President of Pacific island nation urges countries to join bid for nonproliferation treaty at UN general assembly

Pontiff tells young people he is pinning his hopes on their efforts to safeguard environment and help the poorPope Francis has called for courage in abandoning fossil fuels and lamented that older generations did not know how to protect the planet and secure peace.The pope, who was visiting Assisi, the birthplace of his namesake saint who was close to nature, told young people on Saturday that he was pinning his hopes on their efforts in working to save the planet and to make the world’s economy more attentive to the poor. Continue reading...

Defra accused of ‘all-out attack’ on environment by wildlife groupsThe government is to scrap the “Brexit bonus” which would have paid farmers and landowners to enhance nature, in what wildlife groups are calling an “all-out attack” on the environment, the Observer can reveal.Instead, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) sources disclosed, they are considering paying landowners a yearly set sum for each acre of land they own, which would be similar to the much-maligned EU basic payments scheme of the common agricultural policy. Continue reading...

Bee bus stops first appeared in the Dutch city of Utrecht. Now the UK is planning for more than 1,000 and there is growing interest across Europe and in Canada and AustraliaButterflies and bees are getting their own transport network as “bee bus stops” start to pop up around UK cities and across Europe. Humble bus shelter roofs are being turned into riots of colour, with the number of miniature gardens – full of pollinator-friendly flora such as wild strawberries, poppies and pansies – set to increase by 50% in the UK by the end of this year.Leicester is leading the charge with 30 bee bus stops installed since 2021. Derby has 18, and there are others in Southhampton, Newcastle, Sunderland, Derby, Oxford, Cardiff and Glasgow. Brighton council installed one last year after a petition was signed by almost 50,000 people. Continue reading...

The British public should enjoy the full benefit of the energy that is generated here, and help plan its future

Emergency services rescued four people clinging to trees after two vehicles became trapped in floods

Ex-chair of Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation says hydrogen plant, gas facility and proposed urea plant are all threats to cultural sites

The way Queensland Labor reacts to rising pressure from landlords and coalminers will determine if it is a government of principle or politics

Fridays for Future ‘strikes’ in about 450 places demanded rich countries pay for damage from global heatingThousands of young people have staged a coordinated “global climate strike” across Asia, Africa and Europe in a call for reparations for those worst affected by climate breakdown.From New Zealand and Japan to Germany and the Democratic Republic of Congo, activists walked out of schools, universities and jobs to demand rich countries pay for the damage global heating is inflicting on the poor. Continue reading...

Tremors above magnitude 3 could be destructive – not least to the Tory party if people’s houses start crumbling, writes David NowellHaving been taught seismology by Prof Peter Styles, who developed a traffic-light monitoring system in the 1980s that dramatically reduced the impact of coal mining under Swansea for local residents, I believe Jacob Rees-Mogg has a risible scientific understanding about shale gas extraction (Tory MPs angrily challenge Rees-Mogg’s fracking revival plan, 22 September). Vibrations from quarries and building sites tend not to be widespread, compared to shaking generated a few kilometres beneath an area.The current 0·5 magnitude limit was set so tremors should not rise above 2·5, “because of the increased risk of larger magnitude events”, according to a recent British Geological Survey report. Proposing a higher limit would be reckless, as any anthropogenic tremors above 3 could prove to be destructive – not least to the Tory vote, if people’s houses start crumbling. Continue reading...

In my group, Nanas Against Fracking, we know community organising is not easy. But we are a force to be reckoned withHysterical “luddites” funded by Russia was how Jacob Rees-Mogg, in parliament yesterday, described concerned residents opposed to fracking in England. What a slap in the face for those of us who have spent more than a decade trying to protect our communities from the dangerous, polluting shale gas industry. We have never received so much as a rouble or a vodka shot for our efforts.Here in Lancashire, we actually believed we had won this fight – twice. Our first victory was in 2015, when Lancashire county council rejected planning applications from the fracking firm Cuadrilla for two large sites between Preston and Blackpool. This decision was overruled by Westminster in 2016, and work began in 2017 to transform the Preston New Road site from a field where cows graze into a shale gas site. Nanas Against Fracking, a group I co-founded, started protesting at the site that day too, and continued for more than 1,000 days.Tina Rothery is a Blackpool resident, campaigner and co-founder of Nanas Against Fracking

Participants view Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy as campaigners bemoan restrictions on right to roam“Welcome to the night,” beamed a right to roam campaigner welcoming a coach load of city dwellers to the pitch dark stillness of remote Northumberland countryside on a chilly September evening.The passengers had been attracted by a secretive offer spread on Instagram and by old-school posters pinned up in Newcastle. Continue reading...

