Environment | The Guardian

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a rescued horse, a baby monkey and a rare leopard Continue reading...

Protesters say they were slapped, kicked and spat at by angry drivers during roadblock in Italian capitalItalian activists have blocked a major road in Rome as part of a series of protests aimed at urging the government to take action to tackle the climate crisis.The activists, from the group Last Generation, which is supported by Extinction Rebellion, claim they were slapped, kicked and spat at by angry drivers after they assembled along the Maglianella viaduct on the A90 motorway. Continue reading...

Fencing small areas to keep out some of Britain’s 33m sheep can allow native plants and trees to regrow, boosting biodiversityGrazing livestock can be a key part of healthy, wildlife-rich farmland, but the number of sheep across the globe has soared, and the UK is now home to 32.7 million of them. The Peak District saw a fivefold rise in the density of sheep during the 20th century.This has led to widespread loss of biodiversity in vast areas of the country’s uplands because sheep graze the land closely (they can nibble it down to a height of 3cm), leaving less space for plants, scrub and trees to flourish. Continue reading...

Warmer winters are happening across the globe, and can be drivers of catastrophic weather events and profound changesAs climate scientist Kai Kornhuber walks around New York City this winter, an eerie feeling creeps into his body. It’s warm enough for a T-shirt in December, and the birds are chirping loudly.The temperatures tell birds and trees that it’s time for action, but the systems are out of sync for December, says Kornhuber, a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Continue reading...

Observers say decision was about protecting the Coalition vote in vulnerable seats, not the environment

Inquiry concludes banks should have to service businesses including coal and live animal export industries

Environment groups believe the energy giant is targeting shale oil, but the company says project in ‘early stages’

The unusual discovery in New Zealand waters is based on the remains of scat and scars on seal’s bodiesIn a world first, New Zealand leopard seals have been found to feed on sharks, making them part of a tiny and exclusive club of marine predators that do so.The study, led by Krista van der Linde of leopardseals.org, found shark remains in the scat of leopard seals, and visible signs of struggle with sharks on seals’ bodies, indicating the marine mammals predate on sharks, rather than scavenge their remains. Continue reading...

Electricity from coal plants has risen by 9% this year to fuel economic recovery from Covid, says watchdogCoal power is on track to hit a new global record this year after an economic rebound that could drive worldwide coal demand to an all-time high in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency.The amount of electricity generated from coal power plants has soared by 9% this year after a surge in fossil fuel demand to fuel the recovery from Covid lockdowns, a report by the watchdog says. Continue reading...

Local authorities put $2.4bn project on hold after scale of opposition shakes country’s governmentLocal authorities in western Serbia have suspended a plan that would allow the mining company Rio Tinto to operate a lithium mine, after protests by environmentalists that shook the country’s populist leadership.The mining had been expected to start in the near future, but a town council in Loznica voted to suspend a regional development plan that permitted the excavation of lithium. The vote followed the suspension last week of two key laws in Serbia’s parliament that ecologists said would help the multinational firm start the project. Continue reading...

Prosecutors say company repeatedly failed to act on alarms that alerted workers to pipeline ruptureA Houston-based oil company and two subsidiaries have been charged over a massive oil spill off the coast of southern California in October that fouled waters and beaches and endangered wildlife.Prosecutors say the spill was caused in part by failing to properly act when alarms repeatedly alerted workers to a pipeline rupture. Continue reading...

Carcasses found in four provinces, including one pregnant female, with nine arrests madePoachers have killed 24 rhinos in South Africa during the first two weeks of December after a lull in killings during the Covid pandemic.On Tuesday, the South African environment ministry said carcasses had been discovered in four provinces across the country since the beginning of the month, with seven rhinos found dead in Kruger national park, six in KwaZulu-Natal and seven in Mpumalanga. Four, including a pregnant female, were shot dead by poachers at a game reserve in the Western Cape last week while a fifth is being treated for gunshot wounds. Continue reading...

Sainsbury’s is one of six European supermarkets to stop selling some or all beef products from South American countrySainsbury’s and five other European supermarkets have announced they will stop selling some or all beef products originating in Brazil because of concerns over links to deforestation in the Amazon rainforest and other ecologically important areas.Sainsbury’s, along with Lidl Netherlands and others, took action after research into “cattle laundering” involving the meat conglomerate JBS. According to the news organisation Repórter Brasil, the company allegedly indirectly sourced cattle from illegally deforested areas. Continue reading...

