Global heating will hit at least 1.8C, UN warns, and there are ‘no good outcomes’
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/sep/02/global-heating-warming-1-8c-best-case-scenario-un-united-nations-enviro
But scientists say the world could get back to 1.5C through deep, rapid emissions cuts and removing carbon from the atmosphere
📣Ella Kelian :
▻https://x.com/EllaKelian/status/2093955929028919505
Lentement, mais inexorablement, au fil des provocations, des maladresses, des erreurs de communication et des réactions inappropriées, l’image de la fonction présidentielle s’est considérablement dégradée.
Mais Donald Trump vient d’accélérer de manière vertigineuse l’effondrement de cette incarnation verticale du pouvoir, jusqu’à la ramener au niveau de caprice et de délire d’un enfant de 5 ans.
Terrifiant !
▻https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2093955892857253888/vid/avc1/1206x1532/4esJi4wNBVx0SBqR.mp4
Bon, X je peux pas le consulter, voir le seen ▻https://seenthis.net/messages/1188421
Et le lien twimg me répond « unauthorized ».
une armée d’oies (pas de l’oie, tu l’as ?) marche le long d’une étendue d’eau sur arrière fond de buildings, toutes ces oies exhibent la houpe- brushing de Trump et suivent leur chef, certaines montent en avant, puis toutes les premières lignes tirent au FM dpuis une avancée de terre dans une étendue d’eau ; image de feu d’artifice, drapeaux des USA, on peut lire « Lake américa »" devant la même étendue d’eau.
le même avait déjà fait fort en pilote d’un bombardier qui déféquait copieusement sur New-York après la victoire électorale de Mamdani.
@ericw pour les liens unauthorized, ici si je revalide l’url en barre d’adresse, ça fonctionne
@mammut ah oui effectivement, merci.
@colporteur : finalement ta description suffisait amplement.
Posté il y a 3 jours :
▻https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2092635994319163798
Sauf que...
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/05/canada-goose-bald-eagle-political-symbolism
Mervyn Sequeira, an Ontario photographer, was out with his family on a recent morning when they spotted a bald eagle descending towards a frozen lake.
Sensing a looming attack on unsuspecting prey, Sequeira scanned the landscape and saw a Canada goose, alone and vulnerable.
For the next 20 minutes, lens trained on the battle, Sequeira watched what he expected would be a lopsided fight with a grim coda.
Through bursts of his shutter, however, he captured a defiant goose fending off death.
“I’ve seen bald eagles take a lot of things, from ducks to muskrats. But this is the first time I’ve seen a bald eagle go in for something as big as a goose,” he said.
Despite multiple attacks by the eagle, the goose remained unbowed. The raptor, defeated, flew off.
Donald Trump propose de donner son nom au détroit d’Ormuz
▻https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2026/09/02/donald-trump-propose-de-donner-son-nom-au-detroit-d-ormuz_6764487_3210.html
A la mi-août, le président des Etats-Unis a publié une carte du détroit le présentant comme un « nouveau territoire américain », reprenant une idée qu’il avait exprimée quelques jours auparavant sur un ton qui laissait penser à une plaisanterie.
Smuggled in syringes: how Nairobi became a nexus for the black market in giant harvester ants | Illegal wildlife trade | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2026/may/13/smuggled-illegal-global-trade-giant-harvester-ants-kenya-asia-europe
▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/88f7fb875f287b024c2a91f828e752e77950744c/617_0_3500_2800/master/3500.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:
I*Giant African harvester ants at work in Silole sanctuary in Kenya | Dino Martins
Court cases in Kenya point to a growing market for ants as exotic pets in Asia and Europe that has implications for conservation and biosecurity*
n the biblical text Book of Proverbs, King Solomon describes the harvester ant as a model of wisdom and industriousness: “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!”
Almost 3,000 years later, the thriving international parallel market for a distinct species of the ant native to east Africa has been thrust into the global spotlight after a series of convictions in Kenya for ant smuggling.
In the most recent case, Zhang Kequn, a Chinese national, was sentenced to a year in prison and fined 1 million Kenyan shillings (£5,690) on 15 April after his arrest in March at Jomo Kenyatta international airport, where authorities found more than 2,200 live ants in specialised tubes in his luggage that was destined for China.
‘We’re up against forces that have all the money in the world’: Erin Brockovich on her battle against AI datacentres | Energy | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/29/were-up-against-forces-that-have-all-the-money-in-the-world-erin-brocko
In 1993, she squeezed a $333m settlement from a Californian energy company in a scandal over contaminated water. Three decades later, she has a new target in her sights – and it’s global
When Erin Brockovich woke to find 30 emails from people from the same town, she realised something was going on. People email Brockovich all the time because of what happened in 1993, when she was instrumental in suing Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) on behalf of residents of the town of Hinkley, California, whose groundwater had been contaminated. The case resulted in a settlement of $333m – then the largest ever payout for a direct-action lawsuit. When she was immortalised by Julia Roberts in the 2000 film Erin Brockovich, she became the hero we didn’t know we needed, a modern day Joan of Arc. She had won against PG&E with no formal legal training.
