Environment | The Guardian

The unusual spectacle of an adult female killer whale spotted with the adopted – or abducted – calf of another species is causing experts to reassess orca behaviourOrcas, or killer whales, are apex predators, best known for their ferocious hunting techniques. So when a female was seen apparently caring for the offspring of another species, it came as a bit of a surprise. “I saw straight away there was something weird about it,” says Marie-Thérèse Mrusczok, who was working as a spotter on the Láki Tours whale-watching boat that witnessed the encounter.The ship’s crew initially thought it was a very small killer whale calf swimming alongside the orca, but photos later confirmed what Mrusczok suspected – that the female, called Sædís, appeared to be looking after a newborn long-finned pilot whale. Continue reading...

Youth campaign group is calling on Keir Starmer’s party to commit to ‘decade of green new deal action’

Beloved Australian songbird will risk life and limb for its breeding group but ignore cries for help from unfamiliar birds, scientists say

A new legal order in the high seas must prevent marine riches from being monopolised or privatisedIn his 1968 essay The Tragedy of the Commons, the ecologist Garrett Hardin argued that resources which do not clearly belong to anyone are likely to be overexploited, since protecting them is in no one person’s interest. That tragedy is unfolding on the high seas – the two-thirds of the ocean that lies beyond coastal states’ national jurisdiction. This is a commons, where fishing and mining have been opened to all. The result is serious damage to a vital resource that covers almost half the planet’s surface. The high seas are not entirely lawless. Yet only a tiny fraction of these waters are protected from exploitation, despite harbouring the world’s marine wilderness and its unique biodiversity.Beneath the waves lies a rich prize. Many scientists think the high seas harbour novel disease-fighting chemistry that might lead to new drugs. Until this month, there was no mechanism to prevent nations or companies monopolising the world’s marine genetic resources. One study in 2018 pointed out that BASF, which calls itself “the largest chemical producer in the world”, owned nearly half of the 13,000 patents derived from marine organisms. Mining exploration licences in the Pacific alone span an area almost as wide as the US. If deep sea extraction were permitted to go ahead, many warn, it would lead to biodiversity loss on an enormous scale. Continue reading...

Perrottet government quietly gazetted rules day before caretaker period commenced for election campaign

Exclusive: One-fifth of money given directly to fossil fuel industry was to support new extraction and miningThe UK government has given £20bn more in support to fossil fuel producers than those of renewables since 2015, the Guardian can reveal.The research, commissioned by the Liberal Democrats, found that while renewable energy was given £60bn in support over that time, fossil fuel companies were given close to £80bn. Continue reading...

Many agree that strides have been made in protecting biodiversity and the oceans – but much remains to be doneLate last Saturday in New York, exhausted negotiators reached a landmark agreement on protecting life on Earth: the high seas treaty, the second big environment deal in just three months after Cop15, the biodiversity summit in Montreal. The moment, nearly two decades in the making, overwhelmed the president of the conference, Rena Lee, who cried as she announced that a deal had been done.On paper at least, countries nearly have a complete strategy for action on the three planetary crises of our era: the climate emergency, biodiversity loss and pollution. Governments are still negotiating a UN agreement on plastics pollution, with another round of talks scheduled in Paris this year. But world leaders, business heads – all of us – know what we must do in the next decades to avoid disaster. Continue reading...

Railway forecast to quadruple crude oil production in Uinta Basin and will damage Biden’s climate credentials, campaigners sayDevelopers are seeking billions of dollars in tax breaks for a new oil railroad in Utah that will threaten the Colorado River and be a risk to the health and safety of millions of Americans while damaging Joe Biden’s climate credentials, campaigners say.The 88-mile proposed Uinta railway is forecast to quadruple crude oil production in the Uinta Basin by connecting it to the national rail network and coastal refineries. Continue reading...

In the mid-2000s, the United States unearthed a huge amount of methane – the main ingredient in natural gas. To ship it overseas, companies built factories to compact it into a liquid. But these facilities weren't just built in industrial areas; they were also built near people's homes.In this video, four residents whose communities were sacrificed in these ventures share their stories. 'I just love this place, and I want to share with my children, my grandchildren,' said Gwen Jones of Freeport, Texas, where facilities have displaced entire neighborhoods. 'For people to just want to take it, use it just for money reasons – to me, it's not sufficient.' Continue reading...

Last month’s sinking of the oil tanker MT Princess Empress off the coast of Mindoro island in the Philippines has forced the area into a state of emergency, disrupting the marine environment, businesses and more than 15,000 fishersRead more: What happens when a huge ship sinks? A step-by-step guide to averting disaster Continue reading...

