Chestnut forests could provide food security for communities, be a boon for farmers and benefit the environmentMichael Judd strides among the chestnut trees on the four-hectare (10-acre) swath of land that he manages in Frederick, Maryland. The trees spread above him, the last few nuts dangling from the branches like Christmas ornaments. Covering the ground is a soup of dead leaves, hiding spiky chestnut shells. Judd, 49, a lanky man who wears a different-colored woolen beanie every day, picks one up and demonstrates how easy it is to pop it open and reveal the nutritious morsel inside.Judd bought this six-decade-old orchard to conduct experiments in service of his grander mission: to help plant 1m nut trees across the US’s mid-Atlantic region, chief among them the chestnut. Continue reading...

Wild bird populations have been decimated across the UK and scientists fear there is more to come in 2023It is more than a year since avian flu began to devastate wild birds in large numbers, and conservationists are fearful of what 2023 will hold. The highly infectious variant of H5N1 has caused Europe’s worst bird flu season and has spread across the globe with little sign of slowing.In the UK, there were reports of some great skua dying from the H5N1 variant in the summer of 2021 but the mass die-offs started in the autumn and winter. More than a third of Svalbard barnacle geese in the Solway Firth, on the border of England and Scotland, – 16,500 out of 43,000 – died last winter. Continue reading...

Take our bumper quiz to find out if you’re a biodiversity boffin or a nature no-hoper Continue reading...

Wilder Blean project aims to utilise ‘ecosystem engineers’ to naturally rewild former pine plantationThe UK’s first wild bison herd for thousands of years has been completed in time for Christmas with the release of the herd’s bull.Three females were released into woods in Kent in July as part of the Wilder Blean project. But the bull’s arrival from Germany had been delayed by five months due to post-Brexit paperwork complexities. The herd also has a young calf, thanks to a surprise birth in September. Continue reading...

Spending bill passed by Senate includes less than $1bn in climate assistance for poorer nations even though Biden promised $11.4bnThe US has risked alienating developing countries hit hardest by the climate crisis, after Congress delivered just a fraction of the money promised by Joe Biden to help poorer nations adapt to worsening storms, floods and droughts.Biden has promised $11.4bn each year for developing countries to ease climate impacts and help them shift to renewable energy but the vast $1.7tn spending bill to keep the US government running, passed by the Senate on Thursday, includes less than $1bn in climate assistance for these countries. Continue reading...

Analysis of Pentagon report reveals that soldiers exposed to PFAS pollution at much higher rate than military claimsThe number of US service members who have been exposed to toxic “forever chemicals” is much higher than the military has claimed, a new independent analysis of Department of Defense data has found.A Pentagon report that aims to assess the scope of PFAS chemical exposure on its bases, as well as health threats posed to service members, estimated about 175,000 troops across 24 facilities had drunk contaminated water. Continue reading...

Environment Protection Authority Victoria charges RG Programs and Services, which faces a possible fine in excess of $165,000

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a released Iberian lynx, spectacled teals and twin giraffes Continue reading...

Expert warns impact of H5N1 virus across the world is on a scale akin to the devastation wreaked by the use of DDT pesticides in the 1950s and 1960sThe planet is experiencing a new “Silent Spring” of wildlife destruction because so many wild birds have died from avian flu, according to a leading scientist, who said the past year has seen the most significant and sudden loss of birds in decades.James Pearce-Higgins, director of science at the British Trust for Ornithology, said: “The last time we experienced such large-scale and rapid losses of wild birds in the UK would be the impacts of DDT on birds of prey in the 1950s and 1960s associated with the Silent Spring narrative, or the widespread declines of farmland birds during the 1970s and 80s as a result of agricultural intensification.” Continue reading...

Fewer acres burned this year, but the need for fire mitigation and the dangers posed by the climate crisis have not vanishedIn California, a state that’s grown accustomed to months of smoky skies, mass evacuations and the ever-present fear of wildfire, 2022 felt unusual.Summer came and went, the weather warmed and the hillsides yellowed across the state, while residents held their breath. But a giant blaze or siege of simultaneous infernos – the events that have defined recent fire seasons – failed to appear. Continue reading...

