The annual photographer of the year winners were chosen from more than 3,000 entries across nine categories. The top prize goes to images captured in the deep south of New Zealand, an area the photographer says she enjoys for its wonderful light and colour
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund threatens to vote against boards on firms it holds investments with over lax climate and social targetsNorway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s single largest investor, has warned company directors it will vote against their re-election to the board if they do not up their game on tackling the climate crisis, human rights abuses and boardroom diversity.Carine Smith Ihenacho, the chief governance and compliance officer of Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages more than 13tn Norwegian kroner (£1tn) on behalf of the Norwegian people, said the fund was preparing to vote against the re-election of at least 80 company boards for failing to set or hit environmental or social targets. Continue reading...
Exclusive: at least 12 officials at body hosting Cop28 appear to have come straight from fossil fuel industryAt least a dozen employees from the United Arab Emirate’s state-owned oil company have apparently taken up roles with the office of the UAE’s climate change special envoy, who will host this year’s Cop28 UN climate summit.The revelation adds to growing concerns over the potential for blurred lines between the team hosting this year’s crucial summit and the oil-rich country’s influential fossil fuel industry. Continue reading...
Their fight for diversity and inclusion in farming culture echoes the womyn’s land movement from the 60s and 70sAt Ashokra farm in New Mexico, in the heart of Albuquerque’s fertile North Valley, lush fields of kabocha squash and heirloom corn grow alongside beds of tomatoes, onions and 13 varieties of okra. The team’s four farmers tend four fields spread across two and a half acres of leased plots on private residences and in a community garden, hauling their tools between each field in a mobile shed.But the bountiful harvest is only one of Ashokra’s goals. As a queer-, trans- and people-of-color-owned vegetable farm, Ashokra is “trying to embody values and create a space that we haven’t seen on farms that we’ve worked at”, says farmer Anita Adalja. “A place where we have dignity, where we can feel safe, where we can feel like we can be our authentic selves”, protected from the threats of homophobia, transphobia, racism and sexism. Continue reading...
by Matthew Green for Floodlight and DeSmog on (#68G0H)
Texas community fights to save its coastline as the developers of Rio Grande LNG regain interest over claims of carbon captureAs the Mexican Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, festivities drew to a close, Dina Nuñez called to order a meeting of women grassroots activists in a modest home in the heart of Port Isabel, Texas. Top of her agenda: how to stop a Houston-based oil and gas company from building a $10bn project to export liquefied natural gas on a nearby stretch of coast.For Nuñez and her friends, the fight against the scheme – known as Rio Grande LNG – is about protecting their community from air pollution; preserving shrimping and tourism; and defending habitats for pelicans, endangered ocelots and aplomado falcons at the project site on unspoiled wetlands between Port Isabel and the larger city of Brownsville. Continue reading...
The Department of Energy’s loan programs office was ‘essentially dormant’, says Jigar Shah, its head – but now it’s ready to bankroll clean energy projectsDeep in the confines of the hulking, brutalist headquarters of the US Department of Energy, down one of its long, starkly lit corridors, sits a small, unheralded office that is poised to play a pivotal role in America’s shift away from fossil fuels and help the world stave off disastrous global heating.The department’s loan programs office (LPO) was “essentially dormant” under Donald Trump, according to its head, Jigar Shah, but has now come roaring back with a huge war chest to bankroll emerging clean energy projects and technology. Continue reading...
Comedian leads coalition against ‘exploitative’ proposal for 16-storey buildings over listed stationGriff Rhys Jones is leading a coalition of conservationists against what he describes as plans to “smother” Liverpool Street station under 109 metres (350ft) of new offices, shops and a hotel.The comedian, writer and broadcaster has been appointed president of the revived Liverpool Street Station Campaign (Lissca), a post held in the 1970s by the then poet laureate Sir John Betjeman when he led a successful crusade against plans to demolish the station. Continue reading...
Local authorities say policing government’s new standards on smoke pollution is beyond their meansLocal authorities lack the resources for the crackdown on highly polluting wood burners promised by the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, they say.Wood-burning in urban areas is an increasing source of harmful air pollution, as people install stoves for aesthetic reasons or to save money on gas. Continue reading...