Government needs to introduce new ambitious energy policies before next general election, advisers sayMinisters must take control of the UK’s energy system, removing the barriers to planning permission and problems with the national electricity grid, to build the windfarms and other renewable power needed to meet net-zero goals, government advisers have warned.Chris Stark, chief executive of the committee on climate change, the statutory adviser, said the task was too urgent to wait until after a general election, expected within the next 18 months. “It would be an enormous mistake to wait until the next general election to introduce new ambitious policy,” he said. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Groups say chancellor needs to kickstart renewed drive to help cut bills and reduce emissionsA coalition of charities and campaigners have demanded the chancellor funnel more funds into making Britain’s leaky housing stock energy efficient at next week’s budget to help cut bills and protect the environment.In a letter to Jeremy Hunt, more than 20 organisations asked the government to set aside at least £6bn a year over the next decade to support an acceleration in insulating home and installations of heat pumps. Continue reading...

Academy Awards gift bag includes ‘a symbolic souvenir’ of pieces of Queensland, which sell on company website for $79.95Oscar nominees are set to receive 1 sq metre of land in outback Australia in their gift bags this year, but green organisations have questioned the environmental mission of the company whose property they say is in the heart of a coal seam gas field.Pieces of Australia is one of a number of brands to pay $4,000 to secure a spot in the hamper that is unaffiliated with the Academy but sent by the company Distinctive Assets to the acting and directing nominees.With additional reporting from Sian Cain and Jonathan Barrett. Continue reading...

A Guardian analysis using cutting-edge modelling developed by researchers tracks deadly PM2.5 levels

Exclusive: Cutting-edge analysis of fine particulate levels by area reveals shocking disparities: ‘The underlying variable that is most predictive is systemic racism’The neighborhood where Emprezz Nontzikelelo struggles to breathe the worst air in America was the only part of Bakersfield where Black families like hers were allowed to live when she was growing up.Still populated by predominantly low-income people of color, the eastern side of Bakersfield lies downwind of the oilwells, freeways and pesticide-choked agricultural fields of California’s Central Valley and backs up to a busy rail yard that ships the valley’s produce around the nation. Continue reading...

Lead researcher says destruction was similar to process of Antarctic ozone hole forming each spring ‘but at much warmer temperatures’

Despite the year-end spurt the pace remains inadequate to meet targets, Clean Energy Council says

Exclusive: Group will outline key policies on Thursday, including reforms to stop coal seam gas development on Liverpool Plains

Thai authorities struggle to contain forest fires, a persistent cause of air pollution during the dry seasonThe Chiang Mai authorities in northern Thailand will hand out face masks to the public as the province struggles with dangerously high levels of air pollution caused by persistent forest fires.The fires are an annual problem between the months of December and April, when farmers set light to their fields to clear the land ready for the next crop cycle. Continue reading...

Changes in England, Wales and Scotland will also apply to pigeons and birds of prey in bid to tackle bird fluPeople in Great Britain who keep chickens in their back garden will have to register them with the government under proposed new rules to crack down on bird flu.While those who own 50 or more birds, such as chicken farmers, have to register their flock with the government, currently people who have birds for their own supply of eggs, or as pets, do not have to. Continue reading...

A Guardian analysis based on modelling of fine particulate levels by neighborhood allows you to see how polluted your area is Continue reading...

Non-native species are now more numerous in wild – with implications for native insectsHalf of Britain and Ireland’s native plants have declined over the past 20 years, with non-native species now more numerous in the wild, a major study has found.Thousands of botanists from the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI)have spent the past 20 years collecting data on changes in the British and Irish flora. Continue reading...

Three non-violent Insulate Britain activists have been jailed for telling juries why they were protestingRestrictions placed on non-violent climate protesters who have been tried in criminal courts were part of a “deeply concerning” “pincer movement” narrowing their rights to free expression, leading lawyers have told the Guardian.Three Insulate Britain activists are serving jail terms for contempt of court for breaching rulings made by a judge that they were not to mention the climate crisis, fuel poverty or the history of the peaceful civil rights movement to juries. Continue reading...

Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council proposed building 450 homes at Sydney’s Lizard Rock

The controversial decision to approve a new coalmine in Cumbria was met with dismay by UK environmental groups, with many wondering what it meant for a country that has pitched itself as a leader in the green energy revolution. But in the town of Whitehaven where the mine is to be situated, the feeling is very different, with vast support across the political spectrum. The Guardian's Richard Sprenger travels to the Mirehouse estate, a short distance from the Woodhouse Colliery site, to find out what lies behind this positivity in the face of a profound climate crisis Continue reading...

