Fattest brown bears, bulking up for hibernation, pitted against each other in online public vote – who will win?
It’s that time of year again, when audiences turn to a welcome distraction from the heavy news cycle: Katmai national park and preserve in southern Alaska is celebrating its fattest brown bears.
The park is set to kick off its annual Fat Bear Week on Tuesday, an online competition where the public votes for the park’s fattest brown bear.
Continue reading...Sun Day national action supported renewable energy, day after ‘Make Billionaires Pay’ march ahead of Climate Week
Hundreds of environmentalists gathered in New York City’s Stuyvesant Square Park and a nearby Quaker meeting house on Sunday to rally in support of solar power and other forms of renewable energy. The event was part of a national “day of action” billed Sun Day, founded by veteran environmental activist Bill McKibben and first Earth Day coordinator Denis Hayes.
“It’s so sad to watch the sun going to waste,” McKibben said at a press conference, standing beside environmentalists and their children. “Every single day, energy from heaven going to waste while we drill down to hell for another dose of the stuff that is wrecking this planet.”
Continue reading...Two-year-old boy dies and homes buried as remnants of Tropical Storm Mario bring downpours and thunder
Flash flooding and landslides led to the death of a two-year-old boy in California in the US last week, after heavy rainfall followed on the heels of Tropical Storm Mario further south. The storm skirted the Pacific coast of Mexico with minimal disruption, eventually dissipating to the west of Baja California on Tuesday, but the remnants went on to cause havoc on Thursday. Residual moist air from the tropical storm was drawn north-east towards California, bringing heavy downpours and thunder to central and southern counties.
The heaviest rainfall was in the mountains of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, where up to 68mm (2.67in) fell in a few hours. Further north, Death Valley – famously one of the driest places on Earth – received 15mm of rain, triple the average rainfall for September and a full quarter of the yearly average.
Continue reading...Queensland Nationals senator tells Cpac conference ‘last rites being administered’ and praises Andrew Hastie for threat to quit frontbench over policy
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Nationals senator Matt Canavan has claimed the Coalition is “on the cusp of walking away from net zero”, urging Sussan Ley to campaign against the emissions reduction target by taking inspiration from Peter Dutton’s opposition to the Indigenous voice referendum.
The conservative political conference Cpac has heaped more pressure on Ley to dump the climate target, with a host of rightwing Liberal and National politicians calling for the 2050 aspiration – agreed by the former Coalition prime minister Scott Morrison – to be scrapped immediately.
Continue reading...Research which began with conversations round a campfire and went on to examine 7m gene variants shows how people survive with little water and a meat-rich diet
A collaboration between African and American researchers and a community living in one of the most hostile landscapes of northern Kenya has uncovered key genetic adaptations that explain how pastoralist people have been able to thrive in the region.
Underlying the population’s abilities to live in Turkana, a place defined by extreme heat, water scarcity and limited vegetation, has been hundreds of years of natural selection, according to a study published in Science.
Continue reading...Liberal leader later clarifies she doesn’t support setting targets while in opposition
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The Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, has indicated the Coalition won’t set a 2030 or 2035 climate target unless they return to government, saying her colleagues didn’t back locking in an emissions goal while they remained in opposition.
It came as Ley had to clean up her own error, claiming she “misspoke” after initially saying her party “don’t believe in setting targets at all from opposition or from government”. She later clarified she only meant in opposition, prompting ridicule from Anthony Albanese who claimed the opposition “changes its policies from hour to hour”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Residents of western Sydney and outer suburbs of Melbourne are at particular risk of high temperatures, data shows
As the federal government warns the climate crisis will increase heat-related deaths, with the impact disproportionately borne by the already vulnerable, data obtained exclusively by Guardian Australia shows the parts of Australia’s major cities that are most vulnerable to heat.
The new measure, called the Heat Vulnerability Index and compiled by researchers at RMIT, combines temperature readings from satellites, with data on populations particularly susceptible to heat (such as older Australians and those with disabilities), the built environment and green space, and socioeconomic factors like income and education.
Continue reading...The prime minister has a stonking majority and a progressive crossbench that wants deeper cuts. So what has happened to lower the goal?
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The Australian government has announced an Oprah Winfrey-style emissions target for 2035. It has tried to promise (nearly) everyone a prize.
By choosing a target range of a 62% to 70% cut compared with 2005 levels – based on long-awaited advice from the Climate Change Authority and its chair, Matt Kean – it has opted for a political solution.
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Continue reading...Joel Engardio, who becomes fifth elected city official to be ousted in four years, says he stands by his decision
A San Francisco supervisor was recalled on Tuesday after he successfully pushed to turn a stretch of coastal highway used heavily by neighborhood motorists into a car-free park despite strong objections by some of his constituents.
Joel Engardio became the fifth elected official in San Francisco to be ousted in a recall vote in four years. He conceded, saying in a statement that he accepted the outcome and still stood by his decision to help create a park called Sunset Dunes.
