City’s most famous feline was euthanized last year after being hit by vehicle, but his legacy lives on with a highway wildlife crossingOn a sunny Saturday in Los Angeles, a packed outdoor crowd of 6,000 people at the Greek Theater cried, sang and swayed together as they bid adieu to one of the city’s most treasured residents: a mountain lion known as P-22.In a city more synonymous with billboards than biodiversity, an ageing bachelor puma made tracks into people’s hearts. When he was euthanized at the end of 2022 after being hit by a car, it stung. Continue reading...

Lawyers for climate activist killed by police say charges send warning: ‘If you stand in our way, we will take you out of our way’Lawyers for the family of a climate activist who was shot dead by police in Georgia last month have condemned officials’ attempts to brand his fellow protesters of Atlanta’s planned “Cop City” training facility as domestic terrorists.Attorneys representing relatives of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán were speaking at a news conference Monday as a large number of officers, including heavily armed tactical teams, descended again on the site in Atlanta’s South River forest where the building of the $90m so-called Cop City is planned. Continue reading...

David Nixon defied judge’s instruction not to cite climate crisis as motivation for causing public nuisanceA supporter of the Insulate Britain climate protest campaign faces a prison sentence after he was convicted for contempt of court for telling a jury his actions were motivated by the climate crisis.David Nixon was one of four defendants found guilty at Inner London crown court on Monday for causing a public nuisance by blocking the junction of Bishopsgate and Wormwood St in the City of London on 25 October 2021. Continue reading...

Water cremation and human composting among methods to be discussed by General Synod this weekThe Church of England is to consider backing more environmentally-friendly methods of disposing of dead bodies, including water cremation and human composting.An internal consultation will consider the theological, practical and pastoral issues around alternatives to cremation and burial that are used in some countries. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Environment minister calls for ex-president to be held to account as she prepares to tackle illegal gold minersFormer president Jair Bolsonaro should be investigated for genocide, Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, has said, as she prepares an operation to drive illegal goldminers from the site of a humanitarian disaster on Indigenous land.In the coming days, armed police and environmental protection agents will launch the first of a series of operations by plane and helicopter to expel thousands of miners, who proliferated in Brazil’s Yanomami Indigenous territory during Bolsonaro’s administration, contaminating Amazonian rivers, wrecking the rainforest and spawning Brazil’s worst health crisis in living memory. Continue reading...

The stem is evidence, the thing that reminds you the fruit once weighed down a branch in a heavy orchard

Company rebuts claims by scientists that ‘uncontrolled and unscientific’ practices highlight dangers of going ahead with seabed miningVideo footage from a deep-sea mining test, showing sediment discharging into the ocean, has raised fresh questions about the largely untested nature of the industry, and the possible harms it could do to ecosystems as companies push to begin full-scale exploration of the ocean floor as early as this year.The Metals Company (TMC), a Canadian mining firm that is one of the leading industry players, spent September to November of last year testing its underwater extraction vehicle in the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone, a section of the Pacific Ocean between Mexico and Hawaii. Continue reading...

Far upriver in the rainforest, the lure of rare pink river dolphins is creating jobs and promoting conservation and reconciliation after a 50-year war“The dolphins are more playful than us,” says Diego Cifuentes, co-founder of Villa Lilia Agroecoturistico, a community dolphin-watching project on Colombia’s Lake Nare. “If you give off good energy, they may even touch you.”Cifuentes is sitting on a boat in the middle of a lake surrounded by thick forest, a two-hour boat ride from San José del Guaviare. In the water, a dozen tourists bob in fluorescent lifejackets, waiting for the chance to meet a boto, the local name for the pink Amazon River dolphin (Inia geoffrensis). Soon enough, a plume of steam bursts from the water and the humped backs of three botos glide through the surface. The tourists giggle and squeal at the momentary encounter with the rare cetacean. Continue reading...

Pollution from wood stoves, popular among middle classes, missed from monitoring which focuses on roads but is just as if not more harmfulA sharp rise in wood burning in urban areas could be bringing harmful pollution to greater numbers of people, and shifting the pattern of pollution from poorer to more affluent areas, one of the UK’s leading air pollution experts has warned.Currently, air pollution monitoring focuses on busy roads, which have been the main hotspots for fine particulate matter (known as PM2.5) and other air pollutants, largely from diesel vehicles. Continue reading...

