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Latest Environment news, comment and analysis from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice
Angelenos returning to homes in burned areas could be exposed to toxic materials and mudslides
The wildfires raging across the Los Angeles landscape have destroyed many thousands of homes and buildings and damaged hundreds more.
And each property, experts warn, could pose a risk to Angelenos even long after the flames are extinguished.
Continue reading...City invented Australia’s beach culture, environmentalist Richard Gosden says, but all this time ‘it’s been conducted in diluted sewage’
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It’s the height of summer in Sydney, a time when tourists and locals are usually flocking to the city’s famous beaches.
But nine beaches were shut to the public this week – including well-known Manly – after more ball-shaped debris washed ashore.
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Continue reading...Some wildlife species have accumulated many times more than safe amount of PFAS in their tissue and organs
- Revealed: drinking water sources in England polluted with forever chemicals
- Revealed: scale of ‘forever chemical’ pollution across UK and Europe
Dolphins, otters, porpoises, fish and birds across the UK have been found to have toxic “forever chemicals” in their tissue and organs, analysis of official data has revealed.
Manmade chemicals called PFAS, known as forever chemicals because they do not degrade, are used in a wide range of consumer products and industrial processes and some have been linked to serious diseases in humans and animals, including cancers. PFAS have been found widely to pollute water and soils and are thought to be in the blood of every human on the planet.
Continue reading...From the Himalayas and Nepal to Northern Ireland, sustainable source of energy seems to be back in vogue
In the foothills of the Himalayas, a group of villagers hauled a sturdy metal waterwheel into place. Its horizontal blades soon caught the rushing water of the stream directly below it. The machine began to spin, and electricity began to flow.
The roughly 2-metre-tall waterwheel, installed in a village in Kashmir, India, was the result of years of design work and development by researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and partners.
Continue reading...Big oil executive plans to celebrate Trump’s inauguration as California burns – though experts say climatic conditions are only getting more extreme
Donald Trump’s response to the catastrophic wildfires in Los Angeles has provided a stark prologue to how his US presidency will probably handle the growing threat of such disasters – through acrimony, brutal dealmaking and dismissal of a climate crisis that is spurring a mounting toll of fires, floods and other calamities.
As of Thursday, four fires, whipped up by wind speeds more typically found in hurricanes, have torched 63 sq miles (163 sq km) of Los Angeles, a burned area roughly three times the size of Manhattan, destroying more than 12,000 homes and businesses and killing at least 25 people. The Palisades and Eaton fires, the largest of the conflagrations that have turned entire neighborhoods to ash, are still to be fully contained.
Continue reading...Planting seeds, rather than bulbs, is cheaper, and there are more varieties to choose from
There are several reasons I shy away from growing onions: how much space they take up and how small my plot is; how long they need to stay in the ground; and given how inexpensive they are, why bother? But if you’ve started the year with a hankering to begin the growing season, starting onions from seed is a task you can do now.
Many gardeners will be waiting until spring to start off their onions from sets (small, immature bulbs ready for planting), but growing from seed is a less expensive approach, plus there’s a wider range of varieties to choose from. As with any crop started from seed, it is more labour intensive. But if you’re anything like me, you’ll enjoy the challenge.
Continue reading...The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
Continue reading...As natural disasters make need to cut CO2 emissions clearer than ever, energy demand of AI systems is about to soar
Violent weather events have been top of the news agenda for weeks, with scientists and fact-based news organisations attributing their increased severity to climate breakdown. The scientists consulted have all emphasised the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
At the same time there are predictions about artificial intelligence and datacentres urgently needing vast amounts of new electricity sources to keep them running. Small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) have been touted as the green solution. The reports suggest that SMRs are just around the corner and will be up and running in the 2030s. Google first ordered seven, followed by Amazon, Microsoft and Meta each ordering more.
Continue reading...Scientists say frog’s journey shows difficulty of spotting insects or fungi spread by global plant trade
A tiny tree frog hitchhiking in a bunch of roses to Sheffield from Colombia has inspired a study into invasive species reaching the UK’s shores.
Dr Silviu Petrovan, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s zoology department and a senior author of a paper published today in the journal BioScience, had his interest piqued when he was asked to identify a live frog found in roses in a florist’s shop in Sheffield.
Continue reading...Report criticises ‘slow progress’ on industry regulation, amid record fish mortality and concerns over welfare and environmental pollution
The Scottish government has been criticised for its “slow progress” on regulating the salmon farming industry by a parliamentary inquiry that took evidence for five months before reaching its conclusion.
The report reveals that MSPs “seriously considered” calling for a moratorium on new farms and expansion of existing sites due to concerns over persistently high salmon mortality rates but did not do so due to uncertainties over the impact on jobs and communities.
