Environment | The Guardian

Tensions between residents and revellers have reached boiling point after loosening of serving restrictions during CovidThe sun has barely set when the music starts thumping on Madrid’s Calle Ponzano. As queues start to form outside the already heaving bars, the party spills out on to the pavement, leaving customers jostling for space with an ever-growing cacophony of smokers and passersby.Lost in the fray is the brightly lettered message – pleading with punters to keep the noise down – from banners that flap from balconies above. It is a last ditch effort by those who have found themselves living on the frontline of a battle playing out across Spain as exhausted neighbours face off against raucous drinkers. Continue reading...

Farming Simulator lets customers test out new trailers, balers and other machinery before buying the real thingTractors are commonly sold to farmers at agricultural fairs and announced in the trade press. But machinery makers are falling over themselves to get a slice of a much more unlikely advertising vehicle: the Farming Simulator video game.The developers, Giants Software, now receive hundreds of queries a year from manufacturers of equipment – from tractors and combine harvesters to trailers, balers and seed drills – about how they can feature in the game, where players create their own virtual farm. Continue reading...

After a long hiatus, the epic Ocean Race is back – but this year, as well as dodging icebergs, cracking masts and suffering the occasional ‘hull sandwich failure’, the teams are gathering crucial data from places even research vessels rarely reachThe Southern Ocean is not somewhere most people choose to spend an hour, let alone a month. Circling the icy continent of Antarctica, it is the planet’s wildest and most remote ocean. Point Nemo – just to the north in the South Pacific – is the farthest location from land on Earth, 1,670 miles (2,688km) away from the closest shore. The nearest humans are generally those in the International Space Station when it passes overhead.But on 21 March, four sailing teams came through here – part of a marathon race round the bottom of the Earth, from Cape Town in South Africa to Itajaí in Brazil. Continue reading...

The Georgia activist on why she is leaving campaign politics behind to focus on weaning America off fossil fuelsStacey Abrams has been hailed as a masterly community organizer, after she helped turn out the voters that secured two Senate seats for Democrats in once solidly red Georgia. She has also run twice – unsuccessfully – for state governor. For her next move, she’s not focusing on electoral power so much as power itself.Recently she left the world of campaign politics and took a job as senior counsel for the non-profit Rewiring America. Her role will focus on helping thousands of people across America wean their homes and businesses off fossil fuels and on to electricity, at a moment when scientists have given a “final warning” about the need to curb greenhouse gas emissions and prevent global catastrophe. Continue reading...

Tom Massey promotes natural ‘forest gardens’ with biodiverse planting to create wildlife havensYour garden should have many layers, like a rainforest, to perform for biodiversity and climate, a leading garden designer has said.Tom Massey, an award-winning horticulturist, said most gardens only have a couple of layers, with a mown lawn, some bushes and perhaps a tree. But adding multiple layers, with intermingled planting, helps to mimic what one may find in a biodiverse forest, with each layer giving benefits for wildlife. Continue reading...

Barrels of the toxic chemical were dumped along the Pacific coast decades ago. New research shows the material never broke downFor years industrial companies in southern California used the coast as a dumping ground for toxic chemical waste, including DDT. Decades later, scientists have found that the pesticide remains in high concentrations on the ocean floor and has never broken down.Nearly two years after the discovery of tens of thousands of barrels of waste off the coast of Los Angeles, a scientist working on the issue shared this week that the chemical is still spread across a vast stretch of the seafloor, the Los Angeles Times reported. Continue reading...

Australia Museum says 20-year-old collection will help understand and conserve threatened animals, which are sensitive to climate change

Adult fall-run Chinook salmon returned to California’s rivers in near record low numbers in 2022As drought dried up rivers that carry California’s newly hatched Chinook salmon to the ocean, state officials in recent years have resorted to loading up the fish by the millions on to trucks and barges to take them to the Pacific.The surreal and desperate scramble boosted the survival rate of the hatchery-raised fish, but still it was not enough to reverse the declining stocks in the face of added challenges. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Labour decries ‘climate vandalism’ as launch plans signal intention to boost fossil fuel industry

Crown estate leases seabed rights to new projects as oil firms look to replace gas and diesel generatorsThe Scottish government will earn more than £260m after agreeing to lease areas of its seabed to floating offshore wind projects that can power oil and gas rigs.In a world first, Crown Estate Scotland gave the green light for companies to help trim the North Sea’s carbon emissions by developing floating windfarms that can directly supply oil and gas platforms with renewable electricity. Continue reading...