Fishing has been central to life on Holy Island in Northumberland for centuries. Now, despite intense opposition, a proposed highly protected marine area – which would effectively kill off local industry – threatens the livelihoods of the island’s 15 fishing families

The unhoused teen, barred from an air-conditioned store, ‘didn’t need handcuffs – he needed help’, his father saysCaleb Blair entered the Circle K gas station in Phoenix asking for help. “I can’t breathe, I’m hot, I need to sit down. I can’t breathe,” he told the male cashier. He was sweaty, panting heavily, and struggling to stand up straight.It was 10 June 2022 in Phoenix, Arizona, and the city was experiencing the season’s first extreme heatwave. The temperature outside was 112F (44C) and rising. Continue reading...

Scientists urge people to stop ‘spraying gardens with poison’ and adopt wildlife-friendly practicesGardeners who use pesticides are contributing to the decline of British songbirds, a study suggests.Scientists have urged people to stop “spraying their gardens with poison” in order to halt bird decline and adopt instead wildlife-friendly practices. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Looming auction to earmark £1.5bn to put power generators on standby and keep the lights onThe billionaire West Ham United investor Daniel Křetínský and Swiss commodities giant Vitol are among bidders hoping to land hundreds of millions of pounds in subsidies to keep the lights on in Great Britain.National Grid’s electricity system operator is preparing to announce successful bidders in a “capacity market” auction this month for 2026. Continue reading...

Private sector is not seen to be ready to act as main buyer and draft is similarly worded to a Morrison-era bill

Subsidence from the world’s biggest iron ore mine threatens to swallow up the Arctic town of Kiruna. But what does its relocation mean for the local Sami reindeer herders?In the far north of Sweden, 125 miles above the Arctic Circle, sits the church of Kiruna, once voted the most beautiful old building in the country. The cosy terracotta-coloured church, with its fairytale rooftop points, is designed to resemble a hut of the indigenous Sami people. It opened in 1912, with almost no religious symbols, and is described by the vicar, Lena Tjärnberg, as “the living room of the community”. But if Kiruna church is to stay the same, it must go.In 2026, the entire 600-tonne wooden building will be loaded on to trailers and moved to a new spot near the local graveyard. It’s just one large – and technically tricky – piece of a project to move Kiruna to a new home, three kilometres (1.9 miles) east of the old town. Billed as the world’s most radical relocation project, Kiruna is moving because subsidence from the local iron ore mine is threatening to swallow the town. Cracks have already appeared in the hospital; a school is no longer safe for its pupils. Continue reading...

Reforming the scheme would shrink the budget deficit and help Australia hit net zero emissions by 2050, the Grattan Institute says

Warning comes as ornithologists call for the government to step up testing to monitor the impact of the deadly H5N1 strainA devastating new outbreak of avian flu – which has already wiped out wild bird populations across the UK – is likely to hit Britain in the spring. That is the stark warning made last week by ornithologists who said the disease has now established itself across many parts of the country.“Wild birds arriving in Britain in a couple of months are very likely to trigger new outbreaks of the disease,” said Claire Smith, senior conservation officer for the RSPB. “A few months ago, I was relatively optimistic about its likely impact this year but outbreaks have continued throughout winter and the outlook for 2023 now looks much grimmer.” Continue reading...

Tremor hit at depth of 1.2 miles outside the village of Weeton just after 7.30pm on FridayBlackpool has been struck by a 1.5-magnitude earthquake, according to the British Geological Survey (BGS). The tremor struck at a depth of 1.2 miles (2km) outside the village of Weeton just after 7.30pm on Friday.Residents within Blackpool, as well as in the neighbouring villages of Little Plumpton and Westby, reported feeling the tremor. Continue reading...

The fight to save the birds’ habitat ignites old frustrations over California’s engagement with tribal communitiesUp a winding northern California highway, beneath a 120ft ponderosa pine tree, a group of environmentalists gathered for some high stakes bird-watching.Everyone was waiting for a pair of bald eagles to swoop into their nest, an orb of twigs and branches balanced amid the tree’s scraggly branches. The elusive raptors have nested here for years, renovating and upgrading it each year in preparation for hatchlings in the spring. Continue reading...

Prices of the essential ingredient have forced several eateries to begrudgingly pass on the increase in rates to the customerAs egg prices have climbed steadily over the last year, consumers have the choice of forking over $14 for a carton of large brown eggs or attempting to go eggless to save some money at the grocery store. But for many breakfast spots and bakeries around the country, saying no to eggs is a much harder, if not impossible, task.At Juan in a Million, a popular Tex-Mex breakfast spot in Austin, Texas, “There’s no way around it,” said Juan Meza, the restaurant’s general manager. “That’s part of breakfast.” Continue reading...

