Environment | The Guardian

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The federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, announced the $160m plan on Monday afternoon

Outcry includes protest song comparing closure of inshore fishing grounds to Highland clearances“It’s about justice,” says Angus MacPhail, a creel fisher off Barra, in the Outer Hebrides, about the marine protection plans that he believes will devastate island cultures like his own.“Our lives are being dictated by people who know nothing about the areas we live in or the jobs we do,” says MacPhail, whose main catch is crab and lobster. “Most of us fishing around islands like Barra are small-scale operators and you don’t get much more environmentally friendly than that.” Continue reading...

As an economic boom’s gains pass them by, people in unprotected land have been hit by hunger and disease, with infant mortality rates seven times higher than the rest of BrazilThe infant mortality rate among the Indigenous peoples of Brazil jumped by 16% last year, according to new data, as experts warn that the expansion of legal and illegal extractive industries in the Amazon rainforest has had profound effects on the health and quality of life of Indigenous people living in unprotected areas.Over the past 50 years, the Amazon’s landscape has changed dramatically, with about 17% of the primary forest now gone, replaced by towns, roads, cattle ranches, mines and vast fields of soya beans. Continue reading...

Black-veined whites, thought to have died out in 1920s, have seemingly returned due to warmer climateWhen they last roamed England in 1925, they counted Winston Churchill as a fan. Now, black-veined whites – an extremely rare species of British butterfly – have been spotted fluttering once again.Small numbers of the black and white insects have been spotted in fields and hedgerows in south-east London, nearly a century after the species was thought to have become extinct in the UK. Continue reading...

Oxfam report says only $11.5bn (£9.2bn) of climate finance in 2020 devoted to helping vulnerable statesRich nations are undermining work to protect poor and vulnerable countries from the impacts of the climate crisis, by providing loans instead of grants, siphoning off money from other aid projects or mislabelling cash, new research suggests.Only $11.5bn (£9.2bn) of climate finance from rich countries in 2020 was devoted to helping poor countries adapt to extreme weather, despite increasing incidences of climate-related disaster, according to a report from the charity Oxfam. Continue reading...

Sarah Bentley lands £1.5m package despite saying she would shun bonus amid criticism of water companiesThames Water has been accused of conducting a “flimsy PR stunt” as it prepares to report that its chief executive has landed nearly double her annual salary with a £1.5m pay package – after announcing that she would shun her bonus amid intense criticism of Britain’s water companies.Sarah Bentley said last month that she and the firm’s finance chief, Alastair Cochran, would forgo their bonuses and any payments due under long-term incentive plans for the 2022-23 financial year. Continue reading...

Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira were killed in a region where 23 Indigenous groups live – and we all face the same dangerAmong my people, the Marubo, knowledge is transmitted through oral history, passed down by elders throughout the centuries. For many generations these stories described the approach of people we call nawas – outsiders who always brought misfortune, usually in search of natural resources from the forests we inhabit.My ancestors spoke of Catholic missionaries from Spain and Portugal, of Peruvian rubber barons and logging companies. The stories my generation tells are of fundamentalist evangelical missionaries, illegal miners and fishing gangs bankrolled by drug trafficking networks. Continue reading...

British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous expert were killed a year ago on Monday in remote Amazon region they tried to defendFriends and admirers of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira are preparing to gather in towns and cities across Brazil as well as London to remember the men and the causes they cherished.The British journalist and the Brazilian Indigenous expert were shot dead during a reporting trip in the Amazon’s remote Javari valley region one year ago, on 5 June 2022.If you want to help finish Dom Phillips’s book on the Amazon you can contribute here. Continue reading...

Deteriorating conditions and other whales in area south of Sydney hampered attempts, say rescuersA humpback whale trapped in waters south of Sydney has finally been freed after a gruelling eight-hour rescue mission.Rescue efforts began on Saturday morning after reports of a whale in distress off Five Islands near Port Kembla. Volunteer crews from Marine Rescue NSW and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service were called to assist at about 8.30am. Continue reading...

