-
‘First meaningful rain for a long time’ is forecast but water firms continue to ask customers to restrict use
Floods and drought could hit the UK at the same time this week, with heavy rain forecast to fall on hard, parched soil.
While some parts of the UK will have the “first meaningful rain for a long time” in the coming days, it will not reverse widespread drought conditions that have put pressure on wildlife, farmers, firefighters and water resources.
Continue reading...
-
Study finds older adults could face harmful heat stress at just 1.5C of warming above preindustrial levels
People aged 60 and over face dangers to their health from exposure to heat at much lower temperatures than previously thought, research has found.
Older adults will bear the brunt of increasingly frequent sustained spells of extreme heat globally as the world continues to warm up, according to a study in The Lancet Public Health.
Continue reading...
-
Woodland Trust says trees struggling in drought stress, with older ‘survivors’ disproportionately affected
England’s ancient oak trees are dying in the summer’s extreme heat and dry weather, according to the Woodland Trust, with trees and ecosystems unable to adapt fast enough to the changing climate.
The heatwaves across much of Europe this summer have had a notable impact on crop growth and plant health. To cope with the extreme conditions, many trees are undergoing “early autumn”, wilting and losing their leaves early.
Crow Leasow oak, Shropshire.
Tea Party oak, Suffolk.
King John oak, Devon.
Enmore oak, Somerset.
Lydham Manor oak, Shropshire.
Old Knobbley, Essex.
Pwllpriddog oak, Carmarthenshire.
Continue reading...
-
Vegetable and grain growers call for urgent action, warning of ‘catastrophic’ harvests due to continent-wide drought
Successive intense heatwaves and an increasingly severe, continent-wide drought have left many of Europe’s farmers in an “unprecedented” crisis, with vegetable and grain growers in particular warning of “catastrophic” harvests.
French vegetable production is down by “a very significant extent” compared with previous years, French growers have said, with shortfalls put at 25% for courgettes, 35% for lettuces, 40% for peas, 60% for broccoli and 50% to 100% for artichokes.
Continue reading...
-
Nurses, medical experts and green campaigners reject party deputy leader’s dismissal of efforts to reach net zero
Reform’s deputy leader has been accused of spreading misinformation after he dismissed efforts to tackle the climate crisis and urged British people to enjoy the warmth of the recent heatwaves.
Richard Tice prompted a backlash from nurses, medical experts and green campaigners on Monday after he told a press conference he believed it was “arrogant” to try to stop the climate emergency, while encouraging people to focus on upsides such as better English wine.
Continue reading...
-
The PM’s net zero pragmatism may please some voters, but as parts of the country go up in flames, it’s an increasingly hard sell
When the siren sounded on Friday night, my first thought was fire.
Weeks of unrelenting sun in the normally soggy Peak District, where I was visiting my mum, have bleached green valleys a dangerously dry, crispy blond. One of her neighbours had earlier pointed out an ominous cloud of smoke on the horizon, coming from one of the wildfires raging all summer on the moor. When that harsh, discordant shriek blared from every mobile phone in the house, I was half-braced for an evacuation order, not what turned out to be a faintly melodramatic warning to the nation to lay off the barbecues. A false alarm, of sorts, but one that felt uneasily like a wake-up call.
Continue reading...
-
As warming seas push native species to cooler waters farther north, once-rare visitors have become more common
‘It sounds silly but I thought it was a person in the water waving,” says Kurt Lander, skipper of the Yellowfin charter boat, based out of Brighton. But when he grabbed his binoculars, he realised the fluttering movement he had noticed in the middle of the Channel shipping lane was a pair of sunfish.
The huge fish were lying on their sides and flapping their fins. “Apparently, they do it as a visual attraction to birds,” he says. “They’re trying to get the birds to eat the parasites off them.”
Continue reading...
-
Nooks and crannies in urban areas provide a welcome alternative to intensive farming and other rural pressures
Wildflowers are having a rough time in the countryside, mostly from the onslaught of intensive farming with fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides and less grazing. On top of that, there are building developments, competition from invasive plant species and the climate crisis to contend with.
The UK has lost 97% of its wildflower meadows over the last century and over half of the country’s native flowers have been in decline for 70 years.
Continue reading...
-
Scientists surprised to find all but two of 12 grizzlies were dead within a year of ‘feelgood’ release, unable to sustain their high-calorie diet and inclined to approach humans
The orphaned grizzly bear cubs were bulked up with a generous diet of roadkill, watermelon, dog food and snacks donated by the public. Their contact with carers was limited to two people. Then, after up to a year in rehabilitation, they returned home to the wilds of British Columbia.
“It’s a feelgood thing – people feel good when the cage opens,” says Dr Lana M Ciarniello, a bear specialist who tracked the Canadian yearlings in a recent study. There is a perception that bears will thrive in their natural habitat, she says. “The reality is they’re not followed up on.”
Continue reading...
-
Officials have had to remove thousands of tons of sargassum from Florida’s beaches amid the climate crisis
Dealing with seaweed is the bulk of Chris Bumpus’s job during the summer. As chief of conservation for Miami-Dade county’s parks, recreation and open spaces department, Bumpus is in charge of cleaning sargassum off 17 miles (27km) of county beaches. But some days, the odds are stacked against him and his team.
More and more sargassum, a kind of floating brown algae, has been washing up on the beaches of south Florida, west Africa, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.
Continue reading...
