Environment | The Guardian

In the first of a two-part report, we look at the successes – and the costs – of what once was Australia’s largest power station

Exclusive: Origin Energy says it has monitored the bubbling water since 2015, along with other seep locations

Energy department gives green light to exports from liquefied natural gas program, after Willow project approved last monthThe Biden administration on Thursday approved exports of liquefied natural gas from the Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, a document showed, prompting criticism from environmental groups over the approval of another “carbon bomb”.The US energy department approved Alaska Gasline Development Corp’s (AGDC) project to export LNG to countries with which the United States does not have a free trade agreement, mainly in Asia. Backers of the roughly $39bn project expect it to be operational by 2030 if it receives the required permits. Continue reading...

Dartmoor National Park Authority is preparing to appeal against court decision to overturn right to wild campA wealthy landowner has accused Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) officials of “acting like campaigners” as they prepare to appeal against a court decision to overturn the right to wild camp.Earlier this year, as a result of a court case brought by a local landowner, backpack camping, also known as wild camping, was made illegal on Dartmoor without landowner permission, overturning what campaigners claim was a long-held right to camping on the moor. Continue reading...

Police investigating after ‘vile’ incident condemned by animal protection servicesPolice are investigating reports of a man seen dragging a seagull across a road in Blackpool on a what appeared to be a dog lead.The incident took place on Monday, with an image and video of it circulated on social media. Continue reading...

‘Exceptional’ super-colony of endangered barbastelles found in path of proposed road near NorwichThe centre of an “exceptional” super-colony of one of Britain’s most endangered bats has been discovered in the path of a proposed road across a chalk stream.A planning application for the Western Link dual carriageway near Norwich is expected to be submitted this summer despite researchers identifying the UK’s largest known colony of barbastelle bats in the threatened Wensum valley woodlands. Continue reading...

Slow-moving supercell thunderstorms trigger flooding in Florida and a cyclone hits AustraliaFort Lauderdale experienced a historic rainfall event this week. As low pressure developed across the northern Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday morning, a warm front lifted slowly north across southern Florida, bringing moderate rainfall through the early afternoon.Multiple slow-moving supercell thunderstorms developed, each following similar tracks across the area. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport provisionally measured 25.91in (65.8cm) of rainfall during the 24 hours to 7am on Thursday, mostly falling within 12 hours. The previous daily rainfall total at the travel hub was 14.59in in 1979. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including a green forest lizard, gentoo penguins and a wild beaver Continue reading...

Number of house sparrows spotted has dropped by nearly 60% since 1979, according to RSPB annual surveyHouse sparrows are the most spotted bird in UK gardens for the 20th year in a row, according to new data. This comes despite the decline of the bird’s population, with nearly 22 million house sparrows lost from the country since 1966.Roughly 1.5 million house sparrows were spotted in gardens between 27 and 29 January this year, according to people who took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch, the garden wildlife survey conducted by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Continue reading...

Sandstorms whipped up from the Gobi desert have spread from northern China to Thailand and South Korea and as far east as Japan, causing a reduction in visibility and an increase in respiratory illness. There have been four sandstorms in the space of a month in China this year Continue reading...

Labour analysis shows that raw sewage was discharged into cabinet ministers’ constituencies for 180,759 hours last yearMore than 7,500 days’ worth of raw sewage was dumped in the constituencies of cabinet ministers last year, an analysis has found.The Yorkshire seat of the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, was third on the leaderboard, with 3,455 dumping events, lasting 20,615 hours, Labour party analysis has found. Continue reading...

The parched state’s landscape is peppered with magnificent red, orange and yellow blooms that can be seen from spaceCalifornia’s superblooms this year are so lush and so exuberant that they can be seen from space.Satellite images from Maxar Technologies, a Colorado-based company, show striking images of bright orange, red, yellow and purple blooms across southern California. Continue reading...

Data shows 48% of species declined between 2015 and 2020 with woodland birds faring worstBird populations in the UK continue to crash, new data shows, as campaigners predict the government will fail to meet its own nature targets unless radical changes are made.Statistics released by the government show that bird populations continue to decline in the long and short term. In 2021, on average the abundance of 130 breeding species was 12% below its 1970 value. Though much of this loss was between the late 1970s and the late 1980s, caused mostly by relatively steep declines in woodland and farmland birds, there was still a significant 5% decrease between 2015 and 2020. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Previous holder says loss is ‘disappointing’ and damages UK’s ability to spur global climate action

Madeleine King says gas can help decarbonise the economy but not even big users of the fossil fuel are convinced

Dead creature was one of 150 descendants of four hippos imported by drug baron Pablo Escobar in 1980sColombia has logged its first hippopotamus-caused road traffic accident after a car crashed into one of the animals at high speed, leaving the vehicle mangled and the two-tonne mammal lying lifeless and bloodied across a highway.The hippo was declared dead soon after the crash on Tuesday night in the municipality of Doradal on a highway connecting the cities of Bogotá and Medellín, local environmental authorities said. Continue reading...