Butterfly Conservation report reveals 42% decline in distribution of 58 native species since 1976Butterfly species have vanished from nearly half of the places where they once flew in the UK since 1976, according to a study.The distribution of 58 native species has fallen by 42% as butterflies disappear from cities, fields and woods. Those that are only found in particular habitats, such as wetlands or chalk grassland, have fared even worse, declining in distribution by 68%. Continue reading...
Data suggests male northern quolls rest less than females and spend much more time on the move, leading to their death after a single breeding season. As Guardian Australia's science report Donna Lu explains, Australian scientists have been researching why male quolls finish the mating season looking 'terrible', with some ending up in an 'early grave'. After equipping the endangered native animals with miniature backpacks and tracking them for seven weeks during the breeding season, researchers observed the males were spending very little time resting and were constantly on the move, all in the dogged pursuit to mate
Large volumes of traps, nets and marine debris in sperm whale’s intestinal tract highlight plastic pollution’s threat to wildlifeA sperm whale that washed ashore in Hawaii over the weekend probably died in part because it ate large volumes of fishing traps, fishing nets, plastic bags and other marine debris, scientists said on Thursday, highlighting the threat to wildlife from the millions of tons of plastic that ends up in oceans every year.The body of the 56ft (17-meter) long, 120,000-pound (54,000kg) animal was first noticed on a reef off Kauai on Friday. High tide brought it ashore on Saturday. Continue reading...
Nearly 14,000 people from two Nigerian communities are seeking justice in the high court in London against the fossil fuel giant Shell, claiming it is responsible for devastating pollution of their water sources and destruction of their way of life. The individuals from the Niger delta area of Ogale, a farming community, joined more than 2,000 people from the Bille area, a large fishing community. Shell have been operating on the Niger delta for over 80 years and recently announced that they will be ceasing all operations. The oil company made record-breaking profits in 2022, generating over $32bn in the first three quarters. The oil giant are arguing that they are not responsible for a clean-up of Nigerian communities for spills that they say were caused by criminal gangs over five years ago. Lawyers representing the fishing villages argue that the scale of oil spills in the delta masks a human tragedy on an extraordinary scale
Sir Richard Kleinwort has not given permission for viable walking and cycling route between Burgess Hill and Haywards HeathAn aristocrat is at odds with his local council after blocking plans for a green walkway linking two Sussex towns through his estate, which would give children a safe route to walk or cycle home from school.Local people complain that to travel between Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath, they have to use two winding country roads with no pavements and fast traffic. Mid Sussex district council has proposed a “green path” through the lush fields and pretty woodland of the nearby area, where people could walk and cycle. Continue reading...
An online tour is being launched of an enclosure on the Holnicote estate in Somerset that is home to a family of five beavers. In what is billed as the first of its kind, the tour allows viewers to navigate through the 2.7-acre Exmoor enclosure where two adult beavers and their three offspring live. Other wildlife captured include kingfishers, stoats, roe deer and bull finches, all of which are believed to have benefited from the changes the beavers are making to the area
A wave of unionization has swept the non-profit sector – but workers say they are experiencing aggressive opposition and retaliationWorkers at some of the top environmental organizations in the US are calling out their managers as “incredibly hypocritical” as they argue the progressive non-profits are fighting workers’ efforts to unionize.A wave of unionization efforts has swept the non-profit sector as part of a renewed national enthusiasm for unionization. Shortly into the Covid-19 pandemic, workers at 350.org, Sunrise Movement, the National Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, Greenpeace USA, the Public Interest Network and the Center for Biological Diversity unionized. Continue reading...
The energy industry is turning waste from dairy farms into renewable natural gas – but will it actually reduce emissions?On an early August afternoon at Pinnacle Dairy, a farm located near the middle of California’s long Central Valley, 1,300 Jersey cows idle in the shade of open-air barns. Above them whir fans the size of satellites, circulating a breeze as the temperature pushes 100F (38C). Underfoot, a wet layer of feces emits a thick stench that hangs in the air. Just a tad unpleasant, the smell represents a potential goldmine.The energy industry is transforming mounds of manure into a lucrative “carbon negative fuel” capable of powering everything from municipal buses to cargo trucks. To do so, it’s turning to dairy farms, which offer a reliable, long-term supply of the material. Pinnacle is just one of hundreds across the state that have recently sold the rights to their manure to energy producers. Continue reading...
