Environment | The Guardian

One ecologist counted 160 dead wild birds while walking round a Scottish loch, and figures from other countries are just as worryingAs he walked along the shoreline of a Highland loch on a fine May evening, ecologist and wildlife photographer Peter Stronach could hardly believe what he was seeing. The beach was littered with dead and dying birds: male eider ducks, several species of gulls, a gannet, a puffin and no fewer than 26 pink-footed geese, which should by now have been on the way back to their Icelandic breeding grounds.In all, Stronach recorded 72 individual birds of 17 species at Loch Fleet national nature reserve on the east coast of Scotland on that one day, plus many more in the following days. Continue reading...

Greg Mullins says Chris Bowen’s invitation to meet with experts is a ‘stark contrast’ to outgoing Coalition government

Bowen says mechanism designed to limit energy price rises, if used, would have no impact until next January

The path to net zero is plagued by claims that LNG is less dirty than coal, but there is practically no evidence to back them up

Market operator warns of possible shortfall of gas supplies on Thursday in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania amid cold snap

Thursday’s meeting of oil-producing nations will be first since EU imposed sanctions on Russian crudeOil prices have risen before Thursday’s meeting of the Opec cartel of oil-producing nations, as ministers prepare to set output targets for July in their first gathering since the EU imposed sanctions on Russian crude.Opec is under pressure from some members to exclude Russia, the world’s third largest oil producer, from future quotas, in a move that could pave the way for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to pump more oil. Continue reading...

‘On what sort of planet does the commonwealth think they don’t need a recovery plan for a Tasmanian devil’, asks Wilderness Society

Deflationists and Tyre Extinguishers both say they want to make SUV ownership impossible in urban areasA new group of climate activists targeting the owners of sports utility vehicles has set itself up as a friendly rival to the Tyre Extinguishers by deflating the tyres of dozens of vehicles in the suburbs of Glasgow.In a statement, the group, which calls itself the Deflationists, claimed to have let down the tyres of 50 vehicles in the city’s affluent Newlands area and the neighbouring Shawlands. Continue reading...

Calls for action as decline is seen as evidence of harm caused by climate crisis, pollution and fish farmingSalmon anglers have called for urgent action to protect Scotland’s wild salmon after the lowest number on record were caught last year.The latest official data shows that 35,693 Atlantic salmon were caught by anglers on Scottish rivers last year, the lowest number since records began in 1952 and just 75% of the average over the last five years. Continue reading...

Ohio woman, 25, was tossed 10ft in air after getting close to female bison on boardwalkAn Ohio woman was gored by a bison after approaching the animal while visiting Yellowstone national park in Wyoming, park officials said on Tuesday.The 25-year-old was visiting the national park from Grove City, Ohio, about 20 minutes outside Columbus. Continue reading...

Ohio woman, 25, was tossed 10ft in air after getting close to female bison on boardwalkAn Ohio woman was gored by a bison after approaching the animal while visiting Yellowstone national park in Wyoming, park officials said on Tuesday.The 25-year-old was visiting the national park from Grove City, Ohio, about 20 minutes outside Columbus. Continue reading...

Rewilding advocates say decision by royal estates is ‘an appallingly undemocratic affront to our futures’The duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, two of the royal family’s largest portfolios of land, have snubbed tree campaigners who are calling for the royals to rewild their estates.Rewilding advocates at the campaign group Wild Card have been meeting for months with the crown estate, which manages most of the royal land and pays the revenue into the Treasury. They say relations have been “really positive”. Continue reading...

Seaweed could help feed world and reduce climate crisis impact, Vincent Doumeizel tells Hay festivalSeaweed could help feed the world and reduce the impact of the climate emergency, a UN adviser on food has suggested.Speaking at the Hay festival in Wales, Vincent Doumeizel suggested that the term “sea forest”, which is how seaweed is referred to in Norway, would be more appropriate, “because we would understand that we need to protect and preserve them as we do with all the land forests”. Continue reading...

Experts believe plants in Sussex and Kent were 'stolen to order’A spate of thefts of rare orchids from sites in southern England has concerned scientists, who say endangered species may be at risk.Orchid experts believe that the plants, from locations including in Sussex and Kent, may have been “stolen to order”. Continue reading...

