Environment | The Guardian

Move will ‘turn customers’ stomachs’ after retailer touted its clean energy credentials, critics say

Insurers raise alarm but builders say housing crisis leaves them with no choiceMore than 5,000 new homes in flood-risk areas of England have been granted planning permission so far this year, as local authorities try to tackle the housing shortage.Researchers analysing 16,000 planning applications lodged between January and September discovered about 200 had been approved, for a total of 5,283 new homes, in areas where more than 10% of homes were already at significant risk of flooding. Continue reading...

The climate emergency is a ‘child’s crisis’, say families unhappy about fossil fuel company’s tie-up with learn-to-swim program

Melita pipeline would fuel Delimara power station, which Daphne Caruana Galizia was investigating when she was killedEU energy ministers are pushing to allow public funds to help build a gas pipeline to a power station in Malta co-owned by a businessman who is awaiting trial for the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.On Tuesday, officials and MEPs will begin deciding new rules aimed at phasing out EU subsidies for fossil fuel projects. Continue reading...

Council says electrification better for environment and maintenance but some residents oppose moveTwo centuries after the first gas lights appeared on the streets of London, casting a romantic glow through the gloom, a few hundred remain in some of the most historic areas of the capital.But not for much longer. Westminster city council is planning to convert 299 gas lights to electricity, saying LED lights are environmentally better and easier to maintain. Continue reading...

Teams in British Columbia scramble to reinforce dykes as provincial officials forecast up to 150mm of rain in wake of ‘atmospheric river’Crews in British Columbia raced to clear debris from motorways and repair dykes as the Canadian province braced for more downpours on Sunday, just days after record rainfall led to the deaths of four people, brought parts of the province to a standstill and sparked shortages of food and fuel.The western Canadian province declared a state of emergency on Wednesday after parts of the province were pummelled by a phenomenon known as an “atmospheric river”, dumping a month’s worth of rain in two days and causing floods and mudslides that swallowed bridges and stretches of highways, cut off entire towns and forced the evacuation of thousands of people. Continue reading...

The North American species is seeing an exponential increase in California, but the population is far short of normalOn a recent November morning, more than 20,000 western monarch butterflies clustered in a grove of eucalyptus, coating the swaying trees like orange lace. Each year up to 30% of the butterfly’s population meets here in Pismo Beach, California, as the insects migrate thousands of miles west for the winter.Just a year ago, this vibrant spectacle had all but disappeared. The monarch population has plummeted in recent years, as the vibrant invertebrates struggled to adapt to habitat loss, climate crisis, and harmful pesticide-use across their western range. Continue reading...

Campaigners are pushing for a redundant 2½-mile stretch of dual carriageway in Essex to become a country park with cycling facilitiesThere has been traffic here for millennia, from the Roman legionaries who marched from Londinium to Camulodunum to the speedsters who now reportedly race against police cars at night. But part of the A12 in north-east Essex may finally find some peace if plans to transform a 2½-mile stretch into a country park come to fruition.Work is due to start in 2027 on a bypass between the villages of Marks Tey and Kelvedon, west of Colchester, creating a six-lane road linking Ipswich and Harwich to London. Campaigners say the old four-lane road should be rewilded, as happened with a segment of the A2 near Gravesend, which became a Cyclopark in 2012. That site is now used by Olympic gold medallists Beth Shriever – also BMX world champion – and mountain biker Tom Pidcock. Continue reading...

Police in riot gear tore down a community’s homes and ripped up crops, highlighting the country’s highly unequal land ownershipArmed police with water cannons and a low-flying helicopter have faced off against indigenous villagers brandishing sticks and bows in the latest clash over land rights in Paraguay, a country with one of the highest inequalities of land ownership in the world.Videos of Thursday’s confrontation showed officers in riot armour jostling members of the Hugua Po’i community – including children and elderly people – out of their homes and into torrential rain. Continue reading...

