Category Archives: Environment

Nearly 30,000 people in northern California evacuated as raging wildfire spreads

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Thompson fire near Oroville destroys homes and vehicles as state simmers in brutal and potentially historic heatwave

Thousands of homes are under threat from a raging wildfire that erupted in northern California on Tuesday, as the state simmers in a brutal and potentially historic heatwave.

Roughly 28,000 residents have been forced to evacuate as the Thompson fire quickly swept across more than 3,500 acres (1,416 hectares) near the city of Oroville, about an hour outside Sacramento, California’s capital.

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‘Please send help’: Caribbean reels from Hurricane Beryl devastation

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Homes flattened, apocalyptic scenes and at least four dead as St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada try to recover

This should have been a week of celebration in the Caribbean country of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). The annual Vincy Mas carnival, which attracts thousands of tourists, had advertised a packed schedule of costume parades, soca competitions, and beauty pageants.

Instead, the Vincentian population is reeling from what the country’s prime minister has described as the “utter devastation” wrought by Hurricane Beryl, which ravaged the multi-island country and its eastern Caribbean neighbour Grenada.

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Biden attacks Republican climate deniers as he unveils extreme-heat rules

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President hails proposal to protect millions of Americans from extreme heat – the top weather-related US killer

President Biden on Tuesday trumpeted new rules from his administration that aim to protect Americans from extreme heat.

“Extreme heat is the number one weather-related killer in the United States,” he said at the Washington DC Emergency Operations Center. “More people die from extreme heat than floods, hurricanes and tornadoes combined.”

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A third of land set aside for restoration in worse state than before, Australian offset audit finds

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Federal review sparks fresh warnings that biodiversity scheme is increasing risk of animals going extinct

A review of some of the areas chosen for nature restoration as part of Australia’s biodiversity offset system has found a third are in worse condition than before, prompting fresh warnings that the scheme is increasing the risk of animals going extinct.

In one instance, the majority of a site that should have provided grey-headed flying fox and koala habitat was found to be “cleared paddock with negligible foraging value”.

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Cambodia jails 10 environmentalists in ‘crushing blow to civil society’

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Activists from the award-winning Mother Nature found guilty on charges of plotting against government

Ten activists from a prominent youth-led environmental group in Cambodia have been sentenced to between six and eight years in jail in a case human rights experts have widely condemned.

The activists from Mother Nature, an award-winning group of environmental campaigners, were found guilty on charges of plotting against the government, while three were also convicted of insulting the king. They denied the charges.

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Brutal California heatwave to coincide with Fourth of July wildfire risks

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Sweltering conditions and power shutoffs may overlap with errant fireworks or badly tended campfires

A brutal and long-lasting heatwave is threatening to wreak havoc across the US west this week, as sweltering conditions, power shutoffs and a severe uptick in wildfire risks coincide with Fourth of July celebrations.

Nearly 90 million people were under heat alerts from the National Weather Service on Tuesday morning, as swaths of the south-central and western US were scorched. As pressure builds over the west through the week, the dangerous weather event is expected to stretch for days with little reprieve.

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Hurricane Beryl: Caribbean leader calls out rich countries for climate failures as ‘horrendous’ storm makes landfall

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Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines calls Cop ‘largely a talk shop’ and beseeches west to honor commitments

The prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) has decried a lack of political will in western Europe and the US to tackle global climate crisis as Hurricane Beryl has made landfall as an “extremely dangerous” category 4 storm.

Speaking from his residence in SVG on Monday, Ralph Gonsalves described the unfolding catastrophe as the “monster” storm ripped off rooftops, including that of the 204-year-old St George’s Anglican cathedral in the country’s capital, Kingstown.

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Labour will take global lead on climate action, Ed Miliband vows

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Exclusive: shadow energy security secretary promises to fill ‘vacuum’ left by Rishi Sunak’s U-turn on net zero

Labour will promise to take the lead on global efforts to tackle the climate crisis, filling a “vacuum of leadership” on the world stage and proving Rishi Sunak’s U-turn on net zero has been a “historic mistake”, Ed Miliband has said.

The shadow energy security and net zero secretary said the UK needed to change course and was “off track”.

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Humpback whale tangled in 800kg of fishing equipment rescued off Gippsland coast

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Rescue operation run by specialised whale disentanglement crews cut off ropes and buoys to let it to swim freely again

A humpback whale which became tangled in 800kg of fishing equipment has been rescued off the Gippsland coast, almost a week after it was first seen to be in trouble.

The whale was spotted near Loch Sport in Central Gippsland on Sunday 23 June by a commercial helicopter, but then disappeared until Friday when it was seen near Lake Tyers off the south-east coast.

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‘Weird and cool’: bilby genome sequence could help to save the species

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Bilbies have the biggest genome of any marsupial, which could be down to how it evolved its incredible sense of smell

Genetic research has revealed the threatened Australian native bilby – with its ridiculously oversized ears and stretched snout – does not only look odd from the outside.

“Bilbies are weird and cool. The genome has been fascinating,” said Prof Carolyn Hogg, of the University of Sydney, who led research that sequenced the greater bilby’s genome for the first time.

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Toxic PFAS absorbed through skin at levels higher than previously thought

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Absorption through skin could be ‘significant source of exposure’ to toxic forever chemicals, study shows

New research “for the first time proves” toxic PFAS forever chemicals are absorbed through human skin, and at levels much higher than previously thought.

