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UN secretary general António Guterres urges opening session in Brazil to bring about a ‘paradigm shift’
The failure to limit global heating to 1.5C is a “moral failure and deadly negligence”, the UN secretary general has said at the opening session of the Cop30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém.
António Guterres said even a temporary overshoot would have “dramatic consequences. It could push ecosystems past catastrophic tipping points, expose billions to unliveable conditions and amplify threats to peace and security.”
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From night walks with children to switching off streetlights and rewilding areas, naturalists are working to save Europe’s dwindling populations
An hour or so after sunset, green twinkles of possibility gleam beneath the hedgerows of Westbury-sub-Mendip in Somerset. Under an orange August moon, the last female glow-worms of the season are making one final push at finding a mate.
For almost 20 years, Peter Bright and other volunteers have combed the village’s shrubberies and grasslands, searching for the bioluminescent beetles as part of the UK glow-worm survey. Most years, they have counted between 100 and 150, rising to 248 in 2017.
Ben Cooke, a National Trust ranger, places a glow-worm trap near Winspit Quarry in Dorset. Photograph: P Flude/Guardian
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This is our message to world leaders: make this the ‘Cop of truth’, before people lose faith
Today, in the Brazilian Amazon, the Belém summit opens ahead of the 30th United Nations climate change conference (Cop30). I have convened world leaders in the days leading up to the conference so that we can all commit to acting with the urgency the climate crisis demands.
If we fail to move beyond speeches into real action, our societies will lose faith – not only in the Cops, but in multilateralism and international politics more broadly. That is why I have summoned leaders to the Amazon: to make this the “Cop of truth”, the moment we demonstrate the seriousness of our shared commitment to the planet.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is the president of Brazil
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ASA action won approval of clean air campaigners, who said some ‘seriously misleading myths’ had been debunked
Adverts claiming that wood-burning stoves are “very low emissions” have been banned by the Advertising Standards Agency for being misleading and not substantiated.
The claims were made on the website of the Stove Industry Association, which represents the makers and sellers of stoves in the UK. Campaigners against air pollution said they were glad the ASA had debunked some “seriously misleading myths”.
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Country’s top court declines to block controversial cull of hundreds of birds amid fears of an avian flu outbreak
Canada’s food inspection agency says it plans to begin a “complete depopulation” of hundreds of ostriches at a farm after the country’s top court declined to block the controversial cull.
On Thursday, the supreme court said it would not take up a case that has catalyzed a fierce protest by the farm owners and protesters – as well as senior figures in the Trump administration, who have decried the public health effort as government overreach.
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In this week’s newsletter: Preserving and nurturing the human microbiome has long been linked with improved health. This holistic approach is finally gaining scientific credibility
When people think about the biodiversity crisis, images of rainforests being bulldozed and species going extinct probably come to mind, but in recent months, I’ve been exploring a much smaller biodiversity crisis – the one inside us.
First, this week’s most important climate headlines – and a reminder that the pivotal Cop30 conference kicks off in Belém, Brazil, next week. The Guardian will have unrivalled coverage from our team of reporters on the ground, some of whom you’ll hear from in extra editions of Down to Earth over the next two weeks.
‘New reality’: Hurricane Melissa strength multiplied by climate crisis, study says
Still a chance to return to 1.5C climate goal, researchers say
Life and death on India’s toxic trash mountains – video
The human microbiome: why our microbes could be key to our health
The brain microbiome: could understanding it help prevent dementia?
How we’re killing our microbiome and kimchi alone won’t save it – video
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Braughing, Hertfordshire: This fiery plant is one of the most startling sights of autumn – and it has a place in history in this county
No other hedgerow plant discards its green anonymity with the same psychedelic fervour as the spindle (Euonymus europaeus). Its incandescent foliage looks surreal, like an autumn photograph intensified to maximum colour saturation. Even after the crimson leaves have fallen, cerise fruits bauble the branches, opening their sleepy lids to reveal four glistening orange orbs – the seed-containing arils – peeping out of the fruit capsule.
Spindle’s wayside brilliance must have caught the eye of William Turner as he travelled between London and Cambridge in the 16th century. The father of British botany recorded this deciduous shrub growing in the hedges between Ware and Barkway in his 1548 seminal book on British flora: The Names of Herbes. His was the first record of a wild plant in Hertfordshire and the earliest known reference to spindle anywhere in Britain.
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From Sierra Leone to Milan, cities are introducing their own rules and innovations in the face of rising temperatures
Wooden stakes bearing pictures of young men were driven into the yellow sands of Copacabana beach this week, opposite Rio de Janeiro’s swanky hotels on Avenida Atlântica where 300 mayors and their entourages were staying during the C40 World Mayors Summit.
Smiling up at the mayors in their hotel suites were photographs of four officers killed in what was the deadliest police raid in Brazilian history, just a few days before the summit. A further 117 people were killed in the operation in two of Rio’s largest clusters of favelas – the Complexo do Alemão and the Complexo da Penha – in what the police said was a clampdown on organised crime.
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A pilot scheme where students eat nutritious breakfasts using donated surplus food builds on the ‘folkhem’ welfare model to boost health and sustainability
Students at Mariebergsskolan, a secondary school in Karlstad, Sweden, make their way to the canteen to grab a juice shot. This morning’s options include ginger and lemon, apple, golden milk, lemon and mint, or strawberry and orange. There’s also the choice of overnight oats with caramelised milk.
It’s just after 9am and the space is usually empty, but thanks to a project launched in 2018 by Vinnova, Sweden’s national innovation agency, students are starting their day with a boost from the energy bar. All the ingredients are donated by local supermarkets which are giving away surplus fruit and vegetables to minimise food waste.
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Scheme aims to raise $125bn to invest in bonds, with returns used to reward tropical countries for conservation
As a battle-scarred veteran of the war against nature, Garo Batmanian has spent 45 years trying to defend the Amazon rainforest. For most of that time, the resistance he leads has been outfunded and outgunned by those who profit from destruction. The most Batmanian felt he could achieve was to slow the advance of the chainsaws and tractors.
But the director-general of Brazil’s forest service feels there could be a chance at the Cop30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, next week, not just of an even fight, but perhaps a victory. There is one condition: world governments must rally behind an initiative being launched by the host nation – the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF).
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