Environment | The Guardian

Exclusive: Report proposes action to reduce overall demand rather than simply increasing green' productionThe global extraction of raw materials is expected to increase by 60% by 2060, with calamitous consequences for the climate and the environment, according an unpublished UN analysis seen by the Guardian.Natural resource extraction has soared by almost 400% since 1970 due to industrialisation, urbanisation and population growth, according to a presentation of the five-yearly UN Global Resource Outlook made to EU ministers last week. Continue reading...

In one Kenyan reserve, women are taking up roles that give them a say in community life and protecting the land they depend on - inspiring a new generation to follow in their footstepsIn the hot midday sun on the edge of Mara Ripoi conservancy in Maasai Mara, a group of women gather under the shade of a gnarled, old Balanites aegyptiaca tree, or oloireroi in Maasai.The women listen keenly as Everlyne Siololo outlines some key benefits of belonging to the newly formed 5,500-hectare (13,500-acre) conservancy.Norkishili Kayiaa, one of three female administrators on the Mara Ripoi conservancy committee, addresses its members Continue reading...

Analysis finds difference between greenhouse gas emissions the automakers declared and the researchers' estimates averaged 27%Some of the world's biggest automakers are still grossly under-reporting" greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report, despite improvements in their estimates.The research, undertaken by consultancy firms Carbon Tracker and Nomisma, was released on Wednesday and found car manufacturers ranked among the world's highest carbon producers and needed to improve the way they declared their environmental impacts. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Locals say huge penalities and fines' needed after deaths increased almost 90% in one year

Country may be the first to do so, amid increasing concerns about the health and environmental risks posed by the virtually indestructible chemicalsNew Zealand is banning so-called forever chemicals" in cosmetics from 2026, in what could be the first example of a country doing so.The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) said it has banned the use of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in cosmetics to protect people and the environment from the chemicals. Continue reading...

Exclusive: one of Britain's rarest butterflies, found only in Norfolk Broads, critically threatened by climate crisisThe swallowtail, one of Britain's rarest butterflies and also the largest, has suffered its worst summer since records began.The butterfly is confined to the Broads in East Anglia, where its caterpillar's food plant is found, and is now breeding on just 16 sites. Continue reading...

Documents show industry-backed Air Pollution Foundation uncovered the severe harm climate change would wreakThe fossil fuel industry funded some of the world's most foundational climate science as early as 1954, newly unearthed documents have shown, including the early research of Charles Keeling, famous for the so-called Keeling curve" that has charted the upward march of the Earth's carbon dioxide levels.A coalition of oil and car manufacturing interests provided $13,814 (about $158,000 in today's money) in December 1954 to fund Keeling's earliest work in measuring CO2 levels across the western US, the documents reveal. Continue reading...

Inquiry into invasive pest hears of risks fire ants pose to health, agriculture and the environment if they become endemic

Activists in Berkeley, which has no factory farms, hope other cities will follow suit - but not everyone is convincedThis year voters in Berkeley, California, will get to choose whether to ban factory farms in its city limits - marking the first time in the US that such a measure has been put on the ballot.It may seem like an unusual mandate for a city that presently has no factory farms. (There's a horse race track field that would be shut down if the measure passes.) But the activists behind the ballot initiative say it's part of a broader strategy to ban this type of industrial style of livestock production in which cattle, chickens and pigs are held in confined spaces before slaughter. Continue reading...

Northvolt, a Swedish battery maker, has planned a gigafactory' in the region, which protesters have called an ecocidal disgrace'When the Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt announced plans to build a multibillion-dollar gigafactory' in Quebec, the proposal was heralded as a win for Canada's ambitions to become a global green energy powerhouse - and lauded as an environmentally sensitive project which would minimize harmful emissions.Four months later, however, protestors are describing the sprawling plant an ecocidal disgrace", and driving steel bars and nails into trees, to prevent the company from clearcutting forests and destroying wetlands ahead of construction. Continue reading...

Committee urges UK to set powerful example' of tackling climate change after mixed messages' of Cop28The UK must act urgently to meet its international climate commitments, the independent climate watchdog has warned, after sending mixed messages" to other countries at the Cop28 UN climate summit in December.While carbon reduction from electricity generation has shown progress, the rate at which all other sources of emissions are being cut must quadruple to meet the UK's target under the Paris agreement of 68% reductions in emissions by 2030, according to the Climate Change Committee. Continue reading...

Baffled' MPs express alarm at captain's call' while premier Jacinta Allan says cabinet followed normal process' in a consensus decision'

Open letter calls for Soil Association certification to be removed from industry, amid concerns of negative environmental impactThe British body that certifies food in the UK as organic has been accused of misleading consumers over its labelling of Scottish farmed salmon.Thirty charities, conservation and community organisations, including WildFish, the Pesticide Action Network and Blue Marine Foundation, say the negative environmental impacts of the industry in Scotland run completely counter" to the principles of the Soil Association's promotion of healthy, humane and sustainable food. Continue reading...

