Environment | The Guardian

Wild 5.5 metre swells hammer the eastern NSW coastline, causing damage to key walkways and closing beaches

A 19th-century zoologist found the little salt dweller', which could be a portal to the past - if only we could locate it againLast February, with colleagues Gert and Philipp and my daughter Francesca, I made the long journey to an unremarkable city called Rio Cuarto, east of the Argentinian Andes. We went in search of a worm of unusual distinction.Why a worm? As humans, we naturally love the animals that are most familiar. But from a zoologist's point of view, the vertebrates, from mammals and birds to frogs and fish, can be seen as variations on a single theme. We all have a head at one end (with skull, eyes and jaws); in the middle, a couple of pairs of limbs (a goldfish's fins, or your arms and legs); and, holding all this together, a backbone ending in a tail. Continue reading...

More than half of Britain's 59 native species are in long-term decline, UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme findsLast summer was the fifth worst in nearly half a century for butterflies in Britain, according to the biggest scientific survey of insect populations in the world.For the first time since scientific recording began in 1976, more than half of Britain's 59 native species are in long-term decline. Continue reading...

The minor party makes pledge as Labor faces calls to explain its nature policy and plans for a federal EPA

Government wants to spur economic growth and drive housebuilding but charities say nature should be priorityWildlife groups have expressed alarm after ministers promised a radically streamlined" approach to UK environmental regulation intended to drive economic growth and speed up new housing, as well as major projects such as airports.While officials said the plans should boost nature conservation overall, the removal of what one called bat by bat" decisions, a reference to the 100m bat shelter constructed for part of HS2, could water down individual protections. Continue reading...

Silver fire leading to fears about Methuselah, a nearly 5,000-year-old bristlecone pine in eastern part of stateFirefighters have managed to make strong progress" containing a fire burning through eastern California near the world's oldest trees, but the blaze remains an active threat, officials said.Since igniting on Sunday afternoon, the Silver fire has scorched nearly 1,600 acres (647 hectares) in the eastern Sierra Nevada and forced residents of about 800 homes to evacuate. Strong winds fanned the flames, which burned through dry grass and brush in Inyo county, threatening neighborhoods, endangered species and the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Continue reading...

Conservative party leader says she believes show is based on real story', a claim described as wholly untrue by writer and co-creator of seriesRichard Hughes, chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, is giving evidence to the Treasury committee. There is a live feed here.Hughes started by telling the committee that he wrote to the chancellor earlier this year to say that, when his five-year term ends later this year, he would like to have a second term in office.We are of course negotiating an economic deal which will, I hope ... mitigate the tariffs.The US is our closest ally. Our defence, our security, our intelligence are bound up in a way that no two other countries are.So it's obviously in our national interest to have a close working relationship with the US, which we've had for decades, and I want to ensure we have for decades to come.We are obviously working with the sectors most impacted at pace on that.Nobody wants to see a trade war but I have to act in the national interests. Continue reading...

Invertebrates may be the unsung heroes of the planet but they have received a lot of love and recognition from Guardian readers. A dazzling array of nominations have flown in for insects, arachnids, snails, crustaceans, corals and many more obscure creatures for our invertebrate of the year competition. Natural history reporter Patrick Barkham reviews this year's shortlist of 10

Inferno spread to nearby homes, trapping residents, while full extent of damage still being assessedA fireball erupted from a burst gas pipeline outside Malaysia's largest city, injuring 145 people as it burned for several hours before being extinguished.

Hundreds of projects supported by USAID have been thrown into doubt, as fears grow of an increase in crimes such as poaching and traffickingWhen the guns finally fell silent in 1992, little was left alive in Gorongosa national park. During the 15 years of Mozambique's civil war - in which more than a million people died - the country's wildlife also paid a terrible price. Poaching for meat and ivory was so intense that the small surviving elephant population rapidly evolved to lose their tusks. Leopards, wild dogs and spotted hyenas had all disappeared. Populations of zebra, buffalo and other herbivores had collapsed.In the following years, a huge effort to restore the park took shape. Led by the philanthropist Gregory Carr and Mozambique's government, it was the start of the park's journey to becoming one of Africa's most celebrated wildlife conservation success stories. Today, elephants, lions, hippos, antelope, painted wolves, hyenas and leopards all thrive in the park once again - thanks to work that for the past 20 years has been supported by a long-term partnership with USAID. Continue reading...

