Environment | The Guardian

Meghalaya state hopes for world heritage status for unique bridges, which can take decades to createIndia’s famous living bridges – the roots of trees coaxed and stretched into the form of a suspension bridge over a river – have been submitted to Unesco’s tentative list for the coveted world heritage site status.The mountainous state of Meghalaya in the north-east has more than 100 such bridges in 70 villages, unique structures created by a combination of nature and human ingenuity. Continue reading...

Range typically found in southern and central Europe is expanding north as climate warmsGiant orchids that can reach a metre tall have officially been found growing wild in the UK for the first time, having become established hundreds of miles north of their native range in the Mediterranean.The “stately” plants were discovered on a grassy slope near Didcot in Oxfordshire by Hamza Nobes, a 29-year-old trainee nurse, who wishes to keep the exact location a secret. Continue reading...

A band of 20-year-olds have made headlines disrupting football games, the Baftas and now oil facilities across the UK. But what do they want?

New law, which brings in fines of up to $22,000 and up to two years in jail, passes on extra sitting day of parliament

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a fluffy egret chick, escaped ostriches and migrating crabs Continue reading...

Local farmers and environment groups say Whitehaven’s project will drive further climate catastrophe

Clean Energy Council says Morrison government’s lack of ‘meaningful policies’ and leadership on climate could mark start of downturn

Government activates emergency plan to manage supplies and pleads with households and industry to be sparing with usage

With parks resembling wetlands thanks to persistent rain, the bin chicken has gone back to nature

UK project in conjunction with blindness charity aims to help people hear the near-silent vehiclesA universal sound for e-scooters is being developed by scientists at the University of Salford working with the Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB) to help pedestrians hear the oncoming vehicles.The silent motors of e-scooters can be dangerous for people who expect to be able to hear hazards approaching on roads and pavements, and the researchers have gained funding to explore a range of audible motor sounds to find one which is sufficiently noticeable to help safety, while being pleasant for those around, and avoiding unnecessary urban noise pollution. Continue reading...

The Climate Book will include contributions from scientist Katharine Hayhoe, economist Thomas Piketty and novelist Margaret AtwoodGreta Thunberg is releasing a new book this autumn, which aims to offer a “global overview of how the planet’s many crises connect”.“I have decided to use my platform to create a book based on the current best available science – a book that covers the climate, ecological and sustainability crises holistically”, Thunberg said in a statement. “Because the climate crisis is, of course, only a symptom of a much larger sustainability crisis. My hope is that this book might be some kind of go-to source for understanding these different, closely interconnected crises.” Continue reading...

Regulator gives gas exploration company another year to plug wells, amid UK energy security concernsThe UK’s oil and gas regulator has withdrawn a demand that the fracking firm Cuadrilla plug and abandon two wells in Lancashire, sparking accusations that the government is reopening the door to the controversial technology.Amid concerns about the UK’s energy security after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Boris Johnson has appeared to waver over the government’s moratorium on fracking, which was imposed in 2019. Continue reading...

Rising costs threaten farms as NFU warns of huge drop in greenhouse crops such as cucumbersHundreds of egg producers are facing collapse as rising costs of fuel and energy combine with additional costs of keeping hens indoors during a bird flu outbreak.British free-range poultry farmers are calling on big retailers to increase the price of a dozen eggs by 40p as some smaller producers are already on the brink of shutting down. Continue reading...

Tragically, the Biden administration is choosing to expand the fossil fuel industry at this critical momentWe are spiraling further into climate and ecological breakdown. Now is the perfect moment to build out renewables and end the fossil fuel industry as if the future of humanity depends on it.Putin’s unprovoked and atrocious invasion of Ukraine has laid bare many things. One of these is our society’s precarious dependence on fossil fuels. Another is a burgeoning climate-driven food crisis. It’s time to phase out fossil fuels and industrial beef production with wartime resolve.Peter Kalmus is a climate scientist and author based in Los Angeles Continue reading...

Rainforests looked after by communities absorb twice as much carbon as other lands, analysis showsParis climate agreement goals will fail unless the rights of Indigenous people who protect rainforests are honoured, according to a new report.Forest lands stewarded by Indigenous people and communities in countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru sequester about twice as much carbon as other lands, according to the analysis. Continue reading...