Regional mayor Dan Norris launches project to explore potential for former mines to produce low-carbon heatWhen Bryn Hawkins worked in coalmines through the 1960s and early 1970s he says few understood the impact the burning of fossil fuels would have on the planet.Now, public officials are hoping disused mines that provided millions of tonnes of fossil fuels could be used as a potential source of renewable energy across the country. Continue reading...

Parts of south-east Queensland have been hit by flash flooding and torrential rain with homes and businesses underwater. More than a dozen people have been rescued from areas north and west of Brisbane. The Bureau of Meteorology said forecast rainfall in those areas could lead to flash or riverine flooding in the next 48 hours. Ex-Tropical Cyclone Kirrily is also ensuring more wet weather in Queensland's north-west, days after crossing the coast

Exclusive: Hundreds of anglers take part in UK's largest citizen science water-testing projectEighty-three per cent of English rivers contain evidence of high pollution caused by sewage and agricultural waste, according to the largest citizen science water testing project ever to take place in the UK.Hundreds of anglers took part in the study, organised by the Angling Trust, after being angered by the brown blooms of sewage in the waters they painstakingly tend for the benefit of fish. Continue reading...

Michael Porter says he saw the victim trying to pull herself to safety out of Elizabeth Bay harbour pool

Shadow chancellor says flagship green policy must be approached in a way where the numbers add up'The economic picture is very different" from when Labour set out its green investment plan, Rachel Reeves has said, as she refused to repeat her party's 28bn spending commitment.The shadow chancellor said her party's green prosperity plan was important but had to be approached in a way where the numbers add up". Continue reading...

A documentary, Razing Liberty Square, examines the plight of families in Liberty City as developers revitalize' community on desirable higher landAaron McKinney had high hopes for Liberty City.In 2015, Miami-Dade county officials announced a $74m development project aimed at revitalizing the historically Black neighborhood in the north-west of the city. The plan was to raze Liberty Square, the dilapidated housing project in the heart of the neighborhood, and build 1,900 new apartments in its place. Continue reading...

Draft rules follow the polluter pays principle' and will mean companies cover 80% of extra clean-up costsBeauty companies will have to pay more to clean up microplastic pollution after EU negotiators struck a new deal to treat sewage.Under draft rules that follow the polluter pays principle", companies that sell medicines and cosmetics will have to cover at least 80% of the extra costs needed to get rid of tiny pollutants that are dirtying urban wastewater. Governments will pay the rest, members of the bloc said, in an effort to prevent vital products from becoming too expensive or scarce. Continue reading...

With confirmed or suspected cases in two Antarctic penguin species, researchers fear highly contagious virus could rip through coloniesAt least one king penguin is suspected to have died from bird flu in the Antarctic. If confirmed, it will be the first of the species killed by the highly contagious H5N1 virus in the wild.Researchers have previously raised alarm about one of the largest ecological disasters of modern times" if bird flu reached remote Antarctic penguin populations. The birds are currently clustering together for breeding season, meaning the disease could rip through entire colonies if it continues to spread through the region. Continue reading...

Strong waves and sediment-laden freshwater pushed out from river catchments may have damaged parts of reef system, experts say

Dacorum borough council in Hertfordshire says policy has legal basis after 88 fines draw criticismA council in England has doubled down on the fining of people caught peeing in the countryside for littering, even after it emerged its own legal advice did not appear to fully support its stance.There have been at least two cases of men handed 88 fines by Dacorum borough council in Hertfordshire after being caught in the act by council enforcers apparently lying in wait in laybys. Continue reading...

Suriname's Saamaka Maroons still grow rice from seeds an ancestor escaping from a plantation carried in her hair. Now a gene bank seeks to widen use of the rare species to help fight the climate crisisWhen enslaved Africans escaped the Surinamese plantations overseen by Dutch colonists from the 17th to the 19th century, several women ingeniously hid rice grains in their hair to grow when they found refuge deep in the Amazon rainforest. Now, centuries later, a gene bank is working to save Suriname's rare rice species while also preparing communities to be more resilient to the climate crisis.In Suriname's hinterlands, near the town of Brokopondo, Albertina Adjako, a descendant of those Africans - who became known as Maroons - carefully walks in her flip-flops through her rice seedlings. We are worried because we had a long period of drought," she says, inspecting her plants. Continue reading...

A year after Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, declared a humanitarian crisis among the Yanomami and vowed zero tolerance for illegal mining, environmental enforcers have said the progress since the ousting from the reservation of 80% of the wildcat miners is in jeopardy. As the military has rolled back its support for the crackdown, the miners have made fresh incursions into Yanomami land, they say Continue reading...