Continue reading...Schemes at 20 sites in England will create woodlands, wood pasture, hedgerows and orchards
Some of the schemes are relatively modest, such as orchards planted with heritage varieties of fruit and nut trees, while others are much grander, thousands of trees linking up existing patches of woodland to create nature-rich forests.
Almost half a million trees are being planted in England this winter in a partnership between the National Trust and a UK-government funded project, creating woodlands, wood pasture, hedgerows and orchards.
Continue reading...Data for 2024 shows humanity is moving yet deeper into a dangerous world of supercharged extreme weather
Wildfires that blazed around the world in 2024 helped to drive a record annual leap in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, surprising scientists. The data shows humanity is moving yet deeper into a dangerous world of supercharged extreme weather.
The CO2 level at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii jumped by 3.6 parts per million (ppm) to 427ppm, far above the 280ppm level before the large-scale burning of fossil fuels sparked the climate crisis. The Mauna Loa observations, known as the Keeling curve, began in 1958 and are the longest running direct measurements of CO2.
Continue reading...Our society emphasises the value of conquering and overcoming your fears – but I can live with the idea of not climbing every mountain
Earlier this year, I finally climbed Mount Anne. This has taken an unlikely amount of time – I’ve been climbing Tasmanian mountains for years, but had never been up one of the island’s signature summits.
A “peak bagging” hobby is great fun, and takes you out to all sorts of interesting places. Some Tasmanians set themselves to climb the Abels, a list of 158 mountains that are at least 1100m high, but the list compiled by the Hobart Walking Club, the one I follow, is far more ridiculous – a total of 481 summits to find your way up. A list that huge seems bigger than most of them.
Continue reading...With the outlook for risk of fire, flood and other disasters increasing, this is not a problem that will go away
As we watch the horror of the Los Angeles fires, Australians are painfully reminded of our own vulnerability to climate change, which continues to exacerbate the impact and frequency of these unnatural disasters.
The images of loss and destruction in LA are particularly painful to those who have experienced such losses first-hand in Australia.
Nicki Hutley is an independent economist and councillor with the Climate Council
Continue reading...With few exceptions, the news has shied away from showing how the unfolding climate crisis plays a large role in the disaster
Last week, as the Sunset fire was bearing down on her Los Angeles home, Allison Agsten approached a group of television news crews gathering in her neighborhood. Did any of them plan to mention the role of the climate crisis in their reporting?
The question was professional as well as personal for Agsten, who runs a climate journalism center at the University of Southern California and has trained reporters on how to connect the climate crisis to what’s happening in the world. She has lived in her home along Runyon Canyon, near Hollywood, for a decade.
Continue reading...Experts believe H5N1 bird flu belongs in a growing category of infectious diseases that can cause pandemics across many species. But there are ways to reduce the risks
Bird flu poses a threat that is “unique and new in our lifetime” because it has become a “‘panzootic” that can kill huge numbers across multiple species, experts warn. For months, highly pathogenic bird flu, or H5N1, has been circulating in dairy farms, with dozens of human infections reported among farm workers. It has now jumped into more than 48 species of mammals, from bears to dairy cows, causing mass die-offs in sea lions and elephant seal pups. Last week, the first person in the US died of the infection.
This ability to infect, spread between, and kill such a wide range of creatures has prompted some scientists to call H5N1 a “panzootic”: an epidemic that leaps species barriers and can devastate diverse animal populations, posing a threat to humans too. As shrinking habitats, biodiversity loss and intensified farming create perfect incubators for infectious diseases to jump from one species to another, some scientists say panzootics could become one of the era’s defining threats to human health and security.
Continue reading...Ontario’s Marineland lost five belugas last year, which the park’s management puts down to the ‘circle of life’. But activists claim animal welfare is at stake
On the southern shores of the Niagara River, a few hundred feet from the thundering falls, sits Marineland of Canada – an amusement park, zoo, aquarium and forest occupying nearly 1,000 acres of land (400 hectares). Over the years, millions of people have clamoured to view the park’s 4,000 animals, including its prized walruses, orcas, dolphins and belugas.
But over the past few years, the park has taken a decidedly dark turn as there has been a string of deaths among the world’s largest captive beluga population. Last year, five belugas died at the facility bringing the total number of whales and dolphins to die there since 2019 to more than 20.
Continue reading...A fire tornado was spotted as the Palisades fire continued to blaze through the San Fernando valley in California
LA fires: international crews arrive to battle raging wildfires as evacuations spread
Politicians quibbling as LA burns: Gavin Newsom’s latest beef with Trump
Environmentalists condemn unauthorised releases as ‘reckless’ and ‘highly irresponsible’
For a brief moment this week, lynx have been roaming the Scottish Highlands once again. But this was not the way conservationists had hoped to end their 1,000-year absence.
