© Kristian Thacker for The New York Times
Officials say one person still unaccounted for as forecast heavy rain and thunderstorms threaten further flooding
A second death was confirmed by National Park Service officials on Monday after a flash flood sent a surge of water and debris through an area of the Grand Canyon over the weekend.
Dozens of visitors had to be evacuated by helicopter during the deluge, which consumed trails and infrastructure. Nearly 80 people were rescued and one person is still unaccounted for, as more heavy rain and thunderstorms in the forecasts threaten additional debris flows, flash floods or rock falls, the NPS said in a statement.
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© Photograph: J Thompson,handout/NATIONAL PARK SERVICE/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: J Thompson,handout/NATIONAL PARK SERVICE/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: J Thompson,handout/NATIONAL PARK SERVICE/AFP/Getty Images
Majority of missing Australians were near Gyirong Port minutes before impact. Rescuers say the area is now destroyed, covered in metres of silt and debris
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It has been almost a week since the catastrophic floods in Nepal and not even a vehicle can get into the area where the majority of missing Australians were last heard from.
Gyirong Port, the border area between Nepal and China, was the first to be hit. Images from Chinese rescue teams who have managed to get in by helicopter or hiking show the area has been completely flattened. The immigration building, the power lines, everything, just wiped away.
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© Photograph: Lhasa fire and rescue mobile detachment/Xinhua/AP
© Photograph: Lhasa fire and rescue mobile detachment/Xinhua/AP
© Photograph: Lhasa fire and rescue mobile detachment/Xinhua/AP
Scientists say system to treat contaminated wastewater offers a model for ensuring food security in a fast-warming climate
All it took to turn the murky, heavily polluted waters of South Africa’s Stiebeuel River into a resource clean enough for irrigating a community’s vegetable plots was a collection of stones, heat-treated wood and sand.
Without chemicals and using renewable energy, researchers from the University of Cape Town are cleaning 36,000 litres of water, polluted by sewage, chemicals, and traces of drugs and medication, every day to make it usable for growing food in a fast-expanding informal settlement along the course of the river.
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© Photograph: Courtesy of Water Hub
© Photograph: Courtesy of Water Hub
© Photograph: Courtesy of Water Hub
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions considers a change that might help the environment
This week’s question: Would equal pay create a better society?
If all the vehicles on the planet had their tyres pumped up with CO2, would this lock up enough carbon to lower the amount in the air significantly? Would there be other issues, such as the carbon cost of trapping it all into the tyres? Chris Coldwell, Lancaster
Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.
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© Photograph: Westend61/Getty Images
© Photograph: Westend61/Getty Images
© Photograph: Westend61/Getty Images
Officials say one person still unaccounted for as forecast heavy rain and thunderstorms threaten further flooding
A second death was confirmed by National Park Service officials on Monday after a flash flood sent a surge of water and debris through an area of the Grand Canyon over the weekend.
Dozens of visitors had to be evacuated by helicopter during the deluge, which consumed trails and infrastructure. Nearly 80 people were rescued and one person is still unaccounted for, as more heavy rain and thunderstorms in the forecasts threaten additional debris flows, flash floods or rock falls, the NPS said in a statement.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: J Thompson,handout/NATIONAL PARK SERVICE/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: J Thompson,handout/NATIONAL PARK SERVICE/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: J Thompson,handout/NATIONAL PARK SERVICE/AFP/Getty Images
Andy Burnham urged to seek consensus over response to extreme heat and forthcoming ‘super El Niño’
Andy Burnham should call a cross-party meeting to discuss the UK’s response to worsening extreme weather, including the forthcoming ‘super El Niño’, the Liberal Democrats have said.
The prime minister chaired a Cobra emergency meeting on the drought earlier this month but there has been little from the government on the wider threats posed by five successive heatwaves since May and expected global issues with food shortages and inflation.
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© Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
© Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
© Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
With millions of club shirts going to waste every season, a radical recycling rethink is needed
When Joanna Czutkowna buried a Manchester United jersey, a cotton T-shirt and a wool-cotton jumper in her Lancashire farm and dug it up a year later, the video went viral. The T-shirt had disappeared, apart from the seams (sewn with polyester thread), the jumper was 80% gone, but the United shirt remained – grubby but indestructible. (Insert joke here)
The big reveal was not a surprise, certainly not to Czutkowna, who has worked in textiles and sustainability for 20 years, but it was a reminder: a football jersey is not just for Christmas, or even the next hundred Christmases.
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© Photograph: Joe Toth/BPI/REX/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Joe Toth/BPI/REX/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Joe Toth/BPI/REX/Shutterstock
Kameron Glasgow of Florida honors wife Kenya and daughter Kennedi at local vigil after last week’s tragedy
A Florida man whose wife and toddler daughter were killed by a lightning strike while he was near them recently has implored people to “hold … tight” to their loved ones.
Kameron Glasgow made that arresting remark to local media at a weekend gathering honoring the memories of his wife, Kenya, and two-year-old daughter Kennedi after they died on 23 August from an exceedingly rare cause.
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© Photograph: Dawna Moore/Alamy
© Photograph: Dawna Moore/Alamy
© Photograph: Dawna Moore/Alamy
© Jason Gulley for The New York Times
Organisers say people must revive spiritual relationship with food amid double threat of climate crisis and conflict
Mending the broken food system under the threat of climate-driven weather extremes will require more than economic fixes and intensive agriculture, according to the organisers of a pioneering summit this week, who say the world must revive its spiritual relationship with food.
Delegates from more than 60 countries and the UN will gather for the next five days in Paro in the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan for the world’s first “conscious food summit”, which will bring together governments and farmers, mindfulness experts and yoga therapists.
