Environment | The Guardian

Coal Action Network threatens legal action against decision to permit expansion of Aberpergwm site

Critics say this move will upend the Biden administration’s goal to get to net zero emissions by 2050 as a means to tackle climate crisisThe US postal service (USPS) is facing the mounting fury of the Biden administration, Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups over its plan to spend billions of dollars on a new fleet of gasoline-powered mail delivery trucks that critics say will upend a White House goal to slash planet-heating gases.The USPS has outlined plans to spend $11.3bn on as many as 165,000 new delivery trucks over the next decade to refresh what is one of the largest civilian vehicle fleets in the world. The familiar boxy white trucks with red and blue stripes will be replaced by a new design that has been likened in appearance to a duck. Continue reading...

Lake ecology during the colder months has been poorly studied until recently, but data from the Lake District shows winter plays a vital role in freshwater ecosystemsIt is a cold January morning and mist hangs over Windermere like a thick wool blanket. The lake looks to be asleep. The researchers that have gathered on its shores to sample the water peer into the distance and decide that visibility is too poor to take the boat out today.Unpredictable weather is one reason lake ecology during the winter has been poorly studied until recently. Dr Stephen Thackeray, a lake ecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) and project leader of the Cumbrian Lakes Monitoring Platform, says there also used to be a preconception that not much was happening during the colder months. Continue reading...

Using ‘tipping points’ can unlock the changes needed on energy, food and plastics, analysis showsTipping points could be identified and triggered to deliver fast action to tackle the climate crisis, according to an analysis led by an academic at Exeter University.Early subsidies and mass production rapidly crushed costs to leave solar and wind energy as the cheapest power in much of the world and electric cars are now accelerating towards mass adoption, while Greta Thunberg’s solo protest sparked an influential global campaign. Continue reading...

Environment Protection Authority examining fish kill events at Haslams Creek, which flows into Homebush Bay, and at RydalmereThe deaths of thousands of fish in the Parramatta River triggered by low oxygen levels in the water is being investigated by the New South Wales environmental regulator.The Environment Protection Authority said it was examining two fish kill events, one last week at Haslams Creek, which flows into Homebush Bay, and the other at Rydalmere on Sunday. Continue reading...

Amid fears about the cost of living crisis, those opposed to government’s climate agenda appear to have sensed an opportunity

More than half members of Net Zero Scrutiny Group were also in group that promoted Brexit vote, as fears grow for UK’s green agenda

Chevron is accused of polluting the Amazon for 26 years. The only people who’ve paid the price are a human rights lawyer and those whose land was poisonedMost people have probably heard of Chernobyl, or the BP oil spill. You may also know about my legal battle over contaminated water in California, dramatized in the movie Erin Brockovich. Yet far fewer people have heard about what transpired in the Ecuadorian Amazon – though it’s considered by some activists, journalists, and members of US Congress to be one of the world’s worst environmental disasters.What if I told you that a multinational oil company allegedly polluted the Amazon for almost three decades? And that the oil company has spent even more years refusing to accept liability? Or that a US attorney who agreed to represent thousands of Ecuadorian villagers in a lawsuit against that oil company has lost his law license, income, spent hundreds of days under house arrest in New York, and in 2021 was sentenced to six months in prison?Erin Brockovich is an environmental advocate and author of the book Superman’s Not Coming: Our National Water Crisis and What We the People Can Do About It. She is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Exclusive: Conservationists claim lack of urgency after water and gas found bubbling ‘uncontrolled’ from former exploration bores

Dozens of people drag 5.2-metre animal to shore and cut tyre from its neck after it was snared by bird-sellerA wild crocodile in Indonesia that was trapped in a tyre for more than five years has been rescued, freed from its rubber ring and released back into the wild.Conservation workers have been trying to lure the stricken saltwater crocodile from a river since 2016, after residents of Palu city on Sulawesi island spotted the animal with a motorbike tyre wrapped around its neck. Continue reading...

