-
Weather models project a potentially strong El Niño this year, which could spell disaster for heatwave-hit India, drench China and hurt agriculture across south-east Asia
The UN has warned that the world must prepare for the imminent return of El Niño and the raised global temperatures and weather extremes it brings.
The powerful natural weather pattern has an 80% chance of forming before September and a 90% chance before November, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.
Continue reading...
-
Experts say increased use of crops for fuel is ‘dangerous game’ that could send food price inflation soaring
Demand for biofuels is likely to leap by nearly a third this year, which could send food price inflation soaring further and push the world closer to a global food crisis.
More countries are opting to increase biofuel use as the price of oil has jumped to nearly $100 a barrel after the US-Israeli attacks on Iran and the closure of the strait of Hormuz.
Continue reading...
-
Migrant insects have been seen in large numbers along east coast thanks to heatwave and benign southerly winds
If you’ve spotted a pale orange butterfly dashing at frenetic pace through streets, fields or gardens, you’ve noticed the new migrants that will add colour to the summer in record-breaking numbers.
What is expected to be the largest arrival of painted lady butterflies in Britain for 17 years is under way after heatwaves and favourable winds ushered thousands if not millions of the insects northwards.
Continue reading...
-
Eggesford Forest, Devon: I thought I was alone in admiring a towering beech in the chilly wood, but I was not
I breathe in the bluebells as a blackcap sings. At the crescendo, a flash of yellow breaks up the blue – a brimstone butterfly flies up to my face, then moves back, approaches, then draws back, repeating the fluttered action until I follow.
Together, we weave through fresh-scented firs before my companion flits away and I realise that I have come further into the forest than intended. My feet start to throb and the wind, as the sky grows overcast, brings a chill. I see the leaves of a vaulted canopy stir overhead and feel the softest carpet of fallen catkins underfoot. Although the threat of rain urges me forwards, a tree, an imposing common beech, makes me stay.
Continue reading...
-
Insects join list of species capable of solving simple ‘box-and-banana’ problem that demonstrates basic intelligence
Bumblebees can use tools to solve a problem, according to experiments that demonstrate their remarkably advanced cognitive abilities.
The bees were given an adapted version of an experiment that, 100 years ago, first demonstrated chimpanzees could work out how to retrieve an out-of-reach banana by stacking boxes. Since then, various other primates, elephants and crows have joined an elite cohort of species known to be capable of this level of insight and spontaneous problem solving.
Continue reading...
-
Since 2015, fires have undone years of effort to reduce ozone levels, underscoring a growing public health crisis
The highly destructive wildfires that have battered the US and North America in recent years have significantly increased emissions and been linked to tens of thousands of premature deaths, but their impact on air quality is greater than previously known, according to new research.
A study published in Science on Thursday found that, since 2015, wildfires have reversed US progress toward ozone air quality standards, as the worsening pollution caused by wildfire smoke has undone years of efforts to reduce emissions. Ground-level ozone (O3) is created when pollutants from cars, refineries and industrial sources react with sunlight, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Continue reading...
-
After a period of burnout, I realised that nature knows what you need, and is always ready to offer it – you just have to be quiet enough to receive it
In 2022 I moved to Clevedon, near Bristol. As soon as I saw the oak tree behind my flat, I started sitting under it. It’s not in some beautiful, remote place – it’s on an urban hill surrounded by grassland – but as a solitary tree on the side of a hill, it drew my attention.
I was burned out. For 10 years, I had run a nonprofit tackling plastic pollution. We had got the government to ban plastic cutlery and polystyrene takeaway packaging, and supermarkets to ban plastic cotton buds. They were major achievements, but it was hard work and I was exhausted. I was transitioning away from activism, and only working three days a week.
Continue reading...
-
In this week’s newsletter: Utah’s gargantuan Stratos development is the latest battleground in the AI-driven fight for water, energy, and our environmental future
• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up here
Kevin O’Leary is many things. He is a flamboyant venture capitalist, co-host of the TV show Shark Tank, vocal supporter of Donald Trump and, recently, a villainous tycoon (or, in his character’s words, a vampire born in 1601) in the Oscar-nominated Marty Supreme.
For the people of Utah, however, O’Leary is the highly controversial face of a new climate controversy. I’ll explain why, after this week’s most important reads.
Prepare for imminent return of El Niño, UN warns
‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survival
Damaged, deserted, dilapidated … what comes next for the Great Barrier Reef island resorts lying in ruins?
Continue reading...
-
After a series of deaths on the beaches of Brittany, one bereaved family set out to prove the foul-smelling bloom was to blame
By Marta Zaraska. Read by Lucy Bromilow
Continue reading...
-
As São Paulo faces a climate-induced water crisis, campaigners are fighting to reverse the impact of pollution and illegal deforestation on its largest reservoir
In a small motorboat laden with water-monitoring equipment, biologist Marta Marcondes and community activist Wesley Silvestre Rosa cross Billings reservoir on the far southern edge of São Paulo. Bright white herons glide over the water, which is flanked by thick dark green clusters of Brazil’s Atlantic forest, as the boat heads towards one of the more polluted parts of the reservoir.
“We see where sewage is entering, we see what has been deforested and how that has affected the water quality of the reservoir,” Marcondes says.
Continue reading...