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© Photograph: robertharding/Alamy
© Photograph: robertharding/Alamy
© Photograph: robertharding/Alamy
Organisers say people must revive spiritual relationship with food amid double threat of climate crisis and conflict
Mending the broken food system under the threat of climate-driven weather extremes will require more than economic fixes and intensive agriculture, according to the organisers of a pioneering summit this week, who say the world must revive its spiritual relationship with food.
Delegates from more than 60 countries and the UN will gather for the next five days in Paro in the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan for the world’s first “conscious food summit”, which will bring together governments and farmers, mindfulness experts and yoga therapists.
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© Photograph: robertharding/Alamy
© Photograph: robertharding/Alamy
© Photograph: robertharding/Alamy
More than 200mm of rain forecast in parts of South Korea, while parts of southern Europe to be 10C above average
South Korea’s prime minister, Han Seong-sook, met officials to prepare for heavy rain expected this week, with rainfall totals across central and northern parts of the country forecast to exceed 200mm in some areas.
South Korea was battered by heavy rainfall earlier this month and some areas were particularly hard hit. Over the weekend further thunderstorms pushed into the region and these are expected to cause disruption through Monday. This heavy rain is caused by a series of severe thunderstorms that developed over the Yellow Sea, on the western side of South Korea, and will slowly push eastwards on Monday before easing on Tuesday. These storms have been strengthened by the very warm Yellow Sea, which now has a surface temperature of 29C, 4C above the climatological average.
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© Photograph: YONHAP/EPA
© Photograph: YONHAP/EPA
© Photograph: YONHAP/EPA
Secretive state begins repairs on ageing facilities after being revealed as worst country for leaks of potent greenhouse gas
Turkmenistan has started plugging the mega-leaks of methane that spew from its ageing oil and gas facilities, the latest UN data shows, in a move hailed as a breakthrough.
Methane, also called natural or fossil gas, is a potent greenhouse gas. It traps 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide and causes 25% of global heating today. Stopping leaks can be quick and cheap and, because methane breaks down in the atmosphere far quicker than CO2, this has a rapid impact, with some experts calling it the climate “emergency brake”.
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© Photograph: David Goldman/AP
© Photograph: David Goldman/AP
© Photograph: David Goldman/AP
Secretive state begins repairs on ageing facilities after being revealed as worst country for leaks of potent greenhouse gas
Turkmenistan has started plugging the mega-leaks of methane that spew from its ageing oil and gas facilities, the latest UN data shows, in a move hailed as a breakthrough.
Methane, also called natural or fossil gas, is a potent greenhouse gas. It traps 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide and causes 25% of global heating today. Stopping leaks can be quick and cheap and, because methane breaks down in the atmosphere far quicker than CO2, this has a rapid impact, with some experts calling it the climate “emergency brake”.
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© Photograph: David Goldman/AP
© Photograph: David Goldman/AP
© Photograph: David Goldman/AP
Richer countries might have more resources to deal with catastrophe, but this problem grips the entire planet, however much leaders may want to deny it
Climate breakdown is happening on one Earth, but two different worlds. In one, its impacts increasingly encroach on everyday life; longer periods of discomfort and shorter periods of sharp pain. Endless, hotter summers, and within them sudden wildfires, evacuations, homes burned to cinders in a matter of hours. In another, catastrophe. This summer has been a snapshot of that split-screen. The hottest day on record in parts of Europe, and a wave of water, mud and ice in Nepal that so far has claimed more than 750 lives. Thousands of people are still missing.
The difference is also one of resources. The climate crisis has an economic cost, but some places can absorb it better than others. Responses to this summer of wildfires in Europe included a rapid scrambling by the French government to provide everything from tax breaks for businesses affected by the fires to relocation costs and aid to rebuild homes. The UK government had deployed almost £100m before the summer to strengthen wildfire resilience.
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© Photograph: Prabin Ranabhat/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Prabin Ranabhat/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Prabin Ranabhat/AFP/Getty Images
Dozens evacuated after flash-flood event near Bright Angel Canyon and Phantom Ranch, officials say
One person died and about 15 people were missing or unaccounted for after a major flash flood swept through the Grand Canyon national park in Arizona on Saturday afternoon, according to the National Park Service.
The flash-flood event occurred in the area of Bright Angel Canyon and the Phantom Ranch, where park staff and the Arizona department of public safety had evacuated more than 60 people as of Sunday morning.
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© Photograph: Parth Desai/AP
© Photograph: Parth Desai/AP
© Photograph: Parth Desai/AP
Dozens evacuated after flash-flood event near Bright Angel Canyon and Phantom Ranch, officials say
One person died and about 15 people were missing or unaccounted for after a major flash flood swept through the Grand Canyon national park in Arizona on Saturday afternoon, according to the National Park Service.
The flash-flood event occurred in the area of Bright Angel Canyon and the Phantom Ranch, where park staff and the Arizona department of public safety had evacuated more than 60 people as of Sunday morning.
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© Photograph: Parth Desai/AP
© Photograph: Parth Desai/AP
© Photograph: Parth Desai/AP
Successful legal challenge raises questions about hundreds of floodplain harvesting licences issued by former Coalition government
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The New South Wales water regulator has cast doubt over its ability to prosecute potential water theft due to uncertainty about the validity of licences governing billions of litres of water entitlements in the state’s north.
It follows a successful legal challenge brought by a group of irrigators in the state’s north-west which found 11 floodplain harvesting licences issued by the former Coalition government were invalid.
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© Photograph: Photography by Mangiwau/Getty Images
© Photograph: Photography by Mangiwau/Getty Images
© Photograph: Photography by Mangiwau/Getty Images
© Illustration: Nicola Jennings/The Guardian
© Illustration: Nicola Jennings/The Guardian
© Illustration: Nicola Jennings/The Guardian
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