Cutting gas supply to Europe would damage Russia’s reputation and cause EU to shift away, says head of IEAVladimir Putin’s threats over Ukraine could backfire to damage the Russian economy, the head of the International Energy Agency has warned, as any escalation of the current tension would cause a “seismic” upheaval of the EU energy market that would have “more consequences for Russia” than for Europe.Fatih Birol, the executive director of the global energy watchdog, said that if Russia reduced gas supplies further it would prompt European countries to seek urgently to shift away from Russian gas, which would hurt Putin economically. Continue reading...

We are not who we were very long ago. A lot of new ideas have emerged from Buddhism and other traditions emphasizing compassion, equality, nonviolence and critical perspectives on materialism and capitalismWhen news of Thich Nhat Hanh’s death spread around the world, I saw far more people than I’d have expected say how he affected them, through a talk, a book, a retreat, an idea, an example. It was a reminder of the huge impact Buddhism has had in the west as a set of ideas that has flowed far beyond the limits of who belongs to a Buddhist group or has a formal practice. You could think of Buddhism in this context as one tributary of a broad new river of ideas flowing through the west, from which many have drunk without knowing quite where the waters came from.A Vietnamese monk who founded meditation centers on four continents and published dozens of books, Thich Nhat Hanh was one of the great teachers who came from Asia in the 20th century, along with Zen monks from Japan and Tibetan rinpoches. He stood out because he came to the west as an explicitly political figure, arguing against the war in Vietnam (though the Dalai Lama’s opposition to the Chinese occupation of Tibet is certainly political too). His death seemed to me not an ending but a reminder that something far grander than this great teacher began sometime in the last century and continues to spread.Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her most recent books are Recollections of My Nonexistence and Orwell’s Roses Continue reading...

The American Legislative Exchange Council has drafted legislation modelled on efforts to block divestment from IsraelThe influential rightwing lobby group the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) is driving a surge in new state laws to block boycotts of the oil industry. The group’s strategy, which aims to protect large oil firms and other conservative-friendly industries, is modelled on legislation to punish divestment from Israel.Since the beginning of the year, state legislatures in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Indiana have introduced a version of a law drafted by Alec, called the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act, to shield big oil from share selloffs and other measures intended to protest the fossil fuel industry’s role in the climate crisis. A dozen other states have publicly supported the intent of the legislation. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Lib Dems analysis shows scrapped zero carbon standard would have saved owners £200 a yearThe UK government’s decision to allow homes to be built to low standards of energy efficiency cost owners of newly built homes about £234m last year, analysis shows.The zero carbon homes standard was supposed to come into force in 2016, but the measure, which was introduced under Labour, was scrapped by the Conservative government in 2015. Continue reading...

WWF report says reduction must be made in the next 10 years to tackle climate crisis and nature lossBritish farmers must reduce their production of meat and dairy by a third in the next 10 years if scientific advice on limiting greenhouse gas emissions is to be met, the conservation charity WWF has said.Even greater cuts may be needed to the UK’s pig herds and poultry flocks, because of the imported feed they eat, and people will need to eat much less meat than they do today, the charity warned. But the result would be lower greenhouse gas emissions, a countryside with more wildlife and flourishing nature, and better health, according to the report. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Cambridge Water admits a supply contained four times the regulatory limit and customers never toldWater from a supply containing high levels of toxic chemicals has been pumped into the homes of more than 1,000 people, the Guardian can reveal.Cambridge Water has admitted it removed a supply containing four times the regulatory limit of perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS), which was being blended with other supplies to provide water to the homes of customers in south Cambridgeshire, in June last year. But the 1,080 customers living in Stapleford and Great Shelford were never informed that they had been exposed. The company has not revealed how long the water had been tainted. Continue reading...

In its annual climate statement, BoM says contrasting weather conditions in the country’s 19th warmest year on record included long heatwaves and widespread flooding

Opponents say proposed amnesty for illegal tapping in Doñana national park threatens disaster for one of Europe’s green lungsJuan Romero shakes his head as looks out across the lake at the wading spoonbills, the pipe-cleaner silhouettes of the flamingos and the glossy ibis that flash against the Andalucían sky.“This is an illusion,” says the ecologist, a retired teacher. The birds are real enough, of course, and so too are the tufty-eared Iberian lynxes that will be sniffing out a breakfast of rabbit in the quieter, wilder reaches of the huge Doñana national park in southern Spain. Continue reading...

