Exclusive: funding requests, uncertain responsibilities and a failure to secure long-term contracts has critics asking if the fossil fuel-based venture is still a good deal

Pools and well-watered gardens at least as damaging as climate emergency or population growthThe swimming pools, well-watered gardens and clean cars of the rich are driving water crises in cities at least as much as the climate emergency or population growth, according to an analysis.The researchers said the vast difference in water use between rich and poor citizens had been largely overlooked in seeking solutions to water shortages, with the focus instead on attempts to increase supply and higher prices for water. They said the only way to protect water supplies was by redistributing water resources more equally. Continue reading...

Twin studies reveal that ‘acceleration’ of sea-level rise under way, leaving southern US cities in even greater perilCoastal cities in the southern US, including Miami, Houston and New Orleans, are in even greater peril from sea-level rise than scientists already feared, according to new analysis.What experts are calling a dramatic surge in ocean levels has taken place along the US south-eastern and Gulf of Mexico coastline since 2010, one study suggests, an increase of almost 5in (12.7cm). Continue reading...

They make up 75% of the animal kingdom, yet wildlife film-makers routinely overlook bugsWhile running a biodiversity workshop at a local primary school, Kate Howlett, a zoologist, encouraged children to turn over the bricks and logs at the edges of their playing field to see what was living underneath.That’s when one child asked her if she had come to their school early that morning to plant the woodlice for them to find. Even after insisting that the bugs were living there all along, the suspicious pupils were reluctant to believe her. Continue reading...

At least two dozen activists in Indigenous and rural areas murdered, disappeared and jailed in wave of attacksA wave of attacks against environmental defenders has left Indigenous and rural communities across Mexico and Central America reeling amid a lack of government protection and widespread impunity.At least two dozen defenders have been murdered, disappeared and jailed across the region so far this year, according to research by the Guardian. On Wednesday, the Indigenous rights and anti-mining activist Eustacio Alcalá Díaz was found dead in Michoacán, Mexico, three days after he was abducted by armed men while traveling with Catholic missionaries. Continue reading...

Advocates warn plants like the latest addition to the Texas complex generate hazardous pollutants and provide cover for oil giants to produce new plastic productsExxonMobil just launched one of the largest chemical recycling plants in North America – but environmental advocates say the technology is a dangerous distraction from the need to reduce plastic production.On the surface, the latest addition to ExxonMobil’s giant petrochemical refinery complex in Baytown, Texas, sounds like it could be a good thing: An “advanced recycling” facility capable of breaking down 36,000 metric tons of hard-to-recycle plastic each year. But plastic waste advocates warn that plants like it do little actual recycling, and instead generate hazardous pollutants while providing cover for oil giants to keep producing millions of tons of new plastic products each year. Continue reading...

The 900 residents of the Manitoba town have learned to share their streets on the edge of the Arctic with the huge animals and the eager tourists who come to see themWords and photographs by Zed NelsonPerched on the southern edge of the Arctic on the shores of Hudson Bay, residents of the Canadian town of Churchill share their streets with the world’s largest land carnivore. Their regular encounters with polar bears have earned Churchill the nickname “Polar bear capital of the world”.Sparring polar bears on the Hudson Bay shore near Churchill, Manitoba. The bears congregate here every year while waiting for the sea to freeze over so they can resume hunting seals. Photographs by Zed Nelson / Copyright © not to be reproduced without permission Continue reading...

Dozens of storage sites found across Australia but estimated amount of plastic reportedly falls from 12,350 tonnes to 11,000

Bathing waters in Rutland, Devon and Suffolk will be monitored for water quality regularlyWild swimming fans will be able to enjoy access to four new sites in the UK that are being designated as bathing waters ahead of summer, the government has announced.The sites in Rutland, Devon and Suffolk will receive bathing water status from next month, meaning they will soon benefit from regular water-quality monitoring. Continue reading...

