Environment | The Guardian

In today's newsletter: In his first King's Speech, the new monarch will announce his government's annual priorities - including a slate of climate-unfriendly policies Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning to all our readers, but especially King Charles, who we wish lots of luck with his debut speech as monarch for the state opening of the UK parliament today (he delivered the Queen's Speech last year, but only as a stand-in).His first King's Speech, in which Charles will set out the government's legislative priorities for the new parliamentary session, features plenty of policies (here's a summary) designed to create dividing lines between the Conservatives and Labour ahead of the next general election.Israel-Hamas war | The Israeli military says it has completely encircled Gaza City, in effect cutting Gaza in two, as Israeli ground troops appeared poised to enter the dense urban sprawl from the south. Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would consider tactical little pauses" in fighting to allow the entry of aid or the exit of hostages but would not countenance a general ceasefire. Read Jason Burke's report on the conditions for civilians in UN-run shelters and hospitals in Gaza.Covid | The Conservative peer Michelle Mone has acknowledged for the first time that she was involved with a company that was awarded government PPE contracts worth 200m during the Covid pandemic. Mone and her husband Douglas Barrowman have previously strongly denied any connection to PPE Medpro.US news | Donald Trump took the stand in a Manhattan federal courthouse on Monday and angrily claimed the financial statements at the heart of his $250m civil fraud lawsuit were worthless" and the trial was a witch-hunt". The judge threatened to have Trump removed from court and warned him that the trial is not a political rally".Health | Almost 300,000 women in the UK at higher risk of developing breast cancer are being given access to a drug that can halve their risk in a major step forward" in the fight against the disease. The drug, anastrozole, displays remarkable" potential to reduce the number of people who go on to develop the disease, the head of the NHS said.NFTs | The company behind the Bored Ape crypto art craze is looking into reports that people have been suffering from eye burn, extreme pain and impaired vision after attending one of its events, which was lit by UV lights. More than a dozen people who attended last weekend's ApeFest festival in Hong Kong complained of eye pain and vision problems. Continue reading...

UK's coal-hungry blast furnaces likely to be replaced, making economic case for mine dead in the water' says local MPNews of the likely closure of the UK's steel blast furnaces has prompted calls for the government to reconsider approval for a controversial Cumbrian coalmine that had been planned to supply the industry.On Monday, British Steel announced that it plans to replace its two blast furnaces at Scunthorpe, while Tata Steel is considering closing its two at Port Talbot, in a dramatic reshaping of the UK steel industry. Both companies will instead rely on much cleaner electric arc furnaces, which use 87 times less coal. Continue reading...

NGOs report allegations of abuse and harassment at Kasigau Corridor conservation project in southern Kenya over 12 yearsMale staff at a leading Kenyan carbon-offsetting project used by Netflix, Shell and other large companies have been accused of extensive sexual abuse and harassment over more than a decade, following an investigation by two NGOs.The Kasigau Corridor conservation project in southern Kenya, operated by the California-based firm Wildlife Works, generates carbon credits by protecting dryland forests at risk of being destroyed in key elephant, lion and wildlife habitats west of Mombasa. The scheme was the first ever forest protection scheme approved by Verra, the world's leading certifier of carbon offsets, and has also been accredited for its biodiversity and community benefits, probably generating millions of dollars in revenue in carbon-credit sales. Continue reading...

Consumer groups issue formal notice to European Commission over greenwashing' claims that bottles are 100% recyclable' or 100% recycled'Big drinks companies are misleading customers with claims that their plastic water bottles are fully recycled or recyclable, according to consumer groups who have issued a formal complaint to the European Commission.The Bureau Europeen des Unions de Consommateurs (BEUC) said claims that water bottles from brands owned by Coca-Cola, Danone and Nestle are 100% recyclable" or 100% recycled" are misleading because recycling rates are far lower in practice and bottles contain items that cannot be made from recycled material. The consumer rights group, which represents national groups across Europe, also said green imagery on bottles gave the false idea" of environmental neutrality. Continue reading...

Interbreeding may have boosted wildcat immunity to domestic cat diseases, but now threatens their survival as a distinct speciesHumans weren't the only creatures to fall under the sway of free love in the 1960s. After 2,000 years of keeping one another at paw's length, wildcats and their domestic cousins began to interbreed about 60 years ago, a new study suggests.Doing so may have helped to protect their offspring against diseases harboured by domestic cats, but this interbreeding is now threatening the survival of wildcats as a distinct species. Continue reading...

