Environment | The Guardian

Environment Agency paints bleak picture of coastal regions with eco-systems and people coming under increased pressureDredging is likely to increase around the English coast, while pollution and sewage are piling pressure on coastal ecosystems, and an increasing number of people are at risk of coastal flooding, the Environment Agency has warned.Three-quarters of shellfish waters around England failed to meet “aspirational” standards for environmental protection in 2021, the report by the agency’s chief scientist’s group found. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Graham Stuart received £12,000 towards campaign from fuel distributor and aviation consultantThe UK climate minister – who recently stated not all fossil fuels were the “spawn of the devil” – received campaign donations from one of the largest fuel distributors in the UK as well as an aviation consultant and recruiter, it has emerged.Graham Stuart, the Conservative MP for Beverley and Holderness, was appointed climate minister by Rishi Sunak in September. He has responsibility for net zero strategy and low-carbon generation, and is the Commons lead for clean heat. Continue reading...

Scathing allegations, which company rejects as ‘baseless’, will hamper access to Wall Street but surging coal price will ease burden, experts say

Case brought under Bern convention on nature may set precedent for destruction of biodiversity in warAzerbaijan has launched a landmark legal challenge against Armenia for allegedly destroying its environment and biodiversity during nearly three decades of occupation of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.An international tribunal will consider evidence of widespread environmental destruction during the conflict between the two nations, including deforestation and pollution, and will be asked to order Armenia to pay reparations. Continue reading...

Thai capital’s already bad air made worse by forest fires and burning on farmsPeople in Bangkok have been advised to work from home and wear face masks due to air pollution that has worsened to unhealthy levels.Officials urged people to use public transport rather than private cars for commuting, and said the authorities would seek to reduce sources of pollution such as outdoor burning and construction activities. Face masks would be distributed to vulnerable people, Bangkok authorities said. Continue reading...

Farmers will be eligible for funding for up to 280 actions that protect environment under new system

Supplier says 400,000 customers took part, reducing their electricity use for a designated 90-minute periodMore than £1m was paid to energy customers with Octopus Energy on Tuesday as part of a power saving scheme.The energy supplier said more than 400,000 customers took part by reducing their electricity use between 4.30pm and 6pm. Continue reading...

Pollen from trees growing in heavily polluted urban areas has higher levels of Bet v1 allergen, experts findHay fever may sound like a pastoral malady, but city-dwellers can also be hit hard by pollen allergies. Now researchers have revealed a possible factor, finding that birch trees growing in heavily polluted urban areas have higher levels of a key allergen in their pollen.Birch tree pollen is one of the most potent allergens. About 25% of people with hay fever affected by allergy to it, according to Allergy UK. Continue reading...

Farmers who have taken regenerative approach hail birds as indication of ecosystem healthAlmost as soon as Johnny Haimes took up regenerative farming – replacing arable fields with herb-rich pasture so cattle could graze outside all year round – a distinctive white bird appeared on his pasture.Numbers of cattle egrets are booming in Britain, boosted by wildlife-friendly farming where cows are grazed on gentle rotations designed to improve soil quality and boost invertebrate populations. Continue reading...

Increase in reports of the Asian koel and its loud mating call south of its usual territory may be attributable to climate change, scientists say

Calls for mandatory measures to reduce underwater noise pollution as melting ice opens up shipping routesFor centuries, narwhals and ringed seals have provided food for Inuit communities on the ice floes of Mittimatalik, or Pond Inlet, on northern Canada’s Baffin Island. But now, the Inuit – who have hunted, trapped and fished in the region since long before the Hudson Bay Company opened its first Arctic trading camp here in 1921 – say they no longer find the narwhals where they should be. They say shipping noise is to blame.Researchers have likened the passing of a single ice-breaker, increasingly present in the Arctic, to an underwater rock concert. Ship noise can be caused by everything from propellers to hull form to onboard machinery. It can disrupt activities that marine mammals need to survive, by shrinking their communication space, causing stress and displacing them from important habitats. Continue reading...