Backers say hydrogen projects should be first in line for almost $26bn in US taxpayer money – but should we believe the hype?Hydrogen is the smallest, lightest and most abundant molecule in the universe. On Earth, it does not occur by itself naturally, but can be separated from water (HO) or hydrocarbon compounds (fossil fuels) like gas, coal and petroleum to be used as an energy source. It’s already used for rocket fuel, but it is now being pushed as a clean and safe alternative to oil and gas for heating and earthly modes of transport. Political support is mounting with almost $26bn of US taxpayer money available for hydrogen projects thanks to three recent laws – the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and the Chips Act. Hydrogen is politically hot, but is it the climate solution that its cheerleaders are claiming? Continue reading...

Visible from space, an explosion of harmful seaweed now stretches like a sea monster across the ocean. Could robots save us from it – and store carbon in the process?Seaweed has been having a moment. Eco-influencers and columnists rave about its benefits, in everything from beauty products to biofuels. Jamie Oliver has embraced it as a recipe ingredient; Victoria Beckham uses it to keep off the pounds. And they’re right: seaweed is packed with nutrition, it sucks up carbon and is an amazingly versatile addition to the green economy.But one type of seaweed is not a benign force. Vast fields of sargassum, a brown seaweed, have bloomed in the Atlantic Ocean. Fed by human activity such as intensive soya farming in the Congo, the Amazon and the Mississippi, which dumps nitrogen and phosphorus into the ocean, the sargassum explosion is by far the biggest seaweed bloom on the planet. The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, as it’s known, is visible from space, stretching like a sea monster across the ocean, with its nose in the Gulf of Mexico and its tail in the mouth of the Congo. Continue reading...

Japan Suiso energy boss says hydrogen project incorporating carbon capture and storage ‘truly a watershed moment’ in decarbonising

‘Eureka moment’ project will provide future energy certainty and trigger new minerals processing, Palaszczuk government says

News comes after top company bosses criticise government energy policy for failing to spur investmentLabour is considering bringing in long-term tax breaks to boost investment and raise the UK’s sluggish growth rate, adding to pressure on the chancellor from a swathe of industry leaders calling for pro-business measures in next week’s budget.The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will tell a conference organised by the MakeUK employer’s organisation on Tuesday that Britain needs a system of investment allowances lasting for the length of a parliament in order to provide companies with stability and certainty. Continue reading...

Matthew Tulley, 44, Ben Taylor, 38, George Burrow, 68, and Anthony Hill, 72, were part of a blockade at Bishopsgate in 2021Four climate activists who blockaded a street in London in a campaign to press the government to insulate homes have been found guilty of public nuisance.A jury at Inner London crown court found the protesters, who are members of Insulate Britain, guilty on Monday after a four-day trial. Continue reading...

Party will oppose the changes after the government refused to rule out banning new coal and gas projects

Sheep are descended from a ‘mouflon’. Yes (yes!)The wind is blowing: it is the wind that changes the seasons, hot to cold. It blows and blows until the season knows it is time to sit on its suitcase, overstuffed with things that happened, zip it up and travel to the other side of the world.

Spokesperson Penny Sharpe says current system has ‘no red lines’ and party will deliver changes within first 18 months of government

Report says events surrounding felling of thousands of trees was a ‘dark episode in Sheffield’“Deluded” councillors in Sheffield behaved dishonestly and destroyed public trust by mishandling a dispute over the unnecessarily felling of thousands of healthy trees in the city, an independent inquiry has found.Sheffield city council twice misled the high court during the fierce row, during which elderly residents were arrested when trying to protect trees from the chainsaws. Continue reading...

A billion cubic feet of the potent greenhouse gas were spewed into atmosphere in rural Pennsylvania amid state’s fracking boom

Vast releases of gas, along with future ‘methane bombs’, represent huge threat – but curbing emissions would rapidly reduce global heating

Investigation finds cases of the wellness product, hailed for its anti-ageing benefits, being derived from cattle raised on farms damaging tropical forest

Hemsby residents say sea defences are crucial as beach is closed after high tides washed away large amount of sandOn the road into Hemsby, a quintessential British seaside resort on the east coast, flags proclaiming an abundance of new holiday homes for sale flap in the wind.But the beach that has drawn generations of holidaymakers to the village has been closed by the local lifeboat team, after strong winds and high tides in recent weeks caused significant erosion. Continue reading...

