Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Efforts to contain wildfire that has consumed an area of four times the size of Paris impeded by windy conditions Europe wildfires live – latest updates Authorities are battling to contain a huge wildfire near Bordeaux in south-west France that has consumed an area of land four times the size of Paris. Efforts to extinguish the blaze in the Gironde region, where nearly 220,000 people have been evacuated, were hampered by windy conditions on Saturday night. Continue reading...

Allowing use of two neonicotinoids to combat crop-ruining disease will kill bees and reduce harvests, union says Beekeepers and environmentalists in France have reacted furiously after parliament approved a bill reauthorising two banned pesticides scientists say can poison bees. “There are no words to describe the frustration,” said Carolyn Bouguet, a beekeeper in Essonne, greater Paris. “Bee populations have already been badly compromised by climate change, new parasites and loss of habitat. And now this.” Continue reading...

Exclusive: Blunder at Rosebank, UK’s biggest undeveloped oilfield, comes as government considers granting licence Production at Britain’s biggest undeveloped oil and gasfield could be delayed for months after equipment from a rig was accidentally dropped in the North Sea, the Guardian can reveal. Andy Burnham’s new government is under pressure from the fossil fuel industry to allow oil to be retrieved from the Rosebank site despite opposition from climate campaigners and some Labour MPs. Continue reading...

Meanwhile, in the UK, a blaze in the Cairngorms national park has been described as ‘very serious’ by Scotland’s first minister Tell us: have you been affected by wildfires in Europe? The French prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has requested the armed forces to deploy an Airbus A400M military transport aircraft earlier than originally planned to help tackle the major wildfires in Gironde, according to Le Monde. The French newspaper reported the aircraft’s use was not originally expected until the end of the month due to the technical preparations and tests required beforehand. While the fires raging across forests in France are a dramatic reminder of three successive heatwaves in as many months, the state of the country’s rivers provides another, no less worrying insight into the impact of extreme heat supercharged by the climate crisis. The Loire, France’s longest river, is at a historical low, with the flow of some branches, including through the city of Orléans, reduced to a trickle between sandbanks. Two weeks ago, 16% of French rivers were reported to have dried up. A quarter of small streams were stagnant or had disappeared altogether, according to the national low water observatory. There has been little rain since. Continue reading...