The emails she received a few weeks ago were about datacentres. In April, she put a callout on her website asking for anyone with concerns about one near them to get in touch. Within a month, 3,862 people had replied. Tech companies have needed datacentres to power their technology “for ever”, she says, but the new ones being built to power AI? “This feels like Hinkley on steroids.”
This isn’t a story about AI, she says. “That genie is out of the bottle: it’s here, it’s an effective tool, you can use it or not,” Brockovich says matter-of-factly. This is about the massive structures being built to house the vast computing facilities AI requires. These datacentres, she says, stretch over “hundreds and hundreds of acres”. In May, Utah gave approval to a centre twice the size of Manhattan.
Some of the emails Brockovich gets from people near datacentres express genuine bafflement: “Why did I not know about this? How did this construction just start? Why am I now getting a notice from the city council that this has already passed when I didn’t even have a voice in it?” Others reflect concerns about the impact of the centres: “What about our resources? What’s happening to the water? Who’s paying for all this energy and am I going to foot that bill? What will the future impact on health be from these monstrosities? What’s going to happen to the wildlife?”
From the emails, Brockovich built a map of significant AI datacentres in the US that are either operational or under construction, overlaid with locations where community members have emailed in concerns. This open-source document is chilling: as of 24 June, 33 AI datacenters have been completed and are operational, 68 are under construction and 41 are proposed. And there had been 7,005 reports submitted through the online form, which is to say, all that is known about them is what people have seen. As a post on her Substack blog is headlined: “If data centers are so great, why are they being built in secret?”
Bomb the Arctic, dam the Mediterranean and build a second moon: five outlandish plans to remodel our #climate | #Geoengineering
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/06/five-outlandish-plans-to-remodel-earth-climate
#Humans have long sought to #geoengineer the Earth’s environment. Tim Flannery outlines a few of the wildest ideas from the 20th century
An increasing number of scientists think we have let the climate crisis fester for so long that our only hope to stave off ever-intensifying catastrophes is to use #technological interventions. Cloud brightening, injecting sulphur into the #atmosphere and the use of tiny mirrors in space – all of which might reduce the amount of sunlight reaching Earth’s surface – are among the concepts being promoted by entrepreneurs and governments alike. Geoengineering, they argue, is now inevitable.
#tina
Record winter temperatures in Antarctic raise fears over speed of climate breakdown | Polar regions
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/10/record-winter-temperatures-in-antarctic-raise-fears-over-speed-of-clima
Temperatures above 15C ‘very strange’ say scientists, as snow melts and rain falls on glaciers in usually frozen region
Tu trouveras sur SeenThis des posts qui évoquent le fait que nous sommes déjà dans certaines régions du monde à +1,5°C. Mais cette semaine, on te disait sur les réseaux que les scientifiques évaluaient le passage à +1,5°C pour 2030, c’est à dire qu’on te disait qu’on n’y était pas encore.
La même semaine, on te dit qu’il fait 15°C au Pôle Sud. J’imagine qu’on va te dire que c’est déjà arrivé, et qu’il faut arrêter avec cette fake news après tout, parce que tout va aller mieux demain, quand on aura tous voté pour l’extrême droite et qu’on pourra enfin s’en prendre aux étrangers, et vivre d’abus de biens sociaux comme tous les bobos gauchiasses de la capitale.
Le réchauffement climatique dû aux activités humaines atteindra 1,5 °C autour de 2030
▻https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2026/06/11/le-rechauffement-climatique-du-aux-activites-humaines-devrait-atteindre-1-5-
Dans une étude publiée jeudi, un consortium de chercheurs confirme que le seuil le plus ambitieux de l’accord de Paris sur le climat, signé en 2015, devrait être dépassé dans les quatre prochaines années.
Et cependant, d’aucuns pensent encore qu’il vaut mieux être « fataliste » ...
Tout à fait, c’est l’autre population pénible : les fatalistes. Trump démontre au quotidien qu’au-delà d’être climato-sceptique, il est sans le dire vraiment dans le camp des fatalistes et qu’il compte faire taire ceux qui ne cessent de vouloir prendre le pouvoir à sa place, en estimant qu’il faut cesser de se comporter comme ces 3 derniers siècles. Ce type qui répond à Zaka est un petit Trump. Il aimerait lui aussi avoir le pouvoir de faire taire ceux qui accumulent les preuves et communiquent sur ces preuves. Il aimerait lui aussi avoir le pouvoir de démanteler les sondes marines qui documentent l’arrêt de l’AMOC. Etc.