Unhoused people use the cafe locations to warm up and rest – and now outreach workers can find them there and offer servicesOn a chilly recent morning, customers inside a Starbucks in New York City’s midtown were doing what you’d expect: buying coffee, warming up, chatting. But one person was moving through the store with a different purpose: she first approached a woman standing near the door, and then another man seated with a cup of coffee, saying hello, asking how they were and offering them gloves, hats and handwarmers.This was an outreach worker named Thashana Jacobs, and this store was her first stop of the day. The organization she works for, a homeless outreach and housing non-profit, has been contracted by Starbucks to deal with an issue that the company feels it cannot ignore: the number of unhoused people who come into the store looking for a place to sit, rest and use the restroom. Continue reading...

Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Mark Rylance add their voices to Richard Curtis’s Make My Money Matter campaignFamous names including Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Mark Rylance have joined activists and businesses in calling on the UK’s big five banks to stop financing new oil, gas and coal expansion.Make My Money Matter, a campaign set up by Richard Curtis, the screenwriter, director and Comic Relief co-founder, has written to the chief executives of HSBC, Barclays, Santander, NatWest and Lloyds to urge these banks to “stop financing fossil fuel expansion”. Continue reading...

Recharge Industries, which also plans a factory in Geelong, says nonbinding offer is in the company’s interests, as well as that of ‘our friends in the UK’An Australian-based startup, Recharge Industries, has made a nonbinding offer for the collapsed UK battery company Britishvolt that could revive plans to construct a large plant in northern England.The bid was lodged in the UK late on Tuesday, shortly after a cash crunch at Britishvolt sent the company into administration. The collapse has severely dented the country’s attempts to modernise its automotive industry and supply the next generation of UK-built electric vehicles. Continue reading...

Proposed bill takes aim at ‘unconscionable’ trade mainly in football boots but Australian producers say culling is necessary

Microsoft co-founder leads $12m investment Rumin8, which is developing supplements for cows to cut methane outputBill Gates has led a new $12m investment in an Australian company that is aiming to feed seaweed to cows in order to reduce the planet-heating emissions that come from their burps.Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which the Microsoft co-founder created in 2015, has spearheaded the funding of the Perth-based startup, which is called Rumin8. Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, and Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma are also backers of the Breakthrough fund. Continue reading...

More than 1m households and businesses have signed up to get paid to cut back on power usageHouseholds were paid to cut back on their electricity use for an hour on Monday evening in the first test of a National Grid scheme aiming to cut energy consumption in Great Britain. The second trial was taking place on Tuesday, between 4.30pm and 6pm.More than 1m households and businesses have signed up to the live -demand flexibility service. Continue reading...

Increased output from renewables, with a near-zero fuel cost, also nudged more coal and gas out of the generation market

Calls for better food labelling as investigation claims that only around one-third of fish is flake, with served species including rare narrownose smooth-hound

Juan Carrito described by regional president as ‘most famous and loved Marsican bear in Abruzzo’Italians are mourning the death of a rare brown bear who became famous for his jaunts to small mountain villages in the Abruzzo region.Affectionately known as Juan Carrito, the three-year-old Marsican bear was killed after being hit by a car in the town of Castel di Sangro on Monday afternoon. Continue reading...

Briefing notes obtained by FoI reveal minister meeting with Drax CEO was told Greenpeace supported practiceGreenpeace has accused the government of misrepresenting its stance on burning trees for electricity, giving a minister the impression of public support for the highly controversial practice in meetings with the power company Drax.Greenpeace is firmly opposed to most forms of biomass burning for power generation, and suspicious of claims that the resulting carbon dioxide can be captured. Continue reading...

By 2050 electric vehicles could require huge amounts of lithium for their batteries, causing damaging expansions of miningThe US’s transition to electric vehicles could require three times as much lithium as is currently produced for the entire global market, causing needless water shortages, Indigenous land grabs, and ecosystem destruction inside and outside its borders, new research finds.It warns that unless the US’s dependence on cars in towns and cities falls drastically, the transition to lithium battery-powered electric vehicles by 2050 will deepen global environmental and social inequalities linked to mining – and may even jeopardize the 1.5C global heating target. Continue reading...

