Environment | The Guardian

Patients in New Brunswick with array of symptoms ‘show signs of exposure to glyphosate’, says neurologistA neurologist who believes his patients are suffering from a suspicious illness has pleaded with the Canadian government to carry out environmental testing he thinks will show the involvement of the herbicide glyphosate.For more than two years, dozens of people in the Canadian province of New Brunswick have experienced a distressing array of neurological symptoms, initially prompting speculation that they had developed an unknown degenerative illness – and that figure is believed to be far higher than official reports. Continue reading...

Grant Shapps to tell suppliers that reduced wholesale prices must be seen in consumer pricesMinisters have warned energy firms that they must pass on the benefits of lower wholesale prices to consumers, amid concern that bills could rise this spring.In a speech on Wednesday, Grant Shapps will tell energy suppliers that reduced wholesale prices must be seen in consumer prices, “no ifs, buts or maybes”. Continue reading...

Absence of long-term plan could deter investors or lead them to increase prices, says National Audit OfficeMinisters’ efforts to tackle the energy bills crisis have left the UK at risk of missing a key target to source green power and are threatening the country’s net zero goal, the government spending watchdog has said.The government said in 2021 it wanted all electricity to be generated from low-carbon sources by 2035, a pillar in the plan to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. Continue reading...

Airline claim that it was protecting the world’s future is latest ad to fall foul of ASA rulesAn ad campaign by Lufthansa claiming that its green initiatives were protecting the world has been banned by the UK advertising watchdog, which ruled it was misleading consumers over the environmental impact of flying.The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) launched an investigation into the campaign – which featured a plane with an image of the Earth on its underside and the strapline: “Connecting the world. Protecting its future” – over concerns the German airline was giving consumers a “misleading impression of its environmental impact”. Continue reading...

Japanese company Denka, along with US chemicals giant DuPont, have operated the plant that produces cancer-causing chloropreneThe US justice department has sued the two petrochemical giants behind a facility in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” responsible for the highest cancer risk rates caused by air pollution in the US in a major federal lawsuit that seeks to substantially curb the plant’s emissions.Unveiled on Tuesday, the lawsuit alleges emissions at the Pontchartrain Works facility in Reserve, Louisiana, violate the Clean Air Act and “present an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health and welfare”. Continue reading...

Residents can sign up for air monitoring and cleaning services for their homes as well as information on the clean up effortsThe head of the US Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday he doesn’t want any stigmas attached to the Ohio community where a train derailed and spewed toxic gases three weeks ago and that he’s pushing the railroad to clean up the mess as fast as possible.The agency is continuing to monitor the air around East Palestine and working to protect the area during the cleanup, said EPA administrator Michael Regan. Continue reading...

An unusual feeding technique only recently observed by scientists was documented nearly 2,000 years ago, a study suggests

Complaint filed against retail giant after an experiment found that the teabags did not biodegrade after a year buried in soilA team of researchers has filed a complaint against Tesco, saying its “biodegradable” teabags do not fulfil that claim following an experiment that involved burying them in soil for a year to see what happened.Dr Alicia Mateos-Cárdenas from University College Cork (UCC) set out to investigate how well teabags advertised as biodegradable broke down. She buried 16 Tesco Finest Green Tea with Jasmine pyramid teabags in garden soil. However, when the teabags were dug up, they remained intact. Continue reading...

Australian Academy of Science report says country is behind others in carbon dioxide removal and a nationally coordinated approach is urgently needed

Almost one-third of homes have panels, the highest in the world, says SunWiz, and will soon outpace capacity from coal

Were we able to perceive afresh the sheer scale of fossil fuel impact we might be horrified, but because this is an old problem too many don’t see it as a problemIf fossil fuel use and impact had suddenly appeared overnight, their catastrophic poisonousness and destructiveness would be obvious. But they have so incrementally become part of everyday life nearly everywhere on Earth that those impacts are largely accepted or ignored (that they’ve also corroded our politics helps this lack of alarm). This has real consequences for the climate crisis. Were we able to perceive afresh the sheer scale of fossil fuel impact we might be horrified. But because this is an old problem too many don’t see it as a problem.Human beings are good at regarding new and unfamiliar phenomena as dangerous or unacceptable. But long-term phenomena become acceptable merely because of our capacity to adjust. Violence against women (the leading form of violence worldwide) and slower forms of environmental destruction have been going on so long that they’re easy to overlook and hard to get people to regard as a crisis. We saw this with Covid-19, where in the first months most people were fearful and eager to do what it took to avoid contracting or spreading the disease, and then grew increasingly casual about the risks and apparently oblivious to the impacts (the WHO charts almost 7 million deaths in little over three years).Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her most recent books are Recollections of My Nonexistence and Orwell’s Roses Continue reading...