Waratah Coal lodges application to overturn recommendation that lease and approvals be refused

South Africa’s Wildlife Forensic Academy uses a stuffed rhino, lion and giraffe to equip students and rangers with the skills needed to convict wildlife criminals

Exclusive: Forestry Act 1967 to change from 1 January to deter people from flattening trees and accepting paltry penaltiesIllegal tree felling in England will be punishable by unlimited fines and prison sentences from 1 January, the government has announced.The current fine for cutting down a tree without a licence, established by the Forestry Act 1967, is £2,500 or twice the value of the timber, whichever is the higher. Continue reading...

International study projects up to 80% of emperor penguin colonies will be ‘quasi-extinct’ by 2100

Tom Smith, William Walker and Neil Smith respond to Samanth Subramanian’s long read on the enormous task of dismantling SellafieldSamanth Subramanian captures perfectly the vast scale and longevity of the effort needed to clean up Sellafield (The long read, 15 December). As Britain and other states with nuclear power industries grapple with how to go about an effective, safe and economical nuclear clean-up, it might be better to explain the challenges with less reliance on suggestions that in its early days the nuclear industry never thought about decommissioning (though the point has validity). Instead, we need more honesty about the fact that nuclear power inescapably generates large quantities of hazardous human-made waste, the worst of which will remain hazardous probably beyond Homo sapiens’ time on the planet.The industry’s solution to this is a network of deep disposal facilities. But none have yet been created, their cost is enormous and there is no certainty that they will perform the long-term task required of them. These are considerations that sadly receive little attention in current debates about the need for new nuclear-generation capacity. Continue reading...

Environment Agency under fire for extending schedule for tackling pollution in rivers, lakes and coastal waters to 2063Targets to clean up the majority of England’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters suffering from a cocktail of agricultural and sewage pollution have been pushed back from 2027 to 2063.Not one English waterway, including rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters is in good ecological and chemical health at present, with pollution from water treatment plants and agriculture the key sources of the damage. The Environment Agency said on Thursday £5.3bn was being invested for the next five years to stop the further deterioration of waterways. Continue reading...

The sighting of a ‘magnificent’ specimen of the Amanita sculpta, not seen in Singapore for 80 years, shows how the public can aid in conservation efforts“The cap is like a chocolate chip cookie,” says Serena Lee, senior manager at Singapore Botanic Gardens’ herbarium, describing the top of the sculptured toadstool (Amanita sculpta). “It’s big and chunky, and has a beige and dark brown cap with pileal warts.”Despite its distinctive appearance and a large fruiting body that can range from 10 to 27cm wide, the sculptured toadstool went awol in Singapore for more than 80 years. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Cameron Dick urges resources council to stop risking coal’s social licence with ad campaign as royalty rise is here to stay

The environmental crisis changed the political tide in 2022. There are some reasons to be optimistic about the outlook ahead – but much more to be done

November statistics show fear EU regressing on climate commitments because of war in Ukraine is unfoundedReturning to coal-fired power generation in some parts of Europe has not prevented strong progress on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, data shows.Emissions for November for the EU were at their lowest in at least 30 years, as were gas consumption, carbon from the power sector, and power generation from fossil fuels, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. Continue reading...

A US forest service initiative encourages people to cut their own trees in an effort to maintain healthy forestsPerched atop a snow-laced ridge in the Mendocino national forest of northern California, the perfect Christmas tree seemed to glow in the speckled light. With delicate needles and a small stature, the 6ft evergreen was one of a few thousand available to be taken home by families participating in a government program encouraging people to harvest their own tree.

Long years of complex negotiations led up to one critical moment for the planet at Cop15 in Montreal this week. For a time, it seemed all was lost. Here’s what happened next…Officially, this week’s deal to preserve Earth’s biodiversity passed at about 3.30am Eastern Standard Time on Monday 19 December, with a swift flick of the wrist from the Chinese Cop15 president, Huang Runqiu. But in spirit, the agreement was reached hours later – after frantic behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts – with a symbolic apology.Huang, China’s environment minister, hammered through the text to rapturous applause, the traditional sign that a deal has been reached in a UN process. Yet, moments before, the plenary heard clear dissent from the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s negotiator. Huang brought down the gavel anyway, seemingly ignoring the objection to the deal. He was challenged immediately. The negotiator from Cameroon called it “a fraud”, while Uganda said there had been a “coup d’état”. Continue reading...