National Trust says it hopes to establish 50 hectares across three sites close to surviving pockets of rainforestMore than 100,000 trees are being planted in north Devon as part of efforts to boost temperate or Celtic rainforests, some of the UK's most magical but endangered environments.The trees are being planted close to surviving pockets of rainforest at two spots close to the coast and one inland. Continue reading...

African Parks examines alleged atrocities against Indigenous people by its Congo Republic guards after decade of alerts' from Survival InternationalA wildlife charity that has the Duke of Sussex as a board member is investigating allegations of rape and torture by its guards in the Republic of the Congo.African Parks, which manages 22 national parks and protected areas across 12 countries, said the investigation was its highest priority" and encouraged anyone with knowledge of any abuse to contact it. Continue reading...

Independent senator says depiction of Australia as part of Pacific family' is inconsistent with issuing approvals for new coal and gas projects

Exclusive: environmental regulator has known for more than a decade that contaminated soil fill might have been used in childcare centres, schools and parks

Chemours and state regulators say the Fayetteville Works plant has reduced air emissions, but we found levels of forever chemicals' as much as 30 times higher than state testsDownwind from chemical giant Chemours' PFAS manufacturing plant in North Carolina, Jamie White's life is a series of unpleasant negotiations.She fears the plant's toxic forever chemicals" are in the air she breathes and the rain replenishing her well. She suffers from a thyroid disorder - an issue linked to PFAS exposure. Continue reading...

Two environmental protesters hurled soup on to the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris, calling for 'healthy and sustainable food'. The painting, which was behind bulletproof glass, appeared to be undamaged. Gallery visitors looked on in shock as two women threw the yellow-coloured soup before climbing under the barrier in front of the work and flanking the splattered painting. One of the two activists removed her jacket to reveal a white T-shirt bearing the name of the activist group Riposte Alimentaire (Food Response)

Visitors at Louvre look on in shock as Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece attacked by environmental protestersTwo environmental protesters have hurled soup at the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris, calling for healthy and sustainable food". The painting, which was behind bulletproof glass, appeared to be undamaged.Gallery visitors looked on in shock as two women threw the yellow-coloured soup before climbing under the barrier in front of the work and flanking the splattered painting, their right hands held up in a salute-like gesture. Continue reading...

Farnborough airport submits plans to increase number of flights amid calls for a ban on private jetsThe climate activist Greta Thunberg has marched alongside local residents and Extinction Rebellion activists to protest against an airport's expansion plans.Farnborough Airport Ltd has submitted a planning application to Rushmoor borough council to increase the number of flights from 50,000 to 70,000 a year. The Swedish climate activist joined the march from Farnborough town centre, in Hampshire, to Farnborough airport. Continue reading...

Glen Affric in the Highlands has joined more than 10 rivals in bidding to gain the new status - and the benefits that go with itGlen Affric in the Highlands is home to deer, ospreys, otters and one of Scotland's largest Caledonian pine woods. Often described as one of the country's most beautiful glens, its scenic landscapes and diverse wildlife are such that it is protected as a national nature reserve.Now, local community groups have launched a bid for it to become Scotland's third national park, in a race which has so far seen more than 10 other areas also submit theirinterest. Continue reading...

Grand Rapids saw just five minutes of sun in the first week of the year, while January was the cloudiest in Chicago in 129 yearsFor the 34 million people who call the US's Great Lakes region home, last winter was a particularly gloomy one due to a dearth of sunlight - a reality that could afflict residents' mental health in years to come.Grand Rapids, Michigan, saw just five minutes of sun during the first eight days of January 2023. The same month was the cloudiest January in Chicago in 129 years. At one stage, the 6.3 million people living in the greater Toronto area didn't see the sun for more than three weeks. Continue reading...

Tens of millions have been spent on human-made defences over the years, but the impact of the climate crisis means flooding is inevitableWhen Jo Bloom saw the monitoring station on the River Severn above Shrewsbury register water levels of 6.5 metres as Storm Henk struck in early January, she began preparing for the worst. Bloom, who runs the Bewdley Flood Group, a local initiative to disseminate information to the community, was crouched over her computer checking Environment Agency alerts on river levels as the storm battered southern and central Britain, bringing with it heavy rain on to already saturated ground.We have had one peak, we are all watching Crew Green gauge above Shrewsbury, which is 10cm off its 2000 record level," she told the flood group. Continue reading...