Retailer and green groups warn of ‘high environmental cost’ of fish aggregating devices to tuna stocks and other endangered marine lifeThe EU is under pressure to significantly restrict its huge fleet of fishing vessels from using “fish aggregating devices” that make it easier to catch huge numbers of fish and contribute further to overfishing.A letter signed by Marks & Spencer and more than 100 environmental groups, including the International Pole and Line Foundation, warns EU officials that the devices (FADs) are one of the main contributors to overfishing of yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean, because they catch high numbers of juveniles. Continue reading...
Community health workers are stepping in to provide critical services and information in rural areas with few hospitals or doctorsWhen Claudia Salazar and her family migrated to San Elizario, Texas, a small city in El Paso county, they settled into a colonia – informal, low-income housing often found in rural parts along the US-Mexico border. Their house was small, but had enough room for her four kids, and before long, it felt like home.But the remoteness of their new home soon presented problems – Salazar suddenly found herself in a medical desert. The nearest hospital is a 35-minute drive away. Even that is challenging to get to – the community’s mostly farm worker population works 10- to 12-hour days, and often lacks adequate time to travel for medical attention between workdays. Continue reading...
Twenty states have enacted laws restricting rights to peaceful protest, as environmentalists are increasingly criminalizedThe shooting of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, believed to be the first environmental defender killed in the US, is the culmination of a dangerous escalation in the criminalization and repression of those who seek to protect natural resources in America, campaigners have warned.The death of the 26-year-old, who was also known as “Tortuguita” or “Little Turtle,” in a forest on the fringes of Atlanta was the sort of deadly act “people who have been paying attention to this issue assumed would happen soon, with no sense of joy”, according to Marla Marcum, founder of the Climate Disobedience Center, which supports climate protesters. Continue reading...
by Photographs by Oliver Morin/Agency France Press on (#68EP8)
Record-breaking French freediver Arthur Guérin-Boëri holds five world championship titles. Here, he dives into Kvaenangen Fjord, Norway, to swim with killer whales Continue reading...
National Trust project shows family home of ‘nature’s engineers’ and how they have improved the environment for other wildlifeThey can be seen chugging around their watery domain like small furry tugboats, gnawing away at saplings or nuzzling up to each other. The sound of babbling water and birdsong provides a pleasing soundtrack.A new online tour is being launched on Thursday of an enclosure on the Holnicote estate in Somerset that is home to a family of five beavers. In what is billed as the first of its kind, the tour allows viewers to navigate through the 2.7-acre Exmoor enclosure where two adult beavers and their three offspring live and work. Continue reading...
Government plan to educate owners and encourage fines not enough to effectively tackle air pollution• Study links air pollution to mental ill-healthPoliticians and campaigners have called for an urgent review of wood-burning stoves, which cause large amounts of pollution in urban areas.The calls follow the admission by the environment secretary that the government had set weaker air pollution targets than it would like. The admission came as she announced a new environmental plan for England that held back from banning wood-burning stoves and settled instead for “educating” people on their use. Continue reading...
Interior department report recommends scaled-back version of ConocoPhillips’ Willow project despite Biden campaign pledgeThe Biden administration has advanced a $8bn drilling project on Alaska’s north slope. The ConocoPhillips Willow project, which would be one of the largest oil and gas developments on federal territory, has drawn fierce opposition from environmentalists, who say its approval runs counter to the president’s ambitious climate goals.An environmental assessment released by the interior department on Wednesday recommends a scaled-back version of the project ConocoPhillips originally proposed, and would produce about 600m barrels of oil over 30 years, with a peak of 180,000 barrels of crude oil a day. Continue reading...
The psychologist has turned his hand to exposing new audiences to old arguments from climate change deniersCanadian psychologist and darling of conservatives and the alt-right, Jordan Peterson, has been on an all-out attack on the science of climate change and the risks of global heating.Peterson has 6.3 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, and his videos also run as audio podcasts on platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts. Continue reading...
by Nina Lakhani and agencies in San José on (#68EB9)
Brörán leader Yehry Rivera, 45, was shot and killed by Juan Varela during conflict in Terraba community in February 2020A Costa Rican court has sentenced a man to 22 years behind bars for the murder of an Indigenous land rights defender in 2020, in a case which stoked decades-old tensions between native communities and farmers over disputed territory.Yehry Rivera, a leader of the Brörán people, was shot from behind and killed by farmer Juan Varela during a land conflict in the Terraba community, 80 miles (130 km) south-east of the capital San Jose in Puntarenas province. Continue reading...
