-
Return of winds and extreme heat threaten firefighters’ attempts to bring blazes under control
Nearly 4,000 people have been evacuated from tourist sites on France’s Atlantic coast as the return of winds and extreme heat jeopardises firefighters’ battles to contain wildfires raging in France and Spain.
The precautionary evacuation order in France, which covers campsites, holiday villages and other tourist accommodation around the resort of Lacanau to the west of Bordeaux, exacerbated a wildfire emergency described by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as the “toughest” situation the country had dealt with since the second world war.
Continue reading...
-
The Earth keeps getting hotter and experts fear this year's El Niño, nicknamed 'Godzilla' because of its predicted intensity, could raise global temperatures by up to 3.6C. Environment correspondent Damien Gayle spoke to climate scientists to understand how the weather phenomenon and the climate crisis pose a huge threat to the planet
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...
-
Conservationists are thrilled at the arrival of three juvenile birds at Willington Wetlands, hoping more will follow
A long orange beak poked curiously out from its wooden crate, followed by a sleek head and slender body. Then the first white stork of the morning flapped its wings and took the air. Moments later a second emerged tentatively to stalk through the long grass, followed closely by a final sibling who stretched its wings and explored the length of the enclosure.
The trio of juvenile white storks have just arrived at their new home in Willington Wetlands in Derbyshire and conservationists are hopeful that their presence will kickstart the return of the birds to the Midlands after an absence of more than 600 years.
Continue reading...
-
The daily dread pushed me to enroll in a standup class. Could I channel my despair into something lighter?
If you had told me six months ago that I would soon be performing standup comedy to dozens of strangers, I would have assumed it was a bad dream.
Public speaking ranks about as high as driving in rush hour traffic through downtown Boston on my list of favorite activities. That I would choose to do standup, with its potential for public humiliation, is basically unimaginable.
Continue reading...
-
Matthew Myerscough’s remarkable find is one of many detailed in his new book. But his journey into fossil hunting began years earlier, when he was caught in an avalanche
When Matthew Myerscough walks along a beach, he cannot help hunting for fossils. “I think my fossil radar is always on – even if I’m not looking, it’s hard sometimes to not see things,” says the 40-year-old civil engineer, who has discovered thousands of fossils on British beaches.
It was while he was “not looking” on Lavernock beach near Penarth, south Wales, that he recently stumbled across the fossilised bone of an early type of plesiosaur, a marine reptile that roamed the oceans while dinosaurs stalked the land during the early Jurassic period.
Continue reading...
