Environment | The Guardian

Images from around the world taken on World Environment Day, an annual global event celebrated on 5 June to raise awareness, mobilise action and promote environmental sustainability Continue reading...

Barring public access to beaches and other sites is not a model for development. Transparency and engagement are neededWalk along a Caribbean beach, which may stretch for miles, and your stroll is guaranteed to be cut short by an angry hotel security guard. In recent years, the Caribbean has seen a worrying trend of governments readily selling off assets to foreign corporations and political financiers.Prime real estate, protected land and valuable resources are being relinquished without consideration for long-term consequences. It raises questions about whether remnants of the colonial mindset still prevail in political ideologies and decision-making. Continue reading...

UK’s most senior climate adviser says policy is ‘right thing to do’ and criticises government’s stanceThe UK’s most senior climate adviser has strongly endorsed Labour’s vow to halt new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, and slammed the government for failing to show leadership on the issue.John Gummer, who as Lord Deben chairs the statutory committee on climate change, told the Guardian he approved of Labour’s commitment. “I welcome this policy, I am absolutely in favour and it is the right thing to do,” he said. Continue reading...

Single-use e-cigarettes growing in popularity among young people despite unknown health effects and environmental impactChildren’s doctors are calling for an outright ban on disposable vapes to reduce their popularity among young people as the long-term impact on lungs, hearts and brains remains unknown.The government should ban single-use disposable vapes, which can be bought for just £1.99 and are most popular with young people, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has said. Continue reading...

Labour leader to address union’s conference after its leader attacks plan to ban new North Sea oil and gas extractionKeir Starmer will pledge to put “good, union jobs” at the heart of Labour’s energy policy during a speech to one of its biggest donor unions after its general secretary criticised a proposed ban on oil and gas expansion.He will speak at the GMB’s annual conference on Tuesday, a day after he tried to calm a growing rift with its leadership over Labour’s energy policy. Continue reading...

Hundreds gather in Rio and Belém to remember two men who worked to defend the Amazon and its Indigenous inhabitantsIndigenous leaders, politicians and friends and relatives of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira have paid tribute to the two men on the anniversary of their murders in the Brazilian Amazon.The British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous expert were ambushed and killed on 5 June 2022 while travelling by boat through the remote Javari valley region. Continue reading...

Proposed compensation would be paid to developing countries that must transition away from fossil fuelsRich industrialised countries responsible for excessive levels of greenhouse gas emissions could be liable to pay $170tn in climate reparations by 2050 to ensure targets to curtail climate breakdown are met, a new study calculates.The proposed compensation, which amounts to almost $6tn annually, would be paid to historically low-polluting developing countries that must transition away from fossil fuels despite not having yet used their “fair share” of the global carbon budget, according to the analysis published in the journal Nature Sustainability. Continue reading...

Simon Stiell tells conference in Bonn the world is at ‘tipping point’ and must fight together for common goodThe world is at a “tipping point” in the climate crisis that requires all countries to put aside their national interests to fight for the common good, the UN’s top climate official has warned.Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, pointed to recent findings from scientists that temperatures were likely to exceed the threshold of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels within the next five years. Continue reading...

Silver perch fingerlings released in ceremony designed to address community’s collective trauma over ecological disaster that left millions of dead fish in river

Monitoring stations that already test for pollution could have dual purpose of mapping declines in biodiversity, reveals new studyFrom owls to hedgehogs to fungi, genetic material from plants and animals is being inadvertently hoovered up by air-quality monitoring stations around the world, creating an untapped “vault of biodiversity data”, according to a new scientific paper.Globally, thousands of air filters are continually testing for heavy metals and other pollutants in the atmosphere. Scientists are now realising that this monitoring network is also picking up invisible traces of genetic material known as airborne environmental DNA (eDNA) from bits of hair, feathers, saliva and pollen. Continue reading...

Lawyers for chemical company say they are making ‘significant’ progress over deal with city of Stuart, FloridaUS industrial conglomerate 3M and the city of Stuart, Florida are making “significant” progress to settle a water pollution suit tied to toxic “forever chemicals” and sought to delay a trial, according to a court filing on Sunday.3M was scheduled to face trial in South Carolina federal court on Monday in a lawsuit brought by the Florida city accusing the company of manufacturing PFAS, or per- and polyflouroalkyl substances, despite knowing for decades that the chemicals can cause cancer and other ailments. Continue reading...

The term doesn’t mean that much any more, and there are other, more important factors to consider when selecting foodIf you walk into a Whole Foods in Oakland and pick up a container of non-dairy yoghurt marked “local”, you might be surprised to learn that though the company is headquartered nearby in San Francisco, the cashews the yoghurt is made of come from Vietnam, more than 7,500 miles (12,000km) away, or Ivory Coast, about 7,300 miles in the opposite direction.This yoghurt made with ingredients from the other side of the globe points to the contradictory nature of so-called local food today: though the term holds appeal for customers, nearly two-thirds of whom perceive local food to be more environmentally friendly, experts suggest it may not always mean what you think. Continue reading...

Concentrations of plastics in round-the-world race through remote ocean environments found to be up to 18 times higher than during previous event in 2017-18Sailors testing the waters during the Ocean Race, which travels through some of the world’s most remote ocean environments, have found microplastics in every sample.Up to 1,884 microplastic particles were found per cubic metre of seawater in some locations, up to 18 times higher than in similar tests during the last Ocean Race, which ended in 2018. Scientists noted that the sensitivity of their instruments is now higher. Continue reading...

New developments for cloud computing could threaten civil-war era and post-emancipation historical sites in rural VirginiaAs you drive west from Washington DC, an imposing cluster of rectangular buildings emerges from the countryside. They emit a whirring sound, and could be confused for warehouses.But, in fact, this is the home of the cloud internet. Continue reading...

How to Save the Amazon will be published so Dom Phillips’ work telling the stories of rainforest defenders does not die with himOne year after Dom Phillips was killed in the Brazilian Amazon, friends and colleagues have come together in a show of journalistic solidarity to keep his legacy alive and finish the book the British journalist was working on at the time of his death.Phillips and his Brazilian companion, the Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, were killed while returning from the remote Javari valley in the western Amazon last June. Three men have been charged with murder and are being held in high-security prisons while awaiting a decision on whether they will face trial. Continue reading...

Practice allows companies to claim to have good environmental policies without having them tested, according to Australia’s corporate watchdog

This blog is now closed.

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...