Popularity of sport utility vehicles driving higher oil demand and climate crisis, say expertsThe continued global rise in sales of SUVs pushed their climate-heating emissions to almost 1bn tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency.The 330m sport utility vehicles on the roads produced emissions equivalent to the combined national emissions of the UK and Germany last year. If SUVs were a country, they would rank as the sixth most polluting in the world. Continue reading...

An elite unit is on a mission to expel the illegal miners who devastated Yanomami territory during Bolsonaro’s presidencyFor the last four years Brazil’s rainforests bled. “They bled like never before,” said Felipe Finger as he prepared to venture into the jungle with his assault rifle to staunch the environmental carnage inflicted on the Amazon under the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.Moments later Finger, a mettlesome special forces commander for Brazil’s environmental protection agency, Ibama, was airborne in a single-engine helicopter, hurtling over the forest canopy towards the frontline of a ferocious war on nature and the Indigenous peoples who lived here long before Portuguese explorers arrived more than 500 years ago. Continue reading...

Thames Water proposal to deal with droughts in capital draws ire of river users and environmentalistsAlmost 10,000 people have signed a petition against proposals by Thames Water to tackle drought by drawing off up to 100m litres of water a day from the Thames and replacing it with treated effluent from one of Europe’s biggest sewage treatment works.The company, which leaks 630m litres a day from its pipes, is attempting to get a new scheme approved involving tens of millions of litres of treated effluent being pumped into the Thames from Mogden sewage works in west London to tackle future water shortages. Continue reading...

From spicy pumpkin soup to caramelized banana ice cream, these culinary artists share the family stories – and cooking instructions – for some of their tastiest creations Continue reading...

Authorities announce death of cub named Pirouz from kidney failure at veterinary hospital in TehranThe last survivor of three critically endangered Asiatic cheetah cubs born in captivity in Iran has died in hospital from kidney failure.Pirouz, who was admitted to the Central veterinary hospital due to kidney failure last Thursday, died after undergoing dialysis, the official IRNA news agency said. Continue reading...

Museum says no talks took place between October 2021 and December 2022 and most recent deal has endedFurther questions have been raised about the future of the British Museum’s controversial sponsorship deal with BP, after the museum said the two parties had no meetings or correspondence about renewing their funding arrangement for more than a year before their most recent contract expired.The museum’s Hieroglyphs exhibition, which ended last week, was the final BP-sponsored show in the latest five-year contract between the energy company and the museum; according to its terms, that commercial partnership has now ended. No renewal or extension of the funding deal, first forged 27 years ago, has been announced by either party. Continue reading...

Country would need to devote half its farmland or more than double its renewable electricity supply, says studyThe UK would have to devote half its farmland or more than double its total renewable electricity supply to make enough aviation fuel to meet its ambitions for “jet zero”, or net zero flying, scientists have said.A report published on Tuesday by the Royal Society argues there is no single, clear, sustainable alternative to jet fuel that could support the current level of flying. Continue reading...

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall leads letter to secretaries of state voicing concerns government will renege on promises to lift banFears that the government is quietly planning to renege on promises to lift the ban on onshore windfarms in England have prompted a large group of green campaigners, business leaders and prominent figures to protest to ministers.Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the chef and environmental campaigner, has led a letter to secretaries of state, signed by conservation groups, academics and business people who are concerned that the pledges to free up planning restrictions are being quietly subverted. Continue reading...