Presenter’s high profile move to LBC will mark end of ‘almost unconscious self-censorship’ on air, sources sayAndrew Marr’s decision to leave the BBC was prompted by his desire to speak freely on environmental issues, as well as politics, and escape the daily online attacks he faces, it is believed.The high-profile journalist’s sudden move to LBC radio, announced on Friday, will allow him to drop BBC impartiality and so avoid some of the relentless criticism he receives across the political spectrum both on social media and from commentators. The former political editor of the BBC also plans to write newspaper pieces expressing his views. Continue reading...

The wrapping of ecological disaster with fears of rampant immigration is a narrative that has flourished in far-right fringe movements in Europe and the USStanding in front of the partial ruins of Rome’s Colosseum, Boris Johnson explained that a motive to tackle the climate crisis could be found in the fall of the Roman empire. Then, as now, he argued, the collapse of civilization hinged on the weakness of its borders.“When the Roman empire fell, it was largely as a result of uncontrolled immigration – the empire could no longer control its borders, people came in from the east and all over the place,” the British prime minister said in an interview on the eve of crucial UN climate talks in Scotland. Civilization can go into reverse as well as forwards, as Johnson told it, with Rome’s fate offering grave warning as to what could happen if global heating is not restrained. Continue reading...

Traffic on Lambeth and Vauxhall bridges stopped in rally against jailing of Insulate Britain membersPolice have arrested 30 climate activists after a major bridge in central London was blocked by a sit-down protest.The arrests on Lambeth Bridge came after Public Order Act conditions were imposed on the protest, which had been held in support of nine Insulate Britain campaigners who were jailed this week. Continue reading...

Proposed regulations come after decades of loosening protections as bird loses grassland habitat across western USThe Biden administration is considering new protections for the greater sage grouse, a bird known for the strutting and puffed-up courtship displays of males, that is losing grassland habitat across the western US to climate change and pressure from industrial development.The sage grouse, known also for a bubbling sound during courtship, is fast-becoming emblematic of Biden’s efforts to reverse Trump-era relaxations of environmental protections across vast swaths of public federal lands across the region. Continue reading...

The confirmation of Charles F Sams III marks a symbolic moment for many Indigenous communitiesCharles “Chuck” F Sams III made history this week in becoming the first-ever Native American confirmed to lead the National Park Service.Sams, an enrolled tribal member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, received unanimous consent by the US Senate on Thursday after being nominated by Joe Biden in August. Continue reading...

In Cambodia’s fertile Mekong delta, rice farmers are switching to the varieties loved by the world’s tallest flying bird to help stop its decline“Several years ago, I counted more than 300 cranes in the wetlands near my rice field,” says farmer Khean Khoay, as he reminisces about the regal-looking eastern sarus crane. Khoay’s village, Koh Chamkar in Kampot province, lies on the outskirts of the Anlung Pring protected landscape in south-west Cambodia, in the fertile and biodiverse Mekong delta.The region has been enriched by centuries of silt deposited by the Mekong, the longest river in south-east Asia and a lifeline for millions who depend on its resources. But as more and more land is converted for agriculture and aquaculture, and the impacts of the climate crisis, such as erosion and saltwater intrusion, are felt, the area’s wildlife has become increasingly threatened. Continue reading...

Ministers launch public consultation and will also investigate limiting wet wipes, tobacco filters and sachetsSingle-use plastic items such as plates, cutlery and polystyrene cups could be banned in England as the government seeks to eliminate plastic waste.Under proposals in a 12-week public consultation, businesses and consumers will need to move towards more sustainable alternatives. Continue reading...

Union leaders say fossil fuel companies must pay for rising ocean temperatures. Not all boat captains are persuadedDick Ogg, a silver-haired former electrician who switched to making his living catching crabs two decades ago, is a staunch supporter of the union representing fishing boat captains along America’s western seaboard.But when he heard that the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations was suing some of the world’s largest oil companies for causing the climate crisis, Ogg took stock of the barrels of diesel oil stacked on his vessel, the 54-foot Karen Jeanne, and wondered if the litigation was not only a mistake but hypocritical. Continue reading...