California files competing proposal on cutting water use of the river as hopes of western states reaching consensus fadeCalifornia filed a competing conservation plan for the Colorado River on Tuesday, just one day after opting out of a proposal put forward by six other western states, signaling a breakdown in negotiations over how to drastically cut water use from the imperiled waterway.Officials with the Bureau of Reclamation had called on the states to come to a consensus on how to curb between 2 and 4m acre-feet or roughly enough water to supply 8m households for a full year. Continue reading...
Government accepts Liberal Democrat amendment to UK infrastructure bank billTaxpayer money may no longer be invested in water companies that fail to produce adequate plans to stop sewage discharges, after the government accepted a Liberal Democrat amendment.The change to the UK infrastructure bank bill means that once it becomes law, tax receipts will only be able to fund water companies if they produce a costed and timed plan for ending sewage spills into waterways. Continue reading...
Researchers find long-term exposure to even relatively low levels raises risk of depression and anxietyLong-term exposure to even comparatively low levels of air pollution could cause depression and anxiety, according to a study exploring the links between air quality and mental ill-health.Tracking the incidence of depression and anxiety in almost 500,000 UK adults over 11 years, researchers found that those living in areas with higher pollution were more likely to suffer episodes, even when air quality was within official limits. Continue reading...
Non-profit group Global Witness urges US regulator to investigate oil giant and potentially impose fines over apparent ‘mislabeling’Shell has misleadingly overstated how much it is spending on renewable energy and should be investigated and potentially fined by the US financial regulator, according to a non-profit group which has lodged a complaint against the oil giant.The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been urged to act over Shell’s most recent annual report in which it stated 12% of its capital expenditure was funneled into a division called Renewables and Energy Solutions in 2021. The division’s webpage, which is adorned with pictures of wind turbines and solar panels, says it is working to invest in “wind, solar, electric vehicle charging, hydrogen, and more”. Continue reading...
Photographer Paroma Basu followed three young Spanish women who have left urban careers and retrained through the Escola de Pastors i Pastores de Catalunya, one of a number of ́herding schools opening around the region Continue reading...
European research finds that increasing urban tree coverage to 30% can lower temperatures by 0.4CPlanting more trees could mean fewer people die from increasingly high summer temperatures in cities, a study suggests.
Move is a victory for the environment, economy and tribes of Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, and is ‘victory for science over politics’The US Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday in effect vetoed a proposed copper and gold mine in a remote region of south-west Alaska that is coveted by mining interests but that also supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.The move by the agency, heralded by Alaska Native tribes and environmentalists who have long pushed for it, deals a potentially devastating blow to the proposed Pebble mine and comes while an earlier rejection of a key federal permit for the project remains unresolved. Continue reading...
Eilidh McFadden and Tom Johnson convicted of criminal damage after action at Madame Tussauds and must pay £3,500 compensationThe climate protesters who threw cake into the face of a waxwork of King Charles in Madame Tussauds have been ordered to pay the London tourist attraction £3,500 in compensation.Eilidh McFadden, 20, and Tom Johnson, 29, were found guilty of criminal damage at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday for each smashing a vegan chocolate cake topped with shaving foam into the waxwork on 24 October last year. Continue reading...
Environment secretary sets lower 10-year objective for cleaner air but researchers say their goal is reachable with stronger actionThe government cannot achieve the air quality improvements advised by medical experts, so has set its targets lower for the next 10 years, the environment secretary has admitted as she unveiled a new environmental plan.Thérèse Coffey said on Tuesday: “We have cleaner air. I want it to be even cleaner. Now, I would have loved to have made our target to achieve 10 micrograms [of fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, per cubic metre of air] by 2030, not 2040. Many parts of the country already enjoy this, but the evidence shows us that with the best will in the world we cannot achieve that everywhere by the end of the decade, particularly in London.” Continue reading...
Campaigners in Oxfordshire, Cotwolds and Cumbria say houses should not be occupied until systems can copeCampaigners are intervening to prevent new houses being occupied in several areas of England until sewage treatment works are upgraded to cope.In Oxfordshire, the Cotswolds and in Cumbria, the failure of water companies to invest in sewage infrastructure means new homes would just add more sewage into treatment works that are at or beyond capacity, and increase pollution into rivers, they say. Continue reading...