The owner of Paloma salon in Paddington has organised seminars for hairdressers across Sydney to instruct them on how to talk to their clients about climate action. Owner Paloma Rose Garcia started the A Brush with Climate workshops – navigating how to discuss science and solutions with clients – after she 'really understood that there is a unique opportunity that hairdressers have to hold meaningful conversation and assist the community with understanding more about climate and what they can do in their everyday life'► Subscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTube Continue reading...

Residents in several low-lying communities told to evacuate after flooding caused by rainfall and snowmeltAt least three people were found dead this week after their vehicles were swept away by floodwaters in Arizona, authorities said.Gila county sheriff’s officials said the bodies of a couple missing after their vehicle was stuck in floodwaters in the Payson area were located on Thursday. They were identified as Phon Sutton, 85, and Dara Sutton, 72, both of Payson, Arizona. Continue reading...

Six KCs among more than 120 mostly English lawyers to sign pledge not to act for fossil fuel interestsLeading barristers have defied bar rules by signing a declaration saying they will not prosecute peaceful climate protesters or act for companies pursuing fossil fuel projects.They are among more than 120 mostly English lawyers who have signed a declaration vowing to “withhold [their] services in respect of supporting new fossil fuel projects and action against climate protesters exercising their right of peaceful protest”. Continue reading...

Test relies on visual inspection of ash to then check soil for toxins, which is ‘unlikely to give a complete picture’ of contaminationA plan to test for toxic dioxins near the site of a February train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, is flawed and unlikely to find the dangerous substances, independent chemical pollution researchers in the US who reviewed the testing protocol told the Guardian.Initial soil testing already revealed dioxin levels hundreds of times above the threshold that Environmental Protection Agency scientists have found poses a cancer risk, but that sampling was limited in scope.Arcadis will largely rely on visual inspections of the ground to find evidence of dioxins, instead of systematically testing soil samples that may contain the compounds, which is standard protocol.The plan does not say how low the levels of dioxin the company will check for will be.Testing will only be conducted up to two miles from the accident site when ash has been found up to 20 miles away.The testing is limited to soil and does not include food or water. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including a rescued sloth, a baby nutria and a patient frog Continue reading...

Exclusive: Report says 435,000 hectares have been degraded through logging since 2000, affecting 244 threatened species

Report also suggests migration could help ensure UK has necessary skills to meet government’s 2050 net zero targetNew climate visas should be created to allow victims of natural disasters to come to the UK, and to bring in skilled workers needed for the transition to net zero, a Conservative thinktank has argued.Onward, whose co-founder Will Tanner recently became Rishi Sunak’s deputy chief of staff, is urging the government to prepare for the likely increase in global migration as a result of the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Accounts of global impact of floods, droughts and storms at New York meeting add to pressure to make water central to Cop28Water is at the heart of the climate crisis, with an increasingly dire carousel of droughts, floods and sea level rise felt “making our planet uninhabitable” the secretary-general of the United Nations, António Guterres, has warned.On the second day of the first UN water conference in almost half a century, countries lined up to describe how they are suffering from water disasters linked to human-made global heating. “We seem to either have too much water, or too little,” said Senzo Mchunu, South Africa’s water minister. “We will fail on climate change if we fail on water.” Continue reading...

Green party accuses FDP of gambling away country’s reputation after last-minute blocking of phase-out from 2035A clash over climate protection measures is threatening to unravel Germany’s three-party governing alliance, after the Green party accused its liberal coalition partners of gambling away the country’s reputation by blocking a EU-wide phase-out of internal combustion engines in cars.“You can’t have a coalition of progress where only one party is in charge of progress and the others try to stop the progress,” the country’s vice-chancellor and economy minister, Robert Habeck, said at a meeting of the Green party’s parliamentary group in Weimar on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Exclusive: People left to ‘swim in filth’ as Defra turns down applications, say Lib DemsMost applications for bathing water status to clean up rivers and coastal waters in England have been rejected by the government in the last 14 months, according to new data from the Liberal Democrats.Local groups have been working for months to create bathing water areas, where the Environment Agency is forced to undertake more rigorous testing for faecal bacteria. Grassroots groups are focusing on inland waters in particular, in a push to stop the discharge of raw sewage by water companies and force a clean-up of English rivers, which all fail tests for chemical and biological pollution. Continue reading...