Though modeling and research has suggested the dangerous chemicals are absorbed through skin, University of Birmingham researchers say they used lab-grown tissue that mimics human skin to determine how much of a dose of PFAS compounds can be absorbed.

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UK haulage industry calls for investment in electric truck infrastructure

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There are just 300 electric HGVs in the 500,000-strong lorry fleet – and only one public charging point, says RHA

The road haulage industry is calling on the new government to urgently tackle investment in infrastructure for electric trucks, after pointing out there is just one public charging point for HGVs in the whole of the UK.

Takeup of electric cars is soaring, with about 1.1m fully battery-powered cars on British roads and about 63,000 charging units in 33,000 locations, according to Zapmap data.

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‘It’s not beautiful, but you can still eat it’: climate crisis leads to more wonky vegetables in Netherlands

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Crowdfunding scheme salvages ‘imperfect’ fruit and veg following the country’s wettest autumn, winter and spring on record

When 31-year-old Dutch farmer Bastiaan Blok dug up his latest crop, the weather had taken a disastrous toll. His onions – 117,000 kilos of them – were the size of shallots.

“We had a very wet spring and a dry, warm summer, so the plants made very small roots,” said Blok, who farms 90 hectares in Swifterbant, in the reclaimed province of Flevoland. “Half of them were less than 40mm and normally at this size they aren’t even processed. We would have probably sold them for very little for biomass, or maybe to Poland for onion oil. It’s either far too wet and cold, or far too warm and dry, and there’s no normal growing period in between.”

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Caroline Lucas: Labour must pursue social justice while tackling climate crisis

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Outgoing Green MP calls for combined strategy to ensure net zero will not be done ‘on the backs of the poor’

Labour must combine tackling the climate crisis with pursuing social justice, if elected, to show that achieving net zero will not be done “on the backs of the poor”, the UK’s outgoing Green party MP has warned.

Caroline Lucas, who has held the seat of Brighton Pavilion since 2010, said: “The biggest priority is to demonstrate that is not the case. We have to make sure that this is a strategy and a policy that is the opposite of being done on the backs of the poor.”

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Britain embraces pond life as aquatic garden plant sales boom

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RHS reports 35% surge in orders, while garden designers note pond trend at Hampton Court Palace flower show

A pond boom is happening in Britain’s gardens as people try to halt wildlife loss by digging water sources for amphibians and other aquatic life.

Data from the Royal Horticultural Society shows a marked increase in sales of pond greenery; their online store had a 35% increase in sales of pond plants for 2023 compared with 2022.

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Journalists refused entry to Azerbaijan energy conference ahead of Cop29

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Incident reignites concerns over crackdown on media before crucial UN climate talks in Baku later this year

Western journalists were refused entry to an energy industry conference in Azerbaijan earlier this month, reigniting concerns over the state’s crackdown on the media ahead of crucial UN climate talks in Baku later this year.

At least three journalists from the UK and France have told the Guardian that they felt “unsafe” after they were denied entry to the Baku Energy Week forum, despite registering with the event organisers weeks in advance.

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Sinkhole appears in soccer field above an Illinois mine: ‘out of a movie’

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No one was present when the sinkhole, 100ft wide and 30ft deep, suddenly collapsed the field

A vast sinkhole has dramatically appeared in middle of an Illinois soccer pitch that was laid above a limestone mine, just days after amateur teams stopped using the grounds for practice.

The collapse happened at Gordon Moore Park in Alton, Illinois, about 18 miles north of St Louis, Missouri, on Wednesday. The sinkhole appeared to be 100ft (30m) wide and 30ft (9m) deep. No injuries have been reported but all sports have been cancelled.

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Nuclear more costly and could ‘sound the death knell’ for Australia’s decarbonisation efforts, report says

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Analysis from Bloomberg New Energy Finance says even if nuclear is successfully implemented it would be ‘at least four times’ more expensive than average cost of renewables

A nuclear-powered Australian economy would result in higher-cost electricity and would “sound the death knell” for decarbonisation effort if it distracts from renewables investment, a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) argues.

The report comes as ANZ forecast September quarter power prices will dive as much as 30% once government rebates kick in. A separate review by the market watchdog has found household energy bills were 14% lower because of last year’s rebates.

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Fire ants could be spreading on Australian military bases due to ‘massive surveillance failure’, experts say

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Invasive Species Council demands audit of all defence sites after red imported fire ants detected at Swartz Barracks outside Queensland containment zone

Defence bases pose a “huge risk” when it comes to stopping the spread of invasive fire ants in Australia, with experts suggesting there has been “a massive surveillance failure” on the commonwealth-owned properties.

Fire ants have been detected at eight defence sites in Queensland. Seven are within the state’s 700,000-hectare fire ants containment zone which stretches from the Gold Coast to Caboolture.

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‘Whack-a-mole situation’: Algerian officials wrestle with water shortage anger

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State not acting fast enough to build desalination stations to deal with dwindling rainfall and resulting drought, say critics

On 8 June, anger over months of water rationing spilled over in the drought-stricken central Algerian town of Tiaret, where balaclava-wearing demonstrators barricaded roads and burned tyres.

Rationing had been introduced to deal with a drought in parts of Algeria and neighbouring Morocco where the amount of rainfall that had historically replenished critical reservoirs was much reduced. Taps had been running dry for months, forcing people in the region – a semi-arid, high-desert plateau increasingly plagued by extreme heat – to queue to access water.

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