of famine for 25 years, farmers are desperately trying to kill the pests before vast swarms form

The northern “breadbasket” of Afghanistan is battling a potentially devastating outbreak of locusts that threaten to eat their way through up to a quarter of the country’s annual wheat harvest, the UN has warned.

After three years of disappointing, drought-afflicted harvests, Afghan farmers were expecting better this year – a much-needed boost for a country where nearly 20 million people are thought to be at the highest risk of famine in 25 years.

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New US rules could stem emissions from coal and gas power plants

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Environmental groups laud the regulation, which would advance clean power in the US – if it survives expected legal challenges

The US is set to impose new carbon pollution standards upon its coal- and gas-fired power plants, in a move that the Biden administration has hailed as a major step in confronting the climate crisis.

Under new rules put forward by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), new and existing power plants will have to meet a range of new standards to cut their emissions of planet-heating gases. This, the EPA predicts, will spur facilities to switch to cleaner energy such as wind and solar, install rarely used carbon capture technology or shut down entirely.

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Black summer bushfires may have caused rare ‘triple dip’ La Niña, study suggests

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Smoke aerosols from the fires interacted with clouds to cool the south-eastern Pacific, helping the wet weather pattern to form

Smoke from Australia’s 2019-20 black summer fires may have resulted in the rare “triple dip” La Niña that lasted from 2020 to 2022, research suggests.

Modelling from scientists at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research has found that smoke aerosols from the bushfires interacted with clouds to cool surface waters over the south-eastern subtropical Pacific Ocean.

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At least 21 dead as wildfires rage across Urals and Siberia

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Dead are mainly elderly people unable to flee, Russia media report

At least 21 people have died in wildfires in Russia’s Ural mountains, state media reported.

Wildfires have raged in the Kurgan region of the Urals and in Siberia all week. Local media reported that most of the dead were older people unable to leave their homes. According to local authorities, many of the deaths occurred on Sunday in the village of Yuldus, in Kurgan province on the border between the Urals and Siberia.

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Sound artist eavesdrops on what is thought to be world’s heaviest organism

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Artist records underground sounds generated by Pando, a huge group of aspens in Utah considered to be a single organism

When it comes to the world’s heaviest living organism, it is a “forest of one tree” that is thought to take the crown. Now a sound expert is listening into the quiet grove in an attempt to hear its secrets.

Known as Pando – Latin for “I spread” – the 47,000 genetically identical quivering aspens in south-central Utah are considered to be a single organism, with the “trees” actually branches thought to be connected by a shared root system.

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Saudi oil group Aramco to pay more to state despite profits drop

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World’s largest energy company’s first-quarter profits fall by 19% to $32bn after dip in oil prices

The Saudi government looks likely to reap greater revenues from the state-backed oil group Saudi Aramco despite the company posting a near-20% fall in quarterly profits.

The world’s largest oil and gas company said on Tuesday its profits had fallen by 19% in its first quarter compared with a year earlier, to nearly $32bn (£25bn), caused by a drop in oil prices.

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Frogs in Puerto Rico croak at a higher pitch due to global heating

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Call of the coquí frog is affected by rising temperatures, scientists find

Frogs in Puerto Rico are croaking at a higher pitch due to global heating, scientists have found.

The frogs appear to be decreasing in size at warmer temperatures, which causes their croaks to become high pitched. If the trends continue, the heat could become too much for the sensitive amphibians to survive successfully, researchers have said.

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‘Unique’ frogs in NSW rainforests feared locally extinct after black summer bushfires

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Pugh’s mountain frog, which has been ‘evolving since Australia was connected to Antarctica’ was worst affected of nine threatened species, researchers say

Several frog species are feared to be locally extinct in parts of New South Wales after the black summer bushfires, a survey of amphibian populations has found.

Scientists conducted a survey of 411 sites in north-east and south-east NSW, monitoring 35 frog species for 18 months after the 2019-2020 bushfire season.

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Weather tracker: Vietnam and Laos set records for highest-ever temperatures

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Records for countries broken just weeks after temperature in Thailand rose above 45C for the first time

All-time temperature records were broken in Vietnam and Laos last week. On 6 May, Hoi Xuan in Vietnam reached a scorching 44.1C, breaking the previous record for the country of 43.4C, set in 2019. On the same day, Laos recorded its highest-ever temperature, , which reached 43.5C in Luang Prabang. These records were set just a few weeks after temperatures in Thailand rose above 45C for the first time.

A breakdown of the heat in south-east Asia is expected to occur in the next few days as a tropical disturbance is likely to develop nearby. Forecast models suggest that, over the coming days, the Bay of Bengal will have the perfect conditions for cyclogenesis to occur. By later this week, several factors, including enhanced vorticity and very high sea surface temperatures, will enhance the chance that a tropical storm will edge north-eastwards into parts of Myanmar. This will bring some strong winds and significant rainfall to south-east Asia, including the areas that have recently seen their temperature records broken.

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Vietnam records highest ever temperature of 44.1C

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Report comes after neighbouring countries also register unprecedented highs during April heatwave

Vietnam has reported a record-high temperature of 44.1C (111.38F), as weather experts and authorities told the population to remain indoors during the hottest parts of the day.

Scientists have said global warming is aggravating adverse weather. Neighbouring countries registered record temperatures during a heatwave in Asia in April.

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Feral horses an ‘imminent threat’ that could cause extinction of several endangered Australian species, inquiry warned

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Scientific committee calls for ‘urgent action’ from the Albanese government to address damage caused to sensitive alpine ecosystems

Feral horses in the Australian alps pose an imminent threat to the Albanese government’s zero extinctions target, a scientific committee that advises the government on endangered species has told a parliamentary inquiry.