It's time to stand up for nature and say no to the projects that damage the wildlife and places we love

Climate activists cheer decision to pause all pending liquified natural gas export licenses, but is it just a delay till after November elections?Joe Biden has, at least for a while, defused a ticking carbon bomb. Climate activists and the fossil fuel industry are now left wondering how long it will last.The decision on Friday by the Biden administration to pause all pending export licenses for liquified natural gas (LNG) to consider the climate impact of the projects has been hailed as a momentous shift in the status quo by those concerned by the unfolding climate crisis. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Head of government taskforce calls for evidence not anecdote in debate over the beaver, white-tailed eagle and othersCulture wars by ministers over the reintroduction of animals such as the beaver and the lynx must end if we are to restore nature in England, the head of the government's taskforce on the issue has said.Dr Andy Clements, an ornithologist who helped establish the government regulator Natural England, runs the species reintroduction taskforce, and he's well placed to do so. He was one of those behind the hugely successful reintroduction of red kites into England. Continue reading...

Community organizations say grants coming from the government have too many requirements to be truly accessibleBella Romero Academy, a K-8 school, sits 1,200ft from a fracking site in Greeley, Colorado.Air on the playground is often thick with benzene - a chemical that can cause dizziness and headaches in the short term, and blood illnesses like leukemia with long-term exposure. In 2019, independent researchers found that benzene spiked above healthy levels 113 times there in a seven-month period. Continue reading...

Experts call for review after two sets of water samples from the Darling-Baaka River reported by the state's top scientific bodies contained different results

Doug Maw posted videos of animals caught in wire nooses and was charged with damaging and stealing snares and trapsAn animal rights campaigner who posted videos of a distressed hare and fawn caught in snares has been found not guilty of nine charges of criminal damage and theft.Doug Maw, who is campaigning for snares to be banned in England, filmed a screaming hare and a fawn running in circles caught in legal snares on farmland inside the South Downs national park. He then freed the animals. Continue reading...

Claims that Icon of the Seas, the vast new ship described as human lasagne', runs on clean fuel have been labelled greenwashing as LNG's methane emissions are a more potent climate gas than COThe largest cruise ship in the world, which embarks on its first commercial voyage from Miami on Saturday, was launched amid a fanfare of superlatives. Longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall, the Icon of the Seas towers 20 decks above the waves, can accommodate more than 7,000 passengers and crew, and, at a quarter of a million gross tonnes, could swallow five Titanics for breakfast.Coloured slides on its upper deck mark out Thrill Island", the largest waterpark at sea, and it boasts a 17-metre (55ft) indoor waterfall. The president of Royal Caribbean, Jason Liberty, told reporters it was the biggest, baddest ship on the planet", though it quickly became known on social media as human lasagne". Continue reading...

Sawangjit Kosoognern charged with illegal possession after video showing animal being driven around Pattaya gains 2.6m viewsA Thai woman has been charged with illegal possession of a lion cub, police said on Friday, after a video of the animal cruising in a Bentley went viral online.The police ordered an investigation after a video showing a lion cub riding around the raucous Thai resort town of Pattaya in a Bentley gained more than 2.6m views online. Continue reading...

Pause on pending export permits is hailed by environmental groups, and could imperil projects along Gulf of Mexico coastJoe Biden's administration has hit the brakes on the US's surging exports of gas, effectively pausing a string of planned projects that have been decried by environmentalists as carbon mega bombs" that risk pushing the world further towards climate breakdown.On Friday, the White House announced that it was pausing all pending export permits for liquified natural gas (LNG) until the Department of Energy could come up with an updated criteria for approvals that consider the impact of climate change. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Actors and musicians condemn harsh deportation' of Dartford Crossing protester Marcus DeckerLeading actors and musicians including Bob Geldof, Olivia Colman and Emma Thompson are calling on the Home Office to reconsider the harsh deportation" of a climate activist who is serving one of the longest prison sentences in modern British history for peaceful protest.Along with the musicians Brian Eno and Jacob Collier, they are among about 600 artists who are urging James Cleverly to withdraw the deportation order issued to Marcus Decker. Continue reading...

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

From a self-build nestled in the Devon countryside to an eye-catching terrace in London Continue reading...

People encouraged to record sightings of mohican-sporting birds in RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch this weekendThe scale of this waxwing winter will be revealed this weekend when people are encouraged to spend an hour recording the birds they see in their gardens, balconies, parks and school grounds.The spectacular migratory, mohican-sporting birds have been spotted across Britain during the colder weather and will be recorded alongside more familiar sparrows, blackbirds and robins in the RSPB's annual Big Garden Birdwatch. Continue reading...

Mining companies and their joint venture Samarco ordered by Brazilian judge to pay AU$14.7bn over disaster that killed 19 peopleA Brazilian judge has ruled that mining companies Vale and BHP and their joint venture Samarco must pay 47.6bn reais (AU$14.7 bn) in damages for a 2015 tailings dam burst, according to a legal decision seen by Reuters.Vale, a Brazilian company, and BHP, an Australian listed company, said in separate statements they were not informed by the judiciary about the decision. Continue reading...