Environmental activists had sought to halt the planned scuttling of the warship, warning that it could pollute the marine food chainBrazil has sunk a decommissioned aircraft carrier despite environmental groups claiming the former French ship was packed with toxic materials.The “planned and controlled sinking occurred late in the afternoon” on Friday, 350km off the Brazilian coast in the Atlantic Ocean, in an area with an approximate depth of 5,000 meters (16,000 feet), the navy said in a statement. Continue reading...

Package for dealing with old polluting vehicles launched in run-up to expansion of zone on 29 AugustLow-income Londoners are being offered a package worth as much as £3,000 to scrap their old polluting cars in readiness for this summer’s expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) to cover most of the city’s roads.Transport for London (TfL) estimates that 30,000 vehicle owners will access payouts from the scrappage scheme. However, there is only £110m up for grabs and it will be doled out on a first-come, first-served basis, with car drivers having to vie with van, motorbike and minibus owners for the money. Continue reading...

People urged to submit specimens to an app as private gardens may be fresh source of scientific discoveryRecord the “weeds” that pop up in your garden because they could be a rare plant, the Royal Horticultural Society has said.Private gardens in the UK may be an untapped source of scientific discovery, according to the RHS’s new ecologist, because “scientists can’t just go into people’s gardens”. Continue reading...

The annual photographer of the year winners were chosen from more than 3,000 entries across nine categories. The top prize goes to images captured in the deep south of New Zealand, an area the photographer says she enjoys for its wonderful light and colour

Exclusive: Candidates hoping to hold the balance of power to push for state-level development bans

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund threatens to vote against boards on firms it holds investments with over lax climate and social targetsNorway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s single largest investor, has warned company directors it will vote against their re-election to the board if they do not up their game on tackling the climate crisis, human rights abuses and boardroom diversity.Carine Smith Ihenacho, the chief governance and compliance officer of Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages more than 13tn Norwegian kroner (£1tn) on behalf of the Norwegian people, said the fund was preparing to vote against the re-election of at least 80 company boards for failing to set or hit environmental or social targets. Continue reading...

Exclusive: at least 12 officials at body hosting Cop28 appear to have come straight from fossil fuel industryAt least a dozen employees from the United Arab Emirate’s state-owned oil company have apparently taken up roles with the office of the UAE’s climate change special envoy, who will host this year’s Cop28 UN climate summit.The revelation adds to growing concerns over the potential for blurred lines between the team hosting this year’s crucial summit and the oil-rich country’s influential fossil fuel industry. Continue reading...

Their fight for diversity and inclusion in farming culture echoes the womyn’s land movement from the 60s and 70sAt Ashokra farm in New Mexico, in the heart of Albuquerque’s fertile North Valley, lush fields of kabocha squash and heirloom corn grow alongside beds of tomatoes, onions and 13 varieties of okra. The team’s four farmers tend four fields spread across two and a half acres of leased plots on private residences and in a community garden, hauling their tools between each field in a mobile shed.But the bountiful harvest is only one of Ashokra’s goals. As a queer-, trans- and people-of-color-owned vegetable farm, Ashokra is “trying to embody values and create a space that we haven’t seen on farms that we’ve worked at”, says farmer Anita Adalja. “A place where we have dignity, where we can feel safe, where we can feel like we can be our authentic selves”, protected from the threats of homophobia, transphobia, racism and sexism. Continue reading...

Texas community fights to save its coastline as the developers of Rio Grande LNG regain interest over claims of carbon captureAs the Mexican Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, festivities drew to a close, Dina Nuñez called to order a meeting of women grassroots activists in a modest home in the heart of Port Isabel, Texas. Top of her agenda: how to stop a Houston-based oil and gas company from building a $10bn project to export liquefied natural gas on a nearby stretch of coast.For Nuñez and her friends, the fight against the scheme – known as Rio Grande LNG – is about protecting their community from air pollution; preserving shrimping and tourism; and defending habitats for pelicans, endangered ocelots and aplomado falcons at the project site on unspoiled wetlands between Port Isabel and the larger city of Brownsville. Continue reading...

The Department of Energy’s loan programs office was ‘essentially dormant’, says Jigar Shah, its head – but now it’s ready to bankroll clean energy projectsDeep in the confines of the hulking, brutalist headquarters of the US Department of Energy, down one of its long, starkly lit corridors, sits a small, unheralded office that is poised to play a pivotal role in America’s shift away from fossil fuels and help the world stave off disastrous global heating.The department’s loan programs office (LPO) was “essentially dormant” under Donald Trump, according to its head, Jigar Shah, but has now come roaring back with a huge war chest to bankroll emerging clean energy projects and technology. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including snow monkeys, beavers and a selfie-crazy bear Continue reading...

