Environment | The Guardian

Regulator expected to examine whether sustainability reports on sourcing of wood pellets meet renewables subsidy criteriaDrax is facing an investigation by the energy regulator into the sustainability of the biomass it uses at its wood-burning power plant amid growing scepticism over its green credentials.The energy regulator, Ofgem, said it would investigate whether the owner of Britain’s biggest power plant, in North Yorkshire, was in breach of the reporting rules required for its renewable energy subsidy scheme. Continue reading...

With 100 tonnes of clothing from the west discarded every day in Accra, ‘fast fashion’ brands must be forced to help pay for the choking textile waste they create, environmentalists sayA group of secondhand clothes dealers from Ghana have visited Brussels to lobby for Europe-wide legislation to compel the fashion industry to help address the “environmental catastrophe” of dumping vast amounts of textiles in the west African country.The traders from Kantamanto in Accra, one of the world’s largest secondhand clothing markets, met Alice Bah Kuhnke, an MEP with Sweden’s Green party, environmental organisations and representatives from the European Commission and the European Environment Bureau to argue that proposed extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulation should ensure Ghana receives funds towards managing the 100 tonnes of clothing discarded at the market every day. Continue reading...

In Arizona’s Pinal county water cuts have become a reality even before this month’s historic deal by states to use 13% less water from stricken riverNancy Caywood worries about water constantly. Water – or the uncertainty of it – has kept the 69-year-old Arizona farmer awake at night since supplies began dwindling about two decades ago due to chronic overuse and drought in the American west.During one particularly low point in late 2021, every field on the 255-acre family farm was either fallow, shrivelled or dormant. “The canal was dry, the reservoir was empty, it was raining at the wrong times … the farm was 100% unproductive and we were using savings to pay bills,” said Caywood, a third-generation farmer in Pinal county who grows mostly alfalfa and cotton – two of the most marketable and water-guzzling commodity crops. Continue reading...

Inventory shows Australia has burned through 27% of emissions budget under Paris climate accord in 25% of allotted time

The proposed legislation would require changes to farming methods in Europe to tackle the climate crisis and restore nature, ensuring affordable food for allFor 10,000 years, human civilisation has grown and thrived because of Earth’s remarkable regenerative capacity that sustains climate stability and rich biological diversity. Now human activity has severely undermined this resilience.Our patterns of economic growth, development, production and consumption are pushing the planet’s life-support systems beyond their natural boundaries. Last week, members of the European parliament’s agriculture and fisheries committees voted to continue this destruction, rejecting European Commission proposals for a nature restoration law. The vote flies in the face of science, and the claims by some MEPs to be defending farmers and food security are flawed. Continue reading...

SNP government preparing to accept UK ministers’ demand to exclude glass from deposit return schemeScottish ministers are poised to accept a UK government ultimatum over a controversial can and bottle recycling scheme after ministers in London said it had to be watered down significantly.Lorna Slater, the minister overseeing a Scottish scheme to charge a 20p deposit for bottles and cans, accused her UK counterparts of “deliberate sabotage” after they demanded that Scotland drop plans to include glass bottles. Continue reading...

Nepal’s head of tourism says variable weather on the mountain has led to one of the deadliest years on recordExperts say this is likely to be one of the deadliest years on record on Mount Everest, with variable weather caused by climate change being blamed as one of the main reasons for the deaths of up to 17 people.A total of 12 people have now been confirmed dead during Everest expeditions this season and another five are missing, presumed dead, as no contact has been made for at least five days in all cases, according to the Himalayan Database, which tracks mountain fatalities. Continue reading...

The agreement will fast-track the Mountain Valley pipeline, and limit the scope of environmental reviews for future developmentsThe deal to raise the US debt ceiling will have significant ramifications for the climate and nature, by fast-tracking a controversial gas pipeline in West Virginia and limiting the scope of environmental reviews for future developments, environmentalists have warned.The agreement struck between Joe Biden and Republicans who control the House of Representatives states the Mountain Valley pipeline is “required in the national interest” and should be issued its necessary permits within 21 days and be shielded from legal challenge by those who object to it. Continue reading...

Government curbs transfer of trees to and from affected areas to limit spread of rash-causing oak processionary mothsThe government has introduced new legislation controlling the movement of oak trees in south-east England due to a rise in the numbers of a toxic, invasive moth species.The oak processionary moth was first spotted in Kew Gardens, in south-west London, in 2006 after the eggs were imported on an oak from Europe. The insects, whose caterpillars produce tiny hairs that can cause allergic reactions in humans, feed on the leaves of oak trees. Continue reading...