Exclusive: study finds militaries have generated about 430m metric tonnes of CO emissions since 2015 Paris accordsThe US and UK militaries owe" at least $111bn in reparations to communities most harmed by their planet-heating pollution, a first-of-its-kind study calculates.The research employs a social cost of carbon" framework - a way to estimate the cost, in dollars, of the climate damage done by each additional tonne of carbon in the atmosphere. Continue reading...

Tanya Plibersek tells state she may reconsider approvals because of catastrophic' impact on Maugean skate

Nineteenth-century technology is finally being phased out in New York City, but its past is deeply entwined with American historyUntil recently, my girlfriend and I lived in a steam-heated apartment in Manhattan. A creaky former tenement building, it had no radiators, just scalding-hot cast iron pipes that punched through the units like fire poles. The pipes terminated a few inches from our ceiling with valves that hissed and sputtered, leaking rusty orange water. And they weren't just heaters, but alarms, clanking like pots and pans every morning around 6.45am when the boiler flipped on in the basement.This 19th-century technology certainly heated our apartment - but far too well. So every wintertime we would have to throw the windows wide open just to cool down. (My girlfriend enjoyed the contrasting sensations, like ice cream on warm pie. It always felt like a big waste of energy, but it was pleasant in its own old-school New York way," she says.) Continue reading...

Berry Creek's struggle to recover is a harbinger of what's to come in the era of climate crisisAn eight-mile wall of flames. Nearly 200,000 acres burned in 24 hours. Sixteen deaths.In any other modern decade, the events that unfolded in and around Berry Creek, California, in 2020 would have stood apart for their sheer devastation. Continue reading...

The Queensland Conservation Council says new entity will take proactive actions' to ensure state's environmental laws are enforced

Campaigners accuse government of failing to stick to promises made at Cop26 climate summit in 2021

UK Museum Cop held at Tate Modern says the sector has a responsibility to speak out about climate and biodiversity crisis'National and regional museums across the UK have agreed to take collective action on the climate crisis, including managing collections more sustainably and using their position to engage audiences with the issues.Representatives of museums, organisations in the sector and funders took part in the first UK Museum Cop at Tate Modern in London last week. Among those attending were museums and organisations from Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Brighton, Leeds, Derby, Liverpool, York, Sheffield and London, as well as national bodies from England, Wales and Scotland. Continue reading...

Wrap report says 12% reduction in carbon impact negated by 13% rise in textiles produced and soldA fashion industry push to reduce the environmental impact of the clothing it sells is being undermined by an ongoing addiction to buying new clothes, with the average Briton buying 28 items every year.Asos and Primark are among the big names signed up to Wrap's voluntary environmental pact, Textiles 2030. Continue reading...

Thames Water has provided bottled water to people in Guildford, Godalming and surrounding areasThousands of people have been left without water after Storm Ciaran caused problems at a treatment works in Surrey, Thames Water has said.A major incident was declared as at least 13,500 homes in Guildford, Godalming and the surrounding areas were left without water or with low pressure by 2.50pm on Sunday, while a further 6,500 were expected to lose supply later in the day. Continue reading...

Governments draw up blueprint for fund to be administered at first by World Bank after tense Abu Dhabi talksCountries have agreed key measures to supply funds to the world's most vulnerable people to repair the damage from climate breakdown.Governments from richer and poorer countries drew up the blueprint for a new loss and damage" fund after a tense two-day meeting under UN guidance in Abu Dhabi that ended late on Saturday night. Continue reading...

Final testing being done in project to give North Yorkshire site new life as source of geothermal energyA former fracking site in the North Yorkshire village of Kirby Misperton, once a lightning rod for environmental protests, may soon be a new frontier in Britain's clean energy revolution. For the first time in the UK, an abandoned gas well could begin a second life as a source of geothermal energy.It is a far cry from its beginnings as a highly contested site where frackers hoped to tap fresh reservoirs of gas trapped in layers of shale beneath the earth's surface. In 2016, Third Energy was granted permission to carry out fracking at an existing well but its plans were ultimately thwarted by a government moratorium on using the technology in the UK. Continue reading...

