US assistant secretary of state says two countries have stopped creation of new protected areas in Antarctica ‘for too long’

Once-in-a-decade plans to protect the natural world and halt its destruction will be decided in Canada in December

Labour leader also reaffirms pledge of no new oil or gas licences as activists cake King Charles waxworkKeir Starmer has said he would continue with Tory plans for stiff sentences for climate protesters who block roads, despite reiterating Labour’s pledge for no new oil and gas licences, as two Just Stop Oil activists caked a waxwork of King Charles.Starmer’s pledge to impose a moratorium on new oil and gas projects puts Labour policy in line with the demands of Just Stop Oil, whose supporters have been blocking roads and carrying out other protests in central London every day this month. Continue reading...

Up to 60% of country in designated drought zone, as jet stream heats up parts of EuropeThe US drought monitor declared 60% of the country to be in a designated drought zone last Thursday, with 34% in a severe or deepening drought. Although such conditions are not unusual in the US, with approximately 14% of the country having experienced severe to extreme drought every year since 1895, the extent of the current situation certainly is.Western states and parts of the Great Plains are experiencing the most severe droughts in the country. Some central states including Minnesota and Iowa have recorded less than 25mm of rain in the past month, compared with an average of 70-100mm in September. Continue reading...

Industry associations for sectors from oil to agriculture in the US and Europe found resisting wildlife-friendly laws, say researchersIndustry groups representing some of the world’s largest companies are “opposed to almost all major biodiversity-relevant policies” and are lobbying to block them, according to a new report.Researchers found that 89% of engagement by leading industry associations in Europe and the US is designed to delay, dilute and block progress on tackling the biodiversity crisis, which scientists say is as serious as the climate emergency. Just 5% of support was positive and the remaining 6% was mixed or neutral, according to the climate thinktank InfluenceMap. Continue reading...

Allowing autumn leaves in parks and gardens to decompose boosts insect and soil health, says Eindhoven councilA municipality in the Netherlands has declared fallen autumn leaves to be worth their weight in gold – ecologically speaking.Eindhoven, in North Brabant, is encouraging its citizens to abandon blowers and rakes and to let fallen leaves in gardens or parks lie. Continue reading...

Groups say cancellations could restrict debate as host country tightens security for opening daysCivil society organisations and governments may have to cancel events at the UN climate summit in November as the Egyptian hosts have tightened security for the opening days.Cop27 will open on Sunday 6 November in Sharm el-Sheikh, and on the Monday and Tuesday world leaders are due to descend on the conference centre for talks to direct their negotiating teams. Continue reading...

Woman’s body found in flood waters, as heavy rainfall continues across New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland

Americans discarded 51m tons of plastic in 2021 – of which almost 95% ended up in landfills, oceans or scattered in the atmosphereOnly 5% of the mountains of plastic waste generated by US households last year was recycled, according to new research by Greenpeace.Americans discarded 51m tons of wrappers, bottles and bags in 2021 – about 309lb of plastic per person – of which almost 95% ended up in landfills, oceans or scattered in the atmosphere in tiny toxic particles. Continue reading...

Destruction of forests slowed in 2021 but not enough to meet 2030 commitment made by 145 countriesThe destruction of global forests slowed in 2021 but the vital climate goal of ending deforestation by 2030 will still be missed without urgent action, according to an assessment.The area razed in 2021 fell by 6.3% after progress in some countries, notably Indonesia. But almost 7m hectares were lost and the destruction of the most carbon- and biodiversity-rich tropical rainforests fell by only 3%. The CO emissions resulting from the lost trees were equivalent to the emissions of the entire European Union plus Japan. Continue reading...

The Department of Conservation is looking for a biodiversity supervisor on the wild, remote coast of the South Island, a Unesco world heritage siteA NZ$90,000 salary, a helicopter commute, and a Unesco world heritage site as your playground. It sounds like a dream job. But despite the considerable perks, New Zealand’s Department of Conservation has been struggling to attract candidates to be their new biodiversity supervisor in Haast on the wild, remote coast of the South Island. Now, the region’s search is going global.The job is based in Te Wāhipounamu – an area encompassing 26,000 square kilometres of mountain ranges, isolated beaches and native forests, classed as a Unesco World Heritage Area in 1990. Its mountain ranges formed the backdrop for the White Mountains/Ered Nimrais in Peter Jackson’s adaption of the Lord of the Rings. Continue reading...

Two protesters pelt painting with potatoes and glue their hands to wall at Museum Barberini in PotsdamClaude Monet has become the latest artist to be the focus of food-related climate protests, after members of a German environmental group threw mashed potatoes over one of his paintings in a Potsdam museum on Sunday.Nine days after Just Stop Oil emptied tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London, two activists from Letzte Generation (Last Generation) entered the Museum Barberini and doused Monet’s Les Meules (Haystacks) with potato before glueing their hands to the wall. Continue reading...