Twila Cassadore hopes teaching Western Apache traditional foodways can aid mental, emotional and spiritual healthOn a warm day in April, Twila Cassadore piloted her pickup truck toward the mountains on the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona to scout for wild edible plants. A wet winter and spring rains had transformed the desert into a sea of color: green creosote bushes topped with small yellow flowers, white mariposa lilies, purple lupines and poppies in full bloom.Cassadore and I drove up a rough dirt road that used to be an old cattle trail, passing through various ecosystems, moving from Sonoran desert to grasslands and piñon-juniper woodlands. In each area, Cassadore would stop to gather desert chia seeds, cacti flowers and thistles. Continue reading...

Decomposing pieces of Great Atlantic sargassum belt carry Vibrio bacteria on state’s shorelineIt might have been one of Alfred Hitchcock’s fanciful tales of the supernatural: a 5,000-mile wide blob of murky seaweed creeping menacingly across the Atlantic before dumping itself along the US shoreline.But now giant clumps of the 13m-ton morass labeled the Great Atlantic sargassum belt are washing up on Florida’s beaches, scientists are warning of a real-life threat from the piles of decomposing algae, namely high levels of the flesh-eating Vibrio bacteria lurking in the vegetation. Continue reading...

Pollution from gas flaring – the burning of natural gas associated with oil extraction – is also a major concern in the oil-rich but extremely dry southWestern oil companies are exacerbating water shortages and causing pollution in Iraq as they race to profit from rising oil prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Water scarcity has already displaced thousands and increased instability, according to international experts, while Iraq is now considered the fifth most vulnerable country to the climate crisis by the UN. In the oil-rich but extremely dry south, wetlands that used to feed entire communities are now muddy canals. Continue reading...

Hollywood director of climate crisis satire praised protestors for waking up ‘sleeping governments’ and will triple donations over weekendThe Hollywood director of Netflix film Don’t Look Up has pledged to triple donations to Just Stop Oil over the weekend, the group has said.Adam McKay, who made the satire on the climate crisis as well as Step Brothers and The Big Short, said he stands with the protesters, praising them for waking up “sleeping governments”. Continue reading...

Dupont, Chemours and Corteva agree deal and 3M also reportedly considering $10bn settlement to avoid trial due to start on MondayDuPont and two related companies said they would pay close to $1.2bn to settle liability claims brought by public water systems serving the vast majority of the US population on Friday, just days before the start of a bellwether trial in South Carolina over PFAS contamination.PFAS maker 3M was reportedly also considering a settlement that would keep the company from having to face allegations that it was responsible for knowingly contaminating drinking water supplies around the United States. Continue reading...

Travel blog Capture the Atlas has crowned its best Milky Way photographs of the year. This year’s shots captured the galaxy glowing above dramatic landscapes in Namibia, Chile, Japan, Spain, Iran and New Zealand Continue reading...

Flies chilled to sub-zero temperatures amputate one or more of their six limbs to protect their internal organsFlightless snow flies in the US and Canada can amputate their legs to survive as they begin to freeze, researchers have discovered.Lab experiments in which the flies were chilled gradually to sub-zero temperatures revealed they can detach one or more of their six legs, an apparent “last-ditch tactic” to protect their internal organs from the advancing cold. Continue reading...

Move expected to help reduce waits of up to 15 years to connect solar power installationsBritain’s electricity system operator will tell energy developers to get on with their projects or get out of the queue for a grid connection as it struggles to manage the growing backlog of delayed green energy projects.The ultimatum is expected to help speed up the 10- to 15-year wait for a grid connection, which is holding back billions in green investment and threatens to derail the UK’s progress towards its climate targets. Continue reading...

Action set to slow population growth for one of the most rapidly expanding areas of the US amid ‘megadrought’The state of Arizona has restricted future home-building in the Phoenix area due to a lack of groundwater, based on projections showing that wells will run dry under existing conditions.The action by the Arizona department of water resources on Thursday is set to slow population growth for the Phoenix region, the state capital, home to 4.6 million people and one of the most rapidly expanding areas of the United States. Continue reading...