UK’s former chief scientific adviser Sir David King adds to growing pressure on the London museumSir David King, one of the UK’s leading scientific figures, has intervened in the row over fossil fuel sponsorship at the Science Museum, calling for the institution to end any deals with big oil corporations unless the companies meet strict environmental criteria.The UK’s former chief scientific adviser said fossil fuel companies should have to prove they were serious about winding down their oil and gas operations before being awarded high-profile deals with prestigious scientific institutions. Continue reading...

Latest edition of one of world’s largest and longest nature surveys counts 95,306 birds, third lowest tally in almost four decades of tracking

Wildlife officials say the mice threaten local birds, insects and reptiles – but critics warn against ‘poison that kills everything’The Farallon Islands are home to squawking seabirds, floppy harbor seals, brightly freckled arboreal salamanders and rare, delicate camel crickets. They are also home to what ecologists have called a “plague-level infestation” of European house mice.On Thursday, the California Coastal Commission will vote on a proposal to eradicate the invasive rodents from the islands, located just off the San Francisco coast, by dropping 3,000lb of poisoned bait from helicopters. If the contentious plan moves forward and earns approval from the regional director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), it could be implemented starting in the autumn of 2023. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison announces ‘this project will not proceed on our watch’ in move welcomed by climate campaigners

Broadcaster says manager of 615,000-acre real estate portfolio is ‘aligned’ with aim of changing how land is usedChris Packham and a campaign to “rewild the royals” have had a “really good” meeting with the crown estate to ask it to consider pledging a slice of its 615,000 acres to wild nature.Packham said the crown estate was “quite clearly aligned” with the rewilding campaign group Wild Card in its determination to act to tackle the biodiversity and climate crises by changing the way land is managed. Continue reading...

Proposals published on Defra website would change way ‘substances of very high concern’ are dealt withThe government is planning to water down the regulatory requirements on key chemicals, in what experts fear could be the first move to a weaker post-Brexit safety regime for potentially toxic substances.Proposals published last week without fanfare on a government website set out some of the intended new rules for the new post-Brexit national chemicals regulator. The proposals would change the way “substances of very high concern” – which include potential toxins and carcinogens, and chemicals that persist for a long time in the environment – are dealt with. Continue reading...

Environment groups claim decision will allow power station on Central Coast to continue to contribute to respiratory illnesses in children

The scheme that the Nationals senator says will leave Queensland ‘marooned’ was actually designed and introduced by the Coalition

Past results in Benton Harbor compelled residents to consume bottled water and prompted a hurried effort to replace old pipesThe amount of lead in Benton Harbor, Michigan’s drinking water has declined, new testing shows, after three straight years of elevated results compelled residents to consume bottled water and prompted a hurried effort to replace old pipes.Lead levels in the majority Black city’s drinking water are now just within standards set by the state that if exceeded, force a utility to take corrective action and inform residents of a problem, according to state officials. Continue reading...

While finance sector is in a position to manage climate change risks, cyber attacks are rising in frequency, reserve bank says

Artist beats 11 others on shortlist for global sustainability prize in ceremony at London’s V&AThe US artist Sally Mann has won the 2021 Prix Pictet prize, the global award in photography and sustainability.The announcement was made on Wednesday in a ceremony at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London for the opening of an exhibition of the 12 shortlisted artists. Continue reading...

Subsidy available will fall from £2,500 to £1,500 – half the sum available to buyers at the start of the yearThe UK government has cut grants for electric vehicles for the second time in a year, provoking the anger of the car industry and prompting a call for car tax to be redesigned.The grant available for electric cars will fall from £2,500 to £1,500 – half the sum available to buyers at the start of the year. The upper price limit for eligible car models will fall from £35,000 to £32,000, down from £50,000 in March. Continue reading...

Documents show Anglo American breached carbon limits at Capcoal mine by at least 841,000 tonnes over four years

Programme to tackle pollution crisis caused by an overload of manure faces fierce opposition from farmersThe Dutch government has unveiled a €25bn (£21bn) plan to radically reduce the number of livestock in the country as it struggles to contain an overload of animal manure.A deal to buy out farmers to try to reduce levels of nitrogen pollution in the country had been mooted for some time, and was finally confirmed after the agreement of a new coalition government in the Netherlands earlier this week.

Assembly member urges £2bn boost for sewage infrastructure as report reveals poor health of waterwaysMore than 7m tonnes of raw sewage are being discharged into Northern Ireland’s seas and rivers each year, it has been revealed, and every recorded waterway in the country has been found to be in poor health.Upwards of 3m tonnes of untreated human waste was found to have been released across the Belfast metropolitan area, in which more than a third of Northern Ireland’s population resides. Continue reading...