NSW environment officials alert Fire and Rescue over concerns plastic is being stored dangerously following suspension of the REDcycle scheme

Comedian leads coalition against ‘exploitative’ proposal for 16-storey buildings over listed stationGriff Rhys Jones is leading a coalition of conservationists against what he describes as plans to “smother” Liverpool Street station under 109 metres (350ft) of new offices, shops and a hotel.The comedian, writer and broadcaster has been appointed president of the revived Liverpool Street Station Campaign (Lissca), a post held in the 1970s by the then poet laureate Sir John Betjeman when he led a successful crusade against plans to demolish the station. Continue reading...

Local authorities say policing government’s new standards on smoke pollution is beyond their meansLocal authorities lack the resources for the crackdown on highly polluting wood burners promised by the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, they say.Wood-burning in urban areas is an increasing source of harmful air pollution, as people install stoves for aesthetic reasons or to save money on gas. Continue reading...

Butterfly Conservation report reveals 42% decline in distribution of 58 native species since 1976Butterfly species have vanished from nearly half of the places where they once flew in the UK since 1976, according to a study.The distribution of 58 native species has fallen by 42% as butterflies disappear from cities, fields and woods. Those that are only found in particular habitats, such as wetlands or chalk grassland, have fared even worse, declining in distribution by 68%. Continue reading...

Data suggests male northern quolls rest less than females and spend much more time on the move, leading to their death after a single breeding season. As Guardian Australia's science report Donna Lu explains, Australian scientists have been researching why male quolls finish the mating season looking 'terrible', with some ending up in an 'early grave'. After equipping the endangered native animals with miniature backpacks and tracking them for seven weeks during the breeding season, researchers observed the males were spending very little time resting and were constantly on the move, all in the dogged pursuit to mate

Large volumes of traps, nets and marine debris in sperm whale’s intestinal tract highlight plastic pollution’s threat to wildlifeA sperm whale that washed ashore in Hawaii over the weekend probably died in part because it ate large volumes of fishing traps, fishing nets, plastic bags and other marine debris, scientists said on Thursday, highlighting the threat to wildlife from the millions of tons of plastic that ends up in oceans every year.The body of the 56ft (17-meter) long, 120,000-pound (54,000kg) animal was first noticed on a reef off Kauai on Friday. High tide brought it ashore on Saturday. Continue reading...

Nearly 14,000 people from two Nigerian communities are seeking justice in the high court in London against the fossil fuel giant Shell, claiming it is responsible for devastating pollution of their water sources and destruction of their way of life. The individuals from the Niger delta area of Ogale, a farming community, joined more than 2,000 people from the Bille area, a large fishing community. Shell have been operating on the Niger delta for over 80 years and recently announced that they will be ceasing all operations. The oil company made record-breaking profits in 2022, generating over $32bn in the first three quarters. The oil giant are arguing that they are not responsible for a clean-up of Nigerian communities for spills that they say were caused by criminal gangs over five years ago. Lawyers representing the fishing villages argue that the scale of oil spills in the delta masks a human tragedy on an extraordinary scale

Sir Richard Kleinwort has not given permission for viable walking and cycling route between Burgess Hill and Haywards HeathAn aristocrat is at odds with his local council after blocking plans for a green walkway linking two Sussex towns through his estate, which would give children a safe route to walk or cycle home from school.Local people complain that to travel between Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath, they have to use two winding country roads with no pavements and fast traffic. Mid Sussex district council has proposed a “green path” through the lush fields and pretty woodland of the nearby area, where people could walk and cycle. Continue reading...

Moree Plains company found guilty of knowingly taking water with faulty metering equipment for crops such as cotton

An online tour is being launched of an enclosure on the Holnicote estate in Somerset that is home to a family of five beavers. In what is billed as the first of its kind, the tour allows viewers to navigate through the 2.7-acre Exmoor enclosure where two adult beavers and their three offspring live. Other wildlife captured include kingfishers, stoats, roe deer and bull finches, all of which are believed to have benefited from the changes the beavers are making to the area

A wave of unionization has swept the non-profit sector – but workers say they are experiencing aggressive opposition and retaliationWorkers at some of the top environmental organizations in the US are calling out their managers as “incredibly hypocritical” as they argue the progressive non-profits are fighting workers’ efforts to unionize.A wave of unionization efforts has swept the non-profit sector as part of a renewed national enthusiasm for unionization. Shortly into the Covid-19 pandemic, workers at 350.org, Sunrise Movement, the National Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, Greenpeace USA, the Public Interest Network and the Center for Biological Diversity unionized. Continue reading...