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng poised to lift de facto ban on new onshore farms as part of his growth planKwasi Kwarteng looks likely to lift a de facto ban on new onshore windfarms after the UK government said it would bring planning consent into line with that for other infrastructure.It has been very difficult for onshore windfarms to get planning permission since David Cameron put in place a tough consent regime in 2015. Earlier this year, Kwarteng pushed for the restrictions to be lifted but he encountered cabinet opposition. Continue reading...

While not devoid of green measures, Kwarteng’s announcement was more notable for what it did not include

Leaked video shows business secretary ‘greenwashing fossil fuels’ and putting ‘ideology before climate’, say critics

Studies collectively examined nearly 30,000 samples over the past five years in ‘disturbing’ findingsToxic PFAS chemicals were detected in every umbilical cord blood sample across 40 studies conducted over the last five years, a new review of scientific literature from around the world has found.The studies collectively examined nearly 30,000 samples, and many linked fetal PFAS exposure to health complications in unborn babies, young children and later in life. The studies’ findings are “disturbing”, said Uloma Uche, an environmental health science fellow with the Environmental Working Group, which analyzed the peer-reviewed studies’ data. Continue reading...

Cost of safely clearing waste from ageing power stations is soaring, sayexpertsThe cost of decommissioning the UK’s 20th-century nuclear waste could rise to £260bn as the aged and degrading sites present growing challenges, according to analysis presented to an international group of experts.As the government pursues nuclear energy with the promise of a new generation of reactors, the cost of safely cleaning up waste from previous generations of power stations is soaring. Continue reading...

The release by a Greta Thunberg-inspired activist group was timed with the global climate strike protests launching FridayIn a chilling new video released by Fridays for Future, the youth-led climate movement inspired by Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, filmmakers capture how escalating wildfires have devastated California’s picturesque landscapes in the hopes of igniting an urgent call to action.The short video, titled “I love you, California,” sees the camera pan slowly over the aftermath of megafires: apocalyptic scenes of smoldering canyons, communities reduced to rubble and once lush hillsides turned to blackened moonscapes. The film is soundtracked by a haunting rendition of California’s state song, accompanied only by the sounds of quiet, rustling wind. Continue reading...

Mark Menzies challenges business secretary to ‘lead by example’ and start drilling in North East SomersetJacob Rees-Mogg should “lead by example” and make his the first constituency to be fracked, a Conservative MP has said.Mark Menzies, the MP for Fylde, challenged the business secretary to start drilling in North East Somerset before imposing fracking on other constituencies. Continue reading...

The landmark ruling found the Morrison government had violated the rights of the Indigenous people by failing to take adequate action to cut emissions

Hurricane causes blackout across Puerto Rico while typhoon forces 8m to flee homes in JapanIt has been very active across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in recent days with more than five storms officially named.Hurricane Fiona in the Caribbean was the first storm of the tropical Atlantic season to strengthen into a major hurricane. Fiona made landfall on Sunday across south-western Puerto Rico, where it dumped 762mm (30in) of rain with sustained gusts of 115mph. Continue reading...

Campaigners say revoking of post-Brexit protections amounts to legislative vandalismHundreds of Britain’s environmental laws covering water quality, sewage pollution, clean air, habitat protections and the use of pesticides are lined up for removal from UK law under a government bill.Environmentalists accused Liz Truss’s government of reneging on a commitment made after Brexit to halt the decline of nature by 2030. They say the revoking of 570 environmental laws that were rolled over from EU law after Brexit amounts to a deregulatory free-for-all leaving the environment unprotected. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a rescued fox, a snub-nosed monkey and beached whales Continue reading...

The Underground in Bloom competition showcases the talents of green-fingered TfL staff, who have turned tube and bus stations across the capital into havens for plants and trees, and even fruit and vegThe first official garden popped up at a London Underground station more than a century ago. Now, there is an annual Underground In Bloom competition, run by Transport for London (TfL), for the many stations going green.With plants grown in everything from used mayonnaise pots to old food delivery crates, makeshift station gardens are sprouting up around the capital, all managed by volunteer staff. Competition categories include the best indoor garden, best fruit and vegetables, best hanging baskets and best window baskets.South Tottenham station, with Sasha Diamond, whose garden backs on to the station’s green plot, tending to the flowers. A pelargonium and petunia peep through the fence Continue reading...

This weekend’s ballot could see Switzerland also giving farm animals the constitutional right ‘not to be intensively farmed’Swiss voters will vote on Sunday on whether to ban factory farming as unconstitutional and end imports of intensively farmed meat.The latest polling shows 52% of voters oppose a ban, and 47% support one. If the factory-farming ballot initiative is passed, Switzerland’s constitution, which already protects the “welfare and dignity of animals”, would be modified to include an animal’s right “not to be intensively farmed”, and new laws would lower animal stocking rates to meet organic standards. Continue reading...