The 14-acre site was being used to store plastics for recycling when the out of control blaze broke out on TuesdayAn evacuation order affecting more than 1,000 people was expected to remain in place through Wednesday around a large industrial fire in an Indiana city near the Ohio border, where crews worked through the night to douse piles of burning plastics, authorities said.Multiple fires, which began burning on Tuesday afternoon, were still ablaze on Wednesday in a 14-acre (5.5-hectare) property containing various types of plastics. Continue reading...

Rules will also include ban on campfires and barbecues as part of a crackdown on antisocial behaviourVisitors to the New Forest face being fined up to £1,000 for petting ponies and for lighting campfires and barbecues, as part of measures to tackle antisocial behaviour.The new rules, approved by New Forest district council, ban the petting and feeding of animals out of concern for their wellbeing and to prevent them from becoming aggressive. Continue reading...

Sadiq Khan to press on with plans for ultra-low emission zone despite challenge being allowed to proceedA legal challenge to the expansion of London’s ultra-low emission zone will be heard in the high court later this year, after a judgment permitted councils to proceed.The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, vowed to press on regardless with plans to extend the Ulez, which he has argued is needed to tackle toxic air that is responsible for thousands of premature deaths a year. Continue reading...

Analysis suggests government policies would achieve reduction less than half target of 30% by 2030The UK is still well off track on meeting its international commitments to cut methane emissions, analysis has shown, despite moves to stop cows from belching out so much of it.Ministers unveiled a host of initiatives to reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions in the government’s “green day” of energy announcements more than a week ago, including plans to introduce methane-suppressing feed for livestock from 2025, and to stop biodegradable waste going to landfill from 2028. Continue reading...

Proposal would require two of every three new vehicles sold in US to be electric by 2032The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed strict new automobile pollution limits that would require that all-electric vehicles account for as many as two of every three new vehicles sold in the US by 2032 in a plan that would transform the US auto industry.Under the proposed regulation, released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), greenhouse gas emissions for the 2027 through 2032 model years for passenger vehicles would be limited to even stricter levels than the auto industry agreed to in 2021. Continue reading...

New Mexico’s ancient water systems nurtured its rural farmlands through climate change. But after last year’s wildfires, there’s little time left to save themJimmy Sanchez knows that making things grow during a megadrought isn’t impossible – it just requires a bit of creativity.In 1882, his ancestors constructed a 24-mile-long ditch to bring water from headwaters in the nearby mountains to the bone-dry foothills where they lived in Holman, New Mexico, allowing their village to sustain fruit, vegetables, and livestock. Continue reading...

Greenpeace report finds heavy machinery made by South Korean firm contributing to destruction of Brazilian rainforestHyundai is being urged to prevent its heavy machinery products from being used in illegal mining and environmental destruction in the Brazilian Amazon.A report published by Greenpeace on Wednesday found the South Korean conglomerate’s excavators and other heavy machinery are precipitating the destruction of the rainforest and putting the survival of Indigenous populations at risk. Continue reading...

Lily D’Ambrosio says less than a quarter of the energy needed will come from the SEC and urges industry to produce remaining 20.5GW

Hybrid vehicle pollution and van traffic update adds 26 megatonnes of carbon emissions to Department for Transport decarbonisation planThe UK’s net zero targets will be missed because of a planned “road-building spree” by the Department for Transport, campaigners have said.Officials had to edit the department’s “transport decarbonisation plan” to add 26 megatonnes of carbon emissions because of an oversight regarding polluting hybrid vehicles, and projections for an increase in van traffic. Continue reading...

The number of cows has nearly doubled in a generation, and the resulting fertiliser and irrigation needs are having a devastating impactIn tourism adverts and on movie screens, Aotearoa has sold its pristine landscapes, churning alpine waterfalls and bright jade-braided rivers to the world, under the tagline “100% pure New Zealand”.A new report, however, reveals the dire state of many of the country’s fresh waterways: contaminated by thousands of sewage overflows, flooded with nutrient pollution, blooming with toxic algae, risking public health and rendered unswimmable to the communities that have lived by them for years. Continue reading...

Scientists attribute the ‘unprecedented’ visibility of the water body to a boom in the population of zooplanktonLake Tahoe has attained a clarity that scientists haven’t seen in 40 years – and it’s all because of a microscopic animal acting as a “natural cleanup crew” to restore the clear blue waters.On Monday, researchers from the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) released their annual report showing that the lake’s average visibility in 2022 was at 71.7ft – compared with 61ft in 2021 – which was largely due to a spike in clarity in the last five months of the year. Continue reading...