Despite controversy over Queensland coal mine, the tycoon’s investments in green energy at home have helped his wealth rise to $88.5bnThe Indian coal mining tycoon Gautam Adani has become Asia’s richest person thanks to a push into green energy that has boosted his fortune to $88.5bn.Adani has overtaken fellow countryman Mukesh Ambani to enter the top 10 of the world’s richest people, according to figures from Forbes and Bloomberg, after seeing his personal fortune rise by $12bn in the past year. Continue reading...

Defra report blamed algal blooms but independent research points to chemical released from sedimentsAn independent study has linked the deaths of thousands of crabs and lobsters and a mystery dog illness to dredging for the government’s flagship freeport on Teesside – a key to the Conservative’s post-Brexit, “levelling-up” agenda.The report has led local fishers to reject a government theory that an “algal bloom” is responsible for the huge piles of dead crustaceans that began washing up on beaches along England’s north-east coast in October. Continue reading...

Australia’s energy market can be bewildering, but a new consumer guide aims to reveal the reality behind ads featuring wind farms

Judge rebukes Marine Management Organisation for prosecution over direct action to stop bottom trawlingThe government agency charged with protecting the marine environment has dropped its case against Greenpeace over a protest intended to obstruct destructive fishing practices in UK coastal conservation areas.The judge in the case rebuked the Marine Management Organisation over the case, saying that the licensing regime, under which the case was brought, “could be better used as a source of protection against those who actively seek to harm the marine environment”. Continue reading...

Last two full-time fishing vessels left in harbour cannot afford to pay for work to protect Port IsaacA Cornish fishing village familiar to fans of gentle comedy drama is facing a crisis because part of its sea defences are crumbling and there are no longer enough working boats to fund the repairs.Householders in Port Isaac, the setting for the long-running ITV show Doc Martin, are worried that if one of the breakwaters that protect the picturesque village are not repaired, homes could be inundated when Atlantic storms sweep in. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Activists challenge updated shooting licences, which allow wild birds in England to be shot to protect game birdsThe government is facing a legal challenge over its newly updated shooting licences for England, which classify game birds as livestock and so allow wild birds to be shot to protect them.Campaigners have said the licences give an unfair advantage to gamekeepers, as they allow the birds to be defined as livestock when shooters want to kill other birds to protect them, but are otherwise considered wild birds so the estate owners are not liable for any damage the game birds cause. Continue reading...

Conservationists welcome interim injunction to stop farm development they say threatens migration of 10 million fruit batsConservationists in Zambia have hailed a high court injunction preventing deforestation and commercial agriculture on the edge of Kasanka national park, which they say threatens the world’s biggest mammal migration.Every October, about 10 million straw-coloured fruit bats descend on the swamps of Kasanka from across Africa and beyond. They feast on fruit in and around the park, one of Zambia’s smallest but under the highest level of protection, dispersing seeds across the continent on their epic journey. Continue reading...

Unique colony of blue whales increasingly at risk from tankers and container ships, say marine campaigners

Research finds sites too often far from amenities, without public transport, cycling links or even pavementsNew greenfield housing developments are locking residents into car dependency, making everyday journeys impossible without a vehicle, a new report has found. Meanwhile, pledges for walking, cycling and public transport are often left unfulfilled.The group Transport for New Homes (TfNH) visited 20 new housing developments in England, finding that while those on urban brownfield sites generally lived up to sustainable transport pledges, greenfield sites were often far from shops and amenities, without public transport, cycling links or even pavements, and the homes themselves were seemingly designed around car parking. Continue reading...