After Lützerath in Germany was emptied of its residents to make way for the Garzweiler coalmine, protesters occupied the deserted village while waiting for a showdown with the police. The photographer Ingmar Björn Nolting reports from the village that was to become the fortress of an energy companySince 2020, environmental activists have been occupying the trees, fields and houses in Lützerath, a hamlet near the North Rhine-Westphalian town of Erkelenz. They oppose the eviction of the village and the energy company RWE, which wants to extract the millions of tonnes of lignite that lie beneath the village.Lignite mining opponents during a demonstration in Lützerath, on 8 January Continue reading...

Finding a trapped silverbill during lockdown inspired Esha Munshi to create an invaluable record of species in an uncertain world

Invasive fish carried in flood waters die in marine environment, as scientists call for herpes virus to be considered in management

Campaign seeks to restore seas otters to northern California and Oregon: ‘They are really important to coastal ecosystems’Before the fur trade drove them to near extinction, sea otters once roamed the waters of North America from Alaska to Baja California. Now a non-profit conservation group wants to see them brought back, and say the otters could help restore the region’s crucial but decimated kelp forests.The Center for Biological Diversity has petitioned the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to reintroduce the furry mammals to a large swath of the west coast stretching from northern California to Oregon, pointing to the vital role otters play in the coastal ecosystem. A small population of southern sea otters lives on California’s central coast, where the Monterey Bay Aquarium regularly documents their adventures, but the threatened animal occupies just 13% of its historic range. Continue reading...

Authorities say the 500kg animal is ‘definitely not Henry’, a seal that used to frequent the Mornington Peninsula in the early 2000s

The gecko licks its eyeball seductively: ‘I mean, have you seen my feet?’It is evening, and the world seems to go still for a moment, as though some kind of signal has been lost. You hear a tiny bark. There in the corner: a gecko. If the corner is in an apartment that is in a suburb in a city in Malaysia, you hear a “cicak”, in Bangladesh, “tiktiki”.Where does this tiny reptile get the confidence to make a sound like that? “Not the hiss or croak for me,” it says. The gecko licks its eyeball seductively: I mean, have you seen my feet? Continue reading...

Environment ministers’ decisions spanning 15 years made no difference to amount of habitat destroyed, researchers say

Brittany beaches polluted by waves of beads believed to be from shipping containers lost in AtlanticThe French government is taking legal action over an “environmental nightmare” caused by waves of tiny plastic beads washing up on the coast of Brittany.The white pellets the size of grains of rice, nicknamed “mermaids’ tears”, have been appearing on beaches in France and Spain for the last year. They are believed to have come from shipping containers lost in the Atlantic Ocean. Continue reading...

Effluent in Gloucestershire river pinpointed by digital map as water companies accused of routinely pumping out waste to riversThe market town of Fairford, nestling in the Cotswold hills, is perhaps best known for its church, which has the only complete set of mediaeval stained glass windows in England.But thanks to a more modern phenomenon, an interactive digital map produced by Thames Water, the Gloucestershire town, with its traditional honey coloured limestone houses, is becoming better known for its continuous, gushing, raw sewage overflow. Continue reading...

Never ones to let the flames of a culture war go unfanned, Republican politicians have waded into the argument over an imaginary plan to ban gas hobsHave you taken a side in the great stove debate? And if not, what are you waiting for? How are we supposed to keep the culture wars stoked if you won’t man the cooking-appliance barricades?For the slackers, this is a US squabble, but probably on its way to the UK. The consumer safety commissioner, Richard Trumka Jr, suggested in a recent interview that gas stoves are a “hidden hazard”, saying: “Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.” Not, at first sight, the most inflammatory (sorry) statement, particularly given that the only concrete proposal is an as-yet unlaunched consultation into their health implications. Continue reading...