Macron, avec son #Béchu qui nous a déclaré qu’il allait préparer la France à +4°C, sans nous dire ce que ça signifiait matériellement pour la population (on a des posts qui le disent, et c’est pas joli), c’est une sorte de coming-out fataliste. Ils sont conscients de ce qui nous attend, et ils ont décidé qu’il n’y avait rien à faire pour tenter d’infléchir la pente savonneuse, parce qu’en fait, c’est eux qui vendent le savon, et que si on n’achète plus de savon, ils n’auront plus les moyens d’être au pouvoir. Bref, un cynisme insupportable.
Louis-Andre Millamomarte (de X), vu la réponse, amha c’est juste un gros troll facho, et pas spécialement fataliste. Son « on y peut rien » n’est que rethorique, pour rallonger voire « justifier » le cœur de son message, très simple : TG.
‘Suicidal’ model of capitalism leading to war and fascism, climate summit told
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/29/capitalism-colombia-climate-summit-gustavo-petro
Colombia president Gustavo Petro tells 57-country talks on a green energy transition that fossil fuel interests could destroy humanity
traduction en français :
▻https://justpaste.it/nakce
Beef and lamb get 580 times more in EU subsidies than legumes, study finds
Report says common agricultural policy provides ‘unfair’ levels of support to unhealthy, meat-heavy diets
Beef and lamb receive 580 times more in EU subsidies than legumes, a report has found, despite scientists urging people to get more of their protein from less harmful sources.
Analysis by the charity Foodrise found the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) provides “unfair” levels of support to meat-heavy diets that doctors consider unhealthy and climate scientists consider environmentally destructive.
It found beef and lamb were subsidised 580 times more than legumes in 2020, while pork was subsidised nearly 240 times more. Dairy, meanwhile, received 554 times more in subsidies than nuts and seeds.
The EU spends almost a third of its budget supporting farmers, with the bulk of CAP funds allocated on the basis of farm size, rather than strategic considerations. Meat and dairy – which use land to grow crops to feed animals – take a larger share than plants, particularly once the subsidies in feed have been counted.
Martin Bowman, a campaigner at Foodrise and author of the report, said the analysis showed livestock benefited from disproportionate support even before counting hidden societal costs, such as pollution.
“It’s scandalous that billions of euros of EU taxpayer money is being used to prop up such a high-emissions industry at a time when scientists are telling us that we need – on health and environmental grounds – to shift to lower-meat diets,” he said.
The data comes from an academic study, available as a preprint, that traced EU subsidies for different foods in 2020 using the same methods as a study published in Nature Food in 2024. Some experts expressed caution about the scale of the disparity the first study found, but did not dispute it existed.
Anniek Kortleve, a researcher at Leiden University and lead author of the academic study, said it showed that reforms needed to consider the full chain of subsidies flowing through feed to livestock, rather than just direct payments to livestock farms.
“Our analysis shows CAP support is highly concentrated in animal-sourced foods relative to the calories they provide, while plant proteins like legumes receive very little support,” she said. This was happening “even though EU strategies increasingly call for more plant-rich diets for health and sustainability”.
The report found meat and dairy received €39bn in subsidies in 2020, fruit and vegetables €3.6bn, and cereals €2.4bn. Cattle and sheep, which require more land than animals such as pigs or chickens, tend to benefit from subsidies that target struggling regions and sectors on top of hectare-based payments.
A number of green strings have been tied to CAP payments since 2023 but experts do not expect the overall composition of EU farms to have changed significantly.
In 2024, a “strategic dialogue” between farmers, supermarkets, scientists and green groups – formed by Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, to quell furious farmer protests – resulted in an acknowledgment that Europeans eat more animal protein than scientists recommend and a call for support to shift diets toward plants.
Donal Murphy-Bokern, an agricultural scientist who used to work for food and agriculture ministries in the UK and Germany, and who was not involved in the study, said Europe’s protein economy was “not operating within sustainable limits”.
Considering public health in policy would challenge current levels of livestock production, he said. “We now need a common agrifood policy that explicitly integrates environmental and public health goals into how EU farmers are supported.”
Improvements in alternative proteins and an emerging consumer shift to reducing meat consumption have been resisted by big farming lobbies and some politicians. In November, the EU parliament voted to ban plant-based foods from using terms such as “steak”, “burger” and “sausage” unless they contained animal flesh.