Radical rise in spending on trains, trams and buses needed to cut car use, reports body representing unions in England and WalesMinisters have been urged to ramp up spending on public transport in England and Wales to tackle the climate emergency, and to unlock a £50bn a year boost to the economy, in a report by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).The report released by the TUC, a federation representing 48 unions, argues for a radical increase in investment – calling for £18bn more a year to be spent on operating trains, trams and buses to help cut car use by 20%, improve quality of life and boost the UK economy. Continue reading...

Climate researchers say magnitude of predicted weather event uncertain but if an extreme El Niño occurs ‘we’ll need to buckle up’

Nine new species of fish are now on the brink of extinction, with scientists calling for urgent action to control invasive freshwater species

SSE’s Seagreen project will deliver enough energy to power more than 1.6 million homesThe world’s deepest offshore wind turbine has been installed almost 17 miles off the coast of Angus as part of Scotland’s biggest offshore windfarm.The Scottish energy company SSE installed the 2,000-tonne turbine foundation at a depth of more than 58 metres (192ft) in the early hours of Easter Sunday as part of the £3bn Seagreen offshore windfarm, which it is developing in partnership with the French oil supermajor Total. Continue reading...

United Utilities revelation prompts calls for water firms to be taxed to extent they cannot pay huge sums to CEOsThe chief executive of the UK’s most polluting water company made £1.4m from the sale of shares in the business before his retirement, the Guardian can reveal.Politicians have called for water companies to be taxed to the extent that they cannot pay huge sums to CEOs after it was revealed that Steve Mogford of United Utilities retired on 31 March and in the months beforehand sold his shares for just under £1.4m. Continue reading...

Campaigners say potential energy plan would leave consumers bearing cost of building hydrogen economyBlending hydrogen into the UK’s gas heating systems could raise consumer bills by almost £200 for an average household, analysis suggests.The blending of natural gas with about 20% hydrogen, for use in home heating systems, is one of the key recommendations by the government’s hydrogen champion, Jane Toogood, in a report to ministers on how to produce and use hydrogen in the UK. Continue reading...

Agency sued after ProPublica and the Guardian revealed the EPA gave a Chevron refinery approval for a fuel that could leave people nearby with a one-in-four lifetime risk of cancer

Nests placed close to where three young birds have been spotted with intention of encouraging them to reproduceTwo artificial eyries have been placed high in the trees on a private estate in southern Scotland to encourage translocated golden eagles to breed in the region.Expert climbers erected the huge nests in hard-to-reach locations on the Duke of Northumberland’s Burncastle estate, close to where three young satellite-tagged golden eagles have been spotted. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Satellite analysis shows toxic blackwater flowed into the Darling-Baaka River via the Wetherell outlet two days before the deaths

Exclusive: funding requests, uncertain responsibilities and a failure to secure long-term contracts has critics asking if the fossil fuel-based venture is still a good deal

Pools and well-watered gardens at least as damaging as climate emergency or population growthThe swimming pools, well-watered gardens and clean cars of the rich are driving water crises in cities at least as much as the climate emergency or population growth, according to an analysis.The researchers said the vast difference in water use between rich and poor citizens had been largely overlooked in seeking solutions to water shortages, with the focus instead on attempts to increase supply and higher prices for water. They said the only way to protect water supplies was by redistributing water resources more equally. Continue reading...

Twin studies reveal that ‘acceleration’ of sea-level rise under way, leaving southern US cities in even greater perilCoastal cities in the southern US, including Miami, Houston and New Orleans, are in even greater peril from sea-level rise than scientists already feared, according to new analysis.What experts are calling a dramatic surge in ocean levels has taken place along the US south-eastern and Gulf of Mexico coastline since 2010, one study suggests, an increase of almost 5in (12.7cm). Continue reading...

They make up 75% of the animal kingdom, yet wildlife film-makers routinely overlook bugsWhile running a biodiversity workshop at a local primary school, Kate Howlett, a zoologist, encouraged children to turn over the bricks and logs at the edges of their playing field to see what was living underneath.That’s when one child asked her if she had come to their school early that morning to plant the woodlice for them to find. Even after insisting that the bugs were living there all along, the suspicious pupils were reluctant to believe her. Continue reading...

At least two dozen activists in Indigenous and rural areas murdered, disappeared and jailed in wave of attacksA wave of attacks against environmental defenders has left Indigenous and rural communities across Mexico and Central America reeling amid a lack of government protection and widespread impunity.At least two dozen defenders have been murdered, disappeared and jailed across the region so far this year, according to research by the Guardian. On Wednesday, the Indigenous rights and anti-mining activist Eustacio Alcalá Díaz was found dead in Michoacán, Mexico, three days after he was abducted by armed men while traveling with Catholic missionaries. Continue reading...