The pressure is building around critical negotiations that could, if successful, shield swathes of the world’s oceanAlmost two-thirds of the world’s ocean lies outside national boundaries. These are the “high seas”, where fragmented and loosely enforced rules have meant a vast portion of the planet, hundreds of miles from land, is often essentially lawless.Because of this, the high seas are more susceptible than coastal seas to exploitation. Currently, all countries can navigate, fish (or overfish) and carry out scientific research on the high seas practically at will. Only 1.2% of it is protected, and the increasing reach of fishing and shipping vessels, the threat of deep-sea mining, and new activities, such as “bioprospecting” of marine species, mean they are being threatened like never before. Continue reading...

Forgotten grape varieties offer adaptation hope for an industry particularly sensitive to changeThe ads – tucked in the corners of local newspapers and directed at winemakers – began turning up across Catalonia in the 1980s. “If you know where to find any uncommon grape varieties, please get in touch,” they read.Dozens of tips came pouring in, shepherding Miguel A Torres in his search for long-forgotten wine grapes. But it wouldn’t be until a decade later, as the climate crisis began wreaking havoc on vines, that the fourth-generation winemaker realised his foray into the past could play a key role in tackling what lies ahead. Continue reading...

Anti-mining group Lock the Gate says it would be the largest expansion of coalmining in the state since the Paris agreement

Graham Stuart refuses to apologise for rising bills and blames Labour government – last in office in 2010The energy minister has refused to apologise for soaring household bills, blaming instead the “dire situation” inherited from the Labour government.On Monday, it was announced that the average consumer energy bill would rise from £2,100 a year to about £3,000 after the government stops giving grants. The price hike is due to the increasing cost of gas. Continue reading...

Changing habitats and behaviours lead to interactions with a negative outcome for wildlife and humansFrom blue whales colliding with ships to African elephants raiding crops in villages, the climate crisis is causing a rise in conflicts that lead to injury or death for humans and wildlife, new research shows.The climate crisis is making food, water and healthy habitats harder to come by, forcing animals and human populations into new ranges or previously uninhabited places. It is also changing the way they behave. This means a rise in human-wildlife conflicts, as well as damage to personal property and loss of livelihoods for people, according to a review paper led by the University of Washington. Continue reading...

The northern lights, or aurora borealis, appeared in the night sky across Britain on Sunday in a display that reached parts of southern England

Action against one of Europe’s largest financial institutions is the first climate-related lawsuit against a commercial bankFrench campaigners are suing one of Europe’s largest financial institutions for financing fossil fuels in the first climate-related lawsuit against a commercial bank.Oxfam France, Friends of the Earth France and Notre Affaire à Tous accuse BNP Paribas of supporting companies that aggressively develop new oil and gas fields and infrastructure, despite repeated calls by scientists to stop investment in fossil fuels. Continue reading...

Demand for wood stoves is soaring in energy crisis despite research showing their harmful effectsDemand for wood-burning stoves, including in urban areas, has soared as households look for more affordable ways to stay warm during the energy crisis.Campaigners have called for stricter legislation on their use because of their negative impact on air pollution and health, with wood burning in the UK gaining in popularity over the past decade. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Cross-party group recommends policies such as mortgage penalty for landlords of energy-inefficient homesThe UK will need to embrace innovative, community-based solutions to environmental and energy problems if it is to have any hope of meeting looming net-zero deadlines, a cross-party group of MPs and peers has recommended.A report by the all-party group on a green new deal argues for a combination of robust, top-down policies on green issues including localised power generation, food and transport schemes. Recommendations include a mortgage penalty for landlords who let energy-inefficient homes, and also real community decision-making, notably on power schemes. Continue reading...

Dominic Perrottet lauds tourism benefits of buying 440,000 hectare site Thurloo Downs in state’s north-west

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Only about £4.5bn of £6.6bn allocated for making buildings more energy efficient has been spent, analysis findsA third of the funding pledged by the UK government for insulation and installing heat pumps has not yet been spent, analysis has shown, despite the continuing energy bills and cost of living crises.About £2.1bn remains unspent of the £6.6bn that was supposed to be used between 2020 and 2025 on making buildings more energy efficient and decarbonising heat. The funding is part of the £9.2bn that was promised for such spending in the Conservative general election manifesto of 2019. Continue reading...