Continue reading...Australia must lead other nations in committing to 1.5C pathway for safety, security, prosperity and the environment, experts say
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Leading climate advocates have warned the Australian government’s decision on a 2035 emissions reduction will be a historic “sliding doors moment” for the country, with an international goal to keep global heating to 1.5C now hanging by a thread.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is expected to announce a target range on Thursday after a scheduled morning cabinet meeting before formally submitting it to the UN later this month.
Continue reading...Researchers from Imperial College London say 16,500 deaths caused by hot weather brought on by greenhouse gases
Human-made global heating caused two in every three heat deaths in Europe during this year’s scorching summer, an early analysis of mortality in 854 big cities has found.
Epidemiologists and climate scientists attributed 16,500 out of 24,400 heat deaths from June to August to the extra hot weather brought on by greenhouse gases.
Continue reading...Julia Chuñil is one of 146 land defenders who were killed or went missing last year, a third of them from Indigenous communities
One day last November, Julia Chuñil called for her dog, Cholito, and they set off into the woods around her home to search for lost livestock. The animals returned but Chuñil, who was 72 at the time, and Cholito did not.
More than 100 people joined her family in a search lasting weeks in the steep, wet and densely overgrown terrain of Chile’s ancient Valdivian forest. After a month, they even kept an eye on vultures for any grim signs. But they found no trace of Chuñil.
Continue reading...Accommodation costs at climate summit in Belem are pricing out some developing countries and media outlets
The United Nations has urged its staff to limit attendance at the Cop30 climate summit in Brazil in November due to high accommodation prices, while government delegations are still scrambling to find rooms within their budgets.
The move comes as delegations grow increasingly concerned about the cost of accommodation in the coastal Amazon city of Belem hosting Cop30. Brazil said it is working to increase the number of available hotel beds, but soaring prices for accommodation have stoked calls from some governments to relocate the conference, which Brazilian officials have rejected.
Continue reading...Campaigners crowdfund £26,000 to seek judicial review of move to construct pitches in wildlife-rich area
Campaigners are mounting another legal challenge to the building of a women’s football academy by Tottenham Hotspur on wildlife-rich parkland in north London.
The Guardians of Whitewebbs group has successfully crowdfunded £26,000 to seek a judicial review of Enfield council’s granting of planning permission for the Spurs academy, which will include all-weather pitches, floodlights and a turf academy built on 53 hectares (130 acres) of Whitewebbs Park. Enfield council’s planning committee approved the proposals in February, despite local protests, on greenbelt parkland rich in bats, newts and mature trees.
Continue reading...Greatest damage from heat, drought and flooding done in Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Bulgaria
The violent weather that battered Europe this summer caused short-term economic losses of at least €43bn, according to an EU-wide estimate, with costs expected to rise to €126bn by 2029.
The immediate hit to the economy from a single brutal summer of heat, drought and flooding amounted to 0.26% of the EU’s economic output in 2024, according to the rapid analysis, which has not been submitted for peer review but is based on relationships between weather and economic data that were published in an academic study this month.
Continue reading...Quantum sensing, satellite tracking and AI are part of an accelerating arms race in detection that should prompt a re-evaluation of Australia’s defence strategy
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Military history is littered with the corpses of apex predators.
The Gatling gun, the battleship, the tank. All once possessed unassailable power – then were undermined, in some cases wiped out, by the march of new technology.
Continue reading...Authorities revoke building licence for cascading hotel complex on one of Greece’s most photographed shorelines
Environmental campaigners have welcomed a decision to halt construction of a disputed five-star hotel on a Greek beach known for its outstanding natural beauty.
Local authorities on the Cycladic island of Milos said a building licence for the resort on the world-renowned “moon beach” had been revoked by the municipality’s planning department after falling short of inspection standards.
Continue reading...DNA analysis of endemic specimens in museums finds 79% of ant populations in Pacific archipelago are shrinking
Island-dwelling insects have not been spared the ravages of humanity that have pushed so many of their invertebrate kin into freefall around the world, new research on Fijian ant populations has found.
Hundreds of thousands of insect species have been lost over the past 150 years and it is believed the world is now losing between 1% and 2.5% a year of its remaining insect biomass – a decline so steep that many entomologists say we are living through an “insect apocalypse”. Yet long-term data for individual insect populations is sparse and patchy.
Continue reading...Torrential rains cause flooding and landslides in East Nusa Tenggara province and on the tourist island of Bali
Rescuers have recovered the bodies of 15 people who have died in flash flooding in two Indonesian provinces, while authorities said 10 others were missing.
Torrential rains beginning on Monday caused flooding and landslides in East Nusa Tenggara province and on the island of Bali.
Continue reading...Raids by rival hives aren’t rare after a dry, hot summer, but Christine McDonald was surprised to find her store besieged
A Canadian beekeeper has described fending off thousands of “robber bees” as they raided her shop in a brazen attempt to steal honey.
Christine McDonald, who owns Rushing River Apiaries in the British Columbia city of Terrace, said she entered her shop to find it overrun by the swarm.
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