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Artist punches holes in UN climate report six hours a day for Dutch installation
Johannes-Harm Hovinga has to take painkillers to complete 20-day artistic protest at Museum Arnhem
Every day for the last two weeks, Johannes-Harm Hovinga has sat at a raised table in Museum Arnhem, using a two-hole page puncher to systematically perforate the 7,705-page sixth assessment report produced by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
He has printed it out on coloured paper and the result is a vibrant heap piling up at the artist’s feet.
Continue reading...After Hurricane Beryl’s destruction, climate scientists fear for what’s next
Experts say devastating hurricane so early in season is ‘big wake-up call’ – and predict even more powerful storms
The poignancy was unmistakable: prognosticators at Colorado State University amended their already miserable seasonal tropical cyclone forecast on Monday precisely as Hurricane Beryl was filling Houston’s streets with floodwater and knocking out power to more than 2m homes and businesses.
“A likely harbinger of a hyperactive season” was how CSU researchers characterized Beryl, which set numerous records on the way to its Texas landfall, including the earliest category 5 hurricane, strongest ever June storm, and most powerful to strike the southern Windward Islands.
Continue reading...London’s Science Museum forced to cut ties with oil giant – and faces pressure over other sponsors
Campaigners welcome ‘seismic shift’ and urge museum bosses to review links with other fossil fuel sponsors
The Science Museum has been forced to cut ties with oil giant Equinor over its sponsor’s environmental record, the Observer can reveal.
Equinor has sponsored the museum’s interactive “WonderLab” since 2016, but the relationship is now coming to close, a move that will be seen as a major victory for climate change campaigners.
Continue reading...Where are all the butterflies this summer? Their absence is telling us something important | Tony Juniper
This isn’t down to one wet, cold British spring but a disturbing longer-term decline in insects. Thankfully, we can help
Anyone with even a passing interest in the natural world will have noticed a dramatic phenomenon this year: a lack of insects. Perhaps most noticeable is the near-absence of butterflies. Species that are usually common, such as large and small whites, small tortoiseshells, gatekeepers, ringlets, peacocks and meadow browns, are in many places down to the point of having almost disappeared. This is certainly the case where I live, in Cambridge.
Bee populations seem to be down here, too, with flowery margins that would at this time of year normally be alive with pollinators now eerily quiet. Hoverflies are depleted, moths scarce and aphids have either appeared very late or not at all. Buddleia bushes, with their fragrant mauve flowers that are usually festooned with butterflies, moths and many other insects, sit naked of their normal visitors.
Continue reading...Is There a Future in the Doomsday Economy?
Climate crisis has impact on insects’ colours and sex lives, study finds
Scientists fear adaptations to global heating may leave some species struggling to mate successfully
An ambush bug with a darker-coloured body is better at snagging a sexual partner than its brighter counterpart when it is chilly. Darker males can warm up more easily in the early mornings, and therefore get busy while everybody else is still warming up.
This is one of the many examples of how temperature affects colouring in insects, and in turn can affect their ability to mate, according to a new review article published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
Continue reading...The story of a heat death: David went to work in his new job on a French building site. By the end of the day he was dead
He was keen to impress in his new job just as a heatwave was gripping the country. What can David Azevedo’s story tell us about the threat increasingly extreme weather poses to human health?
For Anne-Marie Azevedo, 13 July 2022 started off like a normal day. Her brother David was staying with her while he got his life back on track after a period of unemployment. He was on the third day of a new job in construction and had been asked to work extra hours. Eager to make a good impression, David was up and out of the door first thing.
As she got ready for work later in the morning, Anne‑Marie thought David had mistakenly picked up her house keys, so she called him. She was reassured to hear that he sounded fine, despite the fact that the previous evening he had been exhausted and visibly unwell from the heat. France was in the grip of an intense heatwave, and he was working outside all day. David hadn’t taken the keys, so after a quick chat Anne-Marie got on with her day.
Continue reading...Los incendios forestales generan alarma en Brasil
Early Wildfires in Brazil Threaten Pantanal Wetlands and Cerrado Savanna
The Sunrise Movement Calls on Biden to Step Aside
Marathon Oil Agrees to Pay Record EPA Penalty
The week around the world in 20 pictures
Russian airstrikes in Kyiv, the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl in Texas and Spain’s Lamine Yamal at Euro 2024: the last seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists
Continue reading...Contempt, gagging and UN intervention: inside the UK’s wildest climate trial
Prosecution of five Just Stop Oil activists over M25 protest led to chaotic scenes in court and concerns about ‘judicial persecution’
As part of his role as UN rapporteur for environmental defenders, Michel Forst has been watching proceedings against climate activists at courts across Europe.
But he may not have seen anything like what unfolded at Southwark crown court in London over the past two and a half weeks, where five Just Stop Oil activists were convicted for conspiring to cause gridlock on the M25 in November 2022.
Continue reading...How Rebuilding Forests Helped Pangolins, Orangutans and People
Floods fuelled 19% drop in income from farming in England in 2023
Low yields combined with low prices for some crops also led to a 13% drop in farm output compared with 2022
Income from farming in England plummeted by 19% last year after floods meant harvesting many crops was impossible.
Farmers have called for more support from the government as the climate breaks down, meaning agricultural businesses are no longer able to count on mild UK weather and increasingly face drought and floods.
Continue reading...Solitary wooden house on Union Island escapes fury of Hurricane Beryl
Remarkable survival of structure triggers debate in religious St Vincent and the Grenadines about how it is still standing
On the island of Union in St Vincent and the Grenadines, where the category 4 Hurricane Beryl caused “Armageddon-like” destruction, demolishing more than 90% of the buildings, there is a solitary wooden house standing defiantly among the wreckage.
A picture of the quaint yellow building with a mauve roof, bafflingly out of place among an array of debris and roofless structures, has been shared more than 500 times on Facebook. In a deeply religious country where more than 80% of the population are Christians, it has triggered a debate about whether its survival is a miraculous message from God.
Continue reading...As British butterflies head north, scientists ask public to help track migration
With up to 80% of butterflies in decline, people are being asked to spend 15 minutes to record number and type witnessed
Scientists are calling on the public to help track how British butterflies are moving north as the climate heats up.
Examining 50 years of data, researchers from the wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation, which runs the annual Big Butterfly Count, have identified a clear northerly shift among many species, including the familiar garden favourites the comma, peacock and holly blue.
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