No matter which of the main types of air pollutants you look at, people of color are breathing more of it, US study findsHow much air pollution are you exposed to in your daily life? The answer may depend on the color of your skin, a new study released Wednesday confirms.The study published in Environmental Health Perspectives found that, no matter which of the main types of air pollutants you look at, people of color are breathing more of it. Continue reading...

Danish scientists urge more research into impact of exposure to toxic chemical pollutants from fossil fuelsDecreasing fertility rates may be linked to pollution caused by fossil fuel burning, a review of scientific studies has found.Over the past 50 years childbirth has steadily decreased. The study focused on Denmark, but the trend is also seen in other industrialised nations. One in 10 Danish children are born with assisted reproduction and more than 20% of men never have children, according to the researchers. This decrease seems to have started at the beginning of industrialisation. Experts have warnedthe trend could lead to an unbalanced demographic with too few younger people to support the older generations. Continue reading...

Alisha was eight when she died after being badly burned near a coal mine in Hwange. Families who live in fear of the ground opening up under their children’s feet say more must be done

Online retailer disputes study saying it produced 270,000 tonnes of packaging last year, with 10,000 tonnes likely to end up in seasAmazon’s plastic packaging waste soared by almost a third, to 270,000 tonnes, during the pandemic last year, according to a report from marine conservation group Oceana.Oceana estimates up to 10,700 tonnes of this plastic, including air pillows, bubble wrap and plastic-lined paper envelopes, equivalent to a delivery van’s worth every 67 minutes, is likely to end up in the sea. Continue reading...

New regulations likely to include tougher safeguards but a NSW upper house committee report finds more environmental protections are needed

As rising tensions with Russia over Ukraine drive prices to record highs, experts warn of lack of strategy for gas supplyMinisters are relying on an outdated energy security policy, leading academics have warned, as escalating tensions between Russia and western leaders propelled the gas market to record price highs.UK gas reached a record closing price of 322.5 pence per therm on Tuesday, according to data from market price experts at ICIS, vaulting ahead of the previous high of just over 298p/therm set in early October this year. Continue reading...

Aerial shot shows devastating effect of drought that has left people and animals without waterSix dead giraffes lie in a spiral on the dry earth, their bodies emaciated and interwoven. The aerial shot, taken by the photojournalist Ed Ram, shows the devastation of Kenya’s drought, which has left people and animals struggling for food and water.Already weak, the animals had died after they got stuck in the mud, according to Getty Images. They were trying to reach a nearby reservoir, although it had almost dried up, the agency reported. Continue reading...

Launch of deposit return scheme, which would have been a UK first, pushed back until summer 2023The launch of the UK’s first bottle and can deposit return scheme has been delayed until the summer of 2023 after Scottish ministers bowed to intense lobbying from major retailers and drinks companies.Scotland’s deposit return scheme was due to start in July next year, in an effort to cut plastic waste, boost recycling and reduce littering by introducing a mandatory but refundable 20p deposit on all bottles and cans sold in shops. Continue reading...

Surprising discovery shows scale of plastic pollution and reveals enzymes that could boost recyclingMicrobes in oceans and soils across the globe are evolving to eat plastic, according to a study.The research scanned more than 200m genes found in DNA samples taken from the environment and found 30,000 different enzymes that could degrade 10 different types of plastic. Continue reading...

Prickly tree beat hundreds of nominations in Woodland Trust contestA lone, weathered hawthorn, which has stood for at least half a century on the rugged Scottish coast, has been named tree of the year for 2021.Sticking out at an angle over the cockle shell beach at Kippford, with a tangle of broken and twisted branches, the prickly tree beat hundreds of nominations to become the UK’s favourite in the contest run by the Woodland Trust. Continue reading...

London mayor releases £600,000 funding to help create green rooftops and reintroduce lost speciesHyde Park could be redesigned and lost species including beavers reintroduced to London under ambitious rewilding plans.The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, is working with Ben Goldsmith – a member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the brother of Khan’s former rival for the mayoral election Zac Goldsmith – to boost nature in the capital, including making the royal parks wilder and encouraging people to plant green rooftops. Continue reading...

