-
Coming days are ‘absolutely critical’ for firefighters before temperatures rise again this week, officials say
Firefighters in France and Spain are racing to bring huge wildfires under control before another heatwave this week that will complicate efforts to tame the flames.
Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said Monday and Tuesday were “absolutely crucial days” before temperatures rise again from Wednesday, prompting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, to warn: “We face difficult hours, complex hours” ahead.
Continue reading...
-
Temperatures up to 35C forecast, triggering heat health alerts and pleas to take care in parched parks and rural areas
Paramedics and firefighters are braced for emergencies across the country this week after UK forecasters predicted a fourth heatwave of the year.
Temperatures are forecast to reach as high as 35C by Wednesday, triggering heat health alerts and an appeal from fire chiefs to take care in parched parks and rural areas.
Continue reading...
-
Intensive nature of modern chicken farming creates ideal conditions for campylobacter, allowing bacteria to evolve
Industrial chicken farming is accelerating the spread of the world’s most common bacterial cause of diarrhoea, scientists have found.
The study found a dramatic increase in the exchange of campylobacter strains between wild birds and chickens as farming has intensified, creating the ideal conditions for the bacteria to mix, spread and acquire new traits. There has also been a rise in antimicrobial resistance traits in circulating strains, raising concerns that serious illness in people will be more difficult to treat.
Continue reading...
-
North Yorkshire: It’s been a remarkable breeding season for these gorgeous creatures with ripped physiques and all-seeing eyes
“Just seen a gorgeous hare and thought of you. They’ve had an unbelievable breeding season.”
Like most farmers, my friend Richard is always busy and often exasperated. But he’s also refreshingly cognisant of his privilege and determined not to blow the opportunity to make a difference. Nature is always part of his management, and now and then I get a message sharing a wildlife update and take it as a cue to visit.
Continue reading...
-
Experts who helped Burnham draw up Manchester carbon neutral pledge say backtracking would send wrong message amid wildfires and heatwaves
Leading climate scientists who created Greater Manchester’s carbon neutral by 2038 commitment are urging Andy Burnham to unequivocally reject new drilling in the North Sea.
In a letterto the prime minister they said he, as mayor of Greater Manchester, had unveiled one of the UK’s most ambitious local climate programmes that tackled housing, green growth and public transport.
Continue reading...
-
From Afghanistan to Taiwan, unprecedented deluge highlights devastating impact of climate breakdown
“It rained for 10 days and 10 nights, non-stop – I’d never seen anything like it,” says Anar Gul, a construction worker who lives in the remote district of Dur Baba in eastern Afghanistan.
The houses in his village are built from stone and mud, which makes them extremely vulnerable to heavy rains. After days of rain, Gul’s kitchen collapsed and his neighbour, Sayed Afsar Sadat, saw a large part of his house completely destroyed. “Rains like this are coming heavier and earlier each year,” says Sadat. “They are destroying the roads and washing away our crops. It’s impacting us directly.”
Continue reading...
-
As heatwaves make the capital increasingly dangerous, outreach workers warn that vulnerable people face barriers to finding water and cool spaces
“You’ve just got to bear it. It’s like being in a hot country. It drains you,” said Tom*, a man in his 60s who has been homeless for a number of years. “I haven’t seen weather like this for as long as I’ve been outside.
“I keep to my routines, but you need to find somewhere to sit down and rest. Either some cardboard outside or you find somewhere they’ll let you sit and sleep a bit inside,” he added.
Continue reading...
-
With large areas still burning, damage from national park’s worst blaze could take decades, if not longer, to put right
It is the jewel in the crown of the Highlands, one of Scotland’s most impressive natural landscapes, but 12 days on from the start of an enormous wildfire that is tearing through moorland and forest, the Cairngorms national park is unrecognisable.
Hectares of blackened land were visible as low cloud cleared on Sunday, with smoke billowing into the air from large areas still ablaze. In the evening, the sky glowed an eerie orange.
Continue reading...
-
Matthew Wolfe’s Fires in the Night examines Earth Liberation Front, a US eco-anarchist movement, and its legacy of radical environmentalism
Are echoes of 1990s radical environmentalism returning louder or fading away? It’s a question posed by Fires in the Night, a new book on the history of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a loosely grouped band of US Pacific north-west activists that used economic sabotage and arson to protest against environmental destruction.
The members called themselves “the Family” and were known to the outside world as Elves, after the acronym for the group: ELF. Unlike rightwing extremists of the era, they practiced non-violence toward life, though not property. They were labelled domestic terrorists and practiced “leaderless resistance”.
Continue reading...
-
For some, scorching days and humid nights are just the norm. So how do they stay chilled and comfortable?
Luis Pacherrez Antón is president of Agroperu Cooperative, a democratic collective of 102 small-scale farmers in the Chira River valley, Peru. He is based in Piura, known as “the city of eternal heat” because it stays hot and dry all year round. “The sun rays start to shine very early – from 9am,” he says. “So as people who work in cultivation, under a burning sun, we stay comfortable by starting much earlier and consuming the healthy foods that we produce, like bananas, oranges, lemons, grapes, papayas and avocados.”
Continue reading...
increase font size
Photo: Vivian Grisogono
