Exposure to small particulate matter from fires contributes to thousands of annual deaths in US, according to study
Wildfires driven by the climate crisis contribute to as many as thousands of annual deaths and billions of dollars in economic costs from wildfire smoke in the United States, according to a new study.
The paper, published on Friday in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment, found that from 2006 to 2020, the climate crisis contributed to about 15,000 deaths from exposure to small particulate matter from wildfires and cost about $160bn. The annual range of deaths was 130 to 5,100, the study showed, with the highest in states such as Oregon and California.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/07/2025 - 14:10
05/07/2025 - 13:08
Loss of the vast Hornsea 4 offshore wind project is bad news but it reveals a big flaw in setting a deadline
Danish firm shelves huge UK windfarm project over rising costs
“Immensely challenging” and pushing the limits “of what is feasibly deliverable”. That was the state-owned National Energy System Operator’s description of its own proposals on how to decarbonise electricity generation in Great Britain by 2030. In short, it thought clean power by that date, a key Labour manifesto pledge, was “credible” and “achievable” as long as little went wrong along the way.
Neso’s £200bn plan, detailing a rapid rollout of offshore wind, onshore wind, solar farms plus a major upgrade of the electricity grid, was adopted virtually unchanged by the government at the end of last year.
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05/07/2025 - 11:51
First stage of initiative will introduce ‘keystone’ species to beaver enclosures in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire
Elk could return to the UK after 3,000 years under plans by the Wildlife Trusts to reintroduce the “keystone” species into Britain’s landscapes.
The Derbyshire Wildlife Trust wants to introduce elk into two existing beaver enclosures in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, with the hope of demonstrating that the large semiaquatic deer should be released to roam free in the wild.
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05/07/2025 - 11:11
Environment Agency recommends rationing water as UK sees driest start to spring in 69 years
Crops are already failing in England because of drought conditions this spring, farmers have said.
People should start to ration their water use, the Environment Agency said, as water companies prepare for a summer of drought. The government has also asked the water CEOs to do more to avert water shortages, and the EA said hosepipe bans are on the horizon if a significant amount of rain does not fall.
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05/07/2025 - 10:19
Reported closure of program for home appliances comes amid president’s hatred of water-conserving showers
US customers could face higher energy bills, experts have warned, amid reports that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to end the Energy Star program whose blue labels have certified energy efficiency on home appliances for more than 30 years.
“If you wanted to raise families’ energy bills, getting rid of the Energy Star label would be a pretty good way,” said Steven Nadel, executive director of the non-profit research organization the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).
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05/07/2025 - 10:00
Characterised by darkness and cold temperatures, the extreme environment of Antarctica’s deep sea is largely unexplored. Now, after a special marine science voyage, a team aboard Australia’s national icebreaker, RSV Nuyina, has collected some remarkable species from the waters around the Denman Glacier
Read more about RSV Nuyina’s crucial mission to Antarctica
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05/07/2025 - 10:00
Australian Ethical, which holds $56m worth of QBE shares, calls on insurer to overhaul its policies which allow it to underwrite oil and gas projects without restriction ahead of AGM
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An ethical super fund is pushing for QBE to overhaul its coverage policies amid criticism the insurer can underwrite fossil fuel projects without restriction while blaming the climate crisis for steep premium rises.
The critique comes ahead of QBE’s annual general meeting in Sydney on Friday, and against a backdrop of rapidly rising premiums that has priced some households out of insurance coverage altogether.
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05/07/2025 - 08:46
A Russian drone attack has inflicted tens of millions of pounds of damage to the site of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, according to experts. The photographer Julia Kochetova has gained access to the area
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05/07/2025 - 08:00
Political uncertainty under Trump has dampened the market, even as red states see a boom in renewable energy
Renewable energy in the US has surged to unprecedented levels, with the combined power generated by solar, wind and geothermal more than tripling over the past decade, according to a new report by a network of state environmental groups.
The growth has slashed harmful greenhouse gas emissions, made the nation’s energy system more resilient and prevented thousands of premature deaths from power plant pollution, according to the report by Environment America.
The amount of solar energy produced in 2024 – enough to power 28m homes – was nearly eight times higher than a decade earlier. Solar power production increased 27% from 2023 to 2024.
Wind produced even more energy – enough to power 42m homes in 2024. The amount of power from wind has more than doubled over the past decade.
Wind, solar and geothermal energy accounted for 19% of all retail sales of electricity last year, according to the federal data used to produce the report.
The amount of utility-scale battery storage in the US grew 63% from 2023 to 2024 – and a more than 80-fold increase over the past decade.
Nearly 3.3m electric vehicles were on US roads at the end of 2023 – a 25-fold increase from 2014. The number of electric vehicle charging ports, meanwhile, grew to more than 218,000 at the end of 2024 – six times more than there were in 2015 and a 24% increase from just the year before.
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05/07/2025 - 08:00
Jaguars, giant armadillos and ocelots among species threatened by shrinking habitat in one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world
In the Gran Chaco forest, vast green expanses – home to jaguars, giant armadillos and howler monkeys – have turned to fields of dust. The forest once brimmed with life, says Bashe Nuhem, a member of the Indigenous Qom community, but then came a road, and soon after that logging companies. “It was an invasion. Loggers came without any consultation and families moved away. Those that stayed were left with only a cemetery of trees,” she says.
The Gran Chaco is South America’s second-largest forest after the Amazon; its 100m hectares (247m acres) stretch across Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and Bolivia. It is also one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world – host to more than 3,400 species of plants, 500 birds, 150 mammals, 120 reptiles and 100 amphibians.
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