Call comes after ambitious early draft of EU energy performance in buildings directive ran into oppositionThe EU executive is under pressure to ratchet up green energy standards for buildings, as it prepares a further batch of legislation to tackle the climate emergency.The European Commission is expected to propose mandatory energy efficiency upgrades for buildings in the EU in legislative proposals published on Wednesday, but MEPs and Green NGOs fear they will not be strict enough. Continue reading...

The Caribbean’s newest republic must avoid the corruption that has hampered Trinidad and Tobago and use its presidency to ensure good governanceThe charismatic prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, elevated her country’s status in the world with her stinging speech at Cop26 in Glasgow last month. This speech resonated throughout the West Indies, a region that has largely been devoid of a strong leader to give these vulnerable small island developing states (SIDS) a voice in the climate crisis debate. The survival of SIDS such as Barbados depends on the finance to invest in measures to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5C, which was the Paris agreement’s main objective.Mottley called on all leaders of developed countries to step up their efforts as she outlined a solution embodied in flexible development finance. First, create a loss and damage fund made up of 1% of revenues from fossil fuels (which she estimated would amount to about $70bn, or £50bn, a year), accessible only to countries that have suffered a climate disaster and loss of 5% of their economy. Continue reading...

Ryad Alsous, whose story helped inspire the bestselling book, says life is sweet caring for his hives in HuddersfieldIn 2013, Syrian beekeeper Ryad Alsous drank his last cup of mint tea on the balcony of his flat in Damascus. He was about to leave the city where he had spent his whole life and move to Britain. Eight years later, he is again drinking mint tea made in the same flask but this time in Huddersfield. The flask is the only item he still has from his home in Syria. He is talking about the moment he left. “It was very difficult. And also full of hope,” he says.His block of flats had been bombed twice, and explosions in the eastern part of the city were happening daily. On the day he left, a loud bang nearby caused the doves perched on his balcony to briefly flutter into the air. He had been feeding the birds for years and realised they would have no one to look after them once he left. Continue reading...

Major labels Sony, Universal and Warner join independents signing up to climate schemes that guide companies toward cleaner futuresA number of the world’s biggest record labels have united to commit to action on their environmental impact.The three major labels – Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group – plus independents such as the Beggars and Secretly groups of labels, Warp, Ninja Tune and more, have signed the Music Climate Pact which will see them pledge “actionable climate targets”. Continue reading...

Report concludes particles are health hazard as London councils set to vote on Edmonton incineratorMPs are calling for a moratorium on the expansion of new waste incineration plants just days before councils in London vote on awarding a contract to build a huge new plant in Edmonton.A report by the all-party parliamentary group on air pollution says expansions should be halted immediately to protect human health and cut carbon emissions. Continue reading...

The resolution proposed that the climate crisis could potentially threaten ‘global peace, security and stability’Russia has vetoed a first-of-its-kind UN security council resolution casting the climate crisis as a threat to international peace and security – a vote that sank a years-long effort to make global heating more central to decision-making in the UN’s most powerful body.Spearheaded by Ireland and Niger, the proposal called for “incorporating information on the security implications of climate change” into the council’s strategies for managing conflicts and into peacekeeping operations and political missions, at least sometimes. Continue reading...

Members of irrigation review committee say NSW could end up licensing an unsustainable amount of water

Australian Conservation Foundation report found that climate change was not mentioned for 178 out of 334 critically endangered species and habitatsConservation documents for more than half of Australia’s critically endangered species and habitats fail to mention climate change according to new analysis that argues there is a significant “climate gap” in the management of Australia’s threatened wildlife.The report was commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and prepared by the Australian National University’s GreenLaw project, which is led by students in the ANU’s law faculty. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Rising temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns expected to increase losses and make it more difficult to identify net carbon emissions

Analysis: delving into news stories linking congestion with cycle lanes shows how troubling myths can escape into the wildFairly early on Monday morning last week I got a call from a radio station: could I come on to discuss a study showing London is the world’s most congested city, and this is because of cycle lanes. Hang on, I replied – say all that again?As it turned out, I never appeared (someone else got the part). But, intrigued, I looked into the research which supposedly showed all this. And that was when things started to get strange. Continue reading...

Justice department admits a previous ruling did not force the detonation of what environmentalists call ‘huge carbon bomb’The Biden administration admitted that a court decision did not compel it to lease vast tracts of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling, shortly before claiming it was legally obliged to do so when announcing the sell-off, the Guardian can reveal.Last month, the US government held the largest-ever auction of oil and gas drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico’s history, offering up more than 80m acres of the gulf’s seabed for fossil fuel extraction. Continue reading...