As global heating cuts snow cover, study reveals how many events, organisations and athletes have high-carbon backersWinter sports are being sponsored by high-carbon companies despite their pollution helping to melt the snow the sports require to exist, according to a new report.The report found that more than 100 events, organisations and athletes were sponsored by fossil fuel companies, carmakers and airlines. The sponsorships were like “winter sport nailing the lid on its own coffin”, said one Olympic champion. Continue reading...

Record number of dead dolphins have washed up on Atlantic beaches in last monthAnimal campaigners say time is running out for the dolphin population off France’s west coast and are calling on the government to ban fishing in areas where the animals are at risk.A record number of dead dolphins have washed up on the country’s Atlantic beaches in the last month, but activists believe this is only a fraction of those being injured and killed by fishing boats. Continue reading...

The population is declining rapidly but Russia has refused to observe restrictions – aided by countries offering ports or catch processingThe Irminger Sea, near Greenland and Iceland, is home to the beaked redfish – a large-eyed, orange creature that typically grows up to half a metre long and lives for about 60 years. It has come to epitomise just why Russia ranks so poorly on the Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing Index – second-worst out of 152 countries in 2021.Until recently, the beaked redfish was hunted widely in the Irminger Sea. Every three years, scientists from Iceland, Germany and Russia surveyed the state of the two stocks in the Irminger Sea, and in 2020, they concluded the redfish population was declining rapidly. Continue reading...

Memo to Tasmania’s Environmental Protection Agency reveals standoff with company after more than two tonnes of oxytetracycline used at fish farms

Concerns about energy shortages drive increase as projects progress at ‘extraordinary’ speedChina approved the construction of another 106 gigawatts of coal-fired power capacity last year, four times higher than a year earlier and the highest since 2015, research shows.Over the year, 50GW of coal power capacity went into construction across the country – up by more than half compared with the previous year – driven by energy security considerations, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Global Energy Monitor (GEM) said on Monday. Continue reading...

Young ‘custodian’ hopes to make ancestral home of Muncaster first carbon-zero castle in UKIn 1990, the year Ewan Frost-Pennington was born, the final bears left Muncaster Castle in the westernmost corner of the Lake District. Winnie, an Asiatic black bear, departed Cumbria for Dudley zoo, along with Inca, her daughter, and her sister, Gretel.Three decades later, the bear pit has now been covered over with a solar farm. It is the brainchild of Frost-Pennington, the heir to the 800-year-old pink granite fortress, as he tries to make Muncaster the first carbon-zero castle in the UK. Continue reading...

Court will hear appeal over plan to extract 16m litres of water from a site less than a kilometre from Springbrook national park

Fox News, Trump and JD Vance claim Biden overlooked East Palestine’s plight, citing residents’ whiteness as the reasonUntil 2 February it was business as usual in the small rural community of East Palestine, Ohio. The local paper carried obituaries and sporting results, interspersed with stories of a homecoming queen, an abusive puppy mill and the driver in the Toughest Monster Truck Tour who was arrested for human trafficking.The next day it all went up in flames. Continue reading...

Country’s capacity to generate renewable energy shot up last year, producing enough electricity to power 64m householdsA new report by Climate Central shows how US capacity to generate renewable energy shot up last year – and surprisingly, red states lead the nation in solar and wind power production.National wind and solar capacity grew 16% compared to 2021. All told, renewables generated enough electricity to power 64m American households. The report comes as the Biden administration starts to make billions of dollars available for renewable energy projects. The administration has committed to decarbonizing the grid completely by 2030 and getting the US to net zero emissions by mid-century. Continue reading...

Environmental Protection Agency orders rail company to ‘pause’ shipments from site pending a review of plans to dispose of waste near Houston and DetroitFederal environmental authorities have ordered a temporary halt in the shipment of contaminated waste from the site of the train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, earlier this month, amid fears of further harm from the toxic waste.Hazardous waste disposal facilities near Houston and Detroit are planning to receive most of the contaminated water and soil from the East Palestine train wreck site, raising the risk that some of the dangerous chemicals could end up in the environment elsewhere. Continue reading...