Large numbers of cetaceans are dying from lethal collisions with vessels, even in protected areas. Now science may provide the means to protect themJanie Wray could tell there was something horribly wrong from the way her colleague gasped. They were on a research station off the coast of British Columbia and Wray’s colleague was watching live drone footage through a pair of goggles. “She just went, oh my God,” says Wray.She had spotted a humpback whale on its migration south, swimming without the use of its tail. Wray and her colleagues at BC Whales crowded around a computer screen to watch the footage. “Immediately, we all knew that we had a whale that most likely had a broken back,” she says. It was almost certainly the result of a ship strike. Later, they discovered it was a whale they knew: Moon. Continue reading...

Exclusive: National Energy Action says progress on energy efficiency is too slow and not well targeted at fuel-poor householdsThe government’s home insulation scheme would take 190 years to upgrade the energy efficiency of the UK’s draughty housing stock, and 300 years to meet the government’s own targets to reduce fuel poverty, according to industry calculations.Critics of the Great British Insulation Scheme, which aims to insulate 300,000 homes a year over the next three years, have raised concerns that the plan does not go far enough to reach the 19m UK homes that need better insulation. Continue reading...

Health and Safety Executive also issued several notices related to worker safety and explosive substances at JV EnergenA green energy company set up by King Charles was investigated for numerous health and safety breaches after the unauthorised leak of more than 1,000 tonnes of global-heating gases.Methane, CO and traces of the toxic gas hydrogen sulphide were released after a gas-holder at the plant split open in 2020. The incident, which lasted for 38 days, was described as “significant” by the Environment Agency. Continue reading...

The 188-year-old coastguard’s tower in Cornwall is to be moved 100m inland to save it from coastal erosionPerched on an exposed clifftop above the Atlantic, which gnaws ominously at the sandstone and shale foundations below, Bude storm tower in Cornwall has helped to save many mariners from strife over the past two centuries. But now this cherished coastguard’s lookout is to be rescued itself.The 188-year-old Grade II-listed tower at Compass Point, affectionately known as the Pepperpot, will be carefully deconstructed and rebuilt 100 metres inland later this month to avoid its otherwise inevitable loss over the cliffs to coastal erosion. Continue reading...

Councillors and residents hope to limit the number of daytrippers arriving by boat to preserve the city’s streets and characterThe ships, at times dwarfing the average apartment building, begin lumbering into Barcelona while much of the city is still asleep. Stretching as long as five buses, some come to embark or disembark passengers, while others disgorge thousands of daytrippers keen to glimpse the city’s modernist architecture and stroll the narrow streets of the gothic quarter.It’s a scene that plays out daily in Barcelona – much to the chagrin of some local officials. Last Monday, five cruise ships were slated to arrive; this Friday, on 14 April, eight are expected. Continue reading...

The national park is open again but intense storms mean the specter of climate crisis is more evident than everIt’s been a winter few in Yosemite valley will ever forget.After wildfires left the national park’s dramatic views shrouded in smoke over the summer, winter brought a series of historic storms that left the region inundated with snow. The deluge buried homes, cars and fire hydrants, chewed into stretches of winding mountain roads and downed trees along the park’s slopes. Continue reading...

Distressed mammal was reported at lunchtime on Friday, but marine rescue service arrived too late to save itA sperm whale is feared to have died after it washed up on the Lincolnshire coast.British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) was called at about 12.15pm on Good Friday to help with a “large stranded whale” on the beach at Cleethorpes. The charity said the whale had been spotted “upright in the water” at about midday, but by the time it reached the beach, it was stranded on its side. Continue reading...

Reservoirs whose water levels had plummeted during punishing drought have recovered – but officials warn of ‘weather whiplash’Water levels fell so low in key reservoirs during the depth of California’s drought that boat docks sat on dry, cracked land and cars drove into the center of what should have been Folsom Lake.Those scenes are no more after a series of powerful storms dumped record amounts of rain and snow across California, replenishing reservoirs and bringing an end – mostly – to the state’s three-year drought. Continue reading...