From mining to cattle ranching and soya farming, some of the world’s largest companies exploit the region, though many also claim to be giving something backValeCEO: Eduardo Bartolomeo

Analysis shows handful of corporations extract tens of billions of dollars of raw materials a year – and their commitments to restoration vary greatlyA handful of global giants dominate the industrialisation of the Amazon rainforest, extracting tens of billions of dollars of raw materials every year, according to an analysis that highlights how much value is being sucked out of the region with relatively little going back in.But even as the pace of deforestation hits record highs while standards of living in the Amazon are among the lowest in Brazil, the true scale of extraction remains unknown, with basic details about cattle ranching, logging and mining hard to establish despite efforts to ban commodities linked to its destruction. Continue reading...

Investigation involving Guardian shows systematic and vast forest loss linked to cattle farming in BrazilMore than 800m trees have been cut down in the Amazon rainforest in just six years to feed the world’s appetite for Brazilian beef, according to a new investigation, despite dire warnings about the forest’s importance in fighting the climate crisis.A data-driven investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), the Guardian, Repórter Brasil and Forbidden Stories shows systematic and vast forest loss linked to cattle farming. Continue reading...

With six months until UN summit in Dubai, can its oil executive president bring unwilling countries into line?

Heatwave continues in southern and eastern Asia as temperatures exceed 40C in vast swathes of regionShanghai in China has reported a record high May temperature of 36.7C, breaking the previous record by 1C. The new high temperature on 29 May comes amid the heatwave affecting southern and eastern Asia since mid-April. Vast swathes of the region have had temperatures exceeding 40C, with parts of Pakistan reaching almost 50C in mid-May.South-east Asia has been affected particularly badly, with record high national temperatures in Laos (43.5C), Vietnam (44.2C), and Thailand (45.4C). This is due to low amounts of rainfall over the previous winter resulting in drier soils, which can heat up more quickly than moist soils, thus exacerbating the effect. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including owl chicks, a white moose calf and hungry brown bear cubs Continue reading...

Many of Britain’s poorest towns are in areas with greatest potential for renewable energy, says reportA network of underground geothermal plants is being touted as a way to help level up the UK after a report discovered many areas with the greatest geothermal potential lie beneath the towns and cities most in need of investment.Areas that have been earmarked by the government as part of its levelling up agenda are about three times as likely to be rich in untapped energy from the earth, according to an academic study commissioned by No 10. Continue reading...

Critics say allegations against Hoang Thi Minh Hong are politically motivated, coming amid similar prosecutions against other environmental activistsPolice in Vietnam have arrested a prominent environmental activist after accusing her of tax evasion, charges that have been dismissed by critics as politically motivated.Hoang Thi Minh Hong, a former CEO of Change, an environment-focused NGO, was detained by police along with her husband, Nam Hoang, and former staff members of Change in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Record heat in May across parts of the country comes amid a year of rising temperatures and erratic weather in ChinaTemperatures across China reached or exceeded their records for the month of May, the country’s National Climate Centre has said.Weather stations at 446 sites registered temperatures that were the same as, or greater than, the highest ever recorded for the month of May, deputy director of the National Climate Centre Gao Rong said at a press briefing on Friday. Continue reading...

Shadow ministers say green prosperity plan should pay for capital spending such as housing or transport infrastructureSenior Labour figures are urging Keir Starmer to give the go-ahead to a series of infrastructure projects as part of the party’s £28bn green prosperity plan, even if they are not strictly environmental in nature.Shadow cabinet ministers have asked the Labour leader and the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to expand the fund’s green mission and use it to pay for a series of capital spending projects, such as housing or transport infrastructure. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Study finds pests could damage crops and households would incur costs for pesticides, veterinary bills and electrical faults

Exclusive: Houses for 7,800 residents in areas worst hit by 2022 floods proposed in near term, with more development later

President says last year’s killings were result of ‘encouragement of anarchy’ in Amazon under BolsonaroDom Phillips and Bruno Pereira will not be forgotten, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has vowed, blaming their killings a year ago on the Amazonian “anarchy” unleashed under his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.Phillips, a British journalist, and Pereira, a Brazilian Indigenous expert, were shot dead by a group of illegal fishers on 5 June last year while travelling in the remote Javari valley near Brazil’s border with Colombia and Peru. Continue reading...