US airline pledged to go carbon neutral but plaintiffs say it is relying on offsets that do almost nothing to mitigate global heatingDelta Air Lines is facing a lawsuit over its $1bn carbon neutrality claim which plaintiffs say is “false and misleading” as it relies on offsets that do little to mitigate global heating.In February 2020, the US airline announced plans to go carbon neutral, pledging $1bn to mitigate all greenhouse gas emissions from its business worldwide over the next decade. It included plans to purchase carbon credits generated from conserving rainforest, wetlands and grasslands along with decreasing the use of jet fuel and increasing plane efficiency. Continue reading...

Darryl Kelbrick shows Christopher Thomond the painstaking process behind artisan charcoal burning, a practice he has spent the past decade learning in an ancient coppiced woodland where he lives with his partner off-grid Continue reading...

Under an ambitious conservation plan, 60 Mesola red deer are being moved from northern Italy to Calabria, where it is hoped they will thrive and multiplyIn a meadow in northern Italy, the fog engulfs a forklift truck putting long, narrow boxes inside a green mounted police transporter. Small openings in the crates reveal the fearful looks of stocky deer, their antlers sawn off to prevent injury during transport. It will be a long trip, more than 1,000km (620 miles) and almost 20 hours of driving to Calabria in southern Italy, where they will be released.The 20 animals in the crates are some of the 300 remaining Italian or Mesola red deer (Cervus elaphus italicus), a unique and endangered subspecies.Time to move: an Italian red deer in the Bosco della Mesola nature reserve in northern Italy Continue reading...

Marcus McGowan was attacked 40km off the Cape York coast on Saturday with an expert stating the croc likely ‘realised it grabbed something too big to handle’A Queensland man who survived a crocodile attack by prising the reptile’s jaws off his head says he was “simply in the wrong place, at the wrong time”.Marcus McGowan, 51, was snorkelling near the Charles Hardy Islands, 40km off the Cape York coast, with his wife and friends when he was attacked on Saturday. Continue reading...

Lava flow from Big Ben on Heard Island about 4,100km south-west of Perth part of eruption first noted more than a decade ago

Exclusive: England, Scotland and Wales survey reports similar response to people with gas boilersMore than 80% of households that have replaced their gas boilers with an electric heat pump are satisfied with their new heating system, according to the first major survey of heat pump users.Those who use heat pumps to warm their homes reported broadly similar levels of satisfaction to those with gas boilers, the survey commissioned by the innovation charity Nesta found. Continue reading...

From the furnace of federal politics to bushfires, droughts and floods, Guardian Australia’s photographer-at-large captures 10 years of tumult and triumph

Big four have pledged to align business practices with Paris agreement but loophole allows them to fund sector, activist group says

Rich nations should pay for biodiversity loss, which disproportionately affects poor countries, say scientistsWealthy countries should pay for the loss and damage they cause to nature in poorer countries in the same way as for climate impacts, researchers have argued.At the Cop27 climate talks in November, world leaders agreed to a dedicated “loss and damage” fund providing financial assistance to poor nations stricken by climate disaster. More developed countries, which are largely responsible for driving climate breakdown, are to pay compensation to poorer nations, which are typically more vulnerable to its impacts. Continue reading...

Finding has implications for the ways that Australia’s native canid – including the extent to which they are culled – are managed

‘He knew the anguish of the marrow’When I was eight, my mother made me a costume for a Halloween party. Even at eight, this seemed like an important party. The costume was beautiful, as the things my mother made often were: more beautiful than a child’s thing ought to be, more beautiful than what a mother ought to be able to make after work.It was a skeleton costume: a unitard made from stocking fabric, painted with fluorescent paint; I remember the care she took to make the bones accurate, to make them just my size, matching femur to femur. Continue reading...

No one has yet been able to sail an autonomous boat across the Atlantic, but a young couple in Wales hope their craft will revolutionise ocean monitoring of temperatures, wildlife and moreWhen Anahita Laverack and Ciaran Dowds tested their robot boat for the first time off the coast of Wales, it was not smooth sailing. The 23-year-olds, both engineering graduates from Imperial College London, launched their autonomous craft – a 4ft, unmanned vessel – from a sailboat off the coast of Aberystwyth last July.Although the seas were rough, the robot boat “performed beautifully”, says Dowds – but he did not. Continue reading...