See Monster, on a decommissioned North Sea gas platform, is one of the UK’s biggest ever public art worksIt looms high above the Grand Pier and makes the big wheel on the seafront look tiny. As it has taken shape on the beach at Weston-super-Mare, See Monster – a decommissioned North Sea gas platform converted into one of the UK’s biggest public art installations – has provoked a heady mix of head-scratching, interest and ire.Finally, after delays caused by the vagaries of this summer’s extreme weather (too hot at times, too windy at others), visitors are being invited this weekend to clamber onboard. Continue reading...

Campaigners say protesters arrested for blocking roads getting ‘lost in prison system’ while on remandClimate campaigners arrested on suspicion of blocking roads or other offences are waiting up to six months in prison before being tried.Josh Smith, a 29-year-old stonemason from Manchester, has been held on remand in HMP Peterborough for more than two months. Continue reading...

English Heritage identifies six most vulnerable sites as climate change intensifies coastal erosionThe wonderful wildness of the spot, a rocky Cornish headland pounded relentlessly by Atlantic breakers, has inspired poets, artists and dreamers for many a century.But Tintagel, immortalised in British mythology as the place of King Arthur’s conception, is one of a string of castles at risk of tumbling into the sea as climate change increases the pace of coastal erosion. Continue reading...

Energy secretary considers bypassing local planning rules as backbenchers voice oppositionMinisters face a furious backlash from Conservative MPs after overturning a manifesto pledge to pause fracking until it is proved safe, and then indicating drilling could be imposed without local support.Outlining a return to shale gas extraction in England after three years, Jacob Rees-Mogg dismissed worries about earthquakes caused by the practice as “hysteria”, claiming this was often down to a lack of scientific understanding. Continue reading...

New business secretary says opposition to fracking is ‘sheer ludditery’, yet he faces disbelief from many quarters

Defence Housing Australia wants to clear nearly 16 hectares of natural temperate grassland in Canberra’s north-west

Water minister says state will only consider additional 450GL efficiency projects if they do not negatively affect farmers or towns

This live blog has now closed, you can find our latest political coverage hereCatholics outnumber Protestants in Northern Ireland for the first time, a demographic milestone for a state that was designed a century ago to have a permanent Protestant majority, my colleague Rory Carroll reports.Thérèse Coffey is deputy prime minister as well as health secretary. Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain this morning, and responding to a question from the former Labour MP Ed Balls, who was presenting, she said that as deputy PM she would be “chairing things like the home affairs committee and different elements like that”. But she rejected claims this meant she would be doing the health job part time. She said:I’m conscious that in two weeks we’ve already pulled together our plan for patients and we will continue to develop that.I don’t think it will be a case of being part-time ... We don’t have fixed working hours. Continue reading...

Scientists and environmental groups call proposed legislation a ‘giveaway’ to fossil fuel industry that will gut protectionsScientists, health experts and environmental groups have condemned new legislation negotiated in secret by the fossil-fuel-friendly Democratic senator Joe Manchin and the Senate leader, Chuck Schumer, which will fast-track major energy projects by gutting clean water and environmental protections.The permitting bill published on Wednesday was the result of a deal between Manchin and Democratic leaders, which secured the West Virginia senator’s vote for Joe Biden’s historic climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, which Manchin held up for months. Continue reading...

Billboards hijacked across Europe to highlight role of airline emissions in climate crisisAs Kate, 23, walked out of Seven Sisters station, in Tottenham, north London, she noticed an airline advertisement attracting unusual attention.“I was on my way back home, I was coming out of the station, and I saw two people taking pictures of the billboard,” she said. “I thought at first it was just a normal airline ad, so I just walked past. Then I did a bit of a double take.” Continue reading...

Exclusive: Government discussing plans to designate sites as nationally significant infrastructure projectsLiz Truss is considering designating fracking sites as nationally important infrastructure, potentially cutting out local communities and breaking a leadership election promise, the Guardian can reveal.During her campaign to be the Conservative party leader, Truss said new sites would only go ahead with local consent. However, those familiar with discussions in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, say there have been discussions about pushing through sites without local approval by designating them as nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs). Continue reading...