With the domestic market in long-term decline, whalers and restaurants are working with the Japan travel bureau in a bid to win over skeptical visitorsThe anticipation is building in the private, tatami-mat room at Murasaki, a restaurant in Osaka. At one end sit a handful of Japanese journalists; on the other, executives from the country’s biggest whaling company and officials from the travel industry.In the middle, six hand-picked social influencers from Thailand, France, Russia and South Korea take their places around a hori-zataku table and wait for the first of several courses devoted to Japan’s most controversial cuisine: whale meat. Continue reading...

Being part of the People’s Plan for Nature, it was illuminating to see how people could reach consensusThe People’s Plan for Nature, launched on Thursday, sets out the public’s recommendations for reversing massive declines in Britain’s nature. One hundred people were invited to come together, in a citizens’ assembly, to agree on a plan for how to renew and protect nature. Their recommendations include calls for access to nature to be a human right, the urgent restoration of rivers, transparency from supermarkets and a cross-party commitment to farming for nature. One of the assembly members, Sara Hudston, here shares her views on taking part in the process.I first heard of the People’s Plan for Nature early last autumn, but I didn’t intend to take part because I thought it looked too simplistic. It began with a national callout for ideas about how nature might be renewed, which I felt lacked urgency and wasn’t enough given the scale of biodiversity loss in the UK. Continue reading...

Tory councillor Richard Bingley signed off night-time mass felling as part of £12m regeneration schemeA council leader who has been embroiled in a row after ordering the felling of more than 100 trees is to resign.Richard Bingley, the leader of Plymouth city council, plans to step down next week as leader of the Conservative group and head of the authority. Continue reading...

Community members react after a town meeting at the Menindee civic hall which was held to address concerns relating to the cleanliness and security of the water of the town following the deaths of millions of fish in the Darling-Baaka river. 'A lot of the people who were here wanted answer to why another fish kill occurred. Why solutions weren't put in place after the last fish kill,' says the NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, who attended the meeting

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The discovery of the endangered Italian alpine newt in a disused mine has shone a light on the biodiversity hiding in the Carrara marble quarries of TuscanyThe heart of the Apuan Alps in Tuscany, Italy, is home to one of the biggest marble mines in the world, with about 160 active quarries in the Massa Carrara and Lucca areas. Since Roman times, creamy-white Carrara marble has been dug out of these mountains. It is the most sought-after marble in the world, and has inspired artists and architects everywhere.But the Apuan Alps also host an ecosystem that is home to the Italian alpine newt (Ichthyosaura alpestris apuana). In November, Manuel Micheli, a photographer working with the Apuane Libere organisation, stumbled across the newt in Crespina 2, a decommissioned quarry. Continue reading...

Greens in internal negotiations over backing down on demand for ban on new coal and gas projects in Labor’s climate policy

University of British Columbia researchers develop silica-based material with ability to absorb wider range of harmful chemicalsResearchers at a Canadian university have made a breakthrough they hope will dramatically shorten the lifespan of the thousands of toxic “forever chemicals” that persist in clothing, household items and the environment.Scientists at the University of British Columbia announced on Wednesday that they had developed a new silica-based material with ability to absorb a wider range of the harmful chemicals, and new tools to break them apart them. Continue reading...

Secretary general urges countries to tackle ‘vampiric overconsumption’, water guzzling industries and climate crisisThe United Nations opened its first water conference in almost half a century in New York on Wednesday, with a plea for countries to work together to tackle overconsumption, water guzzling industries and the climate crisis – or else face more hunger, conflicts and forced migration due to worsening water scarcity.A quarter of the world’s population still does not have access to safe drinking water while half lacks basic sanitation, and despite some progress in recent years, the climate crisis is making the situation worse. Continue reading...

