“It is very likely that there will be a risk to life, with substantial disruption to travel, energy supplies and possibly widespread damage to property,” the U.K.’s weather service said.
Pedestrians cool off by soaking their feet in the Trafalgar Square fountain in London during a heat wave on Wednesday.Justin Tallis / AFP via Getty Images
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July 16, 2022, 8:30 AM PDT
ByMithil Aggarwal
A record-breaking heat wave could cause “danger to life” in theU.K., forecasters warned as scorching temperatures fueled wildfires and prompted weather warnings in several European countries.
On Saturday Britain’s government held a meeting of its emergency committee, known as Cobra, after the country’s national weather service issued its first-ever “red warning” for extreme heat for Monday and Tuesday.
This means “it very likely that there will be a risk to life…
After more than a year ofpainstaking negotiations, congressional Democrats on Thursday night found themselves no further on implementing theirambitious climate agendathan when President Joe Biden took office.
“Inflation is absolutely killing many, many people. They can’t buy gasoline. They have a hard time buying groceries,” Manchin told a West Virginia radio host on Friday. “Everything they buy and consume for their daily lives is a hardship to them. Can’t we wait to make sure we do nothing to add to that?”
It was deja vu for climate hawks who watched a similar climate bill fail during the Obama administration in 2010…
Reports of record-breaking heat are made more alarming by the possibility of a prime minister who wants to weaken climate goals
‘Record-breaking temperatures are still sometimes welcomed, rather than feared as a harbinger of more extreme dangers ahead.’Photograph: Martin Dalton/REX/Shutterstock
There is no point denying that in the UK many people enjoy themselves when the weather is unusually warm, even as many others feel uncomfortable and in some casesunsafe, due both to the heat itself and what it signals about global heating. Spells of hot weather make sun-lovers feel they have been transplanted to the Mediterranean – where many of us take our holidays. Even now,record-breaking temperaturesare still sometimes welcomed, rather than feared as a harbinger of more extreme dangers ahead.
That said, few will welcome the Met Office issuing its first ever “red warning”…
CASNOVIA, Mich — Hunters in Michigan have to apply for tags that gives them permission to hunt different animals. Certain tags are harder to get than others, and one West Michigan hunter says he hit the jackpot.
Korey Freeland has been hunting as long as he can remember.
Mntana Fish Wildlife and Parks (FWP) reports at least 273 wolves were killed by hunters and trappers in this past 2021/2022 season. 118 wolves were obliterated by reported trapping and snaring.
How many wolves actually were shot, trapped, snared, run over, poisoned, poached? Who knows? Who’s telling? How many wolves are left in Montana? No one knows and many of those now entrusted to manage wolves don’t care.
What is known is more wolves were destroyed again for no other reason than being alive. Packs were fractured, extinguished, and lone wolves, collared wolves, alphas…
PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon nonprofit is working to get more people of color involved in outdooractivities where they are typically underrepresented. It’s called “Hunters of Color” and the organization holds events and provides financial support for people of color to get into hunting.
Program manager and founder Jimmy Flatt said the organization has been around since 2019 and has since grown to over 600 people.
“In 2016, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did a study and found that 97 percent of all U.S. hunters identify as white,” Flatt said.
Flatt said he started the group after not seeing a lot of diversity in hunting. The nonprofit has…
Four energy companies — Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Hilcorp and Occidental Petroleum — are the top sources in the U.S. of both greenhouse gas emissions in general and methane emissions, according to a reportissued Thursday by environmental groups Ceres and the Clean Air Task Force.
Thereport, based on data submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from major oil and gas producers, found wide variation in emissions among companies, with the highest-emitting companies producing methane emissions nearly 24 times more intense than those with the lowest emissions.
Hilcorp led for total methane emissions in 2020, followed by Exxon, Occidental and ConocoPhillips, according to the research. The companies collectively reported more than 300,000 metric tons in methane emissions.
The report found equipment operation was also a major determinant…
An elephant is hoisted into a transport vehicle at the Liwonde National Park in southern Malawi on Sunday.
Thoko Chikondi/AP
LIWONDE NATIONAL PARK, Malawi — A tranquilized baby elephant is hoisted into the air and gently placed in a large truck that will take it to a new home.
One by one, 250 elephants are being moved from Malawi’s overcrowded Liwonde National Park to the much larger Kasungu park 380 kilometers (236 miles) away in the country’s north.
The elephants are tracked in the park and darts are fired to sedate them. While in slumber they are moved into the large trucks that take them to Kusungu park.
So far at least 40 elephants have been moved and the rest should go by the end of the month at a total cost of about $1.5 million to $2 million, according to officials. In addition, about 405 other wildlife, including buffalo, impala, sable, warthog and waterbuck will be moved to Kasungu.
The entire process is a cooperation between Malawi’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife, the International Fund for Animal Welfare and African Parks.
An elephant is hoisted into a transport vehicle at the Liwonde National Park on Sunday.
Thoko Chikondi/AP
“This will establish viable elephant populations, and ensure the prosperity of local communities living around the parks. It will also alleviate habitat pressure and reduce human-wildlife conflict,” African Parks representative in Malawi Sam Kamoto said.
African Parks is a non-profit organization that manages and rehabilitates national parks in partnership with governments and local communities. The group currently manages 20 national parks and protected areas in 11 African countries, including Malawi.
Since 2015 Liwonde National Park has been managed by African Parks which found that its more than 600 elephants are threatening the park’s vegetation and biodiversity.
Liwonde’s 548 square kilometers (211 square miles) of floodplains, lagoons and woodlands support more than 400 species of birds and many mammals. But its elephants, breeding at a rate of 10% per year, could soon overwhelm the park, said experts.
In contrast, Kasungu National Park is about four times larger at 2,100 square kilometers (810 square miles) but has much less wildlife. Kasungu once had about 1,200 elephants but years of poaching reduced the number to about 49 in 2015, said parks officials.
Since then Malawi’s national parks and international groups, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, have collaborated to improve protection for the elephants and Kasungu park’s elephant population has grown to about 120. The introduction of 250 elephants from Liwonde will promote population viability in Kasungu, he said.
“The translocation of the elephants and other wildlife is a significant achievement and proves the national parks’ approach to working with partners to secure its natural resources is a sound one,” said Patricio Ndadzela, a representative in Malawi of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
A 40-kilometer (25-mile) elephant-proof fence has been built along Kasungu park’s eastern boundary to prevent elephants from straying into farmland and will prevent conflict between communities and the elephants, said Ndadzela.
Restoring Kasungu’s elephant population will boost its appeal as a tourist destination and in turn improve the local economy, he said.
This isn’t the first time that a large number of elephants have been moved from one park to another in Malawi. In 2016, African Parks relocated 520 elephants to Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve.
FILE PHOTO – 2 men from Congo plead guilty to shipping ivory, rhino horns (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
SEATTLE (AP) — Two foreign nationals from the Democratic Republic of Congo have pleaded guilty in federal court in Seattle for acting as middle men in a smuggling ring that brought illegal ivory, rhinoceros horn and pangolin scales into the U.S.
Herdade Lokua, 24, and Jospin Mujangi, 32, of Kinshasa, Congo, pleaded guilty to two counts of an 11-count indictment alleging they worked with a middle man to facilitate shipments of poached items into Seattle, the Seattle Times reported.
Sentencing is set for Nov. 1. Both men face up to five years in prison, possible fines of up to $250,000 and deportation from the U.S., according to a plea agreement.
Officials say the men acknowledged that from November 2019 through June 2021, they shipped 49 pounds…