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Blistering cold events are becoming more stark and pose a threat not only to humans but to entire ecosystemsThe extreme cold settling over the US this week will be biting, as a blast of arctic air and strong winds threaten to plunge several regions into subzero temperatures. Roughly 150 million people across the US will be forced to face the frigid conditions, posing life-threatening dangers to anyone without shelter from the storms, wreaking havoc on holiday travel plans and possibly straining susceptible power grids.“The shock to the system so to speak – whether that’s human bodies or power grid – is going to be substantial because we haven’t seen this in a long time,” said climate scientist Daniel Swain, noting that, in general, numbing cold is becoming less common. Continue reading...

Two workers in an abattoir in Catalonia alleged to have suffered unwanted sexual advances and are now appealing court decisionA court in Spain has acquitted a manager accused of sexual advances and using the threat of dismissal to demand sex, in a blow to a landmark legal challenge that sought to cast a spotlight on sexual abuse in the country’s meat processing industry.The behaviour was alleged to have taken place at an abattoir north of Barcelona, a region that has helped transform Spain into Europe’s largest pork producer. Continue reading...

Farmers’ lobby welcomes move by Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition, claiming animals are getting ‘ever closer’ to homesItaly’s ruling right-wing coalition is set to loosen hunting rules to deal with what the country’s farming lobby has called an “invasion” of wild boars.The boars are common in the countryside, but have recently also been spotted in central parts of Rome, attracted by the Eternal City’s chronically overflowing rubbish skips. Continue reading...

Locals forced to rely on emergency bottled water as pipes leak and burst after recent rapid thawTens of thousands of households in parts of south-east England face the prospect of a Christmas without running water as suppliers struggle with burst pipes after a rapid thaw from last week’s freezing temperatures.South East Water admitted that it could not guarantee all customers in Kent and East Sussex that water would be restored by the Christmas weekend, after a threefold increase in leaks. Continue reading...

Analysis by CPRE shows record number of sites where housing could be built at time of national shortageA record number of brownfield sites in England that have been identified for redevelopment and could provide 1.2m homes are lying dormant, according to an analysis.The scale of the accommodation that could be built emerged after the countryside charity CPRE analysed 344 brownfield land registers, which identify urban sites that have previously been built on, which are available for housing. Continue reading...

Arrest of Sherif Osman while visiting family in Dubai raises fears for activists at Cop28 climate conferenceThe United Arab Emirates is preparing to deport an Egyptian-American citizen detained in Dubai who called for protests during the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt, sparking fears about the treatment of civil society during next year’s Cop28 in the Emirates.Sherif Osman, a former Egyptian army officer who has lived in the US for decades, was detained at a restaurant in Dubai, where he had travelled with his fiancee to see family. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Force says it falsely imprisoned photographer covering M25 climate actionA regional police force has admitted it unlawfully arrested and violated the human rights of a photographer who was held while covering climate protests on the M25.Ben Cawthra was one of four journalists arrested by Hertfordshire constabulary while covering protests by Just Stop Oil last month. Supporters of the climate campaign had climbed gantries to disrupt traffic on London’s orbital motorway. Continue reading...

An investigation into the pipeline’s largest spill is under way in Kansas as a recent report points to a deteriorating safety recordThe Keystone pipeline, which traverses 2,600 miles from western Canada through the central US, leaked an estimated 14,000 barrels of oil, more than half a million gallons, into a creek in Washington county, Kansas, on 7 December. The incident was the largest onshore oil spill since at least 2013, the Keystone pipeline’s third major spill in the last five years, and the largest since it began operating in 2010.It is also the case that previous estimates from earlier spills on the pipeline have turned out to be much larger than the initial estimates. Continue reading...

Provision allows Maine’s lobster industry to continue using fishing gear that maims the species, often fatally, until 2028Animal protectionists are accusing Democrats in the US Senate of selling out the critically endangered northern right whale by including a provision in a year-end funding bill that would allow Maine’s lobster industry to continue using fishing gear that maims the species, often fatally, until at least 2028.According to the Center for Biological Diversity, an unprecedented right whale policy rider inserted by Democratic senators Chuck Schumer of New York and Patrick Leahy of Vermont into the omnibus funding budget released on Tuesday effectively condemns the right whale to extinction. Continue reading...