The research group that first exposed the scandal say ‘it’s not over’ and that governments must actThirteen million diesel cars producing “extreme” levels of toxic air pollution are still on the roads in Europe and the UK, according to a report, seven years after the Dieselgate scandal first exploded.The non-profit research group, the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), revealed in 2015 that many diesel cars were highly polluting, emitting far more nitrogen oxides on the road than in official testing. The scandal led to a more rigorous test being introduced in the EU in 2019. Continue reading...

Rescuers unable to save cetaceans after mass stranding event at Sea Isle CityEight dolphins have died after being stranded on a beach in New Jersey, a rehabilitation center said.According to the New Jersey-based Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC), the pod of eight dolphins were caught in a “mass stranding event” in the state’s southernmost city, Sea Isle City, on Tuesday morning. Continue reading...

Increasing ocean temperatures present ‘existential threat’ with knock-on effects for ecosystems and commercial fisheries, researchers say

London borough to replace West Kentish Town estate, but rival plan claims to have a much smaller climate impactA conflict between saving carbon and building better homes has broken out on a groundbreaking 1960s council estate in London.The London borough of Camden is planning to raze and replace the West Kentish Town estate, which was built almost 60 years ago. It says the homes are too small, the concrete panel buildings are dilapidated and most residents want new homes. Continue reading...

Protesters cut up credit cards and march to Washington branches of JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Bank of America and Wells FargoHundreds of older Americans gathered in Washington on Tuesday to protest against four of the country’s largest financial institutions, cutting up their credit cards in an act of defiance meant to condemn the banks’ funding of oil and gas projects.The protesters marched to the downtown DC branches of the four targeted “dirty banks” – JPMorgan Chase, CitiBank, Bank of America and Wells Fargo – before staging a “die-in” to symbolize the global threat posed by fossil fuels. In a nod to the age of the protest’s participants, demonstrators sat in painted rocking chairs as they chanted “Cut it up!” to those slashing their credit cards outside the banks’ branches. Continue reading...

The Australian Museum’s new multimedia exhibition, The Birds of Australia, traces the journey of the 19th-century naturalist and ornithologist John Gould and his wife, illustrator Elizabeth Gould, as they travelled through New South Wales and recorded the unique birdlife, identifying hundreds of species new to western science

Complaint made to ACCC says airline’s claims of net zero by 2050 are not feasible and company intends to increase absolute CO2 emissions

Dutch authorities try to tempt out animals, which dig setts under quiet and raised train embankmentsLeaves on the tracks, signal failures and strikes can all cause train delay headaches, but commuters in the Netherlands are facing railway havoc caused by badgers burrowing under the lines, with authorities struggling to tempt the protected animals out.In the densely populated country, there is limited natural space for the country’s 7,000 badgers. They often dig out their homes, or setts, under relatively “quiet” train embankments, which are ideally situated away from people and also slightly raised, which prevents the sett from flooding. Continue reading...

World Bank among those urging levy to fund climate action in developing world and encourage fleets to upgradePressure is growing on the international shipping industry to accept a carbon levy on ships that would fund climate action in the developing world, with the World Bank among those pushing for the measure at a crucial international meeting this week, the Guardian has learned.A levy on the greenhouse gas emissions produced from shipping would encourage companies to upgrade their fleets, run them more efficiently and seek cleaner fuels and technologies. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Roark Capital and Silver Lake Management showed to have a web of connections to the Atlanta police foundationA new investigation has uncovered connections between private equity firms and the contentious development of a sprawling police and fire service training complex in Atlanta known as “Cop City” and the police force which fatally shot an environmental activist.Private equity refers to an opaque form of financing away from public markets in which funds and investors manage money for wealthy individuals and institutional investors such as university endowments and state employee pension funds. Continue reading...

Authors of paper accepted for publication in Harvard Environmental Law Review argue firms are ‘killing members of the public at an accelerating rate’Oil companies have come under increasing legal scrutiny and face allegations of defrauding investors, racketeering, and a wave of other lawsuits. But a new paper argues there’s another way to hold big oil accountable for climate damage: trying companies for homicide.The striking and seemingly radical legal theory is laid out in a paper accepted for publication in the Harvard Environmental Law Review. In it, the authors argue fossil fuel companies “have not simply been lying to the public, they have been killing members of the public at an accelerating rate, and prosecutors should bring that crime to the public’s attention”. Continue reading...