Data from 2021 released at same time as government plan to stop 40% of untreated sewage releases by 2040Water companies discharged raw sewage into English rivers 372,533 times last year, a slight reduction on the previous year.The water companies covering England released untreated sewage for a combined total of more than 2.7m hours; compared with 3.1m hours in 2020, according to data released by the Environment Agency (EA) on Thursday. Continue reading...

Investigation began after discovery of ‘deviated’ wells drilled from neighbouring properties

Peatlands hold double the carbon of the world’s forests, and scientists, gardeners and campaigners want a ban on peat salesMore than a third of all compost sold in the UK in 2021 was peat dug from carbon-rich habitats, new data has revealed.The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), which opposes a ban on peat sales, provided the figures in its response to a government consultation. The consultation proposes banning peat compost sales to gardeners by 2024 and ministers have said they aim to end sales to professional growers by 2028. An earlier voluntary goal of ending retail sales by 2020 failed. Continue reading...

Angus Rose, 52, has gone 17 days without food demanding meeting with minister Greg HandsA man has said he is willing to starve himself to death if the energy minister, Greg Hands, does not offer all MPs the same climate crisis briefing that Boris Johnson has described as his “road to Damascus moment”.For 17 days, Angus Rose, 52, has gone without food. Each morning he goes to Westminster to sit at the gates of parliament on a wooden folding chair, by a blown-up copy of a letter to Hands, in the hope the minister will meet him to talk. So far he has lost 10.9kg (1st 10lb) in weight but Hands has not shown up. Continue reading...

UK Export Finance used £5.24bn of taxpayer money to fund overseas energy and infrastructure ventures – despite its own review raising concernsThe British government has provided more than £5bn in the past three years to overseas energy and infrastructure projects linked to labour abuses and environmental damage, according to documents and interviews with workers.The funding – a combination of loans and guarantees – comes from the government’s export credit agency, UK Export Finance (UKEF), a government department to help UK companies access business contracts overseas. Continue reading...

Glaciers becoming ‘smaller and more skeletal’, annual end-of-summer survey of the snowline findsNew Zealand’s glaciers are becoming “smaller and more skeletal” due to the effects of climate change and scientists predict many could disappear within a decade.An annual end-of-summer survey that records the snowline of more than 50 South Island glaciers has revealed continued loss of snow and ice. Continue reading...

Unattributed extracts from an essay decrying renewables and electric vehicles are being used to undermine their environmental credentials

Pollution from wood burning causes half of all harm from home heating, but provides only 11% of heat, says public health groupThe air pollution from wood burning in homes is responsible for more than £1bn a year in health-related damages in the UK and €10bn (£8.5bn) across the EU, according to a report.The analysis from the European Public Health Alliance found the total costs of early deaths, illness and lost work resulting from outdoor air pollution produced by all home heating was €29bn a year. Continue reading...

More talks needed on targets to protect wildlife as developing countries call for payment for finds based on their biodiversity

Knock-on effect of rising gas prices, exacerbated by war in Ukraine, adding to cost of living crisis in UKThe UK government is to host a crisis planning meeting with farmers about rocketing fertiliser prices, as as ministers move to reduce the impact of rising costs on food production.Quotes for ammonium nitrate fertiliser prices have risen as high as £1,000 a tonne in recent weeks, compared with £280 a tonne a year ago. Continue reading...

Missing woman identified as Lismore’s levee overtops for second time in a month

Sightings of the leatherback turtle are rare in NSW and the species is considered endangered in the state

Heath fritillary among species helped by habitat restoration – but concerns over future remainSome of the UK’s most threatened butterflies weathered a poor year in 2021 thanks to conservation efforts, annual survey results have shown.The woodland-loving heath fritillary has doubled in abundance in the past decade, although it is 90% down on 1980 levels. The silver-studded blue also did well, recording its best year since 1996. Continue reading...

Swapping gas for zero-emission vehicles would also lead to 2.8m fewer asthma attacks and avoid 13.4m sick daysA speedy nationwide transition to electric vehicles powered by renewable energy would save more than 100,000 American lives and $1.2tn in public health costs over the next three decades, according to a new report.Analysis by the American Lung Association highlights the public health damage caused by the world’s dependence on dirty fossil fuels, and provides a glimpse into a greener, healthier future – should political leaders decide to act. Continue reading...

