Kathleen Sgamma to oversee Bureau of Land Management, agency that manages quarter-billion acres of public land
Donald Trump has nominated a longtime oil and gas industry representative to oversee an agency that manages a quarter-billion acres of public land concentrated in western states.
Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Colorado-based oil industry trade group Western Energy Alliance, was named Bureau of Land Management director, a position with wide influence over lands used for energy production, grazing, recreation and other purposes. An MIT graduate, Sgamma has been a leading voice for the fossil fuel industry, calling for fewer drilling restrictions on public lands that produce about 10% of US oil and gas.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
02/12/2025 - 15:46
02/12/2025 - 15:15
Global warming is producing a rapid loss of plant species -- according to estimates, roughly 600 plant species have died out since 1750 -- twice the number of animal species lost. But which species are hit hardest? And how does altered biodiversity actually affect interactions between plants? Experts have tackled these questions and, in two recent studies, presented the answers they found buried in the past: using fragments of plant genetic material (DNA) deposited in lake sediments, they were able to gain new insights into how the composition of flora changed 15,000 to 11,000 years ago during the warming at the end of the last ice age, which is considered to be the last major mass extinction event before today. This comparison can offer an inkling of what might await us in the future.
02/12/2025 - 11:53
Program is meant to help the endangered northern spotted owl – and it’s only C$5! – but rat lovers are not amused
Revenge, they say, is a dish best served cold. And for an endangered owl breeding program in Canada, it’s also a dish best served dead.
For the price of a coffee, spurned and disgruntled lovers can revel in the satisfaction of having a dead rat named after an ex, before it is fed to a northern spotted owl.
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02/12/2025 - 09:05
Critically endangered bird detected after analysis of tens of thousands of hours of song meter recordings
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Critically endangered plains-wanderers have been found living in Melbourne’s west for the first time in more than 30 years.
Notoriously elusive and difficult to spot, the rare birds were detected on two pockets of remnant grassland by Zoos Victoria, with the help of AI.
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02/12/2025 - 08:00
‘Crackdown on climate’ predicted as oversight enacted over agency staffers’ email and meetings with foreign nationals
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) has placed onerous new restrictions on its scientists that people within the agency say could hamper the quality and availability of the world’s weather forecasts, among other key services.
The new requirements have created a sense of unease within the agency, according to current and former high-level Noaascientists and officials the Guardian spoke with, and alarmed partners at European agencies.
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02/12/2025 - 07:39
Residents had unsuccessfully challenged Enfield council in court over club’s plan to build pitches on rewilded area rich in bats and newts
A women’s football academy will be built over public green space and a rewilded former golf course after Enfield council approved controversial plans by Tottenham Hotspur football club.
The council, which handed Spurs a 25-year lease for 53 hectares (130 acres) of Whitewebbs Park in north London, has backed plans for all-weather pitches, floodlights and a “turf academy” on green belt parkland rich in bats, newts and mature trees. In exchange Spurs will pay the council £2m.
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02/12/2025 - 07:38
Greenpeace protest draws attention to worsening typhoons and demands accountability from major polluters
For two days and two nights, Ronalyn Carbonel and her four children clung to the roof of their home as a huge storm raged around them. With the wind battering her village of Rizal, about 10 miles east of Manila in the Philippines, and water swirling through the rooms below them, they had no choice but to wait, hoping that someone would come to rescue them and hundreds of their neighbours.
“We did not have shelter, we did not have food … we just had to wait for the government for two days,” Carbonel said. “It is not easy, no electricity, no light, we just wait for the sun to rise. The children were scared, we had never experienced anything like this.”
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02/12/2025 - 07:00
Surge in solar, wind and battery capacity comes as president pledges to halt federal support for clean power
The US had record-breaking growth in renewable-energy capacity last year, new research shows, but the future of the sector is uncertain amid threats from Donald Trump’s administration.
The country brought online 48.2 gigawatts of capacity from utility-scale solar, wind and battery storage in 2024, according to a report from the research organization Cleanview; the report is based on an analysis of federal data. That surge in capacity – enough to power some 3.6m homes – was 47% larger than the increase the US saw in the previous year.
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02/12/2025 - 04:20
Introduction of 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports could push up canned food and drink prices
Coca-Cola has said it may have to increase its use of plastic in the US if Donald Trump’s tariffs raise the cost of aluminium cans.
The drinks company’s warning follows Trump’s introduction of 25% tariffs on foreign steel and aluminium entering the US, which could push up the prices of canned food and drink.
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02/12/2025 - 03:41
Regulator Ofwat’s enforcement case into whether company breached obligations follows Guardian investigation
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Thames Water is being investigated by the water regulator for England and Wales, Ofwat, after the struggling company delayed environmental improvement schemes.
The investigation was launched after the Guardian revealed that the UK’s largest water company intentionally diverted millions of pounds pledged for environmental clean-ups towards other costs, including bonuses and dividends.
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