-
Extreme heat ‘the new normal’, says UN chief, as authorities across the continent issue health warnings
A vicious heatwave has engulfed southern Europe, with punishing temperatures that have reached highs of 46C (114.8F) in Spain and placed almost the entirety of mainland France under alert.
Extreme heat, made stronger by fossil fuel pollution, has for several days scorched Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece as southern Europe endures its first major heatwave of the summer.
Continue reading...
-
Rapporteur calls for defossilization of economies and urgent reparations to avert ‘catastrophic’ rights and climate harms
A leading UN expert is calling for criminal penalties against those peddling disinformation about the climate crisisand a total ban on fossil fuel industry lobbying and advertising, as part of a radical shake-up to safeguard human rights and curtail planetary catastrophe.
Elisa Morgera, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and climate change who presents her damning new report to the general assembly in Geneva on Monday, argues that the US, UK, Canada, Australia and other wealthy fossil fuel nations are legally obliged under international law to fully phase out oil, gas and coal by 2030 – and compensate communities for harms caused.
Continue reading...
-
Warm weather and wet conditions caused by the climate emergency could trigger huge swarms of winged ants this July, experts warn. But why do they all take to the skies at once?
Name: Flying ants.
Age: Their ancestors have been with us since the end of the Jurassic period.
Continue reading...
-
Forever chemicals have polluted the water supply of 60,000 people, threatening human health, wildlife and the wider ecosystem. But activists say this is just the tip of the Pfas iceberg
One quiet Saturday night, Sandra Wiedemann was curled up on the sofa when a story broke on TV news: the water coming from her tap could be poisoning her. The 36-year-old, who is breastfeeding her six-month-old son Côme, lives in the quiet French commune of Buschwiller in Saint-Louis, near the Swiss city of Basel. Perched on a hill not far from the Swiss and German borders, it feels like a safe place to raise a child – spacious houses are surrounded by manicured gardens, framed by the wild Jura mountains.
But as she watched the news, this safety felt threatened: Wiedemann and her family use tap water every day, for drinking, brushing her teeth, showering, cooking and washing vegetables. Now, she learned that chemicals she had never heard of were lurking in her body, on her skin, potentially harming her son. “I find it scary,” she says. “Even if we stop drinking it we will be exposed to it and we can’t really do anything.”
Continue reading...
-
Views on apex predator still polarised, says Natural England head, as activists apply for trial release in Northumberland
The head of the government’s wildlife regulator has said he remains enthusiastic about reintroducing lynx to Britain and would be “absolutely delighted” if it could be achieved during his two-year term.
But Tony Juniper, the chair of Natural England, said debates over the animal’s release were “still quite polarised” and more engagement was required to understand how communities would be affected.
Continue reading...
-
North Wessex Downs, Hampshire: Predators are increasingly drawn by the shooting-season escapees. But, miserably, other ground-nesting birds and their eggs are being taken, too
Away from where arable fields have enriched the down to coarse grasses, meadow anthills are floriferous pillows, pimpling the smoothness. On them, strange, wrecked prizes are arranged: eggshells; the light, keeled sternum of a pheasant; a stripped, raw‑red bone; a jewel-bright French partridge’s head, topping the beads of its neck vertebrae like an umbrella handle, or a brooch, pretty and gruesome.
As far as the eye can see, shooting estate borders shooting estate. Skylarks, linnets, yellowhammers and whitethroats sing, but by far the most numerous birds are pheasants, followed by corvids; and this year’s gamebirds haven’t yet been released for winter’s shooting.
Continue reading...
-
Swarms in South Korean capital trigger heated debate over pest control as experts say rising temperatures partly to blame
Seoul residents are grappling with an invasion of so-called “lovebugs” that have swarmed hiking trails and urban areas across the South Korean capital, with experts debating how to handle the infestations that are surging as the climate crisis draws them further north.
Viral footage shared on social media shows Gyeyangsan mountain in Incheon, west of Seoul, with hiking trails and observation decks carpeted black with the insects.
Continue reading...
-
Collaborating with Indigenous artists and sampling melting glaciers, the Northern Irish artists are championing Arctic culture – and documenting a collapsing world
Russell glacier, at the edge of Greenland’s vast ice sheet, sounds as if it’s crying: moans emanate from deep within the slowly but inexorably melting ice. Andy Ferguson, one half of dance duo Bicep, walks around in its towering shadow recording these eerie sounds. “Everyone comes back changed,” he says of Greenland. “Seeing first-hand climate change happening like this.”
It’s April 2023 and, in the wake of Bicep’s second album Isles cementing them as one of the leading electronic acts globally, Ferguson has travelled to Greenland as part of a project to collaborate with Indigenous musicians and bring the momentous struggle of this region – and even the planet – into focus.
Continue reading...
-
The unlikely return of the bentwood box underscores the challenges facing Indigenous communities working to reclaim items raided from their lands
When the plane took off from Vancouver’s airport, bound north for the Great Bear Rainforest, Q̓íx̌itasu Elroy White felt giddy with excitement.
The plane traced a route along the Pacific Ocean and British Columbia’s coast mountains, still snow-capped in late May.
Continue reading...
-
Millions of Americans a year visit national parks and many leave their business anywhere. Contrary to popular belief, that deluge of poop is not going to decompose
Last year, I watched a man squat and relieve himself 30ft (9 metres) from me, holding on to his vehicle’s front wheel with one hand to steady himself. My dog and I were on our usual walk up the dirt road that bisects our old mining town, nestled just shy of 10,000ft (3km) in south-western Colorado.
It was a short walk from the house, and we were out just to get a little movement. Not to see one.
Continue reading...