The vote was ridiculed by green groups, which pointed to accepted terms such as peanut butter, which does not contain dairy, or hotdogs, which do not contain canines. The proposal also divided conservatives, with some feeling it violated free market ideals.
Bowman said politicians were deeply involved in influencing food production and consumption. “Don’t believe the meat and dairy companies who say that politicians promoting healthy and sustainable diets are telling people what to eat,” he said. “It’s a very cynical position.”
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/19/beef-lamb-legumes-eu-subsidies-study
#agriculture #PAC #politique_agricole_commune #subsides #UE #Union_européenne #élevage #légumes #boeuf #agneau #rapport #viande #alimentation #élevage_bovin #élevage_ovin
CAP at the Crossroads – Reforming EU CAP subsidies to support healthy sustainable diets
New report reveals the scale of EU CAP subsidies being used to prop up unsustainable livestock production, and makes the case for reform.
What’s the problem?
Animal-sourced foods are estimated to cause a staggering 81-86% of the total greenhouse gas emissions from EU food production, yet only supply an estimated 32% of calories and 64% of protein consumed in the EU.
This new report reveals that a hugely unfair share of EU CAP subsidies, worth billions of euros of EU taxpayers’ money, are directed to propping up high-emissions meat and dairy production, and to promote meat and dairy products.
The EU is at a crossroads – poised to make crucial decisions on the future of CAP for 2028–2034. Right now, it has the opportunity to support a transition to healthy sustainable diets – a huge economic opportunity with multiple benefits for EU food security, climate mitigation, nature and health. Or continue with a broken status quo.
Key findings:
– Beef and lamb received an estimated 580 times more CAP subsidies than legumes such as lentils and beans in 2020.
– Dairy received an estimated 554 times more CAP subsidies than nuts and seeds in 2020.
– Meat and dairy received over 10 times more CAP subsidies than fruit and vegetable production, and more than 16 times more than cereal production.
– Overall, the EU directed three times more CAP subsidies to production of high-emitting animal-sourced foods than to plant-based foods in 2020 – around 77% of total CAP subsidies (€39 billion out of €51 billion).
– The estimated €39 billion in CAP subsidies spent on animal-sourced foods in 2020 makes up nearly a quarter (23%) of the EU’s total budget of €168.7 billion for 2020.
Solutions
Calls have been growing for agricultural subsidies to be reformed to support a shift to healthy sustainable diets and reduced livestock numbers – including the EU’s Group of Chief Scientific Advisors, the European Court of Auditors, the World Bank, and the 2025 EAT-Lancet Commission.
The benefits this could bring are huge.
The adoption of the plant-rich Planetary Health Diet in high-income countries could reduce agricultural production emissions by an estimated 61%. It could also reduce the EU’s reliance on food imports, boost agricultural incomes, reduce EU fertiliser use by about a quarter, reduce deaths from air pollution, and prevent up to up to 10–39% of cancers in Europe.
Policy recommendations
We recommend that EU policymakers:
– Support protein diversification through increased CAP funding and support for farmers engaged in growing plant-based foods for direct human consumption.
– Increase CAP funds available for the promotion and marketing of plant-based wholefoods and alternative proteins.
– CAP subsidies for livestock farmers should be made conditional on meeting limits on livestock stocking density per hectare.
– End all use of EU funds for the promotion and marketing of meat and dairy.
- Support a just transition in the livestock sector, through an Agri-food Just Transition Fund (AJTF).
– Ensure that CAP subsidies support nature restoration, of habitats such as peatlands, wild grasslands and woodlands.
- Introduce an EU Action Plan for Plant-based Foods to support the production and consumption of more plant-based foods across every stage of the supply chain, which:
- Promotes the public procurement of healthy sustainable plant-rich diets in public institutions like schools and hospitals
– Provides increased financial support through CAP and other means, for the increased production and processing of plant-based foods for direct human consumption – particularly agroecologically produced foods.
- Reform dietary guidelines to factor in both health and sustainability – aligning more with the Planetary Health Diet.
Water-related violence almost doubled globally in two years, thinktank says | Water | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/23/water-related-violence-increase-pacific-institute
▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2e97729edd7baf4f5c7460e66897f00ee8fb8982/0_0_4248_3398/master/4248.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:
Water-related violence has almost doubled since 2022 and little is being done to understand and address the trend and prevent new and escalating risks, experts have said.
There were 419 incidents of water-related violence recorded in 2024, up from 235 in 2022, according to the Pacific Institute, a US-based thinktank.
The institute has compiled evidence of hundreds of years of water-related conflicts, including cases of water being a trigger for violence, a weapon of conflict or a casualty of conflict.