On Wednesday, Police Scotland received reports of two lynx in a forest in the Cairngorms national park, sparking a frantic search. That episode ended in less than a day. Both animals were quickly captured by experts from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and taken to quarantine facilities at Highland wildlife park.
Continue reading...Firefighters battle on as people across Los Angeles struggle to find a way forward on Friday
Continue reading...At least 45 whales were entangled by fishing ropes and line on the east coast in 2024. 'There’s a lot of times when we’ll get out to an entanglement where we just think, this animal should just probably be put to sleep,' says Sea World’s head of marine sciences, Wayne Phillips.
The constant drag of rope and floats slowly causes a whale to succumb to exhaustion. 'It’s probably the worst way of dying for any marine … animal,' marine scientist Olaf Meynecke, says. 'It takes weeks to several months until they actually die'
Continue reading...The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
Continue reading...Biodiversity writer Phoebe Weston hears from farmers on the west coast of Scotland who claim they are losing hundreds of lambs a year in a case of rewilding gone wrong
“Fair enough, if it was a select number of birds … ,” one farmer said to biodiversity writer Phoebe Weston during her trip to Scotland, “but when it’s mass murder, then it’s not acceptable.”
Out on the cold west coast, there is a heated dispute about one of the country’s most successful ever rewilding programmes: the reintroduction of sea eagles to their natural habitat more than 50 years ago.
Continue reading...Wildfires continued to burn across LA, with at least five people killed and more than 1,500 buildings destroyed. A new blaze broke out in the Hollywood Hills and evacuation orders were extended to Santa Monica. Winds had eased, but the danger was far from over
- California fires live: follow the latest news
- At least five dead as firefighters struggle to contain LA blazes
Wildfires continued to grow in Los Angeles as overtaxed fire crews battled three major out-of-control blazes that have killed at least five people. The largest and most devastating so far have been the Palisades fire and the Eaton fire, but other blazes, particularly the growing Hurst fire and the Hollywood Hills-based Sunset fire, are continuing to worry Los Angeles residents
Continue reading...The tiny nation of Niue has raised £3m selling sponsorship of its marine protected area at just over £100 for a square kilometre
Niue, also known as the Rock of Polynesia, is one of the tiniest island states in the world. It takes a mere two hours to drive around it, giving views of its rugged limestone cliffs and occasional sandy coves. These coves give way to caves and chasms, once used for storage, burial sites and even as living spaces. But perhaps what visitors seek most are its crystal clear waters, home to spinner dolphins, eels, grey reef sharks, sea snakes and humpback whales.
Now the island is engaged in an innovative plan to try to conserve these vast and pristine territorial waters. The scheme, which has been running for a year, involves selling off sponsorship of the ocean surrounding the island to individuals or companies for NZ$250 (£116) a square kilometre. So far, it has raised NZ$7m, nearly halfway to its target.
Continue reading...British chef Mike Keen paddled up the coast of Greenland eating only what local people did, and the health benefits led him to question the global food system
For a period of two months last year, a typical day for chef Mike Keen would see him skipping breakfast and lunch in favour of snacks such as dried capelin (a small bait fish), dried halibut, jerky-like dried whale and a local Greenlandic whale skin and blubber treat called mattak.
Mike Keen eats fermented seal blood in Sermilik fjord, east Greenland. Photograph: Mike Keen
Continue reading...Experts say sighting of orca in Puget Sound with second deceased calf is ‘devastating’ for ailing population
An apparently grieving killer whale who swam more than 1,000 miles (1,600km) pushing the body of her dead newborn has lost another calf and is again carrying the body, a development researchers say is a “devastating” loss for the ailing population.
The Washington state-based Center for Whale Research said the orca, known as Tahlequah, or J35, was spotted in the Puget Sound area with her deceased calf.
Continue reading...Bowhead whales may not be the only species that can live to 200 years old. Researchers have found that the industrial hunting of great whales has masked the ability of these underwater giants to also live to great ages
In Moby-Dick, Herman Melville’s epic novel of 1851, the author asks if whales would survive the remorseless human hunt. Yes, he says, as he foresees a future flooded world in which the whale would outlive us and “spout his frothed defiance to the skies”.
Moby Dick was a grizzled old sperm whale that had miraculously escaped the harpoons. But a new scientific paper is set to prove what oceanic peoples – such as the Inuit, Maōri and Haida – have long believed: that whales are capable of living for a very long time. Indeed, many more than we thought possible may have been born before Melville wrote his book.
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