New law – condemned as ‘illegitimate giveaway to the oil and gas industry’ – requires state parks to be leased to interested partiesEnvironmental groups have launched a last-minute effort to halt an extraordinary new law in Ohio that requires government agencies to lease state parks and other public state lands to the oil and gas industry.A temporary injunction filed on Thursday seeks to put the brakes on legislation that requires state parks to be leased for fracking and which redefines the potent greenhouse gas methane as “green energy”. The law was due to go into effect on 7 April, but the court has not yet responded to the injunction. Continue reading...

Critics say a proposal to dispose of salt from waste brine by burying it in lined landfill is ‘not a long-term solution’

Increasing number of trees draw large crowds as National Trust plans 4m blossoming trees across EnglandTourists have long travelled to Japan to see its famous cherry blossom in spring.But the UK could soon have its own industry as the increasing number of the trees in the country draw large crowds each year when in bloom. Continue reading...

Data from 100,000 US Major League games reveals higher temperatures lead to more balls hit out of parkSteroids once gave many of baseball’s sluggers a power boost. Now research suggests that today’s home run hitters are seeing their shots turbocharged by the climate crisis.A study by researchers at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire used data from 100,000 Major League Baseball games and 220,000 individually hit balls to show that higher temperatures increase the number of balls hit out of the park. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Sultan Al Jaber aims to use UN talks to set out how private sector can limit greenhouse gas emissionsThe world needs a “business mindset” to tackle the climate crisis, the president of the next UN climate summit has said.Sultan Al Jaber, the president-designate of the Cop28 summit to be hosted in the United Arab Emirates later this year, said he aimed to use the UN talks to set out how the private sector can limit greenhouse gas emissions and give businesses and governments a clear set of tasks and targets. Continue reading...

Research found that ‘forever chemicals’ had ‘no practical benefit’ in repelling water and stains as compared with untreated fabricA new peer-reviewed study calls into question how well PFAS-based products repel water and stains in furniture, shoes, clothing, carpeting, outdoor gear and other consumer goods made of fabric.Most water and stain repellents applied to fabrics worldwide use toxic PFAS as a main ingredient, and though the controversial chemicals are in thousands of products, water and stain repellency are two of their main consumer functions. Continue reading...

Leaks were contained and posed no danger, official reports say, but past disasters continue to cause fears of power sourceIn December, Janica Jammes started a microgreens business in the basement of her home in Big Lake, Minnesota, just across the river from Xcel Energy’s nuclear plant in Monticello.At least once each day, she uses water from her well to nourish the plant trays. She delivers her product to customers within a 10-mile radius and says the business has been a success. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including a rare leopard, very deep-swimming fish and baby ducks Continue reading...

Having already discovered the presumed extinct great fox-spider, Mike Waite goes hunting on MoD land armed with a pair of his wife’s tights, an old medicine syringe and plastic cupsAs a spider-hunting specialist, Mike Waite’s artillery of choice is a pooter. It’s a homemade sucking contraption made from his daughter’s old Calpol syringe and a pair of his wife’s tights (“I like to think they were old ones”), which he uses as a filter so he doesn’t inhale any spiders.I’m with Waite, from Surrey Wildlife Trust, on Brentmoor Heath, which is partly owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and managed by the trust. It sounds like New Year’s Eve, with continuous bangs from the shooting range. We’re in the buffer zone, on lowland heathland, where the public are allowed and spiders are just waking up from their winter slumber. We see a wolf spider, a gorilla jumping spider, and a raft spider (which recently featured on David Attenborough’s Wild Isles) all in a single morning. Continue reading...

Revenue from mining key metal used in EV batteries to triple by 2027-28 while thermal coal exports set to fall by more than 70%

Swedish prosecutor casts doubt over theories that independent group was responsible for pipeline blastsThe Swedish prosecutor investigating the Nord Stream sabotage attack has said the “clear main scenario” was that a state-sponsored group had been involved, seemingly casting doubt over theories that posited an independent group was responsible for the pipeline blasts.Mats Ljungqvist told Reuters on Thursday that though a non-state-backed plot was still theoretically possible, the type of explosive used in the bombings ruled out a “large portion of actors”. Continue reading...