Reliability and emissions reduction goals are technically achievable, but cost is a separate question. Governments should be careful what they promise

Met Office warns of possible flooding, damage to property and hazardous driving conditionsHeavy rain and thunderstorms across much of England and parts of Wales could bring flooding, damage to buildings and hazardous driving conditions, the Met Office has warned.UK yellow warnings have been issued on Sunday for an area stretching from Whitby in North Yorkshire and taking in eastern England, most of the Midlands, southern England from Kent to Devon and south-east Wales. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Prof Dame Jenny Harries warns of dangers to food security, flooding and insect-borne diseasesThe climate crisis poses a “significant and growing threat” to health in the UK, the country’s most senior public health expert has warned.Speaking to the Guardian, Prof Dame Jenny Harries, the chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, said there was a common misconception that a warmer climate would bring net health benefits due to milder winters. But the climate emergency would bring far wider-reaching health impacts, she said, with food security, flooding and mosquito-borne diseases posing threats. Continue reading...

Casting an eye back to the 70s power cuts, we test the conversational gambit for this winter, ‘what’s in your BOB?’For Steven Dowd, it’s four head torches and a handsaw. For Ian Welsh, a pack of camping freezer slabs and a pair of slippers, and for Ellie Moss, a community gardener in Eltham, a cheering set of battery-operated fairylights.With warnings that the UK could be subject to planned blackouts for the first time in five decades, the question “what’s in your blackout box (or BOB)?” could become as everyday a conversational gambit this winter as bemoaning the British weather. Continue reading...

Flood waters in Victorian border towns reach record levels as residents of several NSW towns are urged to evacuate. This blog is now closed

Numbers have doubled, with occasional attacks on humans and fish ponds prompting relocation effortsSingapore authorities have an unusual source of mayhem on their hands: an exploding otter population.Amid an upswing in interactions between the buoyant, hand-holding mammals and humans in recent months, the National Parks Board, known as NParks, is working to relocate the island’s 170 otters away from residential areas and otter-proof people’s homes. Continue reading...

Police arrest 17 protesters after activists glued themselves to the road in Upper Street, IslingtonJust Stop Oil activists have glued themselves to a road in north London on the 22nd day of the group’s campaign of civil unrest.About 20 protesters stopped traffic in Upper Street in Islington, north London, on Saturday. Continue reading...

Investigators believe teen was exposed in warm waters at Lake Mead but epidemiologist says disease is ‘very, very rare’Experts have said that the death of a teenager in the Las Vegas area from a rare brain-eating amoeba should prompt caution, not panic, among people at freshwater lakes, rivers and springs.“It gets people’s attention because of the name,” Brian Labus, a former public health epidemiologist, said on Friday of the naturally occurring organism officially called Naegleria fowleri but almost always dubbed the brain-eating amoeba. “But it is a very, very rare disease.” Continue reading...

‘Alternative seafood’ is having a moment, with the rise of companies like BlueNalu and Wildtype, which has the backing of Leonardo DiCaprioIn the middle of San Francisco, there’s a pilot production plant for Wildtype, one of a handful of cell-cultivated seafood companies in the US. Inside, it’s growing sushi-grade coho salmon in tanks similar to those found in breweries – no fishing or farming required.Cultivation starts by taking a small sample from a living fish species. Cells then multiply as they would in nature in the large vessels and eventually become fatty and lean parts of a fish fillet. Continue reading...

Farmers say having solar sites allows them to subsidise food production during less successful yearsFarmers have urged whoever succeeds Liz Truss as UK prime minister to abandon plans to ban solar energy from most of England’s farmland, arguing that it would hurt food security by cutting off a vital income stream.Truss, who resigned on Thursday, and her environment secretary, Ranil Jayawardena, hoped to ban solar from about 41% of the land area of England, or about 58% of agricultural land, the Guardian revealed last week. Continue reading...

Volunteers place 195,000 sandbags in and around Echuca, which could reach devastating 1993 flood levels. This blog is now closed

Water is spilling over a levee in the Murray River border town of Echuca-Moama, as residents anxiously wait to see if it will hold back flood’s peak

A move to bring back the publicly owned SEC shows governments are not confident the private sector can decarbonise quickly enough, experts say

The NSW town is in a hurry to transition from mining and power generation – but attracting new industries has its own pitfalls

Quitting the ECT, which protects fossil fuel investors from policy changes that might threaten their profits, was ‘coherent’ with Paris climate deal, Macron saidFrance has become the latest country to pull out of the controversial energy charter treaty (ECT), which protects fossil fuel investors from policy changes that might threaten their profits.Speaking after an EU summit in Brussels on Friday, French president, Emmanuel Macron, said: “France has decided to withdraw from the energy charter treaty.” Quitting the ECT was “coherent” with the Paris climate deal, he added. Continue reading...