Pilot program in the Bronx, New York, found striking differences in the levels of harmful indoor chemicals after the switchWhat happens when you replace a gas stove, recently linked to one-eighth of all US asthma cases, with an induction stove? A program in New York offered tenants the chance to do just that and found striking differences in the levels of harmful indoor chemicals after the switch.The pilot program took place in a 96-unit public housing building outfitted with gas stoves in the Bronx. Twenty low-income households participated, and at the beginning of the study half were given induction stoves, which use electricity to heat the cookware directly and don’t emit pollutants. Continue reading...
State says it will release own plan as six others to dramatically cut water use from river stressed by drought and overuseSix western states that rely on water from the Colorado River have agreed on a model to dramatically cut water use in the basin, months after the federal government called for action and an initial deadline passed.California – with the largest allocation of water from the river – is the lone holdout. Officials said the state would release its own plan. Continue reading...
Company took home about $6.3m an hour last year as oil majors expected to break their own annual recordsExxon Mobil posted a $56bn profit for 2022, the company said on Tuesday, taking home about $6.3m an hour last year, and setting not only a company record but a historic high for the western oil industry.Oil majors are expected to break their own annual records on high prices and soaring demand, pushing their combined take to near $200bn. The scale has renewed criticism of the oil industry and sparked calls for more countries to levy windfall profit taxes on the companies. Continue reading...
People tell us about their sightings as part of RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, with many species flourishingThe Big Garden Birdwatch, a citizen survey organised by the RSPB, has returned for its 44th year. The survey took place between 27-29 January 2023 and the deadline for submitting results is on 19 February.Hundreds of readers got in touch to share their experiences of taking part in this year’s survey. Here, five people tell us about their sightings. Continue reading...
About a dozen Extinction Rebellion protesters disrupted a speech in the House of Lords as peers debated a bill on protest crackdowns. Footage filmed by one of the demonstrators shows staff escorting protesters as they stand to speak during proceedings, with one of them repeatedly telling the demonstrator speaking to 'shut up'
by Nina Lakhani climate justice reporter on (#68C7A)
Exclusive: Misguided policies have hurt small-scale farms while enriching agribusinesses and corporate lobbyists, analysis showsTwo decades of misguided US dairy policies centered around boosting milk production and export markets have hurt family-scale farms and the environment while enriching agribusinesses and corporate lobbyists, new research has found.The average American dairy turned a profit only twice in the past two decades despite milk production rising by almost 40%, according to analysis by Food and Water Watch (FWW) shared exclusively with the Guardian. Continue reading...
With just 3,000 of the pig-like animals still roaming the Gran Chaco region, a community conservation effort in Argentina is fighting for its futureThe Chacoan peccary is so elusive that scientists believed it was extinct until its “discovery” in 1975. Today, only 3,000 remain in the inhospitable forests and lagoons of the Gran Chaco region, which stretches across northern Argentina, Paraguay and southern Bolivia, and comprises more than 50 different ecosystems.Micaela Camino, who works with the Indigenous Wichí and Criollo communities to protect the animals and their land rights in Argentina, knows how difficult to find they can be. She has only seen one Chacoan peccary, or quimilero, in 13 years since she set up her NGO, Proyecto Quimilero, but has fallen in love with the critically endangered mammal, which looks like a peculiar cross between a boar and a hedgehog. Continue reading...
by Eduardo Soteras/Agence France Presse on (#68C5A)
The last five rainy seasons since the end of 2020 have failed, triggering the worst drought in four decades in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. The next rainy season, from March to May, is expected to be below average. According to the UN, drought has plunged 12 million people into ‘acute food insecurity’ in Ethiopia, where a deadly conflict has also ravaged the north of the country Continue reading...
Report finds ‘relatively small group’ of rich people contribute disproportionately to emissionsThe difference between the carbon emissions of the rich and the poor within a country is now greater than the differences in emissions between countries, data shows.The finding is further evidence of the growing divide between the “polluting elite” of rich people around the world, and the relatively low responsibility for emissions among the rest of the population. Continue reading...
Environment | The Guardian