Noaa report shows rapid increase in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxideRecord temperatures, devastating floods and superstorms are causing death and destruction across the planet but humans are failing to cut greenhouse gas emissions fueling the climate emergency, new US data shows.Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO), methane and nitrous oxide – the greenhouse gases emitted by human activity that are the most significant contributors to global heating – continued to increase rapidly during 2022, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa). Continue reading...

Government’s UKEF criticised for ‘locking us all into more carbon emissions for decades to come’ with assistance for the sectorA UK government agency has financially supported the high-carbon aviation industry with billions of pounds since the Paris climate agreement was adopted, it can be revealed.The effective subsidy for new airports, aircraft and maintenance comes despite the agency believing the oil-dependent sector is unlikely to begin cutting emissions “materially” before the next decade. Continue reading...

Troy, New York, has yet to remove a single lead pipe five years after getting the money. What went wrong?In 2018, almost 30 cities across New York state received federal money to carry out a specific, urgent task: removing lead service lines that poison drinking water.The city of Troy – which sits across the Hudson River and just north of Albany – was among them, receiving $500,000. But five years later, city leaders have failed to spend a single dollar of that money, and have yet to remove a single lead pipe. Continue reading...

Tulare Lake was drained a century ago. Now locals fear flooding as agencies rush in sandbags and rebuild leveesKayode Kadara is worried about the rising waters near his home. Just a few months ago, this landscape in California’s Central Valley was a dry basin filled with pistachio and almond groves.Then a winter of historic rain and snow brought Tulare Lake – a huge freshwater body drained a century ago by agricultural canals – rushing back from the dead. Workers from state agencies have brought sandbags in by helicopter, rebuilt levees and constructed walls to hold the deluge back. Continue reading...

Environmental law professor Jody Freeman urged to cut ties with ConocoPhillips, which pays her more than $350,000 a yearThe Harvard environmental law professor at the centre of a conflict-of-interest row lobbied the regulator on behalf of the oil and gas company that pays her more than $350,000 a year, a new investigation can reveal.Emails seen by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) show that Jody Freeman facilitated a meeting between a director at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and ConocoPhillips, one of the world’s worst polluters that is pushing to weaken forthcoming climate regulations. The company’s Willow drilling project in Alaska was recently approved by the Biden administration, despite scientists warning it will be catastrophic for global heating. Continue reading...

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Cornishman Ned Bailey has caught and returned ‘notched’ lobsters for years as part of a broader effort to preserve stocks. But many fishers do notNed Bailey has spent the best part of four decades fishing off the south coast of Cornwall. Today, in his yellow oilskins and accompanied by his wind-tousled collie spaniel, the 58-year-old is doing the rounds in the Falmouth estuary, hauling up a string of rust-darkened lobster pots.He tosses out stray crabs, several starfish and a squirming conger eel. Every so often he pulls out a lobster: if the carapace is over 90mm (3.5in) long, he keeps it; if not, it’s thrown back into the sea, in line with regulations. Continue reading...

Once-extinct, bitterns make booming ‘foghorn’ noise to attract mates with 228 calling males counted in last breeding periodThe UK’s loudest bird has had a bumper breeding year after previously being driven to extinction in the country.Bitterns became locally extinct in the 1870s due to persecution and draining of their wetland habitat for agriculture. Now the RSPB has revealed that thanks to conservation work, the bird, which has a distinctive “booming” call, has had one of its most successful breeding seasons. Continue reading...

Campaigners aiming to clean up waterways lodge complaint after government rejects FoI requests for details why applications failedLocal communities fighting to clean up their rivers by creating protected bathing areas have been refused access to the reasons their applications were rejected by the government.The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) turned down a series of freedom of information (FoI) requests submitted by campaigners in Kent, Yorkshire, Oxfordshire, Cornwall, Suffolk and Lancashire to obtain more information on why the applications were unsuccessful. The campaigners have lodged a complaint against the refusals. Continue reading...