Gas company has argued ‘we pay our way’, noting that it contributes billions in tax and royalties

Confectionary with environmentally friendlier packaging will be available at 500 Tesco storesConsumers buying Mars bars at Tesco in the coming days will notice a change: the chocolate bar’s usual plastic wrapper has been swapped for a more environmentally friendly paper one.The confectionery maker Mars Incorporated is trialling recyclable paper packaging for a limited time, with the bars available at 500 Tesco stores from Monday. Continue reading...

A study is under way in the water-scarce region to see if commodity farmers can use the regenerative technique of cover cropping as a way to adapt to rapidly changing weather conditionsIn one of the toughest growing regions in the US, commercial farmers like Frank Machac are experimenting with a style of ancient agriculture more known for soil health than profit.They are perhaps unlikely budding agroecologists. “My number one concern is yield, I’m not worrying about climate change,” said Machac, 60, a ruddy-faced straight talker with 30 years’ farming experience in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV). Continue reading...

Low demand combined with sunny conditions and meltwater lifts hydro and solar productionOver the last week, several European countries had power prices in the wholesale energy market dip into negative values during daylight hours. The decline in prices was mostly driven by the abundance of available energy generated by renewable sources, combined with the relatively low demand for energy for heating or cooling, caused by normal springtime temperatures.Negative prices often occur when there is an excess supply of electricity in the market. This can happen when renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, or hydro produce a large quantity of electricity which exceeds demand and cannot be stored for later use. In such cases, producers may offer negative prices to incentivise wholesale consumers to take the surplus electricity off the grid and avoid overloading the system. This situation occurred due to an area of high pressure dominating across much of central and north-west Europe, providing lots of solar power generation across the area. Meanwhile, Finland experienced an oversupply of hydroelectric power resulting from excessive springtime meltwater which in turn led to negative prices here as well. Continue reading...

Monday’s election is going to be a political nail-biter but neither candidate has discussed a post oil and gas worldRecord-breaking wildfires have charred more than a million hectares of land in Alberta, pushing tens of thousands from their homes and choking the skies in a thick haze of smoke.But on the zigzagging campaign trail of the province’s general election, neither party leader has confronted the realities of climate change and how it will likely dramatically reshape life in the Canadian prairies. Continue reading...

Party says details of how UK can become ‘world leader’ in green energy transition will be announced soonLabour has confirmed it will block all new domestic oil and gas developments if it wins power, proposing instead to invest heavily in renewable sources such as wind and also in nuclear power.The shadow work and pensions secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said details would be announced soon. Continue reading...

Revelation about war-torn country is ‘terrible indictment’ of UK government, says Ed MilibandUkraine has completed more onshore wind turbines than England since it was occupied by Russian soldiers – despite the UK government’s promise to relax restrictions on onshore windfarms.Only two onshore wind turbines have been installed in England since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, generating 1 megawatt (MW) of electricity in the Staffordshire village of Keele. Continue reading...

Republican ‘trying to out-Trump Trump’ on climate, expert says, as governor says he rejects the ‘politicization of the weather’Ron DeSantis has been accused of a “catastrophic” approach to the climate crisis after he launched his campaign for US president by saying he rejects the “politicization of the weather” and questioning whether hurricanes hitting his home state of Florida have been worsened by climate change.DeSantis, the Republican Florida governor who announced his bid for the White House via a glitch-heavy Twitter stream on Wednesday, has previously dismissed concerns about global heating as “leftwing stuff” and he expanded upon this theme during a Fox News interview following his campaign launch. Continue reading...

Several Dutch celebrities among protesters, including Game of Thrones actor Carice van HoutenMore than 1,500 people were arrested during a protest by the Extinction Rebellion climate group in The Hague on Saturday, Dutch police said.Activists blocked a section of a motorway during the afternoon in protest against Dutch fossil fuel subsidies. Continue reading...

Analysis shows area includes 9,000 hectares where there was already active logging as pressure grows on government to end practice

Gallagher Premiership match between Saracens and Sale delayed after two men throw orange powder during matchJust Stop Oil protesters disrupted the Gallagher Premiership rugby union final at Twickenham on Saturday, two days after a similar protest at the Chelsea flower show.Two men invaded the pitch midway through the first half of the match in south-west London between Saracens and Sale, throwing orange paint powder on to the field resulting in a stoppage in play. Continue reading...