Rising seas choked the flora on the tiny mammals’ island habitat, and in just a few years they were goneNo one knows how the Bramble Cay melomyses – rodents with large, liquid eyes and reddish-brown fur, small enough to fit in the palms of your hands – ended up on Bramble Cay.The cay is speck of land about 50km (31 miles) off the coast of Papua New Guinea, at the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef. Were the melomyses washed there on driftwood in a storm? Did they arrive thousands of years ago on a land bridge that no longer exists? Continue reading...

Katharine Hayhoe says the world is heading for dangers people have not seen in 10,000 years of civilisationThe world cannot adapt its way out of the climate crisis, and counting on adaptation to limit damage is no substitute for urgently cutting greenhouse gases, a leading climate scientist has warned.Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist for the Nature Conservancy in the US and professor at Texas Tech University, said the world was heading for dangers unseen in the 10,000 years of human civilisation, and efforts to make the world more resilient were needed but by themselves could not soften the impact enough. Continue reading...

The fossil fuel industry faces a reckoning in the Niger Delta after disasters made it one of the most polluted places on the planetOn 10 October 2004, Eric Dooh received an urgent call from one of his father’s employees: the waterway surrounding their houses was running black with oil. Near the outskirts of Dooh’s village of Goi, a pipeline built by Royal Dutch Shell in the 1960s carried oil from inland Nigeria to an offshore terminal where it would be barreled and exported around the world. Dooh suspected the pipeline had sprung a leak. He attempted to alert the pipeline operator, but both Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary had largely abandoned oil operations in Goi a decade earlier in response to local uprisings. On that day, Shell’s community relations officer was unavailable, Dooh recalled. He reported the leak to a nearby police station instead.It wasn’t until the next day that officials climbed onboard a helicopter, ascended over Dooh’s village situated on the banks of the Oroberekiri Creek in Nigeria’s southern Niger Delta region, and confirmed what villagers already knew: oil was spreading and not letting up. Continue reading...

African delegation says proposed new law ignores local voices and could harm rather than save wildlife

US president welcomes New Zealand’s PM to Oval Office and speaks of devastation caused by mass shootingsNew Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern has met US president Joe Biden to discuss shared concerns about China’s growing influence in the Pacific, as well as extremism and dealing with the aftermath of mass shootings.The two leaders spoke for more than an hour, with Biden saying Ardern’s leadership on issues like climate change, violence and extremism was of international importance. Continue reading...

New climate minister says calls to raise Labor’s emissions target are ‘odd’ and asks Greens and independents to ‘respect our mandate across the country’

Environmental Protection Agency apologises over lack of community consultation over soil dumping

Despite farmers planting a record 24m hectares this year, higher fuel and fertiliser costs mean produce prices will remain high

Exclusive: PM told there could be eight years’ decline before any gains despite already being at ‘rock bottom’The government has set damaging and illogical targets for species recovery in England that could mean there is eight years of decline before any improvement, despite already being at “rock bottom”, scientists have warned the prime minister.Twenty-three leading scientists from institutions including Oxford and Cambridge universities, the Natural History Museum, the Zoological Society of London and the RSPB have written to Boris Johnson expressing their alarm over the nature targets. Continue reading...

Recent revelations that Democratic West Virginian senator quietly made millions from his coal business could come back to haunt him as he eyes a run for re-electionNancy Hilsbos, a former coalminer living in the West Virginia county that Senator Joe Manchin calls home, barely noticed the nondescript office block she passed almost daily.The property, at the top of a rise on the road out of the small city of Fairmont, bears a large sign: “Manchin Professional Building”. Nameplates announce the offices of accountants, financial advisers and insurers. But there is no mention of the most profitable and influential company registered at the address – the Democratic senator’s own firm, Enersystems. Continue reading...

The billions now going to fossil fuel exploitation could have funded efficiency measures that cut energy bills for goodBillions of pounds given away in a tax break for UK oil and gas exploitation could have permanently cut the energy bills of 2m homes by £342 a year if invested in insulation measures, according to a green thinktank.Rishi Sunak announced the 91% tax break alongside a windfall tax on the huge profits of oil and gas companies last week. The E3G thinktank calculated that the tax break would hand between £2.5bn and £5.7bn back to the oil companies over three years, while an energy efficiency programme of £3bn over the same period would upgrade 2.1m homes making them less reliant on gas. Continue reading...