Federal treasurer says Australia's energy transition is essential to meeting Paris agreement climate targets

Officials remind residents of rules and say non-native Argentine black and white tegus can pose threat to wildlife and peopleAn oblivious Georgia homeowner was unaware a huge 3ft tegu lizard had taken up residence under her porch until eagle-eyed children in the neighborhood spotted it and told her, state wildlife officials said.The reptile was a non-native Argentine black and white tegu, the largest of its species that can grow up to 5ft and pose a threat to wildlife and people, the officials reported. Continue reading...

Private jet travel is booming - and community members living near airports say they are bearing the bruntIt was just before noon on New Year's Day when PJ Breslin reached her limit. As she angrily typed out a letter to the editor of the local newspaper, the roar of yet another jet aircraft drowned out her thoughts and rattled the windows of her home office.It's insane to even contemplate that many private jets flying into one small location!" wrote Breslin, who has lived in the western Colorado town of Rifle for more than 25 years. Jets owned by the wealthy, entitled, third-home owners and fake environmentalist celebrities, who have zero idea of their impact on the valley and the planet, much less their neighbors. Nor do they care." Continue reading...

Most liners rely on marine gas oil when docked, despite claims they reduce emissions by plugging into low-carbon electricityCruise ships visiting Britain are frequently failing to plug into zero emission" onshore power and instead running their engines and polluting the local environment with fumes.The industry is under scrutiny over air pollution and contribution to greenhouse gases, with some European cities banning vessels from central ports. Cruise operators say ships can reduce emissions by switching off engines and plugging into low-carbon electricity when moored. But an investigation by openDemocracy has found that cruise ships regularly fail to use onshore power at Southampton, Britain's largest cruise port. Continue reading...

Agency had strong limits on TCE use until the Trump administration reversed them; now the agency wants to ban itThe Biden administration is proposing a ban on TCE, a highly toxic chemical commonly used in stain removers, adhesives and degreasers, and which had been found to be contaminating drinking water on a wide scale across the US.The move comes after years of mounting scientific evidence showing TCE is extremely toxic" at low levels of exposure, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wrote in a statement. Continue reading...

Charity to bring its gardens to urban areas to allow nature-deprived communities access to green spacesBringing glorious gardens and green space to nature-deprived people in cities is one of the National Trust's most important roles, its head has said.Maintaining some of the most famous country houses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has long been thought of as the trust's central purpose, but the charity is aiming to bring its gardens to urban areas to increase access to nature, with an urban garden planned for Chelsea flower show that will model a pocket park that can be copied and rolled out across towns and cities. Continue reading...

Once the choice of commoners and queens, the smoked herring dish all but vanished in the 1970s, but now it's backI don't mind the smell in the house, but my wife does," says George West. He claims not to mind the bones, either. It takes me back in time. Kippers are part of our British tradition." A fifth-generation fisher, West cooks his kippers on the barbecue at home in the small village of Gardenstown on the Aberdeenshire coast, serving them up with new potatoes and a little butter.The 65-year-old first went to sea at 16, and remembers eating freshly caught herring onboard his family's vessel, Courage. But in 1977, just three years into his fishing career, herring populations crashed and the industry shut down almost overnight. It was a worrying time," says West. Continue reading...

Delegates at Cop are negotiating with our health', says Maria Neira, the doctor in charge of environmental health at WHOPoliticians who delay climate action should be prepared to live with the human fallout of their choices, the World Health Organization's top environment expert has warned.Anytime you postpone, OK, are you ready to cope with that?" said Maria Neira, the doctor in charge of environmental health at the WHO. You have to live with that weight on your shoulders of the fact that you are at least not saving those lives - I don't want to say killing - but at least not protecting the lives of those people." Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed, you can read more on this story hereOne missing person in Tuscany has been found alive, Ansa reports.Spain's state meteorological agency has published data on yesterday's strong winds. Continue reading...

World leaders will reconvene in Abu Dhabi before UAE's Cop28 after talks broke down two weeks agoGovernments will meet this weekend for a last-ditch attempt to bridge deep divisions between rich and poor countries over how to get money to vulnerable people afflicted by climate disaster.Talks over funds for loss and damage", which refers to the rescue and rehabilitation of countries and communities experiencing the effects of extreme weather, started in March but broke down in rancour two weeks ago. Continue reading...