Dairy alternative goes on sale at Waitrose this week, the latest offering in a booming alt-milk market worth £400m a yearFirst came soya, nut and then oat but the new challenger to the plant milk crown is the humble spud as potato milk arrives on UK supermarket shelves.Described as “deliciously creamy” and capable of producing the “perfect foam” for a homemade latte or cappuccino, the Swedish potato milk brand Dug goes on sale in 220 Waitrose stores this week. Continue reading...

Amazon, Ikea, Nestlé and others will fall short of promise to cut carbon by 100%, says NewClimate InstituteSome of the world’s biggest businesses are failing to live up toclaims they will hit net-zero emissions targets, according to research that suggests they will cut their carbon emissions by only 40% rather than the 100% cuts claimed.Household names such as Amazon, Ikea, Nestlé and Unilever are among the companies named as showing little substance to their claims that they will cut emissions drastically. Continue reading...

Researchers call for safeguards to protect undamaged regions and for urgent work to restore degraded areas

Environmentalists fear premier could legislate away regulations and undo progress toward net zero at the stroke of a pen

Environment Agency devastates banks of river near Taunton ‘to protect properties in Bathpool’Anglers are “heartbroken” after a 250-metre stretch of the River Tone in Somerset was stripped of trees by the Environment Agency as part of flood management measures.The semi-wild section of river running through Taunton was a popular spot for anglers and wildlife-lovers, where kingfishers were often spotted. However, the majority of trees were felled last week, leaving the banks of the river as bare earth. Continue reading...

Petition urges FDA to strongly limit use of BPA, which is linked to cancer and other health problemsA comprehensive review of recent studies into a chemical often used in plastics and resins has revealed that the average American is exposed to levels of the dangerous compound that are 5,000 times higher than what the European Union now considers safe.The main exposure route for bisphenol-A (BPA) is via plastic and metal food packaging, and that has prompted a call for strong new limits on its use. Continue reading...

Researchers and citizen scientists found the animal to be active in every state and territory, even in densely populated cities

Temperatures in 499 counties across west, north-east and upper midwest US have already breached 1.5C (2.7F)More than a third of the American population is currently experiencing rapid, above-average rates of temperature increase, with 499 counties already breaching 1.5C (2.7F) of heating, a Guardian review of climate data shows.The US as a whole has heated up over the past century due to the release of planet-warming gases from burning fossil fuels, and swaths of the US west, north-east and upper midwest – representing more than 124.6 million people – have recorded soaring increases since federal government temperature records began in 1895. Continue reading...

Campaigners say ‘money isn’t the issue’ when there’s no koala recovery plan, while other threatened species receive little funding

Workers at the Jon Donaire plant in California are struggling to cope – so why won’t the factory’s owner raise its offer?More than 150 workers at the Jon Donaire Desserts plant in Santa Fe Springs, California, have been on strike since early November over wages, healthcare coverage and working conditions.The dispute centers on food workers, hailed as heroes early in the pandemic, who are struggling to cope with spiraling costs of living as the company that employs them posts billion-dollar revenues. Continue reading...

Angry residents have rallied to a campaign against the ‘trashing’ of the capital. Some blame mayor Anne Hidalgo while others see the protests as a far-right ployIn the middle of Paris’s third Covid lockdown last March, a hashtag appeared on Twitter with a photo of a lock on the Canal Saint-Martin that runs through the north of the city clogged with litter, plastic bags and bottles.Images of Paris looking worse for wear are nothing new but, within days, dozens of pictures of overflowing bins, broken pavements and graffiti-covered walls appeared with the same hashtag – #SaccageParis – which roughly translates as Trashed Paris. Continue reading...

Officials in Woodside – a mansion-filled, tech entrepreneur enclave – claim wildcat land keeps them from building multi-unit homesAt first glance, the town of Woodside may look more like a sprawl of mansions built on big-tech billions than crucial habitat for threatened California mountain lions.But town officials might suggest looking again. Continue reading...