New data shows ‘mystifying’ lack of progress in post-Brexit pledge to curb bottom-trawling, two years after landmark legislationMore than 90% of Britain’s offshore marine protected areas are still being bottom-trawled and dredged, two years after analysis of the extent of destructive fishing exposed them as “paper parks”, according to data shared with the Guardian.The UK’s network of marine parks, set up to safeguard vulnerable areas of the seabed and marine life, is a cornerstone of the government’s target to protect 30% of ocean biodiversity by 2030. Continue reading...

Report into contaminated soil at site of West Gate Tunnel finds environmental watchdog did its job, but failed to convince the community

EDF Energy tells staff reactors will be shut down in summer despite concerns of blackouts later this yearThe owner of one of the UK’s six nuclear power plants has said it will not extend its life beyond a planned shutdown in summer, despite officials raising concerns over the danger of blackouts in the months that follow.The French-owned EDF Energy sent a memo to staff on Monday in which it said it would not postpone the closure of the two reactors at Hinkley Point B in Somerset, which are scheduled to be shut down on 8 July and 1 August. Continue reading...

With electricity bills soaring, a national Renewable Electricity Storage Target may be one way of achieving lower emissions – and lower prices

Queen’s Green Canopy scheme’s ‘platinum supporters’ include firms that have been connected to environmental harm, say campaignersThe Queen’s jubilee tree planting scheme has been sponsored by companies with links to deforestation, say campaigners.Across the country, people have been asked to “plant a tree for the jubilee” in honour of the Queen’s 70 years on the throne. Continue reading...

UK scientists say carbon capture is ‘hard and expensive’ and focus must be on reducing emissionsMany of the UK’s top scientists working on carbon capture technologies do not believe they will be developed and scaled up in time to reach net zero and limit global heating to 1.5C.Experts speaking at a Greenhouse Gas Removal Hub event in London warned that these techniques, including direct air capture, biofuels, biochar, afforestation and advanced weathering, are not a silver bullet and should make up just a fraction of the efforts to decarbonise. Continue reading...

Terminally ill and disorientated orca believed to have been suffering from disease not seen before in EuropeA gravely ill orca which became separated from its pod and swam dozens of miles up the Seine in France has died of natural causes, the campaign group Sea Shepherd said on Monday, after attempts to guide it back to sea failed.“We found him late this morning,” said Lamya Essemlali, the chair of Sea Shepherd France. Continue reading...

Ministers from world’s biggest economies reach agreement that could shift estimated $33bn a year to clean energy sourcesThe world’s biggest economies are to stop funding any overseas fossil fuel development from the end of this year, in a move likely to choke off some of the investment in “carbon bombs” that are imperilling efforts to meet the world’s climate targets.The agreement could shift about $33bn (£26bn) a year from fossil fuels to clean energy sources, according to analysts’ estimates. Continue reading...

What happens from here is unclear, but the company’s turmoil can’t be divorced from the Coalition’s policy failures

Niue is creating a marine park to protect its waters, an area the size of Vietnam, from illegal fishingThe Pacific island state of Niue has announced that it will protect 100% of the ocean in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which spans 317,500 sq km (122,000 sq miles), roughly the area of Vietnam.The water that surrounds one of the world’s largest raised coral atolls is the only place where the katuali is found – a sea snake that lives in the island’s honeycomb of underwater caves. Humpback whales migrate to Niue from Antarctica to give birth, spinner dolphins swim near the coast and Niue boasts the world’s highest density of grey reef sharks. Continue reading...

Outgoing MP, who lost seat to a teal independent, says party needs to accept ALP has a mandate if it wants to regain inner-city seats at next election

Company’s chairman and chief executive to resign, along with two other board members

Remains removed as a result of ‘dispute between Aboriginal communities’, Heritage NSW says

A recent clampdown on illegal oil refineries in Rivers State was welcomed by campaigners alarmed at the mounting medical toll on those living in the area. But will it have a lasting impact?Several clusters of thick black soot clasp to the lungs of a 24-year-old man in a photo taken while he was being operated on by Iboroma Aku Shed in the oil-rich Nigerian city of Port Harcourt.Doctors opened up his chest intending to repair a hole in his diaphragm, but during the operation last year they became aware of the charred condition of his lungs. Continue reading...