A planned drive-through Starbucks in the Gorbals area is at centre of a storm over the proliferation of outlets encouraging car useAmong the data available on the city of Glasgow is one particularly incongruous pair of findings: it has some of the lowest levels of car ownership in the UK, but the greatest number of drive-through restaurants – almost 50 at the last count.The latter has caused increasing frustration for residents, with at least 10 new applications lodged since 2019 and the vast majority granted. Campaigners have emphasised the apparent contradiction with Scotland’s view of itself as an ambitious climate leader, particularly following its hosting of Cop26 in 2021. Continue reading...

Conservative ministers say Scotland will have to remove glass bottles from its environmental initiativeThe UK government has been accused of trying to “sabotage” Scotland’s deposit return scheme (DRS) after it ruled the environmental initiative could only go ahead if glass bottles were removed from its remit.Lorna Slater, the Scottish government minister responsible for implementing DRS, said ministers at Holyrood would have to “look very seriously at where this leaves the viability of the Scottish scheme”. Continue reading...

A new study uses satellites to predict what California’s famous coastline could look like by 2100California is known for golden sands and endless waves, but much of the state’s famous shoreline could vanish in the future. That’s according to a new study, which found that between 25% and 70% of California beaches might be washed away by the end of the century, leaving only cliffs or coastal infrastructure in their wake.The study used satellite data collected over the past two decades to examine California’s 1,100-mile-long coast. Researchers from the US Geological Survey (USGS) used those satellite images, combined with models of climate crisis-driven sea level rise ranging from 1.6 to 10ft, to estimate the shape and position of the state’s coastline by 2100. The amount of sea level rise will depend on how much carbon is pumped into the atmosphere now and in the future. Continue reading...

Dr Joseph Dituri plans to spend 100 days in his subaquatic compound, as he attempts to document the long-term effects of increased pressure on the bodyMore than 20ft below the surface of a Florida lagoon, one man is on a mission.Having already broken the record for the longest time living underwater, Dr Joseph Dituri is planning to spend 100 days in his subaquatic compound, to research the effects of hyperbaric pressure on the body. Continue reading...

Yellow flower that only grows in York went extinct in 1991 brought back to life by Natural England expertsYork groundsel was a cheerful yellow flower that slipped into global extinction in 1991, thanks to overzealous application of weedkiller in the city of its name.But now the urban plant has been bought back to life in the first ever de-extinction in Britain, and is flowering again in York. Continue reading...

Scheme that began to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee in 2012 has thrived, project audit findsWildflower meadows planted a decade ago to celebrate 60 years of the late queen’s reign have thrived, with 101 new fields of flowers created since the scheme was launched.King Charles, then the Prince of Wales, worked with Plantlife and the Wildlife Trusts to launch ”coronation meadows”, identifying 60 species-rich meadows from which to take donor seeds – one meadow for each year of the queen’s reign at the time. Continue reading...

Biologists found the three-week-old all-female litter in between the Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountain rangesAfter a devastating year for Los Angeles mountain lions, researchers have made a hopeful discovery in the southern California hills: an all-female litter of kittens.Biologists found the three cubs last week in what the National Park Service described as a “dense patch of poison oak nestled among large boulders” in between the Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountain ranges. The kittens, just over three weeks old and known as P-113, P-114 and P-115, are healthy, the NPS said in a statement. Continue reading...

New book details how New York could rid the city of rats and create more parks if it repurposed its 3m parking spotsWhat could New York achieve if it repurposed some of its 3m curbside parking spots?It could get rid of rats by moving trash off the sidewalks and into containers. It could create safe, cool play spaces for the more than 1m New Yorkers without easy park access. It could build bioswales to collect rainwater and prevent flooding during heavy storms.This article originally appeared in Nexus Media News. Continue reading...

High levels of toxic ‘forever chemicals’ found in New Hampshire soil samples raise questions about food and water pollutionBackground levels of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” in the ground and air may be much higher than previously thought, federal testing of spatially random soil samples from across New Hampshire suggests.The analysis found high levels of PFAS in all 100 shallow soil samples, which were taken from undisturbed land not close to known polluters. The chemicals are thought to largely have gotten there through the air, and the study, along with recent EU research, suggests similar levels of soil and air contamination throughout the world. Continue reading...