Spills occur as Danish parliament passes law to tax petrol and diesel trucks transporting heavy loadsA 57-year-old truck driver has been detained after loads of potatoes were found on a bridge linking two Danish islands, police have said. The driver was held on suspicion of causing reckless endangerment to life.The first spill was reported on the westbound side of the Storebaelt Bridge early on Thursday morning, a police spokesperson, Kenneth Taanquist, said. The bridge connects the island where the capital, Copenhagen, is located to the rest of Denmark. Continue reading...

Alexandre Saraiva gives alert on organised crime in region ahead of anniversary of killings of Dom Phillips and Bruno PereiraThe rapid advance of organised crime groups in the Brazilian Amazon risks turning the region into a vast, conflict-stricken hinterland plagued by heavily armed “criminal insurgents”, a former senior federal police chief has warned.Alexandre Saraiva, who worked in the Amazon from 2011 to 2021, said he feared the growing footprint of drug-trafficking mafias in the region could spawn a situation similar to the decades-long drug conflict in Rio de Janeiro, where the police’s battle with drug gangs and paramilitaries has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Continue reading...

Photos and videos on phone found near site of men’s killing show some of their last movements in Brazilian AmazonSome of the last images of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira have been found after Indigenous activists recovered a mobile phone Pereira was carrying when the two men were killed in the Brazilian Amazon last year.The phone was found last October when activists from Univaja, the Indigenous association where Pereira worked, returned to a stretch of flooded forest along the Itaquaí River where the men’s bodies were taken after they were shot dead on their boat on the morning of 5 June 2022. Continue reading...

One year ago, Bruno Pereira, a Brazilian Indigenous expert, and Dom Phillips, a British journalist and longtime Guardian contributor, were killed on the frontline of the battle to protect the planet.They were ambushed on the Amazon’s Itaquaí River while returning from a reporting trip to the remote Javari valley region. The attack prompted international outcry, and cast a spotlight on the growing threat to the Amazon posed by extractive industries, both legal and illegal, such as logging, poaching, mining and cattle ranching.Today, we launch the Bruno and Dom project, a year-long collaborative investigation coordinated by Forbidden Stories that involves more than 50 journalists from 16 media organisations in 10 countries around the world.The goal is to honour and pursue their work, to foreground the importance of the Amazon and its people, and to suggest possible ways to save the Amazon. Here, the Guardian's Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, looks at their lives and legacies

Firms are due to share cost of recycling waste from April but say it will add £1.7bn to food billsBritain’s biggest retailers and food manufacturers are stepping up lobbying on the government to delay landmark environmental reforms that would force them to pay for the collection and recycling of household packaging waste from next year.Industry bosses have used Downing Street crisis talks arranged in response to soaring food prices to warn that the plans – due to come into effect in April 2024 – would drive up shopping bills further amid the cost of living crisis. Continue reading...

A bill passed the state legislature that will require state-funded institutions to provide halal and kosher meals on requestAs a student at Sullivan high school in Chicago, Ridwan Rashid frequently skipped lunch and was distracted by hunger, even though his school offered free meals to all students. Rashid is Muslim, as are a growing number of students at Sullivan. But until recently, none of the meals served at the Sullivan cafeteria were halal, which meant they were off limits for most of the school’s Muslim students.“We go to school and it’s like, OK, some of the kids can eat and none of the Muslim kids can eat,” Rashid said. “It’s not fair.” Continue reading...

Gelje Sherpa was guiding Chinese client to summit when he saw Malaysian climber clinging to ropeA Malaysian climber narrowly survived after a Nepali sherpa guide hauled him down from below the summit of Mount Everest in a very rare high-altitude rescue, a government official has said.Gelje Sherpa, 30, was guiding a Chinese client to the 8,849-metre (29,032ft) Everest summit on 18 May when he saw the Malaysian climber clinging to a rope and shivering from extreme cold in the area known as the death zone, where temperatures can dip to -30C or lower. Continue reading...