“We’re seeing more conflicts and they are multicausal,” said Dr Peter Gleick, a co-founder and senior fellow at the institute. “The climate crisis and extreme weather play a part but there are lots of other factors such as state failure and incompetent or corrupt governments, and lack of or misuse of infrastructure.”
Joanna Trevor, Oxfam’s water security lead, said the charity had also seen “an increase in localised conflicts over water due to climate change and water insecurity”.
Recent examples include tensions over an Indus River water-sharing treaty between India and Pakistan after a terrorist attack, Russia targeting hydropower dams in Ukraine, Israel destroying Gaza’s water systems, and protests over water supplies in South Africa.
“In Gaza, Israel systematically weaponised water,” Trevor said. “They deliberately targeted water systems and desalination plants and blocked repairs. Wastewater contaminated drinking water due to the destruction of sewage and storm water infrastructure, and people have been attacked while waiting or queueing for water.
“In east Africa and the Sahel, water is becoming increasingly insecure and people are moving into new areas to access water, which in itself can trigger competition and conflict with the host population.”
Ça par exemple ! Je venais juste d’évoquer le problème des #pénuries en #eau :
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/1155150
Prendre une douche, boire au robinet, arroser un champ. Dans une large partie du monde, ces gestes quotidiens reposent désormais sur une ressource qui ne se renouvelle plus : l’eau. Un nouveau rapport de l’ONU décrit ce basculement et affirme que la planète est entrée dans une « ère de faillite hydrique mondiale ».
‘If you’re flushing the toilet with grey water, people should know’: how China turned rain into an asset | Water | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/16/grey-water-how-china-turned-rain-into-asset
‘If you’re flushing the toilet with grey water, people should know’: how China turned rain into an asset
Architects and designers have recycled ancient practice of collecting rainwater to make buildings ecologically friendly
By Amy Hawkins, senior China correspondent
When the legendary Taiwanese rock band Mayday were due to perform in Beijing one evening in May 2023, some fans were worried that the rainy weather could affect the show. Mayday were taking to the stage in Beijing’s National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, built for the 2008 Olympics. Like the real-life twig piles that give the building its nickname, the stadium is built with an intricate and highly porous lattice, made of steel.
“Don’t worry too much,” reassured an article published by the official newsletter for China’s ministry of water resources. “The Bird’s Nest also has its ‘secret weapon’!”
Revealed: Europe’s water reserves drying up due to climate breakdown | Water | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/29/climate-crisis-depleting-europe-groundwater-reserves-analysis
Europe’s water reserves are drying up, a new analysis using two decades of satellite data reveals, with freshwater storage shrinking across southern and central Europe, from Spain and Italy to Poland and parts of the UK.
Mountain of waste dumped in Oxfordshire field contains rubbish from councils | Waste | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/19/mountain-of-waste-dumped-in-oxfordshire-field-contains-rubbish-from-cou
▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/45a8c1c7a160a550e49642d84fd9312d3564e964/202_0_3360_2688/master/3360.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:
Evidence of waste from primary schools and local authorities in south-east England points to possible large-scale corruption, expert says
With neonicotinoid pesticide ban, France’s birds make a tentative recovery - study
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/17/france-wildlife-insect-bird-numbers-rise-neonicotinoid-pesticide-ban-ao
Analysis shows small hike in populations of insect-eating species after 2018 ruling, but full recovery may take decades
Where does a western chemical plant that contaminated drinking water go next? To India | Pfas | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/31/miteni-factory-pfas-plant-italy-india
‘Landmines have become the greatest protectors’: how wildlife is thriving in the Korean DMZ | Biodiversity | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/21/north-south-korea-war-demilitarised-zone-dmz-ecology-endangered-wildlif
tanding on top of a small mountain, Kim Seung-ho gazes out over an expanse of paddy fields glowing in their autumn gold, the ripening grains swaying gently in the wind. In the distance, North Korea stretches beyond the horizon.
“It’s so peaceful,” says the director of the DMZ Ecology Research Institute. “Over there, it used to be an artillery range, but since they stopped firing, the nature has become so beautiful.”
The land before him is the demilitarised zone, or DMZ, a strip of land that runs across the Korean peninsula, dividing North and South Korea roughly along the 38th parallel north.
This heavily fortified border was created after the devastating Korean war, which lasted from 1950 to 1953. The conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, establishing a buffer zone between the two countries that remain in a technical state of war.
Why our broken food system remains a climate disaster: ‘broiling the planet to stuff our faces’ | Climate crisis | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/14/we-are-eating-the-earth-book-climate
Ridding ourselves of fossil fuels has been a tortuously ponderous process and, in the current political era, one that can seem to be in full retreat. But we do have the tools to run our cities, vehicles and industries on clean energy and even through the murk of vested interest, the contours of a post-fossil world are becoming clearer.
