Category Archives: Environment

Uncontacted Peruvian tribe on deadly collision course with loggers, group says

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Survival International says Mashco Piro seen in nearby Amazon village in alarming sign group is under stress

Members of an Indigenous tribe who live deep in Peru’s Amazon rainforest and avoid contact with outsiders have been reported entering a neighboring village in what activists consider an alarming sign that the group is under stress from development.

The sightings of members of Mashco Piro tribe come as a logging company is building a bridge that could give outsiders easier access to the tribe’s territory, a move that could raise the risk of disease and conflict, according to Survival International, which advocates for Indigenous rights.

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Deforestation has killed half a million people in past 20 years, study finds

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Localised rises in temperature caused by land clearance cause 28,330 heat-related deaths a year, researchers find

Deforestation has killed more than half a million people in the tropics over the past two decades as a result of heat-related illness, a study has found.

Land clearance is raising the temperature in the rainforests of the Amazon, Congo and south-east Asia because it reduces shade, diminishes rainfall and increases the risk of fire, the authors of the paper found.

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India’s supreme court orders inquiry into giant zoo run by son of Asia’s richest person

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Activists claim Anant Ambani’s Vantara facility has no plan to return its endangered species to the wild

India’s supreme court has ordered an investigation into a vast private zoo founded by the son of Asia’s richest person over allegations of illegal wildlife imports and financial misconduct.

Home to a reported 200 lions, 250 leopards and 900 crocodiles, Vantara in western Gujarat state describes itself as the “world’s biggest wild animal rescue centre”. It is run by Anant Ambani, a son of Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire head of the conglomerate Reliance Industries, and was one of the venues for his extravagant wedding celebrations last year, where celebrities were encouraged to wear “jungle fever” outfits.

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Murray Watt advised by own department to declare protection order over ‘significant Aboriginal area’ in WA

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Exclusive: Environment department document states that Burrup peninsula site near Woodside gas plant ‘under threat of injury or desecration’

The environment minister, Murray Watt, has been advised by his department to declare a protection order over part of the Burrup peninsula in Western Australia due to its significance as an Aboriginal site, a government affidavit filed in the federal court shows.

A Murujuga traditional custodian, Raelene Cooper, applied in 2022 to protect the area’s cultural heritage from nearby industrial activities, including Woodside’s planned extension of its North West Shelf processing plant.

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Heatwave that fuelled deadly wildfires was Spain’s ‘most intense on record’

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Country’s weather agency says 10-day period from 8-17 August was hottest since at least 1950, as fires still rage

A 16-day heatwave Spain suffered this month was “the most intense on record”, the country’s state meteorological agency (AEMET) has said.

Provisional readings for the 3-18 August heatwave exceeded the last record, set in July 2022, and showed an average temperature 4.6C higher than for previous such phenomena, the agency said on X.

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Taiwan referendum on reopening last nuclear plant fails

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Clear majority backs restarting Maanshan reactor but doesn’t reach legal threshold, as president says nuclear power may be reconsidered if it becomes safe

A referendum to push for the reopening of Taiwan’s last nuclear plant has failed to reach the legal threshold to be valid, though the president said the island could return to the technology in the future if safety standards improved.

The plebiscite on Saturday, backed by the opposition, asked whether the Maanshan power plant should be reopened if it was “confirmed” there were no safety issues. The plant was closed in May as the government shifts to renewables and liquefied natural gas.

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‘We want builders on site, not filling in forms’: Albanese government cuts red tape in bid to boost home building

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Pausing changes to Construction Code, establishment of ‘strike team’ within environment department and use of AI in planning among reforms

The Albanese government has promised to cut red tape and fast track environmental approvals for new homes in an effort to address Australia’s housing crisis.

On Saturday, the government announced plans to pause further residential changes to the National Construction Code and to streamline the assessment of more than 26,000 homes under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

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Explosion and fire in Louisiana leads to elementary school being evacuated

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Flames and a tower of smoke rose above an automotive supply company 50 miles north-east of Baton Rouge

An explosion and fire Friday at an automotive supply company in southeast Louisiana sent flames into the air and a tower of thick black smoke billowing above rural communities, forcing nearby residents and an elementary school to evacuate.

Officials said no injuries had been reported in the fire at Smitty’s Supply just north of the town of Roseland, but that everyone living within a one-mile (1.6km) radius must evacuate. Roseland, which is home to about 1,100 people, is roughly 50 miles (80km) north-east of Baton Rouge.

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An EV road user charge is looming. Could it slam the brakes on Australia’s clean car transition?

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The revenue from fuel excise is falling but it’s not only because of EVs, which make up less than 2% of cars on the roads

Every time a driver puts 10 litres of fuel in their car, they’re paying about $5 in tax that goes to the federal government.

That is, of course, unless they drive an electric vehicle. No petrol or diesel being bought means the government loses that 51c per litre.

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Victoria’s mountain ash forests could lose a quarter of ‘giant’ trees as temperatures rise

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Eucalyptus regnans – which regularly reach 60 to 80m tall – lose about 9% of their trees for every degree of warming, research finds

Victoria’s mountain ash forests are thinning rapidly as the globe heats up, and could lose a quarter of their “giant” trees that grow up to 80m tall in the coming decades, research has found.

Forests of Eucalyptus regnans – one of the tallest tree species in the world – lose about 9% of their trees for every degree of warming, according to a University of Melbourne-led study published in Nature Communications.

Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter

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Stella Creasy and Richard Tice call for scrutiny over which EU laws UK ditches

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Labour MP says she and Reform MP want a committee set up, after news of UK’s post-Brexit environmental rollbacks

Stella Creasy and Richard Tice are pushing for Labour to allow a Brexit scrutiny committee to be formed in parliament, after the Guardian revealed environmental protections had been eroded since the UK left the EU.

The Labour and Reform UK MPs argue that there is no scrutiny or accountability over how Brexit is being implemented. Creasy, the MP for Walthamstow and chair of the Labour Movement for Europe, said the UK needed a “salvage operation” to clear up the environmental and regulatory havoc caused by Brexit.

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Californians brace for worst multiday heatwave of the year

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Temperatures are expected to spike with a trio of heat, thunderstorms and fire risks compounding dangers

Californians are bracing for the first major heatwave of the year, a multiday scorcher that could bring triple-digit temperatures, pose significant threats to public health and sharply heighten wildfire risks.

After a notably cooler summer, temperatures are expected to spike across the American south-west starting on Wednesday and extending through the weekend, as severe conditions expand north along the coast into British Columbia by the end of the week.

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US pipeline protester’s obstruction conviction overturned by appeals court

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New trial for Mylene Vialard after Minnesota judges find ‘pervasive’ prosecutorial misconduct in Line 3 protest case

The controversial felony conviction of a peaceful climate activist has been overturned by an appeals court due to “pervasive” prosecutorial misconduct.

Mylene Vialard, 56, was found guilty of felony obstruction in 2023 for her role in trying to halt construction of a fossil-fuel pipeline through Indigenous territory in Minnesota, in a trial beset by irregularities.

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Feargal Sharkey accuses Environment Agency of illegally draining River Lea

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Fishing club chaired by singer threatens court action over abstraction it says is putting rare trout population at risk

The singer and environmentalist Feargal Sharkey is threatening to take the Environment Agency to court for draining a river that hosts the oldest fishing club in England and putting a rare population of brown trout at risk.

The former Undertones frontman chairs the Amwell Magna Fishery, which has used the secluded stretch of the River Lea in Hertfordshire since 1841.

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Trump’s move to sanitize US history gets little support with national park visitors

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Exclusive: Public comments show that a crackdown on signs ‘disparaging’ Americans is not popular

As part of his administration’s war on “woke”, Donald Trump has asked the American public to report anything “negative” about Americans in US national parks. But the public has largely refused to support a world view without inconvenient historical facts, comments submitted from national parks and seen by the Guardian show.

Notices have been erected at every National Park Service (NPS) site, which spans 433 national parks, monuments and battlefields, following an order from May entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”, issued by Trump’s department of the interior (DOI). The president had demanded a crackdown on any material that “inappropriately disparages Americans”.

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‘Pray for rain’: wildfires in Canada are now burning where they never used to

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Canada’s response to the extreme weather threat is being upended as the traditional epicentre of the blazes shifts as the climate warms

Road closures, evacuations, travel chaos and stern warnings from officials have become fixtures of Canada’s wildfire season. But as the country goes through its second-worst burn on record, the blazes come with a twist: few are coming from the western provinces, the traditional centre of destruction.

Instead, the worst of the fires have been concentrated in the prairie provinces and the Atlantic region, with bone-dry conditions upending how Canada responds to a threat that is only likely to grow as the climate warms.

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Public warned to keep away from injured dolphin filmed with Dorset swimmers

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Conservationists flag dangers of human interaction after ‘Reggie’ filmed playing with family

The public has been warned to keep away from an injured dolphin that was filmed dancing and playing with swimmers off the coast of Dorset earlier this month.

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO), a government-backed agency responsible for England’s seas, said it was “increasingly concerned about a lone dolphin spotted in Lyme Bay, Dorset, following multiple potential marine wildlife disturbance offences observed online and shared on social media”.

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‘Hellish’: heatwave brings hottest nights on record to the Middle East

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Temperatures did not drop below 36C in Sedom, Israel on Tuesday night, while several parts of Jordan stayed above 35C on Monday

Jordan and Israel have suffered through their hottest nights on record, with nocturnal temperatures in the Levant well above levels that scientists consider “hellish”.

Temperatures on Monday night did not go below 35C (95F) in Ghor es-Safi and Aqaba in Jordan, while in the capital, Amman, they stayed above 31.8C.

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Exposure to some common Pfas changes gene activity, new study finds

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Findings help decipher mechanisms through which ‘forever chemicals’ cause disease, aiding in treating health problems

New research suggests exposure to some common Pfas or “forever chemical” compounds causes changes to gene activity, and those changes are linked to health problems including multiple cancers, neurological disorders and autoimmune disease.

The findings are a major step toward determining the mechanism by which the chemicals cause disease and could help doctors identify, detect and treat health problems for those exposed to Pfas before the issues advance. The research may also point toward other diseases potentially caused by Pfas that have not yet been identified, the authors said.

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Flash flood in Indian Kashmir leaves at least 56 dead and scores missing

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People on popular pilgrimage route were washed away by flood waters triggered by cloudburst, officials say

At least 56 people have died and 80 are missing after a sudden rainstorm in Indian Kashmir, the second such disaster in the Himalayas in a little over a week.

The incident in the town of Chashoti, Kishtwar district, occurred at a stopover point on a pilgrimage route. Days earlier, a flood and mudslide engulfed a village in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.

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