Land speculation to blame for lack of progress amid Labour drive to build 1.5m new homes, says Wildlife Trusts head

Industry leaders say there is little detail on how the opposition's policy will work and it is difficult to predict' what the final price would be

The flood-affected area in outback Queensland has grown to double the size of Victoria after experiencing its worst deluge in 50 years. Water broke the banks of a makeshift levee in Thargomindah in the state's south-west, forcing the evacuation of 100 residents. Stock losses are expected to be catastrophic and more rain is forecast for the coming week

Exclusive: Moetai Brotherson fears environmental risks of controversial practice and says independence from France must not be rushed'

Council leader says situation causing harm and distress' with 17,000 tonnes of rubbish uncollectedBirmingham city council has declared a major incident over an ongoing bin strike, saying the daily blocking of depots by picket lines means vehicles are unable to pick up 17,000 tonnes of uncollected rubbish across the city.The council said it was unable to carry out its contingency plan due to striking workers blocking lorries on the picket line, and that there was now a risk to public health. Continue reading...

You can forget the advice on disguises, secret codes and spreading propaganda by dropping leaflets in train carriages. But there is something for us all here about the need for actionThe SOE Syllabus was a series of lectures given to prospective secret agents in Britain during the second world war. These lessons in ungentlemanly warfare" were released from the top secret bit of the Public Record Office (now known as the National Archive) and published as a historical curio in 2001, when my esteemed colleague John Crace picked out the sillier bits in one of his Digested Read reviews. There was a whole lecture about how to craft a disguise, in which people with sticky-out ears were advised to use glue to pin them back.But now, 24 years later, I have picked up the book with a graver purpose - just on the off-chance that if we end up having to resist a fascist state, the past might have something to offer. They won't know everything, these ungentlemanly gentlemen, being as they didn't have the internet. But they can't have known nothing.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Head of Riverkeeper, which helped clean up Hudson River, talks about challenges during the second Trump termDonald Trump's push to repurpose the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) amid funding cuts and staffing losses poses a huge threat to water safety and environmental advances in one of the big environmental success stories in the US in recent decades: the clean-up of the Hudson River.Once a byword for environmental degradation, the Hudson River is now recovering, in part due to the work of Riverkeeper, a non-profit environmental organization that established a model of legal activism for water protection and inspired more than 300 programs globally. It is also where Robert F Kennedy Jr cut his teeth as an environmental lawyer, before becoming a senior member of Trump's rightwing cabinet. Continue reading...

Unsustainable logging is one of the global north's best-kept secrets. We're running out of time to stop itThe world is running out of time to halt deforestation and forest degradation. Yet instead of stepping up, the United States is dismantling forest protections and undermining global progress - highlighting the dangers of global forest policy that fails to hold the wealthiest, most powerful countries accountable.Unsustainable logging is one of the global north's best-kept secrets. Each year, millions of acres of old-growth and primary forests across North America, Europe and Australia are clearcut under the guise of sustainable forest management". International policy, by design, looks the other way, focusing attention instead on deforestation in the tropics. This double standard allows the world's wealthiest nations to evade accountability for industrial logging's catastrophic consequences.Jennifer Skene is director of global northern forests policy for the Natural Resources Defense Council Continue reading...

We asked 18 Republicans whose districts benefit most from Biden's IRA climate law if they back Trump's demandsBillions of dollars in clean energy spending and jobs have overwhelmingly flowed to parts of the US represented by Republican lawmakers. But these members of Congress are still largely reticent to break with Donald Trump's demands to kill off key incentives for renewables, even as their districts bask in the rewards.The president has called for the dismantling of the Inflation Reduction Act - a sweeping bill passed by Democrats that has helped turbocharge investments in wind, solar, nuclear, batteries and electric vehicle manufacturing in the US - calling it a giant scam". Trump froze funding allocated under the act and has vowed to claw back grants aimed at reducing planet-heating pollution. Continue reading...

First-quarter deliveries will be significantly down, say analysts, with the CEO and his links with Donald Trump the core toxic issue'

Meanwhile, Adelaide records driest period in decades and Perth swelters through temperatures above 35C

South Africa's Marion Island is a breeding ground for the birds, but their chicks are being eaten alive by rodents. Now, the world's largest operation to eradicate the invasive species is about to get under wayBy 2015, scientists knew from camera trap evidence that mice were attacking albatross chicks on Marion Island, but no one had ever witnessed it first-hand on the small volcanic outcrop off the coast of South Africa. So, when researchers Stefan and Janine Schoombie came across a badly wounded wandering albatross chick in a relatively accessible part of the island, they resolved to return at night. After hiking for 30 minutes in the dark, Stefan started quietly setting up his camera equipment behind a rock. We were expecting to have to stalk, but the mice were climbing all over us," he says.It didn't take long for the mice to start feeding on the albatross chick. The bird was a complete fluffball," says Janine. So, they just climbed up its back and started nibbling at its head. We could see their teeth going into its flesh." The bird, too young to walk let alone fly, could only shake its head in irritation. As scientists our job is to not intervene," says Stefan. But we really wanted to help that bird." Continue reading...