With waters breaching the Lismore levee, the SES has had to defend cancelling an evacuation order late on Tuesday

Rare white-tailed eagle had high level of rodenticide in its system but no further police action will be takenA rare white-tailed eagle found dead in Dorset was poisoned, police have confirmed – but they have shut the case, in a decision the RSPB has called “baffling”.The eagle was one reintroduced on the Isle of Wight, where a successful programme has been taking place since summer 2019. The white-tailed eagles had become extinct in the UK in the early 20th century after they were poisoned and shot by gamekeepers. Continue reading...

Kwasi Kwarteng pledges to turbo-charge investment in solar and wind power amid new energy security planThe business secretary has effectively ruled out a windfall tax on North Sea oil firms to fund discounted energy bills but promised much greater investment in solar panels, wind and nuclear to reduce reliance on Russian oil and gas.Speaking amid reports of a cabinet split over landmark energy security plans due to be published within days, Kwasi Kwarteng offered up a tax on oil companies, backed by Labour, as the one policy that definitely will not find favour with ministers. Continue reading...

Conservative Environment Network has 133 MPs in its ranks, while Net Zero Scrutiny Group has 19 publicly named membersHalf of Conservative backbench MPs are now in the party’s green group, after the former minister Jeremy Hunt announced he had joined.The Conservative Environment Network (Cen) now has 133 MPs, leading green-minded Tories to claim that those who do not want net zero are in the minority. There are 360 sitting Conservative MPs, but 95 are government ministers or whips and therefore ineligible to join Cen. Continue reading...

Slowworms thrive in brownfield sites – often targeted for developmentAdders and slowworms will be among animals given extra protection under plans by the government to “streamline” the process for protecting nature-rich areas.George Eustice, the environment secretary, said that he plans for brownfield and urban sites to be given greater protection as he scraps sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) and special protected areas (SPAs), in order to replace them with a streamlined system. Continue reading...

Coalition to again spend maximum $150m allocation from Emergency Response Fund to ‘fast track’ recovery and resilience

Reduction in spending across clean energy agencies represents a 35% annual cut over four years

Pushed to the brink by invasive American mink and habitat loss, a reintroduced wild population is finally thriving on Hiiumaa islandIt finally stops snowing just as Tiit Maran parks his orange Dacia Duster next to a bridge on a quiet country road. “Too bad the snow is so fresh,” he says. “We’ll not find any tracks now.” Maran, the director of Tallinn zoo and a European mink biologist, is looking for the critically endangered mammal on an Estonian island.Along a straight, ice-free stream, he clambers over fallen trunks, his boots sinking into the powder snow. A glorified chicken coop comes into view, one of the three sites where Maran’s team regularly released European minks between 2000 and 2016. Pregnant females were placed in the cages in May, allowing the mink and her brood plenty of time to adapt to the smells and the sounds of the forest before the doors swung open in August. Continue reading...

Thresholds being raised in eight counties as average temperatures rise due to global heatingThe official definition of a heatwave is to be changed in a band of English counties from Surrey to east Yorkshire, in response to the warming climate.The Met Office said it was increasing heatwave temperature thresholds in eight counties before the summer. The change reflected “an undeniable warming trend” for the UK that had made the original thresholds obsolete. Continue reading...

Inadequate insurance, delayed payments and complex building codes have slowed the return to two Colorado towns

A simple switch in the way transactions are verified could reduce bitcoin’s energy-guzzling mining habitsBitcoin mining already uses as much energy as Sweden, according to some reports, and its booming popularity is revitalizing failing fossil fuel enterprises in the US. But all that could change with a simple switch in the way it is coded, according to a campaign launched on Tuesday.The campaign, called Change the Code Not the Climate and coordinated by Environmental Working Group, Greenpeace USA and several groups battling bitcoin mining facilities in their communities, is calling on bitcoin to change the way bitcoins are mined in order to tackle its outsized carbon footprint. Continue reading...