Shadow minister submits bill to curb spills as Environment Agency reveals sewage was dumped for almost 1m hours last yearMinisters have treated coastal communities as if they are “open sewers”, Labour has said, after a damaging analysis of Environment Agency (EA) data revealed sewage was dumped for almost a million hours last year.In total, the data – which was analysed by the party – shows 141,777 sewage-dumping events occurred across 137 constituencies on the coasts of England and Wales in 2022. Continue reading...

Two people were seen boarding the train with the animal wrapped in a towel

Judge finds protesters guilty of obstructing highway after incident in South Kensington last OctoberSeven climate activists who glued themselves to the road outside the Natural History Museum in south-west London have been convicted of obstructing a highway.Ambulances, buses, delivery vans and a vehicle carrying a 90-year-old in need of medical assistance were caught up in the traffic in Cromwell Road, South Kensington, on 19 October last year. Continue reading...

Rudolph Erasmus praised for ‘great airmanship’ after discovery of deadly cobra in cockpit of private planeA South African pilot was forced to make an emergency landing after a 5ft deadly cobra slithered past his side and curled up under his seat.Rudolph Erasmus was flying four passengers in a private plane at 11,000ft when he said he felt a “cold sensation” on his hip. Thinking that his water bottle might have been leaking, Erasmus looked down instead at the sight of a highly venomous snake disappearing underneath him. Continue reading...

Operator investigated for possible trickery and causing involuntary injuries over pollution levels within networkProsecutors in Paris have opened a criminal investigation into allegations that pollution in the capital’s Métro system is putting travellers’ lives at risk.The operator of the Métro, the RATP, is being investigated for possible trickery and causing involuntary injuries after it was claimed it had deliberately underreported pollution levels and failed to inform passengers about the dangers. Continue reading...

Bob Irwin leads push to introduce new offences for those who disturb the reptiles across the state

Sediments from last ice age provide ‘warning from the past’ for Antarctica and sea level rise today, say scientistsIce sheets can collapse into the ocean in spurts of up to 600 metres (2,000 feet) a day, a study has found, far faster than recorded before.Scientists said the finding, based on sea floor sediment formations from the last ice age, was a “warning from the past” for today’s world in which the climate crisis is eroding ice sheets. Continue reading...

Parliamentary Budget Office has costed Greens’ proposal and MP says it is one-seventh the projected $17.1bn cost of stage-three tax cuts

Pup moved to remote location after discovery on Vlieland beach, far from usual Arctic habitatA rare hooded seal pup born last week in the Netherlands has been moved to a more remote location to protect it from human contact.The pup was born on Vlieland, one of the West Frisian islands in the Wadden Sea off the north coast of the Netherlands. Hooded seals usually give birth on pack ice, and are rare visitors to these southern latitudes. In the past 10 years, there have been just four records of the species on the islands. Pups are weaned after just four days – the shortest period of any mammal. Continue reading...

Authority given permission to challenge high court ruling in favour of landownerWild camping may once again be allowed on Dartmoor, after the national park was granted permission to appeal against a decision to ban it.Alexander Darwall, who bought 1,620 hectares (4,000 acres) of the national park in 2013, took the park authority to the high court last year, arguing that the right to wild camp without a landowner’s permission never existed. In January, a judge ruled in his favour, ending the decades-long assumption that wild camping was allowed. Continue reading...

Upper Burdekin project would have significant impacts on four species, including koalas and greater gliders, developer says in public report

Risk of unrest rises amid fourth dry year, poor grain harvest, weak economy and likely food subsidy cutsTunisia has introduced water rationing as the country suffers its fourth year of severe drought.The state water distribution company, Sonede, has already begun cutting mains water supplies every night between 9pm and 4am. The agriculture ministry has now banned the use of water for irrigation, watering green spaces and other public areas, and for washing cars. Continue reading...

Marine Conservation Society calls for better regulation of how north-east Atlantic mackerel is caught as stocks declineMackerel populations are declining because of overfishing and the fish no longer a sustainable food choice, the Marine Conservation Society has said in its new UK guide to sustainable seafood.North-east Atlantic mackerel has been considered an environmentally-friendly choice for consumers since before 2011, but the species has become increasingly scarce and now experts are calling for more regulation over how its caught. Continue reading...