-
Heatwave-related deaths climb in Spain, Italy and France as continent battles another day of extreme temperatures
Farryn Stock
Over in the UK, South East Water has announced a temporary hosepipe ban in Kent amid growing strain from the ongoing heatwave (31C today, 33C tomorrow).
“To safeguard that shared supply and prevent any homes from facing a sudden loss of water, we sadly need to ask our communities to not use their hosepipes immediately. We are deeply sorry for the disruption this causes, and we are incredibly grateful to everyone helping us protect Kent’s water.”
Continue reading...
-
Debate in Labour and union movement over climate commitments as many call for Burnham not to allow drilling in North Sea
Backsliding on climate action would drive the Labour party into political obscurity, Zack Polanski has warned, as trade union leaders said more drilling in the North Sea would not help UK workers.
The Green party leader, speaking to the Guardian as searing heat swept the country for the second time this year, urged Andy Burnham – widely expected to be the UK’s next prime minister – to be bold on climate justice. He said any move to water down the party’s commitments would have dire consequences at the ballot box.
Continue reading...
-
LSE analysis highlights litigation linked to energy sources, water consumption and air pollution
The proliferation of datacentres and AI is increasingly at the forefront of environmental litigation around the world, from the US and UK to Chile to Ireland, a report has found.
In an analysis of about 3,600 climate-related lawsuits filed since 2015, the latest annual review of climate litigationby the London School of Economics (LSE) found a growing number of cases challenging the energy sources, water consumption and air pollution of datacentres, all of which have related climate implications.
Continue reading...
-
Readers remember the Sherwood Forest tree that has failed to produce leaves for the first time in 1,000 years
After hundreds of years inspiring wonder in Sherwood Forest, the Major oak has died. We asked readers to share their memories of one of the UK’s most recognisable natural landmarks, said to have offered a sanctuary for Robin Hood, and the response was overwhelming, with many sharing heartfelt stories of childhood adventures.
Joanna de Graaf from Leicestershire wrote: “I grew up in Nottingham and we visited Sherwood Forest quite often as a family. I can remember being so excited to actually be inside the Major oak where Robin Hood and his merry men had hidden (and, for a little girl in the 1960s, Maid Marian too).
Continue reading...
-
Plan warns climate crisis will lead to food price shocks and shortages but farmers say it fails to adequately fund response
The climate crisis will lead to food price shocks and shortages, the government has warned in its new plan for British farming.
But farmers criticised the plan, which outlines for the first time the government’s vision for the long-term direction of farming, for failing to adequately fund a response to this threat to the UK’s food security.
Continue reading...
-
The Marches, Shropshire: Scarlet tiger moths are on the wing at our allotment, taking advantage of the sunny days – and our human activity
The jackdaw takes three hops and is airborne, swinging into a warm dry wind, back over the fence to the northern side of the plateau. Jackdaws and rooks lift from careful stepping into the wind to fly and call, mingling with singing voices from the school nearby. The corvids are shadowing the sheep, Soay/Hebridean cross breeds that graze the Old Oswestry hillfort or Hen Ddinas (Old City in Welsh). Black birds, black sheep, green grass.
This scene echoes through a thousand years of occupation until the Roman conquest on this high space ringed with earthwork ramparts. The sheep are the closest to those farmed by the iron age tribal people of the Cornovii – the people of the horn. Impressive and tough, these horned black sheep step out of history with the same confidence in their place here as the birds.
Continue reading...
-
Analysis shows cars in Europe have grown longer, taller and wider every year since 2000
Cars have grown 1.2cm longer, 0.5cm taller and 0.5cm wider each year on average since 2000, analysis of new vehicles sold in Europe has found, in what green groups call “relentless carspreading”.
The increase in size, which leaves people more likely to be killed in a crash and increases emissions that hurt lungs and heat the planet, has progressed at a roughly steady rate for two and half decades even as family sizes have fallen, the campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E) found.
Continue reading...
-
Despite millions of dollars of investment, crumbling infrastructure and erratic rainfall are pushing the Caribbean island to the brink
When St Lucia’s rainy season began in May, Madeleine Solomon, 55, breathed a sigh of relief. For months, she had been feeling the squeeze of an intermittent water supply that disrupted normal hygiene and food preparation, forcing families like hers to rely on water tanks, rainwater harvesting and bottled water bought from private companies.
“I’m thanking God every day because our situation was really bad,” she says.
Continue reading...
-
A blooming new wave of musical theatre is exploring the plight of the planet with a playful and hopeful approach
Earth is a single woman with a lot to give; Humanity is a charismatic bad boy who turns out to be an inveterate taker. Their toxic relationship is told in Hot Mess, a musical created by Jack Godfrey and Ellie Coote, which works both as an eccentric romcom with broad commercial appeal and a serious analogy for our abuse of the once fecund, now depleted planet. A hot ticket at the Edinburgh fringe last summer and now on in London, it is at the vanguard of a newly blooming genre of musicals about the environmental crisis.
The RSC’s The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind uses exuberant song and dance for the true story of a teenager who builds a wind turbine from an old bicycle in drought-ridden Malawi. Bryony Kimmings’ Bog Witch is a one-woman show with music and standup about the plight of the planet, while in New York the folk-pop musical Dear Everything was a response to climate emergency co-written by V (formerly Eve Ensler) and narrated by Jane Fonda. Meanwhile, in the West End hit Hadestown, hell is strewn with empty oil drums.
Continue reading...
-
Wildlife photographer Mohammed Almuntasir had no idea what he had found until scientists started to get in touch
When wildlife photographer Mohammed Almuntasir uploaded 18 seconds of footage to YouTube, he thought little more about the small, pale cat seen digging a hollow in the sand in the remote dunes of south-west Libya.
The video, however, posted in 2017, turned out to be the first material evidence that the sand cat (Felis margarita), the world’s only felid adapted to true desert conditions, existed in the country.
Continue reading...