Scientists develop model to identify species as DNA coding shows many animals are not a single species as previously thoughtHundreds of unidentified mammals are hiding in plain sight waiting to be discovered, according to a new study which predicts where to find so-called “cryptic” species across the tree of life.African elephants, lemurs and two newly discovered see-through frogs in Ecuador that live just 13 miles apart are among a growing number of plants and animals that have been unmasked by genetic analysis in recent years, revealing they are not a single species but, in fact, many and separate groups, despite appearing similar to the human eye. Continue reading...

Supermarket boss says only alternative would be ‘to clear our freezers and shelves of a wide range of staples’Iceland will temporarily return to using palm oil in some own-label foods from June because the price of a key alternative – sunflower oil – has soared by 1,000% during the war in Ukraine.In 2018 the supermarket chain announced to much fanfare that it was removing the controversial ingredient, which has been linked to destruction of the Earth’s forests. As part of its stand against the product, it launched a TV advert made with Greenpeace, which was pulled after it was deemed too political. Continue reading...

Strategy could require up to eight new nuclear power stations to be built, costing more than £13bnBoris Johnson’s flagship energy strategy has been held up over a row with Rishi Sunak about funding a new generation of up to eight nuclear power stations costing the public more than £13bn.The strategy, which has been delayed for a month, was due to be published this week but has now been pencilled for 5 April after disagreement about the multibillion-pound cost of new nuclear plants and amid ongoing tensions between the prime minister and his chancellor, as well as the wider cabinet. Continue reading...

Reduced production in Bass Strait and pipeline capacity limits could lead to shortfall during extreme weather, energy market operator saysSouth-eastAustralia could face gas shortages as soon as the 2023 winter because of delays for a planned NSW import terminal and falling Bass Strait output, according to the annual review of the sector by the Australian Energy Market Operator.Aemo’s gas statement of opportunities report, which maps the supply and demand for the fuel over the next two decades, said shortages could be avoided by using less gas in power generation on cold days but also accelerating the switch to electricity. Continue reading...

Paradise Point has 20% of its housing stock vulnerable to erosion or storm-surge damage, CoreLogic saysNew data has identified the affluent Gold Coast suburb of Paradise Point as having the highest value of property at risk of coastal erosion in Australia.An estimated $1.4bn worth of property within 6.4km of the coastline in Paradise Point is at “very high risk” of coastal erosion or storm-surge-related damage within the next 30 to 60 years, according to analysis by CoreLogic. Continue reading...

Pilot program breeds koalas with ‘high genetic merit’ for release into the wild to improve populationsDogs, diseases and droughts – aided and abetted by land clearing and bushfires – have pushed vulnerable koala populations into rapid decline.It is now hoped that a two-year-old koala named Jagger can help secure the fate of endangered colonies along Australia’s east coast. Continue reading...

Experimental ban on petrol and diesel vehicles on Beech Street near Barbican ended in SeptemberThe ending of the UK’s first “zero-emissions street” scheme has led to a return to illegal pollution levels beside one of the country’s biggest cultural centres.Pollution levels had plummeted on Beech Street in London, which runs past the Barbican centre, after the City of London Corporation introduced an experimental traffic order restricting it to electric vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. Continue reading...

Mayors in northern regions turn off taps as country suffers one of its driest winters in 65 yearsPeople living in some northern Italian towns face fines for wasting water as mayors ration supplies amid a severe drought.Italy has had one of its driest winters in the last 65 years, with rainfall 80% lower than the seasonal average. The situation has been more acute in northern regions, where some areas have been deprived of significant rainfall for three months or more. The Po, the country’s longest river, is at its lowest level recorded in winter since 1972. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson’s top team have range of views on best way to ensure country has secure supply of energyDowning Street’s long-awaited energy independence strategy is not expected to be published until next week, amid wrangling between No 10 and the Treasury over how to fund it.Boris Johnson’s cabinet ministers have a range of views on the best way forward: Continue reading...

Colonies mix annually at Winspit caves near Swanage, a hibernation site for rare greater horseshoe batsThree caves hewn into the rocky coastline of Dorset that are the bat equivalent of a speed-dating site, attracting crowds of the flying mammals from as far as 40 miles away, have been acquired by the National Trust.The bats gather at Winspit caves near Swanage in the late summer and early autumn, dart around the cliffs and, if all goes well, find a mate from a different colony. Continue reading...