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The Vjosa River in Albania teems with more than 1,000 species, while rare vultures and Balkan lynx visit its banks. It has seen off the threat of a surge in barriers, but the shadow of development persistsThe fast-moving Vjosa River in Albania curves and braids, sweeping our raft away from the floodplain towards the opposite bank, and back again. The islands that split the waterway in two are temporary, forming, growing, then dissipating so that this truly wild river, one of the last in Europe, never looks the same.“There’s a saying, ‘you can’t step in the same river twice’,” says Ulrich Eichelmann, the head of Riverwatch, a Vienna-based NGO for river protection, who is paraphrasing the Greek philosopher Heraclitus. “A river is a living, dynamic thing, an architect of its surroundings. It changes all the time. That’s its beauty.” Continue reading...

Lords committee criticises Ofwat for failing to ensure firms invested enough in sewage networkWater companies have been too focused on maximising financial returns at the expense of the environment, a House of Lords committee has found.The investigation by peers into the regulation of the privatised water industry found Ofwat, the regulator, had chosen to keep bills low for customers at the expense of investment in the industry, which is now sorely lacking. Continue reading...

Some species of insect no longer being seen in areas that are becoming drier and hotterDrought is threatening some British moth species with local extinction, a study has found, as the insects are no longer being seen in areas which are becoming drier and hotter.The new research, published today by wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation and Northumbria University, looked at data gathered over a 40-year period by volunteers of Butterfly Conservation’s National Moth Recording Scheme. Continue reading...

Officials at a heated town meeting in Menindee, outback New South Wales, are challenged to drink a mug of town water in front of the crowd after assuring the community that it meets Australian drinking water standards. The request is issued by Jan Fennell, a resident who says the town is tired of being given instructions by authorities without being granted meaningful involvement or reassurances► Subscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTube

UN report predicts water demand will increase by 80% as crisis threatens to get out of controlThe number of people lacking access to safe drinking water in cities around the world will double by 2050, research has found, amid warnings of an imminent water crisis that is likely to “spiral out of control”.Nearly 1 billion people in cities around the world face water scarcity today and the number is likely to reach between 1.7 billion and 2.4 billion within the next three decades, according to the UN World Water Development Report, published on Tuesday ahead of a vital UN summit. Urban water demand is predicted to increase by 80% by 2050. Continue reading...

Residents accuse St James parish officials of civil rights and religious liberty violations by approving petrochemical plantsResidents of St James parish, Louisiana, have unveiled a federal lawsuit accusing local government officials of civil rights and religious liberty violations by repeatedly approving the construction of petrochemical plants in two majority Black districts.The lawsuit, part of a wave of litigation in the heavily industrialised corridor known as “Cancer Alley”, also calls for a moratorium on the construction of new plants and the extension of existing facilities in St James parish. Continue reading...

Australia has a 227,000 tonne a year fashion waste problem, but thanks to a lingerie designer’s campaign, some of it could soon rot productively

Only 19 cases of cetacean bycatch reported under Defra scheme, but experts say figure much higherOnly a handful of instances of accidental bycatch of whales, dolphins and porpoises have been recorded under the UK government’s self-reporting initiative, despite the likelihood that hundreds are being caught by fishing vessels.Fishers have been encouraged to voluntarily record the bycatch of marine mammals in an attempt to reduce the accidental catch, which would benefit the fishing industry and the health of the seas. Continue reading...

Councillors vote to chop down trees in Coton Orchard for busway from Cambridge to CambourneHundreds of trees in an orchard designated as a habitat of principal importance in England should be felled to build a new busway to tackle climate change, councillors in Cambridgeshire voted on Tuesday.The county council voted by 33 to 26 to approve a new public transport busway, which will use optically guided electric or hybrid buses on its route, to provide links between Cambridge and Cambourne, an expanding new town eight miles outside the city. Continue reading...