Our system of producing food, though, is in a relative stone age when it comes to the climate crisis. We continue to raze vast tracts of carbon-rich forests for crop and grazing land thereby creating, by some estimates, as much as a third of all global planet-heating emissions.
World in $1.5tn ‘plastics crisis’ hitting health from infancy to old age, report warns | Plastics | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/03/world-in-15tn-plastics-crisis-hitting-health-from-infancy-to-old-age-re
Plastics
World in $1.5tn ‘plastics crisis’ hitting health from infancy to old age, report warns
Plastic production has increased more than 200 times since 1950 and hits health at every stage from extraction to disposal, says review in the Lancet
Climate breakdown tripled death toll in Europe’s June heatwave, study finds
Heat caused 2,300 deaths across 12 cities, of which 1,500 were down to climate crisis, scientists say
Planet-heating pollution tripled the death toll from the “quietly devastating” heatwave that seared Europe at the end of June, early analysis covering a dozen cities has found, as experts warned of a worsening health crisis that is being overlooked.
Scientists estimate that high heat killed 2,300 people across 12 major cities as temperatures soared across Europe between 23 June and 2 July. They attributed 1,500 of the deaths to climate breakdown, which has heated the planet and made the worst extremes even hotter.
Milan was the hardest-hit city in absolute terms, with 317 out of 499 heat deaths attributed to climate breakdown, followed by Paris and Barcelona. London had 273 heat deaths, 171 of which the researchers attributed to human influence on the climate.
“This study demonstrates why heatwaves are known as silent killers,” said Malcolm Mistry, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and co-author of the study. “While a handful of deaths have been reported in Spain, France and Italy, thousands more people are expected to have died as a result of the blistering temperatures.”
The rapid analysis from the World Weather Attribution group, which used established methods but has not yet been submitted for peer review, blames climate breakdown for two-thirds of the deaths.
Older people had the highest mortality, the study found, with 88% of the climate-driven deaths in people over the age of 65. The researchers said extreme heat was an “underappreciated” threat as most victims died out of public view in homes and hospitals, and with little media coverage.
“Heatwaves don’t leave a trail of destruction like wildfires or storms,” said Ben Clarke, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and co-author of the study. “Their impacts are mostly invisible but quietly devastating. A change of just 2 or 3C can mean the difference between life and death for thousands of people.”
The scientists used epidemiological models to estimate heat-related mortality in cities such as Paris, London, Madrid and Rome over a 10-day-period, and compared the death toll with that of a hypothetical world in which humans had not heated the planet by burning fossil fuels or destroying nature.
They cautioned that the relationships between temperature and death they used in their models were derived from local mortality data up to 2019, and so may not fully capture how people in each city have adapted to hotter weather over time.
They found climate breakdown pushed temperatures in some cities up to 4C higher, resulting in 1,500 extra deaths. The death toll was greater than that of other recent weather disasters that were made worse by fossil fuel pollution, such as the floods that killed 224 people in Spain in 2024 and the floods that killed 243 people across north-west Europe in 2021.
Previous studies have estimated that about 44,000 people die from heat in Europe each year, averaged over the past few decades. The scientists suggested the vast death toll of 2,300 people from a single heatwave in just 12 cities could make this summer particularly dangerous.
The EU’s Earth observation service, Copernicus, said last month was the third hottest June on record globally and that an “exceptional” marine heatwave developed in the western Mediterranean. The average daily sea surface temperature was the highest ever recorded for the region in June at 27C.
Copernicus also found a large increase in dangerous “tropical nights”, where night-time temperatures do not drop below 20C and people struggle to rest. Parts of Spain had as many as 24 tropical nights last month, 18 more than the average for June.
Samantha Burgess, a deputy director of the Copernicus climate change service, said the record temperatures in the Mediterranean made the heat stress that large parts of Europe experienced “much more intense”.
She said: “In a warming world, heatwaves are likely to become more frequent, more intense and impact more people across Europe.”
Analysis by Mercator Ocean, a nonprofit research organisation that runs Copernicus’s marine service, found nearly two-thirds of the Mediterranean was hit by marine heatwaves that were classed as strong or worse, the greatest extent ever recorded.
The high temperatures are known to disturb fish and kill some of the plants they feed on. Mass-mortality events have repeatedly struck the Mediterranean in recent years as marine heatwaves have grown hotter.
Karina Von Schuckmann, a scientist at Mercator Ocean, said: “One particular aspect that is quite concerning … is this repeat emergence of heat stress. If you repeat the heat stress over time, the vulnerability of these specific ecosystems increases.”