Inger Andersen said we must not ‘pause for a second’ as we ‘change the relationship between people and nature’The UN’s environment chief has urged citizens, businesses and governments to “not pause for a second” in implementing the new once-in-a-decade deal to halt the destruction of nature, calling for changes in consumption patterns and attitudes.“[With the new agreement] we are acknowledging that protecting the natural world represents a sum of linear efforts by governments, by businesses and by us – each one of us as individuals and consumers,” said Inger Andersen, the executive director of the UN environment programme. Continue reading...

Company’s current net sales of manufactured PFAS, which are linked to cancer and heart problems, are about $1.3bnUS industrial conglomerate 3M on Tuesday set a deadline of 2025 to stop making PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals”, that are used in everything from cellphones to semiconductors and have been linked to illnesses ranging from cancer, heart problems to low birth weights.The per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are known as forever chemicals because the substances do not break down quickly and have in recent years been found in dangerous concentrations in drinking water, soils and foods across the country. Continue reading...

The talking is over, and a text has been agreed on the next decade of targets to save the natural world. Here are the highs and lows of the Convention of Biological Diversity’s (CBD) agreementThe term “nature positive”, which scientists had said would be the biodiversity equivalent of “net zero”, did not make the final document. Many will see this as a missed opportunity – a unifying idea similar to keeping global heating to within 1.5C. However, the 2030 goal to “take urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss” is still considered a relatively strong call to action. Continue reading...

P-22’s death prompts outpouring of grief and respect for the wild influencer who called Hollywood Hills home and ‘captivated the world’He was a symbol, the face of a campaign, a subject of songs and an inspiration for an entire city. But P-22 – the most famous mountain lion in Los Angeles, and quite possibly the world – was also just a cat, and the cat had gotten very old.In the end, he was undone by the very city that loved him. Marooned in a park surrounded by urban neighborhoods and freeways, without access to his natural range or the prospect of a mate, he grew infirm and began acting erratically. On Saturday, after bringing him in for a health check, wildlife officials took the difficult step of euthanizing him. Continue reading...

The Montreal biodiversity conference set some ambitious targets. It’s now up to nations – including the UK – to step upI don’t normally finish United Nations Cop meetings with a smile on my face. Yet as the sun sets on the UN biodiversity conference, Cop15, in Montreal with a global agreement for nature’s recovery, I’m walking away feeling rather more optimistic than I did only a fortnight ago.In the early hours of Monday morning in Montreal, Canada, nearly 200 countries agreed and adopted a new “global biodiversity framework” containing various goals and targets. The pact requires all nations – particularly the UK – to dramatically up their game on protecting and restoring nature. Continue reading...

Treated wastewater still proposed for the Dawson River, home to the white-throated snapping turtle

The chief executive of the UK’s second-largest energy supplier has found his views on the industry have never been more in demandMichael Lewis is not used to friends taking a keen interest in his job. But the energy crisis, which has driven dozens of suppliers under, has turned the tables for E.ON’s UK chief executive.“I never thought I’d be standing at a friend’s birthday party explaining the system marginal pricing of the electricity market,” he laughs. “But there I was, and I had an audience. They want to understand what happened – you explain why 29 suppliers failed and they’re saying: ‘Oh really? And we’re all paying for that?’” Continue reading...

Lawyer in a civil lawsuit launched by towns in hurricane-hit Puerto Rico describes why it is using laws used to target mob bossesThe same racketeering legislation used to bring down mob bosses, motorcycle gangs, football executives and international fraudsters is to be tested against oil and coal companies who are accused of conspiring to deceive the public over the climate crisis.In an ambitious move, an attempt will be made to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for “decades of deception” in a lawsuit being brought by communities in Puerto Rico that were devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017. Continue reading...