Since 2019, Giulia Piermartiri and Edoardo Delille have travelled to places vulnerable to climate breakdown: California, the Maldives, Mozambique and the Mont Blanc massif. Using a slide projector, they impose images of possible future scenarios on to existing landscapes. ‘Photography usually depicts the present,’ they explain. ‘Our idea was to show the future in relation to the world we live in today.’ The Atlas of the New World project has four chapters covering four continents Continue reading...

With entries from 45 countries, the World Nature Photography awards 2022 have left no corner of the Earth unexplored in the quest to capture nature with a fresh perspective. The grand prize winner was the German photographer Jens Cullman who captured a crocodile lurking in the mud in Zimbabwe

Coalition of workers, unions and climate campaigners aims to safeguard shift from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy sourcesWorkers in the UK’s offshore oil, gas and renewables sector have called for public ownership of energy companies to ensure that the country’s transition to net zero protects jobs, communities and the environment.The call comes amid a series of demands to government from a coalition of offshore workers, unions and climate campaigners that aim to shift the industry from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy sources. Continue reading...

Rena Lee, the president of the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, announced at the UN headquarters that a treaty to protect the high seas had finally been agreed, saying: 'Ladies and gentlemen, the ship has reached the shore.' The treaty, which has been almost two decades in the making, is crucial for enforcing the 30x30 pledge made by countries at the UN biodiversity conference in December, to protect a third of the sea (and land) by 2030

After almost 20 years of talks, United Nations member states agree on legal framework for parts of the ocean outside national boundaries• ‘The most important talks no one has heard of’: why the high seas treaty mattersIt has been almost two decades in the making, but late on Saturday night in New York, after days of gruelling round-the-clock talks, UN member states finally agreed on a treaty to protect the high seas.A full day after the deadline for talks had officially passed, the conference president, Rena Lee of Singapore, took to the floor of room 2 of the UN headquarters in New York and announced that the treaty had been agreed. At a later date, the delegates will meet for half a day to formally adopt the text. She made it clear the text would not be reopened. Continue reading...

More than 25m panels are expected to be installed across the state over the next decade

The British government committed to achieving net zero by the middle of the century but all that has followed is inactionIn 2019, the government passed legislation that committed the nation to achieving a goal of net zero emissions of greenhouse gases by the middle of the century. It was one of the most ambitious targets set by any country in the battle to halt the worst effects of climate change. This is a nation committed to limiting global temperature rises, claimed Conservative party leaders.Sadly those proud battle cries and that Churchillian rhetoric have not been matched by action. For the past four years, government departments have failed to put in place any coherent policies that could help limit carbon emissions. Continue reading...

Senior civil servants have issued the warning as government is way behind on net zero pledges, according to leaked documentsCabinet ministers have been warned by senior civil servants that they face court action because of their catastrophic failure to develop policies for tackling climate change, according to secret documents obtained by the Observer.The leaked briefings from senior mandarins – marked “official sensitive” and dated 20 February this year – make clear the government as a whole is way behind in spelling out how it will reach its net zero targets and comply with legal duties to save the planet. Continue reading...

At 96, the nature presenter is set to return to TV screens for a landmark series on British natural historyDuring his decades-long career the authoritative yet reassuring face of Sir David Attenborough has appeared on screen from everywhere from Papua New Guinea to Chernobyl and Kenya.Next week, when the 96-year-old returns to front a new series on home ground, it will be not only his first landmark series on British natural history, but it is likely, the Observer understands, to be viewers’ final time seeing him in a series filmed on location. Continue reading...

More than a dozen counties declare state of emergency after heavy snowfalls, avalanches and freezing conditionsBack-to-back winter storms in California this week have brought strong winds and blizzard, and freeze warnings, causing a state of emergency to be declared across more than a dozen counties.Palisades Tahoe ski resort in the Sierra Nevada mountain range received 3.6 metres (12 feet) of snow over the week, with 66 centimetres falling in a single day on Tuesday. This brings its cumulative total to 12.8 metres for this season, making it the snowiest since 1970. Continue reading...

Henry Dimbleby says suppliers struggling with rising costs while locked into fixed-price contractsThe government’s food tsar has blamed Britain’s “weird supermarket culture” for recent food shortages, calling it a “market failure”.Experts have criticised ministers for “leaving food policy to Tesco”, and meeting large food chains rather than suppliers, who have been struggling with rising costs while locked into contracts with supermarkets. Continue reading...