The number of whales, porpoises and dolphins being washed up on the UK’s shores is on the rise, and human activity is largely to blame, say expertsA whale’s tail swishes high into the air, pausing at the apex of its stretch before beating down with a thud into the hard, rocky ground. The noise is sickening, the sound of two things coming together that were never supposed to meet. In the UK, encounters with megafauna are rare, so it is truly shocking to see this colossal creature stranded and gasping for air on the coast of Cornwall last March. We later find out it is a 19-metre (63ft), 80-tonne fin whale – the second largest creature on Earth.Some of the first on the scene are members of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue service (BDMLR), one of several organisations called upon when a cetacean (whale, dolphin or porpoise) crashes on shore. In recent years, reports of cetacean strandings on UK coasts have reached record levels, with numerous mass strandings and a greater variety of species appearing on beaches. Already in 2023, there have been reports of a fin whale stranded in Cornwall in January and a stranded porpoise dying on the Yorkshire coast this month.Simon Myers, a volunteer with Clean Ocean Sailing, attempts to keep the stranded fin whale wet while waiting for the British Divers Marine Life Rescue service (BDMLR) to arrive Continue reading...

Guardian analysis of data in light of Ohio train derailment shows accidental releases are happening consistentlyMike DeWine, the Ohio governor, recently lamented the toll taken on the residents of East Palestine after the toxic train derailment there, saying “no other community should have to go through this”.But such accidents are happening with striking regularity. A Guardian analysis of data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and by non-profit groups that track chemical accidents in the US shows that accidental releases – be they through train derailments, truck crashes, pipeline ruptures or industrial plant leaks and spills – are happening consistently across the country. Continue reading...

For Black History Month, owners Gabrielle and Danielle Davenport curated a list of the best books celebrating the role of food in culture and liberationFor sisters Gabrielle and Danielle Davenport, every month is a good time to read about Black food. As the owners of Brooklyn’s BEM | books & more, the country’s first book store to focus on the topic, the two sisters are regularly curating works that narrate and elevate stories and memories about Black food.“Black history, for us, is a year-round affair,” said Gabrielle. “In terms of things we’re reading, it’s always exciting to see how history shows up throughout the collection.” Continue reading...

Celebrated whistleblower and activist assures residents of East Palestine they are not alone, but also that a long road lies aheadEvery seat was taken in the East Palestine high school auditorium on Friday night as America’s most famous environmentalist took to the stage to address a community left traumatised, angry and confused by a railroad disaster that has upended their sleepy little town.“Good evening, thank you for being here. My name is Erin Brockovich, not Julia Roberts,” she said, triggering a collective roar of laughter. Continue reading...

Tougher regulations needed now, says Green MP Caroline Lucas as Tory colleague calls for monitoring

Independent Commission Against Corruption warned ‘a favourable rezoning’ of large swathes on Sydney’s fringes could deliver windfall to developers

Steven Guilbeault wants to block logging of critical old-growth forest to prevent owls from going extinct in British ColumbiaCanada’s environment minister plans to use a rare emergency order to protect the last of an endangered owl species in an area where critical old-growth forest is slated for further clearcutting.Steven Guilbeault advised the environmental groups Ecojustice and the Wilderness Committee that he believed the spotted owl was facing “imminent threats to its survival” and he would use the powers to block further destruction of its habitat in British Columbia, the groups announced on Thursday afternoon. Continue reading...

Growers say they do not get paid enough by supermarkets, as supply of leeks also comes under threatApples and pears could be the next food shortage in the UK, after it emerged that British growers are planting just a third of the number of trees needed to maintain orchards, saying their returns from selling to supermarkets are unsustainable.Ali Capper, head of the British Apples & Pears trade association which represents about 80% of the industry in the UK, said 1m new trees would have to be planted each year to maintain the UK’s 5,500 hectares (13,590 acres) of production. Continue reading...

Researchers found PFAS chemicals – used to make products resistant to heat and water – in all samples of 12 species of fishAll fish caught in Michigan rivers and tested for toxic PFAS contained the chemicals – and at levels that present a health risk for anyone eating them, according to a new study.Researchers checked 100 fish samples that represented 12 species in the Huron and Rouge rivers. Continue reading...