Producers accuse government of failing to tackle pollution after ‘very high’ levels of bacteria found“Very high” levels of E coli found in oysters and mussels have led to the closure of 11 shellfish production zones in Cornwall.In an email seen by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations, the Cornwall Port Health Authority (CPHA) told food business operators they “must not collect the affected animals from this area by any method. It is unsuitable for their production for health reasons and has been temporarily closed.” Continue reading...

Only one female remains in the Canadian wilderness, a symbol of the country’s inability to save a species on the verge of destruction as politicians dither and the logging continuesOn a rainy spring morning, huddled under the shelter of an ancient cedar, Jared Hobbs hoots, whoops and squawks. In years past, he could lure curious owls by drawing on his extensive repertoire. Among them are the whoo whoo whoo whooo territorial calls, alarm barks and a simple “helicopter” breeding call that coo coo coo coos into the air.The calls bounce through the thick stand of trees and dissolve into the vast British Columbia rainforest.Species-at-risk expert Jared Hobbs in a rare stand of intact spotted owl habitat in western British Columbia. Photograph: Jesse Winter/The Guardian Continue reading...

Ten of broadcaster’s 31 hosts made on-air statements in 2022 rejecting or challenging scientific consensusAlmost a third of presenters on GB News have used their platform to cast doubt on the scientific consensus on climate breakdown, according to an analysis.Ten of the broadcaster’s 31 presenters made statements on air in 2022 rejecting or challenging widely accepted scientific findings about how humans are affecting the climate, and the role the climate crisis plays in extreme weather events. Continue reading...

Entrepreneur says plan to send renewable energy to Singapore from Northern Territory a ‘nation-building project for Australia’

Wind and rain bring island to a standstill but eye replacement cycle weakens super typhoon temporarilyEarlier this week, Typhoon Mawar whipped up tension in western Micronesia as the category 4 storm came close to landfall on the island of Guam. Starting out as a tropical depression over the weekend, Mawar rapidly deepened and intensified over the following couple of days, almost reaching category 5 by Tuesday evening. Wind gusts peaked at 155mph (250km/h), briefly making Mawar a super typhoon about 100 miles south-east of the US island territory.In a stroke of luck, an eyewall replacement cycle occurred overnight, hours before the super typhoon was due to reach Guam. The cycle involves the slight degradation of the storm’s structure as a new eye develops around the old eye. Consequently, the storm’s intensity weakened temporarily while simultaneously spreading strong winds over a larger area. Mawar’s winds dropped to a sustained speed of 140mph as the typhoon brushed the northern edge of Guam at about 7am local time (2200 BST) Had Mawar made landfall, it would have been the first category 4 typhoon to do so since Typhoon Pamela in 1976. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including a crab spider, a glass frog and a curious snow leopard Continue reading...

Devon cattle stand in for extinct aurochs in project aimed at protecting precious species such as sand lizardsThe mighty aurochs have gone, as have the tarpan horses and the wild boars, but modern-day substitutes have been drafted in to recreate a large open “savannah” on heathland in Dorset.Instead of aurochs, considered the wild ancestor of domestic cattle, 200 red Devon cattle are to be found roaming the Purbeck Heaths, while Exmoor ponies are stand-ins for the tarpan horses and curly coated Mangalitsa pigs are doing the sort of rooting around that boars used to excel at here. Continue reading...

Ruling by conservative-dominated court shrinks scope of landmark law to protect America’s waterwaysThe scope of a landmark law to protect America’s waterways has been shrunk by the US supreme court, which has sided with an Idaho couple who have waged a long-running legal battle to build a house on wetlands near one of the state’s largest lakes.In a ruling passed down on Thursday, the conservative-dominated court decided that the federal government was wrong to use the Clean Water Act, a key 50-year-old piece of legislation to prevent pollution seeping into rivers, streams and lakes, to prevent the couple building over the wetland beside Priest Lake in Idaho. Continue reading...

Naturalist wins claim over articles on Country Squire Magazine website that accused him of lying about charityChris Packham said he has been vindicated after a judge found that he had been subjected to an online ideological campaign, accusing him of fraud and dishonesty, before awarding him £90,000 in libel damages.The prominent naturalist found his character, speech impediment and Asperger syndrome mocked in articles published on the Country Squire Magazine (CSM) website, which also accused him of lying to raise funds for a charity of which he is a trustee. Continue reading...