By grazing between trees and removing potential wildfire fuel, wild horses help protect Galicia's delicate ecosystems, but Europe's largest herd has declined to just 10,000 Continue reading...

Testing had previously revealed the mine was emitting more than 11 times the legal limit of dust containing heavy metals

Labour's measures to ban deep-peat burning aim to safeguard habitats, tackle carbon emissions, and protect wildlife, so why are hunters up in arms?Burning vegetation on deep peat will be banned under government plans to protect nature and reduce carbon emissions.Vegetation on peatland is often burned to create habitat for grouse, which like to feed on the fresh shoots of new plants that grow after the burn. This increases the number of birds available to be shot for sport. Continue reading...

If a tree-planting scheme in western England can match the first national forest, people as well as wildlife will benefitThe benefits for bats were presumably not at the top of the government's list of reasons for announcing the creation of the new western forest. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, regards rules that protect these nocturnal mammals as a nuisance. Nevertheless, the rare Bechstein's bat, as well as the pine marten and various fungi, are expected to be among species that benefit from the multiyear project, to which central government has so far committed 7.5m.Like England's only existing national forest, in the Midlands, this one will be broken up across a wide area, featuring grassland, farmland, towns and villages as well as densely planted, closed-canopy woodland. JohnEveritt, who heads the National Forest organisation (which is both a charity and a government arm's length body), describes this type of landscape as forest in the medieval sense with a mosaic of habitats".Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Riot of native wildflowers that enthralled visitors in the past several years have failed to sprout due to too little rainIt's one of the best known rites of spring in California: extraordinary displays known as superblooms" that coat the hillsides in an abundance of color. Some years the blooms are massive enough to draw tourists from around the world to revel in the fields, such as in 2023 when more than 100,000 people showed up on a weekend to gawk at the poppies in Lake Elsinore, a small city about an hour outside Los Angeles.But this year, not so much. Thanks to a brutally dry winter, the hills around the usual southern California superbloom hotspots have been conspicuously bare. Callista Turner, a state park ranger, could count the number of blooms on two hands as she surveyed the 8 miles of rolling hills at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve in the final week of March, which is typically when superbloom season peaks. We're still waiting to see what kind of season we have," she says. It's a very slow start." Continue reading...

Cyclone Alfred drives wild seas, a seagull eclipses the moon, and our Kylie performs on a trapeze: Guardian Australia looks at some of the month's best images

Man had been attempting to cross a causeway through rising flood waters that have now cut off a campsite, stranding more than 20 people

Local councillor says federal Labor should not be plonking giant batteries in public parks' though no other council has refused development applications in the state

In a city where surfing is a way of life, the wait to get back in the water has been agonizing. But new research offers a glimmer of hopeAlex Sinunu was used to surfing three or four times a week in Santa Monica Bay - after all, the beach was just a mile from his home and he could ride his bike there with his board. But ever since the megafires that swept through neighboring Pacific Palisades in early January, the ocean has been filled with ash, debris - and endless questions.The massive blaze consumed thousands of homes and other structures, many of them on the edge of the Pacific coastline. Subsequent rainstorms sent tons of debris washing into the ocean, turned the water brown and raised fears about the toxins that could be coming from all the charred remains of buildings and cars - including asbestos, lithium-ion batteries and plastics. Continue reading...

This immense worm moves slowly and gracefully underground and can grow to the length of an outstretched arm

Environmentalists call bid to skirt UN treaty reckless' amid fears that mining will cause irreversible loss of biodiversityA Canadian deep-sea mining firm has revealed it has been negotiating with the Trump administration to bypass a UN treaty and potentially gain authorisation from the US to mine in international waters.The revelation has stunned environmentalists, who condemned the move as reckless" and a slap in the face for multilateralism". Continue reading...

Body representing the gas industry says Peter Dutton's plan is a damaging market intervention that will drive away investment'

California Forever is back with a proposal that has some on board: using the land it owns to create a shipbuilding hubIn 2023, a group called California Forever, funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, introduced a splashy proposal to build a new city on tens of thousands acres of farmland it had acquired north-east of San Francisco.Residents and officials of Solano county, where the city would sit, were frustrated by what they saw as a lack of local input and concerned about wealthy outsiders with big plans to reshape their region. After months of extensive news coverage and efforts to woo over local leaders, California Forever changed track: withdrawing a ballot measure that would have fast-tracked the plans and instead seeking approval through standard county processes. Continue reading...