English city becomes hub for independent production firms making innovative nature showsWildlife film-making in Britain is booming as global subscription platforms rush to commission original natural history programmes to attract family audiences.Bristol, jokingly known as Green Hollywood, is experiencing a mini-employment boom with a burgeoning forest of independent wildlife production companies. Wildstar Films, founded in 2018, already has 140 staff. Silverback Films, created in 2012, has more than doubled in size since lockdown. Plimsoll, formed seven years ago, has a 150-member natural history department. Continue reading...

Scientists from six continents say a monitoring system could help protect coral reefs and fisheries around the world

Government-commissioned report finds crustaceans have feelingsBoiling lobsters alive could be banned if ministers act on a government-commissioned report that has found crustaceans have feelings.The study, conducted by experts from the London School of Economics (LSE) concluded there was “strong scientific evidence decapod crustaceans and cephalopod molluscs are sentient”. Continue reading...

Pressure mounts over museum’s sponsorship deals as open letter expresses ‘deep concern’More than 40 senior academics and scientists have vowed not to work with the Science Museum as the row over its financial relationship with fossil fuel corporations escalates.In an open letter, prominent figures including a former chair of the UN’s climate body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and several leading scientists, many of whom have worked closely with the museum in the past, say they are “deeply concerned” about its fossil fuel sponsorship deals and they are severing ties with the museum until a moratorium is announced. Continue reading...

Civil society organisations’ lawsuit argues the country’s energy policy is incompatible with the constitutionSouth Africa’s plan to build new coal-fired power stations during the climate crisis is being challenged in court for breaching the rights of current and future generations.Three civil society organisations have launched a constitutional lawsuit in the North Gauteng high court against the South African government, arguing that its energy policy is incompatible with the national constitution. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including rescued cheetahs, a waving seal pup and migrating red crabs Continue reading...

The summit did not go far enough to avoid ‘big changes’ in the natural world, scientists warn, with animals already changing their behaviourIf the natural world was trying to have its say on the Glasgow climate pact, the arrival of a plague of scorpions in Egypt as Cop26 came to an end was not a subtle message. Around the time a tearful Alok Sharma lowered the gavel on the summit, rare thunderstorms were sweeping through Aswan province along the south of the Nile, forcing thousands of the creatures to seek shelter in people’s homes. Scorpion stings left more than 500 people needing hospital treatment in the host nation for Cop27. Nobody died from the effects of the venom and, as is often the case, it is too early to say whether the climate crisis caused or intensified the flooding. But many experts warn we are at the beginning of a period of potentially biblical instability.“Cop26 was bad for nature because we are nowhere near limiting warming to 1.5 degrees,” said Simon Lewis, a professor of global change science at University College London who was supporting Congo basin countries in Glasgow. “Double the number of species will lose more than half of their climatically defined area at 2C than they would have at 1.5. So big changes are coming.” Continue reading...

Workers are still waiting for reforms to an industry in which 60,000 got Covid and nearly 300 died

But fewer than half of the 100 largest cities have plans to tackle climate chaosAfter the Cop26 conference ended in Glasgow, many activists and climate scientists felt the agreement didn’t go far enough and that the US government was among those who had not backed strong words with enough actual deeds.But action on a smaller level in the US – in cities and states – is gaining traction and beginning to make a significant difference. Smaller-scale initiatives to cut emissions have been the significant way that America has made climate progress in the last few years, in the absence of stronger federal leadership. Continue reading...

Europe’s newest industrial megaprojects are relocating to the far north of Sweden. But are curling, wild reindeer and the northern lights enough to convince workers to follow?One by one, the 20 engineers and technicians step up to receive their equipment before the briefing. They have come to the far north of Sweden from as far away as Mexico, the US, Saudi Arabia, China, Germany and Russia.“Welcome!” bellows Håkan Pålsson, their instructor. “We’re here to show you how to do curling, and then you’re going to go out on the ice and show us.” Continue reading...

Green Alliance says all critical raw material demands for low carbon technologies could be met from secondary materials by 2050The UK must scale up recycling of materials for low carbon industries or risk facing a critical shortage of key metals, a new report warns.The projected use of lithium, cobalt, silver and rare earth elements by the UK’s low carbon industries over the coming decades is set to soar. China controls 60% of global mine production and 40% of rare earth metal reserves, raising fears of a significant threat to the supply chain for businesses. Continue reading...