Anti-logging protesters reject state governments’ claims new laws are necessary to protect workers’ safety

Downpours batter two cities on Atlantic coast in country’s fourth major flood in five monthsAt least 35 people have died amid heavy rainfall in north-eastern Brazil on Friday and Saturday, as downpours lashed two major cities on the Atlantic coast, in what is the South American nation’s fourth major flooding event in five months.In the state of Pernambuco, at least 33 people had died as of Saturday afternoon, as rains caused landslides that wiped away hillside urban neighbourhoods, according to the state’s official Twitter account. Another 765 people were forced to leave their homes, at least temporarily, according to the state government. Continue reading...

He’s hoping news of the windfall tax will wash away all memories of the Sue Gray report Continue reading...

Experts say cities are failing to grapple with the deadly threat after discovery of bodies in senior housing facilityTemperatures barely climbed into the 90s and only for a couple of days. But the discovery of the bodies of three women inside a Chicago senior housing facility this month left the city looking for answers to questions that were supposed to be addressed decades ago and are causing alarm as the planet heats.The city – and the country – face the reality that because of the climate crisis, deadly heatwaves can strike just about anywhere, don’t only fall in the height of summer and need not last long to be a threat. Continue reading...

The world’s longest serving environment correspondent explains the origins of a slow and continuing journeyIt all began with Högertrafikomläggningen, Swedish for “the right-hand traffic reorganisation”.On 3 September 1967, Sweden switched from driving on the left to driving on the right. The change mainly took place at night, but in Stockholm and Malmö all traffic stopped for most of the weekend while intersections were reconfigured. Continue reading...

Caroline Dennett says she has been flooded with support after decision that has cost ‘around 60%-70% of my business’Caroline Dennett’s eye was caught by a placard with two stark words: “insiders wanted”. The safety consultant was watching a video of Extinction Rebellion climate protesters who had glued themselves inside Shell’s headquarters in April and were encouraging employees to jump ship to aid its cause.This week Dennett, who runs the independent agency Clout, released a bombshell video severing ties with Shell after an 11-year business relationship. She emailed 1,400 Shell employees and accused the £177bn behemoth of causing “extreme harms” to the environment and having a “disregard for climate change risks”. Continue reading...

The animals are a crucial part of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s Newhaven scheme to reintroduce 11 vulnerable native mammals

A drone emitting orca sounds will be used in attempt to guide the animal, whose health is fast deterioratingAn orca lost in France’s River Seine is to be guided back to sea using sounds made by the species under a last-ditch plan to save the animal’s life.The local prefecture said it would monitor the animal, also known as a killer whale, from a distance with a drone while emitting orca communications in an attempt to guide it back to the sea, following a meeting with national and international scientists, including marine mammal specialists. Continue reading...

Firm says Sunak’s levy creates uncertainty and asks for tax relief that covers investment in renewablesShell has said Rishi Sunak’s windfall tax is a threat to investment in North Sea oil and gas as Britain attempts to ramp up domestic energy supplies.The chancellor yesterday announced an “energy profits levy” on oil and gas operators that he hopes will raise £5bn to help fund a support package for households. Continue reading...

Study finds Pacific rattlesnakes, which can’t control their own temperature, prefer places where the climate averages 80FMany species are suffering at the hands of a warmer world, but one California inhabitant seems to be enjoying hotter temperatures: the Pacific rattlesnake. Their populations across the south-west are thriving, according to a study by researchers at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and the University of Michigan.The study found that when given the choice, rattlesnakes – which cannot control their own temperature and rely on the environment for warmth – actually prefer to live in places where the climate averages more than 80F, suggesting they’re likely to do well as the planet gets hotter. Continue reading...

Rosemary Penwarden says the vehicle, powered by home rooftop solar, has been running smoothly for three years and has thanked oil companies for the motivationA New Zealand woman has converted a 29-year-old wreck into a homemade, electric vehicle, “to show it can be done”.Rosemary Penwarden has been driving her converted vehicle around South Island roads for three years now. The project took her and a friend more than eight months of solid work and tinkering. “You do have to be a little bit mad,” she said. “I want to thank the oil companies for the motivation.” Continue reading...