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/09/europe-june-heatwave-study-climate-breakdown-tripled-death-toll
voir aussi:
▻https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/publications/all-publications/climate-change-tripled-heat-related-deaths-in-early-summer-european-heat
#chaleur #canicule #changement_climatique #climat #décès #létalité #mortalité #villes
‘Spiral of silence’: climate action is very popular, so why don’t people realise it? | Climate crisis | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/22/spiral-of-silence-climate-action-very-popular-why-dont-people-realise
▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ad4c7844f7473d820e161fc27b4d9775175ab3d1/1442_131_2354_1413/master/2354.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-ali
The research started with a simple goal, says Prof Teodora Boneva, at the University of Bonn, Germany, who with colleagues undertook the experiments: “We wanted to make a difference to the world. So we asked ourselves, as social scientists and economists: what kind of research can we do?”
Their biggest result was a huge, globe-spanning survey that revealed the remarkable fact that people across the world are united in wanting action to fight the climate crisis but remain a silent majority, because they wrongly think only a minority share their views.
Abandoned lynx, roaming wild boar, ‘beaver bombing’ – has rewilding got out of hand?
From unauthorised species releases to small groups buying up land, ‘#guerrilla_rewilding’ is going mainstream. But experts worry that these rogue efforts could do more harm than good
Visions of habitats teeming with nature are powerful, particularly so in an age of extinction. Rewilding, which offers the promise of such transformations, was once something most would have imagined happening far away, carried out by people unlike them, but times are changing. The wilderness is getting closer to home and more personal.
In the past few months, there have been two suspected lynx releases and one of feral pigs in a small area of the Cairngorms, along with reports of a rise in “beaver bombing” on England’s rivers, and wild boar roaming Dartmoor.
These acts may have Robin Hood appeal, but the rearing and release of large mammals goes some way beyond the well-established phenomenon of “#guerrilla_gardening”, where people sow native plants on land without express permission, or even the letting loose of rare butterflies in nature reserves (also a trending phenomenon).
On the latter point, butterfly specialist Matthew Oates notes that ad hoc butterfly releases have been going on for more than two centuries, with Winston Churchill a notable practitioner.
The latest wave of rogue activity, Oates says, is “fuelled by butterfly enthusiasts seeing a plethora of seemingly suitable but unoccupied habitat, which isn’t going to get colonised naturally, and a degree of disillusionment with nature conservation bodies”.
As with mammals, trying to establish what has been unofficially introduced, as opposed to arisen from natural colonisation, involves “a lot of mythology and assumption,” he says. But there are many “highly reputable” breeders of butterflies with long-established reputations – something that rings less true when it comes to large animals.
“I think some people who have taken matters into their own hands potentially have a quite romantic view of what it’s like to be a wild animal out there. It’s not just about opening the crate and letting them go,” says Roisin Campbell-Palmer, head of restoration for the Beaver Trust.
“We should always put the animals first. We can celebrate the enthusiasm and the attitude of some people to shove two fingers to the system, but if those animals aren’t accepted and if they face prolonged or ongoing persecution, then I struggle ethically when asking: ‘Is this right, have we all done a good job here, and can we truly call this species restoration?’”
She acknowledges that without rogue releases, beavers would not be back in Britain on a more formal basis – but fears that some bridges have been permanently burned because of the experiment. “Fingers can always be pointed. In retrospect, it’s very hard to encourage people to then accept the animals and coexist with them when they feel it wasn’t their choice and they weren’t involved.”
A group of scientists working to restore predator communities have come out strongly against the Scottish lynx releases. It’s a view Campbell-Palmer shares. “What was the long-term outlook likely to be for those animals? They weren’t behaviourally ready for the wild. And to me, that’s just thrown up a big potential case of straight-out cruelty,” she says.
“I hope that’s been a bit of a wake-up call for people who think you can just put large mammals back and it’ll all be fine. I’m very empathetic with people who get frustrated with the speed of change, but this rationale of ‘just get them out there and they’ll be accepted in the end’, I do struggle with that.”
While charismatic species wandering free grab many of the headlines, a less bombastic phenomenon is growing: community groups are buying smaller patches of the landscape to interpret rewilding as they see fit.
The Covid-19 pandemic prompted many to dream of wide-open spaces and nature in bloom, but one group in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, decided to get on with making it happen.
The collective, from a variety of professional backgrounds, began by getting 3,000 shareholders to buy a £50 stake through a crowdfunding platform to acquire the 12-hectare (30-acre) #Long_Lands_Common on the outskirts of the town. They have recently completed another fundraising drive to add another 24 hectares of land, known as #Knaresborough_Forest_Park, which has been out of public hands since 1770.
“Everyone’s come together around this singular ambition, to protect, to restore, and to just provide more space for nature in the community. We’ve found there are very few people who don’t seem to agree with that,” says George Eglese, a designer and the youngest member of the team behind the project.