The threatened species scientific committee (TSSC) says feral horses “may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction” of six critically endangered animals and at least two critically endangered plants.

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US food pesticides contaminated with toxic ‘forever chemicals’ testing finds

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PFAS are present at ‘potentially dangerous’ levels in widely used chemicals sprayed on food crops destined for Americans’ plates

Some of the United States’ most widely used food pesticides are contaminated with “potentially dangerous” levels of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals”, new testing of the products finds.

The Environmental Protection Agency has previously been silent on PFAS in food pesticides, even as it found the chemicals in non-food crop products. The potential for millions of acres of contaminated food cropland demands swifter and stronger regulatory action, the paper’s authors say.

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Gardeners urged to ‘keep it local’ when creating a wildflower meadow

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Experts say neighbourhood varieties will suit an area’s pollinators, and that caution is needed when buying generic seed mixes

Gardeners hoping to establish a wildflower patch in their gardens should be wary of generic seed mixes and stick to local blooms to best serve wild pollinators, experts have said.

Conservationists are urging people to source not just native wildflowers but to find out what grows naturally in their neighbourhood by getting out in their area and looking for inspiration in existing meadows, verges and nature reserves. They should then use this as a guide to ensure they are collecting or buying the most suitable wildflowers for their gardens.

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The Hague introduces €50 flat fee for parking to deter drivers

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Scheme on certain streets including near beach makes it as costly to park for 10 minutes as for whole day

Whether for 10 minutes or a whole day, it now costs a flat fee of €50 (£43) to park in certain streets in The Hague, including roads around the popular Scheveningen beach.

The pilot scheme in the Dutch city on the North Sea coast, which will last a year, aims to discourage tourists and visitors from blocking up the historic centre and seaside roads, particularly on sunny days.

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Thousands forced to evacuate as wildfires ravage western Canada

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More than 13,000 people were ordered to leave Alberta as 78 fires burned, and officials say the blazes are expected to intensify

A week of record hot weather in western Canada has forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes, as wildfires raged in parts of Alberta and rapid snow melt triggered flooding across interior British Columbia.

By Friday, more than 13,000 people were under evacuation orders in Alberta, as 78 fires burned. Among the worst-hit areas was the Little Red River Cree Nation in the north of the province, where the 1,458-hectare Fox Lake fire consumed 20 homes and the police station.

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Filipino activists appeal to British banks over region devastated by oil spill

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Environmentalists from the Philippines urge investors to avoid LNG projects which they say threaten the Verde Island Passage

Campaigners from the Philippines have urged British banks not to fund the expansion of fossil fuel use in their country. It follows a huge oil spill that threatened a globally important marine biodiversity hotspot.

Filipino environmentalists have travelled to the UK to meet representatives from Barclays, Standard Chartered and HSBC as part of efforts to stop the expansion of liquefied natural gas (LNG) power plants and terminals in and around the Verde Island Passage, a global marine biodiversity hotspot known for its whale sharks, corals, turtles and rich fisheries, which was badly affected by the oil spill this year.

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Students occupy schools and universities across Europe in climate protest

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Twenty-two institutions have been shut down as part of proposed month-long campaign

A wave of student occupations has shut down schools and universities across Europe as part of a renewed youth protest campaign against inaction on climate breakdown. Twenty-two schools and universities across the continent have been occupied as part of a proposed month-long campaign.

In Germany, universities were occupied in Wolfenbüttel, Magdeburg, Münster, Bielefeld, Regensburg, Bremen and Berlin. In Spain, students in occupation at the Autonomous University of Barcelona organised teach-outs on the climate crisis. In Belgium, 40 students occupied the University of Ghent. In the Czech Republic, about 100 students camped outside the ministry of trade and industry. In the UK occupations were under way at the universities of Leeds, Exeter and Falmouth.

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Fire and concrete: will France’s model of radical climate protest catch on?

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As campaigning hots up around the world once again, eyes have been turning to the country that is taking things further

In the UK, when climate activists want to block a road, they sit down on it. When their fellow activists in France want to do the same, they build a wall across one side, and set the other side on fire.

As Extinction Rebellion drew tens of thousands to their peaceful “Big One” protests in London last month, in the south of France 8,500 environmental protesters occupied the road from Toulouse to the town of Castres.

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‘A sea of misinformation’: FTC to address industry greenwashing complaints

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As consumers turn to renewable and recyclable products, protests over industry’s use of misleading terms have proliferated

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is taking aim at greenwashing by big business with an update to its “Green Guides”, which would give the agency stronger legal cases against polluters by clarifying when companies’ deceptive marketing around sustainability and environmental responsibility violates federal law.

The move follows years of formal complaints filed with the FTC about often highly questionable claims made by fossil fuel companies, big agriculture, major food producers and other polluting industries.

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Grain trader Cargill faces legal challenge in US over Brazilian soya supply chain

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World’s biggest grain trader accused of ‘shoddy due diligence’ on deforestation and alleged rights violations

The world’s largest grain trader, Cargill, is facing a first-ever legal challenge in the United States over its failure to remove deforestation and human rights abuses from its soya supply chain in Brazil.

ClientEarth, an environmental law organisation, filed the formal complaint on Thursday, accusing Cargill of inadequate monitoring and a laggard response to the decline of the Amazon rainforest and other globally important biomes, such as the Cerrado savannah and the Atlantic Forest.

Soya beans bought from third-party traders, which make up 42% of all Brazilian soya Cargill purchases.

Soya beans owned by other companies that passes through Cargill ports.

Indirect land use change.

Soya sourced from the Cerrado savannah.

Soya sourced from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.

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