Energy secretary tells MPs that quakes of 2.5 on Richter scale are routine natural phenomenon

Investigation reveals cattle raised on Mỹky territory ended up in global supply chain including food giantOn one side of the fence, in dense forest, the Mỹky people grow their crops: cassava, pequi and cabriteiro fruit. On the other side, ranchers raise cattle on devastated land. That land is the Mỹky’s, they say.Xinuxi Mỹky, the village elder, says this region used to be a forest where different villages thrived. Only one now remains and the farms have cut into that land as well. “This pasture, where the whites live, was also our village, but now they are raising cattle. The land belonged to us: Indigenous peoples.” Continue reading...

Ranchers risk fines amid a clash over water rights, as regulators and Indigenous nations warn of environmental dangerBefore Rick Lemos and the other directors of the Shasta River Water Association broke the law, they made a decision that under most circumstances might be considered unusual: they sent a letter to authorities spelling out exactly what they intended to do.The California regulation they would defy was an emergency order in response to the state’s punishing drought, in effect forbidding ranchers and farmers in this stretch of land near the Oregon border from diverting water from the Shasta River as they had done for more than a century. Continue reading...

The lead water crisis facing Chicago and many other US cities today has roots in a nearly century-old campaign to boost the lead industry’s sales

Experts warn that girls’ education will be worst hit, as many families are forced to move away from schoolsMore than 3.5 million children are at risk of dropping out of school due to the drought in the Horn of Africa, the United Nations has said, amid warnings the crisis could lead to “a lost generation” that misses out on education.According to new figures shared with the Guardian, Unicef now estimates that 3.6 million children in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia are in danger of leaving school as a result of the cumulative pressure on households caused by the unrelenting drought. Continue reading...

Recent record fire seasons in the west have increased pollution across the country, affecting people’s health, scientists sayMillions of Americans are now routinely exposed to unhealthy plumes of wildfire smoke that can waft thousands of miles across the country, scientists have warned.Wildfires cause soot and ash to be thrown off into the air, which then carries the minuscule particles that can be inhaled by people many miles away, aggravating a variety of health conditions. The number of people in the US exposed to unhealthy levels of these particulates from wildfires at least one day a year has increased 27-fold over the last decade, a new study found, with 25 million people in 2020 alone breathing in potentially toxic air from fires. Continue reading...

Guardian analysis finds 151 licences already granted threaten environmentally important spots

Rescue efforts are continuing for the 35 surviving whales on Ocean Beach near Strahan after the second mass stranding to occur in Australia in two days

Biden promised to tackle climate crisis but administration’s rhetoric ‘changed substantially’ after the onset of the Ukraine war and it adopted the industry’s major demandsThe Russian tanks and armored vehicles had barely begun to roll into Ukraine before the fossil fuel industry in the US had swung into action. A letter was swiftly dispatched to the White House, urging an immediate escalation in gas production and exports to Europe ahead of an anticipated energy crunch.The letter, dated 25 February, just one day after Vladimir Putin’s forces launched their assault on Ukraine, noted the “dangerous juncture” of the moment before segueing into a list of demands: more drilling on US public lands; the swift approval of proposed gas export terminals; and pressure on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, an independent agency, to green-light pending gas pipelines. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Faith In Nature to give non-executive director or ‘nature guardian’ voice in business strategyA beauty company has appointed a director to represent nature on its board, giving the natural world a legal say in its business strategy.Faith In Nature, which sells soap and haircare products, as well as household cleaners and shampoo for dogs, says it is the first company in the world to give nature a formal vote on corporate decisions that might affect it. Continue reading...

Two firms control 40% of global commercial seed market, compared with 10 companies 25 years ago, ETC Group saysThe dominance of a small number of big companies over the global food chain is increasing, aided by the rising use of “big data” and artificial intelligence, new research has found.Only two companies control 40% of the global commercial seed market, compared with 10 companies controlling the same proportion of the market 25 years ago, according to the ETC Group, an eco-justice organisation. Continue reading...

The media outlets gave sizeable coverage to journal article that climate scientists said misrepresented their researchThe climate science denial echo-chamber has been loud and proud this week with claims a new “international study” has found no evidence of a climate emergency in records of extreme weather.So impressed was the Australian with the work that it ran uncritical coverage on page one and page two. Continue reading...

The centrist Democrat believes he has votes to pass the measure, which has met with resistance from the leftThe US senator Joe Manchin released an energy permitting bill on Wednesday to speed up fossil fuel and clean energy projects.The bill is expected to be attached to a measure to temporarily fund the government that Congress must pass before 1 October. Continue reading...

Report says urban nature restoration projects must be handled carefully to avoid pricing out localsPoorer communities could be forced out of their areas by rewilding because of “green gentrification”, according to a report by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).The report finds that rewilding could lead to house prices rising as areas become more desirable and their risk of being affected by natural disasters such as floods decreases. New tourist opportunities may also result from enhanced green spaces and wildlife. Continue reading...