Cut shopping bills, landfill and carbon emissions by using up peelings and stems where possibleWith their spiky crowns of leaves, pineapples are about as close as you can get to a tropical paradise while doing the weekly shop - but now Sainsbury's has begun selling the fruit shorn of its exotic plumage, all in the name of cutting food waste.With the fruit's hardy leaves usually ending up in the bin or a food waste caddy, the move shines a spotlight on waste in the home. So could the leaves, stems and skins of the fruit and vegetables we routinely throw away be put to better use in the kitchen? Continue reading...

Concerns ahead of Cop28 climate summit that Rishi Sunak among leaders backsliding on green measuresThe UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, will be seeking assurances from the UK that there will be no reneging on climate promises, after Rishi Sunak's rowing back on green measures.The UN is concerned that countries may be backsliding on pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions sharply, to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Continue reading...

The best of this week's wildlife photographs, including thirsty leopards, a released vulture and a swan shopping in Bath Continue reading...

Margaret Bradshaw has spent decades studying Teesdale - and is fighting to preserve its unique mix of plantsMargaret Bradshaw crouches on all fours on Widdybank Fell in Teesdale, being drenched by sheets of horizontal rain. The 97-year-old botanist mumbles the names of arcane plants as she scours the damp ground.This part of the uplands is a seemingly empty landscape, heavily grazed by sheep, but it hides botanical treasures that have been here for more than 10,000 years. Some of the plants can't be found anywhere else in the UK and - until Bradshaw arrived on the scene - many were unaccounted for.Margaret Bradshaw on Widdybank Fell Continue reading...

Divers captured the spawning of soft corals on Moore Reef with researchers to analyse next generation

Drone images of cages shot by activist reveal open sores affecting up to 1m fish'. Fish producers are now culling them for animal feedImages of severely diseased, dead and dying salmon at an Icelandic fish farm, obtained by the Guardian, have been described by one veterinary expert as an animal welfare disaster" on a scale never previously seen.The drone footage, shot last week over an open-pen sea cage in the country's remote Westfjords region, shows salmon suffering from such a severe infestation of sea lice that huge numbers of the fish are having to be prematurely slaughtered. Continue reading...

American Ornithological Society to change names referencing people or deemed offensive for ones that better describe speciesA new rule from the American Ornithological Society (AOS) will cause reverberations around the birding world, and create new names for hundreds of species. The society says it has engaged in conversations with the community of birders, and will focus on first renaming the 70 to 80 species in the US and Canada that are named after people - or have names deemed offensive or exclusionary. Their efforts will start in 2024.This means Anna's hummingbird, named after an Italian duchess, and Lewis's woodpecker, named after explorer Meriwether Lewis, will change. The society drew particular attention to undoing birds whose names are tied to historical wrongs - as in the case of Townsend's warbler, named after John Kirk Townsend, who robbed Indigenous graves of skulls in the 1800s. This isn't the first effort in renaming; in 2020, the society changed the name of a bird that once referred to a Confederate army general, John P McCown, to the thick-billed longspur. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed, you an read more on this story hereHere is a map of the risks in France.Meteo-France, the French national meteorological service, is warning about very strong winds. Continue reading...

Customers will be able to trade their used books for a voucher to spend in store or online - but industry figures warn the scheme may be too good to be true'WH Smith has launched a buy-back service for used books, offering readers vouchers in exchange for their secondhand volumes.Through the BookCycle scheme, launched on Tuesday, readers register their books online, take them to a branch and receive an e-voucher to spend in store or online. The books will be passed on for another reader to enjoy or will be responsibly recycled", according to the WH Smith website. Continue reading...

UN meteorological body finds health experts have access to heat warning services in only half of affected countriesThe climate crisis threatens to roll back decades of progress towards better health and governments are ill-prepared to stop it, the World Meteorological Organization has said.Three-quarters of national weather agencies send climate data to their country's health officials but less than one in four health ministries use the information to protect people from risks such as extreme heat, the report found. Continue reading...