Latest updates: Canadian Armed Forces deployed to help residents after massive disruption around Vancouver and rest of province

Report described as ‘sharp wake-up call’ finds recycling has flatlined since voluntary plan was introduced in 2017

Burning vegetation and injecting emissions underground ‘ecologically risky’ and ‘should be avoided’

Tiny proportion of world’s land surface hosts carbon-rich forests and peatlands that would not recover before 2050 if lostDetailed new mapping has pinpointed the carbon-rich forests and peatlands that humanity cannot afford to destroy if climate catastrophe is to be avoided.The vast forests and peatlands of Russia, Canada and the US are vital, researchers found, as are tropical forests in the Amazon, Congo and south-east Asia. Peat bogs in the UK and mangrove swamps and eucalyptus forests in Australia are also on the list. Continue reading...

Exclusive: even wealthy nations seen as having good sustainability records use more than fair share of resources, finds studyNo country has managed to meet the basic social needs of its population in the past 30 years without putting undue pressure on the Earth’s supply of natural resources, according to a study.Looking at a sample of 148 nations, research by the University of Leeds found wealthy countries were putting the future of the planet at risk to make minimal gains in human welfare, while poor countries were living within ecological boundaries but underachieving in areas such as life expectancy and access to energy. Continue reading...

First minister says country could join Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance at lowest ‘friend’ tier of supportNicola Sturgeon has been urged to take a tougher stance on phasing out oil and gas by signing up to a new global alliance that calls for an end date for oil drilling.Scotland’s first minister signalled earlier this week that her government was hardening its position on oil and gas production by confirming she did not believe the new Cambo oilfield off Shetland should be licensed. Continue reading...

Frantic rescue operation to save livestock from submerged farms underway, with many animals in desperate need of food

EA and Ofwat begin inquiry after water companies admit possible illegal discharges into riversWater companies are at the centre of a major investigation by the financial and environmental watchdogs after they admitted they may have illegally released untreated sewage into rivers and waterways.The Environment Agency and Ofwat said they had begun an investigation into sewage treatment works, after new checks led to the admission from the water companies. Continue reading...

If someone has planted a time bomb in your home, you are entitled to dismantle it. The same applies to our planetThe climate struggle has entered a new phase. It is marked by a search for different tactics: something that cannot be so easily ignored, a mode of action that disrupts business-as-usual for real, some way to pull the emergency brake. This search has only just begun, but the signs are there.In Berlin, half a dozen young climate activists calling themselves ‘The Last Generation’ recently went on a hunger strike, eventually refusing liquids and becoming quite frail before calling the action off. But there are other things than our own bodies that can be shut down. In conjunction with this summer’s Ende Gelände camp against fossil gas, a group calling itself ‘Fridays for sabotage’ claimed responsibility for rupturing a piece of gas infrastructure and urged the movement to embrace this tactic: ‘There are many places of destruction, but just as many places of possible resistance.’ This followed the development of a veritable archipelago of forest occupations in Germany, some of which have damaged equipment for coal extraction.Andreas Malm is a scholar of human ecology at Lund University Continue reading...

Since the 1980s, fossil fuel firms have run ads touting climate denial messages – many of which they’d now like us to forget. Here’s our visual guideWhy is meaningful action to avert the climate crisis proving so difficult? It is, at least in part, because of ads.The fossil fuel industry has perpetrated a multi-decade, multibillion dollar disinformation, propaganda and lobbying campaign to delay climate action by confusing the public and policymakers about the climate crisis and its solutions. This has involved a remarkable array of advertisements – with headlines ranging from “Lies they tell our children” to “Oil pumps life” – seeking to convince the public that the climate crisis is not real, not human-made, not serious and not solvable. The campaign continues to this day.Life Magazine, 1962 Continue reading...

Province’s premier issues state of emergency and warns death toll expected to rise as one fatality confirmedTroops have been deployed in British Columbia to help stranded residents and search areas hit by landslides and floods after a powerful storm dumped a month’s worth of rain in two days across a swath of western Canada and the US Pacific north-west.The Canadian government approved a request for federal assistance from the embattled province on Wednesday, the minister of emergency preparedness, Bill Blair, confirmed. Continue reading...