“I think before #Long_Lands existed, there wasn’t really anyone in the area who was doing this kind of work, and there was a lot of apathy in the town: people wanted change, but felt they couldn’t effect it. Long Lands created a platform, and there’s a sense that ‘we’ve got all this resource now – let’s do as much as we can to ensure the safety of our natural environment’.”
As well as offering nature right next to accessible transport, and forging links with schools and charities, the project is also hoping to supply local food banks with fresh produce through a community food field, and offer a sustainable source of wood via the reintroduction of coppicing. They even hope that, in time, the site may attract some of those charismatic big beasts.
“What we’re talking about is reversing nature depletion, and that means increasing biodiversity, whether it’s for fauna, fungi, the small and medium-sized things,” says Ian Fraser, the project’s woodland officer. “Do those things, the ecosystems are stronger, then the larger animals will come back on their own.”
Despite doing things by the book, groups working to bring more #wildness into communities are not against a touch of righteous anger and rebellion. There’s a trend for struggles against threats to habitats turning into reimaginations of them: the story of Long Lands Common began as a protest against a relief road that would have run through the Nidd Gorge. In Liverpool, a smaller patch of habitat began with a community halting a proposed deal between the council and Redrow Homes to build on a park.
More than simply saving Calderstones Park, the Liverpool campaign group went on to develop 1.5 hectares of semi-derelict land into a nature reserve, using some novel techniques that have won the admiration of urban planting experts. They have sown a wildflower meadow over concrete using a soil made from Mersey grit and crushed stone, introduced rescued hedgehogs, seen a big uptick in bats and are working on specialist butterfly habitat.
“The council talked about rewilding and making it butterfly-friendly, but all that meant is they didn’t cut the grass,” says Caroline Williams from the group. “Without greater effort, a lot of it became just a sheer mess, with Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed [invasive plant species] coming in. There was definitely a feeling that if we don’t do it, nobody else will.”
High-profile support has emerged for an even more personal form of rewilding. Financier and environmentalist Ben Goldsmith recently urged anyone with savings to buy land for rewilding, describing it as “the most rewarding, joyful and most impactful thing you can possibly do”.
For those not willing to go solo and put their savings on the line, the UK has now got – at least in theory – structures in place to financially support rewilding at all manner of scales. Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) legislation means that when new developments cannot feasibly create adequate habitat onsite to compensate for what they have damaged or depleted, plus 10% more, biodiversity projects, including relatively small community-managed patches of the landscape, can offer an offsite investment solution.
Infrastructure is being added to BNG soon, which is likely to work especially well for projects such as the London Tree Ring, which aims to provide connective tree cover surrounding the capital, while also linking up smaller-scale community projects. Christoph Warrack, chief executive of the nature recovery consultancy Common, has been visiting potential sites.
“This is reforestation on the edge of lots of the biggest construction and infrastructure projects in the country. It’s a really easy fit, because you can essentially connect each part to an individual development project and create the Biodiversity Net Gain credits,” says Warrack.
“But we want those credits to happen anywhere. It’s important for quite complex mechanisms like that to be simplified and made available to communities, so that they’ve got a more powerful economic rationale for taking the plunge and acquiring their land.”
As well as these moves to boost biodiversity on a national scale, and a boom in crowdfunding for nature, there is also philanthropic funding out there willing to support local action. Knaresborough Forest Park received a loan on generous terms from the organisation We Have the Power, while Common is being backed by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to build new financial models for communities to move faster in snapping up land on the market.
British people’s love for wildlife, in a notably biodiversity-depleted country, is renowned. As such, rewilding was never going to remain purely the domain of large estates beyond the horizon. The fact that flagship projects have inspired efforts to bring the idea closer to home is a testament to their success, and it’s fair to say that was always at least partly the point.
While most people wanting to make a personal impact are likely to find the comfort and increased financial clout of groups – and the safety of working within existing systems – the most desirable option, for some, permits and certificates, rules and regulations will always be the antithesis of nature. Officialdom will probably win the day, but the rebels could have some influence on how fast things are done.
“Biodiversity is a whole huge multiplicity of dimensions, and then you add people, and the relationships between people and biodiversity. Welcome to planet Earth; this is life and all its glorious complexity,” says Warrack.
“At the heart of that are some simple principles about place and people that have been clearly mapped out. What all these projects and ideas have in common is nature and nature recovery. And that is in everybody’s interest.”
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/12/abandoned-lynx-roaming-wild-boar-beaver-bombing-has-rewilding-got-out-o
#rewilding #réensauvagement #castors #lynx #sauvage #faune_sauvage #privatisation #biodiversité #nature