Advocates warn plants like the latest addition to the Texas complex generate hazardous pollutants and provide cover for oil giants to produce new plastic productsExxonMobil just launched one of the largest chemical recycling plants in North America – but environmental advocates say the technology is a dangerous distraction from the need to reduce plastic production.On the surface, the latest addition to ExxonMobil’s giant petrochemical refinery complex in Baytown, Texas, sounds like it could be a good thing: An “advanced recycling” facility capable of breaking down 36,000 metric tons of hard-to-recycle plastic each year. But plastic waste advocates warn that plants like it do little actual recycling, and instead generate hazardous pollutants while providing cover for oil giants to keep producing millions of tons of new plastic products each year. Continue reading...

The 900 residents of the Manitoba town have learned to share their streets on the edge of the Arctic with the huge animals and the eager tourists who come to see themWords and photographs by Zed NelsonPerched on the southern edge of the Arctic on the shores of Hudson Bay, residents of the Canadian town of Churchill share their streets with the world’s largest land carnivore. Their regular encounters with polar bears have earned Churchill the nickname “Polar bear capital of the world”.Sparring polar bears on the Hudson Bay shore near Churchill, Manitoba. The bears congregate here every year while waiting for the sea to freeze over so they can resume hunting seals. Photographs by Zed Nelson / Copyright © not to be reproduced without permission Continue reading...

Dozens of storage sites found across Australia but estimated amount of plastic reportedly falls from 12,350 tonnes to 11,000

Bathing waters in Rutland, Devon and Suffolk will be monitored for water quality regularlyWild swimming fans will be able to enjoy access to four new sites in the UK that are being designated as bathing waters ahead of summer, the government has announced.The sites in Rutland, Devon and Suffolk will receive bathing water status from next month, meaning they will soon benefit from regular water-quality monitoring. Continue reading...

Large numbers of cetaceans are dying from lethal collisions with vessels, even in protected areas. Now science may provide the means to protect themJanie Wray could tell there was something horribly wrong from the way her colleague gasped. They were on a research station off the coast of British Columbia and Wray’s colleague was watching live drone footage through a pair of goggles. “She just went, oh my God,” says Wray.She had spotted a humpback whale on its migration south, swimming without the use of its tail. Wray and her colleagues at BC Whales crowded around a computer screen to watch the footage. “Immediately, we all knew that we had a whale that most likely had a broken back,” she says. It was almost certainly the result of a ship strike. Later, they discovered it was a whale they knew: Moon. Continue reading...

Exclusive: National Energy Action says progress on energy efficiency is too slow and not well targeted at fuel-poor householdsThe government’s home insulation scheme would take 190 years to upgrade the energy efficiency of the UK’s draughty housing stock, and 300 years to meet the government’s own targets to reduce fuel poverty, according to industry calculations.Critics of the Great British Insulation Scheme, which aims to insulate 300,000 homes a year over the next three years, have raised concerns that the plan does not go far enough to reach the 19m UK homes that need better insulation. Continue reading...

Health and Safety Executive also issued several notices related to worker safety and explosive substances at JV EnergenA green energy company set up by King Charles was investigated for numerous health and safety breaches after the unauthorised leak of more than 1,000 tonnes of global-heating gases.Methane, CO and traces of the toxic gas hydrogen sulphide were released after a gas-holder at the plant split open in 2020. The incident, which lasted for 38 days, was described as “significant” by the Environment Agency. Continue reading...

The 188-year-old coastguard’s tower in Cornwall is to be moved 100m inland to save it from coastal erosionPerched on an exposed clifftop above the Atlantic, which gnaws ominously at the sandstone and shale foundations below, Bude storm tower in Cornwall has helped to save many mariners from strife over the past two centuries. But now this cherished coastguard’s lookout is to be rescued itself.The 188-year-old Grade II-listed tower at Compass Point, affectionately known as the Pepperpot, will be carefully deconstructed and rebuilt 100 metres inland later this month to avoid its otherwise inevitable loss over the cliffs to coastal erosion. Continue reading...

Councillors and residents hope to limit the number of daytrippers arriving by boat to preserve the city’s streets and characterThe ships, at times dwarfing the average apartment building, begin lumbering into Barcelona while much of the city is still asleep. Stretching as long as five buses, some come to embark or disembark passengers, while others disgorge thousands of daytrippers keen to glimpse the city’s modernist architecture and stroll the narrow streets of the gothic quarter.It’s a scene that plays out daily in Barcelona – much to the chagrin of some local officials. Last Monday, five cruise ships were slated to arrive; this Friday, on 14 April, eight are expected. Continue reading...