The bill would establish a nonprofit entity to accept conservation donations and allow the environment minister to create carbon credits

Despite mental health and climate concerns, youth believe they can improve the world, survey for World Children’s Day findsYoung people are often seen as having a bleak worldview, plugged uncritically into social media and anxious about the climate crisis, among other pressing issues.But a global study commissioned by the UN’s children’s agency, Unicef, appears to turn that received wisdom on its head. It paints a picture of children believing that the world is improving with each generation, even while they report anxiety and impatience for change on global heating.The majority of young people saw serious risks for children online, such as seeing violent or sexually explicit content (78%) or being bullied (79%).While 64% of those in low- and middle-income countries believed children would be better off economically than their parents, young people in high-income countries had little faith in economic progress. There, fewer than a third of young respondents believed children today would grow up to be better off economically than their parents.More than a third of young people reported often feeling nervous or anxious, and nearly one in five said they often felt depressed or had little interest in doing things.On average, 59% of young people said children today faced more pressure to succeed than their parents did. Continue reading...

Penalties increased for feeding wild pigs as city struggles to control the animals, one of which bit a police officer last weekHong Kong authorities have captured and euthanised seven wild boars as they began a campaign to reduce their numbers in urban areas around the financial centre after one bit a policeman last week.The boar round-up on Wednesday in a district where authorities said some people were spotted feeding them marks a policy shift in controlling the most commonly seen wild animals in the city. Continue reading...

Grower Jeff Knispel of Nippy’s Group says the robbers will not know what they have stolen, which ‘won’t help their cause’

Michael Regan says he aims to ‘hold everyone accountable’ on his ‘journey to justice’ through toxic sites across the southOutside the Tchoupitoulas chapel in the community of Reserve, Robert Taylor waited in the morning sun for a meeting he never thought would happen.After years of campaigning for clean air in his south Louisiana community, a battle profiled by the Guardian for the past two years, Taylor was scheduled to meet with the federal official who holds the power to change his life: the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Continue reading...

Presenter also tells Freeview event he would like to return to British televisionAndrew Neil has said journalists are “basically the PR department of Greenpeace” when it comes to reporting on the climate crisis, as the interviewer indicated he would like to return to British television screens in the future.The presenter, who had a brief but disastrous stint with the rightwing channel GB News, told a television industry conference that there was not enough critical reporting on predictions about the impact of rising global temperatures. Continue reading...

Legislation for compulsory scheme was passed by Holyrood in 2019 but there is no longer launch date, say ministersScottish ministers have been accused of making a “shambolic” mess of their bottle and can recycling programme after admitting they no longer had a launch date for it.Scotland was expected to be the first part of the UK to introduce a compulsory bottle and can recycling scheme for retailers in July next year, but the Guardian revealed on Monday that the target date was expected to be scrapped. Continue reading...

Farmers are assessing their losses, with mayor Phyllis Miller saying the economic cost will be ‘millions and millions of dollars’

Greenhouse gas emissions from hydrogen produced using fossil fuels such as natural gas are ‘substantial’, researchers say

Judge imposes sentences ranging up to six months, saying some of them ‘seem to want to be martyrs’Nine Insulate Britain protesters have been jailed for breaking a court order banning them from protesting on the M25, by a judge who said no lesser penalty “would adequately mark the gravity of the defendants’ conduct”.Ana Heyatawin, 58, and Louis McKechnie, 21, were jailed for three months while Dr Ben Buse, 36, Roman Paluch-Machnik, 28, Oliver Rock, 41, Emma Smart, 44, Tim Speers, 36, and James Thomas, 47, each received four-month sentences. Continue reading...

FTSE 100 energy firm defies call to split off renewables business with extra £1bn of green investments every year to 2026SSE has rebuffed calls to break itself up, and announced a multi-billion pound plan to boost investment across its renewable energy and electricity networks businesses.The FTSE 100 energy firm faces pressure from Elliott Management, an aggressive activist hedge fund, to split off its fast-growing renewable energy business. Elliott has built up a stake in the company this year. Continue reading...