-
Environment Agency names seven regions affected by unusually hot and dry weather and shortage of water
Half of England is officially in drought, with July set to be the driest on record after winter floods, the Environment Agency has said.
The “flash drought” developed quickly because of unusually low rainfall and high temperatures.
Continue reading...
-
Authorities fear progress in containing the fires in the Gironde and Madrid regions may be set back by temperatures expected to hit the low 40s
in Brussels
The European Union’s crisis-management team is expecting difficult weeks ahead, fearing a further outbreak of wildfires in Italy and Greece as the summer goes on.
“A firefighter will focus on protecting people. They will focus on protecting houses, protecting a business, a company, because this is something that matters for all our society. And indeed, sometimes by focusing on that, they cannot extinguish fire, [as] they would do it if it would be just forest.
So this is new, this is worrying. And of course also, this means that we need to adapt our methods of fighting the fires.”
Continue reading...
-
Findings can inform conversations about global climate reparations and financing for mitigations, researchers say
Caribbean nations suffered $53.2bn (£40bn) of damage from climate-fuelled disasters between 2000 and 2024, research into the cost of the climate crisis to developing small islands has found.
The figure is more than 90% of the total $57bn in economic damage caused by floods, storms and drought across 39 developing island nations in the Caribbean, the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, according to a study by development thinktank ODI Global.
Continue reading...
-
Growing number of studies assessing whether heat training can help people prepare for scorching temperatures
Even as summer temperatures soar, the sauna trend is booming, with some venues touting them as a way to beat the heat. But while experts have urged caution about sweatingit out in hot weather, a growing number of studies are considering whether heat training could help people prepare for heatwaves.
With parts of the UK experiencing their fourth heatwave of the year, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued heat health alerts across much of England. The warnings follow an unprecedented summer, with western Europe experiencing its hottest June on record.
Continue reading...
-
A delicacy for centuries and a key part of Native tradition, the lake whitefish has seen its population crash. Researchers know why … but stopping it is another matter
From the basement of the Sandusky library, page 29 of the book Sandusky of To-Day proclaims the town to be the “largest fresh water fish market in the world”. Two pages later, an image of the lake whitefish, referred to as “Sandusky’s pride”, takes up the entire page.
But the book was published in 1888.
Continue reading...
-
Adopting organic free-range model in UK could lead to greenhouse emissions equivalent to 2,316,000 tonnes of CO2, study suggests
Organic eggs are twice as bad for the climate as eggs from chickens living in cages, research suggests.
According to the study, switching the UK’s entire egg production to an organic free-range model would lead to greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 2,316,000 tonnes of CO2 (tCO2e), while production through a fully caged system would emit 1,184,000 tCO2e.
Continue reading...
-
No other bird speaks to us quite so directly, its serenade conjuring memories of old family tales
I wake early on these bright summer mornings. And now that the birds in my garden have mostly fallen silent, only one is still serenading me at this hour: the aptly named song thrush. Its measured, deliberate repetitions – which this particular bird has provided without a break since the turn of the year – are unmistakable.
Whenever I hear a song thrush, I’m taken back in time. First, to my childhood, when the first sign of spring was when thrushes started singing from the roofs of our suburban housing estate as I walked home from school in the dim light of a February afternoon.
Continue reading...
-
Residents struggle to take in the devastation five days after El Morro was evacuated as fires burned across countryside west of Spanish capital
The handwritten sign taped to the front gate of a house in the mountains an hour west of Madrid offered as succinct a summary of recent events as you will find.
“EMPTY,” it said. “No people or animals here.”
Continue reading...
-
What once felt exceptional now arrives with grim regularity all over the continent, and it will only get worse
•Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up here
Spain has changed immeasurably since I arrived here 10 years ago to begin work as the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent.
Over that time, the push for Catalan independence has exploded, sputtered and faded out; the Covid pandemic has hit with unimaginable ferocity, before seeming to linger for a face-masked eternity; and Podemos and Ciudadanos – the two upstart parties that once seemed likely to alter the Spanish political landscape irrevocably – have risen and fallen.
Continue reading...
-
Ryder Williams, 16, saved a boy from drowning in Santa Cruz, California – the first rescue of his career
A rookie, teenage California lifeguard who saved a young boy from drowning amid massive waves – while a bystander recorded dramatic video – has spent his whole life preparing for such a moment, according to his father.
Ryder Williams, 16, said he refused to let go of the child because he knew the boy would almost certainly die if he did, the lifeguard’s father, Shane, recounted on Tuesday, three days after the pulse-pounding rescue.
Continue reading...