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The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the world’s most biodiverse countries, and its objections raised the prospect of legal challengesA once-in-a-decade deal to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems finally won full support at Cop15 in Montreal on Monday after the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) dropped its opposition.Earlier on Monday, Ève Bazaiba, the DRC’s environment minister, threatened to throw the integrity of the historic UN biodiversity agreement into doubt just hours after it was signed, when China’s summit president appeared to ignore her country’s objections to the text and forced it through. 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?In a lined notebook, Bhole Nath Singh Armo, a lean 28-year-old man wearing a blue shirt and matching baseball cap, drew a map of his village. He pointed his pen at the middle to mark the temple where the village deity had lived. To the west, he noted a settlement of more than 200 houses where he, his father and his grandfather were born and raised. Then, to the north, another temple for a female deity. This was how his village, Kete, looked until nine years ago, when it was destroyed by a company controlled by a $260bn conglomerate. The conglomerate is named after its owner, Asia’s richest man, Gautam Adani.The village was located in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, on the edge of the dense Hasdeo Arand forest. One of India’s few pristine and contiguous tracts of forest, Hasdeo Arand sprawls across more than 1,500 sq km. The land is home to rare plants such as epiphytic orchids and smilax, endangered animals such as sloth bears and elephants, and sal trees so tall they seem to brush against the sky. Continue reading...

Democratic Republic of the Congo’s environment minister says country has not agreed to ‘30 by 30’ dealThe Democratic Republic of the Congo’s environment minister has said her country has not agreed to a deal to halt the destruction of the Earth’s ecosystems, prompting behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts to keep the agreement alive just hours after it was adopted.Ève Bazaiba, the DRC’s environment minister, said her country would be writing to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and the Convention on Biological Diversity to express the DRC’s position on the final text. It comes after the Chinese Cop15 president, Huang Runqiu, appeared to force through the agreement in the final plenary just moments after the DRC negotiator had said did not support the deal, which is typically negotiated by consensus. His interventions prompted further objections from Uganda and Cameroon. Continue reading...

Selby council says roads agency, accused of ‘cultural vandalism’, must apply for planning permissionThe government’s roads agency has been told it must reverse its burial of another Victorian railway bridge, or seek permission for it, as the extent of the agency’s “cultural vandalism” has emerged.Selby district council has told National Highways (NH) it must apply for planning permission if it wants to retain hundreds of tonnes of aggregate and concrete the agency used to submerge the arch of a 175-year-old bridge over Rudgate Road near Newton Kyme, North Yorkshire. Continue reading...

Maggie Johnston wonders why doors are kept open while heaters blast away. Rev Dr John Caperon has faith in his trusty draught excluderSo the government is to encourage us to draughtproof our windows and doors (‘It all adds up’: UK campaign to cut energy use launches this weekend, 13 December). Meanwhile, many high street shops have their doors wide open while heaters are blasting away. If I had my central heating on and kept my front door open all day, I would rightly be judged to be mad. Why are shop doors still open when we are in the midst of an energy crisis?Some years ago, a closed-doors policy was tried out in Cambridge. It resulted in lower heating bills for shops and a decrease in shoplifting. Customers were not put off and profits were not affected. Closed doors means a more comfortable experience for customers and staff, plus it has the added benefit of keeping out harmful particulates from traffic fumes. The group Close the Door has information on all the benefits. Time for shops to act.

António Guterres announces a climate ambition summit to confront ‘existential threat’ facing the planetThe goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C is “gasping for breath”, the UN secretary general has said as he announced a “climate ambition summit” for September.António Guterres said the summit would challenge leaders of governments and businesses to come up with “new, tangible and credible climate action to accelerate the pace of change” and confront the “existential threat” of the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Environmental groups and ministers have praised the ambition of the agreement, which also places emphasis on Indigenous rightsMinisters and environmental groups have praised the ambition of the deal reached at Cop15, which includes a target to protect 30% of the planet for nature by the end of the decade and places emphasis on Indigenous rights.There was widespread support for the final text put forward after two weeks of UN biodiversity negotiations to agree this decade’s targets for protecting nature, which included protecting 30% of the planet for nature by the end of the decade, reforming $500bn (£410bn) of environmentally damaging subsidies, and taking urgent action on extinctions. Continue reading...

Exclusive: DfT refuses to publish emission figures, which campaigners say could make new road projects unviableThe UK government is refusing to release the carbon emission figures behind its transport decarbonisation plan, which campaigners say could make proposed road schemes financially unviable.The Department for Transport (DfT) is blocking academics from seeing the figures, which include data on how much car use would have to be reduced in order to reach net zero commitments. Continue reading...

Agreement on ’30 by 30’ target forced through by Chinese president, ignoring objections from African states