Green groups criticise Jemena for offering incentive to switch from electricity amid policies in Victoria and NSW aimed at winding back gas use

Scientists compared catch data from four years before and after a permanent ban and found minimal impact on commercial fishingBanning fishing in a Mexican marine park did not reduce the fishing catch, according to a new study that says it has dispelled the “myth” spread by fishing companies that protecting marine areas leaves less fish available for people to eat.The before-and-after study looked at whether banning commercial fishing from the Revillagigedo national park, which covers 147,000 sq km (57,000 sq miles) of Pacific Ocean west of Mexico, would reduce the country’s catch volumes.

Exclusive: Report claims Australia’s shareholdings in development banks has made it responsible for investing $828m in fossil fuel projects over five years

DoJ files lawsuit against companies linked to Jim Justice, also a Republican Senate candidate, seeking unpaid penalties of $7.6mThe Republican governor of West Virginia, Jim Justice, who is running for a US Senate seat next year, implied on Wednesday that a justice department lawsuit over more than $7.5m in unpaid penalties related to mining operations by his family companies was a politically motivated attack.“I’ve announced as a Republican that I’m running for the US Senate,” Justice told reporters. “The Biden administration is aware of the fact that with a win for the US Senate and everything, we could very well flip the Senate. There’s a lot at stake right now.” Continue reading...

Climate protesters call provision in US debt ceiling bill to expedite controversial project in Virginia and West Virginia a ‘betrayal’Climate activists have stepped up protests over the inclusion of a provision to speed up a controversial gas pipeline’s completion in the deal to raise the debt ceiling as Congress prepares to vote on Wednesday, aiming criticism at Democrats Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin.The pipeline project has long been championed by Manchin, the West Virginia senator who was the top recipient of fossil fuel industry contributions during the 2022 election cycle. Continue reading...

Coastline, which runs from Lough Foyle to the Glens of Antrim, described as a place of outstanding natural beautyNamed after its geology and best known for the dramatic sweep of its scenery, Northern Ireland’s Causeway coast has now earned a new accolade, as the UK’s favourite place for wildlife.The coastline, which runs along the north-east of Ireland from Lough Foyle to the Glens of Antrim, was voted the nation’s favourite in a poll by BBC Wildlife magazine, beating the Isles of Scilly in fourth place, Scaur Glen in Dumfries and Galloway in third and, in an unexpected second place, Wimbledon Common in London. Continue reading...

More than 18,000 people remain under evacuation order outside Halifax as Canadian PM Justin Trudeau pledges federal assistanceOfficials in the province of Nova Scotia say unprecedented wildfires that have forced thousands from their homes will keep growing despite the “water, raw muscle power and air power” deployed by fire crews.As of Wednesday, more than 20,000 hectares of the Maritime province were burning from 13 wildfires, including three fires that considered out of control. More than 18,000 people remain under evacuation order outside Halifax, the region’s largest city. More than 200 structures, the majority of which are homes, have been destroyed by the fire. No fatalities have been recorded. Continue reading...

Groundbreaking analysis of safety and justice hopes to inform next generation of sustainability policyHuman activity has pushed the world into the danger zone in seven out of eight newly demarcated indicators of planetary safety and justice, according to a groundbreaking analysis of the Earth’s wellbeing.Going beyond climate disruption, the report by the Earth Commission group of scientists presents disturbing evidence that our planet faces growing crises of water availability, nutrient loading, ecosystem maintenance and aerosol pollution. These pose threats to the stability of life-support systems and worsen social equality. Continue reading...

Dale Vince pledges to double amount given by public over next 48 hours after Tories target his Labour linksOne of Labour’s biggest donors has pledged to match any public donations to Just Stop Oil in the next 48 hours, as Keir Starmer faced mounting Conservative pressure to return funds from the businessman over his backing for the environmental group.Dale Vince, the founder of the green energy firm Ecotricity, has given at least £1.5m to Labour over the last 10 years, according to the Electoral Commission. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Labor facing calls from 15 crossbenchers, as well as party insiders, to transition to plantation timber as part of reform to environmental laws