The energy industry is turning waste from dairy farms into renewable natural gas – but will it actually reduce emissions?On an early August afternoon at Pinnacle Dairy, a farm located near the middle of California’s long Central Valley, 1,300 Jersey cows idle in the shade of open-air barns. Above them whir fans the size of satellites, circulating a breeze as the temperature pushes 100F (38C). Underfoot, a wet layer of feces emits a thick stench that hangs in the air. Just a tad unpleasant, the smell represents a potential goldmine.The energy industry is transforming mounds of manure into a lucrative “carbon negative fuel” capable of powering everything from municipal buses to cargo trucks. To do so, it’s turning to dairy farms, which offer a reliable, long-term supply of the material. Pinnacle is just one of hundreds across the state that have recently sold the rights to their manure to energy producers. Continue reading...

Retailer and green groups warn of ‘high environmental cost’ of fish aggregating devices to tuna stocks and other endangered marine lifeThe EU is under pressure to significantly restrict its huge fleet of fishing vessels from using “fish aggregating devices” that make it easier to catch huge numbers of fish and contribute further to overfishing.A letter signed by Marks & Spencer and more than 100 environmental groups, including the International Pole and Line Foundation, warns EU officials that the devices (FADs) are one of the main contributors to overfishing of yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean, because they catch high numbers of juveniles. Continue reading...

Community health workers are stepping in to provide critical services and information in rural areas with few hospitals or doctorsWhen Claudia Salazar and her family migrated to San Elizario, Texas, a small city in El Paso county, they settled into a colonia – informal, low-income housing often found in rural parts along the US-Mexico border. Their house was small, but had enough room for her four kids, and before long, it felt like home.But the remoteness of their new home soon presented problems – Salazar suddenly found herself in a medical desert. The nearest hospital is a 35-minute drive away. Even that is challenging to get to – the community’s mostly farm worker population works 10- to 12-hour days, and often lacks adequate time to travel for medical attention between workdays. Continue reading...

Twenty states have enacted laws restricting rights to peaceful protest, as environmentalists are increasingly criminalizedThe shooting of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, believed to be the first environmental defender killed in the US, is the culmination of a dangerous escalation in the criminalization and repression of those who seek to protect natural resources in America, campaigners have warned.The death of the 26-year-old, who was also known as “Tortuguita” or “Little Turtle,” in a forest on the fringes of Atlanta was the sort of deadly act “people who have been paying attention to this issue assumed would happen soon, with no sense of joy”, according to Marla Marcum, founder of the Climate Disobedience Center, which supports climate protesters. Continue reading...

Record-breaking French freediver Arthur Guérin-Boëri holds five world championship titles. Here, he dives into Kvaenangen Fjord, Norway, to swim with killer whales Continue reading...

National Trust project shows family home of ‘nature’s engineers’ and how they have improved the environment for other wildlifeThey can be seen chugging around their watery domain like small furry tugboats, gnawing away at saplings or nuzzling up to each other. The sound of babbling water and birdsong provides a pleasing soundtrack.A new online tour is being launched on Thursday of an enclosure on the Holnicote estate in Somerset that is home to a family of five beavers. In what is billed as the first of its kind, the tour allows viewers to navigate through the 2.7-acre Exmoor enclosure where two adult beavers and their three offspring live and work. Continue reading...

Government plan to educate owners and encourage fines not enough to effectively tackle air pollution• Study links air pollution to mental ill-healthPoliticians and campaigners have called for an urgent review of wood-burning stoves, which cause large amounts of pollution in urban areas.The calls follow the admission by the environment secretary that the government had set weaker air pollution targets than it would like. The admission came as she announced a new environmental plan for England that held back from banning wood-burning stoves and settled instead for “educating” people on their use. Continue reading...

Interior department report recommends scaled-back version of ConocoPhillips’ Willow project despite Biden campaign pledgeThe Biden administration has advanced a $8bn drilling project on Alaska’s north slope. The ConocoPhillips Willow project, which would be one of the largest oil and gas developments on federal territory, has drawn fierce opposition from environmentalists, who say its approval runs counter to the president’s ambitious climate goals.An environmental assessment released by the interior department on Wednesday recommends a scaled-back version of the project ConocoPhillips originally proposed, and would produce about 600m barrels of oil over 30 years, with a peak of 180,000 barrels of crude oil a day. Continue reading...