Exclusive: proportion of green job openings in UK ‘declined significantly’ after 2012, analysis showsJob opportunities in Britain’s low-carbon economy have fallen sharply since David Cameron’s government decided to cut policies he described as “green crap”, with fewer vacancies now available as a share of the economy than in 2012, a study reveals.Academics at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment found the proportion of green job openings being advertised in the UK “declined significantly” after 2012. Continue reading...

In a pristine forest in central India, the multibillion-dollar mining giant Adani has razed trees – and homes – to dig more coal. How does this kind of destruction get the go-ahead?Archive: NDTV; Heritage Times Continue reading...

A Guardian investigation has found that more than 90% of the carbon offsets verified by the company Verra did not reduce deforestation. Patrick Greenfield reportsCompanies across the world rely on carbon offsetting credits as a way to display their green credentials, but a Guardian analysis of scientific studies has found that many rainforest carbon credits are worthless. The investigation into Verra, which is the world’s leading carbon standard for the offsetting market, found that the vast majority of credits being bought are likely to be “phantom credits”.Verra has argued that the studies’ conclusions are incorrect, and questioned the methodology used. It also argues that its work has channelled billions of dollars into rainforest protection. Continue reading...

National Grid asks Drax and EDF to start warming three plants and says it will activate its live demand flexibility service on Monday eveningBritain’s electricity generators have been forced to warm up coal-fired power stations for the second time this winter and selected households will be paid to cut their electricity use for the first time as the cold snap persists.With a high-pressure weather system and associated light winds likely to dominate for a few more days, National Grid’s electricity system operator (ESO) said early on Sunday it had asked Drax to start “warming” two of its coal units at its North Yorkshire site and EDF to do the same for one at its West Burton plant in Nottinghamshire to ensure supplies on Monday. Continue reading...

Brazilian president says predecessor emboldened wildcat miners which led to wrecked forests and disease and death among Indigenous peopleBrazil’s new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has accused Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right administration of committing genocide against the Yanomami people of the Amazon, amid public outrage over a humanitarian catastrophe in the country’s largest Indigenous territory.Lula visited the Amazon state of Roraima on Saturday to denounce the plight of the Yanomami, whose supposedly protected lands have been plunged into crisis by government neglect and the explosion of illegal mining. Continue reading...

Growers fear a perfect storm for a tradition that has long bound rural communities togetherA sharp wind shunts clouds across the low and endless skies of La Mancha as Carlos Fernández stoops to pluck the last mauve flowers of the season from the cold earth. Their petals, which stain his index finger and thumb blue, enclose an almost weightless prize whose crimson threads are treasured in Spain and across the world.But despite the prices his crop fetches, and the weighty comparisons those prices inevitably invite, the life of a saffron grower is not without its trials, travails and frustrations. Continue reading...

YQT community signs unprecedented agreement with coal company giving Indigenous leadership ‘veto’ on proposed projectTwo landmark deals in western Canada could reshape the role of Indigenous nations in resource development projects, placing greater power in the hands of groups that have long been excluded and signalling a possible shift in how industry and governments negotiate with communities on the frontlines of environmental degradation.In recent years, a string of fierce battles over pipelines have put a spotlight on the fractious nature of resource extraction projects, often pitting First Nations communities against powerful companies. Continue reading...

Electric car battery firm planned to build large facility in Northumberland with government funds if it found investorsMinisters were using the electric car battery maker Britishvolt as a prime example of the government’s record for “securing business investment in the UK” just months before the scheme collapsed without any public investment.The company, once heralded as Britain’s potential champion for battery making, fell into administration last week after the failure of last-ditch talks to find emergency funding to keep it afloat. Its demise has been criticised as showing the government’s lack of industrial strategy, the shortcomings of “levelling up” and Britain’s failure to grasp new manufacturing opportunities in the wake of Brexit. Continue reading...

More than 3,000 people protest on estate of Alexander Darwall after his court victory ends right to wild camp in EnglandMore than 3,000 people joined one of the UK’s largest ever countryside access protests on Saturday on the Dartmoor estate of a wealthy landowner who won a case ending the right to wild camp in England.Groups of walkers, families, students and local people arrived by foot, shuttle bus and bike to the small Dartmoor village of Cornwood throughout the morning and then thronged for hours along moss- and ivy-draped lanes up on to the rugged, boulder-strewn moorland owned by the Conservative party donor and hedge fund manager Alexander Darwall. Continue reading...