After Liz Truss’s ‘war on nature’, we look again at the environmental record of the most probable crop of hopefulsLiz Truss has fought a “war on nature” unique in recent British politics, managing within a few short weeks to incur the wrath of conservation groups with more than 8 million members, foreign governments, climate activists and members of her own party.Her successor may be expected to learn from this chastening experience and adopt a less confrontational attitude. Continue reading...

Demand for quilting reaches new heights, with the ubiquitous coats’ intergenerational appealForget the puffer jacket, which has dominated the coat market for the last few years. This season, quilted jackets are set to become the outerwear of choice. It is a multigenerational trend, seen from the school gates to social media. Gen-Z influencers can’t get enough of them on TikTok, while the 70-something model Maye Musk (yes, Elon’s mother) wore a black one to a recent Christian Dior fashion show.Among the street style set, the cult New York fashion brand the Frankie Shop’s moss green “Teddy” jacket is proving to be the most popular. Net-a-Porter is reporting a 30% increase in search for it over the past month. Retailing for more than £200, on eBay it sells for double. On the high street you can find a plethora of similar iterations at M&S, Arket and Cos. Mango’s £59.99 version even has a waiting list. Continue reading...

FoI request reveals council plans including commercial units and large housing developmentsLarge greenfield sites in England have been identified in 35 councils’ applications to be part of deregulated low-tax investment zones.Seventy-seven areas have been identified for development in the zones, where key environmental protections and planning regulations will be relaxed to encourage fast growth, according to data gathered by an environmental campaigner. Continue reading...

Climate activists defiant as public order bill aims to curtail civil disobedience tacticsUK climate activists have vowed to continue their disruptive protests until the government imposes the death penalty for their actions, as they signalled their contempt for a new bill aimed at curtailing their civil disobedience tactics.The public order bill, which passed through the Commons this week and is now before the House of Lords, takes aim at “criminal, disruptive and self-defeating guerrilla tactics” used by groups such as Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain. Continue reading...

Victoria is expecting the worst flooding from Sunday as NSW braces for more extreme weather. This blog is now closed

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a mud-covered kangaroo, a baby grey seal and rescued elephants Continue reading...

Large parts of both states put on notice as emergency services forecast large hailstones and heavy rain

Exclusive: campaigners call for protection and careful tree-planting to help restore the temperate rainforests that once covered swathes of the countryTemperate rainforest, which has been decimated over thousands of years, has the potential to be restored across a fifth of Great Britain, a new map reveals.Atlantic temperate rainforest once covered most of the west coasts of Britain and Ireland, thriving in the archipelago’s wet, mild conditions, which support rainforest indicator species such as lichens, mosses and liverworts. Today, it covers less than 1% of land, having been cleared over thousands of years by humans and is only found in isolated pockets, such as the waterfalls region in the Brecon Beacons and Ausewell Wood on Dartmoor. Continue reading...

Yellowfin and bigeye tuna catches rise outside 1.5m sq km marine protected area, proving value of no-catch zone, researchers saySix years ago, the then US president, Barack Obama, created the world’s largest fully protected ocean reserve by expanding the existing Papahānaumokuākea marine national monument in Hawaii, a world heritage site that include islands, atolls and archeological treasures. Now scientists have found that the reserve, which spans 1.5m sq km (580,000 sq miles) and is inhabited by whales and turtles, has brought unexpected benefits to the surrounding ocean.Catches of yellowfin tuna, known as ahi in Hawaiian, were found to have risen by 54% between 2016 and 2019 near the reserve, within which fishing is banned, while catches of bigeye tuna rose by 12%. Continue reading...

Dealing with Australia’s continual fires and floods needs a dedicated, semi-professional workforce, emergency minister Murray Watt says

Shoppers can book repairs and donate unwanted items as fashion chain seeks to cut carbon footprintZara is to help its UK shoppers resell, repair or donate clothing bought from the Spanish fashion chain in an effort to reduce its environmental impact.The Pre-owned service, which launches on 3 November and will be Zara’s first step into resale or repair, will enable shoppers to book repairs and donate unwanted items online or via a store, and post now-unwanted Zara purchases online for sale. Continue reading...