After advising US president Joe Biden on energy, Saul Griffith is back in Australia to declare war on the climate crisis

The 23 coal and gas approvals could release six times the greenhouse gas Australia emits in a year, environment group warns

UK needs to reduce gas addiction and ramp up clean energy investment to bring energy bills down permanentlyCutting green levies on energy bills, or watering down the UK’s commitment to net-zero carbon emissions, would fail to help households with high energy prices and store up problems for the near future, analysts have warned.Ed Matthew, campaigns director at the E3G thinktank, said: “Cutting green levies to tackle the energy bills crisis would be utterly self-defeating. It would only keep the UK addicted to gas for longer. The only cure is to ramp up clean energy investment and eliminate energy waste. That is the permanent solution to bring down energy bills. Any politician working against that is directly undermining the interests of their constituents and likely to be in the pocket of the fossil fuel lobby.” Continue reading...

Japan’s return to commercial whaling in 2019 has left few buyers for Iceland’s meatIceland, one of the only countries that still hunts whales commercially, along with Norway and Japan, plans to end whaling from 2024 as demand dwindles, the fisheries minister has said.“There are few justifications to authorise the whale hunt beyond 2024,” when current quotas expire, Svandis Svavarsdóttir, a member of the Left Green party, wrote in Morgunblaðið newspaper. Continue reading...

Though only 12% of new sales were zero-exhaust electric vehicles, emissions fell by 11.2% in 2021The carbon dioxide emissions of new cars sold in the UK dropped to the lowest level ever in 2021 thanks to the unprecedented surge in electric vehicle sales, industry data suggests.Average new car CO emissions fell by 11.2%, to 119.7g for every kilometre driven, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group. Continue reading...

The state pumps millions into methane produced by manure – but advocates argue it increases greenhouse gas emissions and encourages factory farmingA coalition of climate, environmental and animal welfare groups is calling for California to remove the huge subsidies provided to dairy farms to turn animal waste into a form of energy called biogas.Manure, which emits the potent greenhouse gas methane, is a big problem for US farms, and is particularly stark in California, where the dairy industry accounts for nearly half the state’s methane emissions. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a natterjack toadlet, white pelicans and a hibernating iguana Continue reading...

Researchers find the felines are connected to more than 485 species, from carrion beetles to bald eaglesFrom the Canadian Rockies to Patagonia, pumas have the largest terrestrial range of any mammal in the Americas. Now, a new study has reported the web of life these elusive cats support, showing how they are connected to more than 485 other species, from eagles feeding on their carrion to elk impacted by their “fear effect”.Researchers reviewed 162 studies published between 1950 and 2020 looking at how pumas – also known as mountain lions or cougars – enrich ecosystems and support other species. They found the large cats contribute 1.5m kilograms of meat a day to scavenger communities across North and South America, with 281 species getting to feed on carcasses they have killed. Continue reading...

Researchers say cutting carbon footprint of world’s wealthiest may be fastest way to reach net zeroWealthy people have disproportionately large carbon footprints and the percentage of the world’s emissions they are responsible for is growing, a study has found.In 2010, the most affluent 10% of households emitted 34% of global CO, while the 50% of the global population in lower income brackets accounted for just 15%. By 2015, the richest 10% were responsible for 49% of emissions against 7% produced by the poorest half of the world’s population. Continue reading...

The state’s capacity to handle the challenges of more severe weather will be tested yet again as the climate crisis intensifiesAs many Texans endure another harsh cold snap this week when a winter storm hits the state, some 50,000 people have been hit by power outages in a grim reminder of last year’s big freeze in the state.While this week’s experience will probably not rival the 2021 winter storm that ​left much of Texas in darkness and was responsible for several hundred deaths, it is a test for the state’s capacity to handle the challenges of more severe weather as a result of the ongoing global climate crisis. Continue reading...

Study by Which? looked at greenhouse gas emissions as well as plastic waste and food wasteWaitrose and Lidl are the most sustainable supermarkets, according to a Which?’s eco-friendly grocer ranking.Iceland finished last, according to the research, which tracked supermarket policies on: plastic waste and food waste, which shoppers have reported are the biggest issues for them; and greenhouse gas emissions, which most experts say poses the greatest environmental threat. Continue reading...