A combination of water technologies and cool building materials are more effective at tackling urban heat than greenery, a study has found

Encouraging sign for river that suffered as dumping ground for waste from nearby factoriesDolphins have been spotted frolicking in New York City’s Bronx River, an encouraging sign of the improving health of a waterway that was for many years befouled as a sewer for industrial waste.A pair of dolphins was seen gliding through the river’s waters on Monday, the New York City parks department confirmed, near a small park in the city’s Bronx borough. The Bronx river rises north of New York City and cuts through the Bronx before terminating in the East River, the estuary that separates the Bronx and Manhattan from the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. Continue reading...

A young innovator has won a top award for developing software to map the tube routes with the cleanest airLike most Londoners, Tanya Beri has mixed views of the city’s vast underground rail network that carries millions of passengers every day on its 11 lines and through its 272 stations. The tube keeps London moving, though often in cramped, uncomfortable and unhygienic conditions.However, Beri believes she has found a way to improve travel for concerned commuters. She has developed a phone app that can direct passengers to routes that offer minimal air pollution. Continue reading...

Killing of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, who opposed training facility, is ‘unprecedented’ in history of environmental activism, experts sayBelkis Terán spoke with her child, Manuel, nearly every day by WhatsApp from her home in Panama City, Panama. She also had names and numbers for some of Manuel’s friends, in case she didn’t hear from the 26-year-old who was protesting “Cop City”, a planned gigantic training facility being built in a wooded area near Atlanta, Georgia.So by midweek, when she hadn’t received a message from Atlanta since Monday, she began to worry. Thursday around noon, a friend of Manuel’s – whose chosen name was “Tortuguita,” or “Little Turtle” – messaged her with condolences. “I’m so sorry,” they wrote. “For what?” she asked. Continue reading...

Selling credits should fund forest protection, but unscrupulous firms are making deals where land stewards lose out, say local leaders

Exclusive: Alexander Darwall, who said he brought case to improve conservation, is releasing pheasants near protected woodlandThe landowner who took Dartmoor national park to court to ban wild camping may be putting a rare beetle at risk by releasing pheasants next to an ecologically important woodland, against the advice of environmental experts.This is despite him having said he pushed for a wild camping ban in order to “improve conservation of the Dartmoor commons”, arguing that campers damage the national park with litter and disturbance. Continue reading...

Frontbencher to call for more help with energy bills for householders and to promise massive green power programmeRachel Reeves has said she wants to be “Britain’s first green chancellor” ahead of a speech in which she will call on ministers to extend relief on energy bills and promise that Labour will reduce these in the longer term with a massive green power programme.Addressing the Fabian Society conference on Saturday, the shadow chancellor is to argue that investment in renewable energies, plus a huge programme to retrofit insulation to homes – part of Labour’s flagship £28bn-a-year investment in climate measures – could save households up to £1,400 off annual bills each year. Continue reading...

The minister for mines, Irene Vélez, told world leaders the country will shift away from fossil fuels to begin a sustainable chapterColombia’s leftwing government has announced that it will not approve any new oil and gas exploration projects as it seeks to shift away from fossil fuels and toward a new sustainable economy.Irene Vélez, the minister for mines told world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the time had come for the Andean nation to move away from its reliance on oil and gas and begin a new, greener chapter in the country’s history. Continue reading...

Industry body working on new way to reassure customers schemes will protect the environmentNew standards should bring greater scrutiny of carbon offsets and give buyers confidence their money is helping protect the environment, leading figures in the carbon credits market have insisted, after an investigation by the Guardian revealed widespread problems with offsetting.Annette Nazareth, chair of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market, which sets nonbinding principles to which sellers of carbon credits can sign up said the body was working on new standards that should reassure consumers. Continue reading...