EPA investigating whether state agencies discriminated against majority-Black city of Jackson by refusing to fund improvementsThe US Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it is investigating whether Mississippi state agencies discriminated against the state’s majority-Black capital city by refusing to fund improvements for its failing water system.The announcement came days after leaders of two congressional committees said they were starting a joint investigation into a crisis that left most homes and businesses in Jackson without running water for several days in late August and early September. Continue reading...

Royal Entomological Society to sponsor garden in effort to show importance of less glamorous creepy-crawliesStag beetles and hornets will be among the stars of Chelsea flower show next year as horticulturalists encourage people to welcome invertebrates into the garden.Bumblebees and butterflies tend to get a lot of press, but in a 2023 garden sponsored by the Royal Entomological Society, less glamorous creepy-crawlies will take centre stage.Don’t use pesticides. Massey says: “It’s about creating balance. Ladybirds eat aphids, for example, both are valuable in their own right, but it’s about being patient – if you get aphids causing a problem, don’t panic and spray them but know a ladybird will come soon and gobble them up. Create a garden that is attractive to all kinds of life.”Embrace mess. “We don’t need to tidy everything up to the maximum degree … there has to be some kind of movement towards a looser, I suppose more patient style of gardening. Leave some leaves on the floor, don’t tidy everything up,” Massey says.Welcome weeds. “Dandelions, for example, are a good source for insects and are actually a really attractive flower. Yes, they can sow seed everywhere but you can allow them to spread around and it creates less work for us and it’s very beneficial for wildlife at the same time.”Accept and enjoy garden life. “Slugs and snails have been demonised but they are actually really important in breakdown of material and a food source for other types of animals that are more desirable, like frogs or toads. Be a bit more accepting of new sorts of life forms and maybe if you look at them closer, and you know more about them through things like science, they become more interesting and more fascinating and more appealing.” Continue reading...

Elms – seen by some as one of few promising Brexit dividends – has been put under reviewThree hundred and 40 British farmers have signed a letter to Conservative MPs criticising plans to scrap plans to pay them for their stewardship of nature.The environmental land management scheme (Elms), a set of subsidies to replace the EU’s common agricultural policy, had been due to be rolled out this year. But last month, ministers placed it under review. A result is expected in the next week – within the seven days that Liz Truss has to remain as prime minister. Continue reading...

Homes with smart meters to be paid £3 per KW hour to boost use at night and take strain off power grid

More than dozen activists in custody after protest at department store in London that also stopped trafficJust Stop Oil protesters have sprayed orange paint on the front of Harrods in central London as they continue to call on the government to end all “new oil and gas”.About 20 demonstrators gathered outside the department store in Knightsbridge at about 9am on Thursday for a 20th consecutive day of disruption to the capital. Continue reading...

Heavy rain and rising waters continue to take a deadly toll in countries including Nigeria, Thailand and VietnamIt has been a drenched 2022 for many parts of the world, at times catastrophically so. A year of disastrous flooding perhaps reached its nadir in Pakistan, where a third of the country was inundated by heavy rainfall from June, killing more than 1,000 people in what António Guterres, the UN secretary general, called an unprecedented natural disaster.While floods are indeed natural phenomena, a longstanding result of storms, the human-induced climate crisis is amplifying their damage. Rising sea levels, driven by melting glaciers and the thermal expansion of water, are increasingly inundating coastal areas, while warmer temperatures are causing more moisture to accumulate in the atmosphere, which is then released as rain or snow. Continue reading...

Greens leader Adam Bandt asked senator to step down from leadership team due to error of judgment. This blog is now closed

Stage three of New Hope Group’s open-cut mine granted a water licence, allowing work to proceed

Participants in £33m scheme that improved 3,000 community spaces note confidence and wellbeing boostYoung people’s mental health, self-confidence and employability were boosted by participation in nature projects across the UK, according to a report on a £33m programme.More than 128,000 people aged 11 to 24 took part in the Our Bright Future scheme. The 31 projects improved 3,000 community spaces and created 350 nature-rich areas, from a vandalised churchyard in Hull to a rewilded quarry in County Down. The programme was led by the Wildlife Trusts and funded by the National Lottery Community Fund. Continue reading...

Bureau of Meteorology warns of heavy rain, flash-flooding and possible damaging hail in parts of Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia

North Carolina reptiles showed extremely high levels of PFAS compounds and markers of immune disease in their bloodHigh levels of PFAS discharged into the Cape Fear River from a Chemours plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina, are likely making local alligators sick with autoimmune disorders that appear similar to human diseases like lupus, a new study finds.The peer-reviewed study, published Thursday in the Frontiers in Toxicology journal, tested blood from alligators in the Cape Fear watershed that have been exposed to Chemours pollution for decades. The alligators showed extremely high levels of PFAS compounds and markers of immune disease in their blood. Continue reading...