Experts at Royal Horticultural Society conference argue for change of focus as many saplings are dyingTree establishment should replace tree planting in government targets, experts have said.Billions of pounds of taxpayer money could be being wasted planting trees that end up dying because government tree targets are focused on planting rather than survival, they argued, amid concern that saplings were dying because they are often neglected. Continue reading...

International funding to shield people from heatwaves, floods and droughts only 5-10% of what is needed, report findsThe world is woefully" underprepared for the escalating impacts of the climate crisis that is already hitting billions of people across the globe, a stark UN report has warned.International funding to protect communities against heatwaves, floods and droughts is just 5-10% of what is needed today and actually fell in recent years, just as extreme weather hit even harder. Continue reading...

On one small Argentine farm, Alessandra Sanguinetti captured the lives of the animals - from birth to their sometimes grisly demise. Warning: graphic content Continue reading...

Researcher shares images of an ultra-rare platypus - possibly the first ever documented - observed in the Northern Tablelands

Guiding a young bird back into nature showed that, if we want to prevent the world's destruction, we must value lives that aren't humanWhat kind of bird is this?" The text from my wildlife rehabilitator friend had asked. I had to squint at the photo. Was this a dirty rag? No, a nestling. In very bad shape. A screech owl. Found dragged and dropped on someone's lawn. I figured she was about two weeks from being old enough to fly.A freshly rescued Alfie, recovering from falling from her nest Continue reading...

Volcanoes, northern lights and midnight sun are all on offer at this haven, which locals want to preserveLook at this wave," says Mathis Blache, pointing to the sea from the shore's black rocks as a swell rolls in. It's just perfect." Despite air and water temperatures in the single digits, the 27-year-old student and surfer points out two other surfers - and a couple of seals - delighting in the conditions at orlakshofn in south-west Iceland.This spot, where surfers can enjoy either the midnight sun or the northern lights depending on the time of year, has in recent years become the heart of Iceland's rapidly growing surfing community. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Drop in compliance visits in England described as incredibly detrimental to water resources'The Environment Agency has slashed its water-use inspections by almost a half over the past five years, it can be revealed.Environment Agency (EA) officers visited people and businesses with licences to abstract, or take, water from rivers and aquifers 4,539 times in 2018-19, but this dropped to 2,303 inspections in 2022-23, according to data obtained by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations. Continue reading...

Exclusive: rail use dwindles to minuscule levels amid over-reliance on heavy and polluting trucks, industry warns

The echinoderms more closely resemble disembodied heads than multi-limbed creatures, experts have discoveredStarfish may appear to have a plethora of limbs, but it turns out the creatures actually resemble something akin to a disembodied head.Experts say it has long been a conundrum how starfish, sea urchins and other animals with a fivefold body plan, known as echinoderms, evolved from an ancestor with twofold symmetry - a body plan common today in animals including insects, molluscs and vertebrates. Continue reading...

Households have continued to use state help that was first created more than a decade agoFor a brief period over several weekends this spring, the state of South Australia, which has a population of 1.8 million, did something no other place of a similar size can claim: generate enough energy from solar panels on the roofs of houses to meet virtually all its electricity needs.This is a new phenomenon, but it has been coming for a while - since solar photovoltaic cells started to be installed at a rapid pace across Australia in the early 2010s. Roughly one in three Australian households, more than 3.6m homes, now generate electricity domestically. In South Australia, the most advanced state for rooftop solar, the proportion is nearly 50%. Continue reading...

Exclusive: multistate tour, launching in Michigan on Sunday, aims to pressure Biden on climate action before 2024 electionOne year after the passage of the much-lauded Inflation Reduction Act, a coalition of organizers and representatives are relaunching the push for a Green New Deal with a national tour.The Inflation Reduction Act was the largest climate investment in US history," said John Paul Mejia, a national spokesperson for the youth-led climate justice organization the Sunrise Movement, one of the groups hosting the tour. But for the next 10 years, we should work to make [it] the smallest by winning stuff that's much larger." Continue reading...

Dr Gail Bradbrook found guilty of criminal damage to Department for Transport building in 2019

Failure to identify commercial risks could constitute a breach of duty of care and diligence, according to new legal opinion

Mid-air fights, jabbering gang-gangs and villainous magpies are some of the 68 finalists from more than 6,000 entries in this year's competition, with the winner to be announced in November. All proceeds go towards bird conservation across the country Continue reading...