Greenpeace lost - not because it did something wrong but because it was denied a fair trialThe stunning $667m verdict against Greenpeace last week is a direct attack on the climate movement, Indigenous peoples and the first amendment.The North Dakota case is so deeply flawed - at its core, the trial was really about crushing dissent - that I believe there is a good chance it will be reversed on appeal and ultimately backfire against the Energy Transfer pipeline company. Continue reading...

Heavy rainfall expected to stretch from Queensland's Sunshine Coast to the Victorian border, with the potential for isolated falls of up to 100mm

The best of this week's wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

EPA sets up email address where regulated community' can request exemption to evade air pollution rulesDonald Trump's administration has offered fossil fuel companies an extraordinary opportunity to evade air pollution rules by simply emailing the US president to ask him to exempt them.Trump's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set up a new email address where what it calls the regulated community" can request a presidential exemption from their requirements under the Clean Air Act, which is used to regulate dangerous toxins emitted from polluting sources. Continue reading...

Ministers urged to do more after United Utilities discharged raw sewage into Unesco site for 6,327 hours last yearCelebrated by William Wordsworth, Windermere has long epitomised the natural timeless beauty of the Lake District, with millions of tourists drawn to the shores that inspired the poet. But today England's biggest lake is, some campaigners say, a shadow of its 19th century self: its waters blighted by algae and its wildlife threatened by pollution, in a symbol of all that is wrong with the privatised water industry.This month the environment secretary, Steve Reed, vowed to break with the recent past, standing on its shores and promising that Labour would clean up Windermere". The lake is showing the impact of sewage pollution from United Utilities treatment plants and increased pressure from climate change-induced temperature rises. Continue reading...

The Labor Environment Action Network says it won't sugar coat' its reaction after working so hard' on obtaining commitment for EPA

The flamboyant cuttlefish flashes patterns and psychedelic colours and waves its arms in a hypnotic display

Many importers halt shipments on chance White House makes good on threat of 200% markup on European goodsAs the threat of exorbitant US tariffs on European alcohol imports looms, a warehouse in the French port city of Le Havre awaits a delivery of more than 1,000 cases of wine from a dozen boutique wineries across the country.Under normal circumstances, Randall Bush, the founder of Loci Wine in Chicago, would have already arranged with his European partners to gather these wines in Le Havre, the last stop before they are loaded into containers and shipped across the Atlantic. But these wines won't be arriving stateside anytime soon. Continue reading...

As life starts to return to the capital's parks and woodlands, photographer Sarah Lee has been capturing daffodils and budding plants, walkers, buskers and joggers out in the sunshine. She says: Everything feels so dark right now, it's good to know the light is coming back' Continue reading...

Net zero is a target that countries should be striving for to stop the climate crisis. But beyond the buzzword, it is a complex scientific concept - and if we get it wrong, the planet will keep heating.Biodiversity and environment reporter Patrick Greenfield explains how a loophole in the 2015 Paris climate agreement allows countries to cheat their net zero targets through creative accounting, and how scientists want us to fix it Continue reading...

Final gathering in April will mark end of street protests although campaign to continue in courts and prisons'Supporters of the climate group Just Stop Oil have announced that, after three years of disruptive protests, they are ending their campaign of civil resistance.Hannah Hunt, whose speech on Valentine's Day 2022 marked the beginning of the campaign, made the announcement outside Downing Street in London on Thursday. Continue reading...

Duration of spills by water companies up on previous year, in data described by environment secretary as disgraceful'Raw sewage was discharged into rivers and coastal waters in England for almost 4m hours last year, with waterways that have the highest environmental protections subjected to days of pollution.Data released by the Environment Agency on Thursday revealed water companies discharged untreated effluent for 3.62m hours, a slight increase on last year. Continue reading...

Strict laws saved the country's wolves from extinction. Now conservationists believe their relaxation could embolden vigilantesHigh on a mountain pass near the town of Cocullo in central Italy lay six black sacks. Inside were nine wolves, including a pregnant female and seven youngsters - an entire pack. They had eaten slabs of poisoned veal left out a few days earlier, dying over the hours that followed, snarls of pain fixed on their faces.Three griffon vultures and two ravens were also killed, probably alongside more animals that went into hiding, dying out of sight. Poison creates a succession of death, spreading through entire food chains and contaminating land and water for years. Continue reading...

It doesn't pass the sniff test

Analysis published by non-profit group Oceana comes amid fears over human health risks posed by the spread of microplasticsBy 2030, Coca-Cola products will account for an estimated 602m kilograms of plastic waste entering the world's oceans and waterways each year, according to a stark new analysis published Wednesday by the non-profit Oceana.That